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bootmgr --> winload.exe --> NT5.x??


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#1 joakim

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Posted 03 November 2009 - 09:21 AM

I read a long time ago that the above should be possible, ie boot XP or 2003 through bootmgr/winload.exe.

But I cannot make it, and I cannot find the source of that info either.

Do we have any success story of such setup? Or evidence of its impossibility? Or any thoughts at all about this?

Note.
String dumping winload.exe shows traces of nt5.x bootrelated stuff..

Joakim

#2 was_jaclaz

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Posted 03 November 2009 - 09:59 AM

NOT what you asked, but maybe some points are nonetheless useful to you:
http://homepages.tes...ot-process.html
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=15896


:lol:

jaclaz

#3 joakim

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Posted 03 November 2009 - 10:35 AM

WINLOAD is in fact capable of loading earlier Windows NT kernels. In early beta releases of Windows NT 6, before the advent of Boot Configuration Data, the boot.ini file was split in twain, with one section denoting operating systems that could be loaded via NTLDR and the other section denoting operating systems that could be loaded via WINLOAD. Beta testers discovered that both Windows NT version 5.10.2600 SP2 (i.e. Windows XP), and Windows NT 5.20.3790 (i.e. Windows Server 2003) could be loaded by WINLOAD, as long as winload.exe was copied to the System32 directory on the target system volume.


At least the source is located. Thanks.

So I have to find out if this only was the case with early longhorn (ntldr/boot.ini --> winload.exe), or still applies (ie /USENEWLOADER equivalent in BCD).

If it's the case of early longhorn only, then I suppose we're out of luck, as the wim format changed in the meantime and compatibility either way is broken.

Joakim

#4 wendy

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Posted 13 December 2009 - 08:36 AM

In the days of build 5112, one could copy a few files from Longhorn into XP sp1+ or 2K3, and then add these into the bootmgr menu (rather than the "legacy windows" menu).

This involved copying something like winload.exe and a few files to \system32, and doing things to the start menu.

Unpatched Windows xp, and 2k or earlier, did not support the necessary debug options to be added to this menu (one recalls having NT4 and b5112 side by side).

There was a change made late in the process, such that b7000 did not support this functionality.




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