E2B Users Forum

Hi ,
Great Job is Easy2boot, and you site with lots information for create a key with all sysadmin tool.
I have a little problem. I was create a key , with linux tool (gparted, ubuntu voyager ...) All tool work ;-) ,
and i was put 2 versions Of Windows Seven.
- The first Iso that contains all version of Windows Seven ( starter until ultimate) works perfectly. Iso present into _ISO\WINDOWS\WIN7.
- The second files, is a custom Windows named Windows 7 Titan, present in _ISO\WINDOWS\WIN7.
ISO Boot perfectly , But after imdisk was lanched after few second, I respond N to do a new install, after Seven ask me langage and after "Next", Installation doesn't find Operating system to install. I think i forgot one detail.... but witch ?
Thank you for your help,Victor.

If you get the Blue LOADISO console then it should load the ISO as a virtual DVD - you can check this by using SHIFT+F10 and then looking for the DVD virtual drive.
For non-standard Windows Vista/7/8 ISOs, it is best to convert them to a .imgPTN file.

Thanks a lot... generation of imgPTN in progress.... wait and see...

SteveSi, it works perfectly !!
Ouah, it's an amazing and wonderfull Tools.
Great thanks.

How do I add Easy2Boot to the boot menu entry using bcdedit.exe in Windows 7. Thanks

Use EasyBCD to add a 'NeoGrub' entry.

Hi again Steve.

Your latest Tutorial 127 is a jewel. You describe my goal UFD setup, but my plan was adding grldr.mbr to MBR BCD to boot to E2B from BCD. I like your approach more (MBR boot to E2B, and then to MBR BCD), as it allows to use a currently working E2B.

Regarding editing EFI BCD in your tutorial, is it possible to add entries to boot to EFI tools like i.e. Kon-Boot or memtest86, in addition to Win8.1SE x86/x64, like shown in your tutorial for the "Windows Memory Diagnostic"?.

I also would like to try (I'm no expert) to answer your questions about WinNTSetup in your post from 18DEC14 ".imgPTN files were originally devised so..."
WinNTSetup will use ImDisk (if available) to mount your NT6 ISO of choice (by right-clicking the Browse button) in order to access the install.wim. WinNTSetup supports .WIM, .SWM and unencrypted .ESD. This support comes from 2 options:
A) Downloaded on first run wimgapi.dll (x86 and x64 versions, along with bcdboot, bcdedit and bootsect). It downloads 6.2 versions, but I replaced them with 6.3 ones.
B) DLLs from wimlib x86/x64 release. wimlib will work even when run from XP PE.
You can add booticex86/x64 to correponding tools folder as an alternative to bootsect (and to easily check BCDs before first reboot after WinNTSetup finishes sysprep. from chosen NT6 ISO).
Encrypted ESDs can be handled as a previous step to using WinNTSetup, using esddecrypt command line tool by qad at MDL.
Finally, XP and WinNTSetup: 2 options to add required storage drivers:
A) Add driver checkbox: Just browse for driver and MSSTMake will add it to sysprep. This requires the user knowing which driver to add.
B) Use same DPMS as in current E2B (the advantage being that you can have it in the UFD as 7z archive). WinNTSetup developer instructions:

1. Download DPs_BASE_1006.exe and DP_MassStorage_wnt5_x86-32_1209.7z from http://driverpacks.net/downloads
2. Run DPs_BASE_1006.exe and select C:\DPsBase for extracting
3. Copy DP_MassStorage_wnt5_x86-32_1209.7z to C:\DPsBase\DriverPacks
4. Run Winntsetup and select "Run DriverPacks BASE (x86 only)" checkbox
5. Push the setup button and wait for winntsetup to copy the files
6. You will be asked to select DPs_BASE.exe, browse to C:\DPsBase and select that file.
7. DriverPacks BASE will launch, select Settings --> DriverPacks in the treeview
8. Select the Driverpacks Massstorage checkbox and hit Slipstream button
9. The driver integration will take a few minutes, wait and hit okay in the success message that show up in the end.
I think DPs_BASE.exe can be customized via .INI, so user interaction can be avoided or at least minimized.
Note that any quality custom XP ISO out there will include storage drivers, so the above procedures are not needed.
Unattended files (sif, txt and xml) and image index to install can be also specified.
Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Thanks for the WinNTSetup instructions.
I have added a extra section to Tutorial 127 which shows you how to add rEFInd to the USB drive. That will allow you to boot to .efi files or other efi linux payloads.

Sometimes this pure gold stuff can be found, like your masterpiece E2B project and this unbelievable rEFInd.
Thank you for pointing us to it Steve. Honestly.

