Fix 'Error 60 - File not contiguous'!

You have probably come across this error message from grub4dos. It occurs when the file that it is trying to use is not contiguous.

To fix this you can run RMPrepUSB and select the USB drive and press Ctrl+F2 to run WinContig and defragment all files on the drive.

Making all file contiguous on a drive is not the same as defragmenting the drive. Defragmenting a drive shifts all the files to the beginning of the drive but often does not make all the files contiguous. WinContig does not shift the files if they are already contiguous and so WinContig is quicker and more effective than defragging the whole drive using a defrag utility.

Note: WinContig, Defraggler and other similar utilities usually need a contiguous run of free clusters on a drive so that they can copy the file into that contiguous space. Even after you run WinContig/Defraggler, you may not be able to copy over another large file and make it contiguous (even though there is enough free space on the drive) - see this post for details. Defraggler has an option to 'Defrag Free Space' which will fix this problem.

        This Defraggler map shows that the free clusters are not in one contiguous block. See here for more details.

To make a file contiguous,WinContig has to create a new file that is contiguous before it can delete the old non-contiguous file. Thus we need some contiguous free space on the drive that is the same size or larger than the size of the file we are trying to defragment. So for a 3GB file, we will need at least 3GB of contiguous free space on the same drive.

A file in a volume exists as a number of clusters (chunks of data). For example, a typical cluster size on an NTFS volume is 4K or 8 sectors. So a 10K file would occupy 3 clusters:

Cluster 1 = first 4K
Cluster 2 = 2nd 4K
Cluster 3 = 3rd 4K cluster (only first 2K of which has valid data)

These clusters can be anywhere within the volume. So they could be at cluster no 6,7 and 8 or they could be at cluster no. 3234, 44564 and 332!

A utility such as WinContig will rearrange the clusters within a file (if it can). So in the previous example, we might end up with the file consisting of cluster no.s  3234, 3235 and 3236 and so the file is contiguous and has sequential cluster numbers.

Recently, a user on reboot.pro had a problem. He had a 6GB VHD file on an 8GB NTFS-formatted USB drive. He ran WinContig but it would not make the file contiguous. Even copying the file to a freshly formatted 8GB NTFS drive did not work, the file was always non-contiguous.

It turns out that the reason for this is that when you format an NTFS volume, the Master File Table (MFT) is placed at the 3GB position within the volume (if the volume is over about 5GB). So on a freshly formatted 8GB volume, we have

(3GB of free space)
$MFT  (NTFS 'directory')
(4.7GB approx. of free space)

So we can see that there is no way we can store a 6GB sequential file with the MFT placed at the default 3GB position.

As the file is greater than 4GB, we cannot use a FAT32 filesystem (as FAT32 does not support files greater than 4GB).

You can see this if you use a utility such as Auslogics defrag tool which shows a map of the used clusters and what files occupy which areas of the disk.

Piriform's Defraggler is another good tool for displaying fragmented files and analyzing the file layout on a drive. It can also defragment individual files too (right-click in Explorer) and also offers to delete files in the Recycling Bin before defragging.

Alternatively, you can boot to grub4dos from the USB drive, go to the grub4dos shell (press c in the grub4dos menu) and then use the blocklist command to see how many fragments you have and where they are located - e.g.

So how can we make an 8GB USB flash drive containing a 6GB contiguous file?

Well, Wonko the Sane (from reboot.pro) came up with the idea of making a small NTFS volume and then re-sizing it (expand it), thus leaving the MFT in the same place (as it is not normally moved when resizing).

Here is how to make a bootable 8GB USB drive containing a 6GB contiguous file using the partitioning tool EaseUS Home Partition Master (EHPM):

1. Erase all ptns on the 8GB flash drive
2. Make a small 20MB NTFS PRIMARY ptn using EHPM - or RMPrepUSB if you want a special bootloader
3. Re-Size the ptn using EHPM to ALMOST the full drive capacity - e.g. 7.8GB
4. Now add a small 2nd FAT PRIMARY partition (this is to improve boot compatibility with some BIOSes - the ptn is not actually used)
5. Copy over your large 6GB file and check it is contiguous using WinContig.

