Hi Simon,
Please could you describe all step by step procedure that you did to make el-torito ISO file?
Close to the beginning of your ISO file there must be following string that I look for. If it is not there then you made a non
bootable ISO file.
C++ String: "\0CD001\1EL TORITO SPECIFICATION"
Regards,
Slobodan
Hi Slobodan,
I have read through the whole thread now and there are some useful tips sure
enough. In a message from GregG he provides his 14-point procedure.
Would you mind expanding on points 2 and 3? What does he mean by 'read-only
CD portion?' Is this an ISO version of the image on the first partition
created by nero?
So far I have created an ISO image of the first partition on the second with
nero. I have then run ElSigFix but get a message "No EL TORITO signature
found." This is also the result when run on a .nrg image file.
Thanks for all your help so far, I feel close!
Simon.
:
Hi Simon,
Have you read trough whole thread? There are 29 posts some of them cover problem that you have.
Your Nero version is ok.
You need to tell Nero not to use real CD-recorder for burning but rather to use file recorder. This way if you make bootable CD
from
first partition it will be saved in ISO file that you can edit.
After that you just write ISO to CD.
Regards,
Slobodan
PS: Again read carefully thread since this was discussed
Hi Slobodan
Thanks for the reply. You wrote:
- When making "Pre FBA" CD this is required to be done only once by using same procedure that you will use later for making
bootable
CD.
Yes, this is what I do.
- You can make image on your development computer as long as you have HDD that you use on your target computer.
Yes, I use the same drive and move it from machine to machine.
- You must use first partition of disk for XPe and its size should fit on CD.
Yes, this is what I use.
I would like to know more about your method that uses Nero rather than
HD2ISO. You wrote:
If you are using my approach then you should not use hd2iso but rather use nero to make image that you must patch with my
program
Would you mind explaining how this process is done? I cannot find a way to
convert an image on the first partition of my development drive to ISO by
using Nero.
I think this may be the key to my problems. What version of Nero do you
use? I have Nero Burning ROM 6.6.0.5.
Secondly, it seems that you burn the post-FBA image to a folder on your hard
drive for editing the MBR before burning a CD. The procedure you provide in
"Creating El-Torito...from Nero" cannot be followed on my version (it seems).
Regards,
Simon.
:
Simon,
- When making "Pre FBA" CD this is required to be done only once by using same procedure that you will use later for making
bootable
CD.
- You can make image on your development computer as long as you have HDD that you use on your target computer.
- You must use first partition of disk for XPe and its size should fit on CD.
What method do you follow?
If you are using my approach then you should not use hd2iso but rather use nero to make image that you must patch with my
program or
by hex editor.
Then record that image on one CD that you will use later on.
I do not know Sean's procedure but few tips.
I etprep give you problems then you will have to forget about it and to do things manually.
Like setting EWF deleting EWF partition and swapping driver letters by modifying registry.
Regards,
Slobodan
Hi Slobodan,
I am still having trouble with the 'Delayed Write Failed' message when
trying to boot from CD.
I have rebuilt the image and copied it to a second hard drive on my
development machine. That drive is then installed in the target machine and
HD2ISO is used to create the iso image on the second partition of that drive
(D
.
The drive is then replaced in the host machine so Nero can burn a PreFBA
El-Torito CD. This is where the first doubt comes in. Why doesn't Nero
Burning Rom (v.6.6.0.5) report that the image is bootable in the Info panel?
Otherwise the CD is burned successfully. The HDD and CD is moved back over
to the target PC and booted to the first partition which invokes First Boot
Agent. This completes and reboots to "Machine resealed! Click OK.' Target
is rebooted into Command Shell. Using ewfmgr I see that EWF volume is
configured. ewfmgr c: shows that State is Disabled. Checking FBALOG.TXT the
El-Torito driver is loaded.
Then etprep -all is run which is where the first error arises. The ewf
volume is deleted but error 0x01 is reported 'Failed to swap drive letters.'
However, it reboots into f:\.
This allows me to check a few things.
C: holds the image that just booted through FBA,
D: currently holds the PreFBA iso image,
E: holds the preFBA El-Torito CD,
F: this has the same name as C: and holds a slightly smaller version of the
bootable image (the Boot.ini file is missing).
Running EWFMGR C: results in 'Failed getting protected volume configuration
with error 1'
Running EWFMGR F: results in:
Protected volume configuration, Type: RAM, State: DISABLED, Device:
"...Volume1" [F:], etc.
Shut down target, boot into Win PE, deleted PreFBA.iso and used HD2ISO to
create Post FBA.iso on 2nd partition (D
. Replaced drive in host machine to
burn final E-T CD (again, no info stating whether bootable in NERO 'Info'
tab). Burn runs ok but booting target from the CD gives 'Delayed write
failed' message.
The procedure is from XPe Advanced by Sean Liming.
HELP.
Simon.
:
Hi Simon,
I must be making a fundamental error somewhere.
Please read link that I gave you. You must make one pre FBA El-torito CD in a same way that you will use later
to
make a
final
CD.