Just to add to the WinNTSetup "tour" above, latest 3.7.5b3 added the option to include the whole DISM (x86/x64 resp.) folder from latest ADK (which you can download with GetWAIK tool by same author), so you can use DISM from WinNTSetup to add drivers to sysprep OS, before first reboot (so source ISO remains untouched).
User Atari800XL at WinNTSetup thread at MSFN forum describes his smart strategy on this. He keeps different ISOs in his UFD with different driver sets. Depending on target system, he mounts one of the ISOs and uses WinNTSetup to slipstream drivers on sysprep OS. He showed a commandline sample:
run,q:\winntsetup\WinNTSetup_x86.exe nt6 -source:y:\os\w7.wim -syspart:c: -unattend:"autounattend_w7.xml" -savedriveletters -sysletter:c -reboot -disableuac -drivers:L: -runafter:"CopySetupScriptsW7.exe"
where L: contains the (ImDisk) mounted drivers ISO.
Actually before b3 WinNTSetup used DISM from source OS ISO, but after some debugging last days, author offered option to use DISM from WinNTSetup Tools folder for reliability reasons.
Thanks again for rEFInd, sir.

Y'all:
I have a 64GB USB 3.0 Cruzer Ultra Fit. It's divided into three partitions:
o An NTFS partition for E2B.
o An EXT4 partition on which there is an INSTALLED Ubuntu 14.10 installation. This is not booting from an ISO: I actually went through the installation process and installed Ubuntu to that partition.
o An 8GB SWAP partition for Ubuntu.
What payload file would I need to add to E2B in order to boot from Partition 2 of the flash drive? I.e., I'd like a menu option to boot Ubuntu 14.10, and then boot from the second partition on the flash drive.
Thanks!

If you installed Ubuntu then is should boot to Ubuntu.
Did you then install grub4dos?
Presumably at the moment then it boots to the grub4dos main menu?

So add a \_ISO\MAINMENU\Ubuntu.mnu text file with
title Ubuntu\n Boot to ptn 2
chainloader (hd0,1)+1

Perfect. That worked like a charm. I wasn't sure what the correct syntax would be for getting to the second partition.
So my deal now is:
I fire up any computer and boot from E2B. Ubuntu 14.10 is listed as the first item. I can either choose from my installers/utilities, or boot to Ubuntu -- on ANY computer.
And since it's a 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive, Ubuntu's actually usable.
Then to add onto that, I've also got PortableApps installed on the E2B partition, making those tools available under the Windows side.
Additionally, E2B is mounted to /e2b on the Ubuntu side. When booting to the Ubuntu partition, various directories under my home drive are symlinked to the corresponding PortableApps \Documents directories.
This is the tool I've been waiting a good twenty years for. Excellent work.

Hi,
i had bad luck with expensive fixed USB keys dying quite quickly. So now I'm going for a removable one. The downside is, that I can't create a 2nd partition for FAT which is easily accessible from Windows any longer (1st is NTFS).
I'd like to have an easy way to store some files for using in DOS again. Just some small ones for BIOS or firmware upgrades.
Is it maybe possible to have a folder on the NTFS part whose contents are automatically copied to a 2nd FAT partition by e2b when starting DOS? Or something else what doesn't require to much fiddling around once it is configured?

external USB hard drives that spin must be treated with great care. Don't move them once they are spinning.
For two partitions did you miss...?
https://easy2boot.com/make-an-easy2boot-usb-drive/multiple-partitions-on-a-usb-flash-drive/
See Make a 'secret' E2B partition on a USB Flash drive
Read more: https://easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/protection-and-security/

Thanks for your quick reply.

It were USB keys, not hdds. Win8 2Go certified. Two Kingston DataTraveler Workspace which lasted for a few months. And one SuperTalent USB 3.0 Express RC8, only lasted for a few days. All of them became quite hot after a few minutes. At least they were fast...

I already stumbled over these pages while searching for a solution. But I was hoping there was something which wouldn't require me to swap the partitions every time I want to add something my FAT partition.
Thinking about it again, it maybe is not to bad with RMprepUSB being portable. So thanks for your hint for thinking about it again :-)
I'd still prefer a solution which doesn't require me to swap the partitions, though.

Once you have made the partitions on the E2B drive, then you can boot to E2B and swap the partitions using a menu entry in E2B (and swap back again afterwards using E2B or RMPrepUSB or BootIce).
You can install a driver onto your Windows PC that will treat Removable drives as a fixed drive, so it will allow you to access all partitions on a Removable drive - e.g. hitachi microdrive cfadisk driver just as if it was a hard disk.
P.S. Win8.1ToGo does not work on a Removable drive - it must be Win8 not 8.1!

Hi,
I'm having a trouble installing Windows 7 on certain machines using USB3.0 flash drive (shown as REMOVABLE, on either USB2.0 or USB3.0 ports). I have done my research and already integrated the required INFs into the boot.wim files. After setup starts, I get the infamous "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing" error. When browsing, the flash drive isn't listed. On the problematic machines I was only able to proceed by connecting another device, loading the INFs from it, through setup, and then manually running LOADISO from the newly recognized USB3.0 drive.
How can I make it work permanently? How come integrating the drivers into the WIN isn't enough? or better - What's the difference between adding the drivers to boot.wim and adding them manually while in setup??

BTW, strangely enough - I got it to work on several other machines (with USB3.0 ports, of course) - even without making a single change to the original ISO!

Thanks!

