ThatGuyBob

When booting from the hard drive, it'll only give you a linux command prompt if you have linux installed on your hard drive. If you don't have linux installed, then something else is wrong.

Note that the %CD% variable in the command script refers to the Current Directory, not the CD-Rom drive. You can put your root creation directory anywhere on your system and still run the script without having to change it. Best part: Once you've burned your ISO, you can delete everything from your hard drive without losing a working directory structure for modifying your multiboot disc. (For folks who don't play with this everyday, but still want to be able to add an OS or utility easily when they get a new one.) Another good idea: Download the PDF versions of the various guides (multiboot, unattended, etc.) and include them and a PDF reader setup file in the directory structure. That way you've got a handy offline reference for the next time you update your ISO.

What happens if you try to install from the hologrammed CD in VM with that serial? If you still get an "invalid" message, you've got a problem. Just guessing, but you're probably trying to use a serial which doesn't match your CD version. For example, using a retail serial on a volume license disc installation. It's possible that other differences will prevent installation as well (MSDN key with retail CD, EnglishUS key with Korean CD, etc.).

First of all, let me say that the guide at http://flyakite.msfnhosting.com/ is incredibly useful. For those of you out there who don't want to keep recreating your directory structure every time you want to update an existing multiboot disc, here's an idea that's worked for me so far: Rather than putting cdimage.exe in the directory parallel to your root creation directory ("C:\AIO-DVD\" if you follow the guide exactly), put it actually IN that directory ("C:\AIO-DVD\cdimage.exe"). Also place your batch file that you use to call cdimage in that directory. The batch file I'm using looks like this, to take into account a changing environment: @echo off cls set IsoOutPath="C:\FILENAME.ISO" set IsoRootPath=%CD% set IsoLabel="ISOLABEL" set BootSectorPath=%CD%\boot\loader.bin start cdimage -l%IsoLabel% -b%BootSectorPath% -h -n -o -m %IsoRootPath% %IsoOutPath% Now, whenever you want to update your already-burned disc, just copy its contents to your harddrive into some working root directory ("C:\AIO-DVD\" if you like, though any directory will do). Note that it's probably a good idea to use an EMPTY directory for this task. Update or add files or whole OSes, change your cdshell.ini, etc. Then just edit and run your batch file. Voila! Feel free to comment or criticize.

With all due respect to Alanoll, Incroyable HULK, and others, NOT everything is detailed in the guide. It is entirely possible to follow the instructions to the letter and still run across the "Couldn't find NTLDR" error. I had problems with this myself until very recently, and honestly I was afraid to ask the forum about it for fear of being vilified for not following directions. I checked, re-checked, triple-checked, started over and got frustrated more than a dozen times. Nothing worked. "Couldn't find NTLDR" was haunting my nightmares. Finally I stumbled across the solution, which as I said is NOT in the guide. For those responsible for the maintenance of the guide, please include the following in the next revision: 1) Make for D**N sure that you've followed every single instruction in the guide, and THEN... 2) Make sure all files in your boot folder (2PRO, 2SRV, PRO1, 3STD, whatever) have UPPERCASE filenames. Note that if you follow option 2 for creating a Win2K boot folder, you may end up with filenames like "1394bus.sy_" instead of "1394BUS.SY_". This causes a lot of files, especially SETUPLDR.BIN, which is the file your computer is complaining about, to appear to be missing to the program run by your bootsector file. Simply rename the files to uppercase, and all your woes should disappear. I hope this helps some folks.