Booting from a D drive or C drive by copying winpe content in a OS installed machine

[raj.2k16]

Hi,

actually I have a win 7 OS installed machine. I want to boot from a D drive by copying the winpe bootable files into D drive without formatting the hard disk or disturbing the OS in the machine.

Is it possible to boot to the machine from the D drive?

Is there any settings I can specify in the BIOS settings. If I check the BIOS settings, there are options like boot from DVD drive, boot from USB disk, boot from the hard disk are available. How can we do this? please help if any solution is there for this

Need your help regarding this. appreciate your help in this.Thanks in advance.

[jaclaz]

Sure it is possible.

What do you mean with a "D drive"?

Like:
1) another hard disk like device (a USB stick or external disk drive, an internal one, etc.)
2) another partition/volume on the same hard disk that hosts the C: volume
3) another non-harddisk like device (CD/DVD, a card in a multi card reader, etc.)

Is it a BIOS or a EFI/UEFI machine? /since you are talking of 7 I assume that it is a BIOS one or that at least it has compatibility mode).

Normally you can change the priority of boot devices in BIOS, otherwise you will need a boot manager of some kind.

In most cases of a simple dual boot between Windows 7 and a PE you can add the option to boot the PE to the \boot\BCD of your existing BOOTMGR, though not necessarily it is the easiest or "best" choice and you may want to use instead a third party boot manager.

Describe your intended setup with some detail and surely we will find a suitable way.

jaclaz
 

[raj.2k16]

hi Jaclaz,

Thanks for your reply.

some more details, about my question is

second option mentioned by you ...another partition/volume on the same hard disk that hosts the C: volume.

I have a operating system running in the machine. I logged into the machine. can I copy the OS media content or winpe content to the D drive of the machine and next time if I boot from the same machine can I force machine to boot into the D drive which has the OS media content is copied so I can launch the OS setup without (or winpe content has some application to launch)

Is it possible?

can you please elaborate your solution.

Is the same solution is possible on a win 7 machine and also server machine which has the 2008 R2 OS installed?

I have a boot manager in the machine for workstations or I can change boot sequence in the BIOS.

[jaclaz]

The "best" in the sense of "less intrusive" way would be to use grub4dos in a "non installed" setup.

In a nutshell:

Get a recent grub4dos from here:
http://grub4dos.chenall.net/downloads/

You can get either latest of the 0.4.6a "branch":
http://grub4dos.chenall.net/downloads/grub4dos-0.4.6a-2016-08-06/

http://dl.grub4dos.chenall.net/grub4dos-0.4.6a-2016-08-06.7z

or of the 0.4.5c "branch":
http://grub4dos.chenall.net/downloads/grub4dos-0.4.5c-2016-01-18/

http://dl.grub4dos.chenall.net/grub4dos-0.4.5c-2016-01-18.7z

To be fair, the features used in this extremely simple setup are already present in older versions, so you can use one you may already have, but NOT if it is earlier than 0.4.4-26-10-2009.

Open the file with 7-zip and extract from it the file grldr (you won't need anything else) and copy it in the root of your C:\ drive.

Copy this:

[boot loader]
Timeout=10
default=c:\grldr
[operating systems]
c:\grldr="grub4dos"

and paste it in Notepad, saving the file as C:\boot.ini

Copy this:

timeout 30

title PE LiveISO
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /WinPE.ISO
map /WinPE.ISO (0xff) || map --mem /WinPE.ISO (0xff)
map --hook
chainloader (0xff)

title commandline
commandline

title reboot
reboot

title halt
halt

paste in Notepad and save as C:\menu.lst.

Take the Windows PE .iso you have (that I assume you have already tested and working as CD/DVD), rename it to WinPE .iso and copy it to the root of the D:\ drive.

When you reboot you should have an added option at boot time "grub4dos", choosing it should bring you to choices "PE LiveISO"/commandline/halt/reboot, and if you choose the "PE LiveISO" the PE should boot.

Of course this is the most basic setup possible, once you confirm it works for you as you wished it will be possible to modify/tweak it.

jaclaz

 

 

[raj.2k16]

Thanks Jaclaz

so I have to create two files in the C drive. and OS media has to be copied in the D drive or C drive.