It must be a problem with the driver(s).
Did you just add one USB 3 driver or a whole bucket load?
I have seen problems when installing lots of similar drivers - the driver files eventually end up in the same windows folder - e.g. if USBX uses usbabc.sys and USBY uses usbabc.sys and USBZ also uses usbabc.sys, then the last one to be added to the boot.wim will overwrite the previous ones.
To test this, start with a new original boot.wim and just add the correct USB 3.0 driver for your 'troublesome' system.

Thanks for the fast reply.
I've actually done this, adding only 2 Intel INFs - didn't work. Only when I manually added the same drivers during setup. Thing is, when I list the 3rd party drivers within the WIM, I SEE THEM... What can I possibly do wrong??

Are you adding them using Dism?
How are you manually installing them once booted?
Did you try looking at log files?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee851579(v=ws.10).aspx

Well... I don't know whether to be happy or even more frustrated...
After trying some other ISOs (all unmodified!), I somehow got it to work, then switched back to the ISO(s) I've tried before - and could never reproduce to problem!! Strange. Very strange!
Something tells me you're gonna hear from me again :)

Anyways, as for what I was doing before (trying for hours to avoid the need of steps 7-12):
1. Extract boot.wim and mount it
2. [Elev. CMD] Dism.exe /image:C:\Mount /Add-Driver /driver:C:\Drivers /recurse
[C:\Drivers contains x86 versions of:
iusb3xhc.inf iusb3xhc.cat iusb3xhc.sys iusb3xhc.man
iusb3hub.inf iusb3hub.cat iusb3hub.sys iusb3hub.man ]
3. Unmount, add boot.wim back to ISO.
4. Copy ISO to _ISO\WINDOWS\WIN7; Make the ISO contiguous
5. Boot from USB and start Windows 7 setup.
6. Click on Install Now. Setup starts (no "blue command window" appears) and the missing driver error appears after few seconds.
7. Plug in another USB with the same drivers on it.
8. Click Browse and select the folder containing the drivers.
9. Select both drivers and click Next
10. Error message appears...
11. Click X to go back to the first setup screen.
12. Click Install Now... Setup run flawlessly.

Thanks again!

7. plug in another USB ????!!!!!

Then surely the USB 3.0 drivers are loaded - or are you plugging it into a USB 2 port?
Are you using the same USB ports each time? Did you change/re-arrange/remove/add any USB devices?
Did you try unplugging and reconnecting the USB drive?

It's a USB3.0 port but a USB2.0 device.
Tried different ports on the computer (DELL laptop).
Tried unplugging and reconnecting to no avail.
I didn't understand your question about change/re-arrange/remove/add any USB devices....

If it's a laptop then forget about the change USB devices Q (PCs have many ports and many USB devices (kbd, mouse, wifi, etc) connected - sometimes a different arrangement causes device enumeration is a different order).
So, if you just boot to Win 7 setup - press SHIFT+F10 and run diskpart - LIS DIS and LIS VOL - is the USB 3 device listed?
The INF file should be in X:\WINDOWS\INF (usually oem1.inf or oem2.inf) there should also be corresponding .PNF files - are there?
Then try loading from each C:\WINDOWS\INF\OEMx.inf file or use drvload.exe from the command line.
HTH
Steve

Hi Steve.

I've found this problem while using a Win7 Setup imgPTN from an ISO to install it under VBox.

1. Booted from my E2B UFD (1st partition FAT32) into E2B Main Menu.
2. Switched to my 2nd PTN (NTFS), where the Win7 Setup imgPTN (FAT32) was stored.
3. Booted the imgPTN and Windows Setup started. After entering required data I went away while Setup performed its job.
4. When I returned, I was expecting to find the CSM menu from my imgPTN. Contrary to that Windows Setup had already rebooted and was waiting for final user input before first logon.
5. After reaching Win7 desktop I rebooted to check what was happening with my USB boot, just find a bootmgr menu, where the 2 options were A) Just installed W7 and B) Boot to Windows Setup (the imgPTN in my USB). My CSM was gone.
6. Using the "Restore CSM/E2B" batch files in \e2b of imgPTN didn't help, no backup was found.
7. I recovered my CSM (and be able to switch to E2B Main Menu) by reinstalling grub4dos to UFD MBR with RMPrepUSB.

Seems like the problem is that Removable USB drives are seen as fixed when using "Virtual Machine USB Boot" tool. Win7 overwrote my UFD MBR and even edited the BCD in my \boot folder thinking it was a 2nd installed OS (although it was just the extracted contents of installation media), hence the bootmgr menu on boot.

I just hope this is not the behavior on real PC, where my UFD will be seen as removable.

Yes, that is expected.
The USB drive is seen as a hard disk in VBox - what it more significant though is that in the VM, the USB drive is configured as HDD0 and the virtual HDD is HDD1 - so the 'system boot drive' is considered to be HDD0 (the USB drive).
On a real system it does not happen even if you install from a USB HDD.
You can restore the MBR by running RMPrepUSB - Install grub4dos, as you found.

Thank you Steve, that sounds good.

Btw, ImDisk was updated to 1.8.5 back in september. Maybe next MPI TP and E2B updates could include it. I've found your extracted approach in \firadisk to be very useful to add mount support to bare-bones boot.wims from Windows Setup \sources.

