Super Multi-boot installer Harddrive?

[Saik0Shinigami]

Alright, I just came up with an idea that should work in theory, but would be a pain in the a** to figure out completely.

Sorry if this is the wrong place, but there is no "multi-boot harddrive" subforum and this subforum looked to be the closest.

So I'm tired of lugging around my 20lbs(not really but you get the idea) cd folder. Most of the cd's in the **** thing are winxp, or 2000 installers in their many variations(pro, home, ect.) So instead of lugging the **** thing around I though well maybe I can jam all the installers onto a harddrive and just carry the 2.5" drive around.

The idea is to show up at the clients house who needs service, backup whatever they need on my 16gig usb pen, plug in the usb harddrive and re-install (or install) whatever operating system they want on a whim basically.

So far I want to make all these available:

[edit] Just got home where I had my list:

Win2k Professional, Server, Advance Server, DataServer

Win2k3 Server*

XP Home, Pro*, Corporate*

Vista Home basic, Home Premium*, Business, Ultimate*

Windows 7 RC1*

Debian*

Live cds:

Debian*

Backtrack 3(and 2)

Ghost

Spinrite

A random "data recovery disk" I have lying around (I actually never knew the name of the actual software, I just sharpied that on there)

and any 64-bit versions of the above(* denotes ones that I either know or think have 64 bit versions)

Maybe a few others as I remember them

[/edit]

problem: harddrive setup.

I wanna setup each install on their own partition for reference by wingrub or another boot launcher.

obviously you cannot set up 30 primary partitions or so onto a drive. So far I have 2 primary partitions setup, and a logical one. I already know that windows will not be able to see all the partitions at once since windows is locked at 26 drives maximum, any way I can get around this to just jam all the stuff on there for the first time to get it to run from the boot loader(perhapse I can just remove the drive letter and assign it to the next when I'm done setting installer).

On the first primary I wanna jam grub on there, just a small 20 meg partition or so...(I don't know how much space the grub actually needs, anyone know for sure?)

second would be the logical one containing all the os installers( about 60 gigs, not much since really each xp install is about 500 megs after being nlited to remove things people don't ever use *cough* IIS *COUGH*)

third partition(primary, remaining space on harddrive) would contain installers for Office, Nero, Adobe CS3 and 4 and other commonly bought, or used programs (including the free alternatives such as openoffice and such).

I want some input in a few area.

Is this even possible?

am I missing any window's os versions up there? (I never really used 64 bit or 2000(at least I don't remember all the version of it), so I don't know which xp's and vista's have a 64 bit version and such)

I need some idea on commonly wanted programs(such as nero, firefox, ect.; I wanna keep this down to about 15 gigs though so only the bare essentials that most people like.)

I would google all this stuff, but I have already tried and there just isn't a decent list of windows os's and version to look at. On Microsoft's own site for vista they don't even display 32 or 64 bit on their shopping pages.

Thanks for reading my wall of text!

Edited May 24, 2009 by Saik0Shinigami

[Kelsenellenelvian]

second would be the logical one containing all the os installers( about 60 gigs, not much since really each xp install is about 500 megs after being nlited to remove things people don't ever use *cough* IIS *COUGH*)

Hmm I like your ambition BUT, nLite is not for business or corporate use...

With that said you can have nearly ALL of the windows installation files on the same drive. I have seen many DVD's\CD's that have multiple version of Windows on the same one.

Also why in the heck would you include a beta OS? Yes, it is a GOOD beta but still a beta nonetheless.

[Saik0Shinigami]

Even without the Nlite a typical image is only 600 mb for xp, that's not the point. I wouldn't want to use an Nlited image to install onto someone elses system since it'd cut out something... but I do have a few images of my own that are Nlited to my preferences.

This is for my own personal installation use as well as to install onto other systems. I actually like the win7 os, and a lot of people who have seen me use it on my laptop get interested in it and want to use it on their systems(like my dad who is a little behind and hasn't seen too much of the new os, even though he's a software dev.)

And anyway, I was thinking that for the logical partition I could put the stuff that's prone to change(linux distros and win7 as opposed to 2000 which will never change anymore) at the end so I that the subpartition that they're on can just be deleted and replaced with a new one when a new version comes out.

[jaclaz]

With all due respect , you seem to be missing some needed knowledge.

I already know that windows will not be able to see all the partitions at once since windows is locked at 26 drives maximum, any way I can get around this to just jam all the stuff on there for the first time to get it to run from the boot loader(perhapse I can just remove the drive letter and assign it to the next when I'm done setting installer).

NO.

Windows is "locked" to 26 drive letters, not to 26 partitions.

That's what mountpoints are for.

But there is not one reason in the world to "need" more than a few partitions, let alone 26 of them.

On the first primary I wanna jam grub on there, just a small 20 meg partition or so...(I don't know how much space the grub actually needs, anyone know for sure?)

You don't want to jam grub.

You may want to "jam" grub4dos.

