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973 thoughts on “Help

  1. I have the same problem: Error: “Could not prepare NT6 boot files!”

    Then I realize that the error hapends on mi notebook, updated to Windows Fall Creators Update (1709), but not have the same issue on Windows 7 or older versions of Windows 10.

    Is there an uncompatibility with the new version of Windows 10?

    • None I am aware of.
      Is everything absolutely the same- program location, no file sync services running on the program location etc. ?

  2. Getting error “This doesn’t seem to be a valid source” when attempting to use latest ISO image for Windows 10 Pro x64 downloaded using Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool.

    • I have just downloaded Windows 10 x64 ISO with Media Creation Tool and it worked just fine. Preparing the source on Win 10 x64 machine, fully updated.
      Maybe you got a bad download or something? Does 7-zip open your ISO? Can you post the log file? Details in the FAQ.

  3. I’m trying to use it on UEFI secure boot computers, and it fail to boot on the USB key.
    The USB is first in the boot order in bios.
    I deactivated the secure boot in bios, and it still failed.
    I deactivated UEFI (for legacy boot) in bios and the boot on usb finally worked.

    From hereI tried to install Lubuntu, it went OK,but lubuntu failed to install the boot loader (it asked to created a >1MB boot-bios partition, sorry I don’t remember exaclty the message).

    I had managed to install Lubuntu this way on an older computer (maybe UEFI was not available on this computer, I need to check but I’m away from home).

    Any thoughts on this ?

    • UEFI boot is supported for Windows only. Why Lubuntu failed to install I can’t really comment. I guess you need to take care of the boot process on the destination drive during the installation. *buntu forums and wiki are the place to look for help.

  4. Hello ,
    First , thank you for this amazing tools .
    We use Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset(DART) and i wonder if i can put it in my usb key with this tool .
    I tried using DART10 with the Windows 7/8/10 based ISO but i’m facing an error – waiting for usb .
    I have a Windows10 in the same key and it boot up .
    Is dart compatible ?

    Thank you

  5. Hi itaushanov.

    I have encountered a couple of problems using the Samsung HDD utility HUtil 2.10 with v1.40 of WinSetUpFromUSB:

    (1) I had downloaded the HUtil210.iso (from hddguru.com) to a Win XP folder which had compression enabled. After adding HUtil210.iso to my USB drive it would not boot into it claiming that it could not find the ISO. When I checked in XP I discovered that the ISO had been copied across verbatim so the file was still in compressed format on my USB stick. When I removed the compression (using Windows Explorer) and defragmented the USB drive it then booted. Surely this is a (minor) bug and WinSetUpFromUSB should copy the ISO to the USB stick uncompressed?

    (2) Now that I can boot into HUtil 2.10, it won’t actually work! I think there is a problem with the CONFIG.SYS line that loads the qcdrom.sys device driver – it reports no CD ROM drive found (I think). Anyway, the end result seems to be that none of the HDUtil files get copied into the RAM disk. Any chance you could take a look at some point?

    Thanks very much,

    Alex

          • Yes, a bit overkill but if it works that’s the most important thing. I’ll give that a go, thanks.

            BTW, I have started using WinSetUpUSB 1.8 with a 64GB memory stick, and each time I want to add an ISO it asks me if I’m sure it’s the right drive because it’s so large – could the next release of the program be a bit more intelligent and identify if the target USB drive is already being used for WInSetUpFromUSB and if so not ask for confirmation each time? Thanks very much 😎

            • I would just raise the limit to >64 MB in the next version and keep the warnings as data removal is inreversible and would rather stay on the safe side causing a bit of inconvenience for the end user, which in my opinion is better compared to the question “I formatted the wrong disk by accident, how do I get my data back” :).

              • Sure, but at this stage I’m not formatting the USB stick – I’m just adding further ISOs to it so there’s no potential data loss?

                • One of the first checks is for grub4dos or fbinst MBR, if not present program will change MBR to grub4dos one. Won’t result in data loss most likely, but may got your main system unbootable if wrong disk is selected.

                  • OK, but I have already used WinSetUpFromUSB to format the USB stick with FBInst, so at this stage there should be no need to chang the MBR either?

                    • But there is need to check. Warning messages are when process starts, so one can answer all prompts and go for a smoke for example.
                      Won’t be changing this further apart from raising the limit.

  6. Hi again,

    Afraid I have found another problem! I have added the ISO for FreeBSD 11.1 (FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso from http://www.freebsd.org) to my USB stick but it runs into trouble during the boot process:

    Mounting from cd9660:/dev/iso9660/11_1_RELEASE_AMD64_DVD failed

    If you could take a look at that too I would be very grateful.

    Sorry to be bringing you problems… I’m a big fan of WinSetUpFromUSB 😎

    Alex

  7. I have run into a small problem with my WinSetUpFromUSB flash drive. I was attempting to install Windows XP on my laptop from the flash drive to another flash drive (ie I wanted to try to get my laptop to run XP from a flash drive rather than from a hard drive). The first part of the install seemed to go OK, but then when the laptop rebooted it turned out that the XP install proces had overwritten the MBR of the WinSetUpFromUSB flash drive. Is there an easy way to restore its MBR (eg. reinstall GRUB)?

    • Depends how you formatted. Did you use the auto-format option? If yes- then you can’t easily as far as I recall.
      If no- just add another small source and MBR ahould be fixed to grub4dos one.

      If installing XP to another USB disk you need to select the advanced option “Prepare Windows 2000/XP/2003 to be installed on USB”, unless you taken other steps to make the XP source USB boot friendly. Also need to remove/disable all internal disks. XP installator often gets confused which disk to use for boot and place MBR and boot files on. For that order fixed/removable type disk also matter, even if both are USB.

