130 replies to this topic

[lafeev]

Hi,
I spent a good bit of time building a custom xp install, following the advice of the Unattended tutorial over at msfn. After I had it just the way I liked it, and everything tested okay, I came back here to toss the whole thing onto a usb stick.

I had a successful install with a few minor quarks:

-In testing this source (and on some previous trials) I was able to get the "F8 - I agree" page to NOT appear. However after using USB_Multiboot 10 this was no longer the case.

-Along the same lines, a couple minutes into the GUI portion of the setup I was prompted with a box I've never seen before, it looked like another EULA, with an option to agree/accept. (This is really bothersome since it nullifies the "unattended" part).

-Upon first boot my install runs a batch file from [GuiRunOnce] that silent installs a handfull of apps. When this script was complete a warning popped up indicating some system files had been replaced with unrecognized versions, needed the cd to "fix" it. This isn't a huge surprise being a custom install, but it had never popped up in testing (again not very "unattended" friendly).

-Lastly, I have some files in the $Docs directory of $OEM$, and these did not copy over to the install hdd (as they had done in testing).

So USB_multiboot is a great app, but since I went to all the trouble of building a custom install from scratch, I kind of just want it to unobtrusively take care of the USB boot aspect. So is there some way for me to fix these minor glitches?
Thanks.

[wimb]

In USB_MultiBoot_10 you cannot make use of the [Unattended] Section in winnt.sif file
Trying to use it results in the problems that you describe,
which would not occur if you used a proper winnt.sif file like the one that is provided,
and which allows then full Unattended Install of XP from USB.

A better approach is however to make use of:

*** Install XP from USB AFTER Booting with PE from HDD or USB ***
Install from USB without Booting from USB by using U_XP_SET

http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=21883

In this case you can use the [Unattended] Section as you wish.

[ilko]

Hi,
I spent a good bit of time building a custom xp install,...

You may also try using either of these 2 methods, which do not have that limitation:
http://www.msfn.org/...howtopic=120444
http://www.msfn.org/...howtopic=137714

[Sydnelson]

I make my multiboot USB and it very well but I have a problem.

When I install Windows Seven ate the end of first part of instalation when setup says "Finalizing Instalation" the setup take between 30 to 50 minutes to proceed. If I try removed USB in this time setup gives a error that can't locate\find a randon file in USB and then proceed instalations normally.

How can I correct that issue?

Thanks for help.

PS: Sorry for my poor english...

[wimb]

When I install Windows Seven ate the end of first part of instalation when setup says "Finalizing Instalation" the setup take between 30 to 50 minutes to proceed. If I try removed USB in this time setup gives a error that can't locate\find a randon file in USB and then proceed instalations normally.

It is a matter of timing ....

You have got to remove the USB-stick exactly at the moment of first reboot, when the screen is black.
A moment earlier e.g when 9 seconds before reboot is running, then removal of USB-stick will give error on reboot.

[Sydnelson]

It is a matter of timing ....

You have got to remove the USB-stick exactly at the moment of first reboot, when the screen is black.
A moment earlier e.g when 9 seconds before reboot is running, then removal of USB-stick will give error on reboot.

But my problem occours before that stage.
It occours between instaling updates and first restart. I think setup is copying all source data from USB to hard disk (including non-setup data and personal files that I have on USB drive.)

[wimb]

OK, I understand something else is going on ...

Actually I don't know the procedure that you use to Install Windows 7 from USB.
Can you give a description of the procedure that you followed,
so that I can think about what is going wrong.

I would like to advice you to follow the procedure as described here

http://www.911cd.net...o...21883&st=35

In this case you boot first from RAMDISK X: with pe3.iso launched from HDD (preferred) or from USB-stick
In PE you use then NT6.X fast installer to prepare your Target drive for Install of Windows 7.

[Sydnelson]

OK, I understand something else is going on ...

Actually I don't know the procedure that you use to Install Windows 7 from USB.
Can you give a description of the procedure that you followed,
so that I can think about what is going wrong.

I would like to advice you to follow the procedure as described here

http://www.911cd.net...o...21883&st=35

In this case you boot first from RAMDISK X: with pe3.iso launched from HDD (preferred) or from USB-stick
In PE you use then NT6.X fast installer to prepare your Target drive for Install of Windows 7.

I use multiboot 10 to create that USB drive with XP and Seven instalations. Both ones woks fine, the problem is this uneeded file copy that increase in several times the instalation in Seven setup.

I see the procedure you point and I think it is very slow and complicated, using MultiBoot10 is much easy to make and mantain updated.

Anyway thanks for advice.

