9 replies to this topic

[anewerauser]

I was making a multiBoot DVD that contained several WinPE-based
software Recovery options,such as Active@BootDisk,Dart6.5 ,etc,when I suddenly noticed that I only allowed to display 6 [SIX]Boot Entries only in the black screen that has a title of "Windows Boot Manager".

I know how to add and delete entries to the BCD file.
I have more thn 8 options that I would add.

My question kindly is:
Is this confirmed by someone else other than me?
If so,is not there any workaround to counter this limitation?


Thanks in advance.




Anewerauser

[anewerauser]

5 days have passed ,and still no answer on this critical topic?
Please someone confirm the above mentioned "Windows Boot Manager Limitations".

Has anyone managed to create a menu of more than 6 boot entries using the default
Windows Boot Manager?

If so, is there a solution?

Waiting 4 your help.




Anewerauser

[Wonko the Sane]

5 days have passed ,and still no answer on this critical topic?

"critical" is a "relative" adjective, most probably the other 99,99% of members use another bootmanager, like grub4dos, BCDW, Isolinux or Aerostudio on complex multi-boot CD/DVD's.

If so, is there a solution?

Really cannot say about the windows bootmanager limitations, but you can probably use directly .iso mapping with grub4dos for a number of the items you mentioned.

This way you don't have to go through a "centralized" bootmgr/BCD menu.

Example:
http://www.boot-land...?...=5041&st=36



Wonko

[anewerauser]

Thanks 4 your reply.

The critical adj is of course relative to my own situation.For If I would follow your recommendation to the other mentioned boot managers ,I may fail to achieve the task I want to accomplish.
As for BCDW ,I know its functions and options in details;It will allow me to only put one BOOT.WIM. since I can not edit bootmgr of windows 7 or vista.
BCDW loads the ETFSBOOT.COM which will load bootmgr which will load only one file in Sources folder.So I am back to square one which is only 6 entries can be displayed via bcd and windows boot manager.

As for Mapping method by GRUB4DOS ,it will need more RAM on the target PC to first load the ISO in RAM and then Map the ISO from there to other addresses in ram.
since I want to let the physical dvd rom empty after loading for quick response processing from ram and to ,if i needed, make use of the then freed DVD ROM ,I would not prefer this method of mapping.

The good method in my humble opinion is to load ETFSBOOT.COM by BCDW and the
Windows Boot Manager will read the stored data in BCD file and display it on screen in a process ,as you already know, similar to "Boot.ini" in previous version of Windows,then I choose the required entry from the displayed menu;however the menu display only 6 boot entries for booting.


Any suggestions would be highly appreciated and considered.


May Jaclaz contribute to this topic as he is one of my best tutors in this forum.


Anewerauser

[Wonko the Sane]

May Jaclaz contribute to this topic as he is one of my best tutors in this forum.

Maybe he is already doing this....
http://www.boot-land...?...c=10152&hl=



Can you list EXACTLY ALL the items that you wish to boot?

The point I was trying to make is that, judging from what you partially listed, there is no real "need" to go through BCD for some of those.

However, the quickest workaround is to have any number of boot floppy images, see here:
http://www.multiboot....uk/floppy.html

And chainload them through grub4dos (or possibly syslinux/isolinux).
You will need to experiment if a furhter mapping with firadisk/Winvblock is needed or not.

If you need 8 entries, and the limit in a single BCD is 6, you can have a "plain" BCD for the first 6 and a floppy image for the "other" 2, or any intermediate solution up to 8 floppy images.

As for Mapping method by GRUB4DOS ,it will need more RAM on the target PC to first load the ISO in RAM and then Map the ISO from there to other addresses in ram.
since I want to let the physical dvd rom empty after loading for quick response processing from ram and to ,if i needed, make use of the then freed DVD ROM ,I would not prefer this method of mapping.

I guess you missed the newish firadisk approach.



Wonko

[dera]

Has anyone managed to create a menu of more than 6 boot entries using the default
Windows Boot Manager?

yes,
for me 7 entries in my BCD boot menu works fine

Edit:
i have made a newer try
my BCD menu works fine also with 11 menu entries

Edited by dera, 21 January 2010 - 09:09 PM.

[anewerauser]

Can you list EXACTLY ALL the items that you wish to boot?

