Easy2Boot v1.20 now available

v1.20 is now available, changes are:

1. Now should work with Win8.1 Retail install ISOs which use \sources\install.esd instead of install.wim
2. Option to erase partition 4 if detected on the E2B drive when booting (use with care!)
3. 64-bit XP install ISOs will now not use DPMS2 (which is 32-bit only) if there is '64' in the ISO name - so you can now press F6 and install the firadisk and winvblock 64-bit drivers. 
4. 3rd level folders now removed except for a single MNU folder - e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU and Sample .mnu files changed to use \_ISO\xxx\MNU folders.
5. 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Eval product key added so you can install from the free M$ downloadable ISOs. 
6. Windows Vista+ ISOs are now only loaded using ImDisk and not Firadisk - the Firadisk drivers are no longer used and have been removed (but still used for XP using an F6 floppy image).
7. Memtest86-5.0.0 ISO added to Utilities - Memory Test menu

Note: You can still use any name for the 3rd level folders instead of MNU, and you can overwrite your E2B drive with v1.20 and it will still work.

Please let me know if there are any problems with this new version (and any successes you have too!)

Add the Windows 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Evaluation ISOs to Easy2Boot

If you copy the Windows 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Evaluation ISO to your Easy2Boot \_ISO\WINDOWS\Win8 folder of your Easy2Boot USB drive and try to install it, you will find that you will receive a pop-up error message which reads 'Windows cannot find the Microsoft Software License Terms'.

This is a sign that the product key chosen by you, and subsequently written to the AutoUnattend.xml by Easy2Boot, is missing or incorrect.

Although this version does not require the user to enter a Product Key when installed from a DVD or from a 'flat-file' USB drive, to get these ISOs to work in Easy2Boot, you need to use the product key that is embedded inside the product. To find out what the product key is, you can install it to a VM from the ISO file, or use RMPrepUSb to extract the ISO to a USB drive and install it to a real system. Then run the Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder to find the Product Key. In the case of Windows 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Evaluation it turns out to be 76FKW-8NR3K-QDH4P-3C87F-JHTTW.

We can now either create a .key file in the \_ISO\WINDOWS\Win8 folder for this key (copy an existing example file and modify it), and/or add it to the CHOOSE FROM A LIST.key file (in both the menu and the place where the variable is set).

E2B version 1.20 will contain a key file for Windows 8.1 Enterprise 90-day Evaluation.

P.S. Use the command slmgr -rearm from an Admin command console to get an extra 90-days when your first 90 days expires.

As an alternative, you can convert the ISO to a .imgPTN file using the MPI Tool Kit. If you use the MPI_FAT32 shortcut, then it will also be UEFI-bootable too.

Something for the Christmas holidays (GeGeek Toolkit)?

Update: a donation is required for GE Geek ToolKit now.

OK, you have eaten as much Turkey as you possibly can and even the Brussel sprouts weren't too bad, you've also consumed as much alcohol as you can (probably a bit too much!) and opened all your presents (ready to exchange as soon as the shops open). There is nothing on TV except repeats, and Uncle Fred is snoring his head off so you can't hear a thing anyway.

So why not checkout the massive GE Geek Tech Toolkit? The link for the Toolkit is at the very top of the GE Geek home page or click here for a direct link to the download page.

The download is a 1.3GB ZIP file which extracts to almost 2GB of portable apps. It works like this:

1. Extract the files to the root of a USB drive and makes a \GeGeek Toolkit folder on the drive.

2. Run GeGeek_Toolkit.exe from the \GeGeek Toolkit folder on the USB drive - this puts an icon in your Windows Desktop TaskBar (a small arrow in a circle)

3. Now right-click on the taskbar icon and run 'Run Ketarin Update' - this will update all the apps to their latest version (if you have an internet connection)

4. Quit GeGeek_Toolkit (right-click on the icon and Exit) and then run it again.

You now can run hundreds of portable apps from the GeGeek Tech_Toolkit panel (right-click the task bar icon)!

As well as the apps listed in the pop-up panel, WSCC Portable contains the Microsoft and NirSoft apps. This also has an auto-update feature.

The toolkit is regularly updated by the author and is free (though you can make a donation).

Put this on your USB toolkit drive and you have a load of useful apps all in one place and all easily update-able! Why not download it and check out the 100's of useful apps! Also checkout the very useful references and utilities listed on the main home page.

P.S. Did you know Brussel sprouts taste better now than they used to 10 years ago? That bitter taste that many people don't like has been genetically engineered out of them. There are about 30 varieties of the 'sprout' now and the new ones are really nice (honest!). You can even eat them raw - try slicing them up and adding them to a salad (but it would be best to sleep alone that night or blame the dog!).

Easy2Boot v1.19 full release now available

I have now changed the links in Tutorial 72a.
v1.19 is now available as the E2B download and as the E2B+DPMS2 Mass Storage Drivers download.
The only difference between v1.19 and v1.19Beta is that v1.19 will warn the user if he/she is trying to install from a Vista/7/8 Install ISO from a USB Hard disk without a 'Helper' USB Flash drive also being present.
Hopefully, this will give new users a hint that they need a USB 'Helper' drive if they try to install from a USB Hard drive.

RMPrepUSB v2.1.716 now released

• Bug in Drive->File and File->Drive functions fixed
• lateste grub4dos grldr file 0.4.5c 2013-11-30 used.

Download from here.

Boot HitManPro from Easy2Boot (or any grub4dos USB Flash drive)

HitManPro (Hitman Pro) can be booted from a grub4dos multiboot or Easy2Boot USB flash drive as follows:

Avast! Anti-Virus Rescue Disk USB boot problems (+fixes)

If you have installed Avast! AV (Avast 2014.9.0.2008) onto your Windows system, you can make a bootable USB drive or ISO file from the Tools menu. However, you may run into problems when using it to make a USB drive. Here are some quick instructions for 3 different situations (see the 'Long Story' below for more details):

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.

