ramloading Windows 10 vhd-core

i did copy what I shot, but how do i paste it in here?

Via More Reply Options you can Attach Files ....

 it gives me a url to fill in

After you click on More Reply Options you should get the second picture.

Below Attach Files you can Select and Attach Sreenshot File and then Add to Post

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Or don't you have these More Reply Options ?

i do not have the attach file when I click on the options, i would send u all by email

What windows calls my c: drive has no room, it is only a vhd file hosted on what windows calls D:. Is this why winntsetup insists on failing the install process?

Has D: drive NTFS FileSystem and is it a primary partition ? Then it can work. 

If you do not have 10 GB of free space on your C: drive then it is time to make free space. 

In x64 OS you must use WinNTSetup_x64.exe (architectures must correspond).

How is your machine booting ? UEFI or BIOS mode ? What and where is your BOOT Drive ?

What type of partitioning has your harddisk ? GPT Or MBR ?

Did you use fresh install.wim from TechBench ?

At what step of WinNTSetup Pre-Installation or stage of Win10 x64 Install do you get Error ? And what is exactly the Error that you get ?

D: drive has NTFS FileSystem and it is a primary partition. Then it should work. 

I do not have 10 GB of free space on my C: drive, so I will expand my vhd to, say, 15gigs, or rather, make it 20gb.  

In x64 OS I always use WinNTSetup_x64.exe (so architectures do correspond).

My machine is booting in BIOS mode. My boot drive (d:\ for windows) is the host of the vhd (c.\ for windows), which is on the root of the drive. I do not have gpts, I only have mbrs.

I Did use a fresh install.wim from TechBench.

I get the error as soon as I click the start operation button. it stops right at the start by saying that it has suddenly stopped. It leaves all the disks chosen intact, though - it crashes but does not screw up the rest, at least.

OK I understand.

Did you use WinNTSetup to Create fresh empty VHD of 5 GB, which will be auto mounted as drive Y: ?

Of course the VHD should NOT be created inside your VHD drive C: but rather should be Created by WinNTSetup in Drive D:

And also your fresh install.wim must be located on Drive D: which is a NTFS primary partition of your local harddisk.

And how about the 4 control signs: are they all green ?

Are you booting in BIOS mode with Windows Boot Manager Menu Or with Grub4dos Menu ?

Of course it should be Windows Boot Manager.

I used WinNTSetup to Create fresh empty VHD of 27 GB, which was auto mounted as drive Y: .

Of course the VHD was NOT created inside my VHD drive C: but was rather Created by WinNTSetup in Drive D:

And also my fresh install.wim was located on Drive D: which is the only primary partition (NTFS) of my local harddisk.

The 4 control signs: are all green.

OK I understand.

Are you booting in BIOS mode with Windows Boot Manager Menu Or with Grub4dos Menu ?

Of course it should be Windows Boot Manager for Install of Win10 x64 in new fresh created VHD.

For booting as WIMBOOT VHD then Size of 5 GB is advised and is sufficient.

booting in bios mode with bootmgr.

As for 27gb, I did not, the software did. I thought of reducing its size later with vhd resizer.

do you think it crashes because of this?

nino

I think the 27 GB is no problem.

As far as I can see everything is OK and I do NOT understand why WinNTSetup fails in your case ....

What occurs when:

Open with R-mouse Admin Command Window

Type command:

dism /?

I just want to check if dism is working OK for you in your "special" VHD

when I type what u suggested I type,

the response is

Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tool,

Version 10.0.16299.15

followed by a sort of tutorial as to the proper syntax

btw, I also have dism++ as software

do u think anything could be alternatively done thru that?

Thanks for testing.

Everything seems OK. So  I am sorry but there is no solution yet ....

Ok, nice try, but can you identify the final file and folder structure that we would have obtained at the end if the experiment had been successful? if so, i am willing to reproduce it manually or with junctions and give it a go, even if it takes a little longer. the procedures can be memorized and it would not take that long in the long run.

I have ran WinNTSetup from any WinPE so it means it can run from a very basical OS.

Anyway I will suggest you to delete all done for this test and have a fresh start, when you decompress WinNTSetup on a folder and run WinNTSetup_x64.exe for the first time, it ask you to download some files and folders, you must do it before anything else. Then after this follow wimb instructions.

What I usually do is make an standard install on a VHD, never connect to internet, install all software required/I want, and then from a WinPE or another OS, load and capture as Wimboot (express 4k) with wimlib-clc as a new *.wim with all required inside it, and then use this as source for a new wimboot install on a new VHD, this way you get better results, as the less you add to your wimboot OS on VHD, the less it grow up.

if you still have problems, something is wrong with your OS.

Because since you are not runing WinNTSetup from an stardard PE or OS (full install or a Compact or Wimboot install on HD or VHD), and what you are running is basically a highly modified OS install, it is very dificult for any one to try to help you, as nobody else have an OS modified same way as yours to reproduce the issues and find the cause. This is a frequent trouble when people start chopping the OS, something will fail, but you will not see it until you need it.

I have modified my install ISO of Win10 1709 (see here) but usually only removing apps and adding directX 9c (not removing anything critical from OS), I used MSMG ToolKit v8.8 and all working fine so far (not good for 1803 and following), modifing version 1809  is not free of troubles.

Anyway if you want to know what this wimboot mode capture or install does see a file located on your OS on C:\Windows\System32\WimBootCompress.ini, this are the instructions to WinNTSetup, Dism or wimlib-clc for a wimboot capture and install.

