Stop 7B error when trying to boot from CD

[Sturm]

I am using the SP2 Eval of XPE. I have taken an existing configuration and
followed the microsoft document on creating a bootable CD using XPE (tried
with and without the winlogon sample macro) ... i always get a 7b stop
before FBA can run. The image runs fine from the hard drive. Any ideas?

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Sturm,

You must do FBA on HDD then manually you will have to do some preparations,
and after that you need to copy files to CD.
Can you tell us what have you done so far?

You can also read this thread:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group...e9cd63d679b/4bb9658425996274#4bb9658425996274

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Gordon Smith \(eMVP\)]

I am using the SP2 Eval of XPE. I have taken an existing
configuration and followed the microsoft document on creating a
bootable CD using XPE (tried with and without the winlogon sample
macro) ... i always get a 7b stop before FBA can run. The image runs
fine from the hard drive. Any ideas?

If I had to guess, I'd assume you are creating the pre-FBA CD and putting it
in the drive before booting your image to allow FBA to run. Most likely,
you are booting off of CD without realizing it. The image on the CD would
get a 7B. Convince your bios to boot to the HD first and it should work
much better.

 

[Spencer Thang]

I have the same problem too!

Does that mean that I must do the following:

(I use VMware, so all builds on D:\ will be recognised as C:\ in VMware.)
1.) Build the target image on D:\
2.) Boot Up VMWare and insert the iso into the machine.
3.) Instruct the bios to boot from hard disk.
4.) Run the FBA.
5.) Do all the stuff, like install apps, drivers.
6.) Make some registry changes, shutdown.
7.) Make the iso again and this time try to boot from it.


Is the sequence correct?

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

7B check happens much sooner during the boot much before volume letters are
started to be used by OS.

OTOH: You can force from TD what volume letter assignment you want when you
boot to FBA.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/community/community/tips/xp/rtpartin/default.aspx

You should use C:\ (it is not a must but it is easier to be done.)
Where did you used hd2iso ? Make sure that your OS is on first partition to
avoid problems with hd2iso.

6.) Make some registry changes, shutdown.

This is very critical step and must be done correctly.

Regards,
Slobodan
PS:
In case that you missed link please read:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group...e9cd63d679b/4bb9658425996274#4bb9658425996274

 

[Sturm]

Hold on .. am I missing something?
I should use target designer to build the image (I too am using VMWare, so
the virtual machine has a single drive/partition to simplify matters), then
use hd2iso to create an ISO image. Then I should boot the virtual machine
off of hard disk with the CD image in the CD drive as well? Doesnt make
sense to me ... time to re-read the documentation ...

 

[Sturm]

OK. After some downtime, here is where I am:

1) I created a run time image in target designer and get it onto the target
device
2) I create an ISO from that run time image using hd2iso and put in in the
CD drive of the target device.
3) I boot the target device from its HardDisk. FBA runs, reboots the machine
twice, then I wind up at a login prompt.
4) I login using administrator username and blank password. About 20 seconds
later I get the message "Windows - Delayed Write Failed. Windows was unable
to save the data for the file E:\ "... etc etc --- all of this occurs
before I can run etprep.exe

Here is some stuff from FBAlog.txt:

12:00:19 PM - ConfigureEwf() Start.
12:00:19 PM - Getting EWF config parameters from registry.
12:00:19 PM - EWF Partition Size = 0 (KBytes), Levels = 1, Volumes = 1.
12:00:19 PM - Protected Volume Config #0 :
12:00:19 PM - Disk= 0,Part= 1,DiskType= IDE,Type= RAM.
12:00:19 PM - Enable= Disabled, Optimize= 2, LazyWrite= N.
12:00:19 PM - Found 2 Hard Disks.
12:00:19 PM - Searching for El Torito disk.
12:00:19 PM - Disk0 signature = 0x3BEB8421.
12:00:19 PM - Disk1 signature = 0x4F544C45.
12:00:19 PM - Disk1 is an ElTorito disk.
12:00:19 PM - Checking Start value in
System\CurrentControlSet\Services\redbook key.
12:00:19 PM - Resetting Start value.
12:00:19 PM - Checking Start value in
System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Imapi key.
12:00:19 PM - Disk #0 layout info:
12:00:19 PM - PRIMARY partition,start=0x0000000000007e00,
len=0x0000000028332600, type= 6
12:00:19 PM - Can't create EWF partition size = 0x000000000000fc00 on disk#
0.
12:00:19 PM - Skipping Eltorito disk #1.
12:00:19 PM - Failed to create EWF partition.
12:00:19 PM - ConfigureEwf() End, status = 0x80070057.
12:00:19 PM - [CallEntryPointThread] C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ewfdll.dll,
ConfigureEwf
12:00:19 PM - [FBASetProgressText] Resetting Setup Flag...
12:00:33 PM - [FBADoReboot] Sleeping...
12:00:43 PM - [FBADoReboot] Rebooting system...

So it looks like it cant create the EWF parition. In VMWare, I the hard
drive is set to 650MB FAT16. (It does need to be the same size as a CD, no?)
with a single active partition. Is this a correct configuration? Or do I
need some unpartitioned space that EWF can use? Help!

 

[KM]

Sturm,

12:00:19 PM - Disk= 0,Part= 1,DiskType= IDE,Type= RAM.
12:00:19 PM - Enable= Disabled, Optimize= 2, LazyWrite= N.

