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Full Guide VistaPE, PGP PE, ISO, USB thumb drive creating + Dual boot OS/X


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#1 Alakadebra

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Posted 26 June 2009 - 01:22 AM

Dear Boot Land,

I'd like to thank you all for your hard work and contributions.

Particularly the Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows, WinBuilder and VistaPE development groups as well as the Bootland Forum contributors. I'd also like to thank Claus Valca of GrandStreamDreams at http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/

I've had a fun and interesting if lengthy time putting together Ultimate Boot CD 4 Win disks, BartPE disks, and now Winbuilder + VistaPE thumb drives with OS/X. I thought I'd give something back this time though and post a full guide for step-by-step if folks want to make their own. It may be long and boring but I hope it will help and encourage people to develop their own tools and contribute more to the various Winbuilder groups and VistaPE etc.

The guide covers the following:

Setting up a Virtual Development environment, Windows XP under Microsoft Virtual Machine.

Setting up the Vista SP1 Windows Automated Install Kit.

Setting up WIM mounting.

Setting up WinBuilder 076.

Setting up VistaPE.

Adding Scripts and Drivers to VistaPE.

Adding a few tools and configuring things to work with WAIK + pieces of the Vista SP1 DVD as a source. So that certain things that require both will work. Namely the PGP PE addon.

Injecting the PGP PE addon into the VistaPE build. (Note: Completely Optional not needed unless you have PGP in your environment)

Creating the VistaPE ISO file.

Testing virtually.

Creating the VistaPE USB thumb drive.

Merging a VistaPE USB thumb drive and an OS/X bootable thumb drive to make a thumb drive that can boot both Macs and PCs (doesn't include how to make an OS/X bootable thumb drive, just how to merge one, there are plenty of other guides on the net for how to make a mac bootable thumb drive).

The below is the step-by-step start page that has both Web version and PDF version as well as a zip of some example files to get things going.

http://www.stanford..../documentation/

I hope you all enjoy and find this information useful.

sincerely,

-vkt2009

P.S. I apologize for the length of this document but I tried to make it thorough and fairly step-by-step for most situations. I would also appreciate it if anyone successfully complete's the guide and finds it useful to post here. If you have constructive complaints or suggestions those are welcome as well.


*updated 07-24-2009* includes fixes for Hotplugging USB from CTMAG (Also fixes the detection of usb keyboards/mice on many platforms such as Dell Optiplex 745, 760), see section VI. Part C on modifying 04-additonal.script, updated a few other files as well to account for the vistape.cfg file already being in the WIM file. updated a few tools and other bits. Updated section on verifying ghost image of OS/X dual boot image. Includes warning now about non-matching new/old size during restore. Added possibility of copying VistaPE.wim's Tools folder out into Target\Vistape-core\ folder to allow use of tools on the Living OS of the machine if not booting from the cd or thumb drive.

*updated 07-27-2009* with suggestions from Jaclaz for U3 drives. Also changed PGP page to include references to disccryptor and truecrypt script files in VistPE Winbuilder download tree. Few minor updates here and there.

*updated 07-28-2009* with section on RMPrepUSB to properly wipe/setup USB Thumb drives.

#2 Alakadebra

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Posted 26 June 2009 - 08:24 AM

Just saw DriverForge, I'll have to experiment with that and see how it works in our environment, I hope to update the guide with a section using that as well.

#3 Mega_num

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Posted 27 June 2009 - 02:51 PM

Alakadebra

I could not understand what is "PGP" for
and also i coul not find "pgppe.exe and pgpstart.exe" .

#4 was_jaclaz

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Posted 27 June 2009 - 05:56 PM

Alakadebra

I could not understand what is "PGP" for
and also i coul not find "pgppe.exe and pgpstart.exe" .


....

The below is the step-by-step start page that has both Web version and PDF version as well as a zip of some example files to get things going.

http://www.stanford..../documentation/

.....


http://www.stanford..../documentation/
http://www.stanford....20contents.html
http://www.stanford......ting PGP.html

https://pgp.custhelp...detail/a_id/807

:lol:

jaclaz

#5 Mega_num

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Posted 27 June 2009 - 07:03 PM

Thanks a lot jaclaz for help
i have seen all pages but my problem is that i can not connect to site that gives pgp plugin
i can search every place but these 2 address can not open .

so i have app pgp and author says files pgppe.exe and pgpstart.exe are insid that,but they are not
even after installing
so i can not continue the tutor complatly
and i could not find files above and pe plugin by searching the web

any way thanks a lot for your answer

#6 was_jaclaz

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Posted 27 June 2009 - 07:19 PM

There is not an "app pgp".
There are several different (Commercial) Products.

