El Torito and stop 7B

[Lucvdv]

I'm trying to create an El Torito CD which will install another XPe
image to harddisk.

The problem is, I keep getting these blasted 7B errors.

The steps I'm following:

- copy the pre-FBA image into a freshly formatted 250 MB FAT partition
(tried NTFS as well)
- create an ISO image of that partition, and burn it to CD-RW
- install that HD as primary master
- install the CD-ROM drive as secondary master
- place the CD with the pre-FBA image in the drive
- boot from harddisk, and let FBA run
- check EWF: it's working, protecting the harddisk partition
- run etprep.exe /all
etprep shows some output, but it reboots the machine so fast after
it finishes that there's not enough time to read what it said.
I suppose I could try "etprep.exe > somefile.txt" to find out.
- power off during the BIOS selftest instead of letting it boot,
connect the harddisk as secondary master, and another HD with a
normal Win2k image with hd2iso.exe as primary.
- boot windows, and create the post-FBA iso of the 250M partition.
- burn that image to the same CD-RW (I'm erasing the same disk all the
time to save disks ;-)
- install the harddisk as primary master, the CD as secondary master,
change the BIOS settings so it boots from CD, boot.

Result: Stop 7B.

Is it because there's a harddisk present?

I need the HD to be there, because what I'm planning to use the CD for
is to use diskpart.exe to clean it if it isn't empty, create a brand
new partition on it, format it (using format.com) and unRAR another
XPe image onto it.

 

[Guest]

Have a look at the EWF Settings. Maybe you protect the wrong drive. [Perhaps CD-Rom is D: not C: or vice versa]

 

[Guest]

Sorry, wrong answer. Make sure that "Disk Number" is correct

Sorry for that.

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Since EWF is protecting ARC path not a volume name then he should always
protect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1).
Or to be more precise he should protect same ARC path that is used in
boot.ini located on his CD.

Regards,
Slobodan

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Have a look at the EWF Settings. Maybe you protect the wrong drive.

[Perhaps CD-Rom is D: not C: or vice versa]

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Lucvdv,

It just occurred to me.

You said:

- copy the pre-FBA image into a freshly formatted 250 MB FAT partition
(tried NTFS as well)
- create an ISO image of that partition, and burn it to CD-RW
- install that HD as primary master
- install the CD-ROM drive as secondary master
- place the CD with the pre-FBA image in the drive
- boot from harddisk, and let FBA run
- check EWF: it's working, protecting the harddisk partition
- run etprep.exe /all

But if EWF is working then etprep will not have effect to registry.
Try following:

- place the CD with the pre-FBA image in the drive
- boot from harddisk, and let FBA run
- check EWF: it's working, protecting the harddisk partition
- Call ewfmgr C: -commit
- run etprep.exe /all

Regards,
Slobodan

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[Lucvdv]

Hi Lucvdv,

It just occurred to me.

You said:

But if EWF is working then etprep will not have effect to registry.
Try following:

You're probably right, yet I already tried that too: start with EWF
disabled, and run "ewfmgr c: -enable" right before running etprep.

In the mean time I made other changes, so I've probably been getting
the same error for two or more different reasons.

 

[Lucvdv]

You're probably right, yet I already tried that too: start with EWF
disabled, and run "ewfmgr c: -enable" right before running etprep.

Experimenting some more, I found that EWF doesn't need to be enabled
at all: ETPREP enables it.


I also found out that EWF initialization during FBA doesn't see the
pre-FBA image CD, yet the following lines are present higher up in
FBALOG.TXT:

6:15:21 AM - [FBAAddDevInstanceId] IDE\CDROMSONY_CDU4811____________________________PY0A____\4&374899A1&0&0.0.0
6:15:27 AM - [FBAAddDevInstanceId] ELTORITO\ELTORITODISKDEVICE\1&2AA0FFE4&0&0000

The example in the docs shows 2 disks detected during ConfigureEWF in
FBALOG, but in my case only one is found.

