Tutorial how to boot from any USB

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dietmar
  • Start date Start date
Hi Dietmar,

Testing on a HP Compaq dc5000 SFF, with XP Pro SP2...

But there is still a problem, that C.C. Wu already mentioned yesterday:
booting from the USB disk works only if an IDE disk is still connected.
And then, the booted USB disk is drive D:, and lots of registry entries
still point to C: (the IDE disk). This means that the system, while
booting XP from the USB disk, makes lots of accesses to the IDE disk C:

Are you able to boot from USB disk without any IDE disk attached ?

Thanks !

Gert
 
Hi Gert,
until now I havent tested USB boot for
XP SP2. Did you do a fresh install of your XP?
And did you delete MountedDevices and SystemPartition direkt before you
copying it to the USB drive?
If not, exakt the problems arrive, that you told me.
Do you know Windebug and can handle it?
This gives you more information whats going on.

I will do a test with SP2.

Dietmar
 
Hi all,
XP SP2 does not work as described in my Tutorial(Version2)on my Siemens
Motherboard D1607 with Athlon3200-64. Until now I dont know the reason.
You can update your XPSP1 as long as you want from Microsoft, but updating
to SP2 and my USB boot is gone.

Dietmar
 
Hi all,

XP SP2 boot with USB works, if there is an IDE harddrive also connected.
It boots then from the USB drive, the USB letter is C: .

If You unplug (caution, may die :( ) that IDE drive early in booting,
it boots normal as single harddrive from USB.

This is exact the behavior from SP1, BEFORE I made my changes to
registry.

Now is another bad driver (or only changed setting? ) preventing the USB
drivers to start early enough in bootprocess, so that the USB bootdrive
cant be recogniced.

Oh my, it is so terrible to find out, which is that bad one.

What you have to do is quiete easy to describe:

Find the bad driver or the bad setting of a start=0 driver and all is ok.

Or you have to find a way, that USB drivers are now starting more earlier
than nearly any other driver.

Or let the computer THINK :-), that an IDE is connected...hihihi.

Nice to hear from you
Dietmar
 
Hi Dietmar, Gert,
I am stuck in this situation.
I have tried to disable IDE driver, and let IDE driver boot after boot.
Unfortunately, I can't succeed yet.
I have set apati driver's start into bigger then 1, but I got 7B.
I have deleted all Key in CriticalDeviceBase, and added USB Keys, but system
still checked IDE device.


C.C. Wu
 
Hi Dietmar,
Do you mean that you can boot from UFD in XP SP1 without any IDE HDD, and
when you boot in XP SP2 you need to plug a IDE HDD?
I have never built embedded XP in XP SP2. My system is Embedded XP SP1.
I think that Embedded SP1 has the same problem.
Now, I am trying to write a IDE driver to cheat system into believing there
is a IDE HDD.

Thanks.
C .C. Wu
 
Hi C. C. Wu and Gert,

I did the following: I copied in my XP SP2 the registry hive SYSTEM and
the USB drivers from SP1.
But the behavior is exactly the same. It started now as XP SP1 from USB,
but only with IDE harddisk present. So I think: It is not the fault of the
registry or the USB drivers. Perhaps the new NTLDR from SP2 asks, whether
there is an IDE harddisk or not.
This will mean, that the problem can only be overcome if you mask your USB
device as IDE or SCSI harddisk, and that can only be done with an extra
SCSI miniportdriver. I thought, that Microsoft has given us that gift, to
prevent booting from USB device. The reason is simple:
I was able to boot 2 different Computers(!) (each with XP SP1)(means ALL
different hardware) with ONE, the only and same, USB stick!
XP SP1 can be updatet as you wish. If you use not specialisied drivers,
this can be done as with Win98. And also XP Embedded SP2 is not real SP2.
It is a clone of SP1. With SP2 things are much harder as with SP1.

Nice to hear from you
Dietmar
 
Hi C.C. WU

yes, of course USB boot works as I said in my tutorial (Version2) with
normal XP SP1 without any IDE harddisk.
And if you are able to write an driver, which fakes an IDE for SP2, I am
very interested and how you do this.

Nice to hear from you
Dietmar
 
Hi Dietmar,

I repeated the whole Tutorial (Version2) sequence,
but now with XP SP1, and indeed, now the USB boot works,
both with and without an IDE harddisk connected !
And I tested this USB disk then successfully on both
the dc5000SFF and the d530SFF from HP Compaq.

Best regards,
Gert
 
Hi Gert,
that are great news.
I am writing another Tutorial (Version3),
with which I hope to succeed also with XP SP2.
But it is to early in this moment, to ask me how and whether it is able.

Nice to hear from you

Dietmar
 
Hi Dietmar,
I am so confused because I installed embedded XP SP1, but I cannot boot it
without IDE HDD.

One more step to boot from UFD.
Thanks.
C.C. Wu
 
Hi C.C. Wu,

have you tried Windows XP SP1 (not Embedded)?

Disable SATA in your Bios and use a IDE harddisk for your fresh XP SP1.

I testet intil now 3 motherboards and all work.
SP2 boots until now only, if there is an IDE too.
But that is not the last I say about that...hihi.

Give me your motherboard name, perhaps in school or surrounding is a
similar, that I can test.

Nice to hear from you
Dietmar

PS: I thought, there is a start=0 driver, which does not allow usbstor to
start. I think this, because in key USBSTOR (in Services) there is no ENUM
entry, and this means, that the message from Bios, that there IS an USB
harddrive, doesnt arrive XP SP2, so usbhub startet but not usbstor.
 
Hi Dietmar,
I just tried Windows XP SP1 this morning, and I got the same resoult as
Embedded XP SP1.
I think that problem is motherboard, so I am going to try another
motherboard.
My motherboard is GIGABYTE 85661FXMP-RZ with SIS964, and BIOS is Aeard v6.0.

Thanks.
C.C. Wu
 
Dear Dietmar,

I have try on XPE SP2 and face the same problem with yours.
I never try on SP1.

Would you please e-mail me all version of your Tutorial?

Thanks in advance.

- Chris
 
Hi Dietmar,

I followed your tutorial (version 2) to boot XP SP1 from USB. But
without IDE harddisk I'm not able to boot. I am using Intel Desktop
board D845GVSR. Could you pls let me know what could be going wrong.

Thanking you in advance,
Shankar
 
Hi Shankar,

in a few days I will post Tutorial (Version3).
With that tutorial, your motherboard is left NO chance NOT to boot with a
single USB.

Dietmar
 
hi dietmar,

when can we expect your tutorial (version -3)....i have tried booting
XP using thumbdrive using BartPE. but i want to do it this way, can u
pls help?

cheers!
 
Hi Shankar,
I can boot now any XP SP1, XP SP2, XPE1, XPE2 from any USB device with a
motherboard, which is not older than 2...3 years.
The new Tutorial(Version 3)from me, how to do this, is nearly ready and
will appear in the german computermagazin c't in about 1 week.
After that I will give you Tutorial(Version 3).

Nice to hear from you
Dietmar

PS: Does anyone here in this forum made a try with Windows Server 2003 to
boot from a USB device?
 
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