usb (flash) drive boot

[vadik likholetov]

Is it possible with windows xp embedded?

 

[Slobodan Brcin]

Yes it is.

You can even run FBA directly from USB disk.
And it is easy enough to understand how to do it.

These days I'll try to write article that will describe how to do this.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Mark K Vallevand]

Please do write an article. I've looked back through the posts on USB boot,
and I haven't found the clue I need.

I have a very successful IDE CF image. Now, I need USB boot of CF or
pendrive. I can boot DOS on a removable CF card in a USB reader. So, the
BIOS is clever enough to do that. I have XPe on a non-removeable CF card,
and it boots from the IDE CF slot. I can see any USB CD card plugged into
the USB reader and all the files are accessible. I've marked the USB
drivers to load at boot time as suggested in earlier posts, but I may be
missing drivers needed for booting. The CF card will not boot in the USB
reader. I get an error message "A disk read error occurred. Please use
Ctl-Alt-Del to reboot." on the screen. Its probably from the BIOS. Maybe
it can't read non-removeable USB devices. The CF card is partitioned with a
single active partition and lots of unpartitioned space. I've tried two
different USB readers, 2.0 and 1.1, but it doesn't matter.

Any ideas are welcome.

 

[Slobodan Brcin]

I will write it, eventually.

But for now:
You should use USB disk marked as non-removable.

Also you must prepare disk (fdisk or diskedit, format) to make disk
bootable.
You must somehow reach phase that XPe is loading.

When you hit BSOD 7B.

Then you need to mark usbehci, usbohci, usbhub, usbstor.
To load at phase 0.
Also you need to set LoadGroup to Boot Bus Extender so USB is loaded before
filesystem load is attempted.

Failing to do this properly will fail with result 7B.

When you hit BSOD you can use kernel debugger to see what part of USB stack
is loaded.

Use: !devnode 0 1
it will list all drivers and their relations.

You need to see something like:
(usbohci or usbehci)-usbhub-usbstor or you will see what is missing.

Also all entries must be declared as critical drivers.


BTW:
FBA can be executed directly on USB disk.


Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Mark K Vallevand]

Many thanks. The one thing I found out just a few minutes before I saw this
message was that non removable drives do boot XPe. I'm making progress
again. This notes are just enough clues to get ahead.

Is there a way to get NTFS format to work on all non-removable CF drives?
I've had very inconsistant results. I have only one non-removabke CF drive
with NTFS on it, and I can't remember how I made it. :-(

 

[Slobodan Brcin]

Problem is not NTFS related.
It is more related to BIOS and disk geometry.

For this I have not found universal answer.

You need to format disk on your target device.
Try partitioning with DOS and Windows utilities.
Use fdisk, format, diskprep for DOS
Use diskpart, format from XP.

Trying both approaches should give you higher level of bootable disks.

Dos utilities are relaying on int 13 so using them on target device should
yield the best geometry results.


Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Mark K Vallevand]

I will write it, eventually.
Great!

But for now:
You should use USB disk marked as non-removable.

It is non-removable.

Also you must prepare disk (fdisk or diskedit, format) to make disk
bootable.

It is all prepared, passed FBA and running perfectly when booting from IDE
CF.
Its a 512mb CF partitioned into 128mb NTFS and rest unpartitioned.

You must somehow reach phase that XPe is loading.

Here is where I'm stuck now. The BIOS (I think) won't boot this CF. A
removable CF with a whole-disk NTFS partition will get past the BIOS.

When you hit BSOD 7B.

The removable CF hits the BSOD 7B.

Then you need to mark usbehci, usbohci, usbhub, usbstor.
To load at phase 0.

Did this already. Except that usbehci isn't there. I found the missing
component (USB 2.0), added it, and will try again. I don't think it matters
because I think I'm using USB 1.1 hardware.

Also you need to set LoadGroup to Boot Bus Extender so USB is loaded before
filesystem load is attempted.