  8. Hi again,

    OK, I have run into a new problem. I am trying to use WinSetUpFromUSB to install Win XP on a Fit-PC ultra-small form factor PC (w/ an AMD GX3 Geode LX CPU). It is not proving easy. I have finally worked out how to get it to boot from USB, but it appears that GRUB (grub4dos) is not compatible – it causes the machine to drop to the BIOS debugger. I’ve also used Puppy Linux 6.0 to install GRUB to the MBR of the hard drive and the same thing happens. The machine does actually boot with Plop in the MBR (but then the USB keyboard and mouse don’t work), or the syslinux mbr.bin from Lubumntu 18.04, so I have concluded that the problem is with GRUB. Any ideas? As GRUB appears to be incompatible, I have tried installing XP from a partition I created on the hard drive, but the DOS boot USB stick I created using Rufus Boot doesn’t include smartdrv.exe – any idea where I can get hold of that?

    I’ve never had a machine give me more nightmares!

  9. Hi, I tried to run windows 10 x64 and windows 7 x64 setup from USB flash drive created with WinsetupfromUSB v1.8.
    Only windows 7 x64 setup can boot properly.
    Whereas, Windows 10 x64 when bootup complete only showup ‘Could not mount the virtual disk’, ‘Cannot continue, press OK to reboot.’ dialog. Don’t know why?
    Windows 10 x64 disc image used (en_windows_10_consumer_editions_version_1803_updated_march_2018_x64_dvd_12063379.iso)
    Windows 7 SP1 x64 disc image used (7601.17514.101119-1850_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso)
    Can someone explain?

    • That message means that the USB disk is not available to Windows at that time, hence the Setup assistant can’t find the USB disk and the ISO file on it to mount it as a virtual drive amd to start the Setup from it.
      Try using USB 2.0 port if there is such.
      Check BIOS/UEFI settings for any related setting.
      Try USB 2.0 stick/disk.
      Try integrating the appropriate chipset/USB 3.0 drivers in the source, there plenty of guides on i-net.
      Try using the advanced option which adds drivers, may or may not work, depening if driver requires reboot or not.

      • Oh, the laptop has USB 2.0 only, this is usb 2.0 stick format on FAT32 to make it bootable on UEFI and non-UEFI. Try on other computer gave the same result.
        Windows XP SP3 setup OK (non-UEFI) unmodified ISO MSDN
        Hiren Boot CD 10.6 OK (non-UEFI)
        Windows 7 SP1 (non-UEFI or UEFI) setup OK unmodified ISO MSDN
        Windows 10 version 1803 (non-UEFI or UEFI) ‘Could not mount the virtual disk’, ‘Cannot continue, press OK to reboot.’ unmodified ISO MSDN
        Last time used Windows 10 version 1709 (non-UEFI or UEFI) setup OK. unmodified ISO MSDN.

        So, what I found is that the newest windows 10 setup has problem, but previous version 1709 is normal. Could someone confirm it?

        • I ask because I never seen this problem last time I use with previous Windows 10 1709 has no problem, just that the newly release Windows 10 1803 start showing this problem. Thanks.

            • Now, I have remove the windows 10 1803 from pendrive.
              Then add back windows 10 1709 first, after that Windows 10 1803 to the pendrive.
              Now 1803 now has no problem so as 1709.
              I don’t know if adding 1709 first does correct the 1803 error.
              All OK now.Thanks

              • I have just downloaded 1803 x64 with media creation tool, auto-formatted the USB stick and tried it. All went just fine.

                No clue really what has happened on your rig.

                • It seem that defragmentation is what causing the problem, before I begin testing the pendrive, I do defragmentation using (Auslogic Disk Defragmenter) in order to reduce files fragmentation and consolidate free space.
                  If I didn’t do defrag, Windows 10 version 1803 (non-UEFI or UEFI) will run fine.
                  After defrag, Windows 10 version 1803 (non-UEFI or UEFI) will began showing ‘Could not mount the virtual disk’, ‘Cannot continue, press OK to reboot.’.
                  How can defrag can causing this error to happen? There seem to be no file corrupt.
                  Thanks.

                  • Do not defragment USB flash drives, unless you do need single file(s) on contiguous space, as required for the Linux ISOs added by the program. In such cases run only against the required files.

                    There’s is no any speed gain on flash memory doing that, also you are wearing the drive prematurely by introducing a lot more write cycles.

                    I am curious to know what exactly this defragmentation breaks, interesting case I would never thought of.
                    Does imdisk mount such defragmented ISO? Install same imdisk version on your OS from the imdiak folder and try one of the broken ISOs.
                    Do md5 sums match on defragmented and original files?
                    How large is the USB disk?

                    • Removed current installed imdisk program, then installed the version came provided with winsetupfromusb.

                      Before defragment, imdisk can mount the iso, sha1 checksum also match with the original source.
                      After degrament imdisk can’t mount the iso, sha1 checksum also mismatch with the original source.

                      Performed some read surface test on said pendrive using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 10.2.2, I found out there one sector seem unreadable at somewhere middle of the pendrive storage, so i think this is root cause. If deframent process write the iso data at the affected sector then the iso data will becoming corrupt rendering unusable.

                      Pendrive is SanDisk Cruzer Micro 16GB USB 2.0 brought in 2010.

                      Thanks by the way.

                    • Interesting case, I would have expected defragmenting to fail or freeze when it hits the bad sectors.

                      Thanks for posting back.

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