Is it possible to install XP from USB drive partition 2 or above?

[Rasengan]

As the thread title says, is it possible to install XP from USB drive partition 2 or above? Basically, I have a GPT/MBR formatted drive, which has a hidden 200MB partition at the beginning, so I can only stick XP on partition 2, 3 or 4. Will it actually work, or will I get a STOP 0x7B error right around where it would give the drive/partition list in text mode setup?

[ilko_t]

What drive type is this? USB stick, hard disk, memory card...? Do you need this hidden partition, if it is such at all? Usually all vendors have a tool to unlock and erase this partition, as last resort.

Is the first, hidden partition primary? Is the second, visible partition primary? Which one is active?

The new beta of WinSetupFromUSB should work just fine from another partition, but we need to ensure Windows setup will "like" your drive first and see the second partition.

http://www.msfn.org/board/install-2000-xp-...p;view=findpost

[Rasengan]

What drive type is this? USB stick, hard disk, memory card...? Do you need this hidden partition, if it is such at all? Usually all vendors have a tool to unlock and erase this partition, as last resort.

Is the first, hidden partition primary? Is the second, visible partition primary? Which one is active?

The new beta of WinSetupFromUSB should work just fine from another partition, but we need to ensure Windows setup will "like" your drive first and see the second partition.

http://www.msfn.org/board/install-2000-xp-...p;view=findpost

It's a USB HDD (IDE - 60GB), the hidden partition is required as part of the GPT standard, but it is usually hidden and not active. The second partition would be the first visible partition, and it would be active

[ilko_t]

I have no idea what would happen with GPT formatted disks since the program is installing grub4dos MBR. Does grub4dos MBR like such formatted disk?

Reading here too:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT-on-x64.mspx

Notes:

• Unlike Windows support for the Intel Itanium platform, Windows x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 SP1 operating systems support the use of GPT drives only as data volumes. Because the x64 and x86 architectures do not provide support for an EFI boot partition, you cannot use a GPT drive to boot an x64-based computer or an x86-based computer with a legacy BIOS. Therefore, computers running these operating systems must be equipped with more than one physical driver to allow the use of the GPT disk format.

• On Intel Itanium platforms, Windows supports the use of GPT drives as boot drives or data volumes.

If you have no valuable data you may try, but be ready for reformat it and lose whatever data is on it.

As for the question- The setup would work just fine from another partition using the method latest WinSetupFromUSB uses, as long as it's primary one. But you need to have a properly formatted bootable disk.

Out of curiosity- why this disk is formatted like this? What advantages does this give you, compared to a regularly formatted disk?

[Rasengan]

I have no idea what would happen with GPT formatted disks since the program is installing grub4dos MBR. Does grub4dos MBR like such formatted disk?

Reading here too:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT-on-x64.mspx

Notes:

• Unlike Windows support for the Intel Itanium platform, Windows x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 SP1 operating systems support the use of GPT drives only as data volumes. Because the x64 and x86 architectures do not provide support for an EFI boot partition, you cannot use a GPT drive to boot an x64-based computer or an x86-based computer with a legacy BIOS. Therefore, computers running these operating systems must be equipped with more than one physical driver to allow the use of the GPT disk format.

• On Intel Itanium platforms, Windows supports the use of GPT drives as boot drives or data volumes.

If you have no valuable data you may try, but be ready for reformat it and lose whatever data is on it.

As for the question- The setup would work just fine from another partition using the method latest WinSetupFromUSB uses, as long as it's primary one. But you need to have a properly formatted bootable disk.

Out of curiosity- why this disk is formatted like this? What advantages does this give you, compared to a regularly formatted disk?

The disk is actually a GPT/MBR hybrid. The reason for this is that the disc is a multi-boot disc, which will contain the following:

200MB EFI partition (hidden) (reformatted with Chameleon EFI v2.0 RC4)

5GB XP partition (containing all 9 versions)

5GB Vista Partition

5GB 7 Partition

10GB Mac Os X Leopard partition (only readable from GPT, not MBR)

10GB Mac Os X Snow Leopard partition (only readable from GPT, not MBR)

All partitions are primary, partitions 5+ are only seen by GPT (which is ok for OS X), partition 2 will have XP with GRUB4DOS, partition 3 + 4 will have BOOTMGR, Chameleon will be hacked to load the first HFS+ partition (the EFI partition), while still setting the XP partition active

[ilko_t]

Here is a version, which does not check for and install grub4dos MBR. It will copy the needed file to the partition selected.

You need to find a way to chainload grldr in this partition. If it's FAT32/NTFS and set active, and your MBR will start this active partition, you may rename grldr to ntldr if formatted with 2000/XP/2003 bootsector, in case of Vista and above bootsector- rename grldr to bootmgr.