OK. This is magic I don't grok. How it this done? In the registry I
assume. Let me look...
I see it. Made that change, too.

Failing to do this properly will fail with result 7B.

When you hit BSOD you can use kernel debugger to see what part of USB stack
is loaded.

I'll add the debug stuff in boot.ini.

Use: !devnode 0 1
it will list all drivers and their relations.

You need to see something like:
(usbohci or usbehci)-usbhub-usbstor or you will see what is missing.

Also all entries must be declared as critical drivers.

Again, I don't grok critical driver.

BTW:
FBA can be executed directly on USB disk.

Well, if I could get USB disk to boot...
I normally boot into FBA from IDE HD, then finish setting up the image.
Setting up the image includes registry fixes for EWF and USB, preferences,
etc. The image is captured and used to make the CF.

Regards,
Slobodan

Well. the non-removable CF still won't boot past the BIOS. The removable CF
will boot past the BIOS, and starts loading XPe. The blocks slowly walk on
the bottom of the screen, then BSOD. The two CFs have identical file
contents. The non-removable CF will boot from IDE CF as expected. The
removable CF won't boot from IDE CF. Weird, huh?

Well, time to experiment some more...

 

[Slobodan Brcin]

I have not tried yet boot process from removable USB disk.
But you must somehow persuade your BIOS to load ntldr. to phase where it
will ask you for OS choice in following boot.ini scenario:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XPe Test 1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XPe Test 2" /fastdetect

If you make it up to this point then your device(BIOS) is capable of booting
XPe from USB.

You need to prepare disk with (fdisk or diskpart) when device is connected
on USB CF reader, not on IDE connector.
It is possible that BIOS will see different disk geometry for CF connected
on USB or IDE adapter.



Search for more info on registry key CriticalDeviceDatabase, you will need
to populate this with valid values.

LoadGroup or Group, different names for registry and in inf file, but it
same value. More info available in DDK.

If you manage to pass this check points then we can talk again.

Also if you continue to pursue use of removable medium.
Use remote kernel debugging to see what USB drivers were loaded when you hit
BSOD 7B.
This is only way for you to know what is not properly loaded and to separate
problem to phases.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Mark K Vallevand]

It looks like the program Windows\System32\autochk.exe (or autofmt.exe) is
failing during the USB disk boot. I suspect that I haven't got the
CriticalDeviceDatabase correct in the registry. I'm checking it now. It
look OK.

Booting from IDE CF and watching with windbg, the image loads the USB
drivers usbohci, usbhub, usbstor. These were the critical devices I added.
Booting from USB, windbg never sees anything. The image halts before the
debugger can be started. The messaage "A disk read error occurred. Please
use Ctl-Alt-Del to reboot." is displayed. That message seems to be coming
from autochk.exe or autofmt.exe.

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand

I have not tried yet boot process from removable USB disk.
But you must somehow persuade your BIOS to load ntldr. to phase where it
will ask you for OS choice in following boot.ini scenario:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XPe Test 1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XPe Test 2" /fastdetect

If you make it up to this point then your device(BIOS) is capable of booting
XPe from USB.

You need to prepare disk with (fdisk or diskpart) when device is connected
on USB CF reader, not on IDE connector.
It is possible that BIOS will see different disk geometry for CF connected
on USB or IDE adapter.



Search for more info on registry key CriticalDeviceDatabase, you will need
to populate this with valid values.

LoadGroup or Group, different names for registry and in inf file, but it
same value. More info available in DDK.

If you manage to pass this check points then we can talk again.

Also if you continue to pursue use of removable medium.
Use remote kernel debugging to see what USB drivers were loaded when you hit
BSOD 7B.
This is only way for you to know what is not properly loaded and to separate
problem to phases.

Regards,
Slobodan

It is non-removable.


It is all prepared, passed FBA and running perfectly when booting from IDE
CF.
Its a 512mb CF partitioned into 128mb NTFS and rest unpartitioned.


