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Which tool to enlarge Windows system drive (C:)?


Best Answer alacran , 04 July 2021 - 04:29 AM

Also, each time I reboot, Windows wants to check a drive.  So I allowed it, and it checked drive E: and said it had fixed it.  Huh?  Wonder what problem it found?

 

I have seen this many times after run any Linux software, and latter reboot to Windows, it seems to me when Linux shuts down do not make this process in accordance with Windows standards, and then the HD gets the dirty bit (related to a not well closed sesion on the drive), that's for me the main reason to avoid as much as possible using Linux tools, especially if there are very good free Windows tools that can do same tasks without this irritating inconvenience.  Best are MiniTool Partition Wizard Free and DiskGenius Portable  (also free), I have even cloned NT compressed + Compacted LZX drives to/from VHDs with both ot them in just a few minutes.

 

I usually only have Linux installed on one PC dedicated to it at home, my favorites are Linux Mint and Linux Lite, both derivated from Ubuntu, of course I have also both installed on VHDs (that I can boot anywhere from grub2 and grub4dos on MBR and also UEFI), also Porteus, FossaDog and Puppy Linux are on my USB.

 

It's very easy to create a Win10XPE and include your favorite (Windows) Partition and recovery tools, and a big etc.

 

 DiskGenius Portable runs very fine from a WinPE, it even has an option to create a DiskGenius WinPE Bootable USB drive, haven't used as I make my own WinPEs.

 

alacran

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#26 relynx

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Posted 02 July 2021 - 08:41 AM

...

'Finding puppy main sfs file.   failed'

...

Been there while playing with Grub4DOS awhile ago.
Since I discovered Ventoy, I now stick to it to boot all sort of ISOs.
No more fiddling with correct menu entries to boot.
Ventoy does all the hard work for you (-> supported ISO list).

I'm not sure if Ventoy can boot from a logical partition, but since I
like it so much, I'm using it as my primary bootloader for new setups
(internal hard drive, USB stick, VirtualBox VMs, ...).

In your use case, maybe you would like to look at grubfm by a1ive.
You can chainload grubfm from your Grub4DOS setup.


As of how to boot Puppy ISO, try this one to fix your problem:
reboot.pro: Puppy Linux ISO boot from PXE

title Puppy Live CD
find --set-root /images/fossapup64-9.5.iso
map /images/fossapup64-9.5.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /vmlinuz iso-scan/filename=/images/fossapup64-9.5.iso
initrd /initrd.gz

 

.

 



#27 Guest_AnonVendetta_*

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Posted 02 July 2021 - 10:37 AM

@Wonko: i highly doubt that such an old 2012 version of Parted Magic would properly recognize his NVMe SSD. NVMe support wasnt added to GParted until v0.24.0 (2015). But it's up to him to find out.

#28 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 02 July 2021 - 12:44 PM

@Wonko: i highly doubt that such an old 2012 version of Parted Magic would properly recognize his NVMe SSD. NVMe support wasnt added to GParted until v0.24.0 (2015). But it's up to him to find out.

Which is good, since the idea seems to be that of changing the partitioning of the "old" (I believe, simple, SATA :unsure: ) SSD, since "Data" has been moved to the new SSD and thus there is more space available on the "old" device.

 

Now, if that is a "smart" idea (using the newest, fastest device as "Data" storage only) is up to debate, but the original idea seems to me like that one.

 

:duff:

Wonko



#29 karyonix

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Posted 02 July 2021 - 01:34 PM

The recovery partition created by Windows Setup only contains WinRE.

You can use reagentc command to disable and enable WinRE.

 

This instruction is for deleting and re-creating recovery partition.

