Ultimate Boot CD and The bootmanager for bootable CDs ... - Page 2

pmshah · Jun 17, 2005, 09:36 AM

This is addressed to Ctrl+Alt+Del.

There is a utility called bbie ( referred to on Bart's home Page) which will allow you to extract a boot image from an iso file directly. No need to burn a CD.

There is another called Virtual Floppy Disk which will allow you to create a floppy boot image from some ill behaved software which will only create a boot floppy but not provide you with a floppy image.

Both work under WinXP & 2k. This can save you a whole lot of time for creating different versions of boot images on a single CD. I run Parttion magic 8 & ghost 2003 (dos version ) from Win98 dos boot image which have been appropriately edited for the purpose.

Just thought I would shre some information for other readers' benefit.

PangingJr · Jun 17, 2005, 11:22 AM

Thanks for adding that info, and welcome to DH pmshah.

you're right, you can directly save or extract the boot information from an ISO file and no need to burn a CD first.

and, yes, you can use the BBIE ( Bart's Boot Image Extractor) to extract bootimage from a bootable CD-Rom or ISO image file.

i believe, the instruction on my post #7 about using the WinISO was just about things that i did at the time before i made that post, actually.

anyway, please note that even though the BBIE can extract the bootimage,
but, there are some instances that the WinISO can do it better like in some of Acronis programs's boot CDs.
this because the Acronis puts everything in the bootsector and the WinISO can save all of them in a boot information (or bootimage) file. so you won't need to copy anything else to the CD but the bootimage file.

PangingJr · Nov 28, 2005, 09:11 AM

just something to add to this thread. it's not quite the same topic but i think it could be useful to some of you.

build a multiboot system is more common and easy than you think.

the multiboot system is not something new, it has been around for quite some time,
and i have also been used multiboot for a long time. i have considered multiboot to be first thing that i do on my new system after the main operating system has been set up. this to see how well the system can perform on other OSes. and i'll use the other OSes for other or different purpose at the end.

if you have a lot of free space on your main hard drive and you don't usually use this free space you can partition the drive to change your computer system from a single boot system to a dual or multiboot system.

everything must be easy, fast and effective enough...
this includes when you partition the hard drive, all of the OSes installations, when you boot the computer into one of the installed OS,
when you want to add more OS to your computer system and when you like to remove any of the installed OS or when you want to put everything back to the single boot system again. and even you can create a seperate backup image of each Windows OS partition and restore each OS to the previous state separately.

all of that can be done easily, but...
despite the fact that multiboot Windows's or Windows and other OSes without using any of special softwares can be done.
this means the Windows's own partition software and its NT bootloder should be enough to help you create a multiboot system, and that's true.
but, i've found long time ago that it's also true that the possibility of messing up something in one of the installed Windows are very high.
and all the things i mention above in 'everything must be easy enough' won't be easy any more.

so i don't consider using the Windows's NT bootloder to be the boot manager for my multiboot system. i also use Linux or other *nix's in the past, and from time to time in recent years, mostly just to see how and what's happening in the new builds/distros, but whenever i install Linux, i consider not installing LiLo and/or Grub bootloader into the hard drive's MBR, nor in the installed Linux partition or any other partition of the hard drive.

since i don't use Linux all the time so i consider installing it onto a logical drive in the extended partition and using the Grub from a floppy disk to boot into Linux. and don't like to install third-party bootmanager into the MBR either, but prefer using one that can help switching between the Windows OSes (and auto hiding the other primary partitions. see below for more info on why hide the other primary partitions?) within the Windows if possible or it can be done.

if the Linux is to be installed or you choose to install it in a primary partition, you can install the LiLo in the Linux installed partition,
and then using a third-party bootmanager program to manage all of the OSes booting entirely.
some of these bootmanager programs can also be used from a floppy disk, and the boot menu settings can be saved in the disk as well.

why hide the other primary partitions?
hide and/or unhide a primary partition the third-party bootmanager or partitioning manager will only need to change an entry in partition table. and based on my experiences on using many of these programs in the past, i believe all of them doing this quite well.

