How to install Windows from USB- WinSetupFromUSB with GUI

[Sergo]

Hi, ilko_t & Co.

Do you offically support booting from SD card readers?

I had a Dell with multi-card reader and WSfromUSB saw all extra drives.

At home I had just simple SDHC card reader (from Ledshoppe) and WSFUSB doesn even show it?

BUT, hp format utility works fine, and MS DOS boots fine from it.

Edited June 14, 2009 by Sergo

[ilko_t]

You may try, however, you may need to play with boot.ini entries (rdisk(N) values) if during Text mode the card reader drives shift down the internal disk.

At home I had just simple SDHC card reader (from Ledshoppe) and WSFUSB doesn even show it?

Was the inserted card properly formatted, with MBR and active partition?

[Sergo]

You may try, however, you may need to play with boot.ini entries (rdisk(N) values) if during Text mode the card reader drives shift down the internal disk.

At home I had just simple SDHC card reader (from Ledshoppe) and WSFUSB doesn even show it?

Was the inserted card properly formatted, with MBR and active partition?

Maybe you didn't understand my question.

It was preformatted with FAT32 but

wasn't even visible in USB Disk Selection dropdown list.

HP format utily saw it fine.

After I formatted with it outside of WSFUSB, and run WSFUSB again it saw it.

Edited June 14, 2009 by Sergo

[ilko_t]

...It was preformatted with FAT32 but

wasn't even visible in USB Disk Selection dropdown list.

HP format utily saw it fine.

After I formatted with it outside of WSFUSB, and run WSFUSB again it saw it.

WSFUSB will not show USB disks which do not have a MBR and an active partition set. Since it showed after reformat with HP tool this means the first time it was not formatted properly.

[jaclaz]

It was preformatted with FAT32 but

...not partitioned and with a MBR.

Here comes the first GUI for our little project.

.....

Some features:

.....

- grub4dos is the main bootloader/manager. Without it's advanced features, multiple partitions will not be easily achieved.

Bootsector loading GRLDR is installed in the active partition of the selected disk. Hence the requirement for active partition and MBR.

....

Please read the included ReadMe.txt and \Docs\HOW-TOs.txt, it should help you get started. When in doubt hold the mouse over the element, a tooltip should help you with the choice.

.....

...

How to start-

1. First make sure you have a properly formatted USB disk or flash media.

It must have MBR and active partition set.

a) USB flash media- format it with PEtoUSB in FAT16 or FAT16x (LBA checked) for partitions up to 2GB. This will preserve all partition information.

If your media is above 2GB you will have to use FAT32- use HP USB disk format tool. Note that it will DELETE all partitions and create a single one, occupying the whole disk. NTFS is reported faster on some systems, your USB stick parameters are also factor. Whereas NTFS generally is not recommended for USB flash media, if you are not planning excessive usage, but rather occasional installs from it, then it should be safe to use it as long as you can boot from it.

There is another way to format USB flash media- to use filter driver, such as Hitachi microdrive filter driver or dummydisk.sys (included, look in FILES\MULTIpartitionUSBstick folder). Using such driver will 'make' your stick to appear to Windows as fixed disk. In this case, when formatting Windows will write MBR on in with partition information.

You may now use Disk management console, or third party programs to make multiple partitions and format them as you desire.

Usually NTFS performs way faster on some systems, or with some USB sticks. However, keep in mind that depending on usage and USB stick quality, it may "wear it out" quicker.

!!!Make sure you set an active partition, either from Disk management, or from your favourite external program.!!!

!!!Use primary partitions when placing Windows based sources!!!

!!!Usew first partition when copying Windows Setup!!!

...

Setup Windows XP/2000/2003

==========================

1. Insert your USB disk and run the program

2. Select the folder with your Windows source files

3. If your USB disk is not displayed make sure it's formatted and has MBR and an active partition.

....

jaclaz

[ilko_t]

If I may add- all this is also displayed in the program everywhere I could put it:

The tooltip above refresh button has the same info...

[lilas]

Hello,

I tried WinSetupFromUSB version 0.2.1 and it works very well.

One question : if I use an USB HDD instead of an USB key, the USB HDD is seen as fixed disk, and on XP setup the internal IDE

hard disk where XP will be installed to as seen as D:. Does it means that after installation D: is the system drive letter ? How it would happen

if I remove the USB HDD and boot from the internal disk?

