Hello everyone!

I have a RAW partition (super-floppy) image with Windows XP installed and successfully boot it from RAM using NTLDR and ramdisk.sys. No 3-d party tools are used.

Question: can I compress that image and boot it using Grub4dos or any other tool without installing additional 3-d party drivers?

I know this forum is about booting methods, but I've been having a discussion about this elsewhere online, most say changing IMEI is illegal in the US but they can't cite a specific law. Some say it isn't. I've tried searching the Web myself, haven't found a conclusive answer. So, I basically want to know whether doing so is *currently* and *explicitly* illegal, or whether there are any laws here that make this illegal by the description of an IMEI without specifically mentioning it. Bills that have/are being considered by Congress but haven't been passed into law don't count as proof of illegality. A ruling by the US FCC or the DMCA, etc would also be sufficient proof, as long as it is conclusive. I only care about laws that are on a federal level, not state to state laws. I would also like to note that an IMEI and an ESN are not the same thing, changing ESN is definitely and highly illegal in the US and can get you significant prison time. Thanks!

Greetings

Asking which 3.0 stick to get, 32-128GB size so probably 64 preferred. There's plenty on market but it seems not all are good for booting. I want probably MLC NAND or maybe 3D one(does it even exist in flash stick market?) with some nice controller that does not overheat USB stick. What should I look at when choosing my model, I've heard that for booting it's 4k read/writes that are most important, is that true? Some sticks can be 300MB/s for 1GB readts but their 4k writes are like 0.005MB/s, while others are 100MB/s for 1GB and 1MB/s when writing 4k. Any clues?

Hi

In Windows PE 10.0.15063, which commands and scripts are used during its boot?

Thanks

Bye

Hello.

Tried to create virtual disk at startup by adding the job in the task scheduler. Manual starting the job works fine, but not at startup - no new disk appeared after rebooting. Digging a bit deeper revealed the problem - there was an error message issued by imdisk exe when it was started at system startup by task scheduler.

Changing startup type for "ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver" from "Automatic" to "System" solved that problem. It works fine now.

Hope this will help to somebody.

It's been a while since I posted a thread, "GRUB4DOS and IBM OS/2" on how to boot OS/2 Warp 4 with Grub4DOS more than two years ago and now I ran into a bit of trouble getting OS/2 Warp 4 to work from a second hard drive with Grub4DOS.

This procedure was done in Virtual PC 2007 under Windows 8.1, by the way.

In order to properly boot OS/2 Warp 4 off of a second hard disk, I had to enter the following information in my Grub4DOS MENU.LST file:

title IBM OS/2 Warp 4\n\n
unhide (hd1,0)
unhide (hd1,4)
unhide (hd1,5)
unhide (hd1,6)
root (hd1,0)
savedefault
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,4)
hide (hd0,5)
hide (hd0,6)
hide (hd2,0)
hide (hd2,4)
hide (hd2,5)
hide (hd2,6)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --floppies=1
chainloader +1

When I first installed OS/2 Warp as a part of a DOS multi-booting routine, I had to boot from a floppy disk image to install the OS. FDISK from the original release of OS/2 Warp 4 will not properly support hard disks larger than 16,320 cylinders x 15 heads x 63 sectors per track for a total of 7,896,268,800 bytes (or 7,530 MB).

I managed to make up to four 1,883 MB FAT participants (one primary and three logical drives) prior to installing OS/2 Warp 4 as usual without any problems

Now, here's the hard part, when I applied FixPack 15 and rebooted this is what happened:

https://imgur.com/a/gcISa

OS/2 Warp inside Virtual PC crashed with a TRAP 000E possibly referencing OS2KRNL after FixPack 15 is installed.

https://imgur.com/a/MDJLO

OS/2 Warp suffers a TRAP 000E referencing to OS2KRNL after FixPack 17 is installed.

The reason why this happened.

Looking into the CONFIG.SYS file, OS/2 Warp 4 with the IBM1S506.ADD base driver will only boot from the first hard disk, if hacks and workarounds such as hiding hard disk partitions and mapping the second or third hard disk as the primary is applied, OS/2 Warp 4 will throw a TRAP 000E error and halt.

In order to fix this issue, I had to replace the IBM1S506.ADD driver with Dani's DANIS506.ADD driver which will allow OS/2 to boot from a slave hard drive.

