486 replies to this topic

[agni]

Hi Wimb

You can use CloneDisk http://reboot.pro/8480/ to convert an img file to a fixed vhd.

It just adds the required header and footer to the img file to make it a vhd file.

[Sha0]

...The error is:
PFN_CORRUPT_LIST
STOP 0x0000004E
Winvblock: Alive
...

Does the BSoD show a driver filename that it suspects as being the cause? (Not the "WinVBlock: Alive" message, somewhere above it.)

[wimb]

for my small xp.vhd
* I created 1gb fixed vhd with virtualpc
* i start xp setup on virtualpc only for making the nt5 mbr partition, and brack when setup "start copying files"
* i reboot and continu with grub4dos+winvblock setup...

I tried the first method to create vhd
Indeed I can install XP, but DriverForge does NOT install audio and video driver at T-9
It means install is not running perfect, whereas direct install of XP in xp.img created by IMG_XP_Create.exe is working OK.

It seems to me that the geometry of the file used for install of XP is quite critical.
Also the method to create vhd is a bit complicated for the average user, and it needs also to install Virtual-PC.

It will be easier if IMG_XP_Create.exe has button NEW to create with one mouseclick
the empty xp_1.img with XP MBR and Primary Partition ending at cylinder boundary,
and which is set Active and has NTFS compression format and is unfragmented,
and that one has option to create the grub4dos entry to launch and continue XP Setup for install of XP in xp_1.img

The Updated version of IMG_XP_Create.exe will have such button NEW (under construction ... , is working good)



EDIT on February 7
New program of IMG_XP package is USB_XP_Fix.exe (coming soon ...)
that will do with one mouseclick steps 6 + 9 + 10 + 11 of Sara's tutorial.

[wimb]

You can use CloneDisk http://reboot.pro/8480/ to convert an img file to a fixed vhd.

It just adds the required header and footer to the img file to make it a vhd file.

Thanks agni

CloneDisk can be handy if conversion of img to vhd is needed.

[pktman]

Does the BSoD show a driver filename that it suspects as being the cause? (Not the "WinVBlock: Alive" message, somewhere above it.)

No, shows no other name, just winvblock,
I tried it on two computers and two different hard drives.
Could be a problem with my winvblock.ima?
Thanks Sha0

[Wonko the Sane]

It just adds the required header and footer to the img file to make it a vhd file.

Header?

Footer.


Wonko

[pajenn]

After step 4, I get xp to install without problems but I can not go from step 5.

When I connect the USB disk or change the windows xp and after reboot, I have bluescreen

The error is:
PFN_CORRUPT_LIST
STOP 0x0000004E
Winvblock: Alive

I'm having the same problem as pktman. i was able to install XP to xp.vhd and last night it rebooted fine. however, this morning i got a BSOD error with "Winvblock: Alive" at the end. the bsod flashed so fast that i only catch that last line. fwiw, i used version 0.0.1.8-DEV (Jan-30-2011) of winvblock for xp.vhd and i copied all the files in ..\WinVBlock_0.0.1.8-DEV\bin to my winvblock.IMA. which version of winvblock should we use? (the rapidshare link to it in the first post is dead so i had to make my own).

@pktman

i can still boot my xp.vhd (located at C:\xp.vhd) if I tell grub to load it into memory first and to boot it from there with this menu.lst entry:

title Boot XP-VHD from RAM
find --set-root /xp.vhd
map --mem /xp.vhd (hd0)
map --hook
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /ntldr

note: this method is slower on my computer than booting the 1300 MB xp.vhd image directly from disk because it needs to copy a large file into memory. after that's done it boots very fast. i guess ymmv depending on the size of the vhd file. also, it does give some warning message. naturally this method can only work if you have sufficient ram to hold your xp.vhd file and run it too. (my laptop has 4 GB of memory although 32-bit windows can only use 3 GB of it - but programs like ebootsr and superspeed ramdisk can make use of the remaining GB).

[Sha0]

I'm having the same problem as pktman. i was able to install XP to xp.vhd and last night it rebooted fine. however, this morning i got a BSOD error with "Winvblock: Alive" at the end. the bsod flashed so fast that i only catch that last line...

