Hurry - EaseUS ToDo Home Backup free for 48 hours (normally $29)

I have never used it, but the offer is here. You must provide a valid email address to get the key (it takes 5 minutes or so for the email to arrive).
Late note: My activation did not work and it said it had already been used  :-(  Others seem to be having the same problem so it may be fixed later...

Offer expired! Check HERE for more offers.

There is a ToDo Backup Free version

Add BitDefender Rescue ISO to E2B

BitDefender provide a free bootable ISO for scanning and cleaning viruses from systems (details here). This is a very useful tool to add to your E2B USB drive.

Recent versions of the BitDefender AntiVirus rescue ISO use grub and support UEFI x64 booting.

E2B v1.72BetaK available

SteveL found some problems with 1.72BetaJ and the latest grub4dos

• If 1024x768 bmp used, pressing F8 to reload menu caused screen corruption.
• If use the code line
  cat --locate=\x02 --replace=\x00 --skip=0x2073 --length=1 /grldr > nul
  in \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg to suppress boot-up messages, it caused payload files to not be detected and thus not added to the Menus.

These issues have been fixed with a new version of \_ISO\e2b\grub\menu.lst.

E2B 1.72BetaJ now available

This version has the latest version of grub4dos 0.4.6a 2015-08-07.

Yaya appears to have fixed the .jpg display problem so that we can use standard 95% quality .jpg files (e.g. as created by MSPaint) as background images.

Please try it and let me know if you find any problems,

The latest version of E2B_Editor will allow you to load .jpg files as a wallpaper as well as .bmp files.

If you want to convert your \_ISO\MyBackground.bmp file to a smaller .jpg file, just load and save it using MSPaint (but keep the filename+extension the same - i.e. MyBackground.bmp or MyBackground.bmp.gz).

P.S. Progressive jpg's, as used by some websites, contain both low-res and hi-res images and are not supported. If you re-save them using MSPaint then they should work OK with E2B/grub4dos.

How to check your CPU cooler using software

Is your heatsink correctly seated onto your CPU? Is the cooling system up to the job?

How would you check that it is correctly fitted and is working correctly?

Many people fall into the trap of measuring the CPU temperature to check that their heatsink and heatsink fan are working correctly. There are many software utilities that will check the internal CPU temperature, such as CPU-Z or RealTemp. For Intel CPUs there is also the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility but this needs to be installed (.Net and drivers) and the system must be restarted.

Intel Extreme  Tuning will run a stress test and show you if thermal throttling is occurring (in my case this happened once 100 deg C was reached).

E2B v1.72BetaH available

1.72h has the latest grub4dos 0.4.6a version which includes support for .jpg wallpaper files, right-aligned menu support and the new setmenu command.

If you want to try using a .jpg file for a background wallpaper, make sure you save it using 100% Best Quality setting or the picture will display with defects (fixed in 1.72BetaK)!

Download and add Windows 10 ISOs to Easy2Boot

You can download Windows 10 'Retail' install ISOs from Microsoft and install them using Easy2Boot.

See also this blog post for direct download of many MS ISOs.

1. First go to the MS page and download and run the Download Tool (choose the 32-bit or 64-bit MediaCreationTool.exe, depending on what version of Windows you are currently running).

How to copy your E2B USB drive to another USB drive

If you have your E2B USB drive working nicely and you want to make other bootable E2B USB drives from it, then you can use the MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd script.

Why can't I boot Easy2Boot on some old systems?

If you use Easy2Boot on a wide range of different and older systems, you may find that some of them won't boot, even though they look like they should support USB-booting.

This problem is usually caused by the BIOS on the system.

Here is a checklist of things to try:

Quickly install Windows 7\8\10 To Go onto an Easy2Boot USB drive using WinToUSB

The free version of WinToUSB can quickly install a full version of Windows from a Windows Install ISO onto a USB drive. We can use it to make a Win7ToGo .imgPTN or .VHD file on our E2B USB drive (or Win8 or Win10). You can have as many different WindowsToGo files on your E2B USB drive as you like!

Here are the steps, in outline, for an MBR-bootable version of Win7ToGo (but also works for Win8 and 10).

You can use VBox+VMUB instead of a real system for booting Windows, if you prefer.

E2B v1.72BetaG

The latest Beta of E2B has a few tweaks to cope with the latest changes in grub4dos 0.4.6a.

