WindSLIC thumb drive edition

Discussion in 'MDL Projects and Applications' started by nononsence, Apr 10, 2010.

  1. Mikee5

    Mikee5 MDL Novice

    Apr 19, 2010
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    I've been reading the thread with interest and it occured to me that you could create a thumb drive as you guys have described and the permanently attach it to one of the mobo's internal usb connectors.

    To ensure you dont accidentally overwrite the thumb drive you could use a utility such as "NoDrives Manager" to hide it in windows and just leave it permantly connected inside the case. It wont work for a laptop but it would for anything else.

    Mike
     
  2. Mikee5

    Mikee5 MDL Novice

    Apr 19, 2010
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    Just another thought, Win 7 by default installs a hidden boot partition on the windows drive.

    Is it possible to create another hidden partition before Win 7 boot partition and only install slic information in that partition, so as the computer boots it reads the slic file before the unmodified boot win 7 boot files ?

    Or if you have multiple hard drives create a small partition containing the slic file ,set that drive as the first boot drive and the drive with the boot files and Win 7 installation as the second drive.

    As you can see i'm only a noob and novice, but from what I've read from the different threads and posts this hasn't been considered.

    Mike
     
  3. truthinjection

    truthinjection MDL Member

    Aug 27, 2009
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    It's more that it was (almost) done in the earlier days. Some of the early loaders used a modified Grub4DOS to basically that operation, though I suppose technically they were on the same partition. There's nothing preventing it from working that way. In most of the WindSLIC situations (except for the boot sector version) WindSLIC performs its operations then calls Int18H to (hopefully) pass control back to the BIOS, which then dials the next higher boot device. That's great for people with multiple boot devices, but most BIOSes don't have the concept of per-partition booting, so when a device gives the BIOS back control via Int 18H, the BIOS won't try that device again and will give up entirely if there isn't another device to try.

    It's very possible to make a partition such as you describe if you want to do it. I would start by getting Grub4DOS (regular, not the SLIC-adding version), then get the WindSLIC volume boot sector stuff, and tweak it to call grub instead of the windows loader. Then, set up a grub grub.conf/menu.lst (depending on what version you're using) that loads back to your actual Win7 partition. It's a tad skanky and a bit of work, but it would work fine. Perhaps nononsence will find the idea interesting enough to package it up so that it works without so many steps.

    As for me, I'm saving up for a Core i7 board so I can work out the BIOS-de-protection needed for it.

    Have fun!
    -tij-
     
  4. truthinjection

    truthinjection MDL Member

    Aug 27, 2009
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    Indeed. There are some really tiny USB drives out there if you can track one down.

    If you really wanted to prevent overwrite entirely, you could use the WindSLIC ISO version and use the sourceforge-hosted "u3-tool" to write the ISO to a U3-compatible USB flash device. Then, it would appear to the system that you were booting from a USB-CDROM, but you'd actually be booting from a USB flash device. You wouldn't need a utility to prevent writing to it since only the u3-tool can actually write to it. You could tweak the WindSLIC ISO to have useful stuff on it in addition to the WindSLIC stuff (which is just basically the boot sector, I ... think).

    I've considered this idea many times for personal use (minus the WindSLIC part). It would act as an always-bootable safety setup for your PC, and if you leave room on the U3 device, you could put partitioning tools (PartedMagic is pretty good and free) on it and give yourself a boot-menu to allow you to boot to it if you needed to.

    Lots of fun opportunities there,
    -tij-
     
  5. FreeStyler

    FreeStyler MDL Guru

    Jun 23, 2007
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  6. FreeStyler

    FreeStyler MDL Guru

    Jun 23, 2007
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    As long it is formatted as NTFS then you can, as far as i know this won't work on fat32 (yet)
     
  7. timesurfer

    timesurfer MDL Developer

    Nov 22, 2009
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    I never use those memory slots anyhow and I've got a 512MB around so would be a good idea for some
     
  8. timesurfer

    timesurfer MDL Developer

    Nov 22, 2009
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    #30 timesurfer, Sep 1, 2010
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2010
    Tried with memory card and failed twice so I think it's a no go for setting the BIOS to boot from card...lol

    Still will try with real USB and report back ;)

    Edit: I grabbed a hp slic and renamed it slic.bin and put it in the main folder then I right clicked the Make_WindSLIC .cmd file and then ansered the questions as to what drive my USB was. Then I entered HP key and cert then restarted set BIOS boot order to USB and restarted and it was activated...lol

    Tested on V3000

    Awesome

    Now I just need one of those super small USB's
     
  9. FreeStyler

    FreeStyler MDL Guru

    Jun 23, 2007
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    Could not make it boot from a CF card as well, USB like timesurfer mentioned works without issues
     
  10. bmcet

    bmcet MDL Novice

    May 29, 2007
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    activated Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard using hp slic and dell key with hp cert.
     
  11. MrCobra

    MrCobra MDL Novice

    Nov 23, 2008
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    Trying this on an old Abit AN8 32X mobo and when booting through the flash stick I get the normal BIOS message about no boot devices found. Any suggestions, or am I missing something?
     
  12. timesurfer

    timesurfer MDL Developer

    Nov 22, 2009
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    Curious I forgot what slic I grabbed for my compaq cause there are 5 for HP

    Anyone can tell me which one to pick for whatever comp I'm on?

    Thanks
     
  13. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
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    Nov 30, 2009
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    I think anyone.... well there 9 normal & 1 server slics from HP ;)
     
  14. timesurfer

    timesurfer MDL Developer

    Nov 22, 2009
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    What are they all for?

    MD told me one to use back then but I forgot

    Thanks
     
  15. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
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    Hmmm.... use the one, which is included with AMI/Award Tool i.e HPQOEMSLIC-MPC_V2.1
     
  16. timesurfer

    timesurfer MDL Developer

    Nov 22, 2009
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    Thanks adviser I think that was probably the one MD told me

    Now I will test and report back

    :sith:
     
  17. timesurfer

    timesurfer MDL Developer

    Nov 22, 2009
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    Couldn't figure it out this time but worked once for me before
     
  18. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
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    Nov 30, 2009
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    Hmm... time to study it well!! ;)