!NEW BartPE To USB Flash Stick Utility, Utility Making A USBDisk Bootable Options

[jaclaz]

Now cos i dont have w2000, changing it to that platform may be difficult. Because Microsoft is always giving conflicting advice on what is compatible with wot. So the only way to test is to try it on 2000.

If i manage to update it, i hope there will be some willing 2k testers

You can count on me for that.

@window2000 users

I managed to change on of the codes to one that according to MS  is usable on windows 2000. Id appreciate some feedback as to whether this has solved the problem. Thanks

It still does not work, giving me an error when starting.
(Win2K PRO italian)
If it helps, I can send you a dump of Regmn/Filemon or just tell me what kind of info you could need.

Looks like he used the HP utility. That enables FAT16X. I heard a lot of bioss dont like it. But for compatabilities sake i added an LBA option that will make the format just like the HP utility one.

Yep, I can confirm that many BIOS' like the CHS formatting, NOT the LBA one, i.e:
06 DOS 3.31+ 16-bit FAT (over 32M)
as compared to :
0e WIN95 DOS 16-bit FAT LBA-mapped

Also, you might be interested in the "special" MBR that comes with MAKEBOOTFAT (mbrfat.bin):
http://freshmeat.net/projects/makebootfat/
it is compatible with all three "standards" in BIOS:
1) Superfloppy
2) ZIP disk
3) HDD
(it could be an additional option to your tool)

Following is an exert from the small guide I am jolting down for the use of makebootfat:

I spent some time experimenting with it finding it to be a very good program, that NEVER failed (in my limited testing) in making an USB pendrive bootable with FAT16, so that I do recommend it.

The command line sintax used is a bit complex, expecially to Windows users, so here is an explained example:
(please note that though it is not at all clear in the original info, supplying a sub-directory name is compulsory, so even if you just want to copy system files to the key, you need to input an existing directory name, it does not matter if directory is empty):

E:\USBKEY\mkbootfat>makebootfat -h
makebootfat v1.4 by Andrea Mazzoleni
Usage: makebootfat [options]dir

Options:
-o Select the output device
-b Select the boot sector image
-m Select the mbr sector image
-c Copy a file in the root directory
-x Exclude files
-X Enforce syslinux 2.xx limitations
-Y Enforce syslinux 3.xx limitations
-Z Enforce ZIP-Drive compatibility if possible
-F Change the MBR to imitate a FAT boot sector
-L Volume label
-O Volume oem
-S Volume serial
-E Drive BIOS number
-v Verbose
-h Help
-V Version

Now let's try to make it, the following must be on the same line, here is split just for the sake of commenting it:
makebootfat <-this is the command
-o usb <-this is the output
-b win41.bin <-this is the bootsector to be written
-m mbrfat.bin <-this is the MBR to be written (included in the package)
-c COMMAND.COM <-this is a file to be copied to the ROOT of the USB stick
-c MSDOS.SYS <-this is a file to be copied to the ROOT of the USB stick
-c IO.SYS <-this is a file to be copied to the ROOT of the USB stick
-v <-this prints verbosely report
C:\dummy < this is a NEEDED (empty) directory (or you could use a "good" one)

makebootfat -o usb -b win41.bin -m mbrfat.bin -c COMMAND.COM -c MSDOS.SYS -c IO.SYS -v C:\dummy
device_start 0 [sectors]
device_size 256000 [sectors], 125 [MB]
device_geometry 15/255/63 [cylinders/heads/sectors]
bios_drive HDD
fat_start 63 [sectors]
fat_size 255937 [sectors]
fat_bit 16
fat_sectorpercluster 4


Notes:

mbrfat.bin is included in the package, it is a kind of "Universal" MBR, it can be used, according to the MAKEBOOTFAT docs it is possible with it even to make a format compatible with all the three standards (NOT YET FULLY TESTED):
"The BIOS USB boot support is generally differentiated in three categories: USB-HDD, USB-FDD and USB-ZIP.
The USB-HDD (Hard Disk Drive) standard is the preferred choice and it requires the presence of a partition table in the first sector of the disk. You can create this type of disk using the -m option.
The USB-FDD (Floppy Disk Drive) standard requires the presence of a filesystem starting from the first sector of the disk without a partition table. You can create this type of disk without using the -m option.
The USB-ZIP (ZIP Drive) standard requires the presence of a device with a very specific geometry. Specifically, it requires a geometry with 32 sectors and 64 heads. It also requires the presence of a partition table with only a bootable partition in the fourth entry. You can create this type of disk using the -m and -Z option.
Generally these standards are incompatible, but using the -m, -F and -Z options you can create a disk compatible with all of them.
To use the -F option, the MBR image specified must follow the constrains:
It must start with a standard FAT 3 bytes jump instruction.
It must have the bytes from address 3 to 89 (included) unused.
And example of such image is in the `mbrfat.bin' file."

win41.bin is a Windows 98 FAT16 bootsector I made with bootpart:
http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
(by Gilles Vollant, the same author of Winimage)

It can be also extracted by any hex editor or debug.exe from a FAT 16 disk formatted from within Win98, makebootfat will replace the partition info with the correct ones.