[wimb]

I use multiboot 10 to create that USB drive with XP and Seven instalations. Both ones woks fine, the problem is this uneeded file copy that increase in several times the instalation in Seven setup.

I see the procedure you point and I think it is very slow and complicated, using MultiBoot10 is much easy to make and mantain updated.

You should try the procedure of preboot with pe3.iso and
then use NT6.X fast installer to prepare your Target drive for Install of Windows 7.
After using the installer you remove the USB-stick and Reboot from Target Drive.

Actually it is very fast and simple and is really very different from using Windows 7 setup.exe
so that you may be can eliminate your problem with unneeded filecopy.

[mangade]

Hi,

I'm new with USB_Multiboot.cmd.

Its success when tried only XP.

Then integrated driverpacks with dpbase, everything fine till logon but when finish critical eror happened, cannot find configuration file. But still the drivers worked inegrated with XP.

After that I wanna try with WPI.

Confused...
Only folder WPIScript and Install available on usb_cfg_extra folder meanwhile only X_Content copied to UFD not usb_cfg_extra, use NTFS. So I tried copies all under WPI folder to X_Content\INSTALL_PRGS_WPI.

To run WPI I try with $OEM$\cmdlines.txt with driverpacks together in XPSOURCE.

[COMMANDS]
"roe.exe" ;driverpacks
"runwpi.exe" ;WPI or wpi.inf

In the end, WPI can't find WPI.exe or wpi.htm for wrong path.

I've tried with DVD with driverpacks and WPI and all worked fine.

My goal is possible to do this with USB_Multiboot.usb in UFD?

Thanks in advance.

PS: I don't know how to explain clearly for my bad english. Thats all in my mind I'm sorry.

[novin]

It is possible that the flash memory as you create a dual boot?
(Way that both Windows 7 and Windows XP install on flash memory have)

[stremmi]

Hello All!

Today I found a simpler way to Install XP from USB - FlashBoot.
It does all the stuff automatically, just converts Windows Setup CD to USB flash.
Althrough shareware, it can perform this one-time task in demo mode.
Personally I recommend it to everyone.

http://www.prime-expert.com/flashboot/

FlashBoot is a tool to convert Windows XP/Vista/7 installation CD/DVD to
bootable USB disk, useful for Windows installation on netbooks and other
devices without CD/DVD drive. FlashBoot supports USB flash thumbdrives and USB hard disks.

http://www.prime-exp...xpinst_gallery/

[Wonko the Sane]

Today I found a simpler way to Install XP from USB - FlashBoot.

WHY do I have this deja-vu feeling about spamming?

http://www.msfn.org/...howtopic=144316

Wonko

[FinalBoot]

very effective especially multi-boot boot.ini editing

[bartgrefte]

Hi

I succesfully made an USB XP install, although there are some small problems.

First off, USB_MultiBoot_10 did not get all the settings I already had in the winnt.sif. DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore and NonDriverSigningPolicy = Ignore to name some. After some Googling I put those in the [data] section, that worked. Read something about the [unattended] section not being used by the USB install.
Another setting, not sure which it is, that makes the install skip ahead to the select harddrive part was also not processed by USB_MultiBoot_10. I now get the first part, install/recovery/exit, the license agreement is still being skipped, and then the harddrive selection part.
This is not a big problem, but sure like to know why this suddenly happened

Then there's this. After installing there are multiple entries in the boot.ini, some identical about XP (with that I mean the whole line in the boot.ini file that's identical) and something with USB. Is there any way I can prevent those identical entries and the USB entry being made?

After installing, when XP is creating personal settings, WFP (Windows File Protection) is nagging about some files being replaced by unrecognized versions. It's asking for XP SP3 disc but the one put on the USB stick is not accepted: "you placed the wrong cdrom". When I click cancel to ignore that message, everything is fine.
This problem/(error)message is not present when using the (home-made, see below) XP dvd-iso I used to make the USB install.

Dvd-iso? Well, it no longer fit's on a cd with (almost) all updates* and a bunch of driverpacks integrated
(*SP3 with integrate switch, most recent post SP3 pack + Framework and IE8 addon's from RyanVM forum with RVM Integrator.)

Before I forget, I made VMWare Workstation boot from my Voyager GT using this since VMWare Workstation cannot do this by itself. Just in case you are wondering how this was possible

[wimb]

@bartgrefte

The problems that you describe are typically related to the earlier made program USB_Mulboot_10.cmd

Nowadays, there are far better methods:
Use prebooting with a PE Boot Image and then Run USB_XP_Setup.exe to prepare Target Drive for Install of XP
and using XP Setup Source folder on USB-stick or XP Setup ISO mounted with ImDisk in Virtual Drive.

