Howto Boot A Pebuilder Iso From Ram, Simple solution Options

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Reading the valuable info from 9685 and 10445 I tried myself a few things.

I was surprised to find that only two files from w2k3-SP1 are needed to create a CD that loads a bartpe iso in RAM and boots it from there. SETUPLDR.BIN and RAMDISK.SYS.

The iso does not have to be based on W2k3-SP1 sources (needs only ramdisk.sys from W2k3-SP1).

For all those who want to try, the steps are:

• 1. Download MS Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (RC). It is a SFX CAB archive. You may use WinRAR to open it. Extract the SETUPLDR.BIN and RAMDISK.SY_. Expand ramdisk.sy_ to get RAMDISK.SYS.
• 2. Build a normal pebuilder.iso with any source you like but
  replace the driver RAMDISK.SYS with the one from W2k3-SP1 (keep however the size sufficiently small since the whole iso will be loaded in RAM)
• 3. From PEBuilder output directory take bootsect.bin and i386\ntdetect.com
• 4. Create a WINNT.SIF text file containing the code
  
  CODE
  [SetupData]
  BootDevice = "ramdisk(0)"
  BootPath = "\i386\System32\"
  OsLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect /minint /rdexportascd /rdpath=pebuilder.iso"
• 5. Create a folder, say C:\rampe, UPPERCASE the 5 files above and use them to create within C:\rampe the following structure
  
  CODE
  BOOTSECT.BIN
  WINNT.SIF
  PEBUILDER.ISO
  I386\NTDETECT.COM
  I386\SETUPLDR.BIN
• 6. Create the new pebuilder_inram.iso with mkisofs. Use something like
  
  CODE
  mkisofs.exe -iso-level 4 -volid "BartPE" -A PEBUILDER/MKISOFS -sysid "Win32" -no-emul-boot -b BOOTSECT.BIN -hide BOOTSECT.BIN -o pebuilder_inram.iso "C:\rampe"

As one can easily see, it is very easy to include a RAM version in a multiboot CD.
Simply use the known method to add multiple OS (hex edit bootsect.bin, setupldr.bin and rename I386)

Regards

Edited: Added a missing , crucial step (shown above in RED)