Here is where I'm stuck now. The BIOS (I think) won't boot this CF. A
removable CF with a whole-disk NTFS partition will get past the BIOS.


The removable CF hits the BSOD 7B.


Did this already. Except that usbehci isn't there. I found the missing
component (USB 2.0), added it, and will try again. I don't think it matters
because I think I'm using USB 1.1 hardware.


OK. This is magic I don't grok. How it this done? In the registry I
assume. Let me look...
I see it. Made that change, too.


I'll add the debug stuff in boot.ini.


Again, I don't grok critical driver.


Well, if I could get USB disk to boot...
I normally boot into FBA from IDE HD, then finish setting up the image.
Setting up the image includes registry fixes for EWF and USB, preferences,
etc. The image is captured and used to make the CF.


Well. the non-removable CF still won't boot past the BIOS. The

removable

CF
will boot past the BIOS, and starts loading XPe. The blocks slowly walk on
the bottom of the screen, then BSOD. The two CFs have identical file
contents. The non-removable CF will boot from IDE CF as expected. The
removable CF won't boot from IDE CF. Weird, huh?

Well, time to experiment some more...

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand
So,
the plugged
into

may

be the
USB partitioned
with

 

[Slobodan Brcin]

This message origin in not Windows XPe executive.
It is more likely from partition boot or from ntldr.
When switch to protected mode occurs no more Ctl-Alt-Del can be seen.

Have you been able to conduct test with boot.ini successfully.

windbg will connect automatically to your target device, when kernel start
loading (if you have set right debug parameters in boot.ini)

Also you can use /SOS in boot.ini to see binaries that are loaded by ntldr.


Regards,
Slobodan

It looks like the program Windows\System32\autochk.exe (or autofmt.exe) is
failing during the USB disk boot. I suspect that I haven't got the
CriticalDeviceDatabase correct in the registry. I'm checking it now. It
look OK.

Booting from IDE CF and watching with windbg, the image loads the USB
drivers usbohci, usbhub, usbstor. These were the critical devices I added.
Booting from USB, windbg never sees anything. The image halts before the
debugger can be started. The messaage "A disk read error occurred. Please
use Ctl-Alt-Del to reboot." is displayed. That message seems to be coming
from autochk.exe or autofmt.exe.

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand

I have not tried yet boot process from removable USB disk.
But you must somehow persuade your BIOS to load ntldr. to phase where it
will ask you for OS choice in following boot.ini scenario:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XPe Test 1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XPe Test 2" /fastdetect

If you make it up to this point then your device(BIOS) is capable of booting
XPe from USB.

You need to prepare disk with (fdisk or diskpart) when device is connected
on USB CF reader, not on IDE connector.
It is possible that BIOS will see different disk geometry for CF connected
on USB or IDE adapter.



Search for more info on registry key CriticalDeviceDatabase, you will need
to populate this with valid values.

LoadGroup or Group, different names for registry and in inf file, but it
same value. More info available in DDK.

If you manage to pass this check points then we can talk again.

Also if you continue to pursue use of removable medium.
Use remote kernel debugging to see what USB drivers were loaded when you hit
BSOD 7B.
This is only way for you to know what is not properly loaded and to separate
problem to phases.

Regards,
Slobodan

"Mark K Vallevand" <mark DOT vallevand AT unisys DOT com> wrote in message

I will write it, eventually.

Great!

But for now:
You should use USB disk marked as non-removable.

It is non-removable.

Also you must prepare disk (fdisk or diskedit, format) to make disk
bootable.

It is all prepared, passed FBA and running perfectly when booting from IDE
CF.
Its a 512mb CF partitioned into 128mb NTFS and rest unpartitioned.

You must somehow reach phase that XPe is loading.

Here is where I'm stuck now. The BIOS (I think) won't boot this CF. A
removable CF with a whole-disk NTFS partition will get past the BIOS.

When you hit BSOD 7B.

The removable CF hits the BSOD 7B.

