600 replies to this topic

[nice_guy75]

I will prefer to use following partition order in GPT partitioned HDD Box 
 
(ESP1-ESP2-BIOS Boot Partition-MULTIBOOT-macOS Mojave Installer-DATA-...)
 
Still waiting for MBT 2.3.0......

I'm a newbie, if you can explain little bit in detail I can try.

[Wonko the Sane]

I don't know what is the problem, it is GPT, my laptop has UEFI, still not booting into 4 TB HDD, I'm on Windows 10.

I've no idea how can I make entire HDD bootable or any partition of that HDD bootable, tried different methods, tried with diskpart, used YUMI, but not booting into 4TB HDD. By the way how can I change sector size of my HDD, and would it make my HDD bootable. I want to make just one partition bootable.

You see, "i used diskpart" or "I used Yumi" makes no sense as a report, there are tens of commands available in diskpart and tens of options in Yumi, so it is the same as saying "I tried but failed", it gives no real information on what you may have made wrong or what issues the program(s) may have encountered.

 

If you want to have a USB disk 4kb sectored booting Windows 8 or later, you can use the "successor" of this thread's topic, the WinNTSetup:

https://msfn.org/boa...inntsetup-v392/

 

Maybe you should start from there (have a working Windows 10 booting from the USB disk) before attempting any other thing.

 

Alternatively to the above, you can try using the simpler WintoUSB tool:

https://www.pcmag.co...rom-a-usb-drive

https://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/

 

Wonko

[nice_guy75]

You see, "i used diskpart" or "I used Yumi" makes no sense as a report, there are tens of commands available in diskpart and tens of options in Yumi, so it is the same as saying "I tried but failed", it gives no real information on what you may have made wrong or what issues the program(s) may have encountered.

If you want to have a USB disk 4kb sectored booting Windows 8 or later, you can use the "successor" of this thread's topic, the WinNTSetup:
https://msfn.org/boa...inntsetup-v392/

Maybe you should start from there (have a working Windows 10 booting from the USB disk) before attempting any other thing.

Alternatively to the above, you can try using the simpler WintoUSB tool:
https://www.pcmag.co...rom-a-usb-drive
https://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/


Wonko

Ok, primarily I used YUMI to create a installation media, I selected "Multiple Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 -bootmgr" as well as "Single Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 installer" but when I selected my 4TB HDD from boot options, it gave me a message "Operating System missing" and booted from my internal HDD.
I have also tried with WinToUSB and installed windows 7 in mbr partitioned HDD, in which only one partition of 2TB was there and the rest space was left unallocated, but it didn't boot in my office PC which has BIOS, though it did boot in my laptop which has UEFI but only for few seconds and gave me BSOD (Blue Screen on Death), tried 2-3 times but gave me BSOD all the times and didn't boot into my mbr partitioned 4TB HDD.

As I have already installed Windows 7 in my office PC now I want to make one of the partitions of my HDD as installation drive so that I don't need to create bootable pendrive every time I want to install any OS in my lappy or in any other PC,

Edited by nice_guy75, 17 October 2018 - 01:12 PM.

[Wonko the Sane]

Again there is a point that you seem to have not yet grasped.

 I know that it is complex, let's see if I can explain it.

 

Disks can be:

1) 512 bytes sectored
2) 4 Kb (4096 bytes) sectored BUT exposing a 512 bytes sectoring through an internal translation
3) 4 kb sectored AND exposing 4kb sectors

 

Additionally USB enclosures can be of three types:

A. pass-through (no changes to what the internal disk exposes)
B. translating to 512 (no matter if the internal disk exposes 512 or 4096)

C. translating to 4 kb (no matter if the internal disk exposes 512 or 4096)

 

Windows OS up to 7 can EXCLUSIVELY boot (via BIOS or UEFI) the combinations resulting in 512 bytes sectors exposed:

A.1, A.2, B.1, B.2, B.3

Windows OS later than 7 can boot the same as above and additionally, BUT through UEFI only:

A.3, C.1, C.2, C.3 

 

To further complicate the matter, the BIOS will only boot from MBR formatted disks, whilst the UEFI may boot, besides GPT formatted ones, also MBR disks.

