hallo everybody!
first of all i must say a big thankyou to dietmar and everybody else who contributed the Windows XP on USB topic.

But the reason why i'm writing this, is because i can't understand dietmar's tutorials, and thus i cant use it!
Note that i really appreciate your efforts; but its just that the toots are really really messy (so many things are given for granted without the needed explaination) and i can't get through any of them! I really would like to make it!!! Argh!

Now i wanted to ask some questions, feel free to answer or not.

1. why is it not possible to upload this damn NTDETECT.COM modified file somewhere for us to download? legal issues? which ones, in that case?
2. isnt there someone who could manage to "slipstream" all these (6!!!) tutorials and make it become one single step-by-step easy tutorial? if yes, where can i find it? (eheh i guess there is nothing like this, but you never know...)
3. i've found this USBoot program - which also requires this NTDETECT.COM modified file to work, which i dont have - and i wanted to know if any of you tried it and if works...
4. in general, do you think that it is really hard to "automate" these tutorials in a script? is this exactly what USBoot does?
5. did any of you try this other tutorial at Ngine.de by a guy called emanuel? i tried it and it kinda worked, but in a really buggish way - and i couldnt find much support...

I know i must sound really lame and boring, but i think it is a good idea to ask all the above questions in the same post, in order to make a clear list of things that might also be helpful for some other starters out there interested in this project...

(ps i hope this is the right forum to post this... feel free to move my topic)

vielen dank!!! ciaaao!

The usual ones.


No, nobody has volunteered yet.

Yes, it works, though NOT on ALL hardware.


Yes, this is more or less what USBoot does, the problem is that since the "original" method is in a BETA stage, hence the tutorial #3, 4, 5 and 6, quite obviously a script based on BETA concepts is BETA-BETA.

Yes, it works, perfectly on SOME hardware, NOT perfectly on some other.


Well, no, you do not seem lame, maybe a bit boring , the fact is that BETA or experimental topics are unfortunately aimed to "expert" people or to people that is willing to become so.

FINAL releases are for people that are not enough "expert" and just want to click a couple of buttons.

Moreover "experts" tend not to be very effective when explaining technicl procedure as they assume that the audience have some "advanced" knowledge of the topic.

So, all in all, I would say that you are "impatient", asking NOW for something that at the moment it does not exist (yet).

Did you check the modified (and maybe better explained) methods by BSHOANGL?:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=16760&hl=
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=16696&hl=
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16472

On the other hand, if you are willing to spend some time on this, you could start by taking one of Dietmar's tutorials, possibly the latest one, and start trying, when you find something that you do not understand, post a request here, hopefully someone will reply with an answer, and in next version of the tutorial Dietmar could better explain that part, this way, little by little the instructions will be clearer.

jaclaz

thanks for your kind reply! i will now check the other tutorials you posted and will come back as soon as i will have problems! thanks!!!

ah sorry another question!

in general, i need to know what is the best procedure (among all these tutorials, as far as you know) to create a booting USB XP that will be able to boot from a number of different pc's. The reason why i quit emanuel's tutorial (mentioned above) is because the same usb install would reboot on machines different from the one on which i created the install.

Any ideas?
Thanks!!!

Dietmar's Tutorial 6 is the one that has the more "probability" of being "portable", but I guess that there is no real "universal" solution yet.

This lies more in the structure of XP than in our "workarounds", XP was born to be NOT portable, on the contrary it does "everything in its power" to attach itself to one machine only.

There is a corresponding problem in deploying images, as debated here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=75413
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=&...st&p=117258

I presume that it will take some time to have a wider portability, though Dietmar's is making some progresses, but as all people here, he has a "real" life and he cannot spend all his time on this.....