One more question....When the machine boots next time can we boot automatically to the OS content copied in the D drive,  Is there any way we can automate selecting the added option at boot time "grub4dos"

we should not select option manually boot time  "grub4dos". can we avoid this?

[raj.2k16]

Jaclaz

if I have OS dvd and inserted in the DVD drive of the machine. If I boot from the machine, it will generally ask press any key to boot from the DVD.. is there any way we can skip answer to this and machine should boot automatically from the DVD available in the machine.. for example when I logged into the OS, I will create some script file and put in C drive and restart the machine. machine shud automatically boot to OS dvd present in the machine

[raj.2k16]

Hi Jaclaz,

I have tried the same mentioned by you...but it is not working.

what might be the problem...should we update BCDEDIT instead of boot.ini file. BCDEDIT has to be used to specify the boot order rite

suggest me if any mistake im doing.

[jaclaz]

1 hour ago, raj.2k16 said:

Thanks Jaclaz

so I have to create two files in the C drive. and OS media has to be copied in the D drive or C drive.

One more question....When the machine boots next time can we boot automatically to the OS content copied in the D drive,  Is there any way we can automate selecting the added option at boot time "grub4dos"

we should not select option manually boot time  "grub4dos". can we avoid this?

No, not without altering the boot sequence.

The proposed is a "side" boot (i.e. an alternative), set in such a way that it changes NOT anything in the MBR, the PBR or in the \boot\BCD store.

If you want *something else* you need to give "full control" to the alternative, this implies altering the normal way of booting, i.e. "installing" something or editing the \boot\BCD.

1 hour ago, raj.2k16 said:

Jaclaz

if I have OS dvd and inserted in the DVD drive of the machine. If I boot from the machine, it will generally ask press any key to boot from the DVD.. is there any way we can skip answer to this and machine should boot automatically from the DVD available in the machine.. for example when I logged into the OS, I will create some script file and put in C drive and restart the machine. machine shud automatically boot to OS dvd present in the machine

That is another thing.

A "normal" Windows NT boot CD/DVD (an install disc but also many PE discs) includes in its booting sequence a file called BOOTFIX.BIN.

It is a simple executable that checks whether on the machine there is a partitioned disk (I believe it also checks if there is an Active primary partition on it, but cannot swear about this).

The idea is that if you boot to CD/DVD and the machine has an internal disk that needs to be partitioned (a new, "blank" disc) the CD/DVD will continue booting without asking you anything, but, once you have installed the OS (and forgot the install CD/DVD in the drive AND did not change booting sequence in BIOS) the CD/DVD asks for confirmation and if you don't press the key within the timeout it will attempt to boot the internal disk.

jaclaz
 

[raj.2k16]

Hi Jaclaz,

I have tried the same mentioned by you...but it is not working.

I created boot.ini file and menu.lst in C drive also created grpldr file in root of C drive. when I boot the machine, In the boot menu it is not listing GRBDOS as option.

what might be the problem...should we update BCDEDIT instead of boot.ini file. BCDEDIT has to be used to specify the boot order rite

suggest me if any mistake im doing.

[jaclaz]

Well, it works for all the rest of the world, so it should work for you too.

But you have at least three typos in your post, if you have only one in BOOT.INI it won't be read/parsed correctly.

Re-check the contents of BOOT.INI, maybe there has been a copy/paste issue, I would not be surprised that this happens on the new board software (it may also depend on your browser) as it happened in the past, try copying and pasting from here:

http://reboot.pro/topic/19730-dmde-basic-disk-imaging-test-and-results/page-2
 

JFYI, BCDEDIT is a program to EDIT the BCD (what is edited is the \boot\BCD which is the configuration file:

http://reboot.pro/topic/20599-bcd-edit-and-bcd-stores/

http://www.mistyrebootfiles.altervista.org/documents/BCDEdit/index.html

jaclaz
 

[raj.2k16]

Jaclaz,

after i downloaded the grbldr file from the above links given, there is some docs folder available which has README_GRUB4DOS.txt file which has below information

"An NTFS volume can be GRUB-bootable. Copy grldr and an optional menu.lst to
the root dir of the NTFS volume, According to the first 7 to 10 grldr.dbr sector,
Create a boot sector. And then the NTFS volume is GRUB-bootable.

