How to Install BartPE to Another Partition, Here's a simple guide I put together for all Options

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I'm no expert but here's something I put together from my experience. I couldn't find anything complete on this forum; there is a lot of information here but it's in bits and pieces. I used much of jaclaz and Ed_P's posts to figure out how to install BartPE to a partition other than Windows XP. Thanks jaclaz and Ed_P.

You won't have to use any MBR writing program or HEX edit anything.

The partition must be a primary partition.

Requirements: Bart’s PE Builder 3.1.1.0a and grldr, which is a Grub4Dos file. Do a search to download Grub.

This is a general guide. Depending on your needs, you may change your setup.

1) Build BartPE

First, build your BartPE the way you want. It works with Sherya’s XPE plugin flawlessly.

I don’t think the size matters since we are not going to load the actual ISO. You actually don’t have to build the ISO since peinst does not use the ISO to copy the files to [Part].

Next, format your partition. I used Windows XP format to format it as NTFS. The size is roughly that of a CD – 700 mb. I’m not sure if FAT32 works. I’m also not sure if formatting using peinst.cmd or HP utility works either. (Note that although I formatted my BartPE partition as NTFS from Windows XP, it is actually seen as a FAT partition when I load BartPE. It's strange.)

Use the peinst plugin to install you BartPE to the partition you want – referred to as [Part]. Mine is E:\ so my [Part] is E:\.

Do not rewrite the boot.ini file. We are only using peinst.cmd to copy the files to [Part]. Peinst.cmd will, of course, change I386 to minnt. That is OK. Let it do what it wants to do.

We’re done with peinst now.


2) Configuring Grub

You should have downloaded grldr. Rename your existing ntldr as ntldrxp. We are going to use ntldrxp to load Windows XP. Rename grldr to ntldr and copy that to your system partition, usually C:\ for most people. Having done this, system will load Grub (the grldr renamed as ntldr) instead of XP's ntldr. The advantage of this is you don’t have to load ntldr, then use ntldr to load grldr, then choose to load BartPE. Renaming grldr to ntldr allows you to load grldr on startup, then you can choose what you want to load. It saves an extra step. Of course, you don’t have to do this. You may try the setup you want to use. Since we are not modifying any files, this will work flawlessly.

Now, grldr uses menu.lst to display the boot options. If you followed my steps, here is what you need in your menu.lst:

CODE

color black/cyan yellow/cyan
timeout 10
default 0

title Microsoft Windows XP SP2 Pro (Find and Load)
find --set-root /ntldrxp
chainloader /ntldrxp

title BartPE with Sherpya XPE 1.0.4 (Find and Load)
find --set-root /minint/setupldr.bin
chainloader /minint/setupldr.bin

title Boot Floppy on (fd0)
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)

The line chainloader (hd0,0)/ntldrxp loads Windows XP using the renamed ntldrxp.
We are done!

Next time you boot, you should get a Grub screen with options to boot Windows XP, BartPE, or a Floppy.

I’m not expert on this so if you have any questions, mess around and you might find the light at the end of the tunnel or post here and someone else may be able to answer.

Limitations: does not work with USB connected HDD's for me. I'm trying.

I want to be able to load CD's from this. I'm not sure if this can be done yet or not.

Good luck.