Combine SARDU with Easy2Boot

To add SARDU to your Easy2Boot menu

1. Make your E2B USB drive as usual
2. Run SARDU and install SARDU plus any ISOs etc. to your E2B drive. This will add a dozen or so files to the root of the E2B drive and also a \SARDU folder.
3. Re-install grub4dos to the PBR using RMPrepUSB
4. Open an Administrator command prompt and navigate to the RMPRepUSB\SYSLINUX\Syslinux_4.06 folder  (tip: you can press F3 in RMPrepUSB to find the folder)
5. At the command prompt type:

syslinux.exe -f   X:   X:\SARDU\sardu.bin

where X: is the drive letter of your Easy2Boot USB drive

6. Create a SARDU.mnu file and add it to the \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU folder:

title SARDU\n Run SARDU

chainloader /SARDU/sardu.bin

2 new Easy2Boot videos now on YouTube

I have added a couple more Easy2Boot videos to YouTube which I hope you will find useful.

Please let me know if you want any more and what topics to cover...

Part 1
Part 2

Part 1
1. Make an E2B drive - See other E2B videos for how to add and run Windows Install ISOs
2. Helper USB Flash drive
3. Folder structure
4. Can add own files anywhere except under \_ISO
5. WinContig -- Error 60 -- file not contiguous
6. Test with QEMU and VBox+VMUB
7. Add ISOs -- linux ISOs to Mainmenu
8. Add ISOs to \_ISO\LINUX
9. Add ISOs to \_ISO\AUTO and explain difference
10. What happens if delete DOS files -- menu entry disappears
11. How sub-menus work -- UTILITIES and UTILITIES_MEMTEST
12. Change names to reorder
13. Add .txt files

Part 2
14. Hirens - Change file extension to .isowinv
15. List of file extensions supported - see Tutorial 72a
16. Hirens - Add a .mnu file -- mnu can be any name
17. Change background -- add \_ISO\mybackground.bmp or mybackground.bmp.gz
18. Rename Sample_MyE2B.cfg to MyE2b.cfg -- explain -- sample mnu files
19. Demo master password + font + hotkey + remove F7 + menu pwd
20. Add blank line in menu
21. Speed up menu loading -- FASTLOAD, no font file
22. Suppress E2B startup messages
23. Suppress grub4dos messages - patchme
24. 'Skins'

See www.rmprepusb.com Easy2Boot - Tutorial 72a for more details.

Easy2Boot 1.24 available

Just a few small changes:

1. If you had an E2B USB HDD and a USB Helper Flash drive and both contained the E2B folders, then LOADISO would try to run ImDisk twice which would cause it to loop. I have added some checks in LOADISO.cmd so that if it is being run from the drive containing WINHELPER.USB or is being run for a 2nd time, it will just exit. If you have problems with the LOADISO blue console window, check that you only have one instance of the E2B folder structure on one drive in the system (which should be the E2B boot drive).

2. Some of the Sample .mnu files in the \_ISO\docs folder had not been updated to use the new ENG folder and use the new %LANG% variable for that folder. These files have now been updated.

E2B v1.23 available

This version allows you to boot from a different grub4dos bootable drive and then 'chainload boot' to your E2B USB drive. This means that if you use an E2B USB Hard drive, then you could boot from either your E2B USB Hard drive or your E2B Helper USB Flash drive.

Helper drive menu.lst file:

clear

pause --wait=3 Booting from Easy2Boot USB Helper Flash Drive...

find --set-root /_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst

chainloader /grldr

boot

Note that to support this, the sample .mnu files in the \_ISO\docs folder have also been changed because the E2B drive will no longer be (hd0,0) and so the partnew commands have been modified to use the correct device name for the E2B drive (e.g. hd2). If you have used any of the sample .mnu files then you will need to update them in order to use this new feature.

If you always boot from the E2B drive then you don't need to change your .mnu files. The standard E2B .mnu files have not changed.

Fake Flash drives on Amazon!

It seems even Amazon sellers are offering these fake capacity flash drives!
See here for a review of one on Amazon.com.

In case you missed it, I wrote a blog post on fake flash drives and FakeFlashTest here.

Easy2Boot v1.22_DPMS bugfix!

Somehow the DriverPack.ini file was missing from the Easy2Boot_v1.22_DPMS.zip download, this has now been fixed. Please download Easy2Boot_v1.22B_DPMS.zip and either overwrite your whole E2B drive or just extract and copy DriverPack.ini from the Easy2Boot_v1.22B_DPMS.zip file.

v1.22B Small bugfix so that NOF7HD variable works if used in MyE2B.cfg.