 

The BSOD you had is actually a "good" sign, it means that at least the initial part of the booting worked.

 

Still, if the disk drive exposes 4 kb sectors it won't boot in BIOS.

 

Post the EXACT model of the Seagate 4 TB drive you are now testing with, maube it is possible to understand from its datasheet which kind of disk drive it is and which sector size is ezposed to the OS.

 

Wonko

[nice_guy75]

Again there is a point that you seem to have not yet grasped.

 I know that it is complex, let's see if I can explain it.

 

Disks can be:

1) 512 bytes sectored
2) 4 Kb (4096 bytes) sectored BUT exposing a 512 bytes sectoring through an internal translation
3) 4 kb sectored AND exposing 4kb sectors

 

Additionally USB enclosures can be of three types:

A. pass-through (no changes to what the internal disk exposes)
B. translating to 512 (no matter if the internal disk exposes 512 or 4096)

C. translating to 4 kb (no matter if the internal disk exposes 512 or 4096)

 

Windows OS up to 7 can EXCLUSIVELY boot (via BIOS or UEFI) the combinations resulting in 512 bytes sectors exposed:

A.1, A.2, B.1, B.2, B.3

Windows OS later than 7 can boot the same as above and additionally, BUT through UEFI only:

A.3, C.1, C.2, C.3 

 

To further complicate the matter, the BIOS will only boot from MBR formatted disks, whilst the UEFI may boot, besides GPT formatted ones, also MBR disks.

 

The BSOD you had is actually a "good" sign, it means that at least the initial part of the booting worked.

 

Still, if the disk drive exposes 4 kb sectors it won't boot in BIOS.

 

Post the EXACT model of the Seagate 4 TB drive you are now testing with, maube it is possible to understand from its datasheet which kind of disk drive it is and which sector size is ezposed to the OS.

 

Wonko

This is the exact model of my seagate 4TB HDD "STDR4000302", link is https://www.amazon.i...00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Secondly I have formatted the disk on my Windows 10 laptop which has EUFI so I guess default sector size is 4kb. Once I did format it on BIOS system that time sector size must be 512byte this was the time when I used win2usb and installed windows 7 in 2TB mbr partition and rest space unallocated,  which did not boot on BIOS windows 7 system (my office PC) but did boot on UEFI system (My laptop) for few second and gave me BSOD. About enclosure I really have no idea, because enclosure was came with the disk itself.

Edited by nice_guy75, 17 October 2018 - 02:14 PM.

[nice_guy75]

I am wondering why can't I make only one partition bootable in GPT partitioned HDD. I can't make one partition active using diskpart it says "The selected dsik is not a fixed mbr disk. The active command can only be used on fixed mbr disks."

How can I make a single partition of my 4TB GPT partitioned disk bootable. Bootable for installation of windows. YUMI is not working, Rufus only work on USBs it doesn't show HDD in device section.

If you can guide me about any such application which can make only one partition bootable of GPT partitioned disk and I can use other partitions for keeping my data.

[Wonko the Sane]

The link you posted is for a 5 TB (not 4 TB), and it is a STDR5000302, anyway, if yours is STDR4000302 it seems like an Asian market only disk drive and there are seemingly no detailed specs on Seagate's site:
https://www.seagate....kup-plus/#specs
 
However, if you have a computer running windows 10 check what fsutil sees:
https://docs.microso...s/fsutil-fsinfo
fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo <driveletter>
 
You should get *something like*:

D:\>fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo d:

LogicalBytesPerSector : 4096
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 4096

 
Or try using Powershell:
https://superuser.co...ve-any-recogniz
 

Wonko

[nice_guy75]

The link you posted is for a 5 TB (not 4 TB), and it is a STDR5000302, anyway, if yours is STDR4000302 it seems like an Asian market only disk drive and there are seemingly no detailed specs on Seagate's site:
https://www.seagate....kup-plus/#specs
 
However, if you have a computer running windows 10 check what fsutil sees:
https://docs.microso...s/fsutil-fsinfo
fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo <driveletter>
 
You should get *something like*:
 
Or try using Powershell:
https://superuser.co...ve-any-recogniz
 

Wonko

That was a mistake the same model with 4TB capacity. I ran your command and got this result.