Note: 

E2B v1.72BetaG does NOT contain this latest version of grub4dos.

The latest grub4dos 0.4.6a versions have a few new features (and bugs!):

1. Support .jpg files for splashimages (wallpaper/background images)
2. New setmenu command to position the menu (with or without border)
3. Change to color command (colour for 'Notes' can be defined separately)
4. New  echo -v command which displays the version number

Ready-made WinPE ISOs (from Gandalf)

If you are looking for ready-made WinPE ISOs (with UEFI-boot support too), check out the Gandalf's WinPE builds of WinPESE8.1 (Google for 'Gandalf WinPE').

Win8.1U1SE_x86 updateable (UEFI+MBR bootable) - This PE had external Portable Apps and Programs folder, allowing you to add more programs.

There is even a dual-boot x86/x64 ISO (64-bit UEFI + 32&64-bit MBR booting)...

The dual-PE ISO has an external Portable Apps folder, so you could add more apps into it.

Using Easy2Boot with UEFI-only systems

Summary

Many people have asked me 'how can I boot to E2B and select a UEFI payload, if I only have one UEFI-only system'?

This is an (old) blog post - Easy2Boot v2 now includes agFM UEFI boot files, so you can directly UEFI-boot to any payload or ISO file from the agFM menu system. You can also add Ventoy too!

Due to some systems have buggy BIOSes, it is best to have two E2B USB drives, one for UEFI booting and payloads and the other for MBR booting and MBR payloads.

SWITCH_E2B.exe is a Windows utility that allows you to switch .imgPTN images without booting in MBR-mode.

eBook #3 contains full details and URLs to sample WinPE downloads.

MPI Tool Pack now has Clover 32-bit support (v 051)

I have added the 32-bit Clover files to the MPI Tool Pack so if your payload .imgPTN file has 32-bit UEFI boot files, you can UEFI-boot from the CSM menu.

A system with a 64-bit CPU will list both Clover 32-bit and 64-bit boot entries.
A system with a 32-bit CPU will list only the Clover 32-bit boot entry.

Fast USB 3.0 drive caddy for SSDs - Inateck FE2005

A few years ago I needed a USB 3.0 drive caddy for 2.5" HDDs, so I bought a cheap ICY BOX  IB-233ST

This ICY does have screws but you can just use the rubber sheath to hold it together - this allows for quick changing of drives without having to fiddle with tiny screws and find a tiny screwdriver!

However, when I fitted an SSD drive into it, I was only getting sequential rd/wr speeds of 150-200MB/s.

After doing a bit of research, I bought this screwless Inateck drive caddy (FE2005S)

Adding WinPE/WinBuilder ISO files to Easy2Boot (WinPE-Yol.iso, Dium_2.0.iso, etc.)

WinPE-Yol.iso (Google for it!) and Dium_2.0.iso are two French WinPE ISO's built using WinBuilder (ChrisR's Win8PESE project here).

Note: E2B v1.90 and later now include automatic support for MediCat and other WinBuilder-based PE ISOs. See here for more details.

Dium-2 booted from a .imgPTN file

WinPE-Yol booted from a .imgPTN file

Add 'Boot Repair Disk' ISOs to your E2B multi-boot drive

I came across a reference to Boot-Repair-Disk a few days ago which was something new to me.
It includes gparted and FireFox, and is very quick to boot too.

It says that it will 'automatically' fix boot problems on both linux and Windows systems:

Here is THE Rescue Disk that you should keep close to your computer !

• runs automatically Boot-Repair rescue tool at start-up
• also contains the OS-Uninstaller and Boot-Info tools.
• repairs recent (UEFI) computers as well as old PCs

Partition Guru Pro giveaway - hurry!

http://reboot.pro/topic/20571-partitionguru-pro/#entry193638

Free offer for this s/w worth $80. Useful for partition/data recovery, etc.
See here for extra features that you get with the Pro version.

Right-Click on a file to show a cluster list and see if it is contiguous.

As soon as you install, Register it quickly before the offer expires (you do not have to use your real email address if you prefer not to!).

E2B v1.72BetaE now has (very!) minimal Arabic language support

E2B v1.72e has a \_ISO\e2b\grub\ARABIC language folder.

It only has a few menu headings and menu entries translated to Arabic (using Google translate!) and they are probably all wrong!

If you wish to correct them, the instructions on how to edit the files are in the \_ISO\e2b\grub\ARABIC\ReadMe.txt file.