12:00:19 PM - Can't create EWF partition size = 0x000000000000fc00 on disk#

So it looks like it cant create the EWF parition. In VMWare, I the hard
drive is set to 650MB FAT16. (It does need to be the same size as a CD, no?)
with a single active partition. Is this a correct configuration? Or do I
need some unpartitioned space that EWF can use? Help!

Yes, you do need some unpartitioned space for EWF Config volume since you are suing EWF RAM mode.

Or you can switch to EWF RAM REG mode and you won't need to bother to think about the EWF COnfig volume as it won't be there nor
used.

 

[Sturm]

humm. I see. How much free space would be OK? Do I change the size of the
650MB active partition to make it smaller so there is some unpartitioned
free space available for EWF? I would prefer not to use RAM mode and not RAM
reg mode if possible.

 

[KM]

Sturm,

You eventually want to burn your image on CD, right?
Then you can't use EWF DISK mode since it doesn't work with overlay on different disk.

EWF RAM REG mode is what you should really evaluate for your needs. With it you won't be even needing to think about the EWF Config
partition (but only make sure to clean it up from the disk first).

For the Config partition it will need just 32-64Mb but you will need to have at least 2Mb unpartitioned free space on the disk.

KM

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Sturm,

On CD you can only use Reg RAM EWF, and there is no choice about this. You
can't even use REG RAM, so you might want to use already set up Reg RAM EWF
component for SP2.

http://www.slobodanbrcin.com/xpe/ewf/regramewf.html

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Sturm]

Thanks guys, I have the CD working now.

Strangely enough, I still got the "delayed write failed" message when FBA
was done, but running etprep.exe was OK and I built the ISO afterwards. Just
to prove it worked, I removed the HardDisk from the VMWare virtual machine
and booted from CD. Thanks for the help.

 

[Matt Kellner \(MS\)]

Hi Sturm. I'd like to clarify a few of the El Torito preparation steps:

Going by the MS documentation for El Torito, you must configure your runtime
with EWF in RAM mode and with the checkbox "Start EWF Enabled" unchecked, so
that EWF is disabled after FBA. This mode requires at least 32K of
unpartitioned space on the primary hard drive - we recommend at least 32 MB
to be safe. This allows EWF to setup its partition. The "etprep" tool will
take care of removing the EWF partition and setting up RAM Reg mode (and
enabling the overlay) when you run it, so overall you shouldn't have to
worry about configuring RAM Reg yourself.

As for the size of the boot partition: You actually don't need to set your
partition to equal the size of a CD - if your runtime is only 200 MB in
size, you could get away with a 250 MB partition just fine. You just need
to make sure that the "reference" El Torito CD that's in the drive during
FBA is the same size as your boot partition - if you change the size of your
boot partition, run HD2ISO and create a new reference CD before going
through FBA. (This is important because the device enumeration string that
etprep depends on to swap your drive letters for El Torito keys on both the
El Torito Signature value and the size of the volume.)

If you don't mind starting over, you can resize your El Torito boot
partition down to even just 600 MB (assuming your runtime is less than that)
and leave the new open space unpartitioned. This would get around the
problem you were having with EWF post-FBA.

--
Matt Kellner ([email protected])
STE, Windows Embedded Group

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
===============================

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Matt,

You just need to make sure that the "reference" El Torito CD that's in the
drive during FBA is the same size as your boot partition - if you change
the size of your boot partition, run HD2ISO and create a new reference CD
before going through FBA. (This is important because the device
enumeration string that etprep depends on to swap your drive letters for
El Torito keys on both the El Torito Signature value and the size of the
volume.)

You are talking about swapping volume letter values stored in
HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices right?
It would be good that this was the only reason why we need template CD to be
present during the FBA, but it is not.
If we delete all entries in HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices system will boot just
fine either from HDD or from CD. PnP will make sure that during the each
boot volume letter are assigned.

Also ID used in these entries is in form of 12 bytes.
first 4 bytes represent DiskID and next 8 bytes are offset of beginning of
partition on that disk.

My guess is that we should focus our attention to information's stored in
CurrentControlSet\Enum branch. These are the real trouble makers that
usually no one sees.


Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Matt Kellner \(MS\)]

Hi Slobodan. In most cases, users shouldn't need to worry about those
values - from a process point of view, if the user has a reference CD with
the same El Torito signature and the same size as the target partition, the
enumeration data will be correct and etprep will be able to do its job
properly.

--
Matt Kellner ([email protected])
STE, Windows Embedded Group

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
===============================

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Matt,

Hi Slobodan. In most cases, users shouldn't need to worry about those
values - from a process point of view, if the user has a reference CD with
the same El Torito signature and the same size as the target partition,
the enumeration data will be correct and etprep will be able to do its job
properly.

Unfortunately what you are saying here is absolutely true. But I think that
question that people always asked here was why would they need to create
that dummy CD in the first place.
I know why CD is needed, I have even an implementation idea how this could
be avoided (ugly but it would work), you know why dummy CD is needed. But I
guess that many people here have no idea what we are talking about.

One part of your comment was:"if you
change the size of your boot partition, run HD2ISO and create a new
reference CD before going through FBA. (This is important because the
device enumeration string that etprep depends on to swap your drive
letters for El Torito keys on both the El Torito Signature value and the
size of the volume.)
"

It is true but it could not be farther then the core of the problem. We
don't need etprep to make final touch to XPe so that it can boot from CD (it
is just convinient utility nothing more nothing less).
But unfortunately we need CD in orther not to deal with ugly values that are
assigned troughout HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum branch. Probably
entries related to volumes.

Regards,
Slobodan