If you read the .pdf linked to in the previously given page:
Customizing the Windows Preinstallation Environment Technical Note
To download the document click here: TechNote: Customizing the PE for PGP Whole Disk Encryption
http://supportimg.pg...ion_july_08.pdf


You can find in it:

The Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) is widely used by IT professionals in Windows environments for installation tasks, deployment, maintenance, troubleshooting, diagnosis, recovery, and so on. For example, use Windows PE to:
ƒ Integrate PGP WDE recovery with your existing IT recovery tools
ƒ Create secure PE-based backup and recovery
ƒ Upgrade a PGP WDE-encrypted system from Windows XP to Windows Vista
Windows PE will not work in situations where the PGP Whole Disk Encryption (PGP WDE) is installed on a system and the entire disk is encrypted. For Windows PE to work on a system where PGP Whole Disk Encryption is installed, the PGP WDE driver must be pre-installed and the administrator must have authorized access to the hard disk.
You must have PGP Desktop for Windows version 9.7 or later installed in order to use Windows PE or BartPE.


Maybe you do not have "PGP Desktop for Windows version 9.7 or later installed"? ;)

I guess that noone but the people at pgp.com can understand their range of products, I have rarely seen such an ununderstandable mess on a site that should sell products, not words. :lol:

;)

jaclaz

#7 Mega_num

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Posted 27 June 2009 - 07:34 PM

Thanks a lot jaclaz,i have found PGPpe-991.zip from the link you said in last post
and i have got the pdf tutor from new link

thanks a lot for your kindly helps

#8 Alakadebra

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Posted 28 June 2009 - 09:21 AM

Thanks a lot jaclaz,i have found PGPpe-991.zip from the link you said in last post
and i have got the pdf tutor from new link

thanks a lot for your kindly helps


Sorry, I should have stated that the PGP PE part is completely optional. It's a commercial product that is used to encrypt hard drives. If you or your company/workplace uses it then it may be useful for retrieving data from the encrypted hard drives. Typically you would have to use it to mount an encrypted volume. It should also be noted that I believe since PGP is an encryption product, this type of software has export rules so it may be blocked from download to certain regions outside the USA.

Also to be clear the link for the Stanford PGP ONLY works for Stanford authorized users.

I've updated the documentation to reflect these changes.

Again pgp pe is totally optional it is not required for anything except mounting pgp encrypted volumes.

Sorry for the confusion!

#9 paraglider

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Posted 28 June 2009 - 12:26 PM

I believe your document should not include the section on PGP as its not relevant to most people using winbuilder. I think it should be a separate document.

Now if you could work out how to add support for integrating truecrypt full disk encryption that would be more generally useful as its free product.

#10 Alakadebra

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 09:44 PM

I still include the PGP in the document but mark it clearly as Optional.

I've also updated the tutorial to include the USB detection fix that CTMag provided in another thread.

Updated a few other sections as well.

#11 was_jaclaz

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Posted 25 July 2009 - 07:19 AM

If I may, Chapter IX, part b.:
Creating a USB Thumb Drive/Hard Drive
(actually the only one I have read :idea: ) is "deceiving". :P

A USB stick is NOT a USB hard disk and viceversa, people will mostly use a USB stick and it simply won't boot using those instructions (which are for a partition on an already partitioned device). :)

This part is also NOT fully accurate:

If you’re using a U2/U3 enabled flash drive like the Sandisk Cruzer’s then you will have to use their utility to remove this feature first then format.


Never heard about a U2 stick, but for U3 you can also build a .iso INTO it.

See here:
http://www.msfn.org/...opic=121502&hl=

jaclaz

#12 Alakadebra

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Posted 27 July 2009 - 06:58 PM

If I may, Chapter IX, part b.:
Creating a USB Thumb Drive/Hard Drive
(actually the only one I have read :idea: ) is "deceiving". :)

A USB stick is NOT a USB hard disk and viceversa, people will mostly use a USB stick and it simply won't boot using those instructions (which are for a partition on an already partitioned device). :P

This part is also NOT fully accurate:


Never heard about a U2 stick, but for U3 you can also build a .iso INTO it.

See here:
http://www.msfn.org/...opic=121502&hl=

jaclaz


I've used part B's instructions on several different thumb drives straight from out of the box.