I can't get into logical disk manager on the target, but I verified
that the CD is accessible by a DIR D: command - the drive is known,
the system knows there's a CD present (i.e. it doesn't say "device not
ready"), but the directory is empty.

In fact, it looks just like it would in standard windows: I don't know
if the ET volume's contents should be visible here or not.


I included the EWF part of FBALOG:

6:16:57 AM - ConfigureEwf() Start.
6:16:57 AM - Getting EWF config parameters from registry.
6:16:57 AM - EWF Partition Size = 0 (KBytes), Levels = 1, Volumes = 1.
6:16:57 AM - Protected Volume Config #0 :
6:16:57 AM - Disk= 0,Part= 1,DiskType= IDE,Type= RAM.
6:16:57 AM - Enable= Disabled, Optimize= 0, LazyWrite= N.
6:16:57 AM - Found 1 Hard Disks.

---- the example in the help file lists 2 disks here

6:16:57 AM - Searching for El Torito disk.
6:16:57 AM - Disk0 signature = 0xF9DBAA8D.

---- the second disk in the example is recognized as El Torito

6:16:57 AM - Checking Start value in System\CurrentControlSet\Services\redbook key.
6:16:57 AM - Resetting Start value.
6:16:57 AM - Checking Start value in System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Imapi key.

---- the three lines above are not present in the example

 

[Guest]

Lucvdv
I experienced the same problems. No one of the posted solutions worked for me. Now I've reached EXACTLY the task you have planned for yourself (XPe installing XPe through diskpart and unRAR). First, try booting the El Torito CD on a machine different from the FBA one. It happened to me to not be able to boot on that particular machine. Incredible? True
Then, I finally reached the goal following these steps
-> Boot the post-FBA image from the HD, with EWF disabled and FBA El Torito CD into the drive

-> With diskpart (list volume) identify the system volume (FAT Hard Disk, maybe "C:") and the El torito volume (FAT, maybe "E:")

-> Goto into the registry and delete the following keys: HKLM/System/MountedDevices/\??\Volume{*} and HKLM/System/MountedDevices/DosDevices\X: where X: are all the drive letters except for ET CD and system drive, identified before

-> Manually flip the two identified drive letters and exit the registry editor

-> run "etprep -delete" (this will delete the EWF hidden partition enabling EWF at next boot

-> run "xpepm -shutdown" or manually power-off the machine

Proceed with your steps.

power off during the BIOS selftest instead of letting it boot
connect the harddisk as secondary master, and another HD with
normal Win2k image with hd2iso.exe as primary

I hope this will help
Regards

Michel

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi,

Experimenting some more, I found that EWF doesn't need to be enabled
at all: ETPREP enables it.

And how exactly did you find out that?
If you can boot successfully your El-torito CD than we would not have this
discussion any more, right?

If etprep was successful then you should not be able to boot you XPe any
more from HDD. (You must not boot XPe from HDD after etprep).

Also I have never used etprep since it never fitted in my requirements.
So what Michele is proposing is basically the way to go.

Outline how I make El-torito.

1. Using my solution to configure EWF trough registry (no extra EWF config
partition required). Download it from www.xpefiles.com
2. Using
http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/community/tips/xp/rtpartin/default.aspx
so I can define OS volume letter that I want.
3. Trough TD I set all values that Etprep /reset would set.
4. In registry based on link from step 2. Delete all info expect for
eltorito volume. And rename eltorito volume to match your OS letter. This
will allow you when you boot from CD that XPe is ignorant of your test HDD
like it will be with any other HDD.
5. hd2iso have problems with non first partition so one additional copy step
is required.
6. Using cdburn MS command line CD burner.


Note:
Do not change default disk signature 'ELTO' =1330924613=4F544C45.
Both TD and hd2iso will use this as default value.

Also in step 4 verify that your eltorito volume ID is beginning with
4F544C45 (it might be reverse).


If you do everything correctly it must work.
I had no time to write fool proof doc about this.