Alternatively, if supported at all, you may install grub4dos bootsector using the utilities in \files\grub4dos\ folder, Grubinst_GUI.exe or the command line grubinst.exe.

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-7345a923.html

If disk space is concern- you may use NTFS and the included in \files\tools\DFHL.exe to create hard links once you put all windows XP/2003/2000 versions.

http://www.jensscheffler.de/dfhl

Let us know how it goes, this is interesting stuff.

[Rasengan]

Here is a version, which does not check for and install grub4dos MBR. It will copy the needed file to the partition selected.

You need to find a way to chainload grldr in this partition. If it's FAT32/NTFS and set active, and your MBR will start this active partition, you may rename grldr to ntldr if formatted with 2000/XP/2003 bootsector, in case of Vista and above bootsector- rename grldr to bootmgr.

Alternatively, if supported at all, you may install grub4dos bootsector using the utilities in \files\grub4dos\ folder, Grubinst_GUI.exe or the command line grubinst.exe.

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-7345a923.html

If disk space is concern- you may use NTFS and the included in \files\tools\DFHL.exe to create hard links once you put all windows XP/2003/2000 versions.

http://www.jensscheffler.de/dfhl

Let us know how it goes, this is interesting stuff.

Excellent. I'm in the middle of my exams for college atm, so I'll try this out over Christmas and reply back. I may install Grub4dos anyway, for the ISO boot feature, or I may make the EFI partition a combined Chameleon/GRUB partition, to enable me to have a bunch of Linux distro ISOs dumped to partitions higher than 4 (GPT allows for 128 primary partitions). If I get this all working, I should have a disk which will allow me to reinstall any OS on any machine capable of booting from USB. Will report back when I get time to test this out

[Rasengan]

Here is a version, which does not check for and install grub4dos MBR. It will copy the needed file to the partition selected.

You need to find a way to chainload grldr in this partition. If it's FAT32/NTFS and set active, and your MBR will start this active partition, you may rename grldr to ntldr if formatted with 2000/XP/2003 bootsector, in case of Vista and above bootsector- rename grldr to bootmgr.

Alternatively, if supported at all, you may install grub4dos bootsector using the utilities in \files\grub4dos\ folder, Grubinst_GUI.exe or the command line grubinst.exe.

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-7345a923.html

If disk space is concern- you may use NTFS and the included in \files\tools\DFHL.exe to create hard links once you put all windows XP/2003/2000 versions.

http://www.jensscheffler.de/dfhl

Let us know how it goes, this is interesting stuff.

Excellent. I'm in the middle of my exams for college atm, so I'll try this out over Christmas and reply back. I may install Grub4dos anyway, for the ISO boot feature, or I may make the EFI partition a combined Chameleon/GRUB partition, to enable me to have a bunch of Linux distro ISOs dumped to partitions higher than 4 (GPT allows for 128 primary partitions). If I get this all working, I should have a disk which will allow me to reinstall any OS on any machine capable of booting from USB. Will report back when I get time to test this out

Ok, exams are finished, so trying this out So far, so good with XP, the little memory mapped XP iso is a brilliant idea, and gets round the previous problem I had where I would get a STOP 0x7B if XP was on anything other than partition 1. So far XP, Vista & 7 are working from partitinos 2, 3 & 4,gonna throw Chameleon and Ubuntu into the mix now soon

Btw, I made some small changes to the XP files, just renamed the folders to remind myself which was which, and adjusted the txtsetup.sif in the isos to reflect that, as per your post here. Will report back later when I test out the other OS's, and providing everything works, I might do a write-up of it on my blog, and link it back here

EDIT: Uh-oh, dunno what i just did, but I'm now getting the following message:

File \WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\I386\biosinfo.inf could not be loaded. The error code is 14.

The partition is NTFS formatted, no compression, partition #2 on my USB drive

Edited December 24, 2009 by Rasengan

[ilko_t]

...

EDIT: Uh-oh, dunno what i just did, but I'm now getting the following message:

File \WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\I386\biosinfo.inf could not be loaded. The error code is 14.

The partition is NTFS formatted, no compression, partition #2 on my USB drive

Two options I can think of:

1) Wrong BootDevice and BootPath in txtsetup.sif in the ISO file, amend accordingly.

2) USB stick seen as floppy, join the party:

http://www.msfn.org/board/2-t140479.html

[Rasengan]

...

EDIT: Uh-oh, dunno what i just did, but I'm now getting the following message:

File \WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\I386\biosinfo.inf could not be loaded. The error code is 14.

The partition is NTFS formatted, no compression, partition #2 on my USB drive

Two options I can think of:

1) Wrong BootDevice and BootPath in txtsetup.sif in the ISO file, amend accordingly.

