================================================================================

=================================
Author: Ilko
Version: 0.2.3
Credits: jaclaz, cdob, wimb and porear from MSFN forum for their continuous help
and work on Installing XP from USB, without who this wouldn't have happened,
as well as to everyone, who contributed to the project with ideas, requests or f
eedback.
Thanks to UglyBob, ptrex, SmOke_N, aec and ezzetabi from AutoIt forum for their
excellent AutoIt script examples, parts of which were used.
Thanks to Anton Bassov for his dummydisk.sys driver and help for reverting it's
behaviour to rdummy.sys, which makes USB fixed disks to be seen as removable.
Thanks to Ercofrafrom msfn.org forum for ideas to fix some of the issues with un
attended section in WINNT.SIF isung fake setup.exe.
Thanks to Driver Packs team and OverFlow for letting me use their version of fak
e Setup.exe, original idea and authors- schalti, Pyron, a06lp and iLE
Thanks to Bean123, who helped with grubinst.exe and touchdrv.exe and Tynibit for
his excellent support with grub4dos issues.
And last but not least credits to creators of all tools, which were used in this
project- Grub4DOS, PEtoUSB, HP USB format utility, HDHacker, SysLinux, binifix.
cmd(did I mention Jaclaz, cdob and wimb?), QEMU, DRVLoad
,sync.exe and spdrvscn from Vernalex, Nicholas Dille for start64.exe.
Thanks to Steve6375 from boot-land.net forums making RMPrepUSB package and letti
ng me include and redistribute it.
The program is released "as is" and is free for redistribution, use or changes A
S LONG AS original author, credits part and link to the support forum-
http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-from-USB-f157.html
are CLEARLY mentioned.
Author does not take any responsibility for use or misuse of the program!
================================================================================
=================================
How to start-
1. First make sure you have a properly formatted USB disk or flash media.
It must have a MBR and an active partition set.
a) USB flash media- format it with RMPrepUSB selecting "Boot as HDD" and "XP boo
table" options.
Note that it will DELETE all partitions. NTFS is reported faster on some systems
, your USB stick parameters are also factor.
Whereas NTFS generally is not recommended for USB flash media, if you are not pl
anning excessive usage, but rather occasional installs from it, then it should b
e safe to use it as long as you can boot from it.
There is another way to format USB flash media- to use filter driver, such as Hi
tachi microdrive filter driver or dummydisk.sys (included, look in FILES\MULTIpa
rtitionUSBstick folder). Using such driver will 'make' your stick to appear to W
indows as fixed disk. In this case, when formatting Windows will write MBR on in
with partition information.
You may now use Disk management console, or third party programs to make multipl
e partitions and format them as you desire.
NTFS performs way faster on some systems, or with some USB sticks. However, keep
in mind that depending on usage and USB stick quality, it may "wear it out" qui
cker.
Look here foe a quick speed comparison and how faster NTFS is:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=125116
!!!Make sure you set an active partition, either from Disk management, or from y
our favourite external program if you don't have such!!!
!!!Use primary partitions when placing Windows based sources!!!
!!!Usew first partition when copying Windows XP/2003/2000 Setup!!!
b) USB hard disk- format it from within Windows and make sure you set active par
tition!!!
In both cases USB boot is not guaranteed! That depends on your BIOS/motherboard,
how disk is formatted and what file system etc.
In general FAT16 is the best bet for compatibility, next is FAT32, then NTFS. In
some cases different format tools may set improper geometry.
Look here for some detailed answers:
http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.net/Projects/USB/USBstick.html
http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.net/Projects/USB/USBfaqs.html
2. Select your sources
a) Windows- select the folder, which contains I386/AMD64 folders. Do NOT select
folder I386 itself!
!!!If you used Nlite to slim it down, option "Operating System Options-->Manual
Install and Upgrade for removal" must NOT be selected. This is crucial part.!!!
Optionally:
b) BartPE/WinBuilder/UBCD4Win/WinFLPC- select the folder, which contains I386 fo
lder.
