El Torito CD Boot problem

[Jay]

I am trying to create El Torito boot CD for my XPE image and Creating CD
from the image captured by HD2ISO app.

when CD boots I get following message

" An I/O Operation initiated by the registry failed the registry could not
read in or write out, or flush one of the files that contain the system
image of registry "
when I OK the response which is only option system reboots.

I am assuming this is EWF problem. I am using RAM overlay and system has
1Giga bytes of memory .

I have checked that after ""etprep"" Ewfmgr shows EWF is enabled and
protecting C: volume.

Any ideas suggestions?.

TIA

Jay

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Jay,

Welcome to the El Torito fan club
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...a=group=microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded.*

I have checked that after ""etprep"" Ewfmgr shows EWF is enabled and
protecting C: volume.

Strange. How did you do that check? If everything is ok, your machine should shutdown and if you try to boot it from HDD again it
should not be able to.

Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[Jay]

Hi Slobodan,

Thanks for the Info I will go through messages and hopefully find my
problem.

Thanks


Jay

Hi Jay,

Welcome to the El Torito fan club
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...a=group=microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded.*

Strange. How did you do that check? If everything is ok, your machine

should shutdown and if you try to boot it from HDD again it

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Jay,

Let us know what was a problem when you find it.
Or give us more info, but first go though old questions.

Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[KM]

Jay,

Just to confirm: did you run "etprep.exe /all" or just etprep.exe?
Did you see "Swapped ElTorito volume drive ..." message?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d.../en-us/xpehelp/html/xetskrunningetprepexe.asp

 

[Jay]

Hi Slobodan,

Answer to your question :

Strange. How did you do that check? If everything is ok, your machine

should shutdown and if you try to boot it from HDD again it

should not be able to.

After etprep system reboots automatically and CMD Ewfmgr C:
shows that RAM EWF is enabled .

Following is the procedure I use to create El Torito CD may be you can spot
where I am missing something.

1 . Build Image and copy it to El Torito Development system. This system
has HD with 2 partitions C: size =300MB ( for CE Image) D: size = 800 MB
(for ISO image creation)
2. Boot to C: drive and FBA runs after 2 reboots it is ready for etprep. (
the BIOS is changed to boot from HD first and not from CD) and in CD drive
I have EL Torito CD ( one I have made from previous project with NTE image
and it boots fine).

3 . After checking Ewfmgr and Ewfmgr C: , FBA log for EL Torito PNP driver
is present I do Etprep. System reboots to C: drive on HD.
QUESTION:Is this correct or I should boot from CD to create ISO image?
4. When booted from C drive on HD I check Ewfmgr C:
RAM EWF is enabled . I shutdown system and boot from EL Torito CD I have
in CD drive. Run HD2ISO to create image file.
5. Burn this image on CD using NERO 6 ultra edition .

6. When I try to boot this CD on target system I get Error message that
registry read write or flush didn't work and OK response reboots the
system.

I very much appreciate your help you have given.

Thanks

Jay

Hi Jay,

Welcome to the El Torito fan club
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...a=group=microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded.*

Strange. How did you do that check? If everything is ok, your machine

should shutdown and if you try to boot it from HDD again it

 

[Jay]

KM,

I run Etprep.exe /all

Thanks

Jay

Jay,

Just to confirm: did you run "etprep.exe /all" or just etprep.exe?
Did you see "Swapped ElTorito volume drive ..." message?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d.../en-us/xpehelp/html/xetskrunningetprepexe.asp

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Strange. How did you do that check? If everything is ok, your machine

should shutdown and if you try to boot it from HDD again it

After etprep system reboots automatically and CMD Ewfmgr C:
shows that RAM EWF is enabled .

This is first error that I spotted before. I just needed confirmation.
If etprep swapped volume letters successfully after the reboot XPe should not be able to boot from HDD any more. Since volume
letters in MountedDevices would be changed.

You can load registry hive offline from another OS by using regedit. And check if C: points to disk signature 'ELTO' instead the one
used by HDD.

Following is the procedure I use to create El Torito CD may be you can spot
where I am missing something.

1 . Build Image and copy it to El Torito Development system. This system
has HD with 2 partitions C: size =300MB ( for CE Image) D: size = 800 MB
(for ISO image creation)

C: You mean XPe image?
Also are you sure that you need D:?

2. Boot to C: drive and FBA runs after 2 reboots it is ready for etprep. (
the BIOS is changed to boot from HD first and not from CD) and in CD drive
I have EL Torito CD ( one I have made from previous project with NTE image
and it boots fine).

I don't know if you can use this 'ELTO' disk. You should make EltoDisk by hd2iso from your partitioned HDD C: as you would later
when you make EL-torito bootable image.
So this step can be a problem.