Note: This link may not work at a later date - please check Tutorial 72a for the latest downloads.




P.S. Why is spam mail so dumb? I have been getting lots of spam mail recently for nursing bras and hair restoration oil - who do they think I am - a bald mother?

Booting a CrunchBang ISO from a grub4dos USB drive

I had not heard of CrunchBang before (why are there are so many linux distros? .If only these developers would collaborate, I am sure linux could easily beat Windows!).

Anyway, here is a menu which will boot to the Live desktop from a CrunchBang 11 ISO file

title CRUNCHBANG
set ISO=/crunchbang-11-20130506-i686.iso
uuid () > nul
set UUID=%?%
echo %UUID%
map ()%ISO% (0xff) || map --mem ()%ISO% (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /live/vmlinuz boot=live fromiso=/dev/disk/by-uuid/%UUID%%ISO% live-media-path=/live config splash noeject
initrd /live/initrd.img

Of course, as usual, you can boot the ISO to the Live OS just by adding the ISO to your Easy2Boot \_ISO\MAINMENU folder (no need to edit a menu).

Installing CrunchBang! from a USB drive

If you wish to boot from the CrunchBang ISO using E2B and then select the 'Install' option to install it onto another disk, you will need to use the same 'mount -t iso9660 -o ro /dev/sdb4 /cdrom' shell command that I detailed in my previous 'kali' blog post.
If using a .imgPTN file (no real need as not UEFI?) then you will need to use the 'mount -t vfat -o ro /dev/sdb1 /cdrom' shell command.

Installing Kali to a disk from a Kali ISO located on an E2B USB drive

Kali will run as a Live OS just by copying over the ISO to your E2B drive (e.g. copy to \_ISO\MAINMENU), however if you try to use the Install options to install Kali to another disk, you will find that you get an error as it will not be able to find the 'CDROM'. The same problem occurs with USB drive made with YUMI too, however with Easy2Boot we can work around the issue.

You can manually fix this problem if using E2B by typing in a linux command from the command shell to mount the partition #4 that will now contain the ISO file mapped by E2B before booting it, as follows:

When the CD-ROM is not detected, choose 'No' 'No' <Continue>, and choose the Execute the Shell menu option, then type ls /dev/ to find the fourth USB partition name - sdx4 (usually sdb4) and then type
mount -t iso9660   -o  ro   /dev/sdb4   /cdrom
and check if it was successful using the mount command - then type
exit
and proceed with install.

Other useful commands are:
list-devices disk
ls /dev/s*
umount /cdrom            to unmount the cdrom.

If you cannot remember this, why not make a .txt file with the same name as the ISO with these instructions in the text file, e.g. (all one long line)

title Kali Linux\n To INSTALL to another disk, run the shell and type:\n mount -t iso9660 -o ro /dev/sdb4 /cdrom\n You can use ls /dev/ to find the correct name of the USB drive\n Then type exit to continue

Note: E2B has a sample .mnu file in the \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu Files folder for Kali.

If you use a MakePartImage .imgPTN file to boot to Kali, you can use a similar command - e.g.
mount -t vfat -o ro /dev/disk/by-label/EASY2BOOT /cdrom

or
mount -t vfat -o ro /dev/sdb1 /cdrom

where EASY2BOOT is the label of the partition (EASY2BOOT is the default volume label when you create the image file using MakePartImage).

Easy2Boot v1.22 now available (bugfix)

If you find the Ptn2_Menu.mnu menu doesn't work, this should now be fixed in version 1.22. Thanks to DvdK for spotting this! 4 files have been changed in the \_ISO\e2b\grub folder.
Note: 1.22A fixes the bug where if you are using Ptn2_Menu.g4b, then the F7-F10 menu entries are missing from the resulting menu of ISOs on the 2nd partition so you cannot go back to the main menu.
1.22B fixes a small bug if you are using the NOF7HD variable to suppress the F7 menu item.

Easy2Boot v1.21 available

Small update to DPMS2. If two XP mass storage drivers are found, then a firadisk/winvblock driver was not selected - this resulted in a BSOD. What you should do is use F6 to select the required drivers.
Only two virtual F6 floppies are recognised by XP Setup, therefore we cannot have two default mass storage drivers + a default Firadisk or WinVBlock driver. fd0 can have one default driver and fd1 can have another default driver, but we cannot have 3 default drivers!
I have changed the behaviour now so that one mass storage driver is selected + the firadisk/winvblock driver. However, if the wrong mass storage driver is selected by DPMS2, you will need to press F6 and select the other mass storage driver manually (as well as the firadisk/winvblock driver).
The only way to load  3 or more drivers is to use the F6 key.
V 1.21 of E2B and V1.21 +DPMS2 mass storage drivers are now available.