 

LogicalBytesPerSector :                                                            512
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity :                                      4096
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance :                                4096
FileSystemEffectivePhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity :      4096
Device Alignment :                                                                    Aligned (0x000)
Partition alignment on device :                                                  Aligned (0x000)
Performs Normal Seeks
Trim Not Supported
Not DAX capable
Not Thinly-Provisioned

 

Edited by nice_guy75, 17 October 2018 - 02:48 PM.

[Wonko the Sane]

So the disk is a 512plus (i.e. A.2 or B.2 in the previous list.

This is coherent with your report of being able to format it as MBR with a 2 Tb sized volume under 7.

This is a "problem":

I am wondering why can't I make only one partition bootable in GPT partitioned HDD. I can't make one partition active using diskpart it says "The selected dsik is not a fixed mbr disk. The active command can only be used on fixed mbr disks."

Diskpart is perfectly right.

The "concept" of "active partition" does NOT EXIST on GPT partitioned hard disks, what you tried doing is nonsensical, an "active" partition flag only exists on MBR disks.


You will need to understand the basics of GPT, otherwise we are going to have some serious miscommunications, in GPT the function of a partition is given by its GUID.

How can I make a single partition of my 4TB GPT partitioned disk bootable. Bootable for installation of windows. YUMI is not working, Rufus only work on USBs it doesn't show HDD in device section.
If you can guide me about any such application which can make only one partition bootable of GPT partitioned disk and I can use other partitions for keeping my data.

It is strange that Rufus does not work in your case, cannot say about Yumi, WintoUSB is reported as working just fine by many people, maybe you are doing something wrong.

In any case you want something *like* a "WindowsToGo" install, try following thie WinToUSB guide:
https://www.easyuefi...ISO-To-USB.html

You want (because you have a 4 TB disk) to use GPT, hence:
https://www.easyuefi...mbr-to-gpt.html

Then you want to create a small (100-300 MB) EFI partition (which is the equivalent for UEFI of the "active" partition, that MUST be formatted as FAT32), and create a suitably sized partition for the Windows install (that MUST be NTFS formatted), then use the rest of the disk available space for one or more "data" partitions, see:
https://www.easyuefi...-partition.html
https://www.disk-par...ition-4348.html


Wonko

[nice_guy75]

So the disk is a 512plus (i.e. A.2 or B.2 in the previous list.

This is coherent with your report of being able to format it as MBR with a 2 Tb sized volume under 7.

This is a "problem":

Diskpart is perfectly right.

The "concept" of "active partition" does NOT EXIST on GPT partitioned hard disks, what you tried doing is nonsensical, an "active" partition flag only exists on MBR disks.


You will need to understand the basics of GPT, otherwise we are going to have some serious miscommunications, in GPT the function of a partition is given by its GUID.



It is strange that Rufus does not work in your case, cannot say about Yumi, WintoUSB is reported as working just fine by many people, maybe you are doing something wrong.

In any case you want something *like* a "WindowsToGo" install, try following thie WinToUSB guide:
https://www.easyuefi...ISO-To-USB.html

You want (because you have a 4 TB disk) to use GPT, hence:
https://www.easyuefi...mbr-to-gpt.html

Then you want to create a small (100-300 MB) EFI partition (which is the equivalent for UEFI of the "active" partition, that MUST be formatted as FAT32), and create a suitably sized partition for the Windows install (that MUST be NTFS formatted), then use the rest of the disk available space for one or more "data" partitions, see:
https://www.easyuefi...-partition.html
https://www.disk-par...ition-4348.html


Wonko

I must appreciate your passions, You have been very helpful to me right from June. I have understood most of the things, but I guess I am unable to make you understand something very important. Win2usb did work for me when I tried to install windows 7 on USB, the USB is still working fine, but when I used the same application with HDD, it gave me BSOD. After this reply from you, I tried once again and got the same result. I closely looked my internal HDD and figure out that it is mbr partitioned, means my internal HDD is mbr partitioned, is this the only reason I am unable to boot?

