Here you can get help, access FAQ and tutorials, get support, report a bug of make feature request about WinSetupFromUSB by leaving a comment.
Here you can get help, access FAQ and tutorials, get support, report a bug of make feature request about WinSetupFromUSB by leaving a comment.
Hi, nice application. I feel like it’s missing something though. A way to delete a source. Useful if you want to change something so you don’t have to repeat the process all over again.
Take a look at FAQ #15, it describes how to manually remove a source.
is it possible to install two versions of windows install software. One MBR and one EUFI?
You can have as many as the USB disk can fit, and all can be booted in both BIOS or UEFI mode, depending what you set boot mode to.
Hi, I really love this software, I use it a lot… but I have some features request…
1. recreate boot files from existing files: I had some old 2.5″ HDDs which 1 of those I used as a USB util with the first partition being WINSETUP and the other one being backup files, so the WINSETUP partition had some windows installations as well as some linux installations, the thing is that I had to change the HDD, because I had to use that HDD because is larger, so I copied the WINSETUP partition to a 120GB HDD with 1 partition, then I boot from it in on a PC and the grub boot couldn’t “find the partition”, so I thought that maybe the boot files checks for the UIDD and obviously it’s not the same, so then I guessed that adding an image will fix the boot files because the program checks that up so, with the same version i used before, I added 2 more windows installation images, and when I booted up it didn’t show me all the previous windows images, instead showed me only 4 options and the same name for 3 of them (when I had like 8 images total) even the option to go back to grub was changed… so yeah, that’s my request, there should be an option to recreate all the boot files from the drive that is being used based on the images already in the drive (obviously checking that the names are correct and the locations are too) or even recognicing the images even if they are in the root directory of the drive and locating them where they should be, checking if they are defragmented and moving files that are not supported to a temp folder outside the drive… and if there are no ISO files, then it does nothing… could be dangerous if the user doesn’t select the correct drive, but no software can be 100% fool proof… I just believe it’s a useful feature…
2. adding more than 1 image file per type at once: going back to the problem I had before, now I want to readd everything again, the problem is that the HDD being used is 120GB and It has 80% used from all the images added, so I have to copy all the images back to the computer and then adding them again one at a time, max 2 if it’s a linux and windows image…
3. Also can you change that when checking the custom renaming option for the windows images installations to do it BEFORE hitting start, because 45 seconds is not enough to think about it, so if you can bulk add many images, i can, before hitting start, customize the folder name and the option name so it would start copying without stopping…
There were requests to reduce that timeout, as well as to increase it, can’t have everyone happy 🙂
Better be ready with the names before starting.
>”There were requests to reduce that timeout, as well as to increase it, can’t have everyone happy 🙂”
Actually you could: by allowing the user to specify a time-out parameter. As it is, I have to enter a short version, and then enter the correct information via BootIce. This is a nuisance.
>”Better be ready with the names before starting.”
I am (ready with the names before starting), and still find the time-out makes it impossible to enter them.
Just played a bit and 45 seconds are more than enough to type folder or boot menu name in my opinion, even if need to correct something.
Was concerned if the 45 seconds timeout turns out to be shorter for whatever reason, but that’s not the case, it’s indeed 45 seconds.
In future build might put some of the default values in an ini file.
Perhaps suspending the timer if the user is actually typing would be reasonable. Maybe even with a specific key to halt the timer, like you see on many BIOS menus.
Would have done it that way, but not available as an option for InputBox in Autoit
>”45 seconds are more than enough to type folder or boot menu name in my opinion, even if need to correct something.”
I don’t think you are giving us 45 seconds! I am a very fast typist, but I have difficulty typing “Install Windows 10-1909 Build 18363 (64-bit)”, and correcting any typos, before the time-out. A slower typist will certainly have difficulty.
As I said above, the problem could be solved by allowing the user to specify a time-out parameter (including “no time-out”). Or we can continue to edit menu.lst with a text editor (I incorrectly said “BootIce” above).
I measured with stopwatch a few times, both prompts for folder and boot menu names, it was exactly 45 seconds.
If that somehow happens to be lower in your case, please let me know how to reproduce. Will have to report it to AutoIt as a bug if confirmed and reproducible.
As mentioned, future version will have an ini file with these default values configurable, alongside default folder on the USB disk holding images, currently hardcoded to WINSETUP, as there was such request recently.
Hi, thanks for the kind words!
Disk must be made bootable in the same way, same bootloaders and their config files must be also copied and copied first. Not a big deal to do manually if familiar with the details.
However, for the time spent copying ISOs around, program can simply prepare the new disk, with the ISOs on the old disk provided as sources.
It doesn’t work on UEFI Booting systems, it loads but the Windows doesn’t see the Hard Drive.
exactly, unable to install Windows 10 if BIOS is set to UEFI only. It loads the installation file and then ends on STOP error “Boot_disk_not found
Have you tried other USB ports and possibly other USB disk/stick?