Whenever reporting a Blue Screen of Death, it is handy if you can use F8 to Disable automatic restart on system failure and then reproduce the BSoD; thus allowing you to report its specific code(s) and suspected driver, etc.

[pajenn]

Whenever reporting a Blue Screen of Death, it is handy if you can use F8 to Disable automatic restart on system failure and then reproduce the BSoD; thus allowing you to report its specific code(s) and suspected driver, etc.

i don't think f8 can be used to freeze BSODs on my system or i'm unfamiliar with the technique. in any case, i reinstalled windows xp to vhd (XP-VHD) per step 3 and booted to it per step 4, so that i could disable automatic restart on system failure from control panel -> system -> advanced -> startup and recovery settings. i also turned on 'small memory dump' recording. these changes required a reboot, but on reboot i experienced the following BSODs.

First try:

STOP: c0000145 {Application Error}
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc00000005). Click on OK to terminate application.

WinVBlock: Alive

Second try (after reboot via power button):

A problem has occurred bla bla... <snip>

PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

If this is the first time bla bla... <snip>

Technical information:
***STOP: 0x0000004E (0x00000099,0x0000E32C,0x00000003,0x00000000)

WinVBlock: Alive

[davlak]

in my experience xp.vhd reboots again only if you:

1 - mount the vhd (i.e. into win7 or vm or PE)
2 - load vhd's\windows\system32\config\system hive in regedit
3 - delete all occurences of winvblock and WVBlk32.sys in the offline registry
4 - unload hive
5 - dismount the vhd
6 - add map --mem /winvblock.ima in the vhd's boot on menu.lst.

one question: maybe did you change the usb-hd? or keep a new (and hence unknown) usb device connected during the OS boot?
in this case I often obtain a bsod

[pajenn]

I tried the installation procedure with various versions of winvblock.ima; v0.0.1.8 (June-1-2010), v0.0.1.8-DEV (Jan-22-2011 #2), and currently i'm using v0.0.1.8-DEV (Jan-30-2011). The installation itself works fine for me with any of them with the modified menu.lst commands from post #93. However, I get approximately the same BSODs in each case on the second reboot (after I've made modifications to the VHD while booted to it).

in my experience xp.vhd reboots again only if you:

1 - mount the vhd (i.e. into win7 or vm or PE)
2 - load vhd's\windows\system32\config\system hive in regedit
3 - delete all occurences of winvblock and WVBlk32.sys in the offline registry
4 - unload hive
5 - dismount the vhd
6 - add map --mem /winvblock.ima in the vhd's boot on menu.lst.

one question: maybe did you change the usb-hd? or keep a new (and hence unknown) usb device connected during the OS boot?
in this case I often obtain a bsod

I tried the procedure (although I made the modifications on the initial boot of the machine), but I still get BSODs (auto-restart on BSOD was enabled so I don't have the exact messages). I deleted 22 keys followed by 11 registry values (too many to post). I also copied winvblock.IMA to the VHD's c:\.

Here are the menu.lst entries I tried to boot the VHD:

title Boot XP-VHD (Sha0 method with winvblock.IMA added)
map --mem /winvblock.IMA (fd0)
map /xp.vhd (hd0)
map --rd-size=2048
map --mem (rd)+4 (0x55)
map --hook
write (0x55) #GRUB4DOS\x00v=1\x00xp.vhd\x000x80\x00
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /ntldr


title Boot XP-VHD (Sha0 method with nested winvblock.IMA added)
map /xp.vhd (hd0)
map --rd-size=2048
map --mem (rd)+4 (0x55)
map --hook
write (0x55) #GRUB4DOS\x00v=1\x00xp.vhd\x000x80\x00
root (hd0,0)
map --mem (hd0,0)/winvblock.IMA (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader /ntldr

As for other usb-hd, I made sure not to have anything connected this time (normally i have a 8GB Mini SD card with BartPE, keyfiles, etc. always connected to my laptop). I'll try a few more things to see if I can get this thing to work.

