bluenix

Good day to you jaclaz... I guess I really don't have a problem, as far as I know, with my current menu.lst. title Windows XP Pro SP3 x86 Setup root (hd0,0) map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd0) map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd1) map --mem /XPSP3.ISO (0xFF) map (hd0) () map () (hd0) map --hook chainloader (0xFF)/I386/SETUPLDR.BIN The mapping seems to be fine with my current settings as oppose to the one given by cdob which is: map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) If I use this one, it gives an error that the disk cannot be found. My situation is the same given by kDn in this post: When people testing yours method they feedback error in some cases when installing XP from USB-HDD or USB-Flash as HDD... First stage (txt-mode-setup) running absolutly correct, but after reboot they give error like: Needed file 'asms' on Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 CD and after Shift+F10 and looking presetup.log we can see that USB device where placed XP_RAM.ISO not found...Error feedback: http://forum.ru-board.com/topic.cgi?forum=...p;start=1560#20 http://greenflash.su/forum/2-331-4647-16-1256148181 In which cdob replies saying: Maybe I'll just have to wait then for cdob to go back to work after his December vacation. In the meantime, I'll let this project 'hang-in' for a while until I can get a clear cut through to the solution. Thanks for all of your wonderful support and a good job on this project. Happy holidays to everyone.

I also forgot to mention my current menu.lst settings: title Windows XP Pro SP3 Setup root (hd0,0) map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd0) #(fd1) optional, required at some BIOS map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd1) map --mem /XPSP3.ISO (0xff) map () (hd0) map (hd0) () map --hook chainloader (0xff)/I386/SETUPLDR.BIN As you will notice, the mapping procedure deviates from the original settings given by cdob 'coz it returns an error number stating that, "The file cannot be found." I think this is where the problem stem from but I'm not that pretty sure. Just correct me if I have done something wrong or I missed a couple of points here. Thanks.

Good day to all... Thanks jaclaz for your tips and insights. I can now really confirm that the method of cdob's "Loading XP ISO to RAM" is 90% working, especially with the help of the PLoP Boot Manager [Thanks to ilko_t ], which made it more efficient. The other 10%, I must say, has yet to be resolved on my part. During the end of the Text-Mode Setup and the PC starts to reboot, I get this windows prompt box which states: I don't know if this error occurs because of the ISO file, or is it because all the necessary files have not been copied during the Text-Mode Setup process. A quick search on Google pointed me to a Microsoft Support site and it states there that "the Setup program cannot communicate with the CD-ROM drive." How can I resolve this? Is it suppose to be the ISO file is loaded on the RAM and all of the necessary files are copied during the Text-Mode Setup? Thank you for the time and effort on reading my queries. Hoping to hear from the support group. Have a nice day.

Good day to you jaclaz... Thank you for having the time on commenting to my post... I'm sorry if you have misunderstood me but please bear with me as it is really somewhat hard to digest all of this multiboot thingy here. I'm just really trying first to teach myself here some of the crash course basics of it and doing all of this one step at a time as I don't want to overload myself with so much information at hand. I hope you get the idea. Thanks for the added information. Going back to my previous post, can anybody clarify if my above statement is true? I already have the idea how to work on the partitioning and the format type of my USB-HDD. Thank you for the time and effort on answering my queries. Looking forward to all of your generous replies.

Good day to you ilko_t... Thank you for taking the time and effort on replying to my queries. That came to me as a suprise. I really thought that even if your motherboard supports USB 2.0 connection speeds doesn't mean it automatically activates on that manner. Hmmm... Something to ponder on... Thanks for the heads up... Thanks for pointing me on that direction. I have heard and seen PLoP on different forums lately, but I really don't know how does it work and what it is used for. I have lately read all of the 6 posts on that thread, and I must say that it is something noteworthy of to test, experiment, and add it as one my toolkit on my USB-HDD arsenals. So going back to my previous post, is it safe to assume that based on your answer, the above DOS message that appears on my screen after I have initialized the RAM loading method of cdob, is that I have correctly followed all of the directions down to the last details and it REALLY WORKS, but the end result is just it takes time to load the whole ISO file in to the RAM. Am I correct? If I try to use PLoP, then the loading time would be gradually improved right? Another thing, is it ok if I have the XP_INST.IMA file on an active NTFS partition like I have mentioned earlier? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that floppy images would be booted and running correctly on a FAT32 partition rather on a NTFS one? Does having the IMA file on a NTFS file have an effect on the overall process of the procedure or is it also okay if it would be left there as if it is the same either on a FAT32 one? I am contemplating on this one 'coz I don't know if my approach would be having a USB-HDD with 2 partitions, a FAT32 & NTFS, or just having a 2 partitions with the same format type, say a NTFS one? What do you think? Thank you for your time and effort for reading and replying on my previous post. Hoping to hear from you or from the rest of the support group. P.S.: Can I suggest a name for cdob's project? How about FiraXP? How does it sounds?

Good day to all... I'm a newbie here at the forums and I'm searching for a convenient way to make a multiboot USB drive containing XP as one of the setup. I stumbled across this method and I was interested to try it out for myself. I followed all of the said directions in making one. I used the program, WinImage, to extract, edit, and inject the files [setupORG.exe & ISOimage.ini] back again to the .ima file. My XP_INST.IMA and my XPSP3.ISO are all on the root folder. I have 2 NTFS partitions on my Western Digital 250GB USB-HDD which has 48GB [Active] & the rest. When I try to boot up the USB-HDD, this message shows up and it stays the same for a long time with a blinking cursor at the end of the message: Booting Windows XP Pro SP3 Setup XPSP3.iso FAT12 BPB found with 0xEB (jmp) leading the boot sector. probed C/H/S = 80/2/18, probed total sectors = 2880 floppies_orig=0, harddrives_orig=3, floppies_curr=1, harddrives_curr=3 My menu.lst title Windows XP Pro SP3 Setup ls /XPSP3.ISO || find --set-root /XPSP3.ISO map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd0) #(fd1) optional, required at some BIOS #map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd1) map --mem /XPSP3.ISO (0xff) map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook chainloader (0xff)/I386/SETUPLDR.BIN So my question is: Why does it takes so long to make something happen? Is it already loading the ISO file in to the memory? I have a XP SP3 iso image with a size of 450MB which is also an nLite'd version. Thank you for the time and effort on reading my questions. Hoping to hear from the support group.