To get it from bootpart the syntax is following:
bootpart <OS> <filename>

Where OS can be (case insensitive):
DOS622
MSDOS            MS-DOS 6.22    I.D. MSDOS5.0
WIN95              Windows 95      I.D. MSWIN4.0
WIN95OSR2
WIN95SR2
WIN95OEMSR2  Windows 95 OEMSR2 I.D. MSWIN4.1
WIN98
WINME              Windows 98 or Windows ME  I.D. MSWIN4.1
NT
WINNT
WIN200
WIN2K
WINXP              Windows NT/2K/XP and 2003
VISTA
WINVISTA          Windows VISTA  (BOOTMGR instead of NTLDR)

OPENDOS          OpenDos    I.D. NWDOS7.0

In my case I entered:
bootpart win98 c:\bootfiles\win41.bin

the "-b" switch it is a "generic" switch:
"-b, --boot FILE 
-1, --boot-fat12 FILE
-2, --boot-fat16 FILE
-3, --boot-fat32 FILE
Specify the FAT boot sector images to use. The -b option uses the same sector for all the FAT types. The other options can be used to specify a different sector for different FAT types. The FAT types for which a boot sector is not specified are not used. This option is always required."

if you try it with USB Pendrives bigger than 32 M and up to 256 Mb (I think) it will default to FAT16 (same as switch "-2") with 512 Mb it will switch to FAT32(same as switch "-3"), what I got running:
makebootfat -o usb -b win41.bin -m mbrfat.bin -c COMMAND.COM -c MSDOS.SYS -c IO.SYS -v C:\dummy
on a 512 Mb stick was:
device_start 0 [sectors]
device_size 1024000 [sectors], 500 [MB]
device_geometry 63/255/63 [cylinders/heads/sectors]
bios_drive HDD
Invalid code start 3E in the boot sector (for fat32 it must be at least 5A).
re- running as:
makebootfat -o usb -2 win41.bin -m mbrfat.bin -c COMMAND.COM -c MSDOS.SYS -c IO.SYS -v C:\dummy
I got:
device_start 0 [sectors]
device_size 1024000 [sectors], 500 [MB]
device_geometry 63/255/63 [cylinders/heads/sectors]
bios_drive HDD
fat_start 63 [sectors]
fat_size 1023937 [sectors]
fat_bit 16
fat_sectorpercluster 16

which is allright, as the win41.bin was a FAT16 bootsector, and the key resulted formatted as FAT16, re-running it as follows, with win4132.bin ( a FAT32 bootsector):
makebootfat -o usb -b win4132.bin -m mbrfat.bin -c COMMAND.COM -c MSDOS.SYS -c IO.SYS -v C:\dummy
I got, exactly as if I used the "-3" switch a FAT32 formatted USB keydrive:
device_start 0 [sectors]
device_size 1024000 [sectors], 500 [MB]
device_geometry 63/255/63 [cylinders/heads/sectors]
bios_drive HDD
fat_start 63 [sectors]
fat_size 1023937 [sectors]
fat_bit 32
fat_sectorpercluster 8

Please note that this option (FAT32 on a 512 Mb USB key) did NOT make a bootable volume. I suspect that there is something not right in the FAT32 identifier (hex 0b) and structure. By running (in Qemu) sys.com, it changed (between other things) the identifier to LBA mappped (hex 0c) and the volume booted.

On the other hand, running:
makebootfat -o usb -3 win4132.bin -m mbrfat.bin -c COMMAND.COM -c MSDOS.SYS -c IO.SYS -v C:\dummy
on a 128 Kb stick, I got an error:
device_start 0 [sectors]
device_size 256000 [sectors], 125 [MB]
device_geometry 15/255/63 [cylinders/heads/sectors]
bios_drive HDD
Unsupported disk size.

