[project] ETBoot, Boot your full Windows installation from CD/DVD-ROM External links Rating Options

[Dhilip89]

Hello,

I'm going to release the new project that been used by myself internally, this project can create a real bootable Windows Live CD/DVD,
so you will be able to use full installation of Windows operating system on CD/DVD without installation.

Tested working Windows version list:

• Windows XP (5.1 Build 2600 - SP2, SP3)
• Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (5.1 Build 2600 - SP2)
• Windows Server 2003 (5.2 Build 3790 - SP1, SP2)
• Windows Code Name 'Longhorn' (6.0 Build 4051)

Possible working Windows version list:

• Windows XP (5.1 Build 2600 - SP0, SP1, SP2, SP3)
• Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (5.1 Build 2600 - SP2)
• Windows Server 2003 (5.2 Build 3790 - SP0, SP1, SP2)
• Windows Code Name 'Longhorn' (6.0 Build 3551~4094)
• Windows Home Server (5.2 Build 4500)

Screenshot:


Download Toolkits + Tutorial:
 ETBoot.part1.rar ( 6.5MB ) Number of downloads: 33575

 ETBoot.part2.rar ( 6.5MB ) Number of downloads: 33039

 ETBoot.part3.rar ( 6.5MB ) Number of downloads: 32685

 ETBoot.part4.rar ( 1.56MB ) Number of downloads: 6039


Any suggestion/comment are welcomed.

[TheHive]

Any suggestion/comment are welcomed.

Yay!

One quick suggestion.
Rename the title to something like
ETBoot - Boot youre Windows Install from CD-DVD
More people can find it later.

Downloading project and testing ill have to do in the weekend. Thanks for the Project.

[Dhilip89]

Yay!

One quick suggestion.
Rename the title to something like
ETBoot - Boot youre Windows Install from CD-DVD
More people can find it later.

Downloading project and testing ill have to do in the weekend. Thanks for the Project.

Title changed

[phox]

Title changed

I am using VirtualPC for virtualization.
Without any problems, I went thru all steps up to step 7.

When I started ETBoot Builder and navigated to my virtual disk
I have received message that Virtual Hard Disk.vhd is not valid.

Edited: The same is valid for virtual disk made with VirtualBox!?

How I can overcome this problem?

[Dhilip89]

I am using VirtualPC for virtualization.
Without any problems, I went thru all steps up to step 7.

When I started ETBoot Builder and navigated to my virtual disk
I have received message that Virtual Hard Disk.vhd is not valid.

Edited: The same is valid for virtual disk made with VirtualBox!?

How I can overcome this problem?

Virtual hard disk (*.vhd) from Microsoft Virtual PC is not a flat hard disk image, it used proprietary format from conectix.
You may need to use another method to get the correct hard disk image (That's why I included SelfImage in the .rar file).

VirtualBox use it own format on virtual disk, so it is not a valid disk image.

To do this, you will need another working virtual machine, make sure the target virtual hard disk are attached.
Boot into the virtual machine, open SelfImage and then choose your target disk (entire disk) and save it as .img file.
Do not use any compression method for saving disk image.

Screenshot:

[Joshua]

Any suggestion/comment are welcomed.

Testet on vmware and 6 different systems. works like a charm !!
a little slow until all hardware are detected, but then all installed programs works !!!
Very good work.

Joshua

[was_jaclaz]

@Dhilip89

I had a very quick look at it, it seems like REALLY NICE work.

If I may throw in a few ideas/suggestions:
a. Although what you wrote is very correct, the El-Torito standard provides for THREE "ways":
1) El-Torito Floppy Emulation
2) El-Torito NO emulation
3) El-Torito Hard Disk emulation
Most people only know/use first one (for DOS based images) and second one (for 2K/XP install CD's and the various PE's).
Maybe you should specify that you use instead the third one.

b. You could provide, instead of instructions for "VMWare", instructions for Qemu (+QemuManager) as it:
1) it is Freeware
2) supports "natively" RAW disk images
3) XP installed in it uses already the default "Standard dual channel PCI/IDE controller"

c. The RAW disk image can be easily mounted with VDK.EXE (either directly or, if needed, through the use of a .pln descriptor file to have correct geometry), this way I guess one would not need the ETboot.iso at all, and just need running ETbootbuilder from the "real" machine.



jaclaz

[Dhilip89]

@jaclaz

My ETBoot project are based on:
3) El-Torito Hard Disk emulation

I choosen VMware Workstation because I used it frequently, and it was easier for doing my experiment.

Some virtual machine will fail to boot the final ISO image generated with ETBoot Builder (maybe those VM software doesn't implement hard disk emulation boot correctly).

I used ETPatchBoot.iso to install El Torito/EWF support because you can't access to some registry on normal user/Windows installation, unless you take ownership on the registry entry.

ETPatch will work very well with user "SYSTEM" or using Windows PE based environment.

[was_jaclaz]

@jaclaz

My ETBoot project are based on:
3) El-Torito Hard Disk emulation

Yep, I have seen that , I mean it would be useful to add this piece of info to the docs.
A bit out of topic, can you share just the way (program and commands) you use to make this HD-emulation .iso? It is something I never found appropriate explanation about.

I choosen VMware Workstation because I used it frequently, and it was easier for doing my experiment.

Some virtual machine will fail to boot the final ISO image generated with ETBoot Builder (maybe those VM software doesn't implement hard disk emulation boot correctly).

I will try a build with your app under Qemu and post results.

I used ETPatchBoot.iso to install El Torito/EWF support because you can't access to some registry on normal user/Windows installation, unless you take ownership on the registry entry.

ETPatch will work very well with user "SYSTEM" or using Windows PE based environment.

I haven't got handy a XP machine right now, but I will see if the ETPatch runs either through the "AT/SCHTASKS" trick or the Sysinternal PSExec or Skrubbeltrang PowerPrompt thingie:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...c=3828&st=8
( a few kb download is much handier than several Mbytes)



jaclaz

[Dhilip89]

A bit out of topic, can you share just the way (program and commands) you use to make this HD-emulation .iso? It is something I never found appropriate explanation about.

mkisofs -hard-disk-boot -b <Hard disk image> -V <Volume label> -o <ISO image output> <Hard disk image>

I haven't got handy a XP machine right now, but I will see if the ETPatch runs either through the "AT/SCHTASKS" trick or the Sysinternal PSExec or Skrubbeltrang PowerPrompt thingie:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...c=3828&st=8
( a few kb download is much handier than several Mbytes)

That is much smaller, but you can't backup the registry hive easily if corrupted (ETPatch built-in restore backup option).