And it takes just a few hundreds of Kbytes in the worst case.

Is this even possible?

Yes, it is, though the path you set before you is the longest and most troublesome you could devise.

As-is this can install up to 9 XP's/2003's:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=111406

modifying it for more shouldn't be difficult at all, the lmit is due to the number of available entries in BOOT.INI, you can use several NTLDRs with a simple hex-edit to use BOOT.IN0, BOOT.IN1, BOOT.IN2, etc. nd thus have as many as you want.

As well adding several Vista's and 2008's or Windows 7's is not a problem.

But most probably the easiest would be to boot to a PE and then install "normally" from it, see this:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=121446

Take your time reading the given links, then post in the apppropriate Forum:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=157

Your doubts/questions.

jaclaz

[Saik0Shinigami]

Well I got all my images together and setup the hard-drive. I have WinGRUB on there but no matter what I try to boot into I get this error

"error 12: invalid device requested"

I'm lost basically. I've tried the few things that I could find on google to solve this, but yeah... obviously didn't work.

All of the numbers are correct but I'm obviously missing something.

Feel free to yell at me for any stupidity you notice in the list.

partition list...

0 wingrub

1 extended holder

2 and 3 Nothing?

4-18 all the installers and stuff

:::::Menu.Lst:::::

timeout 90

splashimage (hd0,0)/grub/56470-dragon.xpm.gz

title "=====WINDOWS INSTALLERS====="

root

title "Windows ME, 98, 95, NT3 Installer"

unhide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,4)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "Windows NT4, 2k, Xp, 2k3 Installers"

unhide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,5)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "Windows XP 64-Bit Installer"

unhide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,6)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "Windows Vista 64-Bit Installer"

unhide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,8)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "Windows Vista 32-bit Installer"

unhide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,7)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "=====Debian Linux installers=====

root

title "Debian Linux 5.0 64-Bit Installer"

unhide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,10)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "Debian Linux 5.0 32-Bit Installer"

unhide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,11)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "=====Custom Installers and Betas====="

root

title "nLited Windows Xp 32-Bit"

unhide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,9)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "Micro XP 32-bit"

unhide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,16)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "Windows 7 RC1 64-bit Installer"

unhide (hd0,18)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

root (hd0,18)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "=====Live Distros and Recovery tools====="

root

title "Live Debian Linux 5.0 64-Bit"

unhide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,12)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "Live Debian Linux 5.0 32-Bit"

unhide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,13)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "Backtrack 3"

unhide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,17)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "OORB Data Recovery"

unhide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,14)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "Norton Ghost"

unhide (hd0,15)

hide (hd0,4)

hide (hd0,5)

hide (hd0,6)

hide (hd0,7)

hide (hd0,8)

hide (hd0,9)

hide (hd0,10)

hide (hd0,11)

hide (hd0,12)

hide (hd0,13)

hide (hd0,14)

hide (hd0,16)

hide (hd0,17)

hide (hd0,18)

root (hd0,15)

chainloader +1

makeactive

boot

title "UNHIDE ALL PARTITIONS"

unhide (hd0,3)

unhide (hd0,4)

unhide (hd0,5)

unhide (hd0,6)

unhide (hd0,7)

unhide (hd0,8)

unhide (hd0,9)

unhide (hd0,10)

unhide (hd0,11)

unhide (hd0,12)

unhide (hd0,13)

unhide (hd0,14)

unhide (hd0,15)

unhide (hd0,16)

unhide (hd0,17)

unhide (hd0,18)

root

Edited June 5, 2009 by Saik0Shinigami

[jaclaz]

What is "wingrub" supposed to be?

There are THREE programs around:

1. LEGACY GRUB
   
2. grub4dos
   
3. GRUB 2
   

The most "flexible" right now is grub4dos.

Get version 0.4.4, here:

http://nufans.net/grub4dos/

Read the Guide to find the most suitable way to load/install it:

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm

If you want to install it to the MBR, grub4dos toolbox is very handy:

http://grub4dostoolbox.sourceforge.net/

HOW did you partition (as said needlessly in my personal view) your hard disk?

I guess that you have something like:

(hd0,0) Primary Partition

(hd0,1) Primary Partition

(hd0,2) Primary Partition

everything from (hd0,3) to (hd0,n) Logical Volumes inside Extended Partition

NO OS will be able to boot from a Logical Volume inside Extended Partition through using the Logical Volume bootsector, unless it is patched expressly to allow that.

Some OS (DOS) won't boot from a non-first non-primary partition.

Even if you want to keep your partitioning scheme, you do not actually need to hide each and every other partition.

Making a Logical Volume Active, makes no sense.

