SDI question

[Guest]

Hi,

Why does one have to use SDI tool to transfer image to a hard disk. Why
can't you just copy the XPe image directory directly over ie boot.ini, ntldr,
ntdetect and the 3 directories WIndows, Program files, document and settings.
This is assuming the hard disk has been partioned correctly and networked to
host. Apologies if this is a simple question.

Regards
ms

 

[Guest]

ms-

you don't need to sdi. If you partion the disk with diskpart, set the disk
as active, and use something like xcopy or, if you have a multi partition
development system, you can just copy it over.

-mark

 

[Guest]

Hi Mark

Thanks for this. I've tried what you suggest with Virtual PC but doesn't
work. I used diskpart then used Microsoft loopback adapter to setup network
connect to host (on same physical machine f course) then just copied the
files over to C:. It doesn't boot not boot menu nothing just hangs.

Regards
ms

 

[Guest]

ms,
I'm sorry, I'm not famliar with using virtual PC, I can only speak from
experience from what I've done. Maybe one of the more knowledgable folks in
here can help you out like KM or Slobodan -

Again, sorry.

Mark

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Mark,

Based on his assumption hardly that anyone can help him :-(

This is assuming the hard disk has been partioned correctly and networked to host.

Based on this if you put only ntldr. and boot.ini on your "correctly partitioned disk" (that worked before).

[boot loader]
timeout=50
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XPE 1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XPE 2" /fastdetect

You should get something like multi os choice for 50 seconds.
If you can then just copy files to this FS, if not then let us know.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Guest]

Hi Slobodan

I've tried what you say but i don't get a menu. Using SDI or dual booting
works i get my xpe image to boot but when i just copy the files onto my
Virtual Pc harddisk c: i can't get it to boot. There must be something wrong
with bootsector. I've tried both diskpart using WinPE and fdisk using an old
win98 setup disk to create a primary partition formatted for fat32 (tried
ntfs format with winPe aswell) but i can't get a boot menu. I've set
partition to active. I must have been trying to ge tthis to work for 2 weeks
now but still not even the menu.
The most frustrating is that dual boot works no problem but then this is
when i have a known working boot sector on drive C: installed winnt4 ->
modified boot.ini and put xpe files on drive d.

Regards
ms

Hi Mark,

Based on his assumption hardly that anyone can help him :-(

This is assuming the hard disk has been partioned correctly and networked to host.

Based on this if you put only ntldr. and boot.ini on your "correctly partitioned disk" (that worked before).

[boot loader]
timeout=50
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XPE 1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XPE 2" /fastdetect

You should get something like multi os choice for 50 seconds.
If you can then just copy files to this FS, if not then let us know.

Regards,
Slobodan

ms,
I'm sorry, I'm not famliar with using virtual PC, I can only speak from
experience from what I've done. Maybe one of the more knowledgable folks in
here can help you out like KM or Slobodan -

Again, sorry.

Mark

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi ms,

It is not clear from your post what is working and what is not working :-(

Can you tell us all steps what you did that resulted in non bootable boot sector?
Also can you tell us what boot sector is bad?

MBR?
PBR?
Or you have problem with ntldr. (This you can determine if you delete ntldr and read error message that tell you that ntldr is not
found)

Regards,
Slobodan

Hi Slobodan

I've tried what you say but i don't get a menu. Using SDI or dual booting
works i get my xpe image to boot but when i just copy the files onto my
Virtual Pc harddisk c: i can't get it to boot. There must be something wrong
with bootsector. I've tried both diskpart using WinPE and fdisk using an old
win98 setup disk to create a primary partition formatted for fat32 (tried
ntfs format with winPe aswell) but i can't get a boot menu. I've set
partition to active. I must have been trying to ge tthis to work for 2 weeks
now but still not even the menu.
The most frustrating is that dual boot works no problem but then this is
when i have a known working boot sector on drive C: installed winnt4 ->
modified boot.ini and put xpe files on drive d.

