New RMPrepUSB with QEMU write access

If you ran QEMU from RMPrepUSB, it used snapshot mode which meant that writes to the USB drive did not actually write to the USB. This meant that any grub4dos command like dd, echo > (bd)/xxx, default, cat --replace=, write, etc, which wrote to the USB drive did not actually work.
DavidB (from reboot.pro) has made two extremely useful apps which allow QEMU and Oracle VBox to run from a USB drive with full rd/wr access.

I have updated the QEMU cmd file in RMPrepUSB to use this new utility and now we can boot from a USB drive with full rd/wr access from RMPrepUSB v2.1.706QEMUw!

Details of DavidB's new utility can be found here and the latest version of the utility for both QEMU and Oracle VBox here. To learn how to use it with VBox (much faster than QEMU!) please read Tutorial 4.
The new version of RMPrepUSB is on the Beta download page here (only the QEMU .cmd file has changed).

E2B BETA30 v7

In this version, Step 1 of XP install defaults after 3 second timeout to not load the ISO into RAM. If Y is pressed and then Enter, then the ISO will be loaded into system memory.
To speed up the process and not wait for the timeout, instead of waiting 3 seconds, just press the <Enter> key.

Beta30 v5 now available - full release soon - please try this version!

Only minor changes in this version:

• XP Step 1 install now loads the ISO into memory - this may prevent BSOD on some systems.
• Updated grub4dos version
• Updated some readme and help htm files.
• Added E2B stamp to the background.

Please let me know of anything that is wrong or could be improved in this version. I will release it as the official full release after 1 week of no bug reports or changes.

Easy2Boot BETA 30 v4

This version of BETA30 should be the same as v3, except with this version you can turn an E2B USB drive into a bootable ISO.

Don't get too excited though because many things won't work!
Windows XP via WinPE installs and Win8/SVR2012 installs won't work (Vista/7 and XP step1/2 may work but I have not tested them!).
Many linux ISO won't work unless you use a .mnu file which has special cheat codes in it - this is because I can't use the partnew command on a CD!

WARNING! If you try to use the partnew command in any of your .mnu files, it could wipe a partition on the internal hard disk that you boot the CD/DVD on!

WARNING!!!: If you have used any of the old sample .mnu files for linux ISO's - remove them before you boot from the E2B CD!!!! These .mnu files will wipe the 4th partition of your hard disk without warning if you boot from an E2B CD/DVD!!!!!

I have modified the Sample .mnu files now so they just abort if you try to use them on a CD.

Simple ISOs like KonBoot, or plpbt or WinPE ISOs will work though. Hirens Mini XP will work if you use an extension of .isomem (.isoWinvH does not fully work).

The CD\DVD that you make will also support FASTLOAD so it does not have to enumerate all the ISOs each time it boots.

Here is what you need to do to turn your E2B Flash memory stick into a bootable CD/DVD:

1. Make a USB Flash drive (or USB HDD) with BETA30 v4 or later
2. Add your payload files and test as normal
3. (optional) If you want FASTLOAD enabled on your final CD/DVD then copy FASTLOAD.YES to the root of the USB drive
4. (optional) If you have FASTLOAD enabled, boot the USB drive on a real system. Then reboot it to check that it loads the menu from cache correctly.
5. Run RMPrepUSB and select the USB drive - then type Ctrl+M  (File - Make grub4dos ISO from drive). This will make a bootable ISO.
6. (optional) Test the ISO using RMPrepUSB Ctrl+F11  (File - Boot from ISO using QEMU Emulator)
7. Burn your ISO (or copy it to a Zalman ZM VE-200/300/400 or IsoStick for testing).

BETA30 v4 is available at the bottom of the Tutorial 72a page.

E2B BETA30 v3 - AUTO folder is back!

I have re-instated the \_ISO\AUTO folder!
If you populate it with payload files (e.g. ISOs) and .txt files (optional) then you will see the DIRECT BOOT Menu appear in the Main menu.
You can have sub-folders under a \_ISO\AUTO and all payload files will all be listed in the DIRECT BOOT menu.
Another small change: Hotkeys for SubMenus such as BACKUP, ANTIVIRUS, etc. now are all Ctrl+ combinations.

E2B BETA30 v2

Some changes to the menus to add F7-F10 to all of them and then add hotkey menu in the Footer at the bottom of the display.

E2B BETA30 re-uploaded

Just some small changes have been made as the P, C, E and B keys are used by grub4dos so these need to be kept free. So I have used Ctrl+B and Ctrl+W for the Backup and WinPE hotkeys now. Please re-download and overwrite current files to refresh your USB drive. I have not bothered to change the version number as the changes are very small.

Easy2Boot BETA30 v1 now available

I have deleted the AUTO and MNU folders and menu entries.

Instead you have some-predefined Main menu folders. If you place a payload file inside one of the folders then that folder will appear in the Main menu. BACKUP_LINUX and UTILITIES_MEMTEST are sub-menus of the BACKUP and UTILITIES folder.


ANTIVIRUS
BACKUP
BACKUP_LINUX
docs
DOS
e2b
FASTLOAD.YES
FASTLOAD_Read_Me.txt
LINUX
MAINMENU
ReadMe.txt
Sample_MyE2B.cfg
UTILITIES
UTILITIES_MEMTEST
WINDOWS
WINPE


If you just download the BETA30 and make a new USB drive, you will see that BACKUP, DOS and UTILITIES will be listed, but not the other folders (WINPE, LINUX, ANTIVIRUS) as they are empty.

The UTILITIES menu has a Plop ISO and also a sub-menu entry for MEMORY TEST programs. The UTILITIES_MEMTEST folder contains memtest86+.
The DOS menu just has a FreeDos bootable floppy disk image.
The BACKUP menu is currently empty but it is displayed because there is a sub-menu .mnu file in it of Backup_Linux.mnu. So if you add some payload files to the \_ISO\BACKUP_LINUX folder, then the Linux sub-menu will be listed.

All these examples have hotkey's assigned, so if you are using GFXMenu, you will need to remove the hotkey text from each of the SubMenuXXXX.mnu files in the \_ISO\MAINMENU folder. I assume that if you are experienced with GFXMenu then you will know how to do this!

I hope this new menu system is easier to understand and you can easily add more sub-folders by just copying an existing SubMenuXXXX.mnu file.

Note that because the .mnu files are enumerated in a semi-random order, the order of each entry in the Main menu cannot be pre-set or pre-determined. If you want the Main menu ordered in a different way, then you need to combine all of the SubMenuXXX.mnu files with the MAINMENU.mnu file to make a MyMainMenu.mnu file and then delete the old .mnu files.

Easy2Boot - all change for BETA30!

OK. I have pretty much decided to drop the AUTO and MNU folders and just use a few new folders for BETA30

So I will include as standard Main Menu entries (if there is a file in the folder):

LINUX

UTILITIES

ANTIVIRUS

BACKUP

WINPE

and UTILITIES  will also have a sub-sub-menu of MEMTEST for an example of how to make a sub-sub-menu.

So the user can select Utilities from the Main menu,and then select Memtest from the Utilities menu and then the Memtest menu will list all the memory test utilities that the user has put there.

so the folder structure will look like this:

\_ISO\E2B

\_ISO\WINDOWS

\_ISO\MAINMENU

\_ISO\LINUX
\_ISO\ANTIVIRUS
\_ISO\BACKUP
\_ISO\WINPE

\_ISO\UTILITIES

\_ISO\UTILITIES_MEMTEST

and the \_ISO\MAINMENU folder will also now contain the .mnu files for these:

\_ISO\MAINMENU\SubMenuLinux.mnu

\_ISO\MAINMENU\SubMenuAntiVirus.mnu

\_ISO\MAINMENU\SubMenuBackup.mnu

\_ISO\MAINMENU\SubMenuWinPE.mnu

\_ISO\MAINMENU\SubMenuUtilities.mnu

and for the sub-sub-menu, I will include the .mnu file...

\_ISO\UTILITIES\Utilities_MemTest.mnu

Users can copy these .mnu files or change them to have their own MainMenu 'folders' and edit the text for their own language or add/change hotkeys.

Please let me know if you have any strong objections ASAP!

Easy2Boot - adding extra folders

If  you want to create sub-folder entries in the Main menu, e.g. have sub-menus for say Backup, Utilities, Linux, Hirens ISOs, DOS images, BIOS update images, Diagnostics, etc.  you can add all of these to the Main menu by adding a .mnu file for each one (but you will need to edit a few lines!).
Hotkeys can also be assigned to these entries.

The instructions on how to do this are now in Tutorial 72a and the required Example_Backup.mnu file is in the latest (refreshed) BETA29V11 download  (just re-uploaded!).

This example BACKUP menu entry leads to another menu which will list all payload/.mnu files under \_ISO\BACKUP.
You can even nest these menus and have sub-sub-menus, etc. etc. etc.