Make USB Flash With Multiple Imaging and Paritioning Boot Disks

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by huntnyc, May 14, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. huntnyc

    huntnyc Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 10, 2004
    Posts:
    1,014
    Location:
    Brooklyn, USA
    Need your help please. Is there any way I can place several imaging and partitioning boot disks on a USB flash and get a choice of which one I want to use at boot. I would like to place Bootit BM, Image for Linux,Paragon HDM 11 and Shadow Protect 4 on the flash drive. Thanks for your input on this.

    Gary
     
  2. comtrjl

    comtrjl Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2012
    Posts:
    27
    Location:
    uk
    If you have a look at this page it shows you how to use 'RMPrepUSB' to install Grub4DOS - http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/grub4dos - and make a bootable USB.
    Then you can edit the menu.lst file referred to in the tutorial and create your own entries for the items you want to boot from, like:

    title Image for Windows
    find --set-root /ifw.iso
    map /ifw.iso (hd32)
    map --hook
    root (hd32)
    chainloader (hd32)

    (Repeat this entry as often as needed, changing the names as appropriate)

    Finally, copy the ISO's for Bootit, IFL etc onto the USB and try booting from it.

    bob
     
  3. treehouse786

    treehouse786 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2010
    Posts:
    1,411
    Location:
    Lancashire
  4. n8chavez

    n8chavez Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2003
    Posts:
    3,336
    Location:
    Location Unknown
    I had this very same problem about a year ago. And,. to be honest, nothing really work. Then I stumbled upon YUMI. It will work perfectly for what you want.
     
  5. osip

    osip Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2006
    Posts:
    610
    Take a look at this closed topic :
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1869087#post1869087

    I just remade the procedure explained there based on grub4dos to a bigger usb flash drive than earlier. Now I have IFL, ATI complete rescue, and Shadowprotcect fully working. This for my systemx64 win 7ult.Starts really fast after format to NTFS.
    Easy to create and strongly recommended.
     
  6. n8chavez

    n8chavez Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2003
    Posts:
    3,336
    Location:
    Location Unknown
    That's exactly how YUMI works; using chained grub4dos.
     
  7. kennyboy

    kennyboy Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2006
    Posts:
    431

    Another vote for Yumi. It does work very well.
     
  8. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2005
    Posts:
    1,926
    I think since the OP wants to also boot Showdow protect 4 on the usb, YUMI may not work since SP4 is based on windows pe. I think grub4dos is the only way to go.
    please correct me if i am wrong.
     
  9. aladdin

    aladdin Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2006
    Posts:
    2,986
    Location:
    Oman
    For the above the best is XBoot.

    Best regards,

    KOR!
     
  10. n8chavez

    n8chavez Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2003
    Posts:
    3,336
    Location:
    Location Unknown
    Yumi absolutely will work on PE based discs. I have a custom WinPE 3.0 disc that I've added to my usb with Yumi that works perfectly. It can add bootable ISOs (from RAM or otherwise) to your flash. They're the last couple options in the Yumi menu.
     
  11. pajenn

    pajenn Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 26, 2009
    Posts:
    930
    To make bootable flash drive I like to copy windows 7 boot directory and bootmgr to a USB stick, use bootice or a similar utility to process the flash drive's PBR and MBR to make them NT 6.x, then use EasyBCD (free version is fine) to add iso, img, wim, vhd and other bootable images to it. EasyBCD can also add Plop and Grub bootloaders to the boot menu. I actually use this method to replace my XP machines' boot loaders (NT5.x) with Win 7 boot loaders so that I can easily add all sorts of images to their boot menus.

    Using EasyBCD is self-explanatory, you just select the BCD store on your flash drive (BCD file in the boot folder you copied there), clear off the default entries, then add new ones very easily; you just select the image file and specify a name for it in the boot menu.

    About ShadowProtect: The ISO is bloated imo. I prefer to just copy boot.wim (~140 MB) from the ISO's sources directory and boot that, or copy SHADOWPROTECTPE directory (~80 MB) from its I386 directory to my USB stick. I can then launch ShadowProtect from there while in windows 7 or Win7PE environment (I think it works in XP and XPE too).

    Also check out the Win7PE_SE project. It's a free program to build Win7PE boot disks, although you have to also download a huge WAIK file from Microsoft and/or you need a copy of Windows 7 to use for building the boot disks. I particularly like Win7PE_SE because it can build x64 versions of Win7PE disks and it includes USB 3.0 drivers and other good stuff. The problem with ShadowProtect ISO, for example, is that it doesn't include USB 3.0 drivers. When I use it, I actually just boot with my custom Win7PE disk and then ShadowProtect from SHADOWPROTECTPE folder that I previously copied to my hard drive or flash drive.
     
  12. treehouse786

    treehouse786 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2010
    Posts:
    1,411
    Location:
    Lancashire
    correct, i used YUMI to add Active@ boot disk to my USB (WinPE).

    nothing comes close to yumi in my eyes and i have tried alot :thumb:
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.