1. Disable WinRE. Do this before you delete recovery partition. Winre.wim is moved from recovery partition to C:\Windows\System32\Recovery during the process.

reagentc /disable

2. Delete recovery partition using diskpart.

list disk

select disk 0

list partition

select partition 2

detail partition

delete partition override

3. Extend Windows partition using Disk Management. Leave some free space for new recovery partition (eg. 512MB).

4. Create new recovery partition using Disk Management. Format as NTFS quick.

5. Change recovery partition type to 27 using diskpart.

list partition

select partition 2

detail partition

set id=27

6. Re-enable WinRE. Winre.wim is moved from C:\Windows\System32\Recovery to recovery partition during the process.

reagentc /enable

ReAgent.xml and BCD are updated by reagentc. There is no need to manually edit them.


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#30 Al Gorithm

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Posted 03 July 2021 - 05:53 PM

Been there while playing with Grub4DOS awhile ago.
As of how to boot Puppy ISO, try this one to fix your problem:
reboot.pro: Puppy Linux ISO boot from PXE

title Puppy Live CD
find --set-root /images/fossapup64-9.5.iso
map /images/fossapup64-9.5.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /vmlinuz iso-scan/filename=/images/fossapup64-9.5.iso
initrd /initrd.gz

.

 

Thank you!  This worked, and it is valuable, since GParted in Puppy has much nicer graphics than the ones I saw from the GParted Live .iso!



#31 Al Gorithm

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Posted 03 July 2021 - 05:58 PM

Okay, next I'm going to try E2B, but meanwhile just wanted to throw this out for your consideration:

 

When trying to boot GParted from G4D, it flashes some info on the screen and then immediately returns to the G4D menu.  But in that information that it flashes, I see this:

(hd1,5)

 

Now, I'm convinced that it should be (hd1,6):  on the second hard drive (hd1), there are two logical partitions, D: and E:, with G4D being on E:.  So, shouldn't the second logical partition (E:) be 6, rather than 5?  Could this have anything to do with the failure to boot, and if so, how to correct it?



#32 karyonix

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Posted 03 July 2021 - 06:48 PM

Now, I'm convinced that it should be (hd1,6):  on the second hard drive (hd1), there are two logical partitions, D: and E:, with G4D being on E:.  So, shouldn't the second logical partition (E:) be 6, rather than 5?  Could this have anything to do with the failure to boot, and if so, how to correct it?

In GRUB4DOS, 0 to 3 are primary partitions. 4 is first logical partition. 5 is second logical partition.



#33 Al Gorithm

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Posted 03 July 2021 - 07:17 PM

In GRUB4DOS, 0 to 3 are primary partitions. 4 is first logical partition. 5 is second logical partition.

Okay, that explains it, thanks.  In some other tool, I'm sure I saw (hd1,6), but perhaps that tool was using base 1 rather than base 0.

 

EDIT:  Yes, in GParted, the partitions begin with 1, so second logical is 6.


Edited by Al Gorithm, 03 July 2021 - 08:06 PM.


#34 Al Gorithm

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Posted 03 July 2021 - 08:29 PM

Oh, NO!  I installed E2B to the flash drive, copied some .iso files, and ran.  It allowed me to run the .iso files (so far, I've only tried GParted Live), and, as suggested above, I examined the parameters, and copied them to my G4D menu on E:.

 

Then to test, I rebooted, and from the BCD menu I selected GRUB4DOS as usual, but it did not show the G4D menu!  Instead, it says something about volume name being 'E2B', and then dropping me into a G4D prompt.

 

It appears as though installing E2B on the flash drive, has done something either to my E: drive, or to the BCD menu!!  How to recover?

 

Added:  In the G4D prompt, pressing ESC clears screen and shows a table:

MBR (LBA0)
-----------------
000001BE:  80 20 21 00  07 BE 12 2C  00 08 00 00  00 F0 0A 00
000001CE:  00 BE 13 2C  07 FE FF FF  00 F8 0A 00  F7 85 C5 0D
000001DE:  00 FE FF FF  27 FE FF FF  00 80 D0 0D  00 B0 1A 00
000001EE:  00 FE FF FF  27 FE FF FF  00 38 EB 0D  00 08 0E 00

EXTRA PARTITION FOUND! ^^

ERROR:  PARTITION TABLE ENTRY #4 (Type=0x27) MUST BE EMPTY!