Actually a Win8.1 x64 boot.wim (booted with your wimboot sample menu) happily installs extracted ImDisk and allows running WinNTSetup, so is a quick and nice PE for OS deployment. Tested with XP ISO and Win7 imgPTN.

For XP installs you really need an ISO with added SATA\SCSI\RAID drivers. The vanilla ISO needs DPMS which is included in E2B and WinSetupFromUSB.
http://rmprepusb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/e2b-v162beta1-windows-xp-install-isos.html

I've been reading that article with great interest because 2 weeks ago I was performing a deep review of the available approaches to deploy my OS ISOs (XP and W7) from an E2B UFD.

I tested all methods described here and at RMPrepUSB site, and those listed in your above article.

Honestly, my conclusion was that WinNTSetup was the most straightforward and "clean" approach since it doesn't require "pre-processing" of OS sources (imgPTN conversion, Rufus creation, WinSetupFromUSB creation, etc). I was surprised this software solution wasn't mentioned in the article, because is perfectly compatible with E2B in regards to the "easy to maintain" concept.

Actually using it is like "Install from PE" method, but you can use it for deploying any Windows. And it handles "custom" ISOs (driverpacks, post-install activity) just fine. Even the W7 install problem I described before didn't happen on VBox, because WinNTSetup set up properly in advance the bootldr+BCD chain, before first reboot, avoiding W7 setup "guessing".

And please note that I LOVE your imgPTN option. Actually I don't mind converting my W7 to imgPTN since I usually have to modify original sources to suit my needs, so it saves me from the re-create ISO step. Since I can mount with ImDisk in read-only mode, it also ensures that imgPTN remains untouched after creation.

.imgPTN files were originally devised so that E2B could support UEFI booting (linux, konboot, etc. as well as Windows) without any complicated menu/bcd editing.
I haven't used WinNTSetup much, but of course you can use it with E2B. WinNTSetup seems to need an install.wim file which means it must be extracted from the ISO first. It also has problems with encrypted .esd files.
As regards XP, can you install a vanilla MS XP Install ISO to an AHCI system with WinNTSetup without expert knowledge and having the right drivers on hand? You can do this easily with WinSetupFromUSB and E2B.
I will have to take a closer look at it some time though, especially as it can be scripted and thus automated.
thanks for the idea.

Hi again
I using a couple vesions of linux and need persistence in most of them. I have accomplished it by following the .mnu sample files.
The poblem is that some of the instuctions tell me specific sub foldes to save them in i.e. _iso\mainmenu\mnu\slax8_32 for the extracted SLAX iso. or _iso\linux\mnu for linux mint etc. This make the persistence work which i'm grateful for but It changes the mainmenu list and linux lists. and seems to use the file name as a list entry.

Is there a way to keep persistence working while stile being able to create a .mnu file for the title and help text?
And (it would be nice) to be able to list all my distros and utilities in the main menu with persistence active if need be.

I am not sure what you mean? If you want all your distro .mnu files and ISOs in the Main menu then put them in the \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU folder.
Most .mnu files use the $HOME$ variable - this is translated by E2B to be the foldername of where ever you place the .mnu file. So you can move them to wherever you like.
The .mnu file determines the menu entry and menu help text - you can change this to whatever you like.
If you want to have two entries for each ISO - one for persistence and the other non-persistent, you can do this by adding a few lines to your persistent .mnu file - e.g.

title HERE IS MY non-persistent linux\n HERE IS MY HELP TEXT
/%grub%/QRUN.G4B $HOME$/MYISO.ISO

This will run the MYISO.ISO as if it was just placed in the \_ISO\xxx folder.
See https://easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/about-mnu-files/

In the case of slax - you can either place the ISO file in \_ISO\MAINMENU or use the persistent ,mnu and press ESC key as detailed in http://www.slax.org/en/documentation.php#booting

Thanks for the help i figured it out. I was was following the file paths examples in the "sample.mnu" file too strictly. I just moved all the .iso and .mnu files to the main menu folder and changed the title and help text within the sample mnu file for each distro. this accomplished listing all the distros in the main menu with my titles/help text and having persistence on the ones i needed it on.
Thanks to you for the help and if your not the creator thanks to them for the files. If i had some funds i would donate but i'm trying to get back on my feet.
after trying xboot, mlutiboot, uneboot, yumi, lulu, and probably a dozen others this was the system that work for me so far.
now to test on multiple systems

No problem. Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to just drop the .mnu and iso files onto an E2B drive.
You can change the order of the entries in each menu by changing the name of the .iso file or the .mnu file
You can change how the .iso file is listed by creating a matching .txt file. Watch the videos at the bottom of the Home page for more help and demos.

Hey Guys,
at the top of my main menu e2b displays me the version number of g4d: grub4dos 0.4.6a 2014-11-10, Mem: 630k/1945m.....
is there any possibility to fade out this message ?

Use latest E2B v1.61

I already use the latest version. Maybe any Code to disable it ?