Windows will ignore all of the hidden partitions, it can see the partition (in Disk Management snap-in only, not in My Computer or other explorer) but cannot recognize them. this to ensure that you will not get Windows's drive letter and/or registry conflict, overwriting files in one of the previously Windows OS installed will never occur.
during the Windows installation you will see that the Windows setup program shows something like "OS2/Boot Manager" on the hidden partitions, and also assign drive letter to this type of partition next to the last logical drive.
the drive letter C will only be used by the active primary partition. Windows will always assign drive C to your system/boot partition on every Windows installed. and the most important thing is you can create the partition image for backup and restore separately.
the only drawback (which is not important to me at all but i'll mention it here) is that you cannot use the space of the other primary partitions while you are in one of the Windows (except in Windows 2000 in most cases).

the Disk Management snap-in in Windows 2000 will report all of the detail information on both the hidden partitions and the Linux filesystems or other None-Windows file system. by default, no drive letter will be assigned on the hidden partitions. however, you can still assign drive letters to the hidden partitions. but i suggest you assign drive letter to them for only a temporary access, and then remove the drive letter which's associated with the hidden partitions at before you restart the computer.

Windows XP's Disk Management also show detail information of each partition at about the same rate of Windows 2000's,
but you will not be able to assign a drive letter to the hidden partitions due to all of the settings will be grayed out.

Windows XP x64's Disk Management reports wrong information (Free Space, % Free and partition types) on both the hidden partitions and Linux partitions. it seems that the Windows compleately ignore these type of partitions.

here are a few more pics about this...

PangingJr · Nov 28, 2005, 11:47 PM

in the above example...

i did not configure to dual-boot between Windows and another Windows so the Windows OSes installation order should not be concerned.

starting from an empty hard drive,
boot your computer with one of Windows setup CD,
create a partition (the first primary partition of the drive), and leave rest of drive space as free space (as unpartitioned),
then install the Windows. the first Windows is installed, up and running.

then boot your computer with a third-party partitioning program boot disk,
create a new primary partition next to the first one, and leave the rest of drive space as free space,
set "Active" to the newly created partition, and also hide the other primary partition,
then boot your computer with the other Windows setup CD,
install the Windows. the second Windows is installed, up and running.

if you want to install another Windows then boot your computer with the third-party partitioning program boot disk again,
create a new primary partition, set "Active", and hide the other primary partitions just like before,
then boot your computer with the last Windows setup CD,
install the Windows. the third Windows is installed, up and running.

just a little bit info about the earlier hard drive partitioning... if you already have planned on what to do with your hard drive space, you can partition the drive in one step, even before you install the first Windows OS into the drive. just make sure that you have set Active to the right primary partition and the other primary partition must be hidden at before you begin to install the Windows each time.

up to a point where i like to note something about hard drive partition.
typically, one hard drive can contain up to four primary partitions,
or three primary partitions and one extended partition.
the extended partition can then be further divided into any number of logical partitions.

so in this example the hard drive already has three primary partitions.
the rest of free space will have to be an extended partition,
unless you want to use the rest of free space as another primary partition,
or unless you want to use a hard drive partition software like BootIt™ Next Generation.
BIGN has a unique feature which allows more than four primary partitions on one hard drive (over 200 primary partitions if desired).

final on the multiboot configuration for 2 or 3 Windows OSes...
after the last Windows has been installed you can now install one of a Boot Manager program.
(the Boot Manager should be installed after the last Windows has been installed.)

if you never use a Boot Manager program before and have Partition Magic program your can use the PQBoot for Windows.
otherwise, i'd like to recommend GAG. if you are interested in using GAG, then at the GAG program setting you will need to select the option that says something like Hide Primary Partitions and set up your Windows OSes boot menu and you're now all set.

a few useful infomations about the GAG...
GAG doesn't need its own partition,
it doesn't require you to install any of its program file to your hard drive's nor the MBR,
it can fully work from its unique self-booting floppy disk. you can also save your boot menu settings into the disk.