If you want to continue, you need to either:

• patch the bootsectors of each Logical volume
  

or

• actually use one of grub4dos features, i.e. direct chainloading of system files (in order to completely by-pass the bootsector)
  

Read these:

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/ptedit.htm

And, whenever you are testing something in grub/grub4dos, use Command Line:

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/basics.htm

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/cli.htm

and use as extensively as possible the [TAB] autocompletion features, so that you see what actually grub4dos "sees".

jaclaz

[Saik0Shinigami]

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=69211

Look at #3 in the OP

That's WinGRUB

Apparently you just didn't read my post at all. You'll notice that WinGRUB does chainloading. And I did outline my partitions.

I know I don't need to hide the partitions, but I don't want there to ever be any confusion when I'm installing an OS.

I do know what I'm doing for the most part, just ran into an error I've never encountered and hope someone knew about.

I will try GRUB4Dos for s***s and giggles to see if that doesn't produce the same errors.

[jaclaz]

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=69211

Look at #3 in the OP

That's WinGRUB

Today is June, 5th 2009.

The thread you reference is from 2006.

Check the linked to files:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=104188

GRUB4DOS	grub4dos 0.4.4	March 31, 2009		 	Download
grubinst	grubinst 1.0.1	December 30, 2006		 	Download
WINGRUB	WINGRUB 0.02 Build 6	October 5, 2004

Wouldn't you think that a file dated October 5, 2004 and with version 0.02 is a bit outdated by something dated March 31, 2009 at version 0.4.4 ?

Apparently you just didn't read my post at all. You'll notice that WinGRUB does chainloading. And I did outline my partitions.

I did read very attentively your post.

In each and every entry you posted you are chainloading the bootsector of the partition. (chainloader +1)

This WON'T work on Logical Volumes inside Extended.

You DID NOT explain in sufficient detail your partitioning scheme, maybe by "extended holder" you mean an "extended partition" and thus ALL your partitons are Logical Volumes?

I do know what I'm doing for the most part, just ran into an error I've never encountered and hope someone knew about.

Rest assured, someone knows about it.

You were told what is causing the error.

You might want to extend "the most part" to "enough to boot something, anything".

I will try GRUB4Dos for s***s and giggles to see if that doesn't produce the same errors.

You can save yourself a bit of time and lots of giggles.

Grub4dos will produce the same errors, as the basic assumption (chainloading a bootsector of a Logical Volume - if not properly patched) simply won't work.

jaclaz

[Saik0Shinigami]

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=69211

Look at #3 in the OP

That's WinGRUB

Today is June, 5th 2009.

The thread you reference is from 2006.

Which is magically still active... and the OP updated the first post in 2007. 2 years isn't that bad.

Check the linked to files:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=104188

GRUB4DOS	grub4dos 0.4.4	March 31, 2009		 	Download
grubinst	grubinst 1.0.1	December 30, 2006		 	Download
WINGRUB	WINGRUB 0.02 Build 6	October 5, 2004

Wouldn't you think that a file dated October 5, 2004 and with version 0.02 is a bit outdated by something dated March 31, 2009 at version 0.4.4 ?

Doesn't matter to me as long as it works(My car just had it's 20th birthday, doesn't mean I should toss it just because it's old). WinGRUB was a little closer to what I was used to.

Apparently you just didn't read my post at all. You'll notice that WinGRUB does chainloading. And I did outline my partitions.

I did read very attentively your post.

In each and every entry you posted you are chainloading the bootsector of the partition. (chainloader +1)

This WON'T work on Logical Volumes inside Extended.

And I didn't realize there was an issue doing so. You could have said that logical drives have that issue instead of just saying it wont work and not say why. But now I've looked it up and see that you're right.

You DID NOT explain in sufficient detail your partitioning scheme, maybe by "extended holder" you mean an "extended partition" and thus ALL your partitons are Logical Volumes?

0,0 GRUB primary

0,1 extended partition

0,2 Nothing

0,3 Nothing

0,4-0,18 everything inside of the extended partition(logical drives)

I thought that most people here would understand the way I put it.

I do know what I'm doing for the most part, just ran into an error I've never encountered and hope someone knew about.

Rest assured, someone knows about it.

You were told what is causing the error.

You might want to extend "the most part" to "enough to boot something, anything".

I will try GRUB4Dos for s***s and giggles to see if that doesn't produce the same errors.

You can save yourself a bit of time and lots of giggles.

Grub4dos will produce the same errors, as the basic assumption (chainloading a bootsector of a Logical Volume - if not properly patched) simply won't work.

jaclaz

I understand chainloading to specific files, I just never knew the issue with the whole Logical drive bootsectors since I've never attempted it or read anything about it so I never thought of doing it.

I'm just going to bypass the whole bootsector stuff then, seems easier the patching everything.

Thanks.

[jaclaz]

And I didn't realize there was an issue doing so. You could have said that logical drives have that issue instead of just saying it wont work and not say why. But now I've looked it up and see that you're right.

Didn't I?

....

NO OS will be able to boot from a Logical Volume inside Extended Partition through using the Logical Volume bootsector, unless it is patched expressly to allow that.

....

Read these:

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/ptedit.htm

....

I guess that someone else is not reading accurately other people posts...

jaclaz