If this is a laptop, which exact model, or motherboard model if PC?
I am using a USB hard drive, tried all USB port on my Lenovo P53
Try with USB stick, also try with Secure Boot disabled.
Assuming you formatted in FAT32 and booting 64 bits OS, right?
I’m attempting to create a Utility Boot USB on an external SSD. However, I’m having issues using ISOs and TIB files. I have tried both, and the drive is not bootable it just continues into normal windows. I have tried several other USB Boot Builder tools as well all to no avail. Xboot, Yumi, WinsetupforUSB.
Notes:
I am trying to more or less create a Grub Boot Menu.
1. Strelec’s Win 10 PE Bootable Image (bootmgr)
2. Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 Bootable image (bootmgr)
Any suggestions on which formatting I should use to accomplish this?
What file system have you used?
Are you booting in BIOS or UEFI mode?
I would check BIOS/UEFI for some related settings. What hardware are you booting on? Have you tried other machine?
As a replay to:
>> In UEFI mode only Windows is supported.
This is not quite right.
Long time i have used Rufus and YUMI and moved to WinSetupFromUSB to build ultimate USB with useful utilities for myself. Long time i have worked in BIOS environment and even deleted EFI folder from USB. But one day UEFI have catched me.
So what i have done to build multiboot USB with WinSetupFromUSB.
First of all take rEFInd by Roderick W. Smith and place it in efi folder of USB. Original Win7 efi loader renamed to bootwx64.efi and added to refind.conf:
————
menuentry “Windows 7” {
loader \efi\boot\bootwx64.efi
icon \efi\boot\icons\os_win.png
}
————
After this step rEFInd is starting on UEFI systems and show boot manager GUI that can start efi OS from HDD, or efi memtest, or efi parted utility or EFI Shell;) and our Win 7 installation.
After this i added PartedMagic to be able to boot in both BIOS and UEFI mode. Initially it worked well with Grub4Dos and CD emulation. But to work in UEFI i unpacked PartedMagic iso to flash. Main is the pmagic folder and boot subfolders. Added grubx64.efi from PartedMagic to our /efi/boot folder and added to refind.conf:
————–
menuentry PartedMagic {
loader /efi/boot/grubx64.efi
icon /efi/boot/icons/os_linux.png
}
————–
Now PartedMagic can be started from UEFI.
To minimize disk usage i have to delete original ISO and remove Grub4Dos config section for PartedMagic booting. But to start it from BIOS the only needed thing is to install syslinux from WinSetupFromUSB app.
Conclusions:
It is possible to make multiboot UEFI flash with WinSetupFromUSB. But now it is hard way. ISO files should be unpacked to USB flash and to maintain more than 2 linux distribs it is needed to write code to grub.conf by hands. Adding more unpacked linux distribs for BIOS pushing us to modify syslinux.cfg file. It is possible to use packed ISOs with Grub4Dos in BIOS mode and unpacked with rEFInd and UEFI grub2 in UEFI if you have BIG flash.
AND My own question to the itaushanov:
All these tests i made on separate (new) flash. My main (workhorse) flash still wont boot Win7 install in UEFI. I have copied all deleted files for UEFI booting of Win7 from new flash and get error:
0xc000000f the boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.
I believe it is because BCD is different for each flash. WinSetupFromUsb app can alter bcd on USB but how? All internet posts about fixing 0xc000000f is to boot win7 and repair bcd on HDD. But how to repair bcd on USB?
It’s actually right, because it’s about what the program supports 🙂
A lot more can be done manually, as you did, but quite hard to automate and add multiple distros, unless start using grub2 for example, and maintain a list of each linux distro with its boot requirements and put it in its own directory with all the complications and the constant updates needed. And it’s not only grub entries which need adding, there will be lots of overlapping files and folders to be solved.
Program doesn’t do anything special to BCD, it actually copies the original BCD with only the boot.wim path modified to reflect its new location, have you done that?
After writing initial post i have read FAQ#15 ;( and begin digging with BootIce. And find it. Old flash was build with WinSetupFromUsb 1.8 and new with 1.9. (I have copied UEFI bsd file from new flash to old). In 1.9 boot.wim file sits in sources subfolder while in 1.8 it lives near iso file. Corrected path and… it is working now!
I understand, that you already done big work to automate Grub4Dos config file creation. And automate unpacking linux ISOs and builing grub files for both UEFI and BIOS needs much more time. So this post was written for those who want to DIY. But if you find a way to do something in your app (may be adding rEFInd as the begining) it will be perfect.
Anyway your app is great. Many thanks.
Glad to help
hi i am facing a problem installing windows 7 on one of my laptop , it says waiting usb disks to iniialize please wait.
and the after 10 or 15 sec says please reinsert the usb disk and it happnes only on one laptop.