I have created a 300mb EFI partition using diskpart and around 600gb partition for keeping installation files but now my problem is how to add boot sector in external 3TB HDD? Is mbr partition of my internal HDD causing problem for me? I have tried AOMEI and EaseUS partition applications to convert mbr partition to GPT partition but both application gave me some error and rebooted, but did change my partition from mbr to gpt. I have backed up my data of internal HDD and then I would try to convert mbr to gpt using diskpart. I have prepared a WinPE bootable media disk of EaseUS partition application, backed up all my data of Internal HDD, also took backup of my system partition using ATI and now I would first try to boot form EaseUS WinPE bootable media and then try to convert partition of my internal HDD from mbr to GPT. If I failed to do it I would then create Installation of Media of Windows 10 in my 32GB Pendrive and then try to Install Windows 10 on GPT partition and then would restore Acronis backup of my system drive.

 

Would report you the result soon.

[Wonko the Sane]

You are still confused.

 

BIOS can normally boot MBR disks ONLY[1].
UEFI can boot GPT disks and - with some particular settings/formatting also MBR.

Windows 7 and WIndows 10, although similar have different boot capabilities.

You are flip-flopping between installing Windows 7 and Windows 10 on that 4 TB USB disk, and now you are back to the other 3 TB one?

They are DIFFERENT.

To use the whole 4 TB[2] you MUST partition the disk as GPT as it exposes 512 bytes logical sectors.
If you could use the whole 3 TB of the "other" disk when it was MBR partitioned, it means that it exposes 4kb sectors, you won't be able to boot 7 from a 4 kb sectored disk, Windows 10 in UEFI, maybe..

 

Quick sum together:

1) choose one OS and one OS only
2) choose one USB disk and one USB disk only

3) explain what you would like to do with the chosen OS and with the chosen disk.

 

Stop doing random things, having an internal MBR disks or having it GPT won't change anything.

 

Wonko




[1]it is possible through some complex workaround to boot GPT disks from BIOS, but the whole stuff procedure is complex/experimental and definitely not usable/implementable at your current level of experience/knowledge.
[2]it is possible through some complex workaround to have two 2 TB volumes when the disk is MBR, but the whole stuff procedure is complex/experimental and definitely not usable/implementable at your current level of experience/knowledge.

[nice_guy75]

You are still confused.

 

BIOS can normally boot MBR disks ONLY[1].
UEFI can boot GPT disks and - with some particular settings/formatting also MBR.

Windows 7 and WIndows 10, although similar have different boot capabilities.

You are flip-flopping between installing Windows 7 and Windows 10 on that 4 TB USB disk, and now you are back to the other 3 TB one?

They are DIFFERENT.

To use the whole 4 TB[2] you MUST partition the disk as GPT as it exposes 512 bytes logical sectors.
If you could use the whole 3 TB of the "other" disk when it was MBR partitioned, it means that it exposes 4kb sectors, you won't be able to boot 7 from a 4 kb sectored disk, Windows 10 in UEFI, maybe..

 

Quick sum together:

1) choose one OS and one OS only
2) choose one USB disk and one USB disk only

3) explain what you would like to do with the chosen OS and with the chosen disk.

 

Stop doing random things, having an internal MBR disks or having it GPT won't change anything.

 

Wonko




[1]it is possible through some complex workaround to boot GPT disks from BIOS, but the whole stuff procedure is complex/experimental and definitely not usable/implementable at your current level of experience/knowledge.
[2]it is possible through some complex workaround to have two 2 TB volumes when the disk is MBR, but the whole stuff procedure is complex/experimental and definitely not usable/implementable at your current level of experience/knowledge.

As I said it is my mistake I am not able to explain properly.