Easy2Boot v1.19Beta available

I have uploaded v1.19 and called it a Beta because there are quite a few changes.
I found that the grub4dos 0.4.6a version of grldr used in E2B v1.18 has bugs (hangs on the find command) and so with v1.19 I have gone back to using the 0.4.5c version (2013-11-30).

Other E2B v1.19Beta changes are:

1. If using a 1024x768 background you may have observed horizontal black lines across the lower 1/3 of the screen. This is now fixed (thanks for reporting this Krishna).
2. Clonezilla .mnu file added to docs folder for easy backup/restore from an external USB E2B HDD.
3. A language folder (\_ISO\e2b\grub\ENG) now holds some files which are use by E2B for the English messages. You can now copy this entire folder (to say \_ISO\e2b\grub\SPANISH) and then change the text in the SPANISH folder files. To flip over E2B to use these Spanish files, use 'set LANG=SPANISH' in your MyE2B.cfg file.
4. If you had 'iftitle' entries in your Main menu, you may have noticed that they disappeared if you returned from a sub-menu to the Main menu. This has now been fixed  (thanks again for reporting this Krishna). Note that some of the sample .mnu files in the docs folder have also been tweaked and you may need to update your E2B .mnu files with the new version if you have used xbmcbuntu_12.2_Persist.mnu or CloneZillaBackupRestoreHDD0.mnu.
5. The PassPass download (see bottom of the E2B Tutorial 72a page) has been modified. This had some problems with corrupting 1024x768 backgrounds and returning back to previous menus.

Multiple Language Support

Note: You could put code at the bottom of your MyE2B.cfg so that the user can choose a language - e.g.

set LANG=ENG

set ask=

set /p ask=SPANISH or ENGLISH (Seleccionar espanol o Ingles) [S=Spanish/espanol] : 

if /i "%ask%"=="S" set LANG=SPANISH

set ask=

Note that you must use 'espanol' instead of 'español' as when MyE2B.cfg is run, we are still in text mode and not in graphics mode so UTF-8 characters won't display correctly.

Of course, all of the .mnu files would also have to be modified where required - e.g. for instance, for the \_ISO\MAINMENU\ZZZF8ReloadMenu.mnu file, you would need to rename it and then modify it and add extra menus for Spanish  (save the .mnu file in UTF-8 format so you get the grave accents, etc.):

For example, this will display the F8 option in the Main menu in either English or Spanish, depending on what the user chooses when E2B boots:

\_ISO\MAINMENU\ZZZF8ReloadMenuENG_SPAN.mnu file
============================================

iftitle [if "%GFX%"=="" if "%LANG%"=="ENG"] ^F8 Reload Main Menu  [F8]\n
debug 0
if exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst configfile (bd)/%grub%/menu.lst 
if not exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst set MFOLDER=/_ISO/MAINMENU && configfile (md)0xA000+0x50
boot

iftitle [if not "%GFX%"=="" if "%LANG%"=="ENG"] Reload Main Menu\n
debug 0
#clear all variables if reload menu.lst!
if exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst configfile (bd)/%grub%/menu.lst 
if not exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst set MFOLDER=/_ISO/MAINMENU && configfile (md)0xA000+0x50
boot

iftitle [if "%GFX%"=="" if "%LANG%"=="SPANISH"] ^F8 Recargar Menù Principal [F8]\n
debug 0
#clear all variables if reload menu.lst!
if exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst configfile (bd)/%grub%/menu.lst 
if not exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst set MFOLDER=/_ISO/MAINMENU && configfile (md)0xA000+0x50
boot

iftitle [if not "%GFX%"=="" if "%LANG%"=="SPANISH"] Recargar Menù Principal\n
debug 0
#clear all variables if reload menu.lst!
if exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst configfile (bd)/%grub%/menu.lst 
if not exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst set MFOLDER=/_ISO/MAINMENU && configfile (md)0xA000+0x50
boot

Please let me know how you get on with this new version. When the bugs are fixed in grub4dos 0.4.6a I will switch back to it again, but for now use the 0.4.5c 2013-11-30 version of grldr (272,951 bytes).

Easy2Boot v1.19 has better support for languages and text changes

E2B uses a lot of .mnu text files which can easily be edited by the user. However, some of the menu entries come from code embedded in the grub4dos script files and these are difficult to change.
E2B v1.19 will have better support for you to change much more of the menu and scripts into different languages. The new versions has a new \_ISO\e2b\grub\ENG folder containing these files:

MenuF9.hdr
MenuF10.hdr
MenuFastLoad.hdr
MenuDefaults.hdr
MenuF7.hdr
MenuF8.hdr
MenuWinMenu.hdr
XPWINNT.g4b
XPStep1.g4b
XPStep2.g4b
XPStep2LowRam.g4b
RunWin8.g4b
RunVista.g4b
MenuWinInstall.lst
PickaFile.g4b
ReadMe.txt

If you want to change the text in any of these files to Spanish or French or whatever, then simply copy the whole folder and make a new folder under the grub folder - e.g. \_ISO\e2b\grub\SPANISH. You can then change the text in those files as you like. To switch over to your new files, set the LANG variable in your \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file, e.g.

set LANG=SPANISH

You can also copy the \_ISO\e2b\cfg\Menu.lst file to your new folder and change the startup messages if you wish.

This means you can change these files without affecting the E2B files. Any new E2B updates will not affect your files.

See my previous blog for details on how to allow the user to choose between two languages.