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multiboot of xp also needs virtual floppy


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hi there. I have a netbook that needs windows xp reinstalling and to do this i am using multiboot 10. Problem is that i need third party ide drivers to be loaded off a floppy as the setup only looks for drivers on floppy disks. As I haven't got a floppy on the netbook i need to create a virtual floppy with an associated image file. I have found a program called vfd which seems to do the trick but i need to run it and install the image file before i run the setup. I could really do with some advice about what files i need to load up in order to run the vfd program. I am familiar with the old style of dos with its autoexec.bat, config.sys, msdos.sys and io.sys etc but am at a bit of a loss with the nt style of loading and the associated commands that go in the appropriate configuration files. All i need to do is run this vfd program then pop back into the os menu and start up the setup. Any help is much appreciated... :blink:

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You may use grub4dos to load virtual floppy to RAM.

Textmode part does find the file and use them.

However windows setup copy part won't find the files using windows drivers.

I don't known a virtual floppy available at windwos setup.

There are two drivers under cunstruction currently.

Currently integrate the drivers to your windows files.

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To expand on the above:

Besides VFD.EXE by Ken Kato:

http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html

there are several other "virtual disk drivers" capable of loading a floppy image, most noticeably IMDISK:

http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=59

More drivers can be found here:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1507

Point is if they will be loaded EARLY ENOUGH during the boot process of the GUI setup to be available when the setup asks for drivers in A:\ and HOW to install/setup them to achieve this (hypothetical at the moment) result. :unsure:

As I see it you have five possible choices right now:

  1. integrate the source with the drivers
  2. buy a USB floppy drive
  3. start fiddling/experimenting with the mentioned drivers
  4. start fiddling/experimenting with the HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL drivers:
    http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=8168&hl=
    http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=8804&hl=
  5. wait for either of the above two drivers to be developed/tested (and hopefully be working). <-since they re-hook the grub4dos virtual drive they will be very handy :thumbup

#1 is guaranteed to work and it is relatively easy, as it is well documented

Easier would probably be #2, but you have to part from a few bucks. :(

#3,#4 and #5 may work in a few minutes, a few hours or a few days/weeks/months

So, all in all, and being cheap, I would go for #1, as cdob suggested. :)

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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You have got to improve first your XP Setup Source with DriverPack Massstorage with TXT Mode Enabled using DPsBase.exe

If you have XP SP2 CD then first Slipstream with SP3.

  1. Take care that your XPSOURCE Folder is located on your Harddisk in a simple Path without SPACES.
  2. Copy the Content of your Windows XP Setup CD to your XPSOURCE Folder on Harddisk
  3. Slipstream ServicePack SP3 First Manually in your XP-SP2 Source (don't use here nLite).
    http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/S...ice_Pack_3.html
  4. Integrate in your XPSOURCE BTS DriverPack Massstorage with TXT Mode Enabled using DPsBase.exe
    http://driverpacks.net/downloads
  5. Then prepare bootable USB-stick with USB_MultiBoot_10.cmd

From: http://www.msfn.org/board/install-xp-usb-t111406.html

Supports the use of BTS DriverPacks located in OEM Folder on USB-Drive

http://driverpacks.net/downloads

For installing XP on modern systems with SATA Drives it is needed to use DPsBase.exe

for Integrating in your XPSOURCE BTS DriverPack Massstorage with TXT Mode Enabled.

In that case a lot of Extra RAID SCSI and SATA Drivers (about 120 extra) are Integrated and will appear in the

XP Setup BootFolder $WIN_NT$.~BT on USB-Drive and can prevent a lot of XP Installation Boot Problems.

It will be useful to Add also Chipset, CPU, LAN and WLAN DriverPack, which are small so that

the decompression at the beginning of GUI-mode of XP Setup does NOT take to much time.

First use RyanVM Integrator and then use DPsBase to Improve your XP-Source.

The program supplies a Customized presetup.cmd and changes the winnt.sif file for use of DriverPacks.

As alternative you can use Make_USB.exe and the Install procedure described in:

http://www.msfn.org/board/install-xp-usb-a...sb-t121446.html

Edited by wimb
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cheers there wimb! It appears you are quite right as I managed to map a virtual floppy drive and get setup to recognise and load it, but the setup still crashed. Just a quick question. What do you mean by slipstream? Also am I right in downloading the network version of sp3?