So I'm guessing the part you suggest correcting is perhaps to have the user create a partition if there isn't one already? I kind of made that assumption in advance that they had a USB Thumb Drive or Hard drive with a partition already created, but not necessarily formatted.

Hmmm I guess the other confusion may be because you've not read any of the other chapters for this documentation? The part where I say copy the entire folder out refers to the fact that up until this point everything has been developed under a virtual machine environment.

Most USB thumb drives and USB hard drives come formatted with a single partition already thankfully.

Please let me know which part needs correcting. The merging part for Part C on that page definitely requires a hard drive, but can afterwards be ghosted onto a USB thumb drive. Part B as it is works on thumb drives as well as hard drives if there is already a primary partition created.

I was aware that the U3 could boot .iso but it interfere's with the booting of the thumb drive using the method on the documentation section. It's also slower generally and is more limited in allowable size. If it's a small iso and the user already has a U3 drive then yes it's great to be able to just swap in a .iso file to use for booting instead. I've added a note about this to the documentation for users that just want to transfer the VistaPE-Core.iso file over and rename it then use it to boot.

Please read through though maybe. I've not had anyone state that this entire guide didn't work for them. Though I don't have anyone stating that it did completely work for them either.

#13 Alakadebra

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Posted 27 July 2009 - 07:25 PM

I believe your document should not include the section on PGP as its not relevant to most people using winbuilder. I think it should be a separate document.

Now if you could work out how to add support for integrating truecrypt full disk encryption that would be more generally useful as its free product.


I think that there actually is already a script for other encryption support in the default VistaPE Winbuilder setup. It should be under Apps\Security disccryptor.script and truecrypt.script

I didn't include it in the guide before but will make a note of it for others in the PGP section.

#14 was_jaclaz

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Posted 28 July 2009 - 09:39 AM

Most USB thumb drives and USB hard drives come formatted with a single partition already thankfully.


Well, NO.
Most (read 99.99% or, better, ALL) thumb drives come UNpartitioned, and formatted as "super-floppy", i.e. their first sector is the bootsector and NOT the MBR. (generally they are formatted with FAT32 filesystem)

USB hard drives are usually pre-partitioned with one single partition, also pre-formatted in either NTFS or FAT32.

The whole point is that under normal windows 2K/XP/2003 there is NO way normally to create a partition (read write the MBR) on a thumb drive as it is seen as "Removable" drive.

Under Vista/2008/7 AFAIK (but not being familiar with those I may be wrong :P) it is only possible through Diskpart, and in any case the Registry fix detailed here is strongly suggested:
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=21186
http://www.911cd.net...o...21186&st=18

Even when the MBR and partition are written on a USB thumb drive, there may be problems with the bootability of the stick, this is why using one of the apps listed here:
http://www.msfn.org/...showtopic=87993
http://www.msfn.org/...o...87993&st=17
is strongly suggested.

:idea:

jaclaz

#15 Alakadebra

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Posted 28 July 2009 - 04:37 PM

Ah ok strangely all the USB thumb drives (like a dozen types) I have been given are single partition FAT32 and the method used in the documentation has worked flawlessly on all of them, but perhaps they have all been preformatted by the user (they had various factory software still on them though). I will update the documentation to stress repartition/reformat using the RMPartUSB tool.

Is this something that should be used on all VistaPE? Something that should be integrated from the start? Also someone mentioned that quickformatting should not be used under VistaPE?

*****
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VDS]
"LessThan4GB"=dword:00000000
"Between4_8GB"=dword:00000000
"Between8_32GB"=dword:00000000
"GreaterThan32GB"=dword:00000000
*****

Thanks for the information!

#16 Alakadebra

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Posted 28 July 2009 - 09:03 PM

Ah ok strangely all the USB thumb drives (like a dozen types) I have been given are single partition FAT32 and the method used in the documentation has worked flawlessly on all of them, but perhaps they have all been preformatted by the user (they had various factory software still on them though). I will update the documentation to stress repartition/reformat using the RMPartUSB tool.

Is this something that should be used on all VistaPE? Something that should be integrated from the start? Also someone mentioned that quickformatting should not be used under VistaPE?

*****
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VDS]
"LessThan4GB"=dword:00000000
"Between4_8GB"=dword:00000000
"Between8_32GB"=dword:00000000
"GreaterThan32GB"=dword:00000000
*****

Thanks for the information!


Ok I modified one of the batch files to patch this into registry after a build. Injecthwpnpfix.bat in Chapter VIII. Minor Customization has the fix in it.

I'll add it to the site later today probably.




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