Easy2Boot 1.07 Beta 2 now available

This has enhanced WinPE2/3/4 ISO support.

If you place a file that is the same filename as the ISO in the same folder as the WinPE ISO, e.g.

\_ISO\MAINMENU\WinPEx86ABC.isoPE

\_ISO\MAINMENU\WinPEx86ABC.cmd

WinPEx86ABC.cmd
===============
set ISOLETTER=S:

then if no <isoname>.cmd file exists then Y: is used, otherwise the letter set in your .cmd file is used. If Y: is already used then the next free letter will be used to mount the WinPE ISO.

Now .cmd files as well as .mnu and .txt files will not be listed in the menu.

This version also supports the .isoPE01  extension. This has the same function as .isoPE but swaps hd0 and hd1 over before booting to the ISO. This may be useful for some repair ISOs that expect hd0 to be the primary internal system disk.

Beta2a has minor change to add double-quotes around the iso filename when ImDisk is called to load the ISO - this should (may) allow filenames with spaces in them to work (e.g. SVR2012).

Easy2Boot v1.07Beta now available

This version recognises iso's with a .isoPE extension.

This can be used with Vista/7/8 WinPE ISOs. If the extension is .isoPE then when WinPE runs and wpeinit starts, the .ISOPE file will be automatically loaded in WinPE as a virtual CD/DVD drive.
This means that once the WinPE is fully loaded, it will have access to all the files in the ISO as a virtual CD/DVD drive.
Note that this only works if you use an E2B USB flash drive, or use an E2H USB HDD + USB 'Helper' Flash drive, as the \unattend.xml file is required to be on a 'removable' USB drive for this to work.

This version is available from the downloads section of the E2B Tutorial here.

There have also been some minor changes to the LOADISOxx.cmd files used for Vista/7/8 install ISOs but hopefully this should not affect their function at all.

Easy2Boot v1.06

If you update your current E2B USB drive, it will make quite a few changes and you will need to delete some files from your existing E2B USB drive - otherwise you may get duplicate entries in the menu!

The big change in this version is that ALL files are sorted alphabetically. In previous versions you could either have all .mnu files listed in the menu first and then all payload (e.g. .iso) files OR all payload files first and then all .mnu files.

With version 1.06  .mnu and payload files are enumerated in one go, so the menu will list entries according to the files alphanumeric order. This means you can arrange the menu better (just sort the files by name in Windows Explorer to see what order they will be in). It also means that the boot is quicker as the whole \_ISO folder is only enumerated once instead of twice.

I have had to re-organise some files in the \_ISO\Mainmenu folder.  Mainmenu.mnu is gone and so are the SubMenuxxx.mnu files. Instead we have some ZZxxxxx.mnu files. Obviously these will be listed last in the main menu.

Although all menu entries will now be listed in the menu according to their filename, it is important to realise two things:

1. If a .txt file is specified for a payload file, or a .mnu file is found, then the actual text that appears in the menu is that contained in the file.
e.g.
a.mnu   (contains 'title X files')
z.iso  
z.txt     (contains 'title Runs z.iso')

then the menu will look like this

X files
Runs z.iso

2. Files in sub-folders will be listed alphabetically as each folder name is discovered. This means that a .mnu file entry from a file at \_ISO\MAINMENU\A\Zlot.mnu will appear in the main menu before a payload file at \_ISO\MAINMENU\backup.iso.



If you want to try the new version, you can download it here.

I recommend you make a new USB E2B drive and re-copy your payload files onto the drive.

If you want to just update your current E2B drive then you will need to delete the following files:

All \_ISO\MAINMENU\SubMenuxxxxx.mnu files
\_ISO\MAINMENU\mainmenu.mnu
\_ISO\e2b\grub\adf2mm.g4b (no longer required)

Note that you can now control the position of each individual menu entry (except F9 and F10 which will always be last in the menu) by renaming the payload and .mnu files.

Files in \_ISO\MAINMENU folder
=========================
ZZSubMenuAntiVirus.mnu
ZZSubMenuAuto.mnu
ZZSubMenuBackup.mnu
ZZSubMenuDos.mnu
ZZSubMenuLinux.mnu
ZZSubMenuUtilities.mnu
ZZSubMenuWinPE.mnu
ZZWindowsInstall.mnu

ZZZF7BootHdd.mnu
ZZZF8ReloadMenu.mnu

If you want the sub-menu entries for the sub-folders to be listed first in the main menu, just add $ in front of the first 8 ZZxxxx.mnu files.