I simply had to replace line 49 of the CONFIG.SYS file

BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD

with this line

BASEDEV=DANIS506.ADD /A:0 /U:1 /!BM

And in line 86 of the CONFIG.SYS file I had to replace

BASEDEV=IBMIDECD.FLT

with this line

BASEDEV=DANIATAP.FLT

You can get the replacement drivers at these following links:

1. http://www.ecsoft2.org/danielas-eidesata-driver
2. http://www.ecsoft2.org/danielas-atapi-filter

Hi all.

I have a basic File Explorer setup working on my WinPE image, and would like to replace my file browser (multicommander) with File Explorer.

The issue is that automatic refresh does not work, eg when moving or deleting files. Automatic refresh only works when I have a 'full' background Explorer process running, ie with taskbar etc in the background - which I do not want to do for various reasons (mostly stability as this is a recovery image and hence would add another point of failure).

Can anyone think of a way I could work around this issue and make File Explorer refresh without the background process running? (Or at least make the background process run without initialising taskbar, desktop window manager etc?)

Cheers

Sites been down for awhile. Kept getting

500 Internal Server Error

Welcome Back!

You can add your own Desktop shortcuts to any WinPE Desktop, change the wallpaper, add drivers and registry fragments, and autorun apps automatically after the WinPE OS loads.

This solution uses PEStartup and will automatically run after 20 seconds, provided ChrisR's Win10PESE WinBuilder Project was used to make the WinPE OS and if it includes the default 'Portable Finder Startup' plugin.

You can check to see if your WinPE is compatible by looking for the file X:\windows\system32\Portable Finder Startup.cmd once booted to WinPE. This looks for and runs the files \spam_startup.cmd.

The plugin can be found in WinBuilder at \Apps\System Tools\'Portable Finder Startup'.

Some Gandalf WinPEs based on WinBuilder Win10PESE (e.g. Gandalf Redstone 2) will automatically work because they have been made with the plugin enabled.

For all other WinPE's which do not have the WinBuilder 'Portable Finder Startup' plugin, once you have booted to the WinPE Desktop, you must manually run the \(the_oven)_Startup.cmd script by double-clicking on it. 

For details see http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/143_pestartup

Hello there!

I'm using the latest version of GRUB4DOS v0.4.6a (rev 2017-10-05) and I found that I can neither boot OS/2 Warp nor Windows 95 when I map drives.

When I select OS/2 Warp 4 when booting from the second hard disk image mapped as the first hard disk image, this is the error message that I get:

https://imgur.com/a/Id7fx

And when I try to boot Windows 95 from the third hard disk image mapped as (hd0), this is the error message that I get:

https://imgur.com/a/TJEc3

On a side note, when trying to boot with the Windows 95 boot disk, to try to access the third hard disk, I end up getting massive data corruption (almost 600 MB worth). I'm really lucky that I have backed up hard disk images incase something terrible goes wrong.

Now, here's are the current parameters that are used to boot OS/2 and Windows 95 under GRUB4DOS:
 

title IBM PC-DOS 6.30 / IBM OS/2 Warp 4\n\n
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,4)
hide (hd0,5)
hide (hd0,6)
unhide (hd1,0)
unhide (hd1,4)
unhide (hd1,5)
unhide (hd1,6)
hide (hd2,0)
hide (hd2,4)
hide (hd2,5)
hide (hd2,6)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --floppies=1
map --hook
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title Microsoft Windows 95\n\n
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,4)
hide (hd0,5)
hide (hd0,6)
hide (hd1,0)
hide (hd1,4)
hide (hd1,5)
hide (hd1,6)
unhide (hd2,0)
unhide (hd2,4)
unhide (hd2,5)
unhide (hd2,6)
map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd2) (hd0)
find --set-root /IO.SYS
map --floppies=1
map --hook
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

I have used the map --hook feature to hook INT13 after mapping hard disks, but it doesn't seem to work anymore in this latest release of GRUB4DOS. If I remove the first and third hard disk images, I can boot OS/2 and if I remove the first and second hard disk images, I can boot Windows 95.

Looking in the latest code change located here: https://github.com/chenall/grub4dos/commit/6a5eefacd2d605b854e256587325630e41692e64

I see that there are two new parameters, "--in-situ" and "--swap-drive=DRIVE1=DRIVE2". I never used these features before.

Has anything changed in GRUB4DOS? If so, what parameters should I use to correct this error?