This is important since you need this CD with exact signature and size during the FBA.
Also using floppy or other partitions will not work.
Regards,
Slobodan
Hi Sean, Slobodan,
Thanks for the feedback.
I went through the process again with different results and have a question
about the burning process for both the Pre FBA cd and the final cd:
Nero Express prompts:
'Select Boot Image - Select a floppy drive which contains a bootable floppy
disk. Please insert a bootable disk... to make your medium bootable the same
way your floppy is.'
I used an MS-Dos startup floppy created with XP's 'format' tool.
Is this a suitable boot image?
Regarding my second attempt at a final E-T cd; it booted as a floppy system
disk might, i.e. to the a:\ prompt and only the 14 files (<0.5MB) you would
see on a floppy system disk, no XP files at all. Though when the cd is
viewed in My Computer it is the full XPe image size (213MB).
I must be making a fundamental error somewhere.
Any ideas?
:
Creating CD ROMs is tricking. You startout with RAM overlay when the image
goes through FBA, then EWF RAM-REG gets created (RAM overlay volutme gets
deleted) when you run ETPREP -all. I sometime find that the HD2ISO utlity
doesn't make a good copy and I have to create the ISO image again.
Regards,
Sean Liming
Managing Director
SJJ Embedded Micro Solutions
www.sjjmicro.com /
www.seanliming.com
Author: Windows XP Embedded Advanced and Windows NT Embedded Step-by-Step
Hi Simon,
Thanks very much for your speedy response.
Though I must admit, I'm puzzled by your second comment.
This options are not used by RAM EWF they are used with disk overlay
only :-(
Following S.Liming's XPe Advanced book, chapter 11 'Booting XPe from
CD-ROM'
page 296, step 8 specifically instructs to set the Optimization Option
for
EWF with RAM Overlay. Perhaps you could expand on your comment?
Sorry pages do not mean to much to me since I do not have Sean's book (I
never needed books on this subject) although I heard that
it is good.
Let me clarify (please note that this is from my head as I remeber it and
also I did not tested it on SP2 EWF revision).
1. In order for RAM EWF to work on CD it can't use small EWF config
partition.
2. What ever that you set in Optimization Options is during the FBA copied
from registry to small config partition.
3. Since on CD you don't have config partition these settings are lost.
I do not know if it can be enabled from registry so that EWF driver can
use it, but in any case it should stay disabled default
(Optimal Performance).
Optimization is intended to work in follwoing way. When you write new data
to overlay clump before data reach overlay EWF will check
if data stored on disk is same and in case that it is this clump will not
be stored in overlay, also it should release already used
clump in case that new data matches data on disk.
As you can see this check would significantly slow down operation when
booting from CD.
To clarify your first point:
Your Reg configured RAM EWF after copying image to CD is not working.
(You did not followed complete instruction for making it
work.)
Are you saying that the RAM EWF -as configured by the registry- was
burned
to CD incorrectly or did the problem originate before this? I am using
Nero
Express v.5.5.10.6. which is entirely Wizard driven but does give the
option
of burning an El-Torito CD.
I'm saying that you should prepare XPe as intended for burning, but
instead of burning in on CD, try again to boot from HDD. (NOTE
THAT REG ENTRY MountedDevices MUST BE EMPTRY)
If you can boot to XPe from HDD and you have working EWF then problem is
something else.
One more thing that could be a problem is if you have not used first
partition on boot disk.
Regards,
Slobodan
Thanks for the link. Look forward to hearing from you,
Simon.
:
Hi Simon,
'Windows - Delayed Write Failed
Your Reg configured RAM EWF after copying image to CD is not working.
(You did not followed complete instruction for making it
work.)
In the EWF component settings in Target Designer I selected
'optimised' - I
can't believe that selecting 'Use less overlay space and less writes'
will
make enough of a difference on RAM of this size - unless you can
suggest
otherwise? However, I will rebuild the image and create the CDs with
the
latter option whilst waiting for a kind soul to make some
suggestions.
This options are not used by RAM EWF they are used with disk overlay
only :-(
Read this is might give you some more info:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group..._frm/thread/8a66ee9cd63d679b#f1d6f3ff641cf6e1
Regards,
Slobodan
Hi,
Having created the final El-Torito CD in accordance with Sean
Liming's book,
I keep getting an error message when trying to boot from it:
'Windows - Delayed Write Failed
Windows was unable to save all data for this file...'
I am using a RAM overlay (RAM is 0.5GB so I don't think its short of
space)
Background disk defrag is turned off
The image is a basic XP OS for test purposes and so I wouldn't expect
writes
to be over the top - but, if you can suggest how to minimise writes,
please
do.
In the EWF component settings in Target Designer I selected
'optimised' - I
can't believe that selecting 'Use less overlay space and less writes'
will
make enough of a difference on RAM of this size - unless you can
suggest
otherwise? However, I will rebuild the image and create the CDs with
the
latter option whilst waiting for a kind soul to make some
suggestions.
Thanks,
simon
isabled, Clump size:512, etc.