Then you need to mark usbehci, usbohci, usbhub, usbstor.
To load at phase 0.

Did this already. Except that usbehci isn't there. I found the missing
component (USB 2.0), added it, and will try again. I don't think it matters
because I think I'm using USB 1.1 hardware.

Also you need to set LoadGroup to Boot Bus Extender so USB is loaded
before
filesystem load is attempted.

OK. This is magic I don't grok. How it this done? In the registry I
assume. Let me look...
I see it. Made that change, too.

Failing to do this properly will fail with result 7B.

When you hit BSOD you can use kernel debugger to see what part of USB
stack
is loaded.

I'll add the debug stuff in boot.ini.

Use: !devnode 0 1
it will list all drivers and their relations.

You need to see something like:
(usbohci or usbehci)-usbhub-usbstor or you will see what is
missing.

Also all entries must be declared as critical drivers.

Again, I don't grok critical driver.

BTW:
FBA can be executed directly on USB disk.

Well, if I could get USB disk to boot...
I normally boot into FBA from IDE HD, then finish setting up the image.
Setting up the image includes registry fixes for EWF and USB, preferences,
etc. The image is captured and used to make the CF.

Regards,
Slobodan

Well. the non-removable CF still won't boot past the BIOS. The

removable

CF
will boot past the BIOS, and starts loading XPe. The blocks slowly

walk
on

the bottom of the screen, then BSOD. The two CFs have identical file
contents. The non-removable CF will boot from IDE CF as expected. The
removable CF won't boot from IDE CF. Weird, huh?

Well, time to experiment some more...

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand


"Mark K Vallevand" <mark DOT vallevand AT unisys DOT com> wrote in message
Please do write an article. I've looked back through the posts on USB
boot,
and I haven't found the clue I need.

I have a very successful IDE CF image. Now, I need USB boot of CF or
pendrive. I can boot DOS on a removable CF card in a USB reader. So,
the
BIOS is clever enough to do that. I have XPe on a non-removeable CF
card,
and it boots from the IDE CF slot. I can see any USB CD card plugged
into
the USB reader and all the files are accessible. I've marked the USB
drivers to load at boot time as suggested in earlier posts, but I

may

be
missing drivers needed for booting. The CF card will not boot in the
USB
reader. I get an error message "A disk read error occurred.

Please
use

Ctl-Alt-Del to reboot." on the screen. Its probably from the BIOS.
Maybe
it can't read non-removeable USB devices. The CF card is partitioned
with
a
single active partition and lots of unpartitioned space. I've

tried
two

different USB readers, 2.0 and 1.1, but it doesn't matter.

Any ideas are welcome.
--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand


Yes it is.

You can even run FBA directly from USB disk.
And it is easy enough to understand how to do it.

These days I'll try to write article that will describe how to do
this.

Regards,
Slobodan



Is it possible with windows xp embedded?

 

[Mark K Vallevand]

OK. I've finally gotten to boot.ini and the kernel debugger. Now, I can
see which driver is missing or whatever. Huzzah!

Thanks for all the help. As my father says, "you are a scholar and a
gentleman."

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand

This message origin in not Windows XPe executive.
It is more likely from partition boot or from ntldr.
When switch to protected mode occurs no more Ctl-Alt-Del can be seen.

Have you been able to conduct test with boot.ini successfully.

windbg will connect automatically to your target device, when kernel start
loading (if you have set right debug parameters in boot.ini)

Also you can use /SOS in boot.ini to see binaries that are loaded by ntldr.


Regards,
Slobodan

It looks like the program Windows\System32\autochk.exe (or autofmt.exe) is
failing during the USB disk boot. I suspect that I haven't got the
CriticalDeviceDatabase correct in the registry. I'm checking it now. It
look OK.