The 'source' UTF-8 files that you need to edit are the STRINGS_ARABIC.txt and F1_ARABIC.cfg files.

You need to edit these and then convert them using Fribidi to a STRINGS.txt and F1.cfg file (use the Reverse.cmd file provided - just drag-and-drop a 'Arabic' file onto the Reverse.cmd file).

As a starting point, you could try this \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file (save as UTF-8):

!BAT
#set CENTREHD=1
set RTL=1
set AUTONUM=0
write 0x8308 0 > nul
set bdwidth=0
if "%LANG%"=="" set LANG=ARABIC
set EXTOFF=
#HEADING
set HEADING=ﺔﺷﻼﻔﻟﺍ ﺯﻭﺪﻨﻳﻭ
#FOOTER
set HBTM=3642
set FCOLOUR=0106
set HELPTEXT=ﺑﺮﻧﺎﻣﺞ [F7]   ﻧﻮﺭﺗﻮﻥ [F8]   ﻧﻮﺭﺗﻮﻥ [F9]   ﻧﻮﺭﺗﻮﻥ [F10]

Setting E2B sub-menu defaults and timeouts

I have had enquiries from two different people in the same day about how to set a timeout to auto-run an entry in a sub-menu!

You can set a menu default (and optional timeout value) for each standard E2B sub-menu folder by using a .mnu file.

I have added yet another page to the E2B site here to describe the various options.

E2B 1.72BetaB with support for Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, etc.

E2B 1.72BetaB+ has added support for RTL languages (but no STRINGS.txt language files yet!)

BetaC fixes Windows sub-menus not being right-justified + few other small niggles.

v1.72BetaA

I have added a similar function to the ENUMWAIT function which pauses the list of payload files just before the menu is displayed.

Now, you can press the SPACEBAR during file enumeration of any menu and it will pause at the end of enumeration (without ENUMWAIT needing to be set in MyE2B.cfg).

You can now easily see the order that files and folders are enumerated in, and thus the order that they will appear in the menu.

E2B v1.71 released

Small tweaks since 1.70.

v1.71 2015-06-26

• Typo\bugfix for PTN2_Menu.mnu and renamed. 
• Make_this_drive_contiguous.cmd will now run on any drive it is on (if \_ISO\docs\WINCONTIG folder is also present on the drive), so can use it on another partition on an E2B USB HDD drive by copying it to the other partition. 
• XP Step 2 bugfix - if installing XP to 2nd HDD it would not boot correctly. 
• JustBrowsing_with_config.mnu file added + few others
• German Strings.txt small tweaks. 
• Payload enumeration now displays source directory correctly when listing payload files. 
• 'set ENUMWAIT=1' in MyE2B.cfg will cause file enumeration to pause before displaying the menu - useful to see what order files are enumerated in for menu order.
• MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd tells user if disk is Fixed or Removable type and warns if Fixed that they will need a 'Helper' USB drive for Windows installs.

How to have multiple, fully-installed linux OS's on the same Easy2Boot USB drive

Please note: I recommend using VBox+VMUB rather than a real system to perform the installation onto the E2B USB drive because it will be safer (and Mint seems to have a problem if a hard disk is present in the system!).

A better method!

I recommend you follow this method  which is much easier and simpler than the method below.

Old Method

Introduction

This method allows you to boot to any number of 'fully installed' linux OS's from the one E2B USB drive (i.e. linux will keep all changes and updates, etc. as it is not running from the ISO or a filesystem in memory but is fully installed onto the USB drive).

I used Mint but many other linux installers should work - e.g. manjaro.

WARNING: You should only attempt this if you are familiar with .imgPTN files and installing linux. If you choose the wrong linux install options you could destroy the contents of your E2B drive! If you are not using a Virtual Machine, you could destroy the contents of your system disks too!



In this process we will add a Linux Install .imgPTN file (or LiveCD+Install .imgPTN file) to your E2B USB drive and then install that version of linux to a new 'virtual' partition on the same drive.
We do not need to re-partition the E2B USB drive.

Notes:

• Once you install linux, the MINT OS file should not be copied or moved, because it contains boot parameters that are specific to the file's position on the E2B USB drive. WinContig will not change it's position (but a defrag would). This issue can be solved however, by using a bespoke menu entry (see bottom of page for details).
• We cannot have a Swap partition in this install. Linux is installed onto a single partition only but see the bottom of this post for a workaround.
• Only MBR-booting is supported.