I would like to have C: as system drive for the XP to be installed to the internal disk. Is it possible? Thank you.

[ilko_t]

This has been taken care of, look here for details:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...st&p=705697

Restrictions- works on XP 32 bits only.

[jaclaz]

I would like to have C: as system drive for the XP to be installed to the internal disk. Is it possible? Thank you.

Restrictions- works on XP 32 bits only.

Besides the "easy" approach through the "reversed Dummy disk" Filter Driver, one could use a migrate.inf file to assign a drive letter to the USB hard disk, though this limits some Unattended settings.

There may be also another (complex, UNtested and really NOT advised) possible way, along the lines of the "no more CATCH 22" trick for Recovery Console:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...20983&st=25

i.e. pre-creating a "fake" previous install, which will probably consist of just a couple of directories and a very stripped down HKLM/SYSTEM hive including Mounteddevices and possibly some other keys/sub-hives

jaclaz

[nik_gr]

Hello i just downloaed WinSetupFromUSB v2.1

I want to be able to create a bootable Win7 USB disk

So i opened the tool formatted in ntfs and poot /boot and /sources data from the extractes win7 iso i downlaoed to this folder i created d:\vista

i checked the option Vista/7setup... and select the vista folder that i created there.

i started the process all files copied successfully but when i tries to boot the usb key it said to me i

Cannot read from the disk.

Press ctrl-alt-del

so i did the same process again formattting the usb key in fat32 this time. no error message there in boot process just a blank screen with a cursor blinking and nothign else.

i tried as 3rd attempt to make a FAT usb key but it said to big volume(my usb key is 8 GB)

i tried all the above step to create a vista bootable usb key this time and i got same error messages again.

What might be the problem?

Thanks a lot for your attention!

Please help me out cause neither one win7 iso i d/l so far was i be able to install it via dvd, so my only choic is to create a win7 bootable usb key.

Edited June 15, 2009 by nik_gr

[jaclaz]

Cannot read from the disk.

Press ctrl-alt-del

so i did the same process again formattting the usb key in fat32 this time. no error message there in boot process just a blank screen with a cursor blinking and nothign else.

BOTH the symptoms you report are NOT due to WinsetupfromUSB, but rather to the way the USB stick was partitioned/formatted.

Probably you have a somehow "peculiar" motherboard.

Try the apps listed in this post:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...87993&st=17

Make sure that you can boot something from that USB stick, fuwi's batch should be a good enough test.

jaclaz

[nik_gr]

The formattign of my usb was done with the HP Fromat utility i invoked within the winsetup tool.

yes i can boot soemhting for example i was able to create a bootable linxu usb key with a linux tool, so i do know that my mobo can work with usb keys in order to boot.

The problem is that with the linxu app i was able to cret a bootable usb key only if i formatted it as FAT, not fat32 and ntfs perahps due to the oddness of my mobo.

But ehre in windows my usb key is 8 GB and when i try to format it as FAT it says to me that the volume is too big, so what can i do?

Edited June 15, 2009 by nik_gr

[jaclaz]

yes i can boot soemhting for example i was able to create a bootable linxu usb key with a linux tool, so i do know that my mobo can work with usb keys in order to boot.

The problem is that with the linxu app i was able to cret a bootable usb key only if i formatted it as FAT, not fat32 and ntfs perahps due to the oddness of my mobo.

But ehre in windows my usb key is 8 GB and when i try to format it as FAT it says to me that the volume is too big, so what can i do?

What you were told.

Try using the given apps.

I'll quote myself, with bolding and underlining what you might have missed:

Make sure that you can boot something from that USB stick, fuwi's batch should be a good enough test.

A test with another key (and another "family" of OS ), does not prove in any way that the 8Gb key is booting on your PC. (which obviously is what is completely failing to happen, most probably due to a "wrong" partitioning/formatting of the stick or to some "peculiarity" of the motherboard)

jaclaz

[ilko_t]

Version 0.2.2 released.

Please refer to the first post for download links.

[nik_gr]

But being able to boot from my usb key after using a linux app of course its a proof that my usb key is bootable, otherwise it wouldnt boot linux.

As for partiotion/formating a format my usb key with winsetupfrom usb internal utility called HP Format utility, i didnt mess with it myself so why didnt it partitioned/formatted properly?

Which tool form that page should i download?

Edited June 15, 2009 by nik_gr