Easy2Boot V1 - Make a USB MultiBoot drive that is easy to set up and maintain

Discussion in 'Application Software' started by steve2926, Apr 20, 2013.

  1. steve2926

    steve2926 MDL Member

    Nov 13, 2010
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    BETA25 Now available. Windows iso menus improved.
     
  2. steve2926

    steve2926 MDL Member

    Nov 13, 2010
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    #84 steve2926, May 7, 2013
    Last edited: May 7, 2013
    (OP)
    It depends of whether th OS can read exFAT. Linux should work because of the partnew trick.
    The problem will be with XP Step 2 and maybe XP based OS's like Hiren if they don't have the exFAT hotfix update added.

    Hirens 15.1 works (if you extract the \HBCD folder to the root of the exFAT drive and rename the iso as hirens.isowinvH.
     
  3. alicepattinson

    alicepattinson MDL Member

    Jan 29, 2013
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    There's a lot of downloads in the internet I dont know where to start. I also found USB multiboot 9.5 is that the latest? Errrr. :O
     
  4. steve2926

    steve2926 MDL Member

    Nov 13, 2010
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    As is normal practice, post #1 contains links.
     
  5. Whiznot

    Whiznot MDL Member

    Nov 5, 2009
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    #87 Whiznot, May 9, 2013
    Last edited: May 9, 2013
    Steve, thank you for Easy2Boot. Until now I've never been able to boot to Parted Magic from a flash drive on my rig. RMPrepUSB and Easy2Boot are the tools I've always wanted. Now I've got a flash drive that boots Linux Mint and Parted Magic as well as install all my Windows image files. I'm adding more capability every day. This is a great MDL thread.:biggrin:
     
  6. Whiznot

    Whiznot MDL Member

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    Today I used Easy2Boot to add a couple of new image files to my flash drive.

    First I added UBCD4 Windows which initially wouldn't load but the instructions to change a BartPE ISO extension to ISOWINV solved that problem.

    Next I added the Macrium Reflect Rescue ISO which initially wouldn't load but tutorial 107 provided a clue to the solution. A few lines had to be added to menu.lst file. Once I edited the specified lines to map to the right ISO location, It worked like a charm.

    Goodbye CD burner. I will not miss you.
     
  7. steve2926

    steve2926 MDL Member

    Nov 13, 2010
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    Would you mind sharing what these few lines were?
     
  8. Whiznot

    Whiznot MDL Member

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    #93 Whiznot, May 10, 2013
    Last edited: May 10, 2013
    Steve here are the lines of code I added to menu.lst to help boot the Macrium Reflect rescue ISO. First I changed the name of the ISO from rescue.iso to Rescue_MacriumReflectWinPE64.iso. Next I cut and pasted the code shown in tutorial 107 but instead of mapping the path to root I mapped to the MAIMMENU folder. I'm pretty much taking shots in the dark here but If it works it works. BTW I used beta 27.


    #Requires at least 512MB of RAM or will get BSOD
    title Macrium Reflect
    map /_ISO/MAINMENU/Rescue_MacriumReflectWinPE64.iso (0xFF)
    map --hook
    root (0xFF)
    chainloader /bootmgr
     
  9. steve2926

    steve2926 MDL Member

    Nov 13, 2010
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    That implies that the ISOs are not bootable??? Could you try modifying your menu last line to

    chainloader (0xff) || chainloader /bootmgr || chainloader /ntldr || chainloader /I386/setupldr.bin


    If that works, then I can make that the default command for all ISOs...
     
  10. Whiznot

    Whiznot MDL Member

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    I see now that I made a mistake. The Macrium Reflect rescue ISO is WinPE and it just works without adding any code to menu.lst. The first time I tried to boot the image I used the original menu.lst and I failed to notice a message to hit the proverbial "any" key to boot from the CD. Tutorial 107 conditioned me to think extra code was required. It almost seems that the only thing baffling about Easy2Boot is its ease of use.
     
  11. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

    Jul 23, 2008
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    #96 sebus, May 11, 2013
    Last edited: May 11, 2013
    I can see that: "UEFI booting is not supported"

    But could it be possible for the USB stick to be made into UEFI bootable (or maybe even being dual UEFI/legacy bootable)?

    I believe grub has UEFI boot

    sebus
     
  12. Weedy

    Weedy MDL Member

    Mar 9, 2011
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    Steve,

    Did you see my comment on the blog about the resolution?
     
  13. HALIKUS

    HALIKUS MDL Addicted

    Jul 29, 2009
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    If the USB is fat32, bootable, and has the proper files in EFI (efi\boot\bootx64.efi) it will automatically be "EFI". But, grub4dos doesn't and never will support EFI. Grub2 can boot efi, but as far as i know there is no autoboot an ISO script anywhere. You can enter in very specific info to get an iso to boot, but it must be EFI. You also can't load a legacy iso from EFI. You can however use "rEFInd" efi boot loader to load a menu where you can choose a specific efi file to boot. I use it to load windows, grub2, mac (Clover), Ubuntu etc, but you must have everything extracted, no ISOs. I can upload a copy of my efi dir if you want. The key is to have a efi\boot\bootx64.efi file anyways.
     
  14. Weedy

    Weedy MDL Member

    Mar 9, 2011
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    #99 Weedy, May 11, 2013
    Last edited: May 12, 2013
    @ Steve,

    Ok, I dunno what you've done, but it won't just boot a win8 ISO now.

    It keeps asking for a key, so if I just delete all the stuff about keys, it now won't boot. (this worked in the previous versions).

    Now its saying that no .key files are present (because I deleted them).

    Can you return this to how it was in previous versions please? I just want to be able to run the ISO. I don't need the program deciding what is best for me. I don't want any automation. I just want it to boot the ISO and let me tell it what to do.

    Edit : Ok, I've deleted the rest of the crap about keys, and partially got it to boot. Now the win8 setup throws up an error about not being able to do something (I didn't note it down) and the blue cmd prompt box doesn't appear.
     
  15. HALIKUS

    HALIKUS MDL Addicted

    Jul 29, 2009
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    @Weedy, i think version 29v1 should work for you. Steve has made alot of changes in the last few revisions. I think he is changing the ways the keys are handled too, but you should be able to just select "no key". Win8, by default, will ask for a key pre-install (unless you modify ei.cfg) and the true beauty of E2B is you can use an unmodified iso.

    If the blue cmd prompt doesn't appear, it won't work (no firadisk loaded).