[davlak]

try simply commenting some lines with #

title Boot XP-VHD (Sha0 method with winvblock.IMA added)

map --mem /winvblock.IMA (fd0)

map /xp.vhd (hd0)

#map --rd-size=2048

#map --mem (rd)+4 (0x55)

map --hook

#write (0x55) #GRUB4DOS\x00v=1\x00xp.vhd\x000x80\x00

root (hd0,0)

chainloader /ntldr

and using this test version of grldr

[sambul61]

CloneDisk can be handy if conversion of img to vhd is needed.

When such conversion might be needed? Are there any possible advantages for any tasks to use XP.vhd instead of XP.img?

[Wonko the Sane]

When such conversion might be needed? Are there any possible advantages for any tasks to use XP.vhd instead of XP.img?

"Tasks" like running in Virtual PC?

YES.


Wonko

[wimb]

When such conversion might be needed? Are there any possible advantages for any tasks to use XP.vhd instead of XP.img?

I think the conversion might only be needed if it is required by other program as e.g. Virtual PC
For the present case e.g. booting with XP Image file from USB, it is not needed at all and most likely can be the source of a lot of trouble.

For XP OS booting from image file,
it will be the best if the file has exactly the same geometry and properties as compared to booting from a real harddisk.
http://reboot.pro/13...post__p__121406

[Sha0]

title Boot XP-VHD (Sha0 method with winvblock.IMA added)
map --mem /winvblock.IMA (fd0)
map /xp.vhd (hd0)
map --rd-size=2048
map --mem (rd)+4 (0x55)
map --hook
write (0x55) #GRUB4DOS\x00v=1\x00xp.vhd\x000x80\x00
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /ntldr


title Boot XP-VHD (Sha0 method with nested winvblock.IMA added)
map /xp.vhd (hd0)
map --rd-size=2048
map --mem (rd)+4 (0x55)
map --hook
write (0x55) #GRUB4DOS\x00v=1\x00xp.vhd\x000x80\x00
root (hd0,0)
map --mem (hd0,0)/winvblock.IMA (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader /ntldr

You have a 0 where you need a slash. You are missing an exclamation mark (thanks, Doodoo).

• #!GRUB4DOS\x00v=1\x00 : Signature
• xp.vhd\x00\x80 : First mapping
  
  • xp.vhd : File-name to map to a GRUB4DOS drive number (variable number of bytes)
  • \x00 : End-of-file-name marker (ASCII NUL)
  • \x80 : GRUB4DOS drive number (always one byte)
• \x00 : End-of-mappings marker (no more mappings)

Please also note that only "fixed" .VHDs are supported. If you are using "dynamically expanding" or "differencing," you won't encounter very much success. I assume that you are using "fixed" .VHD and have made it contiguous, else you wouldn't have been able to map it from GRUB4DOS.

However, I believe that you have a more serious error than the one above. An F6 floppy (your winvblock.ima) is only useful for Windows installation. If you already have the OS installed to the image file with WinVBlock installed inside that OS, then there is no use for the F6 floppy (it won't be used). If you deleted WinVBlock out of the Registry from that OS, then you no longer have any way to load WinVBlock. I'd suggest re-injecting WinVBlock into the image...

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\loaded_system_hive\ControlSet00X\Services\WinVBlock]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"=hex(2):73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
52,00,49,00,56,00,45,00,52,00,53,00,5c,00,77,00,76,00,62,00,6c,00,6b,00,33,\
00,32,00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,00,00

where loaded_system_hive is whatever name you give to the image file's OS' SYSTEM hive when you load it with RegEdit, and ControlSet00X is chosen as per HKLM\loaded_system_hive\Select\ : Current. The ImagePath in this example is system32\DRIVERS\wvblk32.sys

--- EDIT ---
Doodoo noticed the missing exclamation mark.

[wimb]

You have a 0 where you need a slash.

The error was made in post #6 and is now also occurring in the first post of Sara

[davlak]

by the way....VHD is preferred in case of cloning tasks. Isn't it?

[Sha0]

The error was made in post #6 and is now also occurring in the first post of Sara

D'OH!!! Good eye!