Easy2Boot covers this up with a menu heading, Easy2Boot uses grub4dos 0.4.5c by default.
Therefore you must have changed E2B in some way. I cannot tell you how to fix it unless you can tell me what changes you have made. Are you using a MyE2B.cfg file?

I hope someone can help me with this.

My goal is to configure the master password page so that only the backgound image is shown i.e. NO password prompt. i got rid of the "E2B password text" no problem but it still gives me a "password:" prompt. I've made the standard text color black/black and this helps because my image is dark but the cursor is a bright white. kind of defeats the purpose, which is to give no indication to the user to even enter a password.

Thank you in advance for any help with this.

also THANK YOU for this awesome program and the chance to learn something new.

See https://easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/protection-and-security/

For more grub4dos tips see
http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/grub4dos
http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/grub4dos/grub4dos-internal-variables-and-functions

# skip if already loaded menu once
if exist DONEMENU goto :pok

# set screen to show bitmap immediately
call Fn.70 3
# load bitmap
splashimage /_ISO/docs/Templates/Aliums/Aliums.bmp.gz > nul
# show bitmap
clear

# turn off cursor
call Fn.70 0
:mpwd
password fred > nul && goto :pok
goto :mpwd
:pok

# reset to normal mode after good password (use Fn.70 0 if you want background to be cleared)
call Fn.70 3

Hi,
Can you help me, please ? I would like to use my Windows7LiveCD (not installable CD), created with WIN7PE in my e2b USB key. I tried different solutions:

1
I put Windows7LiveCD.iso file in differents folders like:
\_ISO\MAINMENU\
\_ISO\WIN
\_ISO\WINDOWS\WIN7\
\_ISO\WINPE\

i boot on USB key, i choose my Windows7LiveCD, the OS boot and a few seconds after the logo of Windows 7, i have the BSOD blue screen of the death with this error: *** STOP: 0x0000007B ....
2
i extract the contents of the ISO directly to the root of E2B drive and then use a \_ISO\MAINMENU\Windows7LiveCD.mnu file containing:
title Windows7LiveCD
chainloader /bootmgr

I have following error:
*** STOP: 0x0000007B ....

Can you help me, please ?
Thank you for this e2b software, it is very much good

The solution will be able for Windows XP liveCD created by BartPe ?

It should work either from ISO or as flat extracted files.
Windows 7 does not have USB 3 drivers - are you booting from a USB 2.0 port or USB 3.0?
I have Windows 7 LiveCD from usb.iso - it works fine just as .iso in Easy2Boot for me.

i boot from usb 2.0 port. My test computer does not have USB 3.0 port.

I have only one W7LiveCD.iso file, which is fully fonctionnal on bootable cdrom. i will try another one if i find one.
Never mind !

The following thread may help you, Section 3 "Boot Win7 VHD Image file from USB":

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=23553

It seems that you need to fix the registry in Win7 in your live CD in order for it to work from USB (step 14).

I have an MDT LiteTouch .ISO, which is an deployable image of Windows 7, captured using Windows Deployment Service. I can boot to this .ISO from DVD or from a single .ISO USB stick (using Rufus to burn the image to USB). When adding this .ISO to Easy2Boot, it will boot to MDT, however, it can't find the X:\Deploy directory, which is where the deployment share files are at. Maybe I'm not adding the ISO to the correct folder? I tried under Windows 7, and WinPE folder and neither 1 works.
Thank you

Are you sure you mean X:\Deploy? X: is the RAM Drive and loaded from boot.wim - it should be there.
If however you mean the USB drive or CD, then I think you will have to make a .imgPTN file from the ISO. Lookup MakePartImage on this site for details.
https://easy2boot.com/add-payload-files/makepartimage/
and watch the video. Use FAT32 when making the image to allow for UEFI booting.
Add the .imgPTN file to the \_ISO\MAINMENU (or any other 2nd level menu folder except \_ISO\WINDOWS)

Creating an .imgPNT file is exactly what I needed; the images work. Thank you so much.
One note: I used NTFS MPI instead of FAT32, since the images are more than 8GB.
Thanks again.

If the size of the .imgPTN file is over 4GB then the E2B drive must be NTFS. As long as all the files INSIDE the .imgPTN file are

i have 2T seagate usb drive, i want to have multiple boot choice of 1 windows 8 running on the usb drive, the other boot to any iso image of windows install, UBCD, hiren's, antivirus recovery disk ...etc
I read on rmprepusb and easy2boot but not clearly understand how, so many thanks for any help :D

You can install win8 first on a freshly formatted USB drive and then add the E2B files to the same partition.
OR
You could have two primary partitions, Win8 to go on the first and E2B on the 2nd.
You will need to make the USB drive boot to the E2B menu by installing grub4dos using RMPrepUSB. Then you can either add a .mnu file to \_ISO\MAINMENU or for a quicker boot you can edit the \menu.lst file and add extra menus

title E2B
configfile /_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst

title Win8
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /bootmgr

For WinToGo see
http://rmprepusb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/add-windows-78-to-go-images-to-your.html

Due to many BIOSes not being able to access sectors past 137GB on USB drives however, you should keep the total size of both partitions to below 137GB.
If you just use one partition for both E2B and Windows, then you could make a 130GB 1st partition and use the 2nd partition for a data partition for Windows.

