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USB Multi WIM Setup


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You might want to consider your future plans for vista before tackling this project to get it all in one thing. Any time something comes up and we say "do we need to do this for Vista too?" It all comes down to whether or not the amount of time spent is worth the effort. In my company, we've basically written off Vista right when Windows 7 came out, so no one here will develop any sort of solution for Vista anymore, unless it happens to pertain to Server 2008 which is also going away pretty quick. So if you find that you are in a position to make any kind of solutions for Vista, you may want to consider creating a Key that just does Vista and keep the stuff used more often separate.

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Hi,

I found this post some days ago and it seems like a total different way of having the option to choose from mutiple OS installations. Most guides I've found use the imagex and export wim files into one big wim. This is not usable for me, as I try to put both different types (x86 and x64) and different languages on my USB.

I'm new to all this Windows 7 customization, so my questions reflects that. I hope you can guide me in the right direction. What I did try was to put 1 wim file and 1 answer file on the same (usb-)disk after I had followed the instructions given. I was able to boot into the installation startup, but was told that I needed a driver to install. So I didn't get any further.

1. How can I get to the part where I can start the run.cmd and choose the image file?

2. I probably lack the prior knowledge as to how I can use only wim and answer files to install from.Why are all the files within the source folder from the DVD not needed in this setup?

3. You write that to be able to install either x86 or x64 we must have PE x64 AND x86. Where do I put these or is this setup meant to be started from something else (like an installation DVD)?

(I feel like a genuine rookie here)

Edited by joeb
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Well, it's like it is written in the guide

1. You don't start run.cmd, in fact there is no run.cmd, not until you start USBMultiWimSetup.cmd. That's what you should be doing. To do that you boot into PE - the boot.wim from your installation media (you must put it on your USB drive as described in the guide). When PE boots and the welcome screen is shown you press Shift+F10 to start cmd window. Then you go to the root of the drive where your wims and xmls are and where your USBMultiWimSetup.cmd should be. If you're not used to cmd interface you can just type notepad there, then in notepad window press Ctrl+O to go to open file dialog - that will present you with an explorer-like window and you will be able to browse your disks just like you would in normal windows. And don't forget to enter "*.*" into filename field to be able to see all the files and not only the .txt ones. So you go to the right directory and right-click the USBMultiWimSetup.cmd and click run as administrator (or whatever, I don't remember atm) so it starts executing and not opens in notepad. And you're done.

Or you can avoid all this procedure by integrating files from the archive into your boot.wim like described in the guide - Step 1.a. That way you will see the scripts menu immediately after PE boot. You will just have to Alt+Tab to it.

It's all there in the guide, really. I thought I've put all the necessary info there, but I might be wrong...

2. All the files in the sources folder are used only when you start installation from Windows (like upgrading from XP or Vista or 7...). When you start installation booting from DVD (or USB in our case) PE boots and all the same files located inside the PE image are used. That's it.

3. You put your PE wims on the boot disk, USB in your case. You can put them in any folder you like just change the BCD store accordingly. In my guide I use sources folder because it's the standard folder so you don't have to change anything in the BCD. You could put them in, say, "PE" folder and name the wims "pex86.wim" and "pex64.wim" and change the BCD to reflect that. If you don't want to mess with BCD just take the pe wim you need and put it in sources folder, like described in the guide.

It's all really simple, you just have to do it right once and you will see that. If the above doesn't answer your questions ask more. We will sort this out, I assure you.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I figured this would be the best way of getting the correct information on the query.

I have managed to get a working MultiWim USB drive but I am having issues with getting my custom Wim's to install from the drive. The install wim file from the source DVD works fine and runs through with no problems. As soon as I launch a custom wim installation I get:

Windows cannot open the required file E:\7-32\custom.wim. Make sure all source files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x8007000B

I have made some slight changes to the structure of the Multiboot drive. I have 6 different boot wims referenced from a modified bcd store. The base files for the boot folder are from a Windows 7 Professional SP1 64Bit DVD. The reason for the modification to the drive structure is to accomodate the number of different OS's I manage.

I have a boot.wim for each version of Windows (7, 8 and 10) and each architecture (32bit and 64bit)

My boot folder looks like this:

7-32.wim

7-64.wim

8-32.wim

8-64.wim

etc..

These all work perfectly for the default install.wim

Each OS's install wims are located in seperate folders based on their respective architecture and OS

7-32, 7-64, 8-32 etc..

I modified the StartSetup.cmd to look for these files before placing it in the boot.wim. This allows me to have the correct installation environment running for the version of windows I am running. The error is only displayed after trying to install a custom wim.

Does any one have any ideas what might be causing this problem and how I might be able to fix it?
 

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