Note that ZZZF7BootHdd.mnu and ZZZF8ReloadMenu.mnu must not be deleted and must be alphabetically last so that the F9 and F10 entries, which are automatically added to the end of the menu by E2B, will be listed in order and look nice!

Please add a comment if you have tried this and give me your feedback!

Easy2Boot v1.05

This version has a few minor changes:

1. Some more sample .mnu files added to the docs folder
2. A new 'Jolene' menu theme added to docs folder (see below) For Star Trek fans!
3. Ability to suppress the E2B file enumeration messages by setting a new grub4dos variable in your MyE2B.cfg file.

set redir=> nul

If you also want to suppress the E2B progress messages (not recommended as they may be useful on systems with bad BIOSes) then add this line:

set redirp=> nul

See the \_ISO\Sample_MyE2B.cfg file (end) for an example of these two lines (note there is a space between the > and nul).

New 'Jolene' sample background and borderless menu (also redir is also set, so silent file enumeration is enabled).

Easy2Boot and XBMCBuntu

I have added a new .mnu file that can be used with an XMBCBuntu 12.2 ISO file to allow you to run XBMCBuntu with persistence. Please read the text in the .mnu file for details. The .mnu file is at the bottom of the Tutorial 72a page.

Puppy linux for E2B with persistence

If you want the 'Save on Exit' feature to work for Puppy Linux ISOs, you will need to add a .mnu file.

I have added two .mnu files to the bottom of the Tutorial 72a E2B page. One is for E2B USB HDDs and the other is for E2B USB Flash drives.

The .mnu file is for Puppy 5.4.3 but you can easily edit it for any other version just by changing the ISO filename.

For USB HDDs the cheat code pmedia=usbhd is required. For USB Flash drives the cheat code pmedia=usbflash is required. These codes are already in the .mnu file.

Puppy seems to work well on my Acer 7741G notebook. Audio, Video, trackpad scroll bar support and WiFi all worked on first boot.

RMPrepUSB v2.1.708 - Change partition type menu option added

V2.1.708 is now available. It has the latest grub4dos version (compatible with E2B v1.04) and also has a new menu option to change the primary partition type number.

This new option was added primarily to allow people to format a USB drive with a FAT32 partition and then use the new menu option to change the type to EEh which is the partition type number for EFI partitions. This means you can now create an EFI FAT32 partition which will boot to grub4dos if you install grub4dos, and boot to an EFI OS or secondary bootloader if you install rEFInd or gummiboot.

Easy2Boot v1.04 (minor changes)

The new version has only minor changes (not worth updating if you already have E2B working OK).

1. DPMS2 - minor changes to fix some issues with some drivers.
2. Improved grldr version warning
3. XP Installs Step 2 now allows user to press D or A to debug or abort

P.S. new version RMPrepUSB 2.1.708 installs the same version of grub4dos as used by E2B.

E2B v1.03 available (includes DPMS2)

Easy2Boot v1.03 can now be downloaded here.

It is essentially v1.01 of E2B + DPMS2 + small changes/bugfixes:

1. DPMS2 added (but not the mass storage drivers - you must download and add these files yourself)
2. New grub4dos version - files/folders can now be sorted alphabetically and are NOT case sensitive (bugfix in grub4dos).
3. Bugfix for large HDDs (>1TB) - E2B reported bad BIOS when it wasn't!
4. Change to XP Step 1 install code - now correct choice is automatically made for the user for most questions.

DPMS 2 Update Package now available!

Update: You can now download Easy2Boot+DPMS2 in one download - see Tutorial 72a for the link.

Using E2B and a vanilla unmodified XP ISO, you can now install to any SATA/RAID/SCSI system without needing to integrate the mass storage drivers into the ISO!

Auto-F6 SRS floppies made. Adds [Config.xxx] sections to txtsetup.oem so should work with scsi drives too.

If using an E2B USB-HDD and FiraDisk then you need to load the ISO into memory (answer Y to the question just after DPMS2 runs).

If using an E2B USB-flash drive and FiraDisk then you don't need to load the ISO into memory (just press Enter or let it timeout).

Includes improved alphabetical menu sort code for E2B.

Instructions on how to use it here.

You can disable alphabetical sorting of menus (if you find it too slow), by adding

set NOSORT=1

to your MyE2B.cfg file.