Hi, I was helped to set up BartPE to boot fully in RAM from the system volume using GRUB4DOS in this post :
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...st&p=165074

- it has worked beautifully using XP Pro sp3 on a variety of WinTel equipment - desktops & lappies, and I'm very grateful for the help.

Now I run into an error when trying to use the same approach with XP Pro sp3 installed to partition 4 on an Intel iMac.

I do have rEFIt installed, but I get the same error (which I'll describe below) whether I allow rEFIt to manage the boot, or if I hold the "Alt-Option" key and get Mac's boot mgr.

On the C:\ volume I have:




My boot.ini file :




My menu.lst file :



--------------------------------
When I click the Windows logo at boot, of course it brings up the classic :




If I click "Start GRUB4DOS ldr", a screen flashes by too quickly for me to read it, and then presents a screen with this text,
which remains until I click to make some choice at the grub> _ prompt :




** Will greatly appreciate some insight to fix this so I can boot sooo quickly into BartPE from RAM on the system volume once again,
even if it is running on an iMac !
.

You are using a COMPLETELY OUTDATED and also NOT RECOMMENDED version of grub4dos, reknown for a number of bugs later fixed .
Read the grub4dos WHERETO:
http://reboot.pro/14/
choose if you feel like using the current recommended and stable 0.4.4 version 16-10-2009 or LATEST 0.4.5 experimental.

You are also probebly using an outdated version of firadisk (but that is NOT current problem).
Get anyway LATEST (0.0.1.30):
http://reboot.pro/8804/

Basically that grub4dos CANNOT find it's menu.lst, there could be several reasons for that, but until you update to a current version there is no sense in attempting troubleshooting it.

Is the "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)" a Primary partition or a Logical Volume inside Extended?

OT, but not much , you may be interested to this:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=24100
Latest here:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...24100&st=96

jaclaz

Thanks once again jaclaz! I will go collect those current versions and report back after an hour or two,
but to answer the question - it's a Primary.

I use a "non-Boot Camp" set-up - I make partitions using Disk Utility from the Snow Leopard Install DVD,
& basically just use the Boot Camp.exe to install the drivers.

technical partition 1 = EFI protective partition......disk0s1
technical partition 2 = "Snow Leopard" = HFS+....diskos2
technical partition 3 = "WinDATA"= NTFS............disk0s3
technical partition 4= "XP"= NTFS......................disk0s4
technical partition 5= "macDATA" = HFS+..........disk0s5

see you in a little while

Once you get to the grub4dos grub> prompt, enter in it:

[TAB]
If you have only one hard disk it should complete to :

or anyway type the above and press [ENTER]

What does grub4dos give as feedback?


[TAB]
try autocompleting to:

[ENTER]

[ENTER]

[ENTER]
etc.
What is the result of each root command entered?

jaclaz

OK, will try, but 1st - do I replace my existing FIRADISK.GZ MD5 = 80f51bc7fabb1457a4b32e210918453a @ 28 KB

with firadisk.img MD5 = 3d6f1c5a5fd21dd22e6a3da54922aa8c @ 1.40 MB ?

FORGET for the moment about firadisk, it comes as a LATER problem.

Quite obviously firadisk.gz is a gzipped version of firadisk.ima or firadisk.img.
You get LATEST firadisk driver, you create a floppy image of it, and then you optionally gzip it.
Or you get any firadisk.gz you may have, UNgzip it to firadisk.ima or .img, mount it or however replace it's contents with LATEST version, then optionally re-gzip it.

Do you really think anyone can guess WHERE you got those images by their MD5 and tell you something about them - like which version, etc.?

jaclaz

I don't understand your intent with this question?
My intent in providing the MD5 is that at my meager level of skill, this is the best/only way I know of communicating which version I have.
If I can do better, kindly explain and I'll do my best to comply

I just replaced my original grldr with the newer one just downloaded,
then i connected a keyboard with a Pause/Break key, now I capture the initial screen with Pause:



edit - seems like this "newer" one is the same 0.4.4 as my original one ,
and also, as far as I can recall, I visited your same links to obtain the original one(s), but, we'll see ~

Can you spot the difference?

If you communicate a MD5, you communicate a file hash.
Since there are at least 30 (as in 0.0.1.30) versions of the driver, that may have been added to a floppy image by m people and later gzipped by n people (same or other) with different gzip compatible compressors, we have a nice 30^m^n range of possible MD5's.
A file hash ONLY makes sense if it comes "coupled" with a given version AND a download link, it is used to verify that a given download was successful and no corruption occurred.