PangingJr · Nov 30, 2005, 01:07 AM

hard drive partition planning...

if your like to install Linux then leave some of free space on the hard drive.
you don't need to prepare the Linux install partition, just leave it to the Linux's partitioner to do the partition work for you.

if you want to install more than one Linux's builds make sure to leave enoung free space for each Linux installation.

if you plan to use a Boot Manager program that requires its program files to be installed on the hard drive,
make sure that you check the program document. if it needs to be on FAT then you may want to have one partition that uses FAT.

there are a few things that i should also mention...
i like to suggest you partition your hard drive outside the Windows, you can do it via either DOS mode boot or within other OS as some of third-party partitioning progarm's uses its own OS.

install your preferred partitioning program in Windows if it requires you to do that.
and then create a DOS boot disk.

never install any operating system on a hard drive that you also use some of its space to save your important files.

play with your main hard drive only, and save all of your important files in secondary hard drive(s) or somewhere else outside your computer.

once the secondary hard drives has been partitioned and formatted and you have already move your important files onto it, if not necessary, don't change its partition table or layouts.

if not necessary, don't do any of the partition's resizing, nor moving data within it on any hard drive partitions.
instead, save the files of the partition that you want to resize it and also the parition next to it,
and then delete the partitions and re-create them. then move your files back in.

PangingJr · Dec 10, 2005, 11:13 AM

whenever possible i like to add the following howtos and info to this thread...

how to add/remove one or more Windows OS to/from the system, how to go back to single boot system.
this's will be just a simple process, very fast and easy to do when you have already created an exect image of each Windows partition. so i'll also need to talk about how to create an exact image of Windows partitions for complete backup and restore.

also, about Linux i will add info on how to use Grub as secondary bootloader for booting all Linux's installed on the system. so it'll be quick and easy when you want to remove one of the Linux installed or when you want to try another Linux's.

in the meantime, please have a look at this below example...
the Windows 2000 on the partition primary 02 (the third primary patition) had been removed, not by formatting the partition but the hard drive partition has been recreated, and this only take about 10 mins, add the OS back and ready to be used will use about the same time.
the primary partition slot is now reserved for using on another OS.

PangingJr · Dec 22, 2005, 04:49 AM

i asked my friend to download and send me some of Linux's installation ISOs and some of the update files like the files from the Red Hat Fedora Core 4 (FC 4) update download web site. he send me these files every day in the past weeks, i think so far he've already sent me about 30 GB of these files.

so far i've tried PCLinuxOS Preview version 0.92, Ubuntu with GNOMEs for 64-bit PC (have not tried the Intel x86, nor the KDEs/Kubuntu desktops ones yet) both the version 5.10 and Flight-1 Dapper v6.04, and then Mandriva 2006 x86_64 and Red Hat Fedora Core 4 (both the i386/Intel x86 and x86_64 builds).
also have tried to install the Ark linux, but it seems that the installer may had some problem with SATA II drives. so i could not make it.

the PCLinuxOS was good, eventho it's only a preview version and still under development. it just wanted to check it out. i could have tried its live CD but i didn't get the ISO file to make one.

the Ubuntu for 64-bit PC was very good, but i seem to have problem with its update and this may be due to my slow internet connection, and as of now i think i like to use the Fedora Core 4. so i have removed the Ubuntu form my system for now.

a few pics of Linux's desktops...
[Img]http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/244/mandriva1001sm9bo.png

[Img]http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/5471/fc4005sm8wd.png

and here are the location of the installed Linux's...

[Img]http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/2250/ptnmngr10014ty.png

for people who are having slow internet connection and have tried the FC 4, i believe you are most likely to have problem with the Up2date services that comes with the FC 4. there are a lot of update files and install that needs to be made after you completed the FC 4 installations.
i have a few tips for you, you might want to try them out... hope they will work the same as mine.

i've installed the FC4 x86_64 before the i386 (Intel x86) build, and i chose to install just part of them then i've found out after the instllation was done that i could not do the update easily, since there were a lot of works that needs to be done. this's about fixing, installing, removing and updating all of the dependencies files. Linux users will certainly understand what i mean. a funny thing about this is that i think about Windows users, that there are so much bad things have been said when they're facing some small problem with Windows updates.