Easy2Boot v1.20 now available

v1.20 is now available, changes are:

1. Now should work with Win8.1 Retail install ISOs which use \sources\install.esd instead of install.wim
2. Option to erase partition 4 if detected on the E2B drive when booting (use with care!)
3. 64-bit XP install ISOs will now not use DPMS2 (which is 32-bit only) if there is '64' in the ISO name - so you can now press F6 and install the firadisk and winvblock 64-bit drivers. 
4. 3rd level folders now removed except for a single MNU folder - e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU and Sample .mnu files changed to use \_ISO\xxx\MNU folders.
5. 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Eval product key added so you can install from the free M$ downloadable ISOs. 
6. Windows Vista+ ISOs are now only loaded using ImDisk and not Firadisk - the Firadisk drivers are no longer used and have been removed (but still used for XP using an F6 floppy image).
7. Memtest86-5.0.0 ISO added to Utilities - Memory Test menu

Note: You can still use any name for the 3rd level folders instead of MNU, and you can overwrite your E2B drive with v1.20 and it will still work.

Please let me know if there are any problems with this new version (and any successes you have too!)

Add the Windows 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Evaluation ISOs to Easy2Boot

If you copy the Windows 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Evaluation ISO to your Easy2Boot \_ISO\WINDOWS\Win8 folder of your Easy2Boot USB drive and try to install it, you will find that you will receive a pop-up error message which reads 'Windows cannot find the Microsoft Software License Terms'.

This is a sign that the product key chosen by you, and subsequently written to the AutoUnattend.xml by Easy2Boot, is missing or incorrect.

Although this version does not require the user to enter a Product Key when installed from a DVD or from a 'flat-file' USB drive, to get these ISOs to work in Easy2Boot, you need to use the product key that is embedded inside the product. To find out what the product key is, you can install it to a VM from the ISO file, or use RMPrepUSb to extract the ISO to a USB drive and install it to a real system. Then run the Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder to find the Product Key. In the case of Windows 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Evaluation it turns out to be 76FKW-8NR3K-QDH4P-3C87F-JHTTW.

We can now either create a .key file in the \_ISO\WINDOWS\Win8 folder for this key (copy an existing example file and modify it), and/or add it to the CHOOSE FROM A LIST.key file (in both the menu and the place where the variable is set).

E2B version 1.20 will contain a key file for Windows 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Evaluation.

P.S. Use the command slmgr -rearm from an Admin command console to get an extra 90-days when your first 90 days expires.

As an alternative, you can convert the ISO to a .imgPTN file using the MPI Tool Kit. If you use the MPI_FAT32 shortcut, then it will also be UEFI-bootable too.

Something for the Christmas holidays (GeGeek Toolkit)?

Update: a donation is required for GE Geek ToolKit now.

OK, you have eaten as much Turkey as you possibly can and even the Brussel sprouts weren't too bad, you've also consumed as much alcohol as you can (probably a bit too much!) and opened all your presents (ready to exchange as soon as the shops open). There is nothing on TV except repeats, and Uncle Fred is snoring his head off so you can't hear a thing anyway.

So why not checkout the massive GE Geek Tech Toolkit? The link for the Toolkit is at the very top of the GE Geek home page or click here for a direct link to the download page.

The download is a 1.3GB ZIP file which extracts to almost 2GB of portable apps. It works like this:

1. Extract the files to the root of a USB drive and makes a \GeGeek Toolkit folder on the drive.

2. Run GeGeek_Toolkit.exe from the \GeGeek Toolkit folder on the USB drive - this puts an icon in your Windows Desktop TaskBar (a small arrow in a circle)

3. Now right-click on the taskbar icon and run 'Run Ketarin Update' - this will update all the apps to their latest version (if you have an internet connection)

4. Quit GeGeek_Toolkit (right-click on the icon and Exit) and then run it again.

You now can run hundreds of portable apps from the GeGeek Tech_Toolkit panel (right-click the task bar icon)!

As well as the apps listed in the pop-up panel, WSCC Portable contains the Microsoft and NirSoft apps. This also has an auto-update feature.

The toolkit is regularly updated by the author and is free (though you can make a donation).

Put this on your USB toolkit drive and you have a load of useful apps all in one place and all easily update-able! Why not download it and check out the 100's of useful apps! Also checkout the very useful references and utilities listed on the main home page.

P.S. Did you know Brussel sprouts taste better now than they used to 10 years ago? That bitter taste that many people don't like has been genetically engineered out of them. There are about 30 varieties of the 'sprout' now and the new ones are really nice (honest!). You can even eat them raw - try slicing them up and adding them to a salad (but it would be best to sleep alone that night or blame the dog!).

