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[project] PWBoot <Latest version: 3.0.2>

usb windows boot full pwboot vhd patch

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#26 Michael McStarfighter

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Posted 03 February 2009 - 01:16 PM

About the CPU question from me: Has anyone tested to boot from an Intel and AMD? Is this also without any problems?

#27 Michael McStarfighter

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Posted 08 February 2009 - 09:20 PM

Ok, I tried it and the first time it seems to run good. But after some reboots I ran into 7B. VMware don't want to start the flash drive again and so it isn't possible to repair it.

Two things for future versions: A kernel extension who monitor if there are needed changes and make them. Second request: Be able to patch the system offline.

#28 anomy

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Posted 21 April 2009 - 11:25 AM

Marvelous project!

I've tried PWBoot on my external USB HDD with Windows 7 build 7056, it works!

But when you clone this HDD drive to another USB storage (ie. 8GB UFD) with GHOST,
many problems will be happening (rerun PWBoot still helpless):

1. Windows 7 always shows it just created a pagefile when boot completed.
2. Unable to disable hibernation with "powercfg /h off" (it says no permission to do that).
3. System Restore tab doesn't work (error message).
4. Windows Update seems no response from server.
5. Install new display driver (NVIDIA), it works but some files missing (didn't copied).
6. Some drivers cannot be installed successfully.

All above I think it must be the permission problem.
Because as a USB HDD, it's on "Hard Disk Drive" category.
But as a USB Flash Drive, it's on "Devices with Removable Storage" category.
Maybe Windows 7 won't let you access removable storage devices with windows system files.

As I know, USBoot.org has modified registry to make the Flash Drive act as Fixed Disk.
But it's only for 2000/XP/2003, not for 2008/Vista/7. Is there any idea?

#29 was_jaclaz

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Posted 21 April 2009 - 01:13 PM

Because as a USB HDD, it's on "Hard Disk Drive" category.
But as a USB Flash Drive, it's on "Devices with Removable Storage" category.


You can try to find the Manufacturer "Production Tool" for your USB stick and "flip the Removable bit".

See here:
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=22874

As I know, USBoot.org has modified registry to make the Flash Drive act as Fixed Disk.
But it's only for 2000/XP/2003, not for 2008/Vista/7. Is there any idea?


I think it uses a filter driver, not just Registry settings.

AFAIK the filter drivers (both the "Hitachi" cfadisk.sys and Anton Bassov's dummydisk.sys) are designed for XP/2003 only, but you can try installng them under Vista/Windows 7, as long as you manage to overcome possible problems with UAC and/or driver signing policy, I don't recall anyone trying to use them/reporting about it, it is well possible that they work allright as well.

This may also interest you :):
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=22473

:)

jaclaz

#30 Michael McStarfighter

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Posted 21 April 2009 - 03:25 PM

I can confirm that the Hitachi driver is working perfect under Vista and Server 2008. For me it was the only way to "camouflage" the flash drive as a hard disk. And it was / is very important, because on the most computers the flash drive doesn't mount itself with drive letter C: which results in an error parade at booting and only be able to use a temporary profile. After a forced driver update for using the Hitachi driver and a reboot, it starts with the correct drive letter and everything is ok. But since now I've a big problem: On computers with Intel CPU's I've no problems to boot, but every AMD bring me a endless reboot of the PC without seeing the boot screen or a BSOD. Only starting and reboot in endless ...

#31 was_jaclaz

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Posted 21 April 2009 - 03:44 PM

I can confirm that the Hitachi driver is working perfect under Vista and Server 2008.


Good to know. :)

But since now I've a big problem: On computers with Intel CPU's I've no problems to boot, but every AMD bring me a endless reboot of the PC without seeing the boot screen or a BSOD. Only starting and reboot in endless ...

It sounds to me like a HAL or KERNEL problem :)

Aren't there in the BCD some settings equivalent to the /BOOTLOG switch in BOOT.INI? :)
http://technet.micro...s/bb963892.aspx

Yes there are! :)
http://msdn.microsof...y/ms791518.aspx
http://msdn.microsof...y/aa906217.aspx

I would try to see what happens in \Ntbtlog.txt.