I used a linux Mint 17 Mate 32-bit ISO and an E2B USB HDD, but the process should work for many linux installers as long as they will install to just a single ext2/3/4 partition.

E2B: Add Desinfect 2015 with updates

I have made a new mnu file for Desinfect 2015 with persistent updates.

Making the .mnu was simple, but I just couldn't get the updates to work. I could copy them from the 'master' flash drive partition to the ext2 filesystem on the E2B drive, but when I booted to Desinfect 2015 from the Easy2Boot drive, Desinfect always complained that the signatures were outdated and refused to use them or update them (updates went to RAM not the USB drive)!

It turned out that I was not copying ALL of the files because I was using the linux command:

sudo cp -purv /media/desinfect/desinfSIGS/* ss

what I should have used was

sudo cp -purv /media/desinfect/desinfSIGS/. ss

spot the difference!!!  linux is sooooo user friendly (not)!

The important file that was not copied was the empty file  .desinfect2015, which explains why Desinfect 2015 thought the signatures folder was not the correct one!

The amended instructions for 2014 and 2015 are in the updated old blog post here.

Access ext2/3/4 partitions from Windows

I actually installed ext2fsd on my Win8.1 64-bit Windows system so that I could look at the contents of the Desinfect 2015 'master' flash drive more easily. Because, I was using a Removable flash drive, I had to use RMPrepUSB - Ctrl-O to move the type 83 ext4 signatures partition (#3) to the first position in the partition table. Once that was done, the ext4 signatures partition was available to me in Windows Explorer and I then noticed the .desinfect2015 hidden file!  I could have used ls -a under Linux to see the hidden files also.


P.S. Any donations to Easy2Boot are welcome ;-)

E2B: How to install debian from an ISO

Some linux install ISOs, such as debian-based ISOs, will boot to a Live OS fine using Easy2Boot straight from the .ISO file.

However, if you want to install linux from the ISO, some linux installers specifically look for a CD-ROM drive rather than looking for the installation source files, or they do not automatically mount the 4th partition, which E2B has mapped to the ISO file by grub4dos, and so the installer cannot find the source files.

Often, however, there is a simple solution. When installing linux onto another device, you just need to specify the source device. E2B changes partition #4 so that it points to the ISO file that we are booting from. So we just need to specify that partition as the 'cdrom'!

Here is an example using debian-8.1.0-i386-CD-1.ISO.

Password protect specific Windows Install ISOs

You can easily password protect normal, standard menu entries in a variety of ways on an E2B USB multiboot drive (e.g. just add 'pwd' to the end of the file extension - Ubuntu.isopwd).

But recently a user wanted to protect certain specific Win7/8 Install ISOs with specific passwords, so I have added a few examples of ways to do this to the 'E2B Security' page on the E2B website.

After selecting a specific Win7/8 ISO you can prompt the user for a specific password...
If the password is wrong, they will be returned to the Windows Install menu.
Note: this 'bunny' wallpaper is my current menu wallpaper - don't ask me why!

'Don't put your laptop on your lap!'

I recently read an interesting post from the 'Life of MDW' blog here, which was about why you should NOT call a notebook a 'laptop'.

When I worked at RM (which sold computers to schools), we always called them notebooks, however, despite this, the teachers always called them laptops!

Note: The most common causes of notebook damage were: 1) picking a notebook up by holding the screen and gripping the display too tightly and cracking it, 2) notebook falling off a chair\sofa\lap whilst on, 3) sitting on it when in a bag (often damage was caused by the UK three-pronged mains plug pressing into the screen lid).

Add JustBrowsing+config file to E2B

The August 2014 version of JustBrowsing allows you to save the browser settings in a config file.
The file must be saved on a mounted volume which has a volume name of JUSTDATA.
'maddog' asked me to make a .mnu file for it...

Here is the .mnu file for Easy2Boot which allows you to have these settings persistent on each boot.
Depending on the ISO, you will need to change the name of the iso file in two places and maybe edit the title text too...

