problem with xp home edition

[titi]

first thanks a million for the great work and help.

1. 2 new usb 8gb sandisk did not get recognized by the newest adition of winsetupfromusb, at the end i used an old petousb and then used the program.

2. everything went well with the multiboot xp pro, win7, part magic,acronis, but then i wanted also xp home and it seemed ok but on the second boot it gives the same option as pro and after i decided to try anyway it gave a certain hal file thats missing (not the one that has to do with partitions).

could anyone help with that?

Edited August 25, 2009 by titi

[ilko_t]

1. Detection has not been changed since the first releases- if there is no active partition and MBR stick is not displayed. In other words- you need to format the stick with the tool included and eventually click on refresh button to have it displayed.

2.

not the one that has to do with partitions

How do you know that? There is not any difference in the boot menu for the second part for XP Home, Pro, 2003 etc. Most likely you installed in another partition and did not use the proper boot entry. Can you elaborate a bit more what you exactly did and in what partition you installed Windows to?

What's the exact error message?

[titi]

1. it did not rocognize it so the formatting tool did not open.

2. i have only one partition on the usb, i used the win setup for a second time to put on the xp home, it asked me, if to sync click yes, if to patch etc' click no, so i clicked no, and it put the home edition, i installed on my 3 partition, like always when i make my trials, and i also on the second run told the disk to go to partition 3, thats why i wrote that it does not seem to have to do with it.

[ilko_t]

1. Format tool would launch no matter if stick is recognized or not, the button simply launches external application and device selection is made there.

2.

and i also on the second run told the disk to go to partition 3

Did you select Second part of setup from partition 3?

[titi]

this is the error: missing or corrupt: <windows root> \system32\hal.dll.

and of course i used partiton 3

[ilko_t]

Please post BOOT.INI in USB stick root.

Which entry of it did you use?

Is the third partition primary? Are all partitions primary on that hard disk?

[titi]

thans a lot for your help

1. i posted

2. 2 option from the list

3. i installed xp pro that way and it worked exellent

BOOT.INI

[ilko_t]

Windows installer may create logical partition(s) inside extended in case 2 or more primary partitions are already present. In such case you need to play a bit with with boot.ini values. Not sure about the exact behavior.

The error you got most likely is due to incorrect ARC path (multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(X)partition(Y)\WINDOWS) to the windows folder and should have nothing to do with Windows version or something similar.

XP Pro may have started properly, depending how the hard disk was partitioned, just guessing.

You haven't installed Home in other directory, not "Windows", have you?

[titi]

well well thanks a million, so stupid of me, i had a version nlited by someone who changed it to win instead of windows i changed it back with nlite and everything is perfect, again thanks a lot.

by the way i partitioned my usb with g parted so that i will have 5gb on the first part, and another 3gb on the second, and i can only see the 2 partition (first part is ok) in the manager i'm not able to give it a letter and it is not recognized in my computer, do you have any idea what i did wrong?

Edited August 27, 2009 by titi

[ilko_t]

well well thanks a million, so stupid of me, i had a version nlited by someone who changed it to win instead of windows i changed it back with nlite and everything is perfect, again thanks a lot.

by the way i partitioned my usb with g parted so that i will have 5gb on the first part, and another 3gb on the second, and i can only see the 2 partition (first part is ok) in the manager i'm not able to give it a letter and it is not recognized in my computer, do you have any idea what i did wrong?

You should be seeing only one partition.

XP displays only the first partition when dealing with removable devices.

You can:

1) flip permanently the removable bit of the USB stick with the appropriate manufacturer tool.

2) Use a filter driver (dummydisk.sys or cfadisk.sys), which hooks the result removable/fixed and returns always fixed to the query "what type are you, dear USB stick", made from Windows. This way USB stick will be present as fixed disk, allowing all operations.

Look in \WinSetupFromUSB\MULTIpartitionUSBstick\, there are a couple of batch files for easy installing and removing dummydisk filter driver.

[titi]

i did not understand. if i want to put also vista and also win7 so i have to make a seperate partition on the usb stick, am i correct?

if i am, how do i put the second os if it is not recognized?

[jaclaz]

i did not understand. if i want to put also vista and also win7 so i have to make a seperate partition on the usb stick, am i correct?

No. You can have a single partition allright, but NOT using WinSetupfromUSB "automagically".

There are some quirks that have not yet been solved.

You can boot to another OS, like DOS or a mini-PE and change the name of the files\directories involved, choosing to install each time EITHER Vista OR Windows 7.

if i am, how do i put the second os if it is not recognized?

I don't understand the question.

If you want a non-partitioned device, it can be seen the same on ANY OS.

If you want a partitioned device, it will be seen differently on different OS's, IF the device is set as "removable".

2K and XP/2003 DO NOT allow access to anything but one active partition on a device seen as "removable".

As said before, you need to either change the firmware of the controller of the device so that it is seen as "fixed", this way any OS will see it the same.

OR install to the 2K/XP/2003 a filter driver, in order to have the second (and third, fourth, etc.) partition accessible.

jaclaz

Edited August 27, 2009 by jaclaz

[ilko_t]

Just a small correction- as far as I remember 2000 treats removable USB sticks just as fixed disks, thus no need of filter driver.

[jaclaz]

Just a small correction- as far as I remember 2000 treats removable USB sticks just as fixed disks, thus no need of filter driver.

Well, NO.

I started "flipping the bit" on my sticks BECAUSE Windows 2000 couldn't see multiple partitions:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...4181&st=378

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15776

Dietmar found cfadisk approximately in the same period:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14292

while we were trying to find a "general" solution, as opposed to the "hardware" and specific "Mass Production Tool" dependent one.

after some time I was able to find the "alternative" dummydisk.sys.

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...181&st=1954

Still, I personally do prefer flipping the bit via hardware and be done with it.

jaclaz

[ilko_t]

Just a small correction- as far as I remember 2000 treats removable USB sticks just as fixed disks, thus no need of filter driver.

Well, NO...

Searched a bit and found the discussion where I made conclusion:

http://img86.imageshack.us/i/deletepartitiongu3.jpg/

http://img246.imageshack.us/i/pqice0.jpg/

2000 SP4.

The reported said he was able to partition the USB stick just fine using disk management, no filter driver used. It could be well wrong report, or stick with flipped bit...

Edited August 27, 2009 by ilko_t