Press C and [Enter] to delete it : 


Pressing ESC again seems to list the hd0 partitions, and then says:

 

ERROR:  hd0 does not seem to be an E2B drive!  Press a key for grub4dos console...

 

which then drops me back to the G4D prompt, from which I reboot.

 

My hd0 layout is:

 

| Windows Reserved | Windows System C: | Windows Recovery | Windows Recovery |

 

It has been that way for as long as I remember, with two Recovery partitions (four total primary partitions), so I don't think that error about the fourth partition table entry is correct!


Edited by Al Gorithm, 03 July 2021 - 09:07 PM.


#35 Al Gorithm

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Posted 03 July 2021 - 10:28 PM

So, when I remove the flash drive, then G4D boots from E: without problem.  Plug the flash drive back in, and the same problem occurs.  Remove the flash drive, and boot E: G4D okay.  Hmm... once the BCD menu loads grldr.mbr from E:, shouldn't it search for grldr on the drives in order, therefore E: before M: (the flash drive)?

 

Also, each time I reboot, Windows wants to check a drive.  So I allowed it, and it checked drive E: and said it had fixed it.  Huh?  Wonder what problem it found?



#36 karyonix

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Posted 04 July 2021 - 12:38 AM

Drive number is assigned by BIOS. Drive letter from Windows does not exist at boot time.

In this case (hd0) is Windows drive. I guess (hd1) is E2B drive, (hd2) is GRUB4DOS drive.

Some BIOS may allow user to rearrange hard drive order. But the order can be broken when you add or remove some drive. If you depend on correct drive order you may have to enter BIOS setting every time you plug/unplug a USB flash drive with GRUB or GRUB4DOS in it but want to use GRUB4DOS in internal drive.

 

My suggestion is to install GRUB4DOS GRLDR in the same drive as BOOTMGR and put your menu.lst in the same partition as GRLDR.



#37 alacran

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Posted 04 July 2021 - 04:29 AM   Best Answer

Also, each time I reboot, Windows wants to check a drive.  So I allowed it, and it checked drive E: and said it had fixed it.  Huh?  Wonder what problem it found?

 

I have seen this many times after run any Linux software, and latter reboot to Windows, it seems to me when Linux shuts down do not make this process in accordance with Windows standards, and then the HD gets the dirty bit (related to a not well closed sesion on the drive), that's for me the main reason to avoid as much as possible using Linux tools, especially if there are very good free Windows tools that can do same tasks without this irritating inconvenience.  Best are MiniTool Partition Wizard Free and DiskGenius Portable  (also free), I have even cloned NT compressed + Compacted LZX drives to/from VHDs with both ot them in just a few minutes.

 

I usually only have Linux installed on one PC dedicated to it at home, my favorites are Linux Mint and Linux Lite, both derivated from Ubuntu, of course I have also both installed on VHDs (that I can boot anywhere from grub2 and grub4dos on MBR and also UEFI), also Porteus, FossaDog and Puppy Linux are on my USB.

 

It's very easy to create a Win10XPE and include your favorite (Windows) Partition and recovery tools, and a big etc.

 

 DiskGenius Portable runs very fine from a WinPE, it even has an option to create a DiskGenius WinPE Bootable USB drive, haven't used as I make my own WinPEs.

 

alacran



#38 Guest_AnonVendetta_*

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Posted 04 July 2021 - 05:27 AM

I have seen this many times after run any Linux software, and latter reboot to Windows, it seems to me when Linux shuts down do not make this process in accordance with Windows standards, and then the HD gets the dirty bit (related to a not well closed sesion on the drive), that's for me the main reason to avoid as much as possible using Linux tools, especially if there are very good free Windows tools that can do same tasks without this irritating inconvenience.  Best are MiniTool Partition Wizard Free and DiskGenius Portable  (also free), I have even cloned NT compressed + Compacted LZX drives to/from VHDs with both ot them in just a few minutes.
alacran


I honestly think you're wrong here, i dual boot windows and various linux distros all the time. And my NTFS partitions are mounted in linux at boot time, by default (i configured them to do this).