2) USB stick seen as floppy, join the party:

http://www.msfn.org/board/2-t140479.html

I'm pretty sure #1 isn't the problem, but here's the [setupdata] section of one of my txtsetup.sif's (XP_HOME_OEM):

[SetupData]
SetupSourcePath ="\WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\"
***
snip
***
SetupSourceDevice=\ArcName\multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)
BootPath="\WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\I386\"
BootDevice="multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)"

As for #2, here's my menu.lst:

title Install XP Home OEM
find --set-root /windefault
map --mem /WIN_SETUP/XP_Home_OEM.ISO (0xff)
map (fd0) (hd1,0)
map --hook
root (0xff)
chainloader /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN

title Install XP Home Retail
find --set-root /windefault
map --mem /WIN_SETUP/XP_Home_Retail.ISO (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
chainloader /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN

title Install XP MCE Retail
find --set-root /windefault
map --mem /WIN_SETUP/XP_MCE_Retail.ISO (0xff)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
root (0xff)
chainloader /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN

XP Home OEM gives an I/O error when being mapped as a floppy, XP Home Retail gives the biosinfo.inf error with code 18, and XP MCE Retail gives the biosinfo.inf error with code 14.

Just for reference, here's the folder & file layout for partition #2 (NTFS, nt52 bootcode, grldr renamed to ntldr)

Folder PATH listing for volume WINDOWS XP (G:)
|   default
|   menu.lst
|   ntldr
|   tree.txt
|   windefault
\---WIN_SETUP
	|   XP_Home_OEM.ISO
	|   XP_Home_Retail.ISO
	|   XP_MCE_Retail.ISO
	|   XP_Pro_OEM.ISO
	|   XP_Pro_Retail.ISO
	|   XP_Pro_VLK.ISO
	+---XP_Home_OEM
	|   +---$OEM$
	|   +---DOCS
	|   +---I386
	|   +---OEM
	|   \---SUPPORT
	+---XP_Home_Retail
	|   +---$OEM$
	|   +---DOCS
	|   +---I386
	|   +---OEM
	|   \---SUPPORT
	+---XP_MCE_Retail
	|   +---$OEM$
	|   +---CMPNENTS
	|   +---DOCS
	|   +---I386
	|   +---OEM
	|   \---SUPPORT
	+---XP_Pro_OEM
	|   +---$OEM$
	|   +---CMPNENTS
	|   +---DOCS
	|   +---I386
	|   +---OEM
	|   \---SUPPORT
	+---XP_Pro_Retail
	|   +---$OEM$
	|   +---CMPNENTS
	|   +---DOCS
	|   +---I386
	|   +---OEM
	|   \---SUPPORT
	\---XP_Pro_VLK
		+---$OEM$
		+---CMPNENTS
		+---DOCS
		+---I386
		+---OEM
		\---SUPPORT

BTW, the HDD is a 60GB Toshiba 2.5" IDE drive in an external USB enclosure, which I previously had XP, Vista & 7 installing from (XP prepped with USB_MultiBoot_10, on partition 1, Vista and 7 booting from partitions #2 & #3 with bootmgr)

[ilko_t]

Try using 8.3 file names, e.g. \WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\ --> \WINSETUP\XP_H_OEM\

Since MCE setup boots to somewhere, USB disk is seen as hd0, which is as expected.

Try also a regular NT MBR and bootsector, and launch grldr by renaming it to ntldr ot bootmgr, depending on your bootsector.

At start of Setup there seem to be number of checks, it may panick by weird/unknown MBR or bootsector.

For multiple VLK/OEM/Retail versions this might be useful to you:

http://www.msfn.org/board/install-winxp-oe...mb-t140351.html

But do it once you get everything else working

[Rasengan]

Try using 8.3 file names, e.g. \WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\ --> \WINSETUP\XP_H_OEM\

Since MCE setup boots to somewhere, USB disk is seen as hd0, which is as expected.

Try also a regular NT MBR and bootsector, and launch grldr by renaming it to ntldr ot bootmgr, depending on your bootsector.

At start of Setup there seem to be number of checks, it may panick by weird/unknown MBR or bootsector.

For multiple VLK/OEM/Retail versions this might be useful to you:

http://www.msfn.org/board/install-winxp-oe...mb-t140351.html

But do it once you get everything else working

Will try the 8.3 naming now, and see how that goes

EDIT: Nope, still the same error with 8.3 naming (WINSETUP\XPHOEM\), and I am using a regular NT MBR, with grldr renamed to ntldr

EDIT2: It seems to work fine on my pen drive (partition 1), so gonna try making two partitions on the pen drive, and see if that's the reason why, maybe it's not mounting the additional partitions on the USB HDD?

