Boot slection menu

Discussion in 'Windows 8' started by lunar21, Sep 23, 2013.

  1. lunar21

    lunar21 MDL Addicted

    Dec 14, 2008
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    Hello all,



    I was wondering if there is a program I could use for my install disk that would allow me to choose which OS install to select?



    What I have is 2 full Windows OS disks (windows 7, 8, 8.1 AIO)(Windows XP). I want to put them both on a 32gig flash drive as a bootable drive. I need a way, when booting from this flash, to allow me to select the OS to install. Is there a program to do this, or a way to do this? If so please show me how or direct me to the page that shows this.



    Thank you,



    Lunar21
     
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  2. murphy78

    murphy78 MDL DISM Enthusiast

    Nov 18, 2012
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    I think what this requires is a different boot manager. I'm not even close to an expert on boot managers, but I've heard of boot managers as a way of circumventing the fat32 requirement of UEFI booting.
    On a USB flash drive it's a bit trickier since you can only have one assigned partition drive letter.

    Couple turn up in a search for boot managers:
    Plop
    rEFInd

    GRUB is a boot loader... honestly I'm not entirely sure what the differences are or which ones will accomplish what you want.

    Sorry I'm not more helpful. I'm trying, but I just don't know enough about them...
     
  3. HALIKUS

    HALIKUS MDL Addicted

    Jul 29, 2009
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    A few ways.

    Install OS From ISO Bios\MBR : Easy2Boot (grub4dos)
    Install OS From ISO EFI : You can't

    Install from boot.wim an Install.wim or esd : Make a winPE (boot.wim) with the required licenses. Make an all in one install.wim. Install like normal with an ei.cfg if required to bypass key. Use x86 boot.wim for bios\MBR, and x64 for EFI.

    Install from desktop : Extract \sources files to somewhere and run setup with the \installfrom switch.

    This is all somewhat vague, and theres many ways to do things. For instance you could deploy the wim via imagex\dism.
     
  4. lunar21

    lunar21 MDL Addicted

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  5. coleoptere2007

    coleoptere2007 MDL Guru

    Apr 8, 2008
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    Your welcome buddy :)
     
  6. KNARZ

    KNARZ MDL Addicted

    Oct 9, 2012
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    I may don't really got it but why don't you just use wim?
    capture the images, integrate into 1 wim and than deploy over boot.wim

    It's similar to HALIKUS recommendation. But just use x64/UEFI and apply with DISM instead of Windows-Setup.

    write a small batch with menu (startnet.cmd) and than you can choose with 1 hit which image you want to apply. and with scripting in background you can do a ton of automation.