A doubt: you do know what a floppy image is and what gzip is, right?

jaclaz

ah yes, the devil is in the details, and he's biting my de-tail right now!

Here are the results of the previous request :

note: this is a WD 1.5 TB SATA II drive jumpered to perform @ SATA I which is what this early 2006 Intel iMac mobo supports


grub> geometry (h
drive 0x80(LBA): C/H/S=1024/255/63, Sector Count/Size=16450560/512
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0xEE
Partition num: 1, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0xAF
Partition num: 2, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x07
Partition num: 3, active, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x07

btw - I appreciate all tutorings/learnings - I didn't understand those further distinctions about the MD5.

ok,

now my original setup seems to perform fine using the compressed file -
I guess I should perform my own experiment to see what will happen if I use the .img uncompressed file ?

edit 2 : so I decompressed the FIRADISK.GZ to firadisk.img, and then needed to update the listing in the menu.lst file
from map --mem /FiraDisk.gz (fd0) to map --mem /firadisk.img (fd0) and works fine -
this is just a little notation for other beginners like myself

------------------------------
grub> root (hd0,
Error 11: Unrecognized device string, or you omitted the required DEVICE part
which should lead the filename.
------------------------------
grub> root (hd0, 0)
Error 11: Unrecognized device string, or you omitted the required DEVICE part
which should lead the filename.
------------------------------
grub> root (hd0, 1)
Error 11: Unrecognized device string, or you omitted the required DEVICE part
which should lead the filename.
------------------------------
grub> root (hd0, 2)
Error 11: Unrecognized device string, or you omitted the required DEVICE part
which should lead the filename.
------------------------------
grub> root (hd0, 3)
Error 11: Unrecognized device string, or you omitted the required DEVICE part
which should lead the filename.
------------------------------

It seems like instead of issuing the command:


you issued the command:


And you didn't pay the needed attention.

If I tell you to type:

and press the [TAB] key, you should press the [TAB] key AND NOT the [ENTER] key.

If you are going to use grub4dos you should have read and understood it's guide:
http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm
ALL of it.
These might be of interest to you, and represent the very minimum you should be familiar with:
http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/basics.htm
http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/cli.htm

jaclaz

thanks very much for your patience ..... i'll get this correct yet!



I did:




I did:




I did:




I did:




I did:




I did:


I did:


I did:


************************

jaclaz, I hope I have correctly followed your instructions

Question - is there a code in these bulletin board forums to increase space in a sentence string? i was unsuccessful using <br> or <&nbsp>

Now I'll be off to study the suggested links, :thanks:

If I can add something to help you along the way (to reach your goal), if someone posts "coded" instructions such as....


....you're better off 'copying/pasting' the coded material into wherever you're putting it. 99.9% of the time, it's very accurate and it's typed in 'code' for you so there's less likely a mistake is made (like trying to distinguish whether there IS a space or NOT). Sure, they get it wrong once in a blue moon, but they always correct their mistakes so no worries, eh?

Hope this helps....

SBernheart

I have it on great authority that when working with coded material "NO you cannot copy and paste it" is almost ALWAYS the rule.

Personally speaking, I will still "copy/paste in Notepad, print it out (if needed) and then CAREFULLY type the code at prompts manually".
Now I'll use Notepad to better *see* if the spaces ARE there, or if the 'very hard to distinguish' spaces are not!

Sorry for any confusion, uluwatu.

SBernheart

@Sarah
It's not the case of "one-size-fits-all".
Your advice makes LOTS of sense for commands that are to be issued on a Windows (or Linux) console (i.e. any command line interface inside a windowed, multitasking environment) , but it make of course NO sense when you apply it to "pure" DOS or to a pre-boot environment like grub4dos prompt .

@uluwatu
The Errors 17 while trying to establish root on partitions (hd0,0) and (hd0,1) are "normal" and expected since those partitions have a filesystem that is NOT among the ones grub4dos recognizes and can access.


The same error on the other two partitions (hd0,2) and (hd0,3) is on the contrary "unusual", since, even if it says that the filesystem is "unknown", grub4dos can access NTFS filesystems (type 0x07) allright:


The problem is likely to be caused by some problem in the placement of these partitions.

Now, it is the right time to try and use the latest experimental 0.4.5 version by chenall.
Simply get it:
http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-chenall/downloads/list
and repeat the previous tests and report.

jaclaz

[feb.21.mon] Thanking you again for your time & assistance, will be able to get to it later today & report back