Booting from IDE CF and watching with windbg, the image loads the USB
drivers usbohci, usbhub, usbstor. These were the critical devices I added.
Booting from USB, windbg never sees anything. The image halts before the
debugger can be started. The messaage "A disk read error occurred. Please
use Ctl-Alt-Del to reboot." is displayed. That message seems to be coming
from autochk.exe or autofmt.exe.

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand

I have not tried yet boot process from removable USB disk.
But you must somehow persuade your BIOS to load ntldr. to phase where it
will ask you for OS choice in following boot.ini scenario:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XPe Test 1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XPe Test 2" /fastdetect

If you make it up to this point then your device(BIOS) is capable of booting
XPe from USB.

You need to prepare disk with (fdisk or diskpart) when device is connected
on USB CF reader, not on IDE connector.
It is possible that BIOS will see different disk geometry for CF connected
on USB or IDE adapter.



Search for more info on registry key CriticalDeviceDatabase, you will need
to populate this with valid values.

LoadGroup or Group, different names for registry and in inf file, but it
same value. More info available in DDK.

If you manage to pass this check points then we can talk again.

Also if you continue to pursue use of removable medium.
Use remote kernel debugging to see what USB drivers were loaded when

you
hit

BSOD 7B.
This is only way for you to know what is not properly loaded and to separate
problem to phases.

Regards,
Slobodan

"Mark K Vallevand" <mark DOT vallevand AT unisys DOT com> wrote in message
I will write it, eventually.

Great!

But for now:
You should use USB disk marked as non-removable.

It is non-removable.

Also you must prepare disk (fdisk or diskedit, format) to make disk
bootable.

It is all prepared, passed FBA and running perfectly when booting

from
IDE

CF.
Its a 512mb CF partitioned into 128mb NTFS and rest unpartitioned.

You must somehow reach phase that XPe is loading.

Here is where I'm stuck now. The BIOS (I think) won't boot this CF. A
removable CF with a whole-disk NTFS partition will get past the BIOS.

When you hit BSOD 7B.

The removable CF hits the BSOD 7B.

Then you need to mark usbehci, usbohci, usbhub, usbstor.
To load at phase 0.

Did this already. Except that usbehci isn't there. I found the missing
component (USB 2.0), added it, and will try again. I don't think it
matters
because I think I'm using USB 1.1 hardware.

Also you need to set LoadGroup to Boot Bus Extender so USB is loaded
before
filesystem load is attempted.

OK. This is magic I don't grok. How it this done? In the registry I
assume. Let me look...
I see it. Made that change, too.

Failing to do this properly will fail with result 7B.

When you hit BSOD you can use kernel debugger to see what part of USB
stack
is loaded.

I'll add the debug stuff in boot.ini.

Use: !devnode 0 1
it will list all drivers and their relations.

You need to see something like:
(usbohci or usbehci)-usbhub-usbstor or you will see what is
missing.

Also all entries must be declared as critical drivers.

Again, I don't grok critical driver.

BTW:
FBA can be executed directly on USB disk.

Well, if I could get USB disk to boot...
I normally boot into FBA from IDE HD, then finish setting up the image.
Setting up the image includes registry fixes for EWF and USB, preferences,
etc. The image is captured and used to make the CF.

Regards,
Slobodan

Well. the non-removable CF still won't boot past the BIOS. The removable
CF
will boot past the BIOS, and starts loading XPe. The blocks slowly walk
on
the bottom of the screen, then BSOD. The two CFs have identical file
contents. The non-removable CF will boot from IDE CF as expected. The
removable CF won't boot from IDE CF. Weird, huh?

Well, time to experiment some more...

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand


"Mark K Vallevand" <mark DOT vallevand AT unisys DOT com> wrote in
message
Please do write an article. I've looked back through the posts

on
USB

boot,
and I haven't found the clue I need.

I have a very successful IDE CF image. Now, I need USB boot of

CF
or

pendrive. I can boot DOS on a removable CF card in a USB

reader.
So,

the
BIOS is clever enough to do that. I have XPe on a

non-removeable

CF the
USB I
may in
the