If you have Vista or Win7/8, then you can use Disk Manager instead of EaseUS Home Partition Master.

The whole discussion can be found on reboot.pro here.

Having trouble still? See also my other blog article here.

Recommended: SanDisk Extreme Pro USB 3.1 (#ad)

Having trouble making files contiguous on a USB drive?

Easy2Boot (and many other grub4dos boot drives) require the files on the bootable USB drive to be contiguous for certain features to work.

RMPrepUSB has an option to run WinContig (included in the RMPrepUSB download) using the Ctrl-F2 hotkey in RMPrepUSB to make all the files on the E2B drive contiguous. Sometimes WinContig may fail to make all files contiguous however and this is usually due to the lack of free space available on the drive.

• In the diagram above, FILE 4 is 1.3GB in size and is not contiguous.
• Since there is not 1.3GB of contiguous free space on the drive, WinContig cannot copy the FILE 4 to an area of contiguous free space because there is no free space large enough.
• If you copy a new 1.3GB file to this drive, it will have to occupy the unused free space and so the new file will also be non-contiguous

A nice tool you can use to help you look at the files on the USB drive and understand what is happening is the free Piriform Windows utility Defraggler.

Defraggler also asks if you want to erase the Recycle Bin files when you Analyze or Defrag a drive.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you can select a drive, click Analyze and then immediately see the fragmented files (shown by the red squares). You can then select a red square and Defraggler will list what files are in that block. You can then tick the checkbox next to any of these files and defragment them separately by clicking the 'Defrag checked' button. Nice!

WinContig does not consolidate the unused free space on a drive volume. This means that if there is not a contiguous run of free clusters on the drive, WinContig and Defraggler will not be able to defrag a large file.

However, you can use the Defraggler - Defrag Freespace option to collect all the unused clusters into one or two large blocks. This is a very useful feature and will often fix any WinContig issues you may have (run WinContig afterwards).

Defraggler is not a good tool to use on the whole USB drive however. It attempts to move all the files to the beginning of the drive as well as make them contiguous. This can take a longggg time and is also unnecessary. What is more, if you Stop Defraggler during a defrag operation, it can prevent the drive from being defragged again and prevent WinContig from being able to make all the files contiguous unless you first delete a large file from the USB drive to make more room or use the Defrag Freespace option! So I would advise that you only use Defraggler to defrag single files and don't interrupt it once it has started. If you need to make all files on a drive contiguous use WinContig (or Ctrl+F2 in RMPrepUSB).

P.S. In case you missed it, in a previous blog post, I describe a case where a 6GB ISO could not be copied and then defragged on an empty 8GB USB drive and the reason why this happens.

How to make large files contiguous on an E2B USB drive

As you know, most files on the E2B USB drive need to be contiguous (one exception to this is the Windows Installer ISO files).

The easiest way to make all files contiguous is to click on the \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd batch file which runs WinContig.

Tip: If you don't use the CONTIG.ISO temporary file (only used by E2B when files are non-contiguous), then just delete it. This will add an extra 500MB of free space.

BUT - Do you ever find that one or two large files cannot be made contiguous by WinContig?

You may find that, even though there is enough free space on the drive to make a copy of the file, WinContig (and Defraggler) cannot make the file contiguous. This is because the 'free space' is scattered all over the drive volume instead of being all in one 'chunk'.

Motasem discovered this yesterday and contacted me for advice. Here is how you can fix the problem...