See, Now I don't want a Windows on the Go. Still on your suggestion I tried Win2USB and as I said, It gave me BSOD, never mind it is not my objective now.

 

What I want is......................................... a bootable partition from which I can boot into that partition, which has installation files of windows, of my 4TB HDD, using my UEFI laptop to install Windows 7 / 8 / 10. I am repeating myself, I DON'T WANT A WINDOWS ON THE GO NOW.

So all in all I just want a bootable partition for INSTALLATION OF WINDOWS NOT FOR WINDOWS ON THE GO this time round.

I have already converted my internal HDD from mbr to GPT, converted my 4TB HDD into GPT, created a EFI partition of 300mb with fat32 file system and created a 600 gb partition and placed installation files in 600 gb partition. When I boot my laptop and select External 4TB HDD as my boot device it says "Operating system missing" and boot into system partition of my internal HDD. I just want my laptop of boot into my 600GB partition where I have placed all my installation files. Primarily I have placed Windows 7 Files, if you suggest, I can place Windows 10 installation files as well, but my real problem is BOOTING INTO 600GB PARTITION WHERE MY INSTALLATION FILES ARE.

 

 

I hope this time I am able to explain myself clearly.

[Wonko the Sane]

But it doesn't work this way, you won't EVER boot to the 600 GB partition, the "bootable" partition with UEFI firmware is the EFI one.

 

Once you have created the EFI partition you have to copy to it the (initial) boot files.

 

Then you need on the 600 GB partition the rest of the PE/Install.

 

This can be done manually, but it is complex, hence the nice tools such as Rufus were developed. 

 

Rufus can see USB HDD's alright, but you have to enable the "advanced" view, see here:

https://github.com/p.../rufus/wiki/FAQ

https://github.com/p...is_not_detected

 

But in your particular case Rufus is not advised:

https://github.com/p...reating_a_drive

 

If you prefer Rufus is more suited to USB sticks.

 

The suggestion to create a Windows to Go on that disk was because it is a documented way (see the given link):

https://www.easyuefi...ISO-To-USB.html

to have a bootable Windows on it.

 

If that works, then you can use it to setup/install Windows 10 from it or modify it to make to only an "install" disk, and it was also a way to check and double check that your combo (laptop+4 TB USB disk is actually bootable, the BSOD is actually a good sign, but needs to be troubleshooted)

 

Otherwise, go for the WinnTSetup:

https://msfn.org/boa...inntsetup-v392/

 

Wonko

[nice_guy75]

Thank you very much @Wonko the Sane, You really helped me a lot and finally I managed to achieve what I wanted. I utilized my festival holidays experimenting with my 4TB disk and learned a lot of new things. Now I can play with BIOS', EFIs and UEFIs, found new boot tools like AIOBOOT tool this is an amazing tool and I managed to create a multiboot Windows installer which also have Hiren Boot CD with PE, I have created a multiboot Windows installer of XP SP3, Windows 7 x86, Windows 7 x64, Windows 10 x86 and Windows 10 x64 using integration option of AIO Boot, I also managed to learn few more things from youtube.

 

Please go through this link, I hope you might be knowing about this tool but you might think that I won't be able to understand these complex issues, I have seen few videos on youtube and first learned about mbr and gpt and then experimented and finally achieved what I wanted. I more thing is left is Windows on the Go, I am sure I would be able to achieve that as well. Currently I am trying to read as many as tutorials of this tool. I came to know that I can also boot GPT disk on Legacy BIOS as well.

 

This is an amazing tool, I am loving it.

 

Thanks again for your precious time and passions.

[Wonko the Sane]

Yep, AIOBOOT  is known here on reboot.pro, as a matter of fact I believe nguyentu released it here before having aioboot.com, JFYI:

http://reboot.pro/to...r-and-syslinux/

 

And of course you are welcome .

 

Wonko 

[antonino61]

wonko the sane? yes, probably so. Even more probably, I daresay, Wonko the Best! 

