Thursday 15 August 2013

Easy2Boot 1.07 Beta 2 now available

This has enhanced WinPE2/3/4 ISO support.
If you place a file that is the same filename as the ISO in the same folder as the WinPE ISO, e.g.
\_ISO\MAINMENU\WinPEx86ABC.isoPE
\_ISO\MAINMENU\WinPEx86ABC.cmd

WinPEx86ABC.cmd
===============
set ISOLETTER=S:


then if no <isoname>.cmd file exists then Y: is used, otherwise the letter set in your .cmd file is used. If Y: is already used then the next free letter will be used to mount the WinPE ISO.

Now .cmd files as well as .mnu and .txt files will not be listed in the menu.

This version also supports the .isoPE01  extension. This has the same function as .isoPE but swaps hd0 and hd1 over before booting to the ISO. This may be useful for some repair ISOs that expect hd0 to be the primary internal system disk.

Beta2a has minor change to add double-quotes around the iso filename when ImDisk is called to load the ISO - this should (may) allow filenames with spaces in them to work (e.g. SVR2012).

7 comments:

  1. Hey Steve,

    Thanks for your fast reply about Zalman enclosures compatibility with .isoPE "mount as a drive" feature on 1.07b1 post.

    With your 1.07b2 improvements, modify iso code and add 'Do you want to boot this as a WinPE ISO? Y/N?' is imho simpler way to offer the "mount as a drive" option, so (and it allows one to forget his USB "helper" drive at home ^^, even if a condition would also do). Thus, why not while limitating the occurence of the question to the ISos in '\_ISO\WinPE\' directory. :)

    If we take that path, then another question 'Do you want to swap hd0 and hd1 over before booting to the ISO?' could follow for those winPE isos.

    Only the optional cmd would remain to do. (would it be possible to generate it automaticaly with a third question like "What letter do you want to assign to the mounted ISO ?" I guess yes but i don't have this kind of knowledge yet)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Try this patch:

      in \_ISO\e2b\grub\qrun.g4b add the lines between :.iso and # main ISO boot entry

      :.iso
      if /i not "%~p1"=="/_ISO/Winpe/" goto :isodd
      set /p ask=Do you want to run this as a WinPE ISO (Y/N)? :
      if /i not "%ask%"=="Y" goto :isodd
      set /p ask=Do you want to swap hd0 with hd1 (Y/N)? :
      if /i not "%ask%"=="Y" goto :.isoPE01 || goto :.isoPE
      :isodd

      # main ISO boot entry

      Delete
    2. Letter can be assigned by using a .cmd file with the same name as the iso.
      Note that a USB flash drive is still required for WinPE to load the ISO as a virtual DVD drive.

      Delete
    3. Or try 1.07Beta3

      If you set
      set ISOASK=1
      in the \_ISo\MyE2B.cfg file, then E2B will ask you how you want to run ALL .iso files that are listed in all E2B menus.

      Delete
  2. I tested ur patchcode with a WinPE 4.0 x86 and it worked. ISO was mounted into "D:\" drive because Y:\ was taken alreaady. But i noticed my physical dvd drive letter disappeared. And when i tried to put a dvd inside... All drives disappeared but the ramdisk and the computer system disk (hd1,0 i guess, i didn't reverse when i started the iso). Fun issue. I tried with another WinPE 4.0 x86, this time the dvd didn't load at all into the system, but no lost drives.

    When i started the iso without answering Y to the first question, (just pressing enter), the ISO and the DVD drive are both accessible, and changing the physical DVD doesn't bring any issue.

    I'll do more tests this weekend if you want, to give you more reliable results, and test beta3 as well. Your EZ2B custom Grub4Dos got under my skin ! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. If Y: was already taken then try a .cmd file with
    set ISOLETTER=S:
    in it so that it does not use D: but uses S: instead?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Indeed. What surprised me was "hard drive > virtual drive > optical drive in the allocation order. But it doesn't matter. :)

    ReplyDelete