Update:    bootlace.com is a DOS/Linux utility that can install the GRLDR boot
record onto the leading 4 sectors of an NTFS volume."

but in the steps which u mentioned does not has grldr.dbr sector creation step. Is this step needed? if needed, how to create a boot sector.

I am trying on Win10 installed machine, copied win 10 OS media iso in D drive. copied grldr and menu.lst, boot.ini to the root of C drive...will this work for win 10 also rite?

but for me it is not working  :):)

i SAW A SECTION IN THE SAME README_GRUB4DOS.txt FILE should we follow something like below for win 7 or win10  OS installed machine

******************************************************************************
***                     GRUB4DOS and Windows Vista                         ***
******************************************************************************

First, use the following command to create a boot entry:

    bcdedit /create /d "GRUB for DOS" /application bootsector

The result will look like this:

The entry {05d33150-3fde-11dc-a457-00021cf82fb0} was successfully created.

The long string {05d33150-3fde-11dc-a457-00021cf82fb0} is the id for this
entry.

Then, use the following commands to set boot parameters:

    bcdedit /set {id} device boot
    bcdedit /set {id} path \grldr.mbr
    bcdedit /displayorder {id} /addlast

Please replace {id} with the actual id returned from the previous command.

Finally, copy GRLDR.MBR to C:\ or wherever your boot drive is, and copy GRLDR
and menu.lst to the root directory of any FAT16/FAT32/EXT2/NTFS partition.

Note: A boot partition should be the active primary partition with BOOTMGR
      inside. The `device boot' indicates grldr.mbr should be in the boot
      partition.
 

[jaclaz]

2 hours ago, raj.2k16 said:

I am trying on Win10 installed machine, copied win 10 OS media iso in D drive. copied grldr and menu.lst, boot.ini to the root of C drive...will this work for win 10 also rite?

but for me it is not working  :):)

 

WHY (the heck) are you trying it on a Widows 10 machine? (you asked about Windows 7 or 2008 R2)

Most probably (but really cannot say) Windows 10 BOOTMGR/BCD suffers of the same stupoidity illness as 8/8.1, and you need to enable bootmenupolicy legacy *like* here:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/enable-the-f8-key-in-windows-8/
 

jaclaz

 

[raj.2k16]

8 hours ago, jaclaz said:

Most probably (but really cannot say) Windows 10 BOOTMGR/BCD suffers of the same stupoidity illness as 8/8.1, and you need to enable bootmenupolicy legacy *like* here:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/enable-the-f8-key-in-windows-8/
 

jaclaz

Thanks for the suggestion.

My solution has to work on win7, win 2008  and win 10 machines also. I ll check this update result.

[raj.2k16]

Thanks Jaclaz. It is working fine.

one more thing, Is there any way instead of the local drive, can we put the winpe content in a network and boot from there?

[jaclaz]

Sure you can, configuring it won't be the easiest around but is doable.

You will need a PXE/iPXE server of course and a TFTP server (or need to use a http or iScsi or AoE setup).

Unlike the previous, which was a very simple way, PXE booting is complex however, and putting together a working configuration will take some time.

Consider how you greatly shifted the "object" from Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 (which is the same thing)  to include also Windows 10, and now you are shifting it from booting locally to network booting.

You'll have to decide WHAT you want to do and possibly make a "plan" about it.

Now, most machines natively using Windows 10 will be using EFI (and not BIOS) whilst - very likely - most machines running an upgrade to Windows 10 (from a pre-existing 7) are likely to be using BIOS (and not UEFI).

Grub4dos in itself relies on BIOS services and does not "talk" EFI/UEFI, you might need to switch to another bootmanager that is EFI/UEFI compatible, and besides this configuring the server side will be difficult/complex.

For a "normal" setup, booting a WinPE from network, you can use iPXE and Wimboot:

http://ipxe.org/start

http://ipxe.org/howto/chainloading
http://ipxe.org/howto/winpe

The TFTP server you will be using depends on the OS running on the server, very good ones (for Windows) are TFTP32 and TinyPxe but there are many more, freeware or Commercial.

jaclaz