Hi. Should I be able to boot these image files (.img) using Easy2Boot:
http://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk/
The partition table looks like this:
parted Camd64OS-20141101010101.img print
Model: (file)
Disk Camd64OS-20141101010101.img: 2590MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
11 32.8kB 8421kB 8389kB RWFW
6 8421kB 8422kB 512B KERN-C
7 8422kB 8422kB 512B ROOT-C
9 8422kB 8423kB 512B reserved
10 8423kB 8423kB 512B reserved
2 10.5MB 27.3MB 16.8MB KERN-A
4 27.3MB 44.0MB 16.8MB KERN-B
8 44.0MB 60.8MB 16.8MB ext4 OEM
12 128MB 145MB 16.8MB fat16 EFI-SYSTEM boot
5 145MB 147MB 2097kB ROOT-B
3 147MB 1499MB 1353MB ext2 ROOT-A
1 1499MB 2573MB 1074MB ext4 STATE

When I try I get:
Disk error on boot
Do I need to do anything special for this type of image?
Thanks.

No. You can't boot complex disk images and that is way to complex!
Simple hard disk images .imghd or .vhd can be booted but they must contains an OS that has a single-stage bootloader.

Thanks for confirming.

Is there anything i can change for upcoming DP_MassStorage_wnt5_x86-32 [Nightlies]?
Perhaps changes in DPMS_z87.zip or elsewhere could be integrated with credits to SteveSi (et al) in changelogs?
Am adding following HWID's to ..\i\9\dps7achi.inf (XP-RST11.2)
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1F23&CC_0106,PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1F32&CC_0106,PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1F33&CC_0106,PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0F23&CC_0106,PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8D62&CC_0106,PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9C03&CC_0106,
(2k3)
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1F23&CC_0106,PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1F33&CC_0106,PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0F23&CC_0106,PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9C03&CC_0106
Symbios24 seems to have found a bug affecting one AMD AHCI HWID, and a fix for that is in the works too.
Thank you for the write-up too, by the way. :)
http ://easy2boot.com/make-an-easy2boot-usb-drive/adding-latest-dpms/
A reminder that all updated NT5 packs can be obtained via this search for [Nightlies]: http ://forum.driverpacks.net/search.php?search_id=1573691157
For the reader, please remember, true Friends don't let friends run XP for internet access! http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=10886 Activation is the only internet access an XP install should ever see now. WLAN can use cable, btw.

I'm thankful as well to those who started the DriverPacks project in the first place, and all those many people whom have selflessly contributed their time too in the last decade or so. You can find me in that forum.
Thank you, SteveSi! :)

Hi Steve.
First, as other mentioned before, let me thank you for an amazing software. I was looking for ALL in One solution for a long time :)
In your YouTube video, after deploying the E2B to your pen drive, i saw that it is taking only 5 seconds to boot (using QEMO)
In my case it takes no less than a minute :( (QEMO and Actual Boot)
I followed the steps in the video precisely .
i Have tried the following:
1. Different E2B version (Easy2Boot_v1.58DPMS + Easy2Boot_v1.11)
2. Different Pen USB (32 TOSHIBA + KINGSTON 16)
3. Different PC
Any suggestions?
Thank U again :)
Alon,

QEMU is slow to boot - may take 20-40 seconds.
Most of my videos are speeded up if I use QEMU.
Best to use VirtualBox which is much faster.
A real system should boot in 15-30 seconds.
In the Utilities menu there is a Measure BIOS USB performance menu entry - what timings do you get on a real system - on my EeePC + USB 2 Corsair 32Gb pendrive I get 100 loops = 10 seconds which is pretty slow as the USB BIOS is very slow.
P.S. Formatting the E2B USB drive as FAT32 should improve the boot speed.

Thank U for the fast Reply.
I am using FAT32 and not NTFS.
This are the numbers i am getting when using the speed test:
100 loops - 53 Seconds
1000 loops - 8 Minutes and 49 Seconds
I am guessing that those numbers are not good :)

Yep - you can test the speed of your USB drives using RMPrepUSB - Speed Test, but I suspect that your BIOS USB internal driver code is really bad!
Why not try the grub4dos 0.4.6 version (menu entry in E2B) and then select the Load USB driver option - then do the 100 loop E2B speed test. If the grub4dos USB driver finds the USB drive, then the speed should be a lot faster and proves that it is your BIOS that is slow.
There are lots of tips for speeding up E2B in the FAQ page.

It Worked!! It is now extremely faster (100 Loop test takes only 1 seconds :)
One question remain though. How do i keep using the grub4dos 0.4.6?
In the FAQ you wrote:
"To always enable the Grub4dos USB driver use set GRUB_USB=Y in your \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file to permanently enable it"
But i only have "Sample_MyE2B.cfg" (which is set to Y in GRUB_USB, but it is not really enabled)
Thank again steve :)

You are supposed to copy the Sample_MyE2B.cfg file to MyE2B.cfg and then edit it (as it says in the file and on this website) - if you prefer, just make a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg text file using Notepad

!BAT
set GRUB_USB=Y

I must have missed that :/
Sorry for the troubles, and tnx for all your support!!

