Multi-boot thumb drive with iso's

[vdub12]

I have googled the hell out of this and can't find anything that will work for what I want it for.

I want to use a large thumb drive to put all my tech CD's as well as some installs.

Example I can have ubc4win and a few others on the drive in iso format. Then if I need to install windows 7 or vista on a netbook or notebook with a bad dvd drive I could copy the iso over and boot from it.

I need something that will set up a virtual DVD rom that the OS can see. Grub will not do it, the OS can't see it, and a few others I looked at load the iso files in to memory which would not work for most windows installs because of the size of the dvd iso. Even if I could make a syslinux drive with a large swap partition that might work.

Any one have any ideas on this one?

 

[Xander]

Look in New Posts for the currently active thread on "SARDU"

 

[vdub12]

Look in New Posts for the currently active thread on "SARDU"

You know I saw that one to but it didn't look like what I was looking for. I was looking for something that I could edit and change on the fly. That one looked like it had to be compiled and the whole drive remade to make a change. However, the site was hard to understand.

 

[Xander]

From some light mucking around with it, it doesn't have to recompile the whole drive to make a change; just compile the new ISO into the works. Not instant but...

It would be great if we could find one that we could just drop an ISO into a folder on the drive and the menus would autodetect but, in the meantime, this is the best I've seen for it.

 

[reesk92]

You know I saw that one to but it didn't look like what I was looking for. I was looking for something that I could edit and change on the fly. That one looked like it had to be compiled and the whole drive remade to make a change. However, the site was hard to understand.

yeah he wants what ive been looking for somethign where you take the isos put them on the drive as isos and a boot manager will alow you to boot directly from them as is not have to use a tool like sardu to install them to the drive

 

[reesk92]

not so much a auto detect but a quck hit at google returned
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-multiple-iso-from-usb-multiboot-usb/

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21524
seems more promising but theres a majour hitch it would boot them into ram so that will be a majour limitation

 

[vdub12]

not so much a auto detect but a quck hit at google returned
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-multiple-iso-from-usb-multiboot-usb/

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21524
seems more promising but theres a majour hitch it would boot them into ram so that will be a majour limitation

Pendrive Linux is the closest so far the only problem is that it uses grubs virtual cd driver and windows can't see it so after an install is started it would loose its cdrom. I of course haven't tested this but I learned it by reading the documents of the grub boot loader. It specifically states that the virtual cd will not work in any nt class os.

I honestly don't mind if I have to modify a boot file, I am not looking for something to auto detect the iso. I am just looking for something that can be used to create a virtual cd in a swap space on the drive that windows can use. Maybe even a program that would emulate a cd bios and redirect it to a swap space.

 

[AtYourService]

http://technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10231

 

[Crgky127]

I have a crazy idea but I doubt it would work. If by the time the windows install reboots it is using the registry and able to mount usb drives then it might be feasible. Use the Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM tool with RegShot and get the list of registry entries it uses. Use Nlite to integrate those entries, and put vcdrom.sys in the drivers folder. In those registry entries you would have to put the path of the iso, which means you would have to know what letter the mid-install windows fetus would use for your USB drive.

Actually never mind, this is probably better (found it when googling how to add vcdrom.sys with nlite)
http://www.msfn.org/board/install-loaded-image-t137714.html

 

[dbdawn]

There is some interesting stuff in these threads. They say that you can boot from the USB stick into a WinPE environment and then install from an ISO or a folder. Might be worth a read.
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21883&st=35
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=23553

 

[vdub12]

http://technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10231

Messed with that one all night. Still does not even book ubc4win even if I extract that iso in to a directory.