problems with winsetupfromusb

[jaclaz]

Is there anywhere a walk-thru or FAQ or long form set of instructions that address 1.0 Beta 7 (or at least something similar)?

To the user (and expecially to the newbies) there is no "real" difference between the "stable 0.2.3" and the Beta 1.0 - 7 (the latter has a different internal mechaninsm and some added features) so the recommendation on first post:

....

Please read the included with the stable versions 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.

....

still stand.

You should get familiar with the "general idea" which is detailed in the mentioned docs, then the "transition" to 1.0-7 should be a snap...

jaclaz

[pwright2]

Many many communications issues here. All of you are to be commended for making this amazing piece of software and helping people who are trying to use it. But there are some things that could (I think) reduce your workload.

1. People who first encounter this software as 1.0 beta 7 and come here for help are quite likely to assume that version 0-2-3 is ancient history and inapplicable. It is easy to miss the reference to 0-2-3 as the stable version, and when you go to download it,. you have to scroll past a lot of 1 betas to find it.

2. The concept that the documentation is only available in the stable is ... bizarre. And the stable is an exe, which means I have to install it to get to the documents. At least make the documentation a separate download.

Ah, well. In the meantime I had made some progress. I started out misled by experience with other multboot programs which uses ISOs as their install basis. Finally figured out that WinSet wanted to work from the actual CDs.

Successfully created a USB with Win7 install and REAtoGo. Then tried to add the new MS System Sweeper. Ended up with two identical entries, each of which started the Win7 Install. I presume this means I need to figure out the second partition install, as if I was installing a second version of Win7?

Assuming that is true, is there a way to remove the non functional installation or should I start all over again?

Well, I'm off to read the instructions, hoping some things come clear.

-----Paul-----

[jaclaz]

You are perfectly right about the bizzarreness of having the docs only in the stable and as well about the fact that the info is not much highlighted (please read as NOT highlited at all).

As often happens the Beta should have led quickly to a "new stable", but we are still at Beta 7.

About the .exe I am not so sure.

I mean the idea of having a stable and an experimental beta should be that people should ONLY use stable at first attempt(s) and only later try the beta.

The MS system sweeper is nothing but a (dumbed down) WinPE 3.x, so, yes, it will "conflict" with *anything* BOOTMGR/BCD based.

See here:

http://reboot.pro/14487/

If you want multiple Vista or 7 based thigies, you may want to take another "path", see the above and:

https://sites.google.com/site/rmprepusb/sweeper

https://sites.google.com/site/rmprepusb/tutorials/multiisoimdiskautounattend

(and there are more similar on the RMPREPUSB site)

You need to take the whole thing in a "historical" view, the "Install Windows from USB" was once named "Install Windows XP from USB", that was (is) the tricky part.

Installing Windows 7 from USB is relatively easy, though finding a way to manage it through a .iso wasn't actually straightforward :

http://reboot.pro/9076/

but if you only use/have 7 and one or more PE's the pointed to approach is probably more suited to your needs.

BTW, another NOT highlighted piece of info on first post of the thread reads:

- Vista/Windows 7/Server 2008 setup to different primary partitions. Multiple Vista sources in the SAME partition are NOT supported. Place your second Vista/7/Server 2008 setup in another partition. It can be placed in any primary partition. If looking for several Vista/Server 2008/7 sources in the same partition have a look here or if just for 7 or Vista here. The first ling would require you manually to put everything to the USB disk, if using the second you can point the program to the prepared AOI source.

that also brings you to the RMPREPUSB site, though to an older approach.

Things are ever-changing and it is difficult to keep things together and in a "tidy and ordered state" ....

jaclaz

[pwright2]

Ummm ... "WOW! So many possibilities. Thank you. I need to go digest this.

-----Paul------

[pwright2]

Hi. I'm back. Been reading and trying things. Maybe you can sort out some of my failures (or even some of the successes).

What I would like to achieve is a stick that will boot: 1. Win7Pro; 2. MS System Sweeper; 3.WAREZ; 4: Spinrite; 5. NTPWDCHG; 6.REAtoGO.

If I could get it to also boot Kubuntu 11.04, that would be nice too, but not the prime goal.

By following the instructions that you linked to at https://sites.google.com/site/rmprepusb/tutorials/multiisoimdiskautounattend I have achieved 1 thru 5. (Well, there have been some modifications, which I will detail in a moment. And I am not sure that NTPWDCHG is fully functioning since I haven't tried it on an XP machine. But it is doing something.) But I am utterly unsuccessful with REAtoGO and it causes some effects I don't understand.

So I am going to detail what I have done. Perhaps you can point out something obvious. Below are the instructions at the bottom of the linked page, modified where it referred to previous instructions, plus my notes.

-------------------------

How to make a universal Windows ISO USB flash drive

The instructions below uses a similar method as in the tutorial above, but it prompts you to enter in the name of the ISO file that you want to load.

Once you set up your flash drive, just drop all your Windows Vista or later Windows install ISO files onto the Flash drive or any hard drive (in the \ISO folder) and you will be able to run any of them without needing to alter any menus at all! This will NOT work with XP ISOs! (Probably explains why REAtoGO doesn't work.)

Instructions

1. Download the file WINISO_IMDISK_32a.ZIP (new as of 2011-6-23 !!!) from the Beta Downloads - Tutorials section and extract the contents to a folder on your office system hard disk - say C:\WINDOWS_ISOS.