# Create file \justbrowsing-rw in root of E2B USB drive using RMPrepUSB - Create small 5MB Ext2 FS  Volume Name = JUSTDATA
# Place the iso file and this file in \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU  (or some other menu folder at 3rd level - e.g. \_ISO\LINUX\BROWSER)

iftitle [if exist $HOME$/justbrowsing_20140808_chrome.iso] JustBrowsing with Config file\n Settings are saved in a configuration file

set ISO=$HOME$/justbrowsing_20140808_chrome.iso
set PERS=/justbrowsing-rw

if "%E2BDEV%"=="" set E2BDEV=hd0 && pause E2BDEV forced to hd0!
if exist CD echo WARNING: Cannot use partnew command! && pause && configfile (bd)/menu.lst
#enable parttype output
partnew (%E2BDEV%,3) 0x0 %ISO%
# make empty table entry in 3rd position in ptn table
debug 1
parttype (%E2BDEV%,2) | set check=
debug off
set check=%check:~-5,4%
if "%check%"=="0x00" partnew (%E2BDEV%,2) 0 0 0
if not "%check%"=="0x00" echo WARNING: PTN TABLE 3 IS ALREADY IN USE! && pause
debug 1
if not exist %PERS% echo WARNING: %PERS% persistence file not found! && pause
errorcheck off
if "%check%"=="0x00" partnew (%E2BDEV%,2) 0x0 %PERS%
errorcheck on
/%grub%/QRUN.g4b %ISO%
boot

I will add the final version of this to next Beta release.

Google Drive falsely reports that some .7z files are infected!

I recently changed from using .zip files to .7z files (using the 'Ultra' compression setting) because .7z LZMA compression made much smaller files (e.g. 30MB .zip reduced to under 20MB if I use .7z + 'Ultra' compression) and thus made it quicker to download for everyone.

However, Frettt (who translated the German Strings.txt file in E2B) pointed out to me today, that if he attempted to download the Easy2Boot_V1.70DMPS.7z file from Google Drive, it reported it as 'Infected'!

E2B - bug in PTN2_Menu.mnu sample menu file!

Jason has just reported an issue when he tried to use the \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu Files\E2B Menus\PTN2_Menu.mnu file in his \_ISO\MAINMENU folder so he could run payload files from the second partition of his E2B drive.

We found a typo in this sample .mnu file which causes it to just reload the Main menu!

E2B v1.70 has the correct version of this menu file which should be as shown below (correction shown in red):

# EXAMPLE .MNU FILE FOR 2ND PRIMARY PARTITION  (max for E2B is 2 Primary ptns or 1 Primary+multiple logical ptns) - see also PTN_LOG1_Menu.mnu
# You can add payload files under \_ISO on partition 2 and they will be included in the menu
# EDIT lines 1 and 3 to match the name of your partition (hd0,1) and  folder (/_ISO)
# Add this file to the /_ISO/MAINMENU folder
# 2nd Primary partition is (hd0,1), 3rd Primary = (hd0,2), fourth primary = (hd0,3), first Logical partition = (hd0,4), second Logical partition = (hd0,5), etc.

iftitle [ls (hd0,1)/_ISO/ > nul && if "%GFX%"==""] ^Ctrl+2 PARTITION 2 Payload Files Menu [Ctrl+2]\n Run payload files in Partition 2 \\_ISO folder
set LBACKMENU=(bd)/%grub%/menu.lst
(bd)/%grub%/QAUTO.g4b .automenu (hd0,1)/_ISO
debug 0
configfile (md)0x3000+0x50

# For GFX menu (delete if you don't use GFXBoot menu)
iftitle [ls (hd0,1)/_ISO/ > nul && if not "%GFX%"==""] PARTITION 2 Payload Files Menu\n Run payload files in Partition 2 \\_ISO folder
set LBACKMENU=(bd)/%grub%/menu.lst
(bd)/%grub%/QAUTO.g4b .automenu (hd0,1)/_ISO
debug 0
configfile (md)0x3000+0x50


I am sorry if this caused anyone problems trying to get this menu to work!
http://www.easy2boot.com/make-an-easy2boot-usb-drive/using-other-partitions-or-drives/

Note
In E2B, the Main menu is kept in memory at (md)0xa000 - this is used when you press F8 from within any sub-menu to quickly re-load and display the Main menu. The most recent menu that was enumerated is stored at (md)0x3000. So 'configfile (md)0xa000+0x50' will load the Main Menu, whereas 'configfile (md)0x3000+0x50' will display the last menu that was enumerated which could be the Main menu if you have just booted to E2B, or if you have just run a menu entry from say the \_ISO\DOS folder, then (md)0x3000 will contain the DOS menu.