I would like to test a MicroSD card to see if its' write cycles are wearing thin. I know they operate much like SSDs in that they are flash-based storage and have a limited # of writes, at which point they either die or become read-only. One of my Android phones gets stuck while booting, it just hangs forever on the ROM's boot logo, but it only seems to happen when this particular MicroSD is inserted. Without it, it always boots fine. My custom TWRP recovery also throws weird red error/info messages about not being able to find a crypto footer, sometimes the /data partition and internal/external storage are unavailable/not mounted.

Thanks!

Hi everybody, I need a tools to booting Live openSUSE or Gentoo on my (8GB-FAT32) USB memory.

I tested Grub4DOS and live-fat-stick and ... , But All of them did not boot openSUSE or Gentoo correctly.

I ask issues on them Official Gentoo & openSUSE Forum but still I did not resolve my issue! What's the best solution way?

Hello!
Is there an opportunity to automatic format ram-disk to ntfs every windows boot when it created by CLI-interface?
I used this command:

C:\Windows\system32\imdisk.exe -a -s 512M -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y" -P

But after every reboot I have to format disk manually
When I created disk from GUI it's persistance and formated automatically in ntfs every reboot.

In E2B, I was previously using this grub4dos line:

map --mem (md)+4 (99)

to create a 2k area of memory as device (99).

I would use that memory area to write a firadisk command into, e.g. where %~pnx1 is the WinPE ISO file...

write (99) [FiraDisk]\nStartOptions=cdrom,vmem=find:%~pnx1;\n\0 > nul

Now I found a problem with the way some 0.4.6a versions of grub4dos used some areas of memory on certain systems (details are not important, bug was just in a few versions) and so I changed the line in an attempt to try and work around the issue by using a larger memory area so it would work with any version of grub4dos...

map --mem (md)+0x800 (99)

However, it seems that when a Windows OS containing the Firadisk driver is booted (such as Strelec WinPE ISOs), the firadisk driver now does not load the ISO as a virtual CD-rom device any more!

This happens with all versions of grub4dos I have tested (about 3 spread out over various dates, both 0.4.6a and 0.4.5c).

I am not quite sure why simply defining a larger memory area for device (99) causes the firadisk driver to not work.

Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

I found this page and want to share it with all of you, basically the first one on the list and one of the best is ImDisk & ImDisk Tool kit, congratulations to Olof Lagerkvist and v77, two of the valuable members of this forum.

 

Results and Summary

As we mentioned earlier, the results can be split into two distinct categories, 4K scores and Sequential (Seq) scores. The Q32T1 scores for both sequential and 4K are how well the RAM disk handles multiple file transfer requests at once, so they represent a heavier workload.

 

Bond Disc was the fastest for both sets of 4K scores. The problem is it’s an old and not very user friendly tool focusing more on encryption. The 640MB size limit could also present a problem. More user-friendly and less restrictive tools that did well with 4K were IMDisk, ROG RAMDisk, Ultra RAMDisk Lite, SoftPerfect RAM Disk, OSFMount and Gizmo Drive.

 

It might come as no surprise the software that did well in the 4K scores also mostly did well in the sequential read and write scores. Ultra RAM Disk Lite and SoftPerfect RAM Disk got the highest sequential scores while Gizmo Drive, IMDisk, and Asus ROG RAMDisk were better when the number of simultaneous file requests was increased with the Q32T1 score.

 

For generally faster across the board performance, IMDisk, Asus ROG RAMDisk, Ultra RAMDisk Lite, OSFMount, Gizmo Drive, and SoftPerfect RAMDisk are all good choices. Bond Disc is very fast but may be incompatible or too restrictive for your requirements. What RAM disk you prefer may be down to what other features each software offers that helps you decide which is best for you.

About ImDisk & ImDisk Tool kit:

Although you can use the original ImDisk driver and Control Panel applet , the ImDisk Toolkit is easier to use. It also includes options to mount floppy, CD-ROM and hard disk image files (ISO, BIN, VFD and etc) as virtual drives. RAM disk size is not limited and there are options to load content from an image file or folder, synchronize at shutdown, enable compression, auto add temporary folders, and allocate memory for the RAM disk dynamically.

ImDisk Benchmarks:

For all benchmarks and full info see source: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/12-ram-disk-software-benchmarked-for-fastest-read-and-write-speed/

Best Regards

alacran

Hello,

I had a few monthes ago installed Hiren's boot CD on a USB key.