When i reboot into windows, it very, very rarely checks the volumes. I think you're mistakenly blaming this on linux, even though the cause is most likely something else.

#39 karyonix

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Posted 04 July 2021 - 07:29 AM

I have seen this many times after run any Linux software, and latter reboot to Windows, it seems to me when Linux shuts down do not make this process in accordance with Windows standards, and then the HD gets the dirty bit (related to a not well closed sesion on the drive), ...

 

If you move or resize NTFS partition in Linux using gparted, it is normal. ntfsresize tool always mark resized NTFS for consistency check.

But if this happens every time Linux is booted, it is not normal.

One possibility is the partition is not unmounted properly because some files inside that partition is still in used during shutdown. Are your Linux systems run from disk image inside NTFS partition ?

Another possibility is Windows fast startup. Have you disabled fast startup in Windows ?



#40 Guest_AnonVendetta_*

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Posted 04 July 2021 - 08:31 AM

Just to say, I'm currently multibooting the following distros alongside Windows 10 Enterprise, with the circumstances listed in my last post:

Arch Linux
Manjaro
ArchBang
Gentoo
Debian
Fedora Workstation
Kali Linux
Linux Mint
openSUSE
Slackware

It's actually been months since i last saw a volume check when booting Windows, and I jump between Windows/Linux frequently. I also access my NTFS partitions in Linux (writable).

I also always have hibernation and fast startup disabled. There's no need to have these turned on, since all my OSes boot from NVMe SSDs. I have nothing to gain by enabling them.

#41 alacran

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Posted 04 July 2021 - 08:32 AM

Hi karyonis, it is nice to talk with you again.

 

I don't run Linux Software from internal disks anymore on PCs having Windows installed on them since long time ago.

 

Windows fast startup is always dissabled on all my PCs. I consider it an stupid feature created only to make the people think the Os boots very fast.

 

But every time I run any Linux software (ISO, VHD on NTFS partition, or frugal installed versions of Puppy and similars on FAT-32 partition) booting by means of A1ve's grub2 and/or grub4dos (on MBR and/or UEFI) from the USB device, next time I plug that USB device Windows always (with no exception) wants to scan it as if it were improperly dismounted during shut down or reboot, anyway usually it never founds any problem but I hate this ridiculous waste of time.

 

alacran



#42 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 04 July 2021 - 09:05 AM

@al

About:

 

 

EXTRA PARTITION FOUND! ^^

ERROR: PARTITION TABLE ENTRY #4 (Type=0x27) MUST BE EMPTY!

Press C and [Enter] to delete it :

 

That is a warning as E2B - in order to boot some (Linux) .iso's - uses a "trick" that needs to use a partition entry, the so-called "fake partition" or "partnew" one, originally discovered/documented by cdob

 

See:

http://reboot.pro/in...ic=9916&p=88531

 

 When grldr boots. it looks for menu.lst on all drives, for *some* reasons (due to your BIOS boot order, or *whatever*) most probably in your current setup when you are booting from the internal disk, and load grldr (via BOOTMGR and \boot\BCD) the grldr finds first the menu.lst that is on the (E2B) USB stick before the one on the internal disk.

 

Once you are in grub4dos command line, you can manually "switch" to *any* menu.lst, by issuing a command (example, assuming that your menu.lst is in root of (hd1,5)):

configfile (hd1,5)/menu.lst

 

The setting to look for menu.lst everywhere is in the embedded menu.lst (last few lines of grldr or grub.exe) for a "static" install of grub4dos, particularly if the menu.lst is in some "strange" location, it would make IMHO sense to "hardcode" it to a "fixed" location or put it in a "non-standard" named folder instead of root and modify the search logic.