Also, you might want to consider that we already have almost universally "portable" systems, based on BartPE/Reatogo/UBCD4WIN so there is not a real "need" to focus on this kind of development, next milestone, as I see it, will be to have a Tutorial/Script that does work on all PCs, but that installs specifically for that PC. Once we have that, we can "expand" it to "cover" a wider range of PC's with the same install.

jaclaz

Hi jaclaz,

I do not believe that there isnt a solution to make XP work on any computer today.

But this is illegal, this XP is only allowed to be used on one compi at a time.

For example: If I want to install a fresh XP, I just copy the files and folders from another working XP,
build with Tutorial 6 to an IDE, SATA or just another USB device, doesnt matter. Then I use the windows recovery console (remember your Administartor password or change it with "net user administrator*" to empty in the commandline of the XP before) and type there: Bootcfg /rebuild , fixmbr, fixboot. Thats all!

Until now, I do not find a compi, where Bsod 0x7b or any other bad thing happens after that procedure .

Good luck
Dietmar

@Dietmar,

I have a couple of questions. So far, I have not been able to make an image that works on more than one compi. Always get BSOD if boot on a machine it was not made on.

You mentioned
Bootcfg /rebuild , fixmbr, fixboot in one of postings.

On my XP, I cannot Bootcfg does not support /rebuld parameter. Is there a special version?

Also, where do you get fixmbr and fixboot? Is it part of resource kit/3rd party utility? And how do you run them? Since you cannot boot from the USB, I assume you have to find some other way to run those programs?

I am really interested in having a generic solution. Any help appreciated.

First result in Google for "fixmbr":
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...r.mspx?mfr=true
and on that page there is a link to fixboot:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...ns_fixboot.mspx

They are in Recovery Console.

But cannot really understand where those two files can be used to resolve a portability problem on different machines.

The 0x000007 BSOD has nothing to do with MBR or bootsector, problems with these give different kind of errors (on Black screen, not Blue one )

jaclaz

Hi pierlo,


USBoot does not necessarily require the modified NTDETECT.COM as it takes care of some issues that cause the STOP 0x7B error.

Though it's right that the USBoot installer is controlled by its own script-language, it works quite in a different way than Diemar's tutorials. In fact early versions contained the whole logic and interface in the application's core.

After all I was possible to get things working in many cases where people got stuck with USBoot but I wouldn't neccessarily consider this experience as representative.

Tim

@jaclaz, I certainly agree with you on all counts. I was simply curious. The BSOD typically will have to do with the USB driver and the CriticalDevicesDatabase key (I think).




@Tim,

The last statement you made, do you mean you were finally able to use USBoot? I still have not been able to (even after all 3 phases). I have been able to follow Dietmar's instructions and got USB working on two different PCs but have not been able to make it transportable.

Hi thasan,


maybe I will be able to help you to get things working with USBoot.

Could you please provide me with some more detailed information on your case:

• What hardware are you using ?
• Which kind or error is reported (with the hexadecimal values in brackets) ?
• What messages are written to the screen during a boot with the "SOS" option in the boot-menu generated by USBoot (including the ones written in white on blue background) ?
• Please send a copy of USBoot.log (found in the USBoot directory - preferrably from the source drive) to admin@usboot.org so that I may have a look if all steps were successfully accomplished.

Tim

PS: I was finally able to use USBoot ...

hi Tim,

I had already formatted my USB harddrive. I will redo my install from my VMware image and try again and get you the info you asked.

Thanks again.

@Tim,

I tried it again and this time I used the NTDETECT.COM from Dietmar. I have tried it on two different comps (both Dells but different models) and I am making progress. Not sure what I was doing last few times. Will keep you posted.

thasan

Hi thasan,


nice to hear you had success this time.

It would be interesting to see if you really needed the special NTDETECT.COM (if all steps of USBoot had been accomplished / completed successfully).

Tim

@Tim,

I'll try putting the original NTDETECT.COM and see when I have a chance.

@thasan: That would be quite interesting. But it will only have a good chance to work if all default steps were successfully completed and all three phases of USBoot have been run.

Tim