Here you can get help, access FAQ and tutorials, get support, report a bug of make feature request about WinSetupFromUSB by leaving a comment.
Here you can get help, access FAQ and tutorials, get support, report a bug of make feature request about WinSetupFromUSB by leaving a comment.
When I switch to IDE mode, it shows red text that says “No matching PCI IDS in driverpack”.
In IDE mode there is no need to use the DPMS option, it’s only for SATA/AHCI/RAID drivers, the ones stock Windows does not include.
Hi,
I have been using WinSetupFromUSB to install a number of Linux distros on my laptop without problem. However, one particular distro does not seem to work: Vector Linux 7.0 (VL7.0-STD-GOLD-LIVE.iso)
The boot process starts promisingly enough, but then stops with the error “could not find VL7.0-STD-GOLD-LIVE data directory”.
Would you be able to take a look at this? I downloaded the ISO from http://vectorlinux.com/downloads
Thanks very much,
Alex
Using the second boot option- “mount hard drive partitions”, works fine here, testing VL7.0-STD-GOLD-LIVE.iso.
If that option is not selected, it seems init scripts do not mount all partitions, thus contents of the ISO file are not accessible.
No idea what went wrong with your comments, had to delete the other 3 in order the first to show up.
Thanks very much – yes second option works for me too. Strange that the first option doesn’t. Anyway, managed to install VL to a partition on my hard drive, and that’s all I wanted to do 😎
Yes, very weird about my replies not showing up – thanks for sorting that too.
One other questions if I may: I also use the tool to install Win2000 and WinXP. These are vanilla install CDs, so I have to set the SATA BIOS option to IDE emulation. I know that there is a way to tailor the Windows install CDs to incorporate the appropriate SATA drivers (slipstreaming) but I’ve never tried it as it seemed a bit of palaver. Is it easier using WinSetupFromUSB, ie is it a simple case of copying the driver files to the appropriate directory on the USB drive, or is there more to it? Perhaps at some point you could add a section to the FAQ on incorporating storage device drivers into the copy of the Windows install CD used by WinSetupFromUSB?
Thanks,
Alex
All options except the second have “nohd” parameter, which apparently instructs init script not to mount any partitions on hard drives, among which is the USB disk, hence the contents are no longer accessible. You could press TAB at any of the boot menus and remove the “nohd” part.
I think you should take a look at FAQ #3 😉
I’ve been trying MANY supposed solutions to make a bootable USB that will install Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 from the same USB. This is the FIRST and the SIMPLIEST method I’ve found, and IT WORKS! Thank you very much.
Thanks Alan
I’ve managed finally to prepare SD card with M$ WinXP64 and Win7 distributives together with a GPartED image(kinda “mustdie diskette”). All of them lives together on a single card. Such a useful flash card, and such a great tool you’ve made!
Several weeks ago i couldn’t setup WinXP from USB stick with WinSetupFromUSB. Destination hard disk replacement(!) solved that trouble. Now it works great! The only little questions are how to remove(replace?) a distributive from prepared flashdrive and how to disable distributive name auto-accept option… Anyway, in general it’s almost brilliant!
Glad you figured it out.
What kind of source you need to remove/replace, there are 5 different types, and which exactly auto-accept option you have in mind?
If you mean the boot menu name when preparing the USB disk- there are several advanced options allowing custom names and folders. Have you looked at them?
I would like to have an option to remove Win distributive(in general, any would be great to remove any of them) without the need to rebuild whole stick. It’s not so hard to navigate through *.lst files and remove references and installation files, but wold like to have an option to minimize errors.
The auto-accept feature appears in a dialog saying “Multiple windows distributions detected”. It waits for user input 10 seconds(and discards it anyway), closes that dialog and continues the WinSetupFromUSB task 🙂
The best I could do currently, because of the very limited spare time, is to publish a tutorial how to remove and replace sources.
As for the dialogue box, as far as I remember, you need to type the new name and press OK before the timeout, otherwise the input is ignored, AutoIt limitation.
Can i help with that tutorial?
Maybe translate it in russian when ready?
With pleasure, just ask.
Hi itaushanov,
First of all, I’d like to echo the sentiments of Alan Fox: WinSetupFromUSB really is an excellent little utility. I’ve been using it to run a number of Linux live CD/DVD distros and install them to my hard drive, and on the whole it has proven very successful. I haven’t yet tried any of the options in FAQ #3 to install XP on a machine with a SATA drive in native mode, but I will do when I get a chance. However, I have found a few problems that I thought I’d bring to your atention:
(1) I haven’t been able to boot the FreeBSD 10.0 ISO (FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso) – it comes up with a prompt about error 19 mounting the root file-system from cd9660 (I think). Have you any idea about this?