 

:duff:

Wonko



#43 Al Gorithm

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Posted 05 July 2021 - 08:51 PM

Based on @alacran's post (and also mentioned by @antonino61), I used DiskGenius portable to get the job done.  (The original question was which tool to use to extend the Windows system (C:) drive).  He mentioned that tool, as well as MiniTool.  I have used Minitool in the past, and liked it, but its most recent versions have require the paid version for many functions, including resizing the system partition.  His post also mentioned DiskGenius being able to create its own WinPE bootable USB drive, which feature I used, and it worked well.

 

In addition, DiskGenius allowed the C: drive to be extended with the free space that was on the other side of the Recovery partition, and it automatically moved the Recovery partition to the end of the free space.  That was very convenient!

 

I found the DiskGenius UI, and its operation, to be less intuitive and harder to use than some of the other tools.  But functionally, with all the capabilities offered (even in the free version), I rate it tops, and wouldn't hesitate to use it again.

 

Immediately before running the DiskGenius WinPE (which I had previously created), I used Clonezilla to back up the system and recovery partitions.  Immediately after running DiskGenius, and booting into Windows without any issue, I ran Disk Management, and it showed everything as it should be, with the recovery partition apparently intact.

 

@karyonix, thanks for your posts with instructions on handling the Recovery partition.  DiskGenius apparently took care of that automatically, but if it hadn't, or if any issues should arise involving the recovery partition, your instructions will be very helpful.

 

Thanks to all who offered suggestions.  I've marked this thread as answered, since the original question has been addressed.  But I still intend to follow up and try to get some of the mentioned tools working under GRUB4DOS.

 

@AnonVendetta  suggested using Easy2Boot to run the tools, and then examine the parameters used there, which I did.  It was a good suggestion, but unfortunately using the discovered parameters didn't result in success.  I've still had no success with GParted under G4D, although that's less of an issue now, since GParted can be run with Puppy Linux under G4D.  But it would still be nice to solve.

 

SystemRescueCD has been a little bit better, and I feel that a solution may be close.  Based on this SystemRescueCD website page:  https://www.system-r...ue_on_the_disk/ I have the .iso booting under G4D to a more advanced stage, but it is now showing:
 

:: Mounting 'dev/disk/by-label' to '/run/archiso/bootmnt'

Waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-label/ ...

ERROR:

 

On the page mentioned, it says that archisolabel must be set to the label of the NTFS filesystem which contains systemrescuecd.  I've tried setting it to the label of the E: (FAT32) drive where the systemresuecd .iso is located, which resulted in the above error.  I've also tried setting it to 'RESCUE803' which is what is used in the configuration file in the .iso itself, but with no change.  I really don't know what it wants to have that parameter set to.

 

So that's the status to this point.  Any further comments welcome.



#44 Guest_AnonVendetta_*

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Posted 05 July 2021 - 10:42 PM

You dont normally need to keep the recovery partition anyway. I've always found that it's not necessary. Just delete the partition, delete the boot folder (whereever it's located), then run the bcdboot command to generate new boot files/entries. It should also create a Recovery folder in the root of the C drive, if it doesnt exist there already. I like to keep both my Boot and Recovery folders in C drive, it's just less hassle that way.

Do you boot Windows in legacy CSM/MBR mode, or UEFI?

Before i forget, that recovery partition could be an OEM partition placed there by the PC manufacturer (umlikely, if you've wiped the drive before and clean installed Windows). If you're going to delete it, i'd check its' contents first, and backup the entire partition (not just the files in it) if it looks like it contains anything important.

About the label thing, some Linux distros do check the label of the disc/ISO that's being booted, and will fail to boot if it doesnt find the label it's looking for. I used to have this issue with Arch Linux, but it's long since been fixed. This is why i recommend just booting the ISO instead of creating a USB.

