3 replies to this topic

[xenolalia]

Hi,

I recently purchased a 16 GB SuperTalent flash drive (USB 3.0 Express RAM Cache). I've been trying to boot Ubuntu Linux, Windows 7 RC, and other .iso's from the device. First I formatted the drive as FAT32 (with gparted) and used UNetbootin to copy the contents of the Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD to the flash drive. When I restart my computer and attempt to boot from the flash drive, I receive the following error:

Remove disks or other media.
Press any key to restart.

My BIOS is using the boot order: 1. CD drive, 2. USB-HDD, 3. HDD. I have tried using UNetbootin with several other iso's, which all resulted in the same error message. I am able to boot successfully from my device when I follow the procedure listed here to install the Windows 7 RC.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Best,
xenolalia

P.S. In case you're wondering, I am for now plugging my flash drive into a USB 2.0 port on my computer because for some reason, I am not able to boot using a USB 3.0 port.

[skyide]

Why don't you make the bootable UFD via the old fashion way by downloading BootICE or RMPrepUSB. These will install GRUB4DOS on the UFD's MBR. Then, extract the contents of the W7 ISO on your UFD's partition, have the Ubuntu ISO on the root partition too and have this in a file called menu.lst:


title Windows 7 RC1 Install
chainloader (hd0,0)/bootmgr

title Ubuntu
map (hd0,0)/ubuntu.iso (0xff) || map --mem (hd0,0)/ubuntu.iso (0xff)
map --hook
chainloader (0xff)

If Ubuntu complains it is unable to mount the live media, extract its compressed file system from the ISO to your UFD partition but make sure you match its absolute path to the one in the ISO. For example, if the compressed file system is in NAME_OF_ISO/SOME_FOLDER/Compressed_Image then on your UFD partition you would have create a folder called SOME_FOLDER and put the compressed file system in SOME_FOLDER. Make sure you copy grldr to the root of the UFD's partition. If you want to make the things neat, you can partition your UFD and put the two OSes on separate partitions.

[xenolalia]

Why don't you make the bootable UFD via the old fashion way by downloading BootICE or RMPrepUSB. These will install GRUB4DOS on the UFD's MBR. Then, extract the contents of the W7 ISO on your UFD's partition, have the Ubuntu ISO on the root partition too and have this in a file called menu.lst:


title Windows 7 RC1 Install
chainloader (hd0,0)/bootmgr

title Ubuntu
map (hd0,0)/ubuntu.iso (0xff) || map --mem (hd0,0)/ubuntu.iso (0xff)
map --hook
chainloader (0xff)

If Ubuntu complains it is unable to mount the live media, extract its compressed file system from the ISO to your UFD partition but make sure you match its absolute path to the one in the ISO. For example, if the compressed file system is in NAME_OF_ISO/SOME_FOLDER/Compressed_Image then on your UFD partition you would have create a folder called SOME_FOLDER and put the compressed file system in SOME_FOLDER. Make sure you copy grldr to the root of the UFD's partition. If you want to make the things neat, you can partition your UFD and put the two OSes on separate partitions.

Firstly, thank you for your prompt reply.

I tried all your suggestions and achieved partial success. When I restart my computer, I arrive at the grub4dos boot screen with the two options entered in menu.lst. However, selecting the Windows 7 RC yields a "Windows Boot Manager" error screen which says "Windows failed to start" and displays the following info:

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc0000225
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data

Selecting the Ubuntu option yields the Ubuntu loading screen, but after about 20 sec., it drops me to a BusyBox shell with the error message: "(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system."

Any thoughts?

Edited by xenolalia, 27 December 2010 - 07:17 AM.

[skyide]

Status: 0xc0000225

This is a boot manager configuration issue. Unless someone else pin points exactly where the problem lies, you can follow my instructions that *should* fix your problem. I have been through it b4.


Download Win7PE_SE_2010_12_10 from here.
Run WinBuilder.exe as Administrator and set the Windows 7 Source Dir from the "Source" tab on the right
From the sidebar on the left, select Main Configuration and then from the right select "Script"
For Build model, select "Normal" and for Boot Manager select "Standard"
Click "Tools" on the right, and from the options on the right sidebar, deselect "Stop Build on Error"
Click the big "Play" button
Once the build is complete, delete the "Boot" folder on your UFD and COPY the "Boot" folder from the extracted Win7PE_x86.ISO onto your UFD.

That should fix your problem. Try booting again. Let me guess, the next issue you will deal is a BSOD but don't worry, we have a solution for this too (may be). Let's first go pass the Windows boot manager.

In relation to Ubuntu, can you please specify exactly what you did?
Where did you put the Ubuntu ISO? Is it on the root of the UFD partition?
Are you able to identify the live media file within the ISO? This is a compressed image BIG IN SIZE like at least 200MB+ I think. When extracted, it will give you /boot, /dev etc. You need to copy this (unextracted file) to your UFD partition in the same path as in the ISO. Example: If the compressed file system resides in Ubuntu.ISO/media/sqashfs then you would copy sqashfs to X:\media\sqashfs where X: is the drive letter of the UFD. Make sure your file system is FAT32.