anyway, as siad before i like to give you some tips on the updating of the FC 4...
the second FC 4 installed i decided to try the i386 builds and also chose to install everything,
the everything installation will use about 7 GB of the hard drive space, and after all of the updates were done, it will be at about 7.5 GB.

the FC 4 update files are around 1.5 -2 GB, so you will need to find a fast internet connection to download these files (see URL address of this update site from below pic), and then after you have all of the updates files you can do most of the update locally.

the everything installation will also install all of the Open Office's langpacks, so first you should remove all of the installed langpacks files from your system.

if you decided to remove the Office's langpacks then when you download the updates you can save time by passing over all of the "openoffice.org-langpack-*" and also download only the newest version of the "kernel*".

once you have all of the update files,

run this below command to remove the Open Office's langpacks before you begin to run the update.

yum remove openoffice.org-langpack-*

and wait untill the removing is done then begin the updates...

yum update /<enter here the full path to updates files>/*.rpm

note-- yum install or localinstall should give same results for this.

the update starts, checking, download a few more packagea for dependencies update files,
then installing and cleanup. these processes would take around 30-45 minutes. the FC 4 is now up to date.

[Img]http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/5724/fc400123sm9uk.png

one last tip about this is, if you have your friend do the download for you, and if possible, also ask him to export the download manager profiles and send it to you. this way you can create the same download structures as same as your friend system and import download manager profiles.
once you have done that you can now using the same download manager to check at the FC 4's Up2date site for new update in future by your own.

[Img]http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/240/fc4007sm9vy.png

another thing i also like to mention here is when you have installed Linux OS on the Windows system the Linux can recognize all of the Windows partitions, on the other hand Windows cannot recognize Linux filesystems partitions so you will not be able to do anything in the Linux partition when you're in the Windows. there are some of third-party software that you may want to use, this software allows you to access the Linux partition from Windows, but i don't really want to recommend you to use it.

if you mount the the NTFS partition of Windows in Linux, some of problem may/can occur within the NTFS.
you don't want to have any problem about this. so don't mount the NTFS partitions in Linux, not even in read-only mode,
instead, create a new FAT partition and share this partition between the Windows and Linux.

if applicable, choose not to mount any of the Windows partitions during the Linux installation,
with the Ubuntu you can do this by choosing the option "Don't use this partition" when you prepare your hard drive for the installation.
go to each Windows partition and then choose that option.
don't mount any other partition but the ext2 or ext3 partition that you want to install Linux onto...

once the Linux has been installed, create a mount point to the FAT partition in the Linux filesystem,
and also allow all filesystems on the partition, so that you can share and fully use this FAT partition in Linux.

PangingJr · Dec 30, 2005, 05:47 AM

install Grub on the Linux partition or /boot partition (not in the hard drive's MBR) during the Linux installation,
then use Grub as secondary bootloader for booting all Linuxes installed on the system.
this way you can remove the Grub or the Linux installed without modifying the MBR.

in this below example i installed Grub's on boot sectors of all the 3 Linuxes partitions.
(it's only one Grub that actually need to be installed)

[Img]http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6165/qtpartedsm2kj.png

after install Grub on the Linux partition, read the first sector (where Grub has been installed) of the Linux partition and then write and save to a file call "bootsector.bin".

you can do this in Linux, become root and run this command...

# dd if=/dev/sda8 of=/fatdrive/bootsector.bin bs=512 count=1

note-- for this example the Grub is install on the partition sda8, and the dir /fatdrive is a moint point of my FAT partition that i created in linux filesystem. so you will need to change these infomation on the command line.

you can also save this boot sector from within Windows by using a partition table/sector tool,
view the Linux partition's sector (not the hard drive's MBR) and then save the first sector of that Linux partition(s)...

[Img]http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8632/savebs110016qg.png

once you have the boot sector file(s), copy this file to the Windows partition,
and then add an entry to load Grub in your Boot.ini file.
some thing like this...

