Add CHKCPU to your E2B drive to display CPU Info

CHKCPU is available as a MD-DOS\FreeDOS compatible freeware program by Jan Steunebrink that will display details of your CPU.

I have created a FreeDOS image that will auto-run this utility and then run checkpci.exe to display the systems PCI IDs.

CHKCPU running under VBox

Over 1000 E2B USB drives are made every day!

If you use the MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd script to create an E2B USB drive, the script will display the latest released version of E2B, so that you can see if there is a newer version and download it.

The script finds out what the current version is, by downloading a file called LatestE2B.txt from the www.easy2boot.com website. The file contains the current latest version number and it's release date.

A nice side-effect of this is that, as the Easy2Boot websites statistics report the number of 'hits' on that file, I can see that in the last 30 days, the LatestE2B.txt file has had over 31,000 hits. So this means that the script, on average, is being run 1000 times a day - and that is not counting the people that use RMPrepUSB to make E2B drives!

Why not make an E2B drive for your friends as a Christmas present? You can design the menu background to personalise it and add some linux distros with persistence, Gandalf WinPE, Lakka + games, Kodi (Xbox Media Centre), Cub Linux (a version of Chrome), various antivirus payloads in case of emergencies, android x86 with persistence, Tails for safe browsing, a Windows10ToGO VHD file, etc. etc. Check out this blog's 'Tutorials' page for all these and many other possibilities.

E2B 1.87b Beta available

v1.87b changes from v1.86:

• Fix typo in SDI_CHOCO which caused scrolllock.exe and capslock.exe error messages. 
• Improve linux fmt.sh scripts to install grub4dos to PBR and make partition active using parted.

Download from the Alternate Download Areas as usual.

If you make your E2B USB drive under linux, I highly recommend you ensure that the E2B USB drive has two primary partitions. The second primary partition can be any size and does not need to be formatted. This is useful because some computer BIOSes will not correctly boot the E2B USB drive as a 'hard disk' without the second partition being present.

Note that you can prepare both an NTFS or FAT32 E2B USB under linux and make the files contiguous under linux using defragfs (FAT32) or udefrag (NTFS) - see the linux page here. However, to make .imgPTN files (for UEFI-booting and installing Windows from a USB HDD, etc.), you will still need a Windows system to run the MakePartImage.cmd script.

UEFI-boot to Porteus with persistence from E2B

I have added another section to my previous blog post on Porteus to show how you can UEFI-boot to Porteus with persistence.

Add the Norman Rescue and Antivirus ISO to E2B (with persistence)

The XUbuntu-based Norman Rescue Disk ISO file (English+German supported) can be downloaded and added to your E2B USB drive (you can supply any junk email address to get the download).

However, when it first boots from the ISO file, it will download over 170MB of updates and virus definitions.

MPI Tool Pack 0.070 available

I have added a new script file \e2b\RestoreE2B_32_64.cmd to this new version.

It uses 32-bit and 64-bit versions of MBRFix.exe. This means that you can boot to either a 32-bit or 64-bit version of WinPE and switch back the USB drive to the original E2B partitions. Previously, you had to use a 64-bit version of WinPE that included WoW64 support (e.g. ChrisR's WinBuilder builds) so that it could run RMPartUSB which is a 32-bit program.

e.g. Now you can...
1. Switch to .imgPTN version of WinPE
2. UEFI-boot to 64-bit WinPE
3. Run \e2b\RestoreE2B_32_64.cmd

and now access the files on your E2B volume (including WinNTSetup.exe and Windows ISOs, etc.).

It uses Diskpart to find the Physical Disk number from the drive letter and does not rely on WMI, VB script or powershell or WoW64 - see here for details.

P.S. I found some typos in E2B SDI_Choco files which caused a '\DRIVERS\scrolllock.exe not found' and '\DRIVERS\capslock.exe not found' prompt. This is now fixed in E2B v.1.87a Beta.

Restore the E2B partition under 64-bit WinPE

If you use .imgPTN partition image files to boot to WinPE, you sometimes may want to return the E2B USB drive partitions back to it's original 'E2B' state (without having to boot into CSM\MBR mode), so that you can access the files on the E2B partition whilst running WinPE.

E2B Grub2 Menu system Beta 5 available

UEFI_GRUB2_PTN2_Beta5.imgPTNLBAa23 is available from the Alternate Downloads Area - Other Files folder.

The main difference between this version and the previous version is that for UEFI-booting to grub2, it uses a 64-bit shim for Secure Booting.

Making files contiguous on an NTFS volume under linux

Recent versions of E2B contain a 32-bit version of the binary executable for 'UltraDefrag' for linux (udefrag).

This can be found in the \_ISO\docs\linux_utils folder.

You will need to use chmod to make it executable first. More details are here.

To run the 32-bit version of udefrag under Ubuntu 64-bit:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386
(change to _ISO/docs/linux_utils folder)
sudo chmod 777 *
sudo udefrag -om /dev/sdX1  (where sdX1 is your NTFS USB partition - e.g. /dev/sdb1)

I got the udefrag file from here (tools.zip). There is also a post here which may help.

I am afraid my linux skills are virtually non-existent, so if anyone would like to provide me with a compiled, 64-bit version of udefrag, I will add it to E2B for others to use.

Weird UEFI-boot behaviour from my Asus Z87A mainboard

I was trying to boot a UEFI grub2 payload yesterday when I discovered something odd.

I was using an IODD 2531 Hard disk enclosure fitted with an SSD. I had loaded the grub2 menu system .imgPTN file using Switch_E2B.exe so it had the grub2 .EFI boot files present.

I then connected the drive to my Lenovo IdeaPad 300 and pressed F12 to get the Boot Selection menu. A UEFI boot entry was then displayed, so I selected that option and it booted to the grub2 menu - no problem!

Next, I did the same thing but using my Asus Z87A PC. To my surprise, the BIOS refused to list the IODD 2531 as a UEFI-bootable drive! There was an MBR-bootable option for the USB drive, but there was no UEFI boot option listed. This was very strange because I had UEFI-booted in this way dozens of times before from the same PC in the same way.

When I examined the Master Boot Record using RMPrepUSB - Drive Info - 0, I found that I had these partitions:

ptn #1 : FAT32 with EFI boot files
ptn #2 : NTFS with payload files
ptn #3 : Type 0x83 ext3 partition
ptn #4 : (empty)

Now ptn #3 was not supposed to be there. It was only there because it was left over from a previous experiment and because the grub2 .imgPTN file was switched in, it left partitions 2 and 3 alone, so that both were still present.

So I deleted ptn #3 and tried it again in the Z87A PC. This time the BIOS listed a bootable UEFI option for the IODD 2531 and it could now UEFI-boot.

So it seems that the mere presence of the Type 0x83 ext3 partition prevents the Z87A firmware from detecting the USB drive as UEFI-bootable!

Weird!

Footnote:
It seems that most UEFI BIOSes do not like MBR partitions which are out of order.
If a non-zero partition type is present and the Start Sector value is lower then the previous partition table entry, then it regards the whole disk MBR as invalid.

So in the above case, the start sector of partition 3 was before the start sector of partition 2.
Changing the partition 3 type to 0x00 fixed the issue and linux could still access the ext partition.

PC Rescue ToolKit Live CD by Bertrand Goio

Rescue ToolKit by Bertrand Goio is Linux-based rescue and diagnostic - RTK-3.iso (password=live).

The author has now replaced this toolkit with the PC Rescue Tool (Italian keyboard by default).
Just add it to your E2B USB drive and check it out.
It also has 64-bit UEFI boot files and so should work if converted to a FAT32 .imgPTN file too.

Package List is here.

Add salix+persistence to E2B

Following from a request from kasep, here is how to boot salix with persistence from E2B.

Salix with Persistence (folder STEVE was created)

From various experiments, I could not get salix to recognise an ext3 persistence file when mapped to partition 3 of the E2B drive. It seems that salix specifically looks for a 'persistent' file in the root of a FAT32 or ext3 volume with a volume name of  'LIVE'.

So, we need to convert the .ISO file to a FAT32 .imgPTN file. Here is how I did it:

Use Tron to automatically clean an infected Windows system

Tron by 'vocatus' is a large Windows script that will automatically 'spring-clean' an infected/unwell Windows system. After Tron has been run, the system should be free from infection and may also run faster than before.

You will need to be able to boot to the Windows system (in Safe Mode+n/w mode) and you will need internet connectivity for best results.

If you download the self-extracting Tron .exe file, you can keep it on your E2B USB drive (but disconnect the E2B drive and any other USB drive before starting Tron.bat, or else it will needlessly scan those drives too).

How to check if you booted to WinPE via UEFI or MBR

If you have booted from a WinPE image, you can check what mode you have booted in (UEFI or MBR) using a small cmd script:

Report_UEFI_MBR_boot_mode.cmd

@echo off
wpeutil UpdateBootInfo > nul
color 1f
for /f "tokens=2* delims= " %%A in ('reg query HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control /v PEFirmwareType') DO SET Firmware=%%B
:: Note: delims is a TAB followed by a space.
if %Firmware%==0x1 echo WinPE booted in BIOS mode.
if %Firmware%==0x2 echo WinPE booted in UEFI mode.
echo.
pause

You can use this script to determine what mode you have booted in (original source here).

The script only works in WinPE not Windows.

This code may be useful when you write a diskpart script for instance, and you need to know whether to partition a disk using GPT partitions or MBR partitions depending on how the user booted to WinPE initially.

The Report_UEFI_MBR_boot_mode.cmd script can be downloaded from the Alternate Downloads - Other files folder.

E2B v1.86 is now available

Changes from v1.85 are:

• Bug fix for wsusoffline Win8 updates not working. 
• Win8/10 Repair option now offered (press a key within 4 seconds after selecting an ISO). 
• Language files updated to add a Windows Repair option prompt (see below).
• Self-extracting .exe versions available.

I have used WinRar to create self-extracting exe files from the zip files. This means you can download and click on the .exe file and it will automatically extract the files to a temporary folder and then run the Make E2B USB Drive (run as admin).cmd script.

This should make it easier for naive users to make E2B USB drives.

If you don't want the contents to be extracted to a temporary folder, just open the .exe file using 7Zip or WinRar and extract the contents, or download one of the .7z or .zip versions.

If you have a Win8/10/2016 ISO in the \_ISO\WINxxx menu folders, when you select the ISO file, you will be given 4 seconds to press a key before being prompted to select an XML file. If you press a key within 4 seconds, it will boot straight to the ISO and you will be able to use the standard Windows Repair option in the Windows Install Setup menu (you will NOT be able to install Windows though!). See my previous blog for more details.

The downloads are available from the Alternate Download Areas as usual.

Get Windows 10 Professional for £4 (legally)?

You can still upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 if you know how (see here), but what if you want to install Windows 10 Pro on a new home-built system?

It seems that some sellers on eBay (UK and USA) are selling Windows 7 Pro keys for approx £4.

Now, as far as I am aware, you can still use a Windows 7 key to perform a fresh install of Windows 10 (as long as you use a recent version of the Windows 10 install ISO and not the first version).

These eBay sellers seem to think that they are 'legal' because they are also selling a faulty mainboard together with the Product Key. The only catch being that although they email you the Product Key within an hour or so, if you want the faulty mainboard then you have to either pick it up yourself or pay for postage and packing (which is quite expensive, so they clearly don't expect anyone to request the faulty mainboard!).

Whether this is actually within the terms of a Microsoft 'system builder' licence is debatable. I am sure MS never meant that a seller could sell faulty mainboards and that MS intended that the part and the Windows 7 COA should be shipped together.

I don't know if these keys actually work because I have not personally tried one, but for £4 it may be worth a try!

Here's why you may need to block the Windows 10 update prompt...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNBkJSyaeYc&feature=youtu.be&t=418

New Gandalf WinPE available

The latest Gandalf WinPE ISO (2016-10-24) is available from here.

Convert it to a FAT32 .imgPTN file and add it to your E2B drive as usual. Then it will MBR or UEFI-64 boot.

If you like the Desktop analogue clock (which can be positioned anywhere on the Desktop), and want to add it to your own Windows Desktop, you can get it from here.

E2B 1.86b Beta available

E2B v1.86b has a few changes from 1.85

• Windows 8/10 ISOs now give user the option to run a 'Repair' - see here for details.
• STRINGS.txt language files updated for new 'Repair' feature
• wsus offline update bug fix for Win8/2012R2 updates (SDI_CHOCO) - thanks to JW for reporting it.

Download from the Alternate Download Area as usual.

I have also made a self-extracting exe file Easy2Boot v1.86b_Make_E2B_USB_Drive.exe available.

This self-extracts the E2B files to a temporary folder and then automatically runs MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd from the temporary folder. This may be useful for less experienced users because they don't need to extract the E2B files to a new folder.

If you want to update your USB drive, download the .ZIP file as usual.

Windows Startup Repair (StartRep.exe) crashes on Windows 8/10 in E2B

A few days ago I used E2B to boot to a Windows 10 install ISO in order to repair a notebook that had some boot issues.

I ran the Win10 ISO from the \_ISO\WINDOWS\WIN10 folder and chose the 'S' Startup Repair option in the blue console window and it immediately crashed...

Coincidentally, a user also contacted me yesterday about the same issue! StartRep works fine on Win7 ISOs, but there seems to be something 'special' about the Win8/10 version of StartRep.exe!

Upon investigation, I found that the StartRep.exe also crashed if you chose the Windows Troubleshooter option (recenv.exe) and then ran the Startup Repair option (which runs StartRep.exe)! All the other troubleshooting functions worked, but not Startup Repair.

I also found that if I ran the ISO without using an XML file which had a WinPE section in it, then StartRep.exe worked OK. Also, Windows Setup only gives the user the 'Repair' option (Alt+R) in the Windows Setup menu as long as the XML file does not contain a WinPE section.

So, you can run Windows Repair if you place the Windows 8/10 ISO in one of the other menu folders (e.g. \_ISO\WIN or \_ISO\MAINMENU) and name it with a .iso01 file extension. However, this would mean having to have two copies of each Windows Install ISO on the E2B drive, which is not very convenient!

So, E2B v1.86 will now prompt the user to press a key within 4 seconds for a 'Repair' option whenever they choose a Windows 8/10/2016 Install ISO file from one of the Windows Install menus. If they press a key, the ISO will be run as .iso01 and the standard Repair option will be available. However, in this mode you cannot install Windows because the ISO will not be loaded as a virtual DVD by ImDisk.

Restore disk images across the network using AOMEI Image Deploy (free PXE-boot deployment system)

If you take disk backups using the free AOMEI Backupper software (from a bootable ampe.iso file), then you can use AOMEI Image Deploy to write that image to multiple PCs across the network using PXE booting.

There are instructions on their site here.

This allows you to restore a disk image to any system that has a PXE boot ROM (pretty much all systems do!) without needing to boot it from a USB drive or CD or any 'media'.

Lakka - Take 2!

I have revised the instructions to make a bootable Lakka image in my previous post.

There is now no need to make a Lakka USB flash drive first, and you can make the storage partition any size you like too. Much easier!

Windows 10 bug found in Calc App!

On PC-Welt a Windows 10 bug has been reported in the Calc App.

Can you spot the problem?

Add Lakka to your E2B USB drive and play SuperMario (and 100's of other console games)

Lakka is an open source game console emulator. See the YouTube demo here (there are many YouTube videos too, including a Hak5 intro video here!).

You can boot to Lakka from a variety of different computers including a Raspberry Pi. On an x86 PC you can directly boot from a USB drive (or install it onto a dedicated PC, if you have one to spare!).

Lakka does not support\work on a Virtual Machine - you must boot from a REAL SYSTEM!

You also need to connect USB or WiFi controllers to the PC too (recommended because using the PC keyboard is very difficult/impossible when playing games using the PC keyboard!).

I downloaded the Windows 32-bit version for a PC from here and then wrote the .img file (Lakka-Generic.i386-devel-20161002110423-r21593-g03241bf.img) to a spare 8GB USB 3.0 drive using RMPrepUSB (see below for details). For Nintendo 64 games, use Lakka 64-bit.

I then booted from the Lakka USB drive on my IdeaPad 300 (does not work on Virtual Box).

E2B v1.85 now available

E2B v1.85 is now available from the Alternate Downloads Areas.

After a few days, I will add the 1.85 download files to the www.easy2boot.com site.

Changes from v1.84 are:

• Add udefrag linux utility for making NTFS files contiguous under linux. 
• ZGRUB_USB_046.mnu menu improved. 
• Improve error checking in MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd to fix problem if you are using a proxy - now it just does not show the latest version available if a proxy has been set instead of bombing out! (thanks to JH for reporting it)
• German language files updated (thanks Frettt!).

Experimenting with large fonts, line spacing and animation (GreatLakes_DNA)

If you want a 800x600 theme which use the 24-pixel high large fonts in E2B and increases the spacing between lines, you can try the GreatLakes_DNA.zip download in the Alternate Download Area - Themes folder. It includes the rotating DNA animation and the background is a shot of the Great Lakes taken from space.

As with all animations, you can use the F2 key to make it disappear and then press F2 again to make it reappear. The space between menu lines has also been increased.

The F1 Help menu is suppressed because the help text does not fit on the screen when using large fonts.

GreatLakes_DNA.zip

The .bmp file is actually compressed using LZMA.exe.

There are several different 24-pixel high large fonts to choose from - try using a different one by changing the MyE2B.cfg file.

When using Windows ISOs, etc., you may need to reduce the number of XML files, so that they will fit on the screen nicely.

Add Easy Recovery Essentials Windows 10 (EasyRE) to E2B

The Easy Recovery Essentials Win10 ISO (not free!) does not seem to boot from E2B as a .ISO file or if simply converted to a .imgPTN file. The ISO seems to be based on FreeBSD and does not seem to contain the necessary grub2 boot loader for USB booting in an easily-accessible form.

Note that the ISO file can be booted using the E2B grub2 menu system (you must also extract some files and use a FAT32 partition, there is an example .grub2 config file in the \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu Files folder on the 2nd partition).

Instructions

Here is how to get it working as an MBR-only bootable .imgPTN file under the standard E2B grub4dos menu system (not the E2B grub2 menu system):

Beware of this 'fast' USB 3.0 Flash drive!

I already own a 64GB SanDisk Extreme, but I was looking for a larger 128GB USB 3.0 Flash drive.

As you may know, I am a big fan of the SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 drives. They are amongst the fastest USB 3.0 Flash memory drives that you can buy, but also represent extremely good value for money.

So, I consulted a few league tables such as UserBenchmark, thewirecutter  and everythingusb.

I was looking for a fast drive, so although the SanDisk Ultra Fit drive was good value for money, I did not consider it because it is slower than several others and also it is just too small - I do have one but I keep 'losing' it, and only find it a few weeks later 'hidden' in a USB port on one of my other devices.

So the main contenders were: (with advertised speed and links to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com):

SanDisk Extreme     128GB £48 or $61   245MB/s Rd, 190MB/s Wr
SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB £67 or $60   260MB/s Rd, 240MB/s Wr 
Lexar P20           128GB £52 or $49   400MB/s Rd, 270MB/s Wr

Disabling System Volume Information folder for Removable drives

If you read my previous blog and tried the Registry fragment I provided in a previous blog post, you may have found that it does not actually seem to stop Windows from making a System Volume Information folder on some systems.

It used to work (honest!), but recent versions of Windows 10 also require you to stop (disable) the Storage Service too (type 'Services' into the start menu to find the management applet). I think this service used to be called 'Removable Storage' in earlier Windows versions.

Double-click and disable the service.

So, for recent Win10 versions:

1. Disable the Storage Service

2. Install the Registry Fragment

3. Reboot

4. From an Admin command prompt, type rd /s "L:\System Volume Information" to delete the folder on the L: drive if it is already there (or whatever letter your USB drive is using).

I am not sure what affect disabling the Storage Service has on the system, Microsoft seem very sketchy with information about it. So far I have not noticed any issues (famous last words...)

RMPrepUSB v2.1.734 and new version of Disk Doctor available (with bug-fixes)

I found that the SpeedTest function in RMPrepUSB/RMPartUSB no longer seems to work on Windows 10 and gives a write error. This is now fixed in v2.1.734.

I also took the time to look into some niggly bugs in DiskDoctor (use CTRL+D inside RMPrepUSB to launch it after selecting a disk (does not work on disk 0) in RMPrepUSB).

DiskDoctor

DiskDoctor is a disk testing and editing tool which must be run with Admin privileges. The version included in RMPrepUSB has been stripped down quite a bit since I wrote it some years ago, and some functions and command line support have been removed. It was originally used as an automated test tool in a factory environment and used to test literally millions of computers.

If you want to try DD, use a disk that contains unwanted data first, until you become familiar with it!

For instance, if you start a Sequential Read of the whole disk, DiskDoctor (aka DD) will attempt to read all sectors, in blocks of a 'track' at a time, into a track buffer (63x255 sectors). This can take several hours for a 2TB HDD!