How To Install Grub4dos In Windows Xp

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Install Windows XP - Grub4dos Workaround. Note - this section also applies to syslinux version 3.81/3.82 (and possibly newer versions). PXE binl binlsrv.exe have been started, then boot the client PC using PXE boot option and select the Install Windows XP menu option. Install Grub4Dos to your Hard Disk An article by Bharat Balegere 9 Comments Last Modified on January 7, 2017 Grub4dos it is a versatile bootloader capable of dual/multi-booting DOS, Windows, Linux and other operating systems.

  • How to install Windows 10 from Windows XP without DVD or USB stick. This article shows how to install Windows 10 (32 or 64 bits) from Windows XP, you don't have to burn images to DVD disk or copy Windows 10 files to a flash drive. Now let's explain the GRUB4DOS boot loader. You need the file 'grldr' (MD5. Using this tutorial you can.
  • Good news for people who use Grub4Dos loader for multi-booting to various Microsoft OSes, including the new Windows Vista, and Linux. I've modified an old trick I've used to load Grub4Dos on system startup with Windows XP as the main OS. See the post at 911cd.net Multi-boot WinXP and other OSes with Grub4Dos for this method.
  • The Windows Vista/2008/7/10 boot configuration file BCD (Boot Configuration Data) is a database similar in format to a registry hive and cannot be directly edited with a text editor. To add an entry for Grub4dos, the tool named bcdedit.exe can be used.
  • 145 - Install Windows directly from an ISO file using iPXE wimboot with grub2 or grub4dos This method allows you to directly boot from a number of different unmodified Windows Install 7/8/10 etc. ISOs on a bootable USB drive AND run Setup to install Windows to a system.

Bootable media builder of Acronis True Image and Acronis Disk Director cannot create multiproduct bootable media. Our development is working on implementing this feature. As workaround you can use grub4dos.

This solution will work for BIOS machines only. The media will boot in BIOS/Legacy BIOS/CSM mode and will not work if your computer is using UEFI.

How to check whether your computer is using BIOS or UEFI:

In Windows 8/8.1/10: Start -> Search -> msinfo32.exe
If your computer is using BIOS, you will see BIOS Mode: Legacy. This solution will work on your machine.
If your computer is using UEFI, you will see BIOS Mode: UEFI. This solution will not work on your machine.

In Windows 7 or earlier:

  1. Open Windows Explorer.
  2. Navigate to C:WindowsPanther
  3. Find setupact.log.
  4. Right-click the file, select Open.
  5. Search for Detected Boot Environment.
    If your computer is using BIOS, you will see: Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: BIOS. This solution will work on your machine.
    If your computer is using UEFI, you will see: Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: UEFI. This solution will not work on your machine.

Downloading grub4dos

Download grub4dos utility and grub installer to your computer and unpack them.
Currently, the latest version of grub4dos is grub4dos-0.4.4.zip and the latest version of grub installer is grubinst-1.1-src-2008-01-01.zip.

Install windows xp updates

Making USB bootable

1. In Windows Explorer, open the installer's folder and select grubinst_gui.exe:

2. Run the application:
Windows XP: Double-click grubinst_gui.exe
Windows 7 or later: Right-click grubinst_gui.exe and select Run as administrator:

3. Select Disk, then click Refresh and select the drive you want to create a bootable media on:
You can detect your drive by its size. In this example an 8GB flash drive is used.

3. In Part List click Refresh.

4. From the dropdown box select Whole disk (MBR):

5. Check the Don't search floppy option, leave all the other options unchecked:

6. Click Install.
If the installation completes successfully, you will see this message:

7. Press Enter.

8. In Windows Explorer open the grub4dos folder, locate grldr and copy it to the target drive:

Creating ISO files of Acronis products

  1. Run the media builder of Acronis True Image.
  2. Select ISO file when offered to choose media destination:
  3. Create the ISO. You can save the ISO file directly to your flash drive or copy in later.
  4. Run the media builder of Acronis Disk Director.
  5. Select ISO file when offered to choose media destination:
  6. Create the ISO. You can save the ISO file directly to your flash drive or copy in later.

Setting up multiproduct boot

  1. Copy the ISO files to the flash drive if you haven't done it yet. Now you should have 3 files on the drive:
  2. Open Notepad.
  3. Insert this content:
    timeout 10
    default 0
    title Acronis Disk Director