[Img]http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3619/bootgrubmenus10011hm.png

after that, you should be able to use the NT loader to load/start Grub.
one your next boot you would see the boot menu like this...

Code:

Please select the oparating system to start:
.
.
.
		Microsoft Windows XP Professional
		Fedora Core  4 x86
		Fedora Core  4 x86_64
		SUSE Linux 10.0 OSS x86
.
.
.
.
.
.
Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice.
press ENTER to choose.
.
.

if you have installed more than one Windows OSes on the primary partitions and i have already mentioned above that you should consider isolating each Windows that are installed by hiding the other Windows partition before you boot one of them.

the Grub can also do the hide, unhide and set active to these Windows partitions,

but i have not tried to use Grub this way, nor installing it to the MBR,

but i'd say the system booting in order would be like...

from turn on your system to BIOS post and then NT loader... load Grub... select one of the operating systems from Grub's boot menu,
then it can boot the OS to the desktop.

PangingJr · Jan 15, 2006, 02:23 AM

Transfer the entire contains of Windows XP's (and Linux's) partitions to a new hard drive.

[Img]http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/7507/osstransfer2hk.png

PangingJr · Jan 24, 2006, 02:30 AM

Move Windows XP Paging File from the system drives and the Paging File Sizing and Placement through registry

you first need to check the best location to place the Windows system's paging file,
and if you want to use the "Custom size" setting then you should also find the best "Initail size" setting for your system.

[Img]http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/574/image278qh.png

then edit your registry, enter your new paging file settings, then close the registry editor and reboot your computer.

[Img]http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/4750/image15mv.png

i just tried Diskeeper 10 Professional Premier yesterday, it expects the drive letters in this registry setting to be a capital letter (uppercase),
so when typing in the drive letters use capital letters instead..

after the system has been rebooted check to make sure that the new paging files has been created, then you can move the old paging file to recycle bin, and then permanently delete the file(s).
and then, defrag your hard drives throughout the system, this includes the new paging files which you will need a third-party defragger to defrag these files.

[Img]http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/1852/image32nt.png

[Img]http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/4194/image425qc.png

PangingJr · Jan 24, 2006, 02:45 AM

I've seen some of the questions which is regarding the Windows system that use 2GB of RAM and how the Paging File settings should be?...

all of the 2GB of RAM system still need paging file. if you don't like to use the Windows default settings you still need to check your custom paging files settings just like the other systems that have less or more RAMs on them.

[Img]http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/5448/2gibpfsystem2cq.png

PangingJr · Jan 27, 2006, 02:36 AM

retest the paging file settings and took the time to get more pictures this time.
i pushed all of paging file all the way up to limit several times then i use the disk defragmenter to analyze all of partitions that the paging files are in.

the system paging files usage were went all the way up to the end of the limit that i've set them, then went all the way down to about the operating system idles and then went way up again...

and then after many hours later i tested them again..

as i can see that the x64-based versions of the Windows XP Professional has improved quite a lot on how it handles the paging files, paging files addressing and the overall memory management.
all of the running in background programs (include anti-virus's file system monitors) have never been turned off. all of the applications were still running quite smoothly which i won't see this in Windows XP x86-32bit.
the size of the paging file have never went beyond the limit (this should be the same as the 32-bit version), but the x64 system still showing like it had quite a bit memory left and kept going on with my test using the RAM that are on the system.

with the 32-bit version, it would show some lacks on the Windows performance, and also as i've seen before on the same system with same applications setups that it can only take around two-thirds and sometimes just a bit pass halfway then a wanning from an application or Windows itself about the system has low memory would turn up.

Paging file fragmentation??
all of the paging files are still in one piece and there are no fragmentation in the files.

PangingJr · Feb 24, 2006, 03:14 PM

PangingJr · Feb 28, 2006, 07:59 AM

I/O or memory subsystem - Windows XP 32-bit vs. 64-Bit

PangingJr · Feb 28, 2006, 03:34 PM

the paging file settings again, this time i increased the size of paging files up by approximately 1 GB and have a look at it again to see how it was going.