E2B v1.B0a Beta now available

This version (E2B v1.B0a Beta) has a few new features:

• Some new file extension suffixes are now recognised:
     NCQ (non-contiguous+quiet)
     QUIETP (redir+redirp)
     QUIET   (redir)
• .isoboot file extension now supported - will boot a non-contiguous linux iso using isoboot only

E2B v1.98b/c BETA available

v1.98b BETA is available
v1.98c BETA (small change to QRUN to add NCQ tip message)
v1.98d BETA (small change to QRUN for .isopersist tip messages)
v1.98e BETA FreeDOS floppy image now has increased conventional memory (was 300K, now 530K) so can run larger programs

Download here - if you have problems with Windows Defender, download the .zip version or E2B instead - extract the files and run Make_E2B.exe.

Changes from v1.98a BETA

• Support for .iso filenames ending in new NCQ suffix (e.g. WinPEx64_ncq.iso)
• Other v. small changes

About the *NCQ filename suffix

Easy2Boot 1.42 - now no need to defrag ISO files (sort of)

As I am sure you know, Easy2Boot uses a grub4dos feature which can map an ISO to a partition table so that when linux boots, it sees the partition table as a valid filesystem and thus linux can mount the 'ISO file' and be able to access the files inside it.

This feature uses the partnew command in grub4dos and the partnew command can only map a file as a partition if the file is contiguous (and exists on the same physical drive).

I have added a new feature to E2B v1.42 which will check to see if the ISO file is contiguous and if not, it will copy the contents of the whole ISO file using dd into a pre-existing CONTIG.ISO dummy file which is already contiguous (maximum size 3.999GB).

Note: v1.52+ now has a 500MB CONTIG.ISO file in the download.

To use the new feature, just download and update your existing E2B USB drive with the Easy2Boot_v1.42.zip file contents (available in the Google Drive Alternate Download area here).

The pre-existing file must now be created by you. It must be called \_ISO\CONTIG.ISO and needs to be as big as your largest ISO file (it must NOT exceed 3.99GB due to an issue with grub4dos). To make it, just copy your largest ISO file to the E2B USB \_ISO folder and rename it CONTIG.ISO. Alternatively, you can use the RMPrepUSB - Create Ext2 FS button to make a large empty file and then move and rename that file (it doesn't matter what the contents are inside the file). Once it is made, you must make sure it is contiguous (e.g. by using RMPrepUSB - Ctrl+F2 or DeFraggler, etc.).

Once you have made the CONTIG.ISO file contiguous, you can add your ISO payload files and you won't need to defragment them each time (though it will be much faster if you do!).

This new feature does NOT work for .imgPTN files or Windows Install ISOs and won't work for any .mnu files which use partnew such as linux+persistence menu files.

For ISO files, here are some timings for E2B to copy an entire ISO file to the CONTIG.ISO file using dd - I was using a Pretec USB 3.0 Removable-type Flash drive (write speed approx 17MB/s):

1. EeePC - USB 2.0 port - 25 seconds for 100MB ISO (104 seconds for 390MB ISO)
2. EeePC - USB 2.0 port - using the grub4dos 0.4.6a USB 2.0 driver - 6 seconds for 100MB ISO (23 seconds for 390MB ISO)

As you can see, if you use the grub4dos 46a driver, the time is largely dependent upon the write speed of the USB drive (or approx. 30MB/s for USB 2.0 if the media write speed is faster than 30MB/s).

Therefore, if you have a large ISO which is fragmented, it is probably quicker to first select grub4dos 0.4.6a from the main E2B menu and then select the grub4dos USB 2.0 Driver menu option to load the grub4dos driver first as it seems MUCH faster than the (Asus EeePC) BIOS USB 2.0 driver.

Larger files will obviously take several minutes to copy even if using the grub4dos USB driver. However, at least you can boot a fragmented file if you forgot to make it contiguous first! A USB 3.0 HDD will be faster, a USB 2.0 cheap flash drive will be slower.

If CONTIG.ISO is not present, then it will just behave as before (and warn you that the ISO is not contiguous).

As this change is very new (and I may have broken something - though I have tested it), I have not updated the links on the Easy2Boot download page yet. Please let me know if it works for you (or not)!
Note: a 500Mb CONTIG>ISO is now included in the E2B download zip file as standard!

