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How to add XP / Vista / Windows install iso to GRUB2 multiboot?


deafsquad

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i'd like to add windows install isos to grub2 multiboot, i found an entry how to do it with grub-legacy and windows 7

http://hak5.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13922

title Windows 7
map (hd0,0)/win7.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)

How to add an extracted winpe is described in this Project, but i want to boot the installation isos directly if possible?

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i'd like to add windows install isos to grub2 multiboot, i found an entry how to do it with grub-legacy and windows 7

http://hak5.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13922

title Windows 7
map (hd0,0)/win7.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)

How to add an extracted winpe is described in this Project, but i want to boot the installation isos directly if possible?

Hey deafsquad!

So right now I have mine set up a little differently. According the the Episode 5x24 thread booting the .iso won't work. I boot an iso it starts to load and then as soon as it starts to install it goes to a BSOD. This is because there is a protected mode on the kernel that forbids installing like this. (Keep in mind I'm still using the older Grub and not Grub2 yet) To fix this a I created a second partition on the drive, loaded the boot record from the image and then copied all the files onto the drive. When I did this it booted and went to install but gave me another error about missing drivers. I believe that error has to do with a bad image so I am downloading a new one now and will try again.

Someone else pointed out a program called WinToFlash that does all that work for you. I'm going to see if that makes it easier. I'll be back in a few hours with an update for you guys.

Here's the Code I use to boot the second partition (which was formatted in NTFS):

title Install Windows 7 --HUGE TEST
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

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I'm stuck again. Spent all day trying different configurations of partitions and grub settings but nothing seems to work. I have been able to create a second partition on my USB drive and load windows installation files from an ISO. I know the files are good I did an install off of them earlier. I can get grub to boot this second partition and it starts to load but then I get a missing drivers error. From what I can tell this is because windows can still only see the first partition on a USB Flash drive and the installation files are on a second partition it doesn't know where to find the files.

I have tried 'makeactive' (gives me an error 29 half of the time). I have tried setting the root and hiding the first partition either way when the windows bootloader takes over everything is lost. I've even tried to play around with the map command to see if I can map partitions with no luck.

I have one last avenue I'm looking into right now and that is slip-streaming a hacked driver for the USB key to appear as an external HDD. I'm hoping that this will allow the windows vista installation program to read from both partitions of my USB drive.

I'll pop back in tomorrow to let you know if i'm successful or not. I hope anyone else working on this is having better luck than I am.

~Scott

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  • 2 months later...
Do you know if WinToFlash uses grub4dos? I know WinSetupFromUSB uses grub4dos as the bootloader, which would be good since I already use that. If WinToFlash also uses grub4dos too then I'm not sure which one to use, or which one is better.
Doesn't look like it.

Multiboot function for WinToFlash?

Is it possible to use the application to setup a multboot usb flashdrive

for example, using one 16GB key have multiple Win OS's (XP,VISTA,W7) on the one flashdrive?

If not, could there be development in the future?

Re: Multiboot function for WinToFlash?

No, now WinToFlash can't do this.

For this you need 3rd party boot loader, but WinToFlash use Microsoft Windows boot loader.

Yes, we will try to develop this, but I don't know when.

From here.

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I've been trying to think of a way for this to work. Would it be possible to have for example 2 partitions and boot managers on the drive (one for linux dists and the other for windows), and then be able load the windows boot manager from the other?

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I am going to be trying to get a vista install to load off my multipass tonight.

The thing I am going to do different is instead of having it load from the .ISO, I am going to dump the files from the install image into a folder on the multipass ("vista32bit_install"), it might have to be put on its own ntfs partition and loaded from something other than grub though, I'll see if I can talk grub into loading it. Theres a good chance that Im going to b0rk the drive on my laptop and have to reinstall xp, so it might be a while before I post what happens with my attempts and any progress I make either way.

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i'd like to add windows install isos to grub2 multiboot, i found an entry how to do it with grub-legacy and windows 7

<a href="http://hak5.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13922" target="_blank">http://hak5.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13922</a>

<div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain' style='height:200px;white-space:pre;overflow:auto'>title Windows 7

map (hd0,0)/win7.iso (hd32)

map --hook

chainloader (hd32)</div>

How to add an extracted winpe is described in this Project, but i want to boot the installation isos directly if possible?

in grub2 map was replaced with drivemap

I tried:

menuentry "Windows 7 Recovery Disc 32bit" {

loopback loop /boot/iso/w7repairdisc-32bit.iso

set root=(loop)

chainloader (loop)

}

Edited by joker
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  • 9 months later...

Working solutions to install direct from ISOs:

For XP:

http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/install-xp-from-an-iso

For Vista/7 (even recovery works)

http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/firawiniso

But be careful! Does not work with any iso! Tried some modified Windows installations and did not work, please use one of them: http://pastebin.com/n1gY8Qur

Otherwise when booting you can't chose which version of Windows (Ultimate/Premium/...) to install and the installation process can't be continued

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