Regards
ms

Hi Mark,

Based on his assumption hardly that anyone can help him :-(

This is assuming the hard disk has been partioned correctly and networked to host.

Based on this if you put only ntldr. and boot.ini on your "correctly partitioned disk" (that worked before).

[boot loader]
timeout=50
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XPE 1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XPE 2" /fastdetect

You should get something like multi os choice for 50 seconds.
If you can then just copy files to this FS, if not then let us know.

Regards,
Slobodan

ms,
I'm sorry, I'm not famliar with using virtual PC, I can only speak from
experience from what I've done. Maybe one of the more knowledgable folks in
here can help you out like KM or Slobodan -

Again, sorry.

Mark

:

Hi Mark

Thanks for this. I've tried what you suggest with Virtual PC but doesn't
work. I used diskpart then used Microsoft loopback adapter to setup network
connect to host (on same physical machine f course) then just copied the
files over to C:. It doesn't boot not boot menu nothing just hangs.

Regards
ms

:

ms-

you don't need to sdi. If you partion the disk with diskpart, set the disk
as active, and use something like xcopy or, if you have a multi partition
development system, you can just copy it over.

-mark

:

Hi,

Why does one have to use SDI tool to transfer image to a hard disk. Why
can't you just copy the XPe image directory directly over ie boot.ini, ntldr,
ntdetect and the 3 directories WIndows, Program files, document and settings.
This is assuming the hard disk has been partioned correctly and networked to
host. Apologies if this is a simple question.

Regards
ms

 

[Guest]

Hi Slobodan

Many thanks for your help it is very simple to recreate what i have done.
I have a labtop running Win2K, i have my Xpe tools on this. I have Virtual PC
running on my labtop.
I have created a virtual hard disk 1G in size for my virtual machine. I
put XPe disk 1 in CD drive to boot using WinPE. I then use diskpart to create
a primary partition.

1.list disk
2.select disk0
3.create partition primary size = 990 offset = 0
4. select partition 1
5. active

reboot virtual machine, again boot from WinPE then format c: /fs:fat32
(tried ntfs aswell)

then to copy boot.ini and ntldr from my XPe image directory i use the net
use command to map drive to host (ie labtop c drive). I map to drive z:

then copy boot.ini and ntldr to c: ( in past i have used xcopy to copy all
files but don't need at this stage as image not problem just being able to
boot).

[boot loader]
timeout=50
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Embedded1"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Embedded2"
/fastdetect

above is boot.ini file. I then reboot virtual machine and boot from harddisk
this time rather than Win PE, virtual machine just hangs no boot menu. After
Removing ntldr virtual machine still hangs no error message at all. Anyone
could try this themselves it would take a few minutes to recreate. I don't
know if i have a bad MBR or PBR, i just assumed i did. Above i have described
all steps to create boot sector. I've blown away virtual machine and disk and
started again still same. I've tried using fdisk with an old Win98 setup cd i
have just to see if using a different partition tool would make a difference
but it doesn't. THe only thing i haven't tried is using a Dos floppy boot
disk with fdsik tool on, this is because my labtop has no floppy drive!!! So
for 2 weeks i cannot create a xpe bootable partition. I think i f i can get
over this i'll be ok as i can create and run images no problem when i use the
dual boot scenario.

Regards
ms

 

[KM]

ms,

Many thanks for your help it is very simple to recreate what i have done.
I have a labtop running Win2K, i have my Xpe tools on this. I have Virtual PC
running on my labtop.
I have created a virtual hard disk 1G in size for my virtual machine. I
put XPe disk 1 in CD drive to boot using WinPE. I then use diskpart to create
a primary partition.

1.list disk
2.select disk0
3.create partition primary size = 990 offset = 0
4. select partition 1
5. active

reboot virtual machine, again boot from WinPE then format c: /fs:fat32
(tried ntfs aswell)

then to copy boot.ini and ntldr from my XPe image directory i use the net
use command to map drive to host (ie labtop c drive). I map to drive z:

then copy boot.ini and ntldr to c: ( in past i have used xcopy to copy all
files but don't need at this stage as image not problem just being able to
boot).