!!!In case of WinFLPC keep in mind that BOOT.INI on target disk wll be set incor
rectly!!! In order to start it for a first time, either edit in BOOT.INI disk(z)
to disk(z-1) from BartPE for example, or add this to menu.lst on the active par
tition of the USB disk
####
title Start WinFLPC
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader /ntldr
###
Above example assumes WinFLPC is on first partition of your first internal disk.
Ammend accordingly.
Once in WinFLPC, edit BOOT.INI on the internal disk as was mentioned above:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows FPLC" /FASTDETECT
to
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows FPLC" /FASTDETECT
c) Vista / Windows 7 setup- select the folder with BOOT and SOURCES folders.
d) PartedMagic- where ISO file pmagic-3.X.iso is. You need to extract pmagic-gru
b4dos-3.X.iso.zip somewhere and point to its location.
To get PartedMagic: http://partedmagic.com/
Use this option to add other ISOs, which can boot using grub4dos CD emulation. H
ere you can find number of examples:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5041
e) SysLinux- select your Linux distro, which boots off SysLinux. All files/folde
rs will be copied. A file(syslin.dat), containing Syslinux bootsector will be ma
de, and an entry in the boot menu (menu.lst), pointing to that file will be made
. In case you do not select anything only syslin.dat and ldlinux.sys will be cop
ied, plus entry in menu.lst.
!!! Make sure you have not already added another source, which contains the same
folders in root as the ones from Vista, UBCD4Win etc. The program will NOT over
write files/folders.!!!
!!! SysLinux cannot be started from NTFS formatted partition !!!
3. Select target disk from the drop-down menu. Windows Setup can be started only
from the first partition on the disk! It does not have to be active. Sorry, thi
s is limitation from Microsoft- in case of removable USB disk, it can't read any
partition than first.
If your USB disk is not shown then:
a) It's not inserted
b) It does NOT have an active partition
c) It's NOT formatted in FAT16,FAT32 or NTFS
d) The program has a bug :) Please report details.
Optional settings:
4. Force target disk type(FIXED/REMOVABLE)- usually the program will detect that
for you. Force selection only if you are using filter driver as above mentioned
dummydisk.sys or Hitachi microdrive filter driver. Or if for some reason the pr
ogram did not detect it correctly. This is an important part when installing Win
dows XP/2kX from USB hard disks, or USB flash media, which is seen by Windows as
FIXED.
5. Copy Setup boot files only- this option will copy just a minimal set of files
(7-12MB), necessary for the first part(Text mode) of the setup.
Use to test how your USB disk boots, before copying the main part.
!!!DO NOT continue setup, you have to stop when you see the list of hard disks d
etected!!!
6. Test in QEMU- this will launch QEMU virtual machine, which will use your USB
disk as it's internal disk. You may use that as a basic test how the build went.
Note that this not guarantees you the same result on real hardware.
!!! Currently it's setup to use 256MB RAM when started. Make sure you have at le
ast that amount + some extra RAM available!!!
!!!USE AT OWN RISK. DO NOT PERFORM WRITE OPERATIONS WHILE IN QEMU!!!
7. BOOT.INI adjustments
a) First field is the directory name, where Windows will be installed to.
b) Disk Nr.- on which of your disks Windows will be installed to. For example if
you have two internal disks, first is disk 0, second is disk 1.
c) Partition number- in which partition of the above selected disk Windows will
be installed to.
d) Additional entries in BOOT.INI- as above, but creates additional lines in BOO
T.INI with the specified data. Use it if you plan to install Windows to disks/pa
rtition/directories other than the ones above.
This data will be used to create BOOT.INI on the USB disk, with the correct sett
ings. It will be used to start the second part (GUI mode) of setup, AND to start
Windows for first time, still using the USB disk as boot device.
!!!Make sure the above entries are correct, otherwise you will get error message
s like "HAL.DLL/NTOSKRNL.EXE was not found"
I need to stress on that- make sure BOOT.INI data is correct, and DO NOT UNPLUG
the USB disk until you enter first normal Windows desktop.