Be warned that if you try to install a FAT32 bootsector with the "-b" switch:
makebootfat -o usb -b win4132.bin -m mbrfat.bin -c COMMAND.COM -c MSDOS.SYS -c IO.SYS -v C:\dummy
on a 128 Kb stick, you will have:
device_start 0 [sectors]
device_size 256000 [sectors], 125 [MB]
device_geometry 15/255/63 [cylinders/heads/sectors]
bios_drive HDD
fat_start 63 [sectors]
fat_size 255937 [sectors]
fat_bit 16
fat_sectorpercluster 4

i.e. a FAT16 volume with a FAT32 bootrecord (NOT very useful!)

http://www.mdgx.com/secrets.htm#FDISK
FDISK /FPRMT bypasses the FDISK startup screen, but enables interactive FAT16/FAT32 support. This can be used to force FDISK to create FAT32 partitions smaller than 512 MB, normally not possible by default.

Sorry for the lenghty post, but maybe as the source code is freely available, you could get some ideas on the functions you need (it works perfectly under win2k):
http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/boot-download.html

jaclaz

[CodeBeetle]

@jaclaz
Hi, wow that looks very interesting i'll take a closer look at it. Thanks a lot.

[CodeBeetle]

UPDATED V2

Hi all again. Thanks for all your input. Iv updated serveral things on PeToUSB.

@win2000 users
Firstly i found a Win2000 (sp3) PC and go it to run on that. So theroretically it is Win2000 compatible. Let me know...

FormatEx is now used to format the drive. This is what the HP utility uses to format a drive. So now format.com is not spawned and cannot hang.

Added option to just make the drive bootable, no need to format it. (it must be already FAT16 tho)

Added quick format option.

Added format force dismount option.

Let me know how u all get on with Thanks!

http://codebeetle.com/page.php?al=petousb

[KlausS98]

On V2 (and GREAT TOOL - thx much)

Seems I´m only getting a message straight after boot

TXTSETUP.SIF missing ...... aborting setup

The file is there in the minint directory, am I missing something ?

Boot from the stick and calling the right loader seems to work -
so at least using PEToUSB I´m getting somewhere ;-)

Thx

Klaus

[CodeBeetle]

On V2  (and GREAT TOOL - thx much)

Seems I´m only getting a message straight after boot

TXTSETUP.SIF missing ...... aborting setup

The file is there in the minint directory, am I missing something ?

Boot from the stick and calling the right loader seems to work -
so at least using PEToUSB I´m getting somewhere ;-)

Thx

Klaus

i used to get that message when i tried the ramdisk approach. I never figured out wot was causing it, thats why i use the HDD minint way. maybe someone else has some suggestions??

[skippie]

i used to get that message when i tried the ramdisk approach. I never figured out wot was causing it, thats why i use the HDD minint way. maybe someone else has some suggestions??

I believe that is from the file not being uppercased from the filecase.ini file. Running the buildscripts from Sherpya should take care of that issue.

[CodeBeetle]

I believe that is from the file not being uppercased from the filecase.ini file. Running the buildscripts from Sherpya should take care of that issue.

oo thanks. why is all the simple things mess us up

[jaclaz]

Still no joy on my win2k machine
Filemon gives this only failure:

55 11.54.08 PeToUSB.exe FASTIO_DEVICE_CONTROL G: DASD FAILURE IOCTL: 0x2D1080

(once for each drive)
From Regmon report these are the only items worth of note:

PeToUSB.exe:2672 OpenKey HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\MUILanguages NOTFOUND 
PeToUSB.exe:2672 QueryValue HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\MultiUILanguageId NOTFOUND 
PeToUSB.exe:2672 CloseKey HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop SUCCESS 
PeToUSB.exe:2672 CloseKey HKCU SUCCESS 
PeToUSB.exe:2672 OpenKey HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug SUCCESS Access: 0x80000000 
PeToUSB.exe:2672 QueryValue HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug\Debugger BUFOVRFLOW 
PeToUSB.exe:2672 QueryValue HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug\Debugger SUCCESS "drwtsn32 -p %ld -e %ld -g"

Drwatson32 log reports(partial log):

Microsoft ® Windows 2000 ™ versione 5.00 DrWtsn32
Copyright © 1985-1999 Microsoft Corp. Tutti i diritti riservati.



Exception dell'applicazione:
        App:  (pid=2672)
        Ora: 29/09/2005 @ 12:06:28.521
        Numero exception: c0000005 (access violation)

*----> System Information <----*
        Nome computer:
        Nome utente:
        Numero processori: 1
        Tipo processore: x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 9
        Versione di Windows 2000: 5.0
        Build corrente: 2195
        Service Pack: 3
        Tipo corrente: Uniprocessor Free
        Organizzazione registrata:
        Proprietario autorizzato:

*----> Elenco Task <----*
....
2672 PeToUSB.exe
.....