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Ok. figured out the slipstreaming. Thought i'd put it here for easy future reference:

The Basic Steps to Merging SP3 into the XP Setup CD

1.

Download and Save XP Service Pack 3

If you have not already downloaded XP service pack 3, get it now, and save it with the filename of "XPSP3.exe" at the top level of drive C:. Actually, you can save it anywhere you want, and leave it at its default name if you wish. However, for the purpose of this tutorial, I will assume that you saved it so that it can be accessed as C:\XPSP3.exe. If you save it as some other name, you will have to change the command lines I supply below yourself to the appropriate one.

2.

Extract or Download the Boot Sector of the XP Setup Disk

You will also need the boot sector of an existing bootable Windows 2000, XP or 2003 setup CDROM. You can either extract it from your CD yourself, or just download a boot sector already extracted by others. To save myself some time describing the procedure for extracting the boot sector, this tutorial will just use the same method mentioned in my guide to create your own XP setup disk. That is, download the file wxp10.zip from one of the links on http://www.nu2.nu/download.php?sFile=wxp10.zip and save it somewhere on your computer.

When you've got the file, open it by doubleclicking it in Windows explorer. Go into the "cds" folder and into "wxphome" (or "wxppro"; it doesn't matter which) folder, followed finally by the "files" directory. Drag the "w2ksect.bin" file into C:\ (the root directory/folder of drive C:). Don't get creative and place it in some other directory. If you do that, ImgBurn will not be able to find "c:\w2ksect.bin" later.

3.

Create a Working Folder

Create a temporary folder for the integration to take place. For the purpose of this tutorial, I will assume that you have created a folder called "XPSETUP" at the top level of drive C:.

To create a folder, open "My Computer", go to drive C:, right click somewhere in the window and select "New" followed by "Folder" in the menu that appears. Then change the default name from "New Folder" to "XPSETUP". If you did this correctly, you will have a new folder, C:\XPSETUP.

4.

Copy the XP Setup Disk intto C:\XPSETUP

Put your existing XP setup CD into your drive. If the setup wizard appears, dismiss it. Drag all the files and folders on the CD into C:\XPSETUP.

5.

Open a Command Prompt

Open a command prompt window. You can do this by running the program "Command Prompt", found in the Accessories folder of your Start menu.

6.

Slipstream the Service Pack

From the command prompt window, which will be a black window with a blinking cursor, type the following, followed by the ENTER key.

C:\XPSP3 /integrate:C:\XPSETUP

Note that there is only one space character -- between the "C:\XPSP3" and the rest of the line. If you did not name the service pack "XPSP3.exe" and place it at the top level of C: as I described earlier, you'll have to modify the command line accordingly.

The process will take some time to complete, so take a coffee break if you wish.

This completes the slipstreaming part of the tutorial. You will now need to burn it to make a bootable CD or DVD

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whats this Massstorage with TXT Mode Enabled? I can only find a massstorage driver on the site :blink:

grab the massstorage package. once you are adding the drivers to the Image there will be a checkmark that adds the massstorage drivers to the textmode portion of the setup which you will want to check.

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Right, I assuming I'm doing all this because I was given the wrong driver on the cd that came with the computer. It was, after all, only a copy. Just to be on the safe side I have downloaded all the driver packs with the latest versions. So then, just one final question before I do the penultimate step of integrating all these BTS driverpacks is, what settings file do I load into the DPsBase program? At first, when I had just downloaded the massstorage drivers I tried loading the associated .ini file, but it just still asked for a settings file and reset all the previous settings I had made. Or is it that I don't need to load a settings file and can proceed with the integration of all the driver pack?

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Have supposedly slipstreamed all the driver packs, but noticed it only slipstreamed the massstorage drivers and just copied the other driver packs to the OEM directory, even though in the settings I had selected slipstream all the packages. Is it maybe because previously I had loaded the associated .ini file that came with the massstorage device into (wrongly!) the settings? Also is it the case that maybe I have to uncompress all these driver packs before I slipstream them with DPsBase?

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