Regards,
Slobodan

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I also found out that EWF initialization during FBA doesn't see the
pre-FBA image CD, yet the following lines are present higher up in
FBALOG.TXT:

6:15:21 AM - [FBAAddDevInstanceId] IDE\CDROMSONY_CDU4811____________________________PY0A____\4&374899A1&0&0.0.0
6:15:27 AM - [FBAAddDevInstanceId]

ELTORITO\ELTORITODISKDEVICE\1&2AA0FFE4&0&0000


The example in the docs shows 2 disks detected during ConfigureEWF in
FBALOG, but in my case only one is found.

I can't get into logical disk manager on the target, but I verified
that the CD is accessible by a DIR D: command - the drive is known,
the system knows there's a CD present (i.e. it doesn't say "device not
ready"), but the directory is empty.

In fact, it looks just like it would in standard windows: I don't know
if the ET volume's contents should be visible here or not.


I included the EWF part of FBALOG:

6:16:57 AM - ConfigureEwf() Start.
6:16:57 AM - Getting EWF config parameters from registry.
6:16:57 AM - EWF Partition Size = 0 (KBytes), Levels = 1, Volumes = 1.
6:16:57 AM - Protected Volume Config #0 :
6:16:57 AM - Disk= 0,Part= 1,DiskType= IDE,Type= RAM.
6:16:57 AM - Enable= Disabled, Optimize= 0, LazyWrite= N.
6:16:57 AM - Found 1 Hard Disks.

---- the example in the help file lists 2 disks here

6:16:57 AM - Searching for El Torito disk.
6:16:57 AM - Disk0 signature = 0xF9DBAA8D.

---- the second disk in the example is recognized as El Torito

6:16:57 AM - Checking Start value in System\CurrentControlSet\Services\redbook key.
6:16:57 AM - Resetting Start value.
6:16:57 AM - Checking Start value in

System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Imapi key.

 

[Lucvdv]

Hi,


And how exactly did you find out that?

I ran etprep while EWF was disabled, and then let it reboot the
harddisk version (which isn't expected to work according to the
manual, but it did because etprep hadn't succeeded in swapping the
drives).

When it came back up there was no more EWF partition, but EWF was
enabled and working (as it would be on CD). It had about 16K bytes in
use for protecting C:.

If you can boot successfully your El-torito CD than we would not have this
discussion any more, right?

Right

I'm beginning to suspect more and more that I'm missing some component
or another, so I just started a new project from scratch (TD is busy
importing TAP's pmq file as I write this).

The main reason why I believe that must be it, is that I *have*
succeeded in creating a working boot CD once (but that's a while ago:
it was before SP1).

If etprep was successful then you should not be able to boot you XPe any
more from HDD. (You must not boot XPe from HDD after etprep).

I know, but because it wouldn't boot from CD, I thought I'd give it a
try from harddisk: it booted.

Also I have never used etprep since it never fitted in my requirements.
So what Michele is proposing is basically the way to go.

Outline how I make El-torito.

Thanks, I'll give that a try too.

1. Using my solution to configure EWF trough registry (no extra EWF config
partition required). Download it from www.xpefiles.com
2. Using
http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/community/tips/xp/rtpartin/default.aspx
so I can define OS volume letter that I want.
3. Trough TD I set all values that Etprep /reset would set.
4. In registry based on link from step 2. Delete all info expect for
eltorito volume. And rename eltorito volume to match your OS letter. This
will allow you when you boot from CD that XPe is ignorant of your test HDD
like it will be with any other HDD.
5. hd2iso have problems with non first partition so one additional copy step
is required.
6. Using cdburn MS command line CD burner.


Note:
Do not change default disk signature 'ELTO' =1330924613=4F544C45.
Both TD and hd2iso will use this as default value.

Also in step 4 verify that your eltorito volume ID is beginning with
4F544C45 (it might be reverse).


If you do everything correctly it must work.
I had no time to write fool proof doc about this.