Anyway, getting back to nice_guy's past problems, Would it not have been better to have, hardware architecture permitting and being prepared to do without hibernation facilities, my hybrid system, i.e. a core of system files and directories (the ones windows needs in order to get up and running to the interface) placed on a vhd residing wherever (other than the 4tb disk) and the rest of the files and dirs connected to it by junctions on the 4gb disk, or wherever else, for that matter? If I have understood correctly, this 4tb disk is mainly used for data storage, so what kinda difference does it make whether windows boots from it or not? I am no programmer or system analist, I am only a power user who loves experimenting, albeit with a meagre computer knowledge, but I can tell you that in my case, this hybrid system (as Wonko used to call it) gives me speed (I hardly ever get the feeling that I am running windows from a virtual system), data storage persistence even when I preload it into ram before bootup, as whatever windows does not strictly need on C: resides on other disks, and if anything goes wrong I simply copy a duplicate of the vhd back onto the wrong one and the system gets up and running back again. My ambition would be to shrink this vhd even further, if one could help me by telling me exactly what files from the inf and font and drivers directories my system can do without. what i have on c: (the vhd file, which now contains root files, the windows dir with inf, fonts, boot and en-us + the system32 subdirectories with the codeintegrity, config and drivers subdirectories) is what, by my experience, if moved dir by dir by the bulk someplace else out of the vhd, albeit properly connected to it by junctions, would lead to system hang. Now by common sense and personal intuition, I do not think windows needs all those files in the above mentioned directories in order to come to the interface and be "fully up and running". I presume it hangs when it does not find some files (not all of them) physically on c:. I also understand that, for example, the proper driver in the drivers subdir is vital for the system to recognize a disk containing the other files; until then, as far as the system during the bootup process is concerned, the junctions point to something that "does not exist yet". to cut a long and probably inappropriate line of reasoning short, my aim is to have on c:, be it vhd or whatever else, only what windows strictly needs on c: and the rest elsewhere. I simply would like to optimize disk space and bootup time. so far, I have managed to make c: as little as 3.850gb. can it be less than that? I would like to have nice_guy's opinion and wonko's suggestion and why not, anybody else's. Pls take it as a view to rethinking windows, at least in terms of directory location. I do not see much sense in keeping everything on c:. Oh, before I forget, if my relocation could be translated into customized and customizable directory location by registry, it would be so much the better. I just do not know how to.

Edited by antonino61, 21 October 2018 - 10:58 AM.

[Wonko the Sane]

. so far, I have managed to make c: as little as 3.850gb. can it be less than that?

Giving the (senseless) mass of bloat Windows 10 is it doesn't seem to me like a bad result for a "monolithic" image.

 

It is - more or less - what wimb managed to achieve with his "compact" project for 8/8.1:

http://reboot.pro/to...ct-make-mini-8/

 

The only way to reduce this size (for the "boot" vhd/vhdx image) is to move some parts of the OS to another volume (or another raw or vhd/vhdx image) as you already thought.

 

More or less, set aside the \boot\, the \Windows and the \users directories, all the rest may go on another volume:

https://en.wikipedia...ture#Windows_10

 

Most probably also the \users directory may be moved BUT there may be timing issues with having it residing on a non-real volume (i.e. a raw/vhd/vhdx image) when compared to a volume/partition residing on a physical disk.

 

The real challenge would be to check whether any sub-directory in \Windows can be moved in its entirety.

 

Something that most probably can be done without any hassle is to take each and every command line only executable and move it to another volume simply adding to the PATH statement the new directory location, though I don't think that they take that much space.