WinPE-Based Paragon Partition Manager
WinPE-Based Paragon Backup and Recovery
WinPE-Based Active @Boot Disk
WinPE-Based MS DaRT 6.5 For Windows 7
WinPE-Based Ms DaRT 6.5 For Windows Vista
WinPE-Based StorageCraft ShadowProtect 8.5
WinPE-Based Acronis True Image Home with PlusPack
WinPE-Based Symantec Backup Executive System Recovery 2010

All the previous items are grouped in one Entry in Bootcat.ini of BCDW under the name of
Collection of WinPE -Based Recovery Discs

[anewerauser]

yes,
for me 7 or 11 entries in my BCD boot menu works fine

Can you kindly post those 7 or 11 entries.
By the way I do NOT count any message or Memtest Diagnostics as Entries.
Also, What is the script you use in making the enties in BCD?

My script is as Follows:

Rem BCD (boot configuration data) editor for multiple vista pe



REM THIS IS THE ORIGINAL BCD FILE EXTRACTED FROM ANY VISTA WINPE / VISTA DVD (I USED VISTA INSTALLATION)

set BCD-File="c:\bcd 1\BCD"



REM SET THE NAME FOR THE VISTA PE HERE

set pename="Active Boot Disk"



REM SET THE NAME FOR THE WIM.FILE HERE WITH PATH

set filena=[boot]\sources\bootAc.wim



for /f "eol=r tokens=1-2" %%a in ('bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /ENUM all') do set rdo=%%b





for /f "tokens=1-7" %%a in ('Bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /copy {default} /d %pename%') do set guid1=%%g

bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set %guid1:~0,38% DEVICE ramdisk=%filena%,%rdo%

bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /set %guid1:~0,38% OSDEVICE ramdisk=%filena%,%rdo%



bcdedit /store %BCD-File% /ENUM

@pause

[dera]

i boot off UFD (FAT 32 formatted)
all files are from Windows 7 RTM x86 English
(i mean: BOOTMGR, boot\bcd, bcdedit.exe)
my base is the Win7RescuePE project
i modified its BCD via command-line
i have a folder called: "_MULTIWIM" in the root of my UFD
all of my .wim are loceted in this "_MULTIWIM" folder
i used this .cmd:
[codebox]set path=C:\a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set {default} description "rescuepe" bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set {default} osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\rescuepe.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set {default} device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\rescuepe.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /create /d "acronis" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\acronis.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\acronis.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% systemroot \windows bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% detecthal yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% winpe yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /displayorder %guid1% /addlast for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /create /d "7pe" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\7pe.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\7pe.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% systemroot \windows bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% detecthal yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% winpe yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /displayorder %guid1% /addlast for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /create /d "erd60" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\erd60.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\erd60.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% systemroot \windows bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% detecthal yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% winpe yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /displayorder %guid1% /addlast for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /create /d "vistape" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\vistape.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\vistape.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% systemroot \windows bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% detecthal yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% winpe yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /displayorder %guid1% /addlast for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /create /d "erd65" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\erd65.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\erd65.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% systemroot \windows bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% detecthal yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% winpe yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /displayorder %guid1% /addlast for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /create /d "nod4" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\nod4.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\nod4.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% systemroot \windows bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% detecthal yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% winpe yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /displayorder %guid1% /addlast for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /create /d "paragon" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\paragon.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\paragon.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% systemroot \windows bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% detecthal yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% winpe yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /displayorder %guid1% /addlast for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /create /d "nav" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\nav.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\nav.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% systemroot \windows bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% detecthal yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% winpe yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /displayorder %guid1% /addlast for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /create /d "ghost15" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\ghost15.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\ghost15.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% systemroot \windows bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% detecthal yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% winpe yes bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /displayorder %guid1% /addlast for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /create /d "active" /application osloader') do set guid1=%%a bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% osdevice ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\active.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% device ramdisk=[boot]\_MULTIWIM\active.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f} bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% systemroot \windows
bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% detecthal yes
bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /set %guid1% winpe yes
bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /displayorder %guid1% /addlast

bcdedit.exe /store %path%\boot\bcd /enum all[/codebox]
also Memtest seems work
i can use the TAB (tabulator key)

Edited by dera, 21 January 2010 - 10:21 PM.

[dera]

WinBuilder script:
 addmorewim.7z   1.28K   167 downloads


In VistaPE project the MS memtest.exe is missing from the 'BOOT' folder