But after that, every time I have ran the computer without this USB key in my computer, I have had the following message:

Try (hd0,0): NTFS5: No GRLDR

Try (hd0,1): NTFS5: No GRLDR

Try (hd0,2): NTFS5: No GRLDR

Try (hd0,3): invalid or null

Cannot find GRLDR.

Press space bar to hold the screen, any other key to boot the previous MBR...

I only have to press a key to skip this screeen. But I would prefer not to have it at all. I guess the installation of Hiren's boot on the USB changed something on my MBR and the previous MBR seems to have been saved somewhere. Maybe I can watch out where. 

By the way, I happen to no more have this USB key. Was probably lost when I moved home in summer, isn't to be found again.

(As it is my first post, if for any reason it was to rejected please explain why. I hope I will not)

As you may know, in order to boot Linux-Lite from USB in it's page they recommend to use win32diskimager to extract the ISO to the USB, but doing this your USB device is not readable from Windows any more so you can't use it in Windows PC's until you clean and reformat it.

I haven't found any info for booting it from ISO, but I found info for booting Ubuntu from ISO:

 

title Run Ubuntu 16.04
find --set-root /ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso
map --mem /ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso (0xff) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz.efi  file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso splash
initrd /casper/initrd.lz

Then as Linux-Lite is an Ubuntu derivative, I decided to use this approach making some adjustments for my needs.

This is my memu.lst entry to boot Linux-Lite from ISO on a partition root of my HDD:

title Linux Lite x64\nBoot Linux Lite x64 from HDD
find --set-root /linux-lite-3.6-64bit.iso
map --mem /linux-lite-3.6-64bit.iso (0xff) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /linux-lite-3.6-64bit.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz  file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper iso-
scan/filename=/linux-lite-3.6-64bit.iso splash
initrd /casper/initrd.gz

title Linux Lite x86\nBoot Linux Lite x86 from HDD
find --set-root /linux-lite-3.6-32bit.iso
map --mem /linux-lite-3.6-32bit.iso (0xff) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /linux-lite-3.6-32bit.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz  file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper iso-
scan/filename=/linux-lite-3.6-32bit.iso splash
initrd /casper/initrd.gz

And I use this one when Linux-Lite is on the root of a USB stick:

iftitle [if exist /linux-lite-3.6-32bit.iso] Boot linux-lite-3.6-32bit\nBoot linux-lite-3.6-32bit from USB
map --mem (hd0,0)/linux-lite-3.6-32bit.iso (0xFF) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /linux-lite-3.6-32bit.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz  file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/linux-lite-3.6-32bit.iso splash
initrd /casper/initrd.gz

iftitle [if exist /linux-lite-3.6-64bit.iso] Boot linux-lite-3.6-64bit\nBoot linux-lite-3.6-64bit from USB
map --mem (hd0,0)/linux-lite-3.6-64bit.iso (0xFF) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /linux-lite-3.6-64bit.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz  file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/linux-lite-3.6-64bit.iso splash
initrd /casper/initrd.gz

You need to know that you can't see partition containing the ISO from Linux-Lite when your PC boots.

I am using ATM grub4dos 0.4.6a (rev 2016-09-20).

Best Regards

alacran

Hello, thanks for reading, im currently building a triple boot computer with Recalbox,windows10 and ubuntu. I built a similar computer in the past with no problem, but instead of using recalbox i was using wifislax, so the way i did was, i started with wifislax to partition the hardrive, with space for the 3 systems, installed wifislax first , then windows, and at the end ubuntu, so tis would make ubuntu detect the first 2 systems and created the correct grub file or whatever it does, so i ended with a perfect 3 systems computer. I was trying to do the same, problem is ubuntu detectes the systems that are installed and creates a menu but only with windows and ubuntu only, it ignores the first os wich is recalbox. 

On the first partition wich is for recalbox, i have a fat32 BOOT , a second one named RECALBOX wich is ext4 and cotains the file system, and a 3rd one wich is the share partition. On the first partition, BOOT there are 2 folders, one called boot and another called efi , on the boot one there are  1 folder and 2 files, the grub folder, and bzImage and initrd, and on the efi folder theres another boot folder with a bootx64.efi and a grub file, this is the content of the grub file.

set default="0"
set timeout="0"


menuentry "Recalbox" {
linux /boot/bzImage label=RECALBOX console=tty3 quiet loglevel=0
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
}