[pajenn]

@davlak and Sha0

thanks for the suggestions.

i switched to the latest grub and tried commenting out the menu.lst lines shown by davlak, but i still get BSOD

i replaced the 0 with \ in "write (0x55) #GRUB4DOS\x00v=1\x00xp.vhd\x00\x80\x00" but that didn't help either

yes, i'm using contiguous, fixed VHDs.

the removed WinVBlock entries in the VHD registry are not a problem because i deleted that VHD, although at the time i could still boot it by loading it to memory. (i have a copy of a working xp.vhd made right after the installation of XP to it was complete, but before the first boot. it boots fine the first time with any variation of the menu.lst commands i've tried, but yields BSODs on subsequent boot attempts. in any case, i can always revert back to it without needing to install xp to vhd all over again).

fwiw, i also mounted the corrupt XP-VHD in windows 7 VM and ran ChkDsk on it, but there were no errors.

i looked at the registry of the working XP-VHD (on first boot) and it did not have registry keys of the form mentioned by Sha0 "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\loaded_system_hive\ControlSet00X\Services\WinVBlock" -- instead it had the following type of registry keys:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wvblk32]

"Type"=dword:00000001

"Start"=dword:00000000

"Group"="SCSI miniport"

"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001

"ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\wvblk32.sys"

"PdoDone"=dword:00000001



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wvblk32\Enum]

"0"="Root\\wvblk32\\0000"

"Count"=dword:00000001

"NextInstance"=dword:00000001

and

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\WinVBlock]



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\WinVBlock\FileHardDisk]



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\WinVBlock\FileHardDisk\1&c0ac9c8&0&Hash_47344480]

"DeviceDesc"="Disk drive"

"LocationInformation"="Hash_47344480"

"Capabilities"=dword:00000000

"HardwareID"=hex(7):57,00,69,00,6e,00,56,00,42,00,6c,00,6f,00,63,00,6b,00,5c,\

  00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,48,00,61,00,72,00,64,00,44,00,69,00,73,00,6b,00,\

  00,00,47,00,65,00,6e,00,44,00,69,00,73,00,6b,00,00,00,00,00

"Service"="disk"

"ClassGUID"="{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

"ConfigFlags"=dword:00000000

"Driver"="{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\\0000"

"Class"="DiskDrive"

"Mfg"="(Standard disk drives)"

"FriendlyName"="WinVBlock Disk"



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\WinVBlock\FileHardDisk\1&c0ac9c8&0&Hash_47344480\Device Parameters]



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\WinVBlock\FileHardDisk\1&c0ac9c8&0&Hash_47344480\LogConf]



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\WinVBlock\FileHardDisk\1&c0ac9c8&0&Hash_47344480\Control]

"ActiveService"="Disk"



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\WinVBlock\RAMFloppyDisk]



<snip>

and also lots of the following kinds of keys:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{53f56311-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}]



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{53f56311-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}\##?#WinVBlock#RAMFloppyDisk#1&c0ac9c8&0&RAM_at_3FD78000#{53f56311-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}]

"DeviceInstance"="WinVBlock\\RAMFloppyDisk\\1&c0ac9c8&0&RAM_at_3FD78000"



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{53f56311-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}\##?#WinVBlock#RAMFloppyDisk#1&c0ac9c8&0&RAM_at_3FD78000#{53f56311-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}\#]

"SymbolicLink"="\\\\?\\WinVBlock#RAMFloppyDisk#1&c0ac9c8&0&RAM_at_3FD78000#{53f56311-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}"



<snip>

should I add the
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinVBlock] keys after booting the machine the first time, or are those equivalent to the
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wvblk32] keys that it already has?

[Sha0]

...should I add the
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinVBlock] keys after booting the machine the first time, or are those equivalent to the
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wvblk32] keys that it already has?

Hmmm... It might be the case that when Windows was installed and used the F6 floppy, that it created the driver's Registry key with this name instead of the preferred name... You can rename the wvblk32 key you show above to WinVBlock. I wonder if an .INF change could help to ensure this key's name is the way it should be...

