Booting From USB

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MugenFox
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Booting From USB

Post by MugenFox »

Could you guys tell me how to boot from my U3 Cruze Micro USB? I want to install Windows 7 but I do not have a DVD drive. And can someone tell me how many gigs Win7 takes? Thanks in advance.

zamadatix
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Post by zamadatix »

i imagine it would be pretty darn hard to get windows 7 to boot from a usb, especially since it take modding to get xp to do it and 7 isn't released . though someone may know how to get it to think its a cd but i could never figure out how to do this.

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Post by Rob Jansen »

mugenfox wrote:Could you guys tell me how to boot from my U3 Cruze Micro USB? I want to install Windows 7 but I do not have a DVD drive. And can someone tell me how many gigs Win7 takes? Thanks in advance.
Windows 7 is about the same size as Windows Vista, about 5GB or more, it depends on the version.

And booting from it, would be horrible slow.


And Why don't you but an DVD Drive, it doesn't have to be a writer, you can pick an player up for about 20€ (15~25$, dont know exactly in $) and a write for the double.

zamadatix
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Post by zamadatix »

actually a lot is just loaded into ram that would slow it down but yeah file access would be slow, but isnt that why everyone loves ramdrives

MugenFox
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Post by MugenFox »

Is it possible to load the install from my USB from a Live CD of XP?

QuiescentWonder
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Post by QuiescentWonder »

MugenFox wrote:Is it possible to load the install from my USB from a Live CD of XP?
And people wonder why it's so hard for computers to interpret humans...

hpprinter100

Post by hpprinter100 »

if your pc is on a network you could boot your pc from a shared dvd drive and then installl windows 7 that way.

happy dude
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Post by happy dude »

iirc, he's got some laptop which he refuses to buy a DVD drive for (no money?) and he has no other computers with a DVD drive - thus he currently runs a pirated stripped down vista

MugenFox
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Post by MugenFox »

IT IS NOT pirated. It is a real, legit, Dell OEM key! I stripped down the DVD at a friend's house with vLite. Forget my request, I bid on a DVD drive and if I don't win it, I am bringing my laptop and everything to my friend. Could you guys tell me what I should do (network drive) to use my friend's DVD drive? Is it possible for the connection to be a wireless network (me connecting to him)?[/u][/i]

QuiescentWonder
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Post by QuiescentWonder »

If the machine will PXE boot there are a few options for remotely installing Windows. If you run Windows Server you can use RIS, if not you can use Ultimate Deployment Appliance, which is free. There is also some other way to do it from Linux posted in another thread around here somewhere. I've used UDA before and it's a bit time consuming to set everything up when you haven't used it before but it works.

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Post by MugenFox »

Could you tell me hoe to setup UDA? Do I have to be connected to the internet or could the computers be just connected by a cable?

QQ321

Post by QQ321 »

u can install from hdd

same vista tip search by google

marsiboy123

Post by marsiboy123 »

i tryed a lot... put my external drive out of the box and into my pc, then installing windows vista and put it out and in my external case. i thought this can work, but nothing, bluescreens and so on

zamadatix
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Post by zamadatix »

marsiboy123 wrote:i tryed a lot... put my external drive out of the box and into my pc, then installing windows vista and put it out and in my external case. i thought this can work, but nothing, bluescreens and so on
are you saying you installed vista to your external? if so windows temporarily stops power and few other things to a usb while loading which is bad if its the main drive...

marsiboy123

Re: Booting From USB

Post by marsiboy123 »

yes i tried to get my vista work on usb external drive. but it is not possible

zamadatix
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Re: Booting From USB

Post by zamadatix »

marsiboy123 wrote:yes i tried to get my vista work on usb external drive. but it is not possible
you could do this
I hope this method is easy to do and will help anyone looking for
the vista usb solution. This avoids any ghosting or copying over
of OS install to diff drives. Avoids cross mounting registry hives.

Drawback: Needs another drive plugged in sata or ide channel or BSOD after install procedure (used or unused)
Meaning this only boots off usb vista, if there is another hard drive present in the system. Has
something to do with vista verification of disk drives. The ide or sata drive doesnt need to boot, it just
needs to be present. (seen this with some hardware, others boot fine without any other attached drives)
If usb boot is slow its not the install but the hardware bios support on the system.