You forgot to copy ntdetect.com. This may be important but I think ntldr should give you the error like "ntdetect.com is missing" if
works.
Anyway, it does not hurt to copy this file.

[boot loader]
timeout=50
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Embedded1"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Embedded2"
/fastdetect

above is boot.ini file. I then reboot virtual machine and boot from harddisk
this time rather than Win PE, virtual machine just hangs no boot menu. After
Removing ntldr virtual machine still hangs no error message at all. Anyone
could try this themselves it would take a few minutes to recreate. I don't
know if i have a bad MBR or PBR, i just assumed i did. Above i have described
all steps to create boot sector. I've blown away virtual machine and disk and
started again still same. I've tried using fdisk with an old Win98 setup cd i
have just to see if using a different partition tool would make a difference
but it doesn't. THe only thing i haven't tried is using a Dos floppy boot
disk with fdsik tool on, this is because my labtop has no floppy drive!!! So

This would be important to try with DOS. Just FYI. There are some bootable DOS disks exist.
Very useful when you don't have a floppy drive option in your machine. I have seen one.
You may want to serach Internet and buy one if found.

KM

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi,

I have tested following:

1. clean all
2. select disk 0
3. create partition primary size = 990
4. select partition 1
5. active
6. assign letter=z
7. exit
8. format z: /fs:ntfs
9. reboot

It will give you "NTLDR is missing" Error message.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Konstantin,

Virtual PC with WinPE prepared disk is working.

3.create partition primary size = 990 offset = 0

Perhaps this "offset=0" thing is that make it bad. And it is not required.

Regards,
Slobodan

ms,

Many thanks for your help it is very simple to recreate what i have done.
I have a labtop running Win2K, i have my Xpe tools on this. I have Virtual PC
running on my labtop.
I have created a virtual hard disk 1G in size for my virtual machine. I
put XPe disk 1 in CD drive to boot using WinPE. I then use diskpart to create
a primary partition.

1.list disk
2.select disk0
3.create partition primary size = 990 offset = 0
4. select partition 1
5. active

reboot virtual machine, again boot from WinPE then format c: /fs:fat32
(tried ntfs aswell)

then to copy boot.ini and ntldr from my XPe image directory i use the net
use command to map drive to host (ie labtop c drive). I map to drive z:

then copy boot.ini and ntldr to c: ( in past i have used xcopy to copy all
files but don't need at this stage as image not problem just being able to
boot).

You forgot to copy ntdetect.com. This may be important but I think ntldr should give you the error like "ntdetect.com is missing" if
works.
Anyway, it does not hurt to copy this file.

[boot loader]
timeout=50
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Embedded1"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Embedded2"
/fastdetect

above is boot.ini file. I then reboot virtual machine and boot from harddisk
this time rather than Win PE, virtual machine just hangs no boot menu. After
Removing ntldr virtual machine still hangs no error message at all. Anyone
could try this themselves it would take a few minutes to recreate. I don't
know if i have a bad MBR or PBR, i just assumed i did. Above i have described
all steps to create boot sector. I've blown away virtual machine and disk and
started again still same. I've tried using fdisk with an old Win98 setup cd i
have just to see if using a different partition tool would make a difference
but it doesn't. THe only thing i haven't tried is using a Dos floppy boot
disk with fdsik tool on, this is because my labtop has no floppy drive!!! So

This would be important to try with DOS. Just FYI. There are some bootable DOS disks exist.
Very useful when you don't have a floppy drive option in your machine. I have seen one.
You may want to serach Internet and buy one if found.

KM

for 2 weeks i cannot create a xpe bootable partition. I think i f i can get
over this i'll be ok as i can create and run images no problem when i use the
dual boot scenario.

Reg
ms