8) Press GO button, you have guessed that :)
You have 2 steps, in both USB stick is your boot device (change that preferably
in BIOS):
-Text mode part of setup
-GUI mode part of setup
!!!If your source is NOT Windows XP2 SP2 or SP3, some of the compressed files in
~LS folder will be deleted during the first part(Text mode). To make another in
stall from this disk you have to copy the missing files, use the program for thi
s purpose and follow the prompts when it finds existing setup folders.!!!
!!!If you are getting Blue screen with 0x0000007B error during start of Text mod
e setup or BartPE/WinBuilder..., read A3:
http://www.msfn.org/board/FAQs-t116766.html
and make sure you have a driver for your mass storage (SATA/AHCI/SCSI/RAID) cont
roller in your source.
================================================================================
=======
Some advanced features of the program:
- supports multiple Windows XP/2kX sources in the same partition (up to 10). Exi
sting folders ~BT and ~LS and TXTSETUP.SIF will be renamed, and SETUPLDR.BIN and
SETUPDD.SYS patched against the new names. Checksum checks are also corrected.
- supports booting BartPE/WinBulder/UBCD4Win/WinFLPC from different partitions.
Multiple BartPE for example in the SAME partition are NOT supported. Neither is
the mix of them on a single partition.
- supports booting Vista / Windows 7 setup from different partitions. Multiple V
ista/7 sources in the SAME partition are NOT supported. Place your second Vista
setup in another partition. It can be placed on any primary partition.
- UBCD4Win boot menu is adjusted to boot from the selected partition. It can be
placed on any primary partition.
- if Windows setup folders (~BT and ~LS) and txtsetup.sif coexist in the same pa
rtition as BartPE/WinBuilder/UNCD4Win/WinFLPC, SETUPLDR.BIN of the latter is pat
ched not to use txtsetup.sif in root. Checksum checks are also corrected.
- grub4dos is the main bootloader/manager. Without it's advanced features, multi
ple partitions will not be easily achieved.
Bootsector loading GRLDR is installed in the active partition of the selected di
sk. Hence the requirement for active partition and MBR.
- detailed log file is created in the folder, where program is executed from. Us
e it for troubleshooting. Upon next execution if log file is found, it's compres
sed in MS cab format, removed to BACKUPS folder and renamed with current DATE/TI
ME stamp.
- upon installing grub4dos bootsector, backup of MBR and bootsector with DATE/TI
ME stamp are placed in BACKUPS folder. Us it in case something goes wrong.
- if in Windows source folder winnt.sif or unattend.txt are found they will be u
sed as answer file. Section UNATTENDED will be temporarily removed, only for the
Text part of setup, and before start of GUI mode it will be merged back. PRESET
UP.CMD is used for this purpose.
- Windows source will be copied as follows-
everything in I386/AMD64 folders.
BTS drivers pack OEM folder
$OEM$ folder
CMPNENTS folder
PRINTERS folder
If you want to slim down your source, do it prior to launching the progr
am. Again- option "Operating System Options-->Manual Install and Upgrade for rem
oval" must NOT be selected!
!!! Do NOT replace completely WINNT.SIF in ~BT folder when the program completed
. If you need to add extra entries- do so, but make sure you don't break what ha
s been done to it. Do NOT add UNATTENDED section, if you need to make these chan
ges in ~LS\I386(AMD64)\tempunat.inf, which contains your unattended section and
will be merged at start of GUI mode.
- PE source will be copied as follows:
everything in I386 copied as MININT
folder Setup (WinFLPC)
folder Programs(BartPE) or Program Files(WinBuilder/WinFLPC)
folder IMAGES (UBCD4Win)
folder CMDC copied as CMDCONS (UBCD4Win)
- Vista/7 source
entire contents of the selected folder will be copied to root of
the selected partition
PartedMagic and Syslinux were mentioned above.
- From previous version of USB_multiboot and USB_prepare, undoren.cmd and binifi
x.cmd(thanks Jaclaz) were merged.
Some still applicable FAQs:
http://www.msfn.org/board/FAQs-t116766.html
Please report bugs(include your log file) or feature requests here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-from-USB-f157.html
When in doubt point your mouse over object in the GUI and read the tooltip, or a
sk for help in the dedicated MSFN subforum:
http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-USB-f157.html
Have fun :)