Regards,
Slobodan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have an opinion on the effectiveness of Microsoft Embedded newsgroups? Tell
Microsoft!
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also found out that EWF initialization during FBA doesn't see the
pre-FBA image CD, yet the following lines are present higher up in
FBALOG.TXT:

6:15:21 AM - [FBAAddDevInstanceId] IDE\CDROMSONY_CDU4811____________________________PY0A____\4&374899A1&0&0.0.0
6:15:27 AM - [FBAAddDevInstanceId]

ELTORITO\ELTORITODISKDEVICE\1&2AA0FFE4&0&0000


The example in the docs shows 2 disks detected during ConfigureEWF in
FBALOG, but in my case only one is found.

I can't get into logical disk manager on the target, but I verified
that the CD is accessible by a DIR D: command - the drive is known,
the system knows there's a CD present (i.e. it doesn't say "device not
ready"), but the directory is empty.

In fact, it looks just like it would in standard windows: I don't know
if the ET volume's contents should be visible here or not.


I included the EWF part of FBALOG:

6:16:57 AM - ConfigureEwf() Start.
6:16:57 AM - Getting EWF config parameters from registry.
6:16:57 AM - EWF Partition Size = 0 (KBytes), Levels = 1, Volumes = 1.
6:16:57 AM - Protected Volume Config #0 :
6:16:57 AM - Disk= 0,Part= 1,DiskType= IDE,Type= RAM.
6:16:57 AM - Enable= Disabled, Optimize= 0, LazyWrite= N.
6:16:57 AM - Found 1 Hard Disks.

---- the example in the help file lists 2 disks here

6:16:57 AM - Searching for El Torito disk.
6:16:57 AM - Disk0 signature = 0xF9DBAA8D.

---- the second disk in the example is recognized as El Torito

6:16:57 AM - Checking Start value in System\CurrentControlSet\Services\redbook key.
6:16:57 AM - Resetting Start value.
6:16:57 AM - Checking Start value in

System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Imapi key.

---- the three lines above are not present in the example

 

[Lucvdv]

I'm beginning to suspect more and more that I'm missing some component
or another, so I just started a new project from scratch (TD is busy
importing TA's pmq file as I write this).

I wish I had done that sooner... it works.

The only difference I can tell from memory is that the non-working
version had the CDFS component in the configuration, the new one
hasn't. Could that be it?

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

I don't think that this can be problem, but you can try this.

Regards,
Slobodan

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[Lucvdv]

I don't think that this can be problem, but you can try this.

I tried, and that's not what caused it.


BTW: 'now working' wasn't fully, I posted success too fast.
It means I can now browse the pre-FBA CD as just another FAT volume on
drive E: after FBA has finished, but when transferred to CD it still
doesn't boot.

I had to drop the project for now because I have more important stuff
to do, so I reverted to using Ghost.

Thanks to all who tried to help.



I'll include the latest symptoms in case someone still has an idea,
maybe it can help in a future attempt or for someone else who has the
same problem:

- FBA completes successfully
- diskpart shows 3 volumes: harddisk (C, CD-ROM (D and the El
Torito image (E
- The El Torito image is accessible (I can list the contents through
DIR in a cmd shell)
- EWF is OK, but still disabled, and protecting drive C: (drive 0
partition 1)
- etprep.exe /all reports success for the first two steps, but it
fails the third step with a message saying it can't swap the
ElTorito drive letter (singular!)

- A post-FBA CD created from this image gives STOP 7B

- The post-ETPREP harddisk still boots, but the drive letters _have_
been swapped despite the error message.
The harddisk is now drive E:, the El Torito volume is drive C:.
EWF is enabled and still protecting the harddisk (E

- Restoring the pre-FBA copy, letting FBA running again, and manually
flipping the drive letters as explained in this thread has the same
result: the CD stops with 7B.
I haven't tried booting from harddisk after a manual flip.
Whether I delete the unused drive letters and/or the \??\ values or
not makes no difference.

- I tried each CD on the same mainboard it was FBA'd on as well as on
another, and with multiple CD-ROM drives.