I read around and compiled my own way of doing so. Credit to those listed
in the urls. (only after reading their materials I was able to understand all this)

http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 (thx emanuel)

http://www.nedprod.com/Niall_stuff/BootWinUSB/ (thx nialls)

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php? ... 81&st=1720 (thx dietmar)


Vista wont start installation on a USB interface no matter what. It is embedded in its OS which
I wasnt able to track down.
So I decided to use VMWARE 6 (may work with older vmware not sure).
You can download vmware and an eval license for 30 days can be emailed to you.
You can also try the free server version of vmware assuming it will work the same.
download vmware install it. (vmware is easy to use)

Create a new vmware for windows, pick custom pick lsi logic as scsi card (vista has support for this card)
use cdrom or iso as you wish for the vista install CD.
have your usb drive u want to install on, plugged in. Vmware will see this device as physical drive 1 (0 being your OS)
use physical disk(advanced) of your usb drive. Make sure you pick the
correct physical drive (drive 1 usually) or else you might wipe the current OS drive.
Use entire disk.
Click advanced on disk in virtual machine settings. Click on independent
and persistent changes for the disk.

Now, please remove all assigned letters in disk management for the USB drive
(If you dont u can corrupt an install that way).
Also make sure you format the drive during vista install inside vmware. If it is already formatted
you still need to format during vista install (or else u might get corrupt boot as crcdisk error)
Vmware will show that drive as scsi disk under lsi logic controller, this is fine as vista will install on a scsi disk.

Boot and go through the vista install procedure in vmware.
Let vista boot to the desktop the first time in the vmware
inside vmware vista do start-> run regedit (in the search box unlike XP)
goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\
Now edit tags
start = 0
Group = boot bus extender

on all these servies
usbccgp
usbehci
usbhub
usbstor
usbuhci

If there are no "group" string values add them in for those services


exit regedit
goto \windows\system32\DriverStore\FileRepository\usbstor.inf_bb2778a0
copy usbstor.sys into \windows\system32\drivers (ugh not sure why MS doesnt have it in here)
goto \windows\inf
take control and inherit perms for administrator of the inf folder, then
edit usbstor.inf,usbport.inf,usb.inf to have inside section
[*.AddService]
StartType = 0
LoadOrderGroup = boot bus extender


(This is because when you boot into regular desktop out of vmware it will find new usb interface
and mess up the startup type.)

shutdown vista

close vmware

Now reboot your machine and select USB boot drive from bios boot. Machine should now boot
to vista desktop.

* Be careful about it finding new usb devices and to add drivers. Make sure the
start type and groups dont change on the usb services (verify in regedit).
It will find your current hardware's usb device and install drivers for it.
problem is it can overwrite the original usb*.inf file and add new params into it.
double check this or when you reboot again boot will fail.
If you do windows update, fix the registry or it will fail. Update adds new files like the original.
After the drivers get installed for the first time it is safe to assume you wont
have to deal with it being reinstalled unless you goto another machine.
Of course you can always go back to the vmware instance and fix it there.


Hope its simple and straight forward. You can probably install xp and 200(0,3) this way too. (may need
lsi logic drivers to find boot disk though, vista,win2k3 has it natively)
EDIT: xp and windows 200(0,3) exhibit the same behavior of BSOD during boot. Even after
copying usbstor.sys and other files from driver cache cabs. So xp and win2k3 dont work currently.
Still maybe salvageable with other tweaks out there.

The is another way to get WAIK tools for vista and regedit the above changes directly in the boot(1,2).wim
and install(1,2,3,4,5,6).wim but I will leave that out to the daring. Vista installer still wont
do direct usb install though even with those usb service changes in the image.

If your drive doesnt show up under vmware for use then its targetting as removeable device.
you can install the xpfildrvr driver (the hitachi driver) to remedy that. (mostly for usb flash drives)
Careful about USB stick since it needs additional drivers to stop those write cycles in windows.
But atleast the install should be straight forward. No need for extra copying or dealing with
non working boot sectors as the install is directly on the destination.