Or After booting with PE you can use IMG_XP_Restore.exe to install in 5 min Universal XP Image file including programs.
The Universal Image file is earlier prepared with IMX_XP_Create.exe and IMX_XP_Update.exe

Read more about it here:
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=21883
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=23931
http://www.911cd.net...o...21883&st=35
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=23553

[bartgrefte]

Hmmm, okay.

I'll have a look into that later on (when I'm off work )

ps. Jij nog last gehad van dat stormachtige weer?

[bartgrefte]

Was a bit busy, but checked out the links.

Could be me, but the 1st one looks more complicated than this method.
What does the 2nd link have to do with XP? It's about 7
Want to try the 3rd link, but I don't have Windows 7 lying around.
4th link is not useful, I would have to recreate the Universal HDD Image files every time I updated my XP install disc....

[wimb]

Could be me, but the 1st one looks more complicated than this method.
What does the 2nd link have to do with XP? It's about 7
Want to try the 3rd link, but I don't have Windows 7 lying around.
4th link is not useful, I would have to recreate the Universal HDD Image files every time I updated my XP install disc....

Booting first with PE and then using USB_XP_Setup.exe to prepare Target drive for install of XP is quite easy
and overcomes the problems that you encountered with USB_MultiBoot_10.cmd .....

You can use Make_PE3.exe to just collect in 2 minutes Windows 7 files at other computer
and then use the Remake Option on computer with XP OS to make 7pe_x86.iso
Portable Windows 7 PE is quite powerfull .....

[bartgrefte]

Hmmm, okay.

Well, I managed to make a pe3_x86.iso. Then I installed Grub4DOS on my Voyager GT with this entry in the menu:
title Boot pe3_x86.iso - ISO
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /pe3_x86.iso
map /pe3_x86.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
chainloader (0xff)/BOOTMGR
That makes it boot from it.

Then I tried it in VMWare, but appearantly pe3_x86.iso doesn't recognizes the virtualized hardware and it does not find the USB stick it just booted from, so can't get to the XP files/iso...
Then I mounted the XP ISO in VMWare Workstation (from the physical harddrive) since the virtualized cdrom was recognized.
When de disc was loaded in PE, the install option was greyed out. Then I tried starting winnt32.exe, I got an error about none valid system partitions found while there is one present in the virtualized computer (even with XP on it).

[wimb]

From http://www.911cd.net...o...21883&st=35

Step 6. Install of XP or Windows 7 AFTER booting with pe3.iso

• If your XP Setup Source is an ISO file, then first install ImDisk driver so that you can mount the ISO in a virtual drive.
• Use PStart > Edit > Add file to select imdiskinst.exe from U_XP_SET\USB_XP_Setup\makebt folder and Run to install ImDisk driver.
• Then Launch Notepad from cmd window or from PStart Menu.
• In Notepad Select File > Open to get the FileSelector which can be used as File Browser for All Files.
• Then with R-mouse on the ISO file you can use the ImDisk context menu to mount the ISO in a Virtual Drive.

If your Setup Source is a folder on HDD or USB or a CD/DVD drive then you don't need to use ImDisk.

Launch USB_XP_Setup.exe from PStart Menu to prepare your Target drive for Install of XP.
Info USB_XP_Setup.exe of U_XP_SET package http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=21883

Nowadays instead of using Notepad you can simply use R-mouse in Explorer to mount your XP Setup ISO if needed ....

[bartgrefte]

Like I already said, PE does NOT find the USB stick it booted from, so there is no ISO available to mount. And (also already said) when I select the XP ISO on the physical harddrive and mount that in VMware (so that PE can access it through the virtual cdrom) XP still can't be installed because for some reason the setup cannot find the harddrive that is accessible in PE....

[wimb]

Use Explorer Icon instead of Computer Icon
Use latest Make_PE3 in which explorer is launched with

X:\Windows\explorer /e,

(the comma is essential to get explore drives like in computer)

Explorer can find also USB when connected after boot,
but I advise you to connect first USB and then boot with PE

[bartgrefte]

I just tried it on a physical computer instead of VMWare Workstation. Now the USB stick was found by PE.
After mounting the ISO and trying to start winnt32.exe with the unattend switch and a path to the winnt.sif, I got this:

The specified Setup script file (J:\I386\WINNT.SIF) is inaccessible or invalid. Contact your system administrator.
After Googling, no, there are no spaces and comma's in there...

So still no go, and without the unattended switch the setup started (no harddrive error this time) but it was not unattended, so cancelled it.

[wimb]

You should not use winnt32.exe

Launch USB_XP_Setup.exe from PStart Menu to prepare your Target drive for Install of XP.
Info USB_XP_Setup.exe of U_XP_SET package http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21883