WinNTSetup v5.4.1

[JFX]

If you use NTFS, there properly no option unless this UEFI supports NTFS.

[click-click]

Is formatting with FAT32 the only solution to make a singe USB flash support booting with pure uefi systems and with legacy BIOS systems?

Edited December 4, 2023 by click-click

[dimo70]

Why not make dualboot flash? See DBF by Ander_73...

[click-click]

I tried to install windows on a usb fat32 partition with Wintsetup and it says installation drive invalid!

Please choose a NTFS drive. Is this not supposed to work?

[JFX]

You should format the boot partition with FAT32, not the entire disk.

create a small let's say 500 MB FAT32 partition for the boot files and use the remaining space as you want

[dimo70]

and better dualpart flash fat32/ntfs

[sakatgg]

For Server 2019 need to save 3 files in WinSxS

amd64_microsoft-windows-d..erservice.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.17763.1_en-us_f14aa26a2ff699b7\dfssvc.exe.mui
amd64_microsoft-windows-d..erservice.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.17763.1_ru-ru_3a6bba1e80fb955e\dfssvc.exe.mui
amd64_microsoft-windows-d..erservice.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.17763.1_ru-ru_7226aa566821f809\DeviceSetupManager.dll.mui

In WinSxS.ini it is written like this

\Windows\WinSxS\%ARCH%_microsoft-windows-d..erservice.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.17763.*_%LANG%_*
\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..erservice.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.17763.1_en-us_*

This file is not saved during deployment

amd64_microsoft-windows-d..erservice.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.17763.1_ru-ru_3a6bba1e80fb955e\dfssvc.exe.mui

How to solve a problem? Thank you

Edited December 6, 2023 by sakatgg

[JFX]

Yeah, this is a problem with obsolet version removal.

This filter

\Windows\WinSxS\%ARCH%_microsoft-windows-d..erservice.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.17763.*_%LANG%_*

matches both, so only one remains.

For now you could solve it with 2 filters:

\Windows\WinSxS\%ARCH%_microsoft-windows-d..erservice.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.17763.*_%LANG%_3a6bba1e80fb955e*
\Windows\WinSxS\%ARCH%_microsoft-windows-d..erservice.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.17763.*_%LANG%_7226aa566821f809*

 

[sakatgg]

Ok , thanks

Another question, Compact LZX compression does not work on Server 2019, is this how it was designed from the start? Is it possible to enable Compact LZX compression on Server 2019?

Edited December 6, 2023 by sakatgg

[click-click]

9 hours ago, JFX said:

You should format the boot partition with FAT32, not the entire disk.

create a small let's say 500 MB FAT32 partition for the boot files and use the remaining space as you want

If I do that and and try to create another partition, Windows will only recognize the first partition because it sees the flash as a removable disk. Is there a way arround this?

Edit: I found a way to create the 2nd partition with a drive letter on W10, but on Win8 the 2nd partition is not recognized, only the first. Still testing though. If I put a vhd on the other partition, Winntsetup is unable to mount it

Edited December 6, 2023 by click-click

[JFX]

2 hours ago, sakatgg said:

Another question, Compact LZX compression does not work on Server 2019, is this how it was designed from the start? Is it possible to enable Compact LZX compression on Server 2019?

Hmm, WimBoot wasn't supported by Server version, so I skipped the the apply modes.
But it seems that Compact mode works. I'll check more Server version and remove this restriction in next version.

 

1 hour ago, click-click said:

If I do that and and try to create another partition, Windows will only recognize the first partition because it sees the flash as a removable disk. Is there a way arround this?

Good, question with Win10/11 this is no longer a problem.
You can try with bootice, it can partition the flash drive with multiple partitions.
It allows you to assign a drive letter to only 1 partition at the time.

Not sure how WinNTSetup's drive letter assignment will behave in this case 
Will have to check this out ...

[click-click]

17 hours ago, JFX said:

Good, question with Win10/11 this is no longer a problem.
You can try with bootice, it can partition the flash drive with multiple partitions.
It allows you to assign a drive letter to only 1 partition at the time.

Not sure how WinNTSetup's drive letter assignment will behave in this case 
Will have to check this out ...

The fat32 solution works fine for booting in UEFI mode with the vhd on the 2nd partition. The problem now,  is that BIOS mode boot ends up with a blinking cursor because it can't find the vhd on the 2nd partition. If I use Bootice to make the 2nd partition accessible, my bootmanager (BIBM) will see it and I can boot the vhd in BIOS mode. Making the 2nd partition accessible with bootice doesn't have any affect on a native boot which reverts to using the fat32 partition and only seems to support UEFI mode when using 2 partitions (Fat/ntfs) on a USB flash. A fix for the blinking cursor and still have everything work would be the icing on the cake.

BTW, using my setup above, WinNtsetup got an error trying to mount the vhd from the 2nd partition when I specify the first partition as the boot drive. I had to manually mount it as the install drive with diskpart so setup could copy the boot files and create the correct BCDs. Seems to be okay now after a few other attach attempts.

Another thing I noticed is that even though  UEFI boot  boots the vhd from the NTFS partition, it can't find any BCD when running BCDEdit . Both partitions were updated with the required  boot files and BCDs via WinNTSetup. In BIOS boot (legacy) mode the BCD is found.

Edited December 7, 2023 by click-click

[sakatgg]

The output size of VHD from Server 2019 with Compact LZX enabled and without compression is the same, on other versions of Win the sizes are reduced with compression

Edited December 7, 2023 by sakatgg

[Antonino]

a question for whomever may answer:

I have the nv_... subfolder which sits in d:\ and is junctioned back in c:\windows\system32\driverstore\filerepository and changes its name every nvidia update (practically once a month or so). the name nv_... gets changed by nvidia install, there is no telling in advance which name it will be given. In order to install the update, nvidia dictates that the free space on c.\ be around 1,70gb, or else I cannot bring the install to a completion ("not enough space" is what I get by right clicking on the nvidia driver in the device manager, actually where I have asked for the update). the junction is apparently not seen, so I might as well have the world of space on d:\ (the real final destination of the nv_... subfolder), but the install will still not complete unless I leave a gb1.70-something space on c.\. as a result of this I am left with a 3.50gb vhd, which filediskboots ok but will not ramdiskboot, unless I reduce the vhd to a 2.50gb size. unless any of u has an effective suggestion, the whole nvidia-updating scenario is such that I have to bulge the vhd to a 3.50gb size, get the driver installed and shrink the vhd back to a minimum of 2.50gb if I wanna ramboot it. of course no issue if I filediskboot.  

I would never have seen the problem if nvidia had let me install its repo (nv_...) driver on a disk other than c:\. any solution or workaround?

Edited December 7, 2023 by Antonino

[Antonino]

sorry, I really do not know what the problem might be, now I am typing from a fresh 15gb which has rambooted ok, so I believe it must be something to do with the vhd reducing process. have I deleted the wrong file? if so, what is the wrong file. could it be some math against the geometry of the vhd that I am not aware of?