E2B v1.70BetaB available

Just a few small changes:

• If the filename contains the string 'bartpe' then the file extension .isomemF01 is suggested by QRUN.g4b.
• You can now define different background wallpapers for the AUTO menu, the Windows Installer menu and all the Windows Installer sub-menus. This can be done by creating a specifically named .bmp file for each one (e.g. \_ISO\WIN7.bmp, \_ISO\WINMENU.bmp, etc.).
  OR
  You can create a .g4b file (e.g. \_ISO\WIN7.g4b, \_ISO\WINMENU.g4b) for each menu which allows you to specify any filename for the bitmap and also set the menu colours for each menu.
  For more details read this page.

E2B v1.69 released

See previous blog for changes.

E2B v1.69Beta5/6 available

Unless I get any negative feedback or more suggestions, this will be the final Beta before I release v1.69. The download is now a 7MB .7z file instead of the usual 9MB .zip file.

Note: Beta6 fixes bug in Beta5 in Make_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd (stopped after copy files).

Changes from v1.68 are:

• Fix graphicsmode command in menu.lst (bitmap needed to be exactly 800x600 or 1024x768).
• Subset of NTBOOT added for direct boot of .WIM (PE3), .VHD and .VHDX Windows 7/8/10 OS files. ReadMe.txt file in NTBOOT.MOD folder on how to add full NTBOOT.
• For XP/PE1 .VHD's, file extension now must be changed to .vhdboot (now must use .vhd for PE3-based OS's)
• Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd and Update_E2B_Drive.cmd now tries copy bootmgr from C: drive to NTBOOT.MOD folder, if it is present (required by NTBOOT function). 
• new grub4dos 0.4.6a bugfix for UDF ISOs causing crashes,  e.g. pmagic.iso.
• isoboot.g4b now works with newer parted magic ISOs
• unifont and default backgound file now compressed using lzma (makes smaller files than gzip and faster to load).

OneDrive download area

Google Drive download area

Read more: http://www.easy2boot.com/download/

How to easily create WindowsToGo VHD files on an Easy2Boot USB drive

New: For a much easier method than the one detailed below, use WinToUSB to make a bootable VHD, see this blog post.


The method below has now been deprecated. E2B can directly boot from VHD files now and WinToUSB provides a much easier way to create a bootable VHD.

Another method

The direct boot (NTBOOT) feature added to E2B v1.69 will allow you to copy WindowsToGo 8/10 OS VHDs to any normal menu folder on the E2B drive (e.g. \_ISO\WIN or \_ISO\MAINMENU) and boot from them. You can have as many Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files as you can fit on your E2B USB drive and they don't need to be contiguous either!

E2B 1.69Beta3 now available

E2B v1.69Beta2 contained some embedded Microsoft boot files in the NTBOOT files such as bootmgr, ntdtect and ntldr. It also appears that VBOOT is a commercial product of VMLite and so cannot be distributed. These have now been removed in Beta3 for legal\copyright reasons.

This means that the NT5 NTBOOT functions are not supported (e.g. XP PE1, NT5 and VBOOT booting).

Easy2Boot 1.69Beta2 (experimental) now supports Win7/8/10 .VHD and .WIM files

Previously, you could add .VHD files to your Easy2Boot USB drive, but these would only work for XP/PE1 if the VHD had a WinVBlock or FiraDisk driver added.

The v1.69Beta2 version now supports Win7/8/10 .VHD files and Win7/8/10 .WIM files. It uses Chenall's NTBOOT. No need to make .imgPTN files for simple MBR booting of WindowsToGo/WinPE.

Special Offer: USB 3.0 64GB Fast Removable Flash drive under £24 (UK Only) + fix for Lexar S25 JumpDrive!

Fed up with waiting for Easy2Boot to boot? Want to install Windows 8 from an E2B Flash drive really quickly? Want to boot to WindowsToGo 8.1 from a Flash drive and run Windows almost as fast as you can from an internal hard disk?
For UK users go here and enter the code EXT20 at the checkout to get one of these for just £23.99 (P&P free)! Note: MyMemory sometimes sell the same product on eBay for a cheaper price - also try Tesco Direct (£17 June-2016)!