Easy2Boot v1.19 full release now available

I have now changed the links in Tutorial 72a.
v1.19 is now available as the E2B download and as the E2B+DPMS2 Mass Storage Drivers download.
The only difference between v1.19 and v1.19Beta is that v1.19 will warn the user if he/she is trying to install from a Vista/7/8 Install ISO from a USB Hard disk without a 'Helper' USB Flash drive also being present.
Hopefully, this will give new users a hint that they need a USB 'Helper' drive if they try to install from a USB Hard drive.

RMPrepUSB v2.1.716 now released

• Bug in Drive->File and File->Drive functions fixed
• lateste grub4dos grldr file 0.4.5c 2013-11-30 used.

Download from here.

Boot HitManPro from Easy2Boot (or any grub4dos USB Flash drive)

HitManPro (Hitman Pro) can be booted from a grub4dos multiboot or Easy2Boot USB flash drive as follows:

Avast! Anti-Virus Rescue Disk USB boot problems (+fixes)

If you have installed Avast! AV (Avast 2014.9.0.2008) onto your Windows system, you can make a bootable USB drive or ISO file from the Tools menu. However, you may run into problems when using it to make a USB drive. Here are some quick instructions for 3 different situations (see the 'Long Story' below for more details):

Having trouble making files contiguous on a USB drive?

Easy2Boot (and many other grub4dos boot drives) require the files on the bootable USB drive to be contiguous for certain features to work.

RMPrepUSB has an option to run WinContig (included in the RMPrepUSB download) using the Ctrl-F2 hotkey in RMPrepUSB to make all the files on the E2B drive contiguous. Sometimes WinContig may fail to make all files contiguous however and this is usually due to the lack of free space available on the drive.

• In the diagram above, FILE 4 is 1.3GB in size and is not contiguous.
• Since there is not 1.3GB of contiguous free space on the drive, WinContig cannot copy the FILE 4 to an area of contiguous free space because there is no free space large enough.
• If you copy a new 1.3GB file to this drive, it will have to occupy the unused free space and so the new file will also be non-contiguous

A nice tool you can use to help you look at the files on the USB drive and understand what is happening is the free Piriform Windows utility Defraggler.

Defraggler also asks if you want to erase the Recycle Bin files when you Analyze or Defrag a drive.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you can select a drive, click Analyze and then immediately see the fragmented files (shown by the red squares). You can then select a red square and Defraggler will list what files are in that block. You can then tick the checkbox next to any of these files and defragment them separately by clicking the 'Defrag checked' button. Nice!

WinContig does not consolidate the unused free space on a drive volume. This means that if there is not a contiguous run of free clusters on the drive, WinContig and Defraggler will not be able to defrag a large file.

However, you can use the Defraggler - Defrag Freespace option to collect all the unused clusters into one or two large blocks. This is a very useful feature and will often fix any WinContig issues you may have (run WinContig afterwards).

Defraggler is not a good tool to use on the whole USB drive however. It attempts to move all the files to the beginning of the drive as well as make them contiguous. This can take a longggg time and is also unnecessary. What is more, if you Stop Defraggler during a defrag operation, it can prevent the drive from being defragged again and prevent WinContig from being able to make all the files contiguous unless you first delete a large file from the USB drive to make more room or use the Defrag Freespace option! So I would advise that you only use Defraggler to defrag single files and don't interrupt it once it has started. If you need to make all files on a drive contiguous use WinContig (or Ctrl+F2 in RMPrepUSB).

P.S. In case you missed it, in a previous blog post, I describe a case where a 6GB ISO could not be copied and then defragged on an empty 8GB USB drive and the reason why this happens.

Easy2Boot v1.19Beta available

I have uploaded v1.19 and called it a Beta because there are quite a few changes.
I found that the grub4dos 0.4.6a version of grldr used in E2B v1.18 has bugs (hangs on the find command) and so with v1.19 I have gone back to using the 0.4.5c version (2013-11-30).