WINISO_IMDISK.ZIP contains:

\AutoUnattend.xml (must be in root of a REMOVABLE drive - i.e. a drive that appears as 'Devices with Removable Storage' and not under 'Hard Disk Drive' disk under Windows 7 Explorer)

\menu.lst (also must be in root of USB drive)

\ImDisk folder (folder located in root of USB drive)

2. Remove the first two menus in menu.lst as those are for the method above and not required here (optional). Actually, you replace the entire menu.lst with the one he provides.

3. Prepare the USB drive using RMPrepUSB (if you don't already have one - if you do then you need to have the grub4dos bootloader installed - RMPrepUSB can just add the grub4dos bootloader for you): (Copy grldr into the RMPrepUSB folder before running.)

Run RMPrepUSB

To wipe and format the USB drive (optional) - set the following options in RMPrepUSB:

1. MAX

2. (any volume name you like!)

3. WinPE v2/v3 (or DOS or FreeDOS or XP)

4. FAT32 or NTFS (or FAT16 but it has a 2GB limit) and also select the Boot as HDD option

5. Tick Copy OS Files box and set the Copy Folder to C:\WINDOWS_ISOS

6. Click Prepare Drive to format the drive and copy the files over

NOTE: Whether you already have an existing grub4dos USB drive or have just formatted one as detailed above, you need to install the latest version of grub4dos as follows:

4. Now click on Install grub4dos and choose for PBR (answer no to the first query and yes to the next) and hit Enter to copy across the grldr file. You need the correct grub4dos grldr file as this supports some newer grub4dos commands.

5. On the flash drive create a folder named \ISO.

6. In the \ISO folder, create a new file called marker.txt - it can be empty if you like but it must be there!

7. Add any Windows install ISO files you like to the same \ISO folder that contains the marker.txt file

-----------------------------------

I am using an 8GB SD card in an adapter which makes it into a thumbdrive. Perhaps important later.

My initial attempts used the thumbdrive formatted as FAT32. WAREZ and Win7Pro and Spinrite worked fine. Others, not so much. Several articles on System Sweeper said NTFS was necessary, so I tried that. It would boot partially and then crash. For whatever reason (late nights, things get hazy) I tried copying the files from the .iso into the boot folder of the thumbdrive. I had thought to delete the System_Sweeper iso but forgot to. So I booted the thing and selected the System Sweeper iso and it booted successfully. Then I tried REAtoGO and it failed, as usual. And I tried System_Sweeper again - and it wouldn't even try to boot. The baseline GRUB4DOS menu would come up and I would select INSTALL (vice BOOT or REPAIR) and it would show me the list of available isos but then it would say Error 15: File not found). Anyhow, the menu was non-functional. I unplugged the thumbdrive and replugged and the menu came up properly. And I tried REAtoGO again and again it failed. But now the GRUB4DOS menu would not come up. I would get a 2 on the screen and nothing else.

In my readings I had noted people complaining about programs that would boot a few times but then stop and postulating that something was being written back to the thumbdrive. One of the neat things about an SD card is that it has a write protect switch. So I recreated my thumbdrive, including the System_Sweeper files. And then I added the REAtoGO files, thinking this might work also. Then I switched the SD card to write protect and booted it. I've tested it several times. I can continually boot System_Sweeper or any of the others.

REAtoGO, however, still fails.

My assumption is that System_Sweeper begins its boot using the iso file and then something happens and it goes looking for the regular files. And now they are there and it continues to boot.

When I call up REAtoGo, it begins the boot process. Commands scroll up the screen faster than I can read them. Then the screen blanks and then writes begin and then stop. The final screen reads:

(hd0,0)

chainloader (0xff)

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

Press any key to continue .l..

When a key is pressed you get the GRUB4DOS menu and choosing INSTALL gets you the list of isos and then

Error 15: File not found.

Press any key to continue ...

And so, here I stand. Any ideas on getting REAtoGO to work?

BTW, I have tried the Kubuntu iso. It gets started booting and then reports that

initramfs unable to find a medium containing a live file system

I suspect this means it has realized that it is trying to read from NTFS and doesn't know how.

I wonder how many more times I can reformat this SD card and still have it work?

-----Paul-----

Edited June 26, 2011 by jaclaz
Removed WAREZ names

[jaclaz]

No WAREZ support of ANY kind on this board.

System Sweeper, see this:

http://reboot.pro/14487/

Reatogo, you will need to use a RAMDISK approach, like with ANY other PE 1.x.

Most probably you can work your way starting from here:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=24100

More generally you will need some time on the 911CD board and on the boot-land reboot.pro board, expecially in the grub4dos section:

http://reboot.pro/forum/66/

I wonder how many more times I can reformat this SD card and still have it work?

As long as the sum of the times you format the thingy summed to the number of writes the OS does in use does not exceed the expected Write cycles of the SD card, that is at least 100,000.

I would'n be worried by the formatting.

jaclaz

Edited June 26, 2011 by jaclaz

[pwright2]

Interesting. Didn't realize it was a warez. Is there a list? Just looked like a useful collection of utilities.

Anyhow, on further examination, that one appears to boot but most of its functions fail on activation.

Anyhow, I'll follow your links and see what I learn. Thanks.

------Paul------