(00400000 - 00412000)
(78460000 - 784E2000)
(796B0000 - 7976F000)
(77E10000 - 77E75000)
(77F40000 - 77F7E000)
(77590000 - 777DC000)
(79260000 - 792C2000)
(77120000 - 77191000)
(77C70000 - 77CBA000)
(77B50000 - 77BD9000)
(77820000 - 77827000)
(75980000 - 75986000)
(75E30000 - 75E4A000)
(6E380000 - 6E386000)

Scarico dello stato per l'id del thread 0xa5c

eax=ffffff5b ebx=ffffffff ecx=000000a4 edx=00000001 esi=0012f428 edi=00004d45
eip=00401c77 esp=0012f400 ebp=0012f6c0 iopl=0        nv up ei pl nz na pe nc
cs=001b  ss=0023  ds=0023  es=0023  fs=0038  gs=0000            efl=00000202


funzione: <nosymbols>
        00401c52 53              push    ebx
        00401c53 ff15f0b04000    call    dword ptr [0040b0f0]  ds:0040b0f0=796b3d43
        00401c59 8a442424        mov    al,[esp+0x24]                ss:00c392e7=??
        00401c5d fec0            inc    al
        00401c5f 3c5a            cmp    al,0x5a
        00401c61 88442424        mov    [esp+0x24],al                ss:00c392e7=??
        00401c65 0f8ed5feffff    jle    00401b40
        00401c6b 8b7d0c          mov    edi,[ebp+0xc]          ss:00c395a6=????????
        00401c6e b9a4000000      mov    ecx,0xa4
        00401c73 8d742428        lea    esi,[esp+0x28]        ss:00c392e7=????????
FAULT ->00401c77 f3a5            rep  movsd ds:0012f428=00000000 es:00004d45=????????
        00401c79 8b8c24bc020000  mov    ecx,[esp+0x2bc]        ss:0012f6bc=ffec0047
        00401c80 b801000000      mov    eax,0x1
        00401c85 e8b4350000      call    0040523e
        00401c8a 5f              pop    edi
        00401c8b 5e              pop    esi
        00401c8c 5b              pop    ebx
        00401c8d 8be5            mov    esp,ebp
        00401c8f 5d              pop    ebp
        00401c90 c3              ret
        00401c91 cc              int    3
        00401c92 cc              int    3

jaclaz

[KlausS98]

oo thanks. why is all the simple things mess us up

Huh ? How can I fix this then ?

TIA

Klaus

[FileCity]

Is there a way to boot BCDW.BIN from a MBR when booting from USB device ? I want to keep my boot menu/utilities and my BartPE/ERD Commander 2005 structure in multiboot... Information about this seems at point zero. Any help or clue ?

[CodeBeetle]

55 11.54.08 PeToUSB.exe FASTIO_DEVICE_CONTROL G: DASD FAILURE IOCTL: 0x2D1080

@KlausS98 thanks for the info.

that is control code IOCTL_STORAGE_GET_DEVICE_NUMBER
this is supposed to be compatible with windows 2000. so i cant work out why it failed.

it is an important code because i use this to find out which disk/partition a drive letter belongs to. without this i wouldnt be able to make it bootable.

if any other programmers know another way to get a disk/partition number from a given drive letter, or to make this work on ALL win2000 systems id be very grateful

[CodeBeetle]

Huh ? How can I fix this then ?

TIA

Klaus

@Klaus: i notice with mkisofs there is a switch to force uppercase that is set, in pe2usb.com. maybe removing this will solve it.

[KlausS98]

@Klaus: i notice with mkisofs there is a switch to force uppercase that is set, in pe2usb.com. maybe removing this will solve it.

@codebeetle

That would be great - if you could built me a beta I´ll try it out immediately

TIA

Klaus

[skippie]

Huh ? How can I fix this then ?

TIA

Klaus

Download Sherpya's Buildscripts and use them to build your ISO file.

Buildscripts

Skippie

[CodeBeetle]

@codebeetle

That would be great - if you could built me a beta I´ll try it out immediately

TIA

Klaus

ah pe2usb.com is not petousb.exe

pe2usb.com is a script that uses mkisofs.exe to make the iso image for ramdisk loading of bartpe.

if u are using HDD method then i dont know why its giving the cant find TXTSETUP.SIF message. but ur usb is obviously booting otherwise you wouldnt even get that message. maybe something needs changing in you pebuilder settings or something.

petousb.exe should copy files to the stick preserving case. so that maynot be issue.