 

Wonko

[antonino61]

Dear Wonko,

as far as I'm concerned, the users directory is entirely outside the vhd. no issue at all with that, as long as it is "junctioned" in c: (the vhd, i cannot have vhdx because when i do the preramloading it has do be fixed). you are quite right when u say that the executables in windows and windows\system32 do not take so much space, so i dont think it is much worth the trouble of moving them elsewhere and linking each one of them to c:. I will tell u now in more detail what i have on c:, because all the rest is on d: (in my case it is the disk hosting the vhd) with junctions to c: for each of them. so, d:\program files, d:\program files (x86), d:\programdata, d:\users entirely. d:\windows physically contains all directories but c:\windows\boot, c:\windows\en-us, c:\windows\inf, c:\windows\fonts. d:\windows\system32 contains all subdirectories but c:\windows\system32\drivers, c:\windows\system32\catroot, c:\windows\system32\codeintegrity, c:\windows\system32\config. now you say that all these directories i have on d: might as well reside on another ad-hoc vhd, which would make the windows system deployment all the nicer and neater, in my view. the only thing of it is it surely wants mounting, unless windows finds some mysterious way to sense their presence on an unmounted vhd. If my assumption is correct, how do I tell windows it has to mount the other vhd as well? no problem for the core vhd, of course, as it mounts itself during the boot process. and if i get around to mounting it, hopefully by your suggestion, what do you think it should include? on my machine, the program files + program files (x86) + programdata amount to 8gb, users to 106gb and windows to 17gb. did you mean only the rest of windows and the progs (in the order of 25gb)? that would be fine for me, even if in preramloading mode it all would occupy half the ram on my system. as for the users dir, that would be one hell of an adventure. but I would be just happy with a reasonable amount of stuff on another vhd. what do u suggest i do? Talking about compression, don't you think it slows it all down?

Edited by antonino61, 21 October 2018 - 09:59 PM.

[Wonko the Sane]

Compression is a trade off, if you have the space don't use it.

 

You can have a different driver (not the built-in boot disk image driver) installed and set to auto-mount at boot a second image, that not necessarily needs to be in RAM, the point is whether this auto-mounting will happen "early enough" to allow the booting Windows to access (if needed) the files inside this second image when it needs them (if it needs them).

 

Wonko

[antonino61]

Dear Wonko, 

I have made some experiments with second vhd (vhdx this time, becasue, as you said, this content does not need to be preloaded into ram) so far, first time with the rest of windows and progs, second time with only windows, and third time with only progs. In none of these cases did windows seem to make them available to itself "early enough" --> system hangs all around. so, at least for the time being, I've had to resort to leaving them on d:, where they have been for quite some time. the only thing i can try, obviously off this topic under discussion, is to group other non-system directories thematically into vhdxs, but that would just be for the sake of neatness and directory list readability only.

Edited by antonino61, 22 October 2018 - 01:44 PM.

[MrDiamond64]

This installer is a set of cmd batch files.
NT6.X_fa...r_100219.7z

Download and extract it to a folder. For copyright reason, I can't include the imagex, bcdboot and bootsect. You need to find them by yourself and put them in the folder.
You need:
1. imagex.exe from win7 7600 waik (imagex from vista can't show the wim contents properly)
2. bcdboot.exe from win7 (win7 beta 7000 is recommended, higher version may not run in xp based winpe and win 2000 )
3. bootsect.exe from vista or win7 (win7 7600 is recommended).

Then, run the installer.cmd.


PS:
1. If you install vista or 2008 from the original iso with this installer, the windows partition will occupy d:.
2. After installing the OS on a USB hard drive, you should open the write cache of the hard drive in device manager to speedup the system.
3. If you want to plug the usb OS to another PC, please run the command as administrator

\Windows\System32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /shutdown

After the shutting down the computer, you can plug the hard disk to another computer.

 

 

I reopen the removed post request by the admin

As you know, stupid setup.exe for nt 6.x (vista/win7/2008/2008 r2) has many limitations:

1. You can't start install vista/win7 under xp based pe (winpe 1.x) and can't install win7 under win2000
2. You can't install win7 directly to USB hard disk
3. The stupid setup.exe may put the boot files to a wrong drive when you boot winpe with USB device and there is even no way to choose the boot partition
4. When you install win7 from winpe, the drive letter of the OS partition will always be C:, no matter which partition you choose.

On the other hand, the fastest way to install nt 6.x is imagex+bcdboot, e.g
 

imagex f:\sources\install.wim 5 c:

bcdboot c:\windows /s c:

bootsect /nt60 c:

And no setup.exe is needed.