Usually because of USB 3.0 ports which stock Windows 7 doesn’t have drivers for. Either use USB 2.0 port if any, or change in BIOS USB ports mode to 2.0 if there is such option, or add the appropriate drivers to the source and redo the USB stick.
Can also try the advanced option “Add boot-critical drivers, loaded before start of Setup”, details in the FAQ page, #7.
Bad news that from release of 3xx chipsets with USB 3.1 controller (ex. z390) Intel have stopped publishing USB3 drivers for Win7. There is some enthusiast built drivers (ex. on WinRaid), but they are selfsigned (not WHQL) so installation WinPE environment can reject them. Otherwise “Add boot-critical drivers, loaded before start of Setup” is a solution.
With every day they are killing Win 7 in favor of 10;(
Thanks for the heads-up
New thinks about UEFI multibutting.
2 weeks have passed and i have discovered many new things in grub 2.
First of all – memdisk is not working in UEFI;(
Second grub2 have command `loopback` that can do some magic;)
There are many articles of using loopback to boot linux from iso. There is no need for unpacking iso. loopback makes “virtual” device from which grub can do anything it can. BUT when linux kernel boot up this “virtual” device desappears. Many linux distros have options to indicate that linux have been booted from iso to mount that iso in early stage and continue booting from that mounted iso. BAD news different distros have different names for that options… but project SuperGrubDisk have collected some of this names.
More interesting. Many UEFI-bootable iso already use grub2. And grub2 have command `configfile` to use config file from other grub (ex. from iso) to draw menu for booting this iso. BAD news grub.conf in iso haven’t know anything that it is booting from iso and didn’t added extra command line args to indicate this to linux kernel. Patching grub.conf before issuing `configfile` command ig NoGo – all files in ReadOnly mode…. And i have created grub2 module append.mod … in the name of LiLo directive that appends command line parameters to linux kernel.
Sources is here https://pastebin.com/GUGCwiaZ
Have build it in grub 2.02 sources tree starting modifications in place of original hello module.
What it does:
it exports `linux` and `initrd` commands that overwrite original commands from grub-core. This is a simple copy-and-paste from grub-core (i386/loader.c) with small addition in commandline building code. Also it exports `append` command. Without arguments it prints argument which will be appended to the end of kernel command line on next `linux` command invocation. With any arguments it replaces any early saved (in internal append-buffer) arguments that will be appended to the end of kernel command line on next `linux` command invocation. At beginning append-buffer is empty so `linux` command behaves as original (no appending) is done. To clear append-buffer try `append ”` i.e. place in append-buffer empty string (HAVE NOT TESTED THIS!). To load module use `insmod append` (if you copied this module with name `append.mod` to grub x86_64-efi folder).
Simple grub 2 conf to boot PartedMagic from iso.
——–
insmod append
menuentry “PartedMagic” {
set old_root=$root
set isofile=’/iso/PMagic2016.iso’
loopback loop0 $isofile
set root=(loop0)
append iso_filename=$isofile iso-scan/filename=$isofile
configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
set root=$old_root
loopback -d loop0
}
————
In this example we append 2 args: iso_filename=$isofile AND iso-scan/filename=$isofile. First for PartedMagic and second for *buntu systems. We can make universal append line for many distros BUT kernel commandline space is limited (NEED TESTING). I have used grub 2.02~beta3-4ubuntu2 from PartedMagic to test this module.
Things for future.
1) I want to build (assembly) monolithic grub2 for UEFI with patched version of `linux` command to prevent unloading append module from iso configfile.
2) If itaushanov interested in adding this to WinSetupFromUSB – it will be perfect. I understand that WinSetupFromUSB is standing mainly for Windows. So booting Linuxes is not mandatory. It allready does good job for booting windows even in UEFI. So the extra goal (booting linux iso-s from UEFI) only need working grub2 assmbly and mechanism of editing grub.conf (for UEFI grub2) similar to mechanism for editing grub2dos config already implemented in WinSetupFromUSB.
Good Luck!
Thanks for that.
I have been researching deeply this years ago and couldn’t find it appropriate to use.
Complications come from the fact that the various Linux distros and their derivatives have different kernel parameters for mounting ISO at boot time, with some distros not having such option at all, plus you get inconsistent or broken altogether behaviour when such is present.
Maintaining a list of options for each distro and its version would be impossible for me to support.
PartedMagic iso_filename was added years ago on our request, to be able to multiboot it with grub4dos when the fake partition method was not available. Later on maintainer decided to stop support of that option.
I getting winload.efi error when tried to boot uefi windows 7
Can you try with secure boot disabled?
Does it boot in BIOS mode?
No USB Disks detected or not properly formatted
Here is log https://www.datafilehost.com/d/bc8e4f30
Tried tools RMPrepUSB, FBInst or BootIce, still can’t see anything
Windows doesn’t see it as USB disk, so not in the list. Use the advanced option “Display disk drives on all interfaces”.