Tip: To boot to grub4dos 0.4.6a automatically, copy the file from \_ISO\e2b\grub\grldr_046 to the root of the E2B drive and rename it to grldr to replace the 0.4.5c version of grldr - AND/OR - add a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file by copying the Sample_MyE2B.cfg file and uncomment the line 'set GRUB_USB=Y' to automatically load the 0.4.6a USB driver when E2B loads.

Please tick 'funny' 'interesting' or 'cool' or add a comment to let me know which posts you most enjoy.

Easy2Boot v1.62 released at last!

E2B v1.62

Changes and additions since v1.61

• New grub4dos versions 0.4.6a (default boot) and  0.4.5c
• Clearer 'Not-Contiguous' file warning when booting directly from payload files
• Revised Spanish language files (and small changes to German)
• Patches for silent grub4dos startup in SampleMyE2B.cfg added. 
• \_ISO\docs\E2B Utilities .txt and .mnu maker.cmd batch files updated (can test for 32 or 64-bit CPUs). 
• \_ISO\docs\E2B Utilities\Make SubMenu.cmd added - just drag-and-drop a new \_ISO\XXX folder onto it, to make a Main menu entry for it (creates the required .mnu file in the \_ISO\MAINMENU folder for you).
• grab.g4b utility added (can copy screen text to a text file - useful for reporting issues). 
• CRC feature - if you hold down the Left-CTRL key (think 'Ctrl=Crc') whilst selecting a payload file (not a .mnu file) and keep it held down for a few seconds after pressing ENTER to boot to the payload file, E2B will calculate and display the CRC32 value of the file before it runs the payload file. For instance, if an ISO file does not seem to boot correctly, you can find it's CRC32 value and compare it with the CRC32 value of the original file. Note that this feature only works with files that run using QRUN.g4b  - so this CRC32 feature does not work with .mnu menu entries and Windows Install ISOs in the \_ISO\WINDOWS\xx folders.
• Run ISOBOOT - If you hold down a SHIFT key whilst selecting a (linux) ISO file (think 'Shift to isoboot') and keep it held down for a few seconds after pressing ENTER to boot to the payload file, E2B will run it using only isoboot.g4b - in this way you can test out the E2B isoboot feature even if your ISO file is contiguous. Note that isoboot is a 'last resort' attempt to boot a non-contiguous linux ISO - it probably won't work for old or non-standard linux ISOs and quite a few others too!
• Monthly PIN code - use the MyE2B.cfg file to request a 4-digit pin number from the user before it will load the E2B Main menu. The user PIN code required automatically changes every month, so you will need to tell the users\technicians the new PIN code each month (prevents theft/misuse). A small Windows utility can be provided which displays the  monthly PIN numbers. The seed value can be changed so that your E2B version will have a unique set of PIN numbers. If security is compromised, just re-issue a new version with a different Seed value.
• WinContig added to E2B USB drive - just double-click on \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd to make all files on the USB drive contiguous - no need for RMPrepUSB.
• XP Winnt.sif ISOs supported - patches "oempreinstall=yes" line in winnt.sif file so that E2B can install some XP versions (e.g. Micro XP Pro 1.11b.iso). 
• The payload file extensions are now not shown in menu entries by default (only their file names). Can be overridden in MyE2B.cfg (set EXTOFF=)
• Re-organised \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu Files folder
• PassPass added to Sample mnu Files folder.

File extension support

• suffixes pwd, 64 and 32 supported - e.g. Ubuntu.iso64 will only appear in the menu on a 64-bit system. MsDaRT8.isope01pwd will ask for a password before you can run it
• MyE2B.cfg file can contain menupwd setting to specify a different password needed to run any payload file from the menu that ends in pwd - e.g. XYZ.isopwd. 
• .dmg, .hfs, .dmgHFS and .HFSptn for Hackintosh installer images - e.g. Yosemite-Zone.dmg supported (MBR boot)
• .isomacpup file extension added for macpuppy ISOs
• .haiku file extension - Haiku 'anyboot' image support - just copy haiku.image files and rename the extension to .haiku.