Based on this, I wrote an "nt 6.x fast installer" which has the following advatages compare to the original M$ setup.exe:
1. You can install nt 6.x directly from iso file mounted by any kind of virtual drive.
And you needn't extract or burn the iso.
2. You can directly install nt 6.x from any version winpe and win2000 above windows
3. You can install the OS directly onto a USB external hard drive.
And no virtual machine, copy tool or complicated "tutorial" is needed.
4. You can manually choose which partition is the boot partition.
5. You can decide which letter the OS partition will occupy in Win7/2008 R2.
6. The install speed is very fast. With this installer, you can install win7 in 11-12 min for 5400rpm notebook hdd, and in less than 10min for desktop 7200 hdd (vista needs about 2 min more because of the score evaluation)

 

Where can i find the imagex bcdboot and the bootsec files?

[Wonko the Sane]

Where can i find the imagex bcdboot and the bootsec files?

EXACTLY where fujianabc said, imagex is in the WAIK/ADK, depending on the  OS you are running you may already have bcdboot.exe and bootsect.exe.

 

Nowadays (some 8 years later) probably you want to forget about this project and get instead its evolution, WinNTSetup by JFX, here:

https://msfn.org/boa...inntsetup-v394/

 

The same Author also made a tool to only get those tools:

https://msfn.org/boa...-the-huge-isos/

tutorial here:

https://www.rmprepus...ls/getwaiktools

 

 

Wonko

[Escorpiom]

Nowadays, (some 9 years later) lol...

I'm still using the script for all OS installs. 

Today I got nostalgic and wanted to say hello to Wonko, Steve, cdob, Wimb, Chris and all the others, learned so much from you guys over the years! 

I'm pretty much a dinosaur now, having started on a 8086 with monochrome monitor and DOS 3.x, it's soon time to leave it all and retire.   

 

I've since modified the script heavily for my own use, included several diskpart scripts for different hd sizes and multi partition scenarios, able to choose mbr or GPT scheme, it imports a universal unattended (w7-w8-w8.1-w10) file that I learned making at WinCert forum, and lastly sets up a folder with firstlogon script to kick of RunOnceEx process, something that I learned at MSFN form and took with me from the XP days.   

I've also been updating ImageX everytime a new version came out. Maybe I should use DISM, but in fact it's slower (quite a bit actually) than ImageX. 

 

Indeed I do not use WinNTSetup, although I have tried it briefly and it's good. 

For me, I like something simple as a cmd file, I'm not a programmer at all and it has become a big mess, but, important, it can be adjusted and edited to fit my needs.

One tiny simple batch file to install anything from XP (I've made it into a sysprepped .wim file) to the latest Windows 10, running straight of WinPE.  

 

Probably the author is not even around anymore, but at least for me his work has been an enormous contribution, and in the process I learned a great deal. 

 

Cheers to you all.

Edited by Escorpiom, 24 August 2020 - 06:51 AM.

[Wonko the Sane]

Today I got nostalgic and wanted to say hello to Wonko, Steve, cdob, Wimb, Chris and all the others, learned so much from you guys over the years! 

I'm pretty much a dinosaur now, having started on a 8086 with monochrome monitor and DOS 3.x, it's soon time to leave it all and retire.   

Hi

 

Having started on the ZX80[1] in 1980, on a B/W TV, I am a Jurassic dinosaur, you are a the most a Cretacic one, way too young to retire. 

 

Wonko

 

[1] and having also dealt, as a kid, with punchcards 

[Escorpiom]

Having started on the ZX80[1] in 1980, on a B/W TV, I am a Jurassic dinosaur, you are a the most a Cretacic one, way too young to retire. 

[1] and having also dealt, as a kid, with punchcards 

 

The Sinclair Spectrum! Yes, have seen those around, it's a legend! 

Although the punchcards, my mother did those at the Fokker factory back in the days. 

So, you convinced me. Will stick around! 

 

Cheers and thanks. 

Edited by Escorpiom, 24 August 2020 - 08:37 AM.