No problem. I recommend VirtualBox+DavidB's VMUB utility - it makes testing your E2B drive so much easier and it is fast (if you have a USB 3 drive and USB 3 port it will run at USB 3 speeds under Windows).
See http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/how-to-boot-from-usb-under-vmware-server and watch the video.

Hi Steve.
First of all thank you for your hard, hard work developing, improving and fixing this incredible software.
I'm using E2B 1.57a Beta11 (last 1.57a before 1.58). Everything is working good so far, except the Sample PTN2_Menu.mnu is not working for me. Here are 2 shots from VBox, same error in my real PC.
http://i62.tinypic.com/2lbcbis.png
http://i59.tinypic.com/2pzw56r.png
I have 2 primary PTNs. PTN1 is FAT32 and contains E2B files. PTN2 is NTFS and contains 2 big imgPTN files under _ISO folder. I can change "Accessible Windows PTN" with RMPrepUSB without problems, and even tools like Paragon HD Manager and Easeus Partition Master can see both PTNs in my UFD when launched from E2B in VBox.
I think the problem is that PTN2_Menu.mnu has to be updated somehow due to all changes/fixes in grldr/QAUTO.g4b, but I'm not sure.
Thanks in advance

Hi - did you edit lines 1 and 3 as in the instructions inside the .mnu file? in your case you want hd0,1 ...
e.g.
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

I will try to make this clearer in the next version!

I miss to edit line 3:
(%myhd%) -> (hd0,1)
I thought it was one of your variables, like %grub%, and this was correctly set in line 1.
Sorry and thank you Steve!

The flash drive shows up as "fixed disk" in RMPrepUSB... therefore when i go to install windows, it gets stuck after the install part, saying it needs drivers for cd. Meaning the emulator cannot find the xml because it is looking for a "removable disk" Alot of the drives today are of the "fixed disk" type, its just the way they are being manufactured. And there is no way to permanently modify the flash drive to be "removable" Last resort is me asking yall to add support for the "fixed disks" in the next update.

Hi
There is a manual fix for this which is to use SHIFT+F10 to open a Windows console and then run the \_ISO\e2b\firadisk\LOADISO.cmd file. See https://easy2boot.com/testing-e2b/using-qemu-or-virtual-box/
The other way is to make a .imgPTN file from the Windows install ISO. If you do this then not only will it work from a hard disk, but you can also install when booting from a UEFI system too. You can also try the .imgPTNAUTO file extension to avoid the warning text before it switches in the partition image.

Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 64GB fixed disk, using MBR installation of Windows 7 (with a Win8.1 boot.wim) via imgPTN on a Lenovo G510 notebook USB 2.0 port.

After installation loads, choose language, choose "Install now" and then getting error "A media driver your computer needs is missing". Any advice?

When it boots to setup, press SHIFT+F10 to open a command console.
Then look at all drives (e.g. use Notepad - File Open or dir C:) - can you find the USB drive?
If you can then problem is caused by using the win8 boot.wim file (e.g. looking for a file like install.esd or something that it cannot find).
If you cannot see the USB drive then probably the boot.wim does not have the correct drivers for your USB controller.

The installation can see the USB drive ("notepad - file open" let's me explore it). I used win8 boot.wim so that I could use install.esd format, instead of *.wim to save space on the flash drive, but I guess I'll have to return to win7 boot.wim, and the larger install.wim, which work fine.

Hi, if i install Windows 7/8 from a Boot Stick with E2B i have there some options to choos key like this "https://easy2boot.com/add-payload-files/windows-install-isos/windows-8-install-isos/"
But if i use a key from there the installation aborts

You must use the correct key - see FAQ page for help.

google traduction for my post - i'm french
hello,
OS linux mint13-maya update
E2B 1.55a not dpms
E2B: http: //easy2boot.com
I have a usb key I made this: http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/thumb/1413214593.png
1 partition fat 32 with 4GB easy2boot (called "EasyBoot") which contains
- partedmagic
- Boot repair
- Details
1 4GB encrypted partition (called "crypt") which contains
- My documents
no problem, the boot drive and E2B fully functional
no problem with the encrypted partition
accuracy:
I also did these tests with one partition 8GB fat and so is
I noticed by cons:
E2B when I leave and return in mint13
I plug in my key
- Partition "EasyBoot" rise automatically: OK
- Partition "crypt" rise automatically: OK
BUT there is a new partition mounted more http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/thumb/1413214775.png
she was appointed to be partedmagic, bootrepair, tails depending on what I used in E2B
gparted does not see
Disk Utility sees it, lets take it apart, then remove
Have you encountered this problem?
how can it be automatically deleted?
thank you

Your .png files are fuzzy and too small - I cannot see any detail.
What payload files do you have exactly (.ISO, .imgPTN)?
Please send output from RMPrepUSB - Drive Info - 0
Are you referring to the small hidden partition on the USB drive that is made by RMPartUSB\RMPrepUSB?