ISOBOOT

• Parted magic ISO support added
• If using 0.4.6a, the ISO files do not need to be contiguous if using ISOBOOT. i.e. no need to load the ISO into memory first.

New sample .mnu files

• Parted Magic + persistence mnu file
• Arcabit mnu file
• Fix for knoppix boot from non-contiguous ISO file in isoboot.g4b
• macpup sample .mnu file added for saving sessions on exit
• True partition Hide/Unhide sample menu file added. 

grub4dos and the blocklist command

It has always been there, but I have just found that the grub4dos blocklist command can be used to display the groups of contiguous sectors that make up a file. So you can use this command to check if an ISO file (for instance) is contiguous (and can therefore be directly mapped under grub4dos using map /xxx.iso (0xff)) or if it is not contiguous.

The file pe.bs is 512 bytes long and thus occupies one sector on the disk. The file knoppix511.iso however is split into two contiguous sector 'runs', one starting at block 24856 (1425152 sectors long) and the other at 1450616 (976 sectors long).
WinContig is included in RMPrepUSB and can be used to make all files on the drive contiguous if you run into this problem.

E2B v1.99g Beta is now available (in .zip format)

The new download is available from the Alternate Download Areas as usual, but only in .zip format because it should be regarded as a Beta version.

These are the additional changes since v1.99f:

1. Non-contiguous files are now flagged when enumerating files (press SPACEBAR twice quickly to pause the file listing). If the files listed are not contiguous, they will be displayed in the list with the text *** NOT CONTIGUOUS *** appended.
2. Non-contiguous .imgPTN files are flagged on the menu entry itself (because they won't work!). The menu entry will have the text (ERROR: NOT CONTIGUOUS) appended.
3. Force_Windows_Safe_Mode .cmd files added. This allows you to change the BCD of the current system (see below).
4. C't magazine Desinfect 2018 sample .mnu file added (see below).

Easy2Boot v1.62I now available

This version uses the new grub4dos 0.4.6a grldr version just released by chenall\yaya today and fixes the bug for the partnew command. Unless anyone reports any problems, this version will be released as the new 'official' v1.62 version in a few days. Please update your E2B drives and try it.

OneDrive download area

Google Drive download area

P.S. There is a new MPI Tool Pack download available - this just adds support for Acronis True Image .imgPTN files and allows you to boot a 'registered' version as well as the free\demo version.

Bug in grub4dos 0.4.6a!

Just noticed that grub4dos 0.4.6a is not reporting non-contiguous file errors!
If some of your payload files don't seem be booting properly but E2B doesn't report any error, please make sure all files are contiguous or use 0.4.5c!

The file is not contiguous but the partnew command partially worked and reported no error - but some of the file is missing from the partition (presumably up to the end of the first contiguous block).

Tips for making files contiguous on your E2B drive

Unless your E2B USB drive has become almost full at one stage in it's life after formatting it, the \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd script should run WinContig fairly quickly and without any problems. Obviously, having a fast USB 3.0 E2B drive helps though!

Here are a few tips:

1. Never download from the internet directly onto your E2B USB drive. This can cause the file to be heavily fragmented (even if you have lots of contiguous free space on it). You will find it best to always download files onto one of your internal drives first and then copy the file to your E2B USB drive. That way you also have a backup too!
2. Do not use 'special' fast-copy programs like robocopy or TeraCopy, etc. to copy files to your E2B USB drive. These often open multiple threads which results in fragmented files. This just means WinContig will then have to defragment them on the USB drive and so it just takes much longer overall!
3. Only start one copy session at a time. You can select multiple files and then drag-and-drop them onto the E2B drive, but don't start another copy session until the first one has finished. Not only can this cause file fragmentation, but it often takes longer too when copying to a USB drive.
4. You can only defragment a file if there is enough free space on the USB drive to hold a second copy of it. A 6GB file will require at least 6GB of free space (in a single chunk).
5. If your E2B USB drive has become nearly full at one stage and WinContig is not able to defragment a large file even though there is enough free space for the defragmented file, try using Defraggler - Action - Advanced - Defrag Freespace. This will consolidate the free clusters into one nice run. However, you should first delete any large fragmented files before you run it. This action can also fragment some files that were previously unfragmented, so the next run of WinContig will need to defragment them again. Then try adding your large file(s) again and finally run WinContig again. Defraggler will also show you a nice map of the used clusters and fragmented files (Analyze). You can also right-click on any single file in Explorer and use the Defraggler option to 'Defragment' it.
6. If using an 8GB NTFS E2B drive, it may not be able to hold a contiguous 4GB+ file. This is because the directory table ($MFT) will be at the 3GB position on the drive and so a 4GB+ file may have to be split if other files are also present. See here for more details and a way to work around this issue (or you could just buy a bigger USB drive!).
7. Finally, don't buy USB 2.0 drives. A USB 3.0/3.1 drive should always be faster, even on a 2.0 USB port and they are backwards compatible. I highly recommend the SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 range.

If you have any other tips, leave a comment below.

P.S. As chi zhang says in the comments below, if you have a nearly full USB drive which is quite slow, it is often faster to just remake the USB drive again - then all the files will be contiguous because the drive will be reformatted. See here for more details.

How to UEFI64-boot to the AntiVirusLiveCD ISO

The AntiVirusLiveCD ISO only supports 64-bit CPUs and Legacy\MBR booting. MBR-booting on a system with a 32-bit CPU causes a 'not 64-bit CPU' error message to be displayed. 

When I downloaded the AntivirusLiveCD-36.0-0.103.0.iso file, I found by using 7Zip, that it did not contain a \EFI folder or any boot image which contained any .efi boot files. So the ISO does not support UEFI-booting. 

Even though the ISO does not contain UEFI64 boot files, it is possible to first UEFI64-boot to grub2 and then load the linux kernel and initrd ramdrive files under grub2. As long as the kernel does not rely on any Legacy BIOS calls, it should still boot OK.

I examined the AntivirusLiveCD-36.0-0.103.0.iso's \boot\isolinux\isolinux.cfg file:

E2B v.1.88a Beta available

E2B v1.88a Beta changes:

• Add Server 2012 R2 Std Eval Product Key file
• Add \MAKE_ISO_FOLDER_CONTIGUOUS.cmd (works on \_ISO and below only)
• Update to Wincontig v2.1.0.0
• Update SDI executables

The 90-day evaluation Server 2012 R2 Standard installation-only Product Key has been added to the \_ISO\WINDOWS\SVR2012 folder.

If you have added your own portable applications, etc, to the E2B drive, when you run MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd it will make all files on the E2B drive contiguous including all of your own files. I have now added \MAKE_ISO_FOLDER_CONTIGUOUS.cmd which will only make files below the \_ISO folder contiguous. 

This means that if you have persistent files (casper-rw, ubuntu-rw, etc.) in the root of the E2B USB drive, you will also need to make these contiguous. To do this either:

1. Move the persistent files from the root folder to the same folder as it's payload+.mnu file and then modify each .mnu file, e.g.

was:

set PF=/ubuntu-rw

change to:

set PF=$HOME$/ubuntu-rw

Now you can use \MAKE_ISO_FOLDER_CONTIGUOUS.cmd because all the E2B payload files will be below \_ISO.

OR

2. Run \_ISO\docs\WINCONTIG\WinContig.exe and manually select the file(s) you want to make contiguous.

OR

3. Run \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd as before.

Merry Christmas!