[sambul61]

If you still encounter screen of death (happened to me once of 9 computers) Copy the .vhd file to the local drive and run it from there (or add --mem to map entry and run from ram disk)
after you boot to desktop wait for system finish the automatic drivers instantiation, then copy the vhd back to usb (or use IMG_XP_Update.exe to update your .vhd that placed on your usb) now its can safely boot from it

This guy takes an unusual look at generalizing WinXP to run from USB on any PC without BSOD 0x7b. Anyone can comment on validity of that method?

[Sha0]

This guy takes an unusual look at generalizing WinXP to run from USB on any PC without BSOD 0x7b. Anyone can comment on validity of that method?

It looks an awful lot like what's already been described in other threads. The image needs:

• All drivers on the path to the USB storage to be boot-start.
• Hardware/compatible ID associations to associate devices to the drivers that ought to drive them.
  
• You can use CriticalDeviceDatabase associations.
• You can pre-install the devices for a future target computer.

[TheRookie]

Hi To anyone who is interested in reading this, just an update on also trying to get xp to boot from a vhd.

So, if you remember, I too reported success on installing xp in the vhd but soon after I spoke, it also crashed for me.

So here's what I did: (thanks to the creators of the tools that will be mentioned)
1. Install xp as normal to a hdd or partition that you can play around with.
2. Install your drivers and what ever you install that results in the vhd crashing.
3. Install WinVBlock, And verify that under device manager you can se it installed under scsi and raid controllers.
4. Boot to your primary operating system, and run IMGXP create to create an image of the windows xp you installed.
if it complains about firadisk not being installed go ahead and click yes.
5. Use Caryonix's raw to vhd to convert the img file you made with IMG_XP_create to a vhd file.
don't forget to rename the resultant file to a vhd file as the program doesn't do it for you.
6. (optional) use vhd resizer to make the vhd bigger or smaller.
7. Install grub4dos on the drive where you wish to boot the vhd from, and use the menu entries from the first post.
8. Copy the vhd on to the drive where g4d is installed and then try to boot the vhd.
if all goes well, you will land on the desktop.
notice the following:
in device manager, there are floppy disk drives, wherein there is winvBlock, Scsi and raid controllers wherein is WinVBlock and under disk drives there is the driver for WinVBlock as well.
I mention this as I read that for some users there was an unknown device.
My guess is due to this unknown device and some registry entries not being correct the vhd crashes.
here are the registry entries from the vhd that works 100% for me.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\f\ControlSet001\Services\WinVBlock]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"=hex(2):53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
72,00,69,00,76,00,65,00,72,00,73,00,5c,00,57,00,56,00,42,00,6c,00,6b,00,33,\
00,32,00,2e,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,00,00
"DisplayName"="WinVBlock"
"Group"="SCSI miniport"
"PdoDone"=dword:00000001
"Tag"=dword:00000021

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\f\ControlSet001\Services\WinVBlock\Security]
"Security"=hex:01,00,14,80,90,00,00,00,9c,00,00,00,14,00,00,00,30,00,00,00,02,\
00,1c,00,01,00,00,00,02,80,14,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,\
00,00,02,00,60,00,04,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,fd,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,\
05,12,00,00,00,00,00,18,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,\
20,02,00,00,00,00,14,00,8d,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,0b,00,00,00,00,\
00,18,00,fd,01,02,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,23,02,00,00,01,01,\
00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00

I have yet to boot this vhd from USB, never tried it yet.

Regards,

[pajenn]

Hi To anyone who is interested in reading this, just an update on also trying to get xp to boot from a vhd.

So, if you remember, I too reported success on installing xp in the vhd but soon after I spoke, it also crashed for me.

So here's what I did: (thanks to the creators of the tools that will be mentioned)
1. Install xp as normal to a hdd or partition that you can play around with.
2. Install your drivers and what ever you install that results in the vhd crashing.
3. Install WinVBlock, And verify that under device manager you can se it installed under scsi and raid controllers.
4. Boot to your primary operating system, and run IMGXP create to create an image of the windows xp you installed.
if it complains about firadisk not being installed go ahead and click yes.

<snip>

I tried to use IMG_XP's create function to turn my VHD (after I mounted it in Windows 7) to an img function, but it didn't recognize the mounted drive.