Other E2B v1.19Beta changes are:

1. If using a 1024x768 background you may have observed horizontal black lines across the lower 1/3 of the screen. This is now fixed (thanks for reporting this Krishna).
2. Clonezilla .mnu file added to docs folder for easy backup/restore from an external USB E2B HDD.
3. A language folder (\_ISO\e2b\grub\ENG) now holds some files which are use by E2B for the English messages. You can now copy this entire folder (to say \_ISO\e2b\grub\SPANISH) and then change the text in the SPANISH folder files. To flip over E2B to use these Spanish files, use 'set LANG=SPANISH' in your MyE2B.cfg file.
4. If you had 'iftitle' entries in your Main menu, you may have noticed that they disappeared if you returned from a sub-menu to the Main menu. This has now been fixed  (thanks again for reporting this Krishna). Note that some of the sample .mnu files in the docs folder have also been tweaked and you may need to update your E2B .mnu files with the new version if you have used xbmcbuntu_12.2_Persist.mnu or CloneZillaBackupRestoreHDD0.mnu.
5. The PassPass download (see bottom of the E2B Tutorial 72a page) has been modified. This had some problems with corrupting 1024x768 backgrounds and returning back to previous menus.

Multiple Language Support

Note: You could put code at the bottom of your MyE2B.cfg so that the user can choose a language - e.g.

set LANG=ENG

set ask=

set /p ask=SPANISH or ENGLISH (Seleccionar espanol o Ingles) [S=Spanish/espanol] : 

if /i "%ask%"=="S" set LANG=SPANISH

set ask=

Note that you must use 'espanol' instead of 'español' as when MyE2B.cfg is run, we are still in text mode and not in graphics mode so UTF-8 characters won't display correctly.

Of course, all of the .mnu files would also have to be modified where required - e.g. for instance, for the \_ISO\MAINMENU\ZZZF8ReloadMenu.mnu file, you would need to rename it and then modify it and add extra menus for Spanish  (save the .mnu file in UTF-8 format so you get the grave accents, etc.):

For example, this will display the F8 option in the Main menu in either English or Spanish, depending on what the user chooses when E2B boots:

\_ISO\MAINMENU\ZZZF8ReloadMenuENG_SPAN.mnu file
============================================

iftitle [if "%GFX%"=="" if "%LANG%"=="ENG"] ^F8 Reload Main Menu  [F8]\n
debug 0
if exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst configfile (bd)/%grub%/menu.lst 
if not exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst set MFOLDER=/_ISO/MAINMENU && configfile (md)0xA000+0x50
boot

iftitle [if not "%GFX%"=="" if "%LANG%"=="ENG"] Reload Main Menu\n
debug 0
#clear all variables if reload menu.lst!
if exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst configfile (bd)/%grub%/menu.lst 
if not exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst set MFOLDER=/_ISO/MAINMENU && configfile (md)0xA000+0x50
boot

iftitle [if "%GFX%"=="" if "%LANG%"=="SPANISH"] ^F8 Recargar Menù Principal [F8]\n
debug 0
#clear all variables if reload menu.lst!
if exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst configfile (bd)/%grub%/menu.lst 
if not exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst set MFOLDER=/_ISO/MAINMENU && configfile (md)0xA000+0x50
boot

iftitle [if not "%GFX%"=="" if "%LANG%"=="SPANISH"] Recargar Menù Principal\n
debug 0
#clear all variables if reload menu.lst!
if exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst configfile (bd)/%grub%/menu.lst 
if not exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst set MFOLDER=/_ISO/MAINMENU && configfile (md)0xA000+0x50
boot

Please let me know how you get on with this new version. When the bugs are fixed in grub4dos 0.4.6a I will switch back to it again, but for now use the 0.4.5c 2013-11-30 version of grldr (272,951 bytes).

Easy2Boot v1.19 has better support for languages and text changes

E2B uses a lot of .mnu text files which can easily be edited by the user. However, some of the menu entries come from code embedded in the grub4dos script files and these are difficult to change.
E2B v1.19 will have better support for you to change much more of the menu and scripts into different languages. The new versions has a new \_ISO\e2b\grub\ENG folder containing these files:

MenuF9.hdr
MenuF10.hdr
MenuFastLoad.hdr
MenuDefaults.hdr
MenuF7.hdr
MenuF8.hdr
MenuWinMenu.hdr
XPWINNT.g4b
XPStep1.g4b
XPStep2.g4b
XPStep2LowRam.g4b
RunWin8.g4b
RunVista.g4b
MenuWinInstall.lst
PickaFile.g4b
ReadMe.txt

If you want to change the text in any of these files to Spanish or French or whatever, then simply copy the whole folder and make a new folder under the grub folder - e.g. \_ISO\e2b\grub\SPANISH. You can then change the text in those files as you like. To switch over to your new files, set the LANG variable in your \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file, e.g.

set LANG=SPANISH

You can also copy the \_ISO\e2b\cfg\Menu.lst file to your new folder and change the startup messages if you wish.

This means you can change these files without affecting the E2B files. Any new E2B updates will not affect your files.

See my previous blog for details on how to allow the user to choose between two languages.