Steve

E2B v1.B5a Beta now available

Booting Windows NT6 .VHD and .WIM files

Previously although .wim and .vhd files did not need to be contiguous, their file extension had to be unaltered so you could not use a file extension of say .wim64 so that it would only be listed on 64-bit systems, or perhaps  Win7Ult.vhd64ncq so that it would only be listed on 64-bit systems and so E2B would not complain about the fact that it was not contiguous.

E2B v1.A8b/c Beta now available

This version v1.A8c should now automatically boot Windows Install ISOs (Vista to Server 2019, but not dual 32\64-bit ISOs) from any of the E2B menu folders.

The E2B USB drive does not need to be of the Removable type.

For example, just copy your Windows 7, 8 or Windows 10 install ISO to the \_ISO\MAINMENU folder.

\_ISO\MAINMENU\Windows 10 1809 64-bit UK NCQ.iso

The ISO does not need to be (very) contiguous, so you can prevent E2B from complaining if it is not contiguous and prevent it from showing the usual E2B messages and prompts by ensuring the name ends in 'NCQ.iso'.  You can instead use .isodef as a file extension to suppress E2B suggestions but E2B will expect the file to be contiguous and may complain if it is not!

The file name can contain spaces if you wish or you can make a matching .txt file for it in the usual way.

Note that for Win8, 8.1 and early Win 10 ISOs, you will need to input a generic installation Product Key when prompted by Windows Setup. You cannot specify an XML file (you must place the ISO file in one of the \_ISO\WINDOWS\xxxx folders if you want to use an XML file and suppress the Product Key prompt).

Let me know if you find any issues...

agFM v1.20 now available

The main change in this version is that a1ive has added an option to remove filename case sensitivity.

I don't know about you but I find the case-sensitivity of Linux\grub very annoying - especially when you have to verbally tell someone the name of a file and you have to say 'oh - and you have to type it with an uppercase F and a lowercase u'!

This change means we don't need to use the exact case for any letters used to specify the filenames in any of the .cfg or .grubfm menu files that we make.

There is now an extra option in the F4 Settings menu to enable case-sensitivity if you wish to have it on. You would only need to enable case-sensitivity when the same folder has two files with the same name but some of the letters were in a different case - which is quite unlikely!

agFM is looking quite nice now, however there is one major issue to overcome which I hope a1ive can crack. When using the partnew command to switch in partition images or ISO files, we should check to make sure that the file is contiguous. If it is not then it may fail to boot or it could even result in serious file corruption of the E2B drive! However the grub2 commands used to check if a file is contiguous (blocklist and stat -c) currently take over 1 minute to check a large 3GB file if the file is on an NTFS partition. If there are two files to switch in then it can take even longer. The partnew command currently does not check that the .imgPTN or .ISO file is contiguous.

agFM v1.56 now available

Anwar has discovered a bug where agFM (MBR grub2 only) can report a contiguous file as being non-contiguous.

agFM v1.56 - changes from v1.55 are...

1. SAMPLE_startup_menu.txt revised - now only shows 'Restore E2B Partitions' menu entry when the backup partition is a valid MBR.
2. Bugfix in agFM MBR code (grubfm.iso) to fix issue of some files reported as not contiguous (thanks to Anwar for reporting bug).
3. Latest agFM build with various bug-fixes.
4. Variable 'hires' (set hires=1) can now be set in your menu so that WinPE runs at highest screen resolution available (e.g. set in in startup_menu.txt). Setting this may cause virtual machines to default to their highest resolution but it should be OK to set the hires variable when booting from real systems.
5. The wimboot code has changed - do not specify bcd, boot.sdi or bootmgr files in wimboot command list as they are not needed. MBR\Legacy also uses the wimboot command now.
6. Ventoy modules have been removed by a1ive from agFM..

The new v1.56 version of E2B agFM can be found here. Just unzip the file directly onto the second FAT32 partition to update from v1.55.

The Update download is still 1.55 and will be updated in a few days to 1.56.

Not enough room to defragment files? Try Refresher.cmd

Easy2Boot and many grub4dos bootable USB drives require that the ISO files are contiguous (i.e. the ISO file occupies sequential clusters on the drive).