SanDisk Extreme Cruzer USB 3.0 64GB with retractable connector.
10GB file write > NTFS  71 seconds

A cheaper alternative is the Lexar USB 3.0 64GB S25 JumpDrive. Horrible cheap plastic construction though! Like the SanDisk, it also has an activity LED. This did not work in two of the three USB sockets on my EeePC - LED did not flash when connected (all other types of USB drives worked in all USB sockets) - see below for how I fixed it!  10GB file write > NTFS  154 seconds  (half the speed of the SanDisk on writes!)  I would suggest the Lexar S75, which has a metal USB connector, would be more reliable!

Give your pet a USB Flash drive!

Have you got a cat or dog? Are you frustrated by the small amount of info you can add to it's collar ID tag or the tiny piece of paper inside the ID tube which always seems to get wet or fade with age even if you wrap it in cling film/Saran wrap first?

Why not attach a small spare flash drive which contains ALL of the pet's details (pet's name, your name, address (map + pictures of your house), all Tel. numbers (mobile and home), email addresses, Skype address, What'sApp account, Facebook account, Twitter account,  pet's favourite food, any allergies, dietary requirements, if pet is microchipped or not, birth date, sex, description, neutered or not, pictures of the pet and owners, name and address of vet, etc.).

The flash drive should be waterproof and small, something like the Verbatim Tuff-n-Tiny would do.

If it's for a dog, why not add Easy2Boot and a puppy linux ISO too!

www.rmprepusb.com changes

I have signed up with Ezoic to manage the page layout and Adsense ad placement on that site. You may notice that the page layout of rmprepusb.com has changed. 10% of hits will return the old site pages and layout, all other hits will return various new, experimental layouts. Ezoic will then collect stats to see which layout people prefer, etc. The experiment may take a month or so, after which the 'winning layout' will become the 'normal' layout. Cookies are used to ensure the same user always sees the same layout.
The site may also seem slower for a few days whilst it caches all the different web pages, but bear with it and it should soon get better in both performance and appearance.

Testing E2B UEFI and MBR\BIOS automated Windows installs using XML answer files

E2B copies the contents of your chosen XML file into the 100K blank  \AutoUnattend.xml file before it boots from the ISO file.
When you run a Windows Install ISO from E2B on a Removable USB drive on a real system, Windows Setup\PE will automatically read the \AutoUnattend.xml file located at the root of the USB drive.

However, If you try to run a Windows 7/8/8.1 Windows install ISO under a VM (e.g. Virtual Box), you will find that you will need to type SHIFT+F10 and then run \_ISO\e2b\firadisk\LOADISO.CMD in order to get the ISO to load as a virtual disk. This is because the \AutoUnattend.XML file is completely ignored by Windows because it does not 'see' the USB drive as a 'Removable' drive.

The problem is that if there are any other settings in the XML file (e.g. Product Key or other automated settings), then these settings are not picked up by Setup because the XML file is never read. This means we cannot run a fully unattended Windows install using one of the unattended XML files that we can create using the Windows Answer File Generator and XMLtoE2B.

As I didn't have a spare UEFI system to test automated installs with, I worked out a way to use Virtual Box instead...

XMLtoE2B Demo available

I have added a Demo version of XMLtoE2B.exe to the Alternate Download Areas for anyone who wants to play with it. I have tested MBR\Legacy installs and Windows 8 UEFI\GPT installs using it.
A Licence file is available to anyone who has donated £10 or more - please contact me if you want one.

Instructions for using XMLtoE2B are at http://www.easy2boot.com/add-payload-files/xmltoe2b-exe-utility/

XMLtoE2B work continues...

I am still working on the XMLtoE2B.exe utility. Now it allows you to load different Disk Configuration files so that you can automate UEFI/GPT installs.
I also added a 'No User Accounts (Administrator only)  checkbox - this deletes any Local User accounts set up by WAFG and sets the AutoLogon Account Name to 'Administrator'. This has the affect of enabling the Administrator account.

Still loads more testing to do...

E2B 1.68 (bugfix for 1.67)

Noam reported to me that the first menu entry in the MemTest menu (Ctrl-U -> Ctrl+M) does not work but just returns to the main menu.
It turns out this is a bug in 1.67 to do with using a .txt file with a payload file.
Please update to 1.68.

• New grldr 0.46a,
• auto win7/8/8.1 XML files added for fully automated installs.
• 'Load_ISO (no prompt to Repair).XML' files added. 
• LOADISNP.CMD added (does not prompt to repair system).
• Bugfix to CountISOs.g4b. 
• BugFix for .txt files stopping the menu entry from working (QAUTO.g4b and AUTOMN.g4b).

