WinNTSetup v5.3.4

[click-click]

I just did a test using Wimlib and Wimgapi to apply an image and was surprised that Wimlib took 5 minutes longer to finish than Wimgapi. I thought Wimlib was the better choice. Any idea why it's slower?

 

Edited August 15, 2023 by click-click

[JFX]

Wimlib is only faster for capture. For apply there actually more or less equal.
Just wimgapi can use more than 1 CPU core, so it can speed up quite a bit.

[dimo70]

JFX, hi!

I have some problems since start using winntsetup, but i cant understand why. I usually make on virtual machine Hyper-v Windows with programs, and then i compress VHD to wim. Then i use diskpart scripts to prepare disk.

Then when start installing with WinNTSetup such wim file, after the first restart,  system cant boot. Says "there is no boot device". All 3 green lights in utility appear and everithing go on normaly.

After repairing boot with tools like bootice, or other ways, everything start to works fine. And strange thing is, that in some cases everything work fine and this problem missing at all. What can be the reason and how to fix?

Edited August 18, 2023 by dimo70

[JFX]

That sounds like a problem with the MBR of the boot disk.

By default WinNTSetup uses bootsect to update the boot sectors.

bootsect.exe /nt60 S: /mbr

 

The first 2 green lights are only using simple checks, there is no way to tell if the code is actually bootable.

To limit the problem, it depends on what repair you do with bootice.

[dimo70]

19 hours ago, JFX said:

To limit the problem, it depends on what repair you do with bootice.

maybe use bcdboot command will solve the problem?

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by dimo70

[JFX]

Just guessing will not help much. WinNTSetup already uses these 2 commands.

bcdboot.exe W:\Windows /s S: /f ALL
bootsect.exe /nt60 S: /mbr

Were W: is the Windows installation drive and S: is the selected boot partition.

Only difference I see is the missing /force switch on bootsect command.
But this is done on purpose, also diskpart does write bootable MBR and PBR.

If you encounter the problem again try 1 of these command from a WinPE,
to find out witch one makes a bootable again.

[dimo70]

1 hour ago, JFX said:

Just guessing will not help much. WinNTSetup already uses these 2 commands.

bcdboot.exe W:\Windows /s S: /f ALL
bootsect.exe /nt60 S: /mbr

Were W: is the Windows installation drive and S: is the selected boot partition.

Only difference I see is the missing /force switch on bootsect command.
But this is done on purpose, also diskpart does write bootable MBR and PBR.

If you encounter the problem again try 1 of these command from a WinPE,
to find out witch one makes a bootable again.

Thanks JFX. I do so.

[click-click]

What's the command line option to create a VHDX? I only see VHD-CREATE in the help. The GUI lets you create either one. Is it just a matter of specifying the filename with an extension of .vhdx?

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by click-click

[JFX]

Yes, simple use a filename with .vhdx extension and it will create a VHDX file. 

[click-click]

After creating a vhdx for w10 LTSB, I keep getting  an error about the paging environment and can't get rid of it. It's been a while since I used a VHD. I don't remember having this problem previously. I created the vhd without a page file for testing since I have 16GB memory. Any idea what's causing this?

Edited August 23, 2023 by click-click

[click-click]

Sorry, user error. I set nopaging via the WinNTSetup ini file, but somewhere along the line my install  applied the following reg  that I use for HDD installs and that ended up confusing the system. Even changing it back to no paging via the GUI did not help. Had to redo the vhd without using that reg file.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
	; Generated by Total Uninstall
	; Change Page size 512MB 1536MB
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Mana"PagingFiles"=hex(7):63,00,3A,00,5C,00,70,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,66,00,69,00,6C,\
  00,65,00,2E,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,20,00,35,00,31,00,32,00,20,00,31,00,35,00,\
  33,00,36,00,00,00,00,00 

Edited August 23, 2023 by click-click

[dimo70]

JFX, hi! Seems I understand why sometimes after first restart dont boot. This happens usually on older notebooks. Boot menu is setup to legacy, but in the system partition WinNTSetup makes EFI partition, I dont know why.  

What can be the rison? On Newest notebooks there is no such problem.

In fact is there a way to pick up boot type in winntsetup?

Edited August 25, 2023 by dimo70

[JFX]

Hi dimo70,

if the selected boot partition is GPT, WinNTSetup automatically switch to UEFI only for bcdboot.exe.
unless BCD option is set by ini or command line. This was requested years ago and actually makes sense.

But if you use legacy boot with a GPT hybrid MBR, this causes promlems.
Makes sure you set BCD option to "ALL".

[dimo70]

JFX, Thank You! This is exactly my fault. I was set UEFI here. 

HTHelper Fixed - Updated

Edited September 5, 2023 by dimo70

[click-click]

I see that WinNTSetup allows you to create a diff VHD, but I'm not sure how it is used and what needs to be included when doing  a backup. If I have a VHD that boots via the BCD how does the diff come into play? Currently if I boot the VHD and install updates etc. I end up having to  back up the entire VHD. Doing a differential backup of the the VHD would hopefully save me from doing a full backup every time and save some time, but I don't know what steps are needed to do this.

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by click-click