Lazy mans quick install...
Here is a working INF file which you can copy (by assigning deassigning drive letters to your usb drive)
put it in c:\ of your windows install, inside vmware right click install the inf file. It wont change the usb
inf files for you but it will add the reg and copy usbstor.sys for you. For those who dont want to regedit and such...




[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
SetupClass=BASE

[DefaultInstall]
AddReg = usbservices.Addreg
CopyFiles = usbstordr

[SourceDisksNames]
1 = yourcdrive,,,\windows\system32\DriverStore\FileRepository\usbstor.inf_bb2778a0

[SourceDisksFiles]
usbstor.sys = 1,,


[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir = 12 ; DIRID_DRIVERS

[usbstordr]
usbstor.sys

[usbservices.Addreg]

HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbccgp","DisplayName",0x00000000,"USB parent Driver"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbccgp","ErrorControl",0x00010001,1
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbccgp","Group",0x00000000,"boot bus extender"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbccgp","ImagePath",0x00020000,"system32\DRIVERS\usbccgp.sys"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbccgp","Start",0x00010001,0
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbccgp","Type",0x00010001,1


HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbstor","DisplayName",0x00000000,"USB Mass Storage Driver"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbstor","ErrorControl",0x00010001,1
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbstor","Group",0x00000000,"boot bus extender"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbstor","ImagePath",0x00020000,"system32\DRIVERS\usbstor.sys"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbstor","Start",0x00010001,0
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbstor","Type",0x00010001,1

HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbehci","DisplayName",0x00000000,"USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller Miniport Driver"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbehci","ErrorControl",0x00010001,1
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbehci","Group",0x00000000,"boot bus extender"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbehci","ImagePath",0x00020000,"system32\DRIVERS\usbehci.sys"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbehci","Start",0x00010001,0
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbehci","Type",0x00010001,1

HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbhub","DisplayName",0x00000000,"USB2 Enabled Hub"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbhub","ErrorControl",0x00010001,1
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbhub","Group",0x00000000,"boot bus extender"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbhub","ImagePath",0x00020000,"system32\DRIVERS\usbhub.sys"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbhub","Start",0x00010001,0
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbhub","Type",0x00010001,1

HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbuhci","DisplayName",0x00000000,"Microsoft USB Universal Host Controller Miniport Driver"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbuhci","ErrorControl",0x00010001,1
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbuhci","Group",0x00000000,"boot bus extender"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbuhci","ImagePath",0x00020000,"system32\DRIVERS\usbuhci.sys"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbuhci","Start",0x00010001,0
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbuhci","Type",0x00010001,1

HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbohci","DisplayName",0x00000000,"Microsoft USB Open Host Controller Miniport Driver"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbohci","ErrorControl",0x00010001,1
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbohci","Group",0x00000000,"boot bus extender"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbohci","ImagePath",0x00020000,"system32\DRIVERS\usbohci.sys"
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbohci","Start",0x00010001,0
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\usbohci","Type",0x00010001,1
from http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Coffeeh ... -USB-boot/

Tootles
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Re:

Post by Tootles »

QQ321 wrote:u can install from hdd

same vista tip search by google
My thoughts exactly, just extract the .ISO file's contents to c:\win7setup\ and run setup from there.
Long days, and pleasant nights.

Daniel
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Re: Booting From USB

Post by Daniel »

Copy the complete contents of the Windows 7 ISO to your USB drive and boot your machine from it.
The Windows 7 setup should appear...

atomicgamer
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Re: Booting From USB

Post by atomicgamer »

I always seem to keep a USB lying around for things such as this, normally its an Ubuntu OS or a Windows XP PE. These things are very useful and i happen to use a 4gb Sandisk Micro Cruzer for such events and I've never had any boot problems yet.

rws7
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Re: Booting From USB

Post by rws7 »

I have Asus EEE 900 and I put xp CD on USB Flash and it was successful. I don't think it would work with Vista and 7

08973465

Re: Booting From USB

Post by 08973465 »

the system can be run from a usb drive and it will be ok speed if it is run from a 2.0 usb drive you also need to install it to a usb so yes it is possible

ryan

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