EDIT3: I found the problem. Originally I had this (because XP is installing fro mthe second partition)

[SetupData]
SetupSourcePath ="\WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\"
***
snip
***
SetupSourceDevice=\ArcName\multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)
BootPath="\WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\I386\"
BootDevice="multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)"

but that doesn't work, unlike this:

[SetupData]
SetupSourcePath ="\WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\"
***
snip
***
SetupSourceDevice=\ArcName\multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)
BootPath="\WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\I386\"
BootDevice="multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)"

Seems that the 200MB EFI partition is ignored from the MBR's partition ordering. Anyway, that booted, and started loading drivers, and when it got to the partition menu, I got a STOP 0xED UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_DEVICE error.

It's always the way, you fix one problem, and you get 3 more. Still to note, it works perfectly from my USB pen drive. I have the feeling I need to use the following code, as I thnik setup can see the EFi partition, while the boot process can't:

[SetupData]
SetupSourcePath ="\WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\"
***
snip
***
SetupSourceDevice=\ArcName\multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)
BootPath="\WIN_SETUP\XP_Home_OEM\I386\"
BootDevice="multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)"

EDIT4: Nope, the above did not work, still the STOP 0xED error

EDIT5: Ok, tested with my USB pendrive, running the XP install from partition 2 fails with either the STOP 0x7B or STOP 0xED for both my pendrive and USB HDD. My guess is that it's not mounting anything other than the first partition, maybe it needs to load a filter, like the dummydisk.sys driver in the MultiPartitionUSB files folder on WinSetupFormUSB? Would that be possible?

Edited December 26, 2009 by Rasengan

[jaclaz]

My guess is that it's not mounting anything other than the first partition, maybe it needs to load a filter, like the dummydisk.sys driver in the MultiPartitionUSB files folder on WinSetupFormUSB? Would that be possible?

Yes/No.

All that dummydisk.sys (or cfadisk.sys) does is "filtering" a "Removable" device to let it appear as "Fixed".

In other words, it would be the solution if you had success with the USB HD but failed with the USB stick as it does nothing more than "mask" the USB stick as if it were a USB HD.

Or, viceversa, if you succeed with the USB stick but fail with the USB hard disk you can rdummydisk to reverse the "masking".

But if both "Removable" and "Fixed" fail, the reason should be somewhere else.

jaclaz

[ilko_t]

Or said the other way around - dummydisk/cfadisk with removable disk might get you going from the second partition on USB stick, given it's formatted in acceptable by XP way, but this would not help in solving your problem with the USB hard disk, which should be something to do with the partitioning.

Last few days I've done numerous installs from 2nd and 4th partitions on USB hard disk using this method, all worked just fine. Having 4 primary partitions, regular NT5 bootsectors and grub4dos MBR, drive initially partitioned with XP Disk management.

If you write a few steps how to partition and format it in a similar like in your setup, I could join the game.

Idea- prepare the USB stick in the traditional way, attach the USB disk as well, boot setup from the USB stick, might need to play a bit with the proper ARC path or grub4dos mapping. How does setup display the USB hard disk on the partitioning screen? Which partitions are visible? What's the partition number displayed for each of them?

[Rasengan]

Or said the other way around - dummydisk/cfadisk with removable disk might get you going from the second partition on USB stick, given it's formatted in acceptable by XP way, but this would not help in solving your problem with the USB hard disk, which should be something to do with the partitioning.

Last few days I've done numerous installs from 2nd and 4th partitions on USB hard disk using this method, all worked just fine. Having 4 primary partitions, regular NT5 bootsectors and grub4dos MBR, drive initially partitioned with XP Disk management.

If you write a few steps how to partition and format it in a similar like in your setup, I could join the game.

Idea- prepare the USB stick in the traditional way, attach the USB disk as well, boot setup from the USB stick, might need to play a bit with the proper ARC path or grub4dos mapping. How does setup display the USB hard disk on the partitioning screen? Which partitions are visible? What's the partition number displayed for each of them?

To creat the GPT+MBR hybrid I'm using, I formatted the disk as a GPT disk with Mac OS X's Disk utility, but made 3 x FA32 Partitions (10GB, 5GB, 5GB) and 2 x HFS+ partitions (10GB each), and because of the fat32 parttitions, it creates an mbr as well.

Next, I reformatted the 3 FAt32 partitions to NTFS in Windows, then ran gptsync on the disk in Ubuntu to make sure the gpt and mbr were synced, then I ran WinSetupFromUSB.

As for your idea, I did that, and here's a (bad) pic of the results (NOTE that INSTALLER is the pen drive)