Remember the source .wim file is also required as all not decompressed files and folders on the VHD are only hard links (reparse points) pointers to file within the *.wim file

For deeper info on wimboot see this old (but very informative) thread: http://reboot.pro/to...e-boot-wimboot/

alacran

What I usually do is make an standard install on a VHD, never connect to internet, install all software required/I want, and then from a WinPE or another OS, load and capture as Wimboot (express 4k) with wimlib-clc as a new *.wim with all required inside it, and then use this as source for a new wimboot install on a new VHD, this way you get better results, as the less you add to your wimboot OS on VHD, the less it grow up.

 

Thank you alacran    I followed your advise and have obtained again a nice reduction in size of the C: drive which is now less than 600 MB

The VHD of Size 2 GB is loaded into RAM in 20 seconds and then Win10 x64 is booting in 10 seconds from RAMDISK.

When you use the CAPTURED WIM file for next install, then everything like drivers, settings and added programs is already OK. 

Thanks to wimlib of synchronicity (More Info: here) combined with  wimlib-clc of ReTokener

The CAPTURE of mounted VHD drive K:\ as file instw3.wim saves a lot of time for next Install and there is quite a reduction in Size of the C: drive.

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Inspection of the VHD in 7-zip shows a lot about which files have non zero packed size in the VHD (and are probably important for booting) and what Hardlinks do occur.

@Alacran and Wimb, 

thank u ever so much for your patience and consideration.

I really would like to try, at least to compare my system as it is to the wimboot alternative u suggest, both in terms of space occupied and in terms of time (speed).

A few caveats, though, want specifying, I guess.

I have my system run entirely as bare metal vhd. I do not have any regular os install on any disk. I have no pagefile.sys, no hiberfile.sys, no swapfile.sys. in the wincompress.ini file u told me to go look, I see these files mentioned (probably an instruction not to compress them). is this were winntsetup might hang (at not finding these files anywhere)? I just wonder because we were looking for a reason for failure last night.

As regards the post installation of the rest of the applications I have, will it not affect the size of the wimboot? In a post u advised that I peruse, I noticed some instruction of the type "do not install many applications lest the wimboot should get bigger and bigger".

Talking about installations of other applications, believe me, with windows 10, I hardly ever install anything. everything has been working for years from the state it has always been in even from previous os'es!

Now supposing I get to succeed in installing winntsetup, i will keep the wim file always "attached" to it, right? I guess so. But, what price now the other software whose data is now in d:\program files, d:\program files (x86), d:\program data (totaling about 9gb) and d:\users\antonino\appdata (6.5gb) and probably some registry files scattered here and there in d:\users which I do not know to what extent can be overlooked? the data that allow me not to (or better still suggest that I should not) reinstall are located right in these folders. this is how I keep my data across installations. 

The failure of WinNTSetup in your case is certainly not because of missing hiberfile.sys or pagefile.sys.

Just like you I do not have these files, but I have no problem with WinNTSetup.

I think what you need is a properly fresh installed Win10 x64 operating system.

You might add a 250 GB SSD to your system and

then boot with USB-Stick made with Media Creation Tool for fresh Install of Win10 x64 on this SSD.

The advantage would be that you also still can use your old modified core VHD by selecting it in Boot Manager menu.

If you have a lot of free space on your drive D: then you might consider instead of adding a SSD 

to boot with Win10XPE and use WinNTSetup for a fresh install of Win10 x64 in 25 GB VHDX.

Thanks again, wimb. 

Among the many alternatives I have before my eyes, would a 64gb flash drive do? if so, tell me what I should already have on this flash drive to make the install independent of what I have on onboard mass storage in order to not mess with it. if I can copy d:\program files, d:\program files (x86), d:\programdata and d:\users\antonino\appdata and small stuff from d:\users as well into this usb in order to act as if I had only this, so much the better. or should I alternatively try the vhdx option on the existing d:\ drive and leave all as it is?

nino

On wimlib-clc it is easier and it applies automatically the wimboot flag to captured *.wim image with an express 4k compression just by selecting wimboot option like in attached picture (no need to select compress option), I suggest to activate Tool Tips on Options Main Menu to get more info of all features and its options.

Also you can use same wimboot option on Apply, Extract/Verify and Export/Optimize Tabs, doing so wimlib-clc always will use Express 4k compression and apply wimboot flag if required.

alacran

Thanks again, wimb. 

Among the many alternatives I have before my eyes, would a 64gb flash drive do? if so, tell me what I should already have on this flash drive to make the install independent of what I have on onboard mass storage in order to not mess with it. if I can copy d:\program files, d:\program files (x86), d:\programdata and d:\users\antonino\appdata and small stuff from d:\users as well into this usb in order to act as if I had only this, so much the better. or should I alternatively try the vhdx option on the existing d:\ drive and leave all as it is?

nino

A 64 GB flash drive is to slow, you need SSD.

But the best is that you first try the fresh install intoVHDX option on your existing D:\ drive and  that you leave all existing stuff as it is.

On wimlib-clc it is easier and it applies automatically the wimboot flag to captured *.wim image with an express 4k compression just by selecting wimboot option like in attached picture (no need to select compress option), I suggest to activate Tool Tips on Options Main Menu to get more info of all features and its options.

 

When I use wimboot option in wimlib-clc then I get a WARNING for Unrecognized Section in file WimBootCompress.ini

[PinningFolderList]
\Windows\System32\config
\Windows\System32\DriverStore
\Windows\WinSxS

Is it possible to modify an existing instw3.wim ? The program winlib-clc always wants to overwrite everything.

I tried to use APPEND but that fails with ERROR Message

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Anyway I am quite happy with the normal CAPTURE and with my 8 threads it is quite fast to create new wim file.

Instead of using WiNTSetup I have used also APPLY option where Selected Target Image Path is the mounted VHD after using Format button.

A 64 GB flash drive is to slow, you need SSD.
But the best is that you first try the fresh install intoVHDX option on your existing D:\ drive and  that you leave all existing stuff as it is.