mon OS est LINUX MINT13 (équivalant ubuntu 12.04)
RMPrepUSB ne marche pas sous linux (avec wine)
images plus grandes
création partition
http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1413214593.png
le problème
http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1413214775.png
les images sont .ISO (partedmagic - bootrepair)

The partition is created by E2B.
It is the ISO file that is mapped to ptn4

ptn1 = E2B
ptn 2 = unused
ptn 3 = used by some E2B .mnu files for persistence
ptn 4 = E2B maps ISO to this partition

If you reboot to E2B, then E2B will delete ptn 4 automatically.

thank you for all the answers

Case 1:
E2B boot on partedmagic and utiliise
it restarts partirmagic
the partition is not deleted from the key
http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1413438603.png

2nd case:
E2B boot on bootrepair and is used
we leave bootrepair turning off the pc
the partition is not deleted from the key
http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1413438689.png

3rd case:
E2B is used or an ISO pmagic bootrepair
is restarted BUT you must leave reappear menu E2B
and then we reboot from E2B
partition is deleted
everything is ok
http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1413438732.png

Yes, that is all expected.
When E2B boots to the Main Menu it clears the partition entry.
E2B creates a new partition when you run an ISO.
When you reboot to E2B Main Menu it will clear the partition entry again.
I don't understand why this is a problem - that is how E2B works.

no it is not a problem, I did not understand how to operate
because I created two partitions on my key and the E2B me in a crushing
I understand better now and I can fit as I want
thank you very much for the info

How E2B Works
https://easy2boot.com/faq-/how-e2b-works/

Hi all,
I am trying to get Deepin to work on my 64GB USB pen, but I can only get the 64bit to load, the 32bit stops before it finishes booting.
I am very new to E2B and Linux so might be a stupid question...
cheers

I downloaded the ISO and tested under VBox - works fine for me. MD5 is 142696171e39c98e10a21f8221b967e9

Hi ! i have an iso of mini windows 8, is there a way to boot it with the extract iso. I will explain my self, I want to be able to make change on my mini windows and keep it when I reboot

Hi
Most mini-Windows have a /sources/boot,wim file which is loaded into RAM. If you have this then you cannot make changes to it.
You can extract the contents of the ISO directly to your E2B drive and then use a /_ISO/MAINMENU/Mini8.mnu file containing
title Mini-Win8
chainloader /bootmgr

OR
you can use the MPI toolpack to make a .imgPTN file from the ISO.
However, as explained, I don't think it will remember any changes. For that you need a full Win8 To Go install. http://rmprepusb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/add-windows-78-to-go-images-to-your.html

Thank you very much !
This look really interesting : http://rmprepusb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/add-windows-78-to-go-images-to-your.html
But i wanna test this before
You can extract the contents of the ISO directly to your E2B drive and then use a \_ISO\MAINMENU\Mini8.mnu file containing
title Mini-Win8
chainloader /bootmgr

The only question I have to you is where I put the content of the iso and how i call it in the .mnu file !?

extract the iso to the root of the drive
i already told you how to make a .mnu file.

hi there, is there a way to make csm mode using 1st partition only, not using whole HDD but only the 1st partition?

Use an .imgPTN23 file extension for the .imgPTN file. This will keep partitions 2 and 3 on the E2B drive.

Dear Steve, thx for your reply
i'm testing it and it's working, you really made my day :D

hi
before anything great thanks for professional program
I want to ask:
Is there any method that when i created usb Drive completely , make an iso from it to write it on dvd and boot from DVD?
best regards

Yes and No! RMPrepUSB has a feature (File - Make grub4dos ISO from Drive), which will turn a grub4dos bootable USB drive into a grub4dos bootable ISO. The problem is this won't work with Easy2Boot because Easy2Boot is designed to be run from a writeable drive that has a MBR partitition.
Some things may work, but for most things like linux ISO booting, Windows ISO booting, etc. you must make your own .mnu files that do not rely on partnew or other tricks used by E2B. See the Make an E2B drive - Make and burn an E2B DVD page for details.

Can anybody help me to get MakePartImage CSM Menu into textmode?

(accidentally deleted thread - sorry!)
change menu.lst in .\CUSTOM folder to graphicsmodes -1 640 and no splashimage
Try changing two lines to this
set CHBTM=2401 ;; # HELP TEXT BOTTOM POSITION XXYY
set CHELPTEXT=\x20 This menu has booted in MBR\\CSM Mode (not UEFI) \x20
if you use 640x480 you will have less rows in the menu, so you need to adjust things (much easier if you used 800x600!)

Is there a way I can install Windows 7 without specifying an unattended file?

Why do you not want to use an xml file?
You can convert the ISO to a .imgPTN file - that does not require a xml file.

I will be installing to many different PCs and do want to load any settings.

If you choose the Default E2B XML file then there are no 'settings'.
Have you actually tried it?

I too would like to bypass this. I want the original "Install Now" screen with the Recovery options, not the automated recovery done by E2B.

You will get the Blue Console Windows which asks for Recovery, just press ENTER or N + ENTER and it will go to the normal Windows Install GUI.