I have completely changed the Windows install menus and method.
There has been a drastic re-write for all Windows installs!
This makes it much more flexible and no special name are needed and you can have as many different ISOs as you have room for.
This version seems to work OK, so please try it out!
Product Key files are actually small grub4dos batch files, so make sure you get them right (set must be lower case)
!BAT
set KEY=<29 character key goes here>
You can find the new version at the bottom of this page (in the downloads area) as usual.
Note: all your unattend.xml files MUST have the <RunSynchronous> section from the Sample.xml file provided added to them (in the windowsPE settings section). Otherwise you won't see the blue text console window appear (Repair Y/N?) and the 'DVD' will not be found when Setup runs.
BETA28v2 - poss. fix for hanging at '/AutoUnattend.xml and /Unattend.xml files...' which I occasionally get and then the symptom disappears again! Increased size of .xml files in case user has a large xml. Added a few more alternative Win8 product key files.
BETA28v3 - fix my stupid typo mistake in XP+WinPE install (it listed win7 files not XP files!) - Thanks halikus for spotting it!
Also now suppress graphics bmp load and graphicsmode change on reload of main menu.
Few tweaks to menu.lst. Now in 800x600 mode, if you change GMODE to 640 then the menu box and help text position will change automatically too! QRUN.g4b has been tweaked and new file extensions added which may be useful.
BETA28v4 - major error corrected (thanks Tomas). The Autounattend.xml on the Easy2Boot USB drive was blank when doing Win installs!
BETA28v5 - Similar bug in Win7/Vista installs now fixed.
BETA28v6 - problem with menu item 0 'set default and timeout' fixed.
There has been a drastic re-write for all Windows installs!
This makes it much more flexible and no special name are needed and you can have as many different ISOs as you have room for.
- For Win XP Firadisk installs - just put your XP ISOs in the XP folder.
- For Win XP WinPE installs - add any unattend.txt files you want to the XP folder
- For Vista/SVR2K8/7 - add your ISOs and unattend.xml files (optional)
- For Win8/Server2012 - add your ISOs and unattend.xml and Product Key files
This version seems to work OK, so please try it out!
Product Key files are actually small grub4dos batch files, so make sure you get them right (set must be lower case)
!BAT
set KEY=<29 character key goes here>
You can find the new version at the bottom of this page (in the downloads area) as usual.
Note: all your unattend.xml files MUST have the <RunSynchronous> section from the Sample.xml file provided added to them (in the windowsPE settings section). Otherwise you won't see the blue text console window appear (Repair Y/N?) and the 'DVD' will not be found when Setup runs.
BETA28v2 - poss. fix for hanging at '/AutoUnattend.xml and /Unattend.xml files...' which I occasionally get and then the symptom disappears again! Increased size of .xml files in case user has a large xml. Added a few more alternative Win8 product key files.
BETA28v3 - fix my stupid typo mistake in XP+WinPE install (it listed win7 files not XP files!) - Thanks halikus for spotting it!
Also now suppress graphics bmp load and graphicsmode change on reload of main menu.
Few tweaks to menu.lst. Now in 800x600 mode, if you change GMODE to 640 then the menu box and help text position will change automatically too! QRUN.g4b has been tweaked and new file extensions added which may be useful.
BETA28v4 - major error corrected (thanks Tomas). The Autounattend.xml on the Easy2Boot USB drive was blank when doing Win installs!
BETA28v5 - Similar bug in Win7/Vista installs now fixed.
BETA28v6 - problem with menu item 0 'set default and timeout' fixed.
It's all beyond me but in practice very easy to apply. Great work...
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't know much, I worked out a way to add Hiren.iso's. I'll describe it here because I think instructions and troubleshoots in http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/72---easyboot---a-grubdos-multiboot-drive-that-is-easy-to-maintain/e2bv1 may be somewhat misleading...
In any case:
(1) no particular need to extract the HBCD folder...
(2) No need to change extension to isowinvH...
(3a) I put the generic HirenISO.mnu under MAINMENU; and put hirens.iso under MAINMENU\UTILS.
(3b) changed hirens.isowinvH entries to hirens.iso in the .mnu file; and added the line " configfile /HBCD/menu.lst " before the last line i.e. " boot "... As such this boots to a submenu of the CD but goto higher menu command works fine...
(3c) to boot to the main menu of hirens cd, I made a menuEZ2Boot.lst file and put it under HBCD folder IN the hirens ISO file. menuEZ2Boot.lst was simply the top of the existing menu.lst and I included these 3 lines:
find --set-root /isolinux/isolinux.cfg
chainloader /isolinux/isolinux.bin || configfile /HBCD/usb.lst
root
works just fine...
best
adnan
first of all THANK YOU. the issue i have is the usb stick is made on ahci win7 device. the device will not recognize the local drives on our ide xp machines unless we change them to ahci in the bios. however the image is ide and will bluescreen once windows boots unless ahci is changed back to ide in the bios.
ReplyDeleteany advice so the stick works on both ahci and ide workstations and recognizes the local disk?
@roe
ReplyDeleteSorry, you will have to explain a little better!
What ISO are you trying to boot to?
What image are you talking about?
Most BIOses will boot from a USB drive - it does not matter if the BIOS is set to AHCI or not.
If you are installing XP from a USB drive to an AHCI computer, then use F6 as explained in the Easy2Boot Windows video.