[jaclaz]

that is control code IOCTL_STORAGE_GET_DEVICE_NUMBER
this is supposed to be compatible with windows 2000. so i cant work out why it failed.

Yes, everything I found says that it is compatible with win 2k.
It all looks like "Chinese" to me, but it could be either something corrupted on my machine (which I doubt as it seems to work perfectly), some conflict with hardware driver (it's a VIA EPIA) or some "missing" error handling control in your code.

Maybe these help:
http://groups.google.com/group/fido7.su.wi...6066fdafe1850ef
http://www.lvr.com/usbfaq.htm
http://blogs.msdn.com/adioltean/archive/2005/5/4.aspx

By the way, I tried using MBRwiz.exe, that do the same kind of disk access, and both result in a FAILURE with FASTIO_DEVICE_CONTROL, but the program works:

271 20.38.16 MBRWiz.exe FASTIO_DEVICE_CONTROL G: DASD FAILURE IOCTL: 0x560000
272 20.38.16 MBRWiz.exe IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL G: DASD SUCCESS IOCTL: 0x560000

I will try petousb.exe on some other machines to see if it's a problem on my particular machine and report results.

jaclaz

[CodeBeetle]

@jaclaz: yep sounds like hardware (motherboard) issue to me. unless its to with the service pack or pro/standard editions.

i have only tested it on win2000 PRO en (sp3) (with no ms extra updates) (intel motherboard)

[stuartr]

UPDATED V2

Hi all again.  Thanks for all your input. Iv updated serveral things on PeToUSB.

@win2000 users
Firstly i found a Win2000 (sp3) PC and go it to run on that. So theroretically it is Win2000 compatible. Let me know...

FormatEx is now used to format the drive. This is what the HP utility uses to format a drive. So now format.com is not spawned and cannot hang.

Added option to just make the drive bootable, no need to format it. (it must be already FAT16 tho)

Added quick format option.

Added format force dismount option.

Let me know how u all get on with Thanks!

http://codebeetle.com/page.php?al=petousb

First off, let me say: Nice piece of code!! Nothing else I've tried has yet been able to get me this close to booting my BartPE build from USB.

Unfortunately, mine is hanging during the XP logo screen. I'm rebuilding it now minus all NET/SCSI drivers and programs to see if it will boot then.

One note - you may want to modify your comment in the instructions regarding not selecting the "ISO/CD" checkbox. If you're using the wrapper tools, you'll need to include this step as that's what allows the filecasing, InfCachebuilding, and other optimizations to occur.

Stuart.

[CodeBeetle]

First off, let me say: Nice piece of code!! Nothing else I've tried has yet been able to get me this close to booting my BartPE build from USB.

Unfortunately, mine is hanging during the XP logo screen. I'm rebuilding it now minus all NET/SCSI drivers and programs to see if it will boot then.

One note - you may want to modify your comment in the instructions regarding not selecting the "ISO/CD" checkbox. If you're using the wrapper tools, you'll need to include this step as that's what allows the filecasing, InfCachebuilding, and other optimizations to occur.

Stuart.

Thanks m8.

When it hangs in the xp screen, do u get a blue screen? cos that maybe the usb bus being reset. I think that is an issue for some, which is why some ppl adopt the ramdisk approach. at the weekend im going to look at adding the ramdisk option to it.

Id like to know how to make a smaller iso tho, cos 160Mb is far too much ram to waste for me.

About the suggestion on changing my instructions. I'll take a look at this weekend as well.

I want to try to make petousb as compatable for as many systems/configurations as it can possibly be. without reinventing the wheel of course

[stuartr]

Thanks m8.

When it hangs in the xp screen, do u get a blue screen? cos that maybe the usb bus being reset. I think that is an issue for some, which is why some ppl adopt the ramdisk approach. at the weekend im going to look at adding the ramdisk option to it.

Id like to know how to make a smaller iso tho, cos 160Mb is far too much ram to waste for me.

About the suggestion on changing my instructions. I'll take a look at this weekend as well.

I want to try to make petousb as compatable for as many systems/configurations as it can possibly be. without reinventing the wheel of course

Yes, when I trim the image down I now get a STOP 7B. I believe the ramdisk option requires either a small BartPE image or a large amount of system memory?
Would be great to include this in your GUI - you've done so well already, don't want to stop now !

Boy, this USB booting isn't quite ready for prime time. Some systems won't boot via USB at all; some work only with USB HDD, ZIP or Floppy emulation; some reset the USB bus. What a non-standard mess!


Thanks!