3 . After checking Ewfmgr and Ewfmgr C: , FBA log for EL Torito PNP driver
is present I do Etprep. System reboots to C: drive on HD.
QUESTION:Is this correct or I should boot from CD to create ISO image?

Unfortunately ewfmgr at this phase means nothing since it is configured from hiddend EWF partition. After etprep this partition is
deleted and configuration is pulled from registry itself.
This also can be checked from offline registry.
At this step you should check if you see and can access el-torito volume with letter E:, F: or something like that.

4. When booted from C drive on HD I check Ewfmgr C:
RAM EWF is enabled . I shutdown system and boot from EL Torito CD I have
in CD drive. Run HD2ISO to create image file.

Like I said after you use etprep you should not be able to boot again in XPe from HDD, and you should not try to do that also.

You have lost few days needlessly because you did not sticked with original documentation but you have tried to improvise procedure.
If you want to improvise then you must know exactly what steps can go wrong I how you can detect what went wrong. If you have looked
in this NG on this subject you will see that I'm using different procedure from original procedures described by MS.

For instance you can find my component or MS description of EWF that will allow you to configure EWF without temporary config
partition that is created. This will give you clean control over the EWF state and functionality.
www.xpefiles.com you can find it there.

Volume letters can be swapped manually in registry or etprep can be used to do only this.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/community/community/tips/xp/rtpartin/default.aspx

But for all these cases you should use same El-torito disk that you have created with 'ELTO' signature. Or you should change numbers
in TD to match CD diskid that you have been using.

Please be aware that 'ELTO' is written as hex or decimal numbers depending on where you look at this signature.

Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[Jay]

Hi, Slobodan,

I followed your suggestions and created El Torito CD from PreFBA image and
used it during FBA process when booting from HD C: drive , did Etprep which
reboots system( yes it didn't boot from HD C: this time). Did HD2 ISO and
captured final El Torito image which now boots OK with EWF working properly.

Thanks for all your help.

Now on to next problem as I want to add files to El Torito CD which will be
Visible as F: drive which can be copied to HD C: drive when system has
booted from El Torito CD. Nero6 Ultra edition as far as I know allows you
to create EL Torito bootable CD by

1. Use the ISO image burn which don't allow any additional files besides
what is in the image ( only C: drive will display files when booted from
this CD and F: will be empty)

2. use HD emulation where you need partition of HD contain bootable image
and you can add additional directories/ files to F: drive.

Is there a way to restore ISO image on a HD drive partition ( I have two
systems one for burning CD and One to create ISO images )

Thanks again for all your help

Regards

Jay

This is first error that I spotted before. I just needed confirmation.
If etprep swapped volume letters successfully after the reboot XPe should

not be able to boot from HDD any more. Since volume

letters in MountedDevices would be changed.

You can load registry hive offline from another OS by using regedit. And

check if C: points to disk signature 'ELTO' instead the one

used by HDD.


C: You mean XPe image?
Also are you sure that you need D:?


I don't know if you can use this 'ELTO' disk. You should make EltoDisk by

hd2iso from your partitioned HDD C: as you would later

when you make EL-torito bootable image.
So this step can be a problem.


Unfortunately ewfmgr at this phase means nothing since it is configured

from hiddend EWF partition. After etprep this partition is

deleted and configuration is pulled from registry itself.
This also can be checked from offline registry.
At this step you should check if you see and can access el-torito volume

with letter E:, F: or something like that.

Like I said after you use etprep you should not be able to boot again in

XPe from HDD, and you should not try to do that also.

You have lost few days needlessly because you did not sticked with

original documentation but you have tried to improvise procedure.

If you want to improvise then you must know exactly what steps can go

wrong I how you can detect what went wrong. If you have looked

in this NG on this subject you will see that I'm using different procedure

from original procedures described by MS.

For instance you can find my component or MS description of EWF that will

allow you to configure EWF without temporary config

partition that is created. This will give you clean control over the EWF state and functionality.
www.xpefiles.com you can find it there.

Volume letters can be swapped manually in registry or etprep can be used to do only this.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/community/community/tips/xp/rtpartin/default.aspx

But for all these cases you should use same El-torito disk that you have

created with 'ELTO' signature. Or you should change numbers

in TD to match CD diskid that you have been using.

Please be aware that 'ELTO' is written as hex or decimal numbers depending

on where you look at this signature.

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Jay,

I catch a cold so I have trouble understanding everything you wrote.
But anyhow if you want to copy fresh XPe image from CD to HDD this can be done.

You can use NERO to burn any files that you want to regular section of CD and you can access it separately from El-torito C:.
There you can put all files as you want. Packed, unpacked, as selfextracting file, etc.
You can use HDD disk image and deploy complete data from image file on CD to empty HDD.

Look at tools that manipulate with SDI file.
Or Ghost tools.

Or you can use: diskpart, format scripted in batch file and they self extract file with XPe.
Or some combination possibilities as limitless.

Best regards,
Slobodan