If your Flash drive is almost full, you may find that you cannot defragment a large ISO that you have just copied over to it. This is because there is not enough free space left on the drive.

By the way: If there is enough free space on an NTFS drive and you still cannot make a very large file contiguous, see my previous blog post here.

For instance, if you have a 16GB USB Flash drive with 3GB of free space, you cannot defragment and make contiguous a file that is larger than 3GB.

Even if there was enough free space, the defrag of the ISO file could take a very long time.
If your USB Flash drive has reached this stage, it is best and quickest to reformat it. If you want to keep all the files on it, then you obviously need to make a backup first.

You also stand a better chance of having all files contiguus, if you copy over the large ISOs first, before the rest of the smaller files.

To simplify this process, I wrote a Windows batch file to automate this. Just drag-and-drop your USB drive icon onto the Refresher.cmd file (keep it on your Desktop for convenience) and it will guide you through process of:

1. Backing up all files
2. Formatting the USB volume (choose NTFS or FAT32)
3. Copying back to the USB drive all the large >500MB files first
4. Copying back to the USB drive the rest (<500MB) of the files
5. Copying back the empty folders
6. Comparing the file count in Step 1 with that of the USB drive now.
7. Deleting the backup folder

If a folder is chosen instead of a drive, then instead of formatting the drive volume, the Windows 'rd' command is used to delete the folder and all sub-folders, and then the original files are copied back. In practise, this rarely defragments the files however. You will be far more successful if you reformat the whole drive by choosing the Drive icon as shown above.

To use Refresher.cmd, copy the Refresher.cmd file to your Windows Desktop, then drag-and-drop the drive icon of your USB drive onto the Refresher.cmd Desktop icon (or type Refresh N: from a Windows command prompt console if you need Admin rights). Then just choose either NTFS or FAT32 to reformat the drive when prompted. At this point you can reformat using RMPrepUSB if you wish and just Skip the Windows format. Note that RMPrepUSB partitions and formats, it is not a format-only tool. If you have a multi-partition USB Hard disk, you will have to use the Windows format tool as the contents of only one drive volume letter is backed up by Refresher.cmd.

User input shown in red squares.

WARNING: As this is quite a powerful batch file, please take care when using it. If the contents of the drive being 'Refreshed' are very valuable, make a backup first (you should have one anyway!). The batch file assumes you will press CTRL+C if you see anything wrong. The temporary backup folder will be in the same folder as the Refresher.cmd file, so make sure there is enough room on the hard disk. A new backup folder is made (and deleted) each time.

Note that Windows format will remove the grub4dos boot loader from the Partition Boot Record (PBR). If you find that the USB drive no longer boots after running Refresher.cmd, use RMPrepUSB - grub4dos Install and choose 'No' for a PBR install of grub4dos. This should fix the boot problem. Then test that it boots using QEMU or VBox or test on a real system. To avoid losing the PBR code each time you use Refresher.cmd, install grub4dos to the MBR instead.

Download Refresh.zip

Add BlackArch LiveCD (MBR+UEFI) to E2B

The BlackArch Linux LiveCD ISO can simply be added to the E2B USB drive (e.g. \_ISO\LINUX\blackarchlinux-live-2017.12.11-x86_64.iso).

Because the file is larger than 4GB, your E2B USB drive will need to be formatted as NTFS.

This will allow us to Legacy\MBR boot, but what about UEFI-booting to BlackArch Linux?

Well, the E2B grub2 menu system will UEFI-boot from the ISO, but what if we want to use a .imgPTN file instead?

We cannot simply drag-n-drop the blackarchlinux-live-2017.12.11-x86_64.iso file onto the MPI_FAT32 Desktop shortcut to make a .imgPTN file, because there is a large (>4GB) .sfs file inside the ISO.

Here is how to add BlackArch Linux to your E2B USB drive (preferably a large E2B USB HDD) and both UEFI and MBR boot to it.

Instructions