Recently I have been using Tiny PXE Server for booting Mini Windows VHD from Network via iPXE
http://reboot.pro/topic/18488-tiny-pxe-server/
http://reboot.pro/topic/18962-bug-reports-requests-howtos-about-tiny-pxe-server/
Thanks to erwan.l for making Tiny PXE Server and for help in using ipxe 
Info on iPXE - http://ipxe.org/start
The Mini Windows VHD's of 1.2 - 2 GB are loaded from Network into RAMDISK and were made according to
http://reboot.pro/topic/18547-vhd-xp-setup-install-xp-in-vhd/
http://reboot.pro/topic/18657-vhd-xp-compact-make-mini-xp/
http://reboot.pro/topic/18593-vhd-w7-compact-make-mini-7/
http://reboot.pro/topic/18467-vhd-w8-compact-make-mini-8/
After booting via iPXE with the server then in iPXE Menu we can select grub4dos option and make use of these working entries in menu.lst
Loading ISO or VHD into RAMDISK is going with a speed of about 500 MB/min which corresponds to about 65 Mbps
#Use grldr as the ipxe boot file, and you can map an ISO to memory and boot from it:title 7PE RAMDISK - 7pe_x86_E.iso - 263 MBmap --mem (pd)/images/7pe_x86_E.iso (0xff)map --hookchainloader (0xff)title BartPE RAMDISK - LiveXP_WIM.ISO - 168 MBmap --mem (pd)/images/LiveXP_WIM.ISO (0xff)map --hookroot (0xff)chainloader (0xff)title Linux Parted Magic V6.2 - RAMDISK - 168 MBkernel (pd)/memdisk isoinitrd (pd)/images/pmagic/pmagic-6.2.iso# load Mini Windows VHD via ipxe from Network into RAMDISK and boot from ittitle Portable XP-1-P.vhd - WinVBlock RAMDISK - 1232 MBmap --mem (pd)/XP-1-P.vhd (hd0)map --hookroot (hd0,0)chainloader /ntldrtitle Portable Win7-1.vhd - FiraDisk RAMDISK - 2000 MBmap --mem (pd)/Win7-1.vhd (hd0)map --hookroot (hd0,0)chainloader /bootmgrtitle Mini Win8-1.vhd - FiraDisk RAMDISK - 2000 MBmap --mem (pd)/Win8-1.vhd (hd0)map --hookroot (hd0,0)chainloader /bootmgr
1. Portable XP VHD 1.2 GB loaded via IPXE from Network into WinVBlock RAMDISK on Client PC
2. Portable Win7 VHD 2 GB loaded via IPXE from Network into FiraDisk RAMDISK on Client PC - WinNTSetup3 running from Server PC
3. Mini Win 8 VHD 2 GB loaded via IPXE from Network into FiraDisk RAMDISK on Client PC
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It would be interesting if we can boot these Mini Windows VHD's direcly via Network from server without loading into RAMDISK.
For this purpose I am trying to use ipxe sanboot with the following entries in menu.ipxe
# use grub4dos menu.lst options to boot ISO or VHD from RAMDISK loaded via Network:grub4dosdhcp net0chain ${210:string}grldr || goto failedgoto start# ipxe sanboot options for booting 7PE ISO from Network - working OK:7pe_x86_Esanboot --no-describe ${boot-url}/images/7pe_x86_E.iso || goto failedgoto start# ipxe sanboot options for booting Mini Windows VHD from Network - Not working yet:vhd_xpsanboot --no-describe ${boot-url}/XP-1-P.vhd || goto failedgoto start:vhd_w7sanboot --no-describe ${boot-url}/Win7-1.vhd || goto failedgoto start:vhd_w8sanboot --no-describe ${boot-url}/Win8-1.vhd || goto failedgoto start
The Tiny PXE Server has to run in Win7 or 8 OS since sanboot does not work for me when the server is running in XP OS.
Now using Win7 or 8 OS I got the following results for ipxe sanboot
- 7pe_x86_E.iso is booting OK but easy since booting is from RAMDISK
- Portable XP VHD is recognised but booting does not start (reason might be - it has only WinVBlock driver)
- Portable Win7-1 VHD - booting starts but after loading drivers then BSOD 7B
- Mini Win8-1 VHD - booting starts but after loading drivers then Win8 BlueScreen driver issue - inaccessible_boot_device
Will it be possible to boot Mini Windows VHD's direcly via Network from server without loading into RAMDISK ?