#45 Al Gorithm

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Posted 05 July 2021 - 11:49 PM

The system is self-built with a Gigabyte mainboard, and Windows clean install, so it's not an OEM partition--just the standard Windows Recovery partition.  It's only 450MiB, and doesn't bother me at all.  The system is fully UEFI capable, but I've set it up as CSM.

 

Did you ever find a solution/workaround for the label issue?



#46 alacran

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Posted 05 July 2021 - 11:55 PM

@ Al Gorithm

 

It is good to know now all is working as you want.

 

About:

 

I have used Minitool in the past, and liked it, but its most recent versions have require the paid version for many functions, including resizing the system partition.

 

I still have the old MiniTool Partition Wizard Free v9.1 and do not have plans to update to new version. It works very fine so far. Not always newer is better.

 

About:

 

His post also mentioned DiskGenius being able to create its own WinPE bootable USB drive, which feature I used, and it worked well.

 

It's good you confirmed it creates its own WinPE and it worked fine, I haven't tested this before as never needed.

 

Now I think it is not a bad idea if you also follow this other suggestion:

 

 

It's very easy to create a Win10XPE and include your favorite (Windows) Partition and recovery tools, and a big etc.

 

Then you can have a full set of tools in a single WinPE, And also will be capable to run many other Portable Programs from it.

 

NOTE: The download includes all required to integrate MiniTool Partition Wizard Free v9.1 (The good old version not so chopped as the new free version).  Also you can integrate DikGenius free.

 

alacran



#47 Guest_AnonVendetta_*

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Posted 06 July 2021 - 12:07 AM

Did you ever find a solution/workaround for the label issue?


YES! And if you had read the last few sentences of my previous post, you would have seen my answer.

Now that I'm sufficiently annoyed, i will stay out of this thread from here onwards.

#48 relynx

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Posted 06 July 2021 - 11:18 AM

....

 

:: Mounting 'dev/disk/by-label' to '/run/archiso/bootmnt'

Waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-label/ ...

ERROR:

...

 

  • That's your output. What's your input?

    Imagine you would like to help someone posting a question like yours. How could you do that with that much info given?
    Seeing how you approach the problem, I'm tending to the conclusion that Grub4DOS is not the right tool for you. If you just want to boot ISOs, there are simpler solutions out there. If you want to be proficient with Grub4DOS and use it as your main bootloader, then you should begin to learn how to debug your menu.lst. Wonko already stated it elsewhere something remotely like this: "Drop to Grub4DOS shell and type the lines of your boot entry."

    HINT: Boot Puppy and type in terminal.
    ls -al /dev/disk/by-label/

 

  • Anyway, here are some pics to showcase how easy it is nowadays to boot ISOs.

 

...

It is as easy as:

  1. Create boot stick with Ventoy installer.
  2. Drop ISO into first partition.
  3. Boot.

 

.

[PIC01: Ventoy F6 - Custom menu]

51294293169_c5d6272d8e_b.jpg

.

[PIC02: Ventoy - ISO menu]

51293577966_9edbc10bcd_b.jpg

.

[PIC03: Grubfm - ISO menu]

51293577956_b9e4b2aee7_b.jpg

.

[PIC04: Grubfm - SystemRescue ISO selected]

51293753593_cf9a59c479_b.jpg

.

[PIC05: Grubfm - SystemRescue boot menu select]

51294293104_633020a3ee_b.jpg

.

[PIC06: Grubfm - SystemRescue booted shell]

51294580920_75c455f0a2_b.jpg

.

[PIC07: Grubfm - SystemRescue X-Windows]

51294293054_9590894352_b.jpg

.

[PIC08: Ventoy - Boot ISO directly from ISO menu]

-> [PIC02: Ventoy - ISO menu]

51292829917_10077531a1_b.jpg

.






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