(2) I have been able to boot the PCLinuxOS 2014.08 iso (pclinuxos-kde-2014.08.iso), but after installing to hard drive the install won’t boot – it says something about waiting for sda5 (I had installed it to another logical partition). Worth noting is that the installer assigns sda to the memory stick and sdb to the hard drive, whereas all the other distros I’ve tried have assigned sda to the hard drive.
(3) Fragmentation of the memory stick is proving problematic: is there any way that the utility could be a bit more intelligent about (a) checking to see if there is a need to defragment the memory stick BEFORE starting the copy processs, and (b) writing ISO files contiguously (is this even possible)?
(4) Would it be possible for the utility to calculate checksums (md5, sha1, etc) for ISO files as it writes them to the memory stick and then include that information (as a comment?) in its entry in menu.lst? I can’t imagine this would add much overhead to the process.
Cheers,
Alex
1) *BSD does not work for now, only a few which I tested did work, because they did not need files outside kernel/initrd. Until *BSD variants start using and supporting isohybrid-ed images, or some other way to boot directly from an ISO file, there is no much I can do to place multiple *BSD on the same USB.
2) This seems to be an issue with PCLinuxOS and might well vary between each configuration and USB/internal disk type and controller.
3) It’s only Linux files which need to be defragmented, and program already does the best possible when using the auto-format option and NTFS to place the unmovable NTFS files in the beginning of the partition, providing contiguous space after them. Regular NTFS format dumps them in the middle of the volume, making defragmentation mission impossible as the disk fills in…
Going further- checking contiguous space etc. is far, far beyond the scope of this program.
There is WinContig included, and if one often adds and removes Linux sources, it should be used to provide enough contiguous free space, something I wouldn’t do programatically, as there are already tools for the purpose included.
4) On large files calculating checksums may take quite a lot of time, might include that as advanced option, but wouldn’t be any soon as spare time is very limited and I can’t even find time to code the planned and important changes due.
Have you seen this sweet little shell extension? Quite handy for this purpose.
Hi,
I am facing problems while trying to make a Windows 7 bootable usb disk from within windows xp. I have uploaded the log and backup files to the file host you had recommended. I will be grateful if you could provide some help in solving the issue.
A very pleasant day to you
Sorry forgot to post the link to uploaded log file. Here is it
http://www.datafilehost.com/d/032d89e6
Thanks once more
Why using 1.0 beta7?
Get the latest 1.4, select auto-format option when using it for a first time and go ahead.
please help. I don’t have a degree in engineering for your website and pressing download links leads to a labyrinth of other pages.
I am sure you can do it without the need of any degrees, may the force be with you : )
Help. Won’t boot properly on UEFI system. Have to go into BIOS and change boot to BIOS (CMS). Boot the USB disk and then later change back to UEFI so system’s hard disk will boot. I recall that I needed to use FAT32 for the format so it could boot BIOS or UEFI, but did I miss something in the build? If so can I correct it now without have to rebuild the USB disk? (have windows 7 x86, 7 x64, 8.1 x86, 8.1 x64 and a password reset ISO plus LOTS of software on a 64GB USB disk. Would REALLY like not having to completely rebuild it. Thanks for any guidance you may be able to offer.
So is it FAT32 or NTFS? If the latter, try the EFI NTFS drives, details in FAQ #9
It’s FAT32. When I set BIOS to boot as BIOS, the USB drive boots properly and show the original NT6 menu, from which I select installing Windows or my Password reset. If BIOS is set for UEFI, then when it boots it only shows to install Windows 7 x64 and Windows 8.1 x64 on the menu. (as if it boots to a menu a couple of menus down the chain).
What exactly are the missing sources? Only Windows versions and utilities, including WinPE based ones, supporting EFI are added to the EFI boot menu. Do not expect to find there XP or DOS based ones for example, they won’t work under EFI anyway.
Alan, please. There is a FAQ, please read it. There is an answer, please read it carefully.
Again, only Windows versions, which support (64 bit, as nearly all consumer hardware except some tablets have 64 bit EFI) EFI are added to the EFI boot menu.
In short- Windows 7 32 bit for example do not support EFI boot, hence it’s not added. Windows 8 32 bit runs in very limited number of hardware, hence is not added.
Please read the FAQ for details.
More details:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824898.aspx
http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/E/7/7E7662CF-CBEA-470B-A97E-CE7CE0D98DC2/UEFIrequirements.docx
It’s FAT32.
Then it should boot in UEFI mode, you might need to play a bit with BIOS/EFI settings.
The USB drive was built with Windows 7 x86, Windows 7 x64, Windows 8.1 x86, Windows 8.1 x64 and Windows Password Reset. All are Windows 7/8.1 ISOs. It was Formatted with FAT32 and each ISO is under 4GB. When it boots “normally” I get the 0, 1, and 2 menus (1 is the NT6 stuff). You select 1 and then you get the install menu for the 4 Windows installs and the Password Reset, total of 5 items. If BIOS is set for UEFI, the first menu you see on a boot is only for the Windows 7 x64 and Windows 8.1 x64 installs.