:)

jaclaz

#32 anomy

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Posted 22 April 2009 - 03:56 AM

You can try to find the Manufacturer "Production Tool" for your USB stick and "flip the Removable bit".


Yeah, thanks for this solution. I know this method.
The official name is "Mass Production Tool" or "Customization Tool", or etc.
These tools are originally from flash controller vendors (USBest, SMI, Prolific, Phison, ...etc).
There are many parameters in these utilities, just check the fixed disk flag.

My friend works at a flash module house, he has many versions of MPTool.
But he strongly recommends DO NOT use such unauthorized-released tools on the internet by yourself if you are not familiar with the FLASH+CONTROLLER combinations. Because there are too many different flash ICs on the market and many firmware versions, such as flash IC A must pair with F/W A, if wrong combination, the UFD may run out quickly or data loss.

As this result, I will send my flash drive to him to do a "riskless" upgrade. :)

I think it uses a filter driver, not just Registry settings.

AFAIK the filter drivers (both the "Hitachi" cfadisk.sys and Anton Bassov's dummydisk.sys) are designed for XP/2003 only, but you can try installng them under Vista/Windows 7, as long as you manage to overcome possible problems with UAC and/or driver signing policy, I don't recall anyone trying to use them/reporting about it, it is well possible that they work allright as well.


Yeah... XP is easier with these drivers. AFAIK, the security level of Windows 7 is even stricter than Vista. For my question 2 (Turn off hibernation), it's easy to solve under Vista by just going to a command prompt and typing "powercfg -h off". Under Win 7, it doesn't work.

Luckily, I have solved it by creating as a batch file and then "run as administrator". :)

cheers

#33 was_jaclaz

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Posted 22 April 2009 - 09:04 AM

But he strongly recommends DO NOT use such unauthorized-released tools on the internet by yourself if you are not familiar with the FLASH+CONTROLLER combinations. Because there are too many different flash ICs on the market and many firmware versions, such as flash IC A must pair with F/W A, if wrong combination, the UFD may run out quickly or data loss.

As this result, I will send my flash drive to him to do a "riskless" upgrade. :)


Yep. :)

And you may well imagine the difficulty for us "westerners" to manage some of them that have a Chinese only interface. :)

But you know:

Life is "trying things to see if they work"


:)

jaclaz

#34 anomy

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Posted 23 April 2009 - 05:57 AM

Yep. :)

And you may well imagine the difficulty for us "westerners" to manage some of them that have a Chinese only interface. :)


Yup, those "mainland chinese" hackers have much spare time to do "localization".
In fact, these utilities are originally designed as English version by Taiwanese IC design houses for manufacturers to use. :)

But you know:
Life is "trying things to see if they work"
:)
jaclaz


Yep, one is never too old to learn. :)

I've been tried "firmware update" once by myself, it shortened the lifetime of one of my USB stick. :(
So I decided to send to my friend to do a "genuine" upgrade under special request (fixed disk flag). :)

BTW, for my different OS USB-booting attempts, I've tried sucessfully:

1. DOS (FreeDOS/MS-DOS) <--- for emergency use :(
2. Windows PE (BartPE/XPE, LiveUSB) <--- for ghost backup use
3. Windows persistent (Full Windows XP/Vista/7) <-- for, hmmm, technology showcase only... :(
4. Mac OS X86 (iPortable OSX86) <--- this is funny, did you ever tried? :(
5. Linux-based (too many, countless) <--- for normal working use and sometimes booting use.
--> I have once made a dual-role/cross-platform USB stick: It's a FAT32(3GB) + ext3(5GB) partition combination. 3GB is for normal data storage and accessible by Mac/Windows/Ubuntu... etc., and other 5GB contains full bootable Ubuntu 8.10. The advantage is other OSes can still access this stick normally without damage the Ubuntu partition. When booting, Ubuntu can also access 2 partitions. :(

#35 MatthewFelgate

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Posted 15 December 2009 - 11:29 AM

Will this work for Windows 7?

I'd like to boot Windows 7 from USB so that I don't have to install it on my HDD.

#36 was_jaclaz

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Posted 15 December 2009 - 11:39 AM

Will this work for Windows 7?

I'd like to boot Windows 7 from USB so that I don't have to install it on my HDD.


If I were you I would look in the Windows 7 Forum, first:
http://www.boot-land...hp?showforum=77
check the stickies there. ;)

Cannot say if this one will work "as is" for Windows 7, the basic principles are the same, but there may be something changed that works not with 7, this report:
http://www.boot-land...?...=6851&st=27
is about a preRTM/Final version.

;)

jaclaz

#37 rocketero

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Posted 16 December 2009 - 07:37 PM

it worked great, thank you very much.

I use also VirtualBox but this VMlite is much more easy to work with.

#38 yahoouk

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Posted 20 December 2009 - 11:10 AM

It doesn't work for me.Tried to install win 7 on usb-hdd(hitachi from laptop) and after start just keep saying "windows starting" and after several minutes it restarts :merc:


Same to my two old desktops :cheers:
But fortunately it does work on my friend's HP Laptop. Sound and Graphic card are also working perfectly. ;)

Thanks to Dhilip89 :merc:

YahooUK

#39 Dhilip89

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Posted 20 December 2009 - 05:01 PM

Updated to version 2.0, check first post ;)

#40 Dhilip89

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Posted 21 December 2009 - 12:29 AM

Will this work for Windows 7?

I'd like to boot Windows 7 from USB so that I don't have to install it on my HDD.



Yes, it will work for Windows 7 Beta, RC, RTM (All tested).

#41 Dhilip89

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Posted 21 December 2009 - 04:54 PM

Same to my two old desktops :cheers:
But fortunately it does work on my friend's HP Laptop. Sound and Graphic card are also working perfectly. :merc:

Thanks to Dhilip89 :merc:

YahooUK


You can try to refer the first post under "Important" section(added recently) to see whether the problems can be solved.

#42 yahoouk

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Posted 21 December 2009 - 06:15 PM

Thank you.

I'll try it tomorrow.
I've just tried my old one with Acer laptop, all working, including Video, Audio (auto installed) but Desktops (DELL Optiplex 760), no luck, failed :cheers:

B Regards,

YahooUK

#43 sara - pmedia

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Posted 02 January 2010 - 11:19 PM

Thanks for this amazing project!

i only cusses to install on hdd usb but not on my flash drive...

i tray to clone the disk with acronis and ghost but its give me blue screen During the "start windows" proses

i also tray to install to my flash drive with the virtual machine method - in VMware its work ok but on all Other computers i get blue screen During the "start windows" proses

i use kingstone 8gb ....

help??

#44 Dhilip89

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Posted 02 June 2010 - 03:07 PM

New update released: Version 2.1 (check first post)

#45 mateuszek

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Posted 02 June 2010 - 08:30 PM

can i truecrypt it ?

#46 Dhilip89

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Posted 03 June 2010 - 04:56 AM

can i truecrypt it ?


As long as the Windows support booting from it, you may give it a try.

#47 mateuszek

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Posted 03 June 2010 - 08:51 AM

but - i dont fully understand...

this project purpose is to make portable live windows vista/7 ?

on all computers ?

or only on my computer, one specific hardware ?

can i make this usb once and run it on 1000 diffrent laptops ?

#48 Dhilip89

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Posted 03 June 2010 - 10:22 AM

but - i dont fully understand...

this project purpose is to make portable live windows vista/7 ?

on all computers ?

or only on my computer, one specific hardware ?

can i make this usb once and run it on 1000 diffrent laptops ?


It will run on different hardware, I tried to boot my Windows 7 from USB on different computer including desktop and laptop, it worked well.

47
Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)-independent

Beginning with Windows Vista you can maintain a single Windows image that applies to all HAL types. There is no need to create special images for single core and multi cores - Windows will automatically select the approperiate HAL for your system at boot. However, you will need to maintain different images for different processor architectures (32-bit and 64-bit platforms).

Source: http://www.elbacom.com/embedded/7x7

#49 Dhilip89

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Posted 03 June 2010 - 08:36 PM

Version 3 under development. :)

Screen shot:
Posted Image

#50 Hjanos95

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Posted 17 July 2010 - 01:33 PM

Version 3 under development. :thumbup:

Screen shot:
Posted Image


Can I get the beta of version 3?
When will it released?

Hjanos95





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