Easy2Boot and automating Windows 7/8 installs using Unattend.xml files

I have had a few enquiries about automating Windows 7/8/8.1 installs using an XML file recently when using Easy2Boot and an unmodified Windows Install ISO from a USB drive, so I thought I would give a few pointers in this blog.

First you need to decide if you are going to install directly from an ISO or from a .imgPTN file (made from an ISO).

Note: E2B v1.82+ includes a new 'SDI_CHOCO' feature. This allows you to install drivers, applications and Windows Updates automatically.

Update: E2B v2 includes agFM which you can UEFI-boot to and directly run a Windows Install ISO and pick an XML file. This means you do not need to make an .imgPTN file. Also, a removable USB drive is not required, and USB E2B drive should work on most systems.

Easy2Boot 1.67 released

• $NAME$ now supported in .mnu and .txt files
• QAUTO.g4b and AUTOMN.g4b changed so .txt files with no \n (help) now end in \n to suppress g4d default help text. 
• Only first line in .txt files are now used (others ignored). 
• RMPartUSB and grubinst added so RMPrepUSB no longer needs to be installed to make a USB drive. 
• Update_E2B_Drive.cmd updated to use xcopy if robocopy not available for XP systems. 
• Fixed problem with spaces in pathnames in Update_E2B_Drive.cmd.
• New grub4dos 0.4.6a can now write to small NTFS files (fixes long-standing bug/'feature') + blocklist command enhanced.

WIth the new version of grub4dos, small 'resident data' files now display the location of the resident data inside the $mft entry - e.g. screenshot above shows /menu.lst data contents are stored in the $mft resident record in relative sector 94 (and 95), from bytes 328 to 901.

E2B 1.67 Beta D with new grub4dos

yaya (a grub4dos developer) has fixed a long-standing problem with grub4dos with the latest 0.4.6a version (2015-05-08). E2B 1.67 Beta D uses this new version of \grldr.

In all previous versions, grub4dos could not write to small files on an NTFS volume. This was due to the way that NTFS stores the data of small files inside it's 'directory' record. This type of data is called resident data. Once the file exceeds the available space in the resident area (typically between 700 and 800 bytes) then it stores all the data in clusters outside of this area (the data space in the resident area is thus unused and used to store the used cluster information, if the file is larger than 800-ish bytes).

Older versions of grub4dos could not update the resident data area:
e.g.

echo fred > file300bytes.txt

did not work with older versions of grub4dos, but now it does!

Note that grub4dos still cannot write more bytes than was originally contained in the file - i.e. you cannot overwrite a file containing 300 bytes with 301 bytes - the last byte will not be written.

You can detect these small 'resident data' NTFS files using the blocklist command:

f700 is a 700 byte resident file and does not list any used sectors.
f800 is an 800 byte files and lists two used 512-byte sectors.

Note that it is possible for a small file (e.g. 100 bytes) to be a non-resident file. This usually occurs when a larger, non-resident file has been reduced in length (e.g. a 900-byte file has been edited to be 100 bytes and saved as the same file).

The latest version of grub4dos shows the position of the resident data.

Download Windows 8.1 ISO from Microsoft

Microsoft have released a new tool (mediacreationtool.exe) which lets you download any version of Windows 8 (except Win8 with Bing) as an ISO or to USB drive.

E2B 1.67BetaC

A few tweaks to the scripts

• Update_E2B_drive now uses Xcopy if Robocopy is not available (for XP users). Also problem with paths containing spaces now fixed.
• Now includes RMPartUSB.exe and grubinst.exe so it is not necessary to download and install RMPrepUSB to make an E2B USB drive using Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd.
• Latest version of E2B_Editor included.

Get the day of the week from grub4dos

The next E2B 1.67 Beta c will include the grub4dos batch file dow.g4b

dow.g4b takes 3 parameters:   year    month    day-of-month
and returns the grub4dos variable dow which is a number from 0-6 (0-Sunday, 1-Monday, etc.).
This means you can call it to test what day of the week it is.
For instance, you can call dow.g4b like this:

call /%grub%/dow.g4b   %@date:~0,4%    %@date:~5,2%   %@date:~8,2% 

and test dow like this:

# only allow use at weekends

if not "%dow%"=="0" if not "%dow%"=="6" halt

# don't allow at weekends, just shutdown!

if "%dow%"=="0" halt

if "%dow%"=="6" halt