191 replies to this topic

[Wonko the Sane]

I forgot to mention that on the X17 ISOs which seem to cause the trouble, even the Official MS USB preparation tool says that the X17 ISOs are not valid Windows ISOs!

 

The thing is that it is there as a virtual drive created with the correct files. It has been loaded correctly and I can see \sources folder and Install.wim, etc. but Setup just doesn't see it!

What I seem to read between the lines of the linked post by the good BSD guys:

http://forums.freebs...ead.php?t=33680

 

seems *like* the UDF filesystem *somehow* is a "hard disk device" filesystem (possibly some kind of "hybrid DVD").

 

Such things may "confuse" different tools, as an example I seem to remember that if you try opening a "same", "normal" (but "hybrid") .iso with 7zip or with winimage or with IMDISK, the MBR or the bootsector of the .iso will prevail:

http://reboot.pro/to...-fat-partition/

 

 

Additionally it may *somehow* "trigger" a behaviour (bug) of the driver(s), connected with the "type" of disk, something *like* what was found here (or something like "fixed" vs. "removable"):

http://reboot.pro/to...loppy-geometry/

 

Wonko

[MedEvil]

All the official DVD / ISO from M$ have UDF file system. If setup.exe would have trouble with this kind of filesystem, we would surely know.

A broken download is much, much more likely the reason.
Seeing the files (the index) does not neccessary mean the files are truely there. So such a "test" says nothing.

[steve6375]

After a long TeamViewer session  with Fabrizio, he has two issues.

 

1. During execution of LOADISO.cmd he gets a DRV1 access error (Retry/Continue/Cancel) - if he clicks on Continue then it proceeds as normal to the Repair Y/N question and then goes on to display the Win 7 SKUs etc as normal.

2. At the end of the Win 7 file copy stage (just before reboot) it stops with a 'E:\Unattend.xml is invalid' message.

 

Both symptoms are apparently reproducible on an HP laptop, an Acer laptop and a PC.

I had thought that perhaps an empty card reader was responsible for the first error.

 

For the second error, when the AutoUnattend.xml on the flash drive was examined, it was completely empty! However, it cannot have been empty when the ISO booted or else LOADISO.cmd would never have run! Weird!

[halikus]

Im trying to think outside the box here, but the only logical explanation (besides his house being on an Indian burial ground) is that he has another autounattend.xml on another drive that was written to, or the USB has write protection.  It could be an HDD, a CD, perhaps a second (and hidden) partition on his USB, or else in the OEM recovery partition (also hidden).  I opt for the last suggestion, the hidden recovery partition, as grub4dos could probably access it and also be found first (fixed) in order before the removable USB.  It would also make sense Windows would "lock you out" of that partition.  If that is the case, its bad news for E2B and  Fabrizio should fix his recovery partition xml.

 

Otherwise, real effing weird.

[steve6375]

I have reproduced the problem!!!  I used Easy2Boot BETA27v2 on a FAT32 USB Flash drive (same Win7-32 ISO I always use).

The install goes fine until the very end of Win7 install after Copying Windows files, Installing features, Installing updates, Completing installation and restarts

Then on next boot (still on completing installation..) after several minutes, I get the 'invalid unattend.xml' error. Presumably it would be OK if the USB drive was removed when it restarted?

At this point \AutoUnattend.xml is correct and \unattend.xml is empty (just spaces) - which is expected.

I just tested with no \unattend.xml file in the root of the flash drive and it has worked.

I will test with an \unattend.xml which just has empty <> sections now.

 

Having \unattend.xml on the root is new and I introduced it for XP installs using WinPE in BETA21 - maybe it has broken Win7/8 installs? Previously, it had the same contents as the \AutoUnattend.xml, but I found that LOADISO.cmd ran twice so I filled it with spaces to prevent LOADISO running twice.

[steve6375]

Good news.  I found the answer and its the best possible bug.  The iso is buggered.

From this site, i used the ISOs you mentioned.
https://sites.google...ary/windows-iso

Windows 7 SP1:
http://msft.digitalr...n/X17-24281.iso 2147483647 X17-24281.iso Windows 7 Professional x64 English

Windows 7 SP1 Media Refresh:
http://msft.digitalr...n/X17-59215.iso 2147483647 X17-59215.iso Windows 7 Professional x64 Italian

X17-59215.iso is 2.97 GB (3,190,665,216 bytes) whereas you said it was only 2 gig. The hash is
File: X17-59215.iso
CRC-32: f4678677
MD4: ca37dcfd75e4fa62b231aaa5a47d0dad
MD5: 33fda618c6ed880d43ef7ce1debd7a99
SHA-1: c4c4a6493e2c45649baf75a045ca922db0c7ca58
 
 When i open it with 7zip 9.20 or UltraISO it opens fine and displays the file contents.  When i boot, the "press a key to continue" is in Italian, the "Windows is loading files..." is in English, "starting Windows" is in English, it says something in Itallian before firadisk, firadisk loads and says H:\sources\install.wim found, say no to repair, it says something in Itallian, then asks for the language and proceeds to the SKU selection.  Works!
 
http://i40.tinypic.com/5l31tx.jpg
 
 The only differences and possible bugs are:
Yes - Bad ISO
    -Ones media refresh, one isn't
    -Ones Italian, one isn't
?   -x64 firadisk problem due to language?
?   - 'Driver required'  is usually when setup does not find a valid (same as x:\sources\setup.exe) CD:\sources\setup.exe in the same directory as the install.wim.
No  - files are different names as they are in Itallian?
?   - DVD is authored wrong.

 

Whenever I download these ISOs (in Chrome) they end up as 2GB even though it says 3GB as they are downloading! I wil try IE.

[halikus]

I have only used that site to grab the Italian ISO for testing and used Firefox.  I just googled the ISO name and found the site.  The Italian ISO worked fine though and as far as i can tell, and they are official Digital River links.  I wish Digital River did Win8 too. 

 

If it means anything, you are using a 1st version Win7 SP1 ISO (2147483647 X17-24281).  They released an SP1.1 iso a few days later with some added hotfixes after bug reports.  I would grab the SP1 media refresh for the best possible results with testing.  I think the main thing it fixes is character fonts and Chinese text, but is considered by many to be the "real" sp1 ISO.

Edited by halikus, 09 May 2013 - 12:46 AM.

[steve6375]

BETA27v3 has bugfix for Vista/7/8 installs - please update!

Many thanks to Fabrizio who kept insisting that it was broken!

[Wonko the Sane]

BETA27v3 has bugfix for Vista/7/8 installs - please update!

Many thanks to Fabrizio who kept insisting that it was broken!

Can you share a few words to explain WHAT was the issue and HOW it was fixed?

 

Wonko

[steve6375]

http://rmprepusb.blogspot.co.uk/

[Wonko the Sane]

http://rmprepusb.blogspot.co.uk/

That is NOT an explanation.

WHERE does the blank unattended.xml come from?

Was the Easy2boot (or whatever) creating it or there is actually a particular issue with the original .iso?

 

Is this still accurate :

 

I forgot to mention that on the X17 ISOs which seem to cause the trouble, even the Official MS USB preparation tool says that the X17 ISOs are not valid Windows ISOs!

and there is some issue with the .iso or the above (and all the fuss about 7-zip, IMDISK and firadisk) was due to a bad download (or whatever)?

 

Wonko

[steve6375]

Some BETAs ago, I introduced the feature of being able to install Windows XP by booting from a WinPE v2/3/4 ISO and then running Winnt32.exe. This required an \Unattend.xml to be in the root of the flash drive (\AutoUnattend.xml is ignored by PE).

The contents of the \Unattend.xml was the same as \AutoUnattend.xml - but this caused a problem with Win7/8 installed because the code in the XML searches all drives for LOADISO.CMD and runs it - this meant that LOADISO.cmd runs twice when any Win7/8 ISO boots.

To fix this I wrote spaces to the \Unattend.xml (unless the Install XP from WinPE menu was run).

This then caused another issue, in that at the end of a win7/8 install, it looked at the \unattend.xml, saw no content and stopped with 'invalid unattend.xml' error.

So to fix this, I now ensure the \unattend.xml has valid, but empty, <> sections.

 

As for these ISO images - I redownloaded the ISOs using Chrome, IE and Firefox and all three downloaded correctly and the files were over 3GB.

I tried several times previously on two different computers and always got 2GB files! So whatever was wrong seems to be fixed now.

A 3GB correct sized ISO works fine.

[Wonko the Sane]

Good.

So, bad download + little glitch in your proggy + a little crying wolf .

7-zip, IMDISK, Firadisk (and exceptionally also Microsoft ) are "innocent" in this case.

Everything is seemingly cool and dandy.


Wonko

[steve6375]

Good.

So, bad download + little glitch in your proggy + a little crying wolf .

7-zip, IMDISK, Firadisk (and exceptionally also Microsoft ) are "innocent" in this case.

Everything is seemingly cool and dandy.


Wonko

Yes - it appears so! I did download 2 different ISOs and both showed the same problem so I was panicking!   

 Now 

 

[friske]

The mystery was solved?

[Uneitohr]

Any update on this? Having the same issue trying to boot windows 7 and windows 8/8.1 from grub4dos.

[Wonko the Sane]

Hmmm, if you had actually READ this thread you might have noticed that the original one was solved on or before March 2011.

 

IF your issue is EXACTLY the SAME as the ORIGINAL one, then it is solved (since more than 5 - five - years).

 

IF your issue is EVEN SLIGHTLY different, then the solution(s) given here likely won't help and this thread would not be the right place to discuss your DIFFERENT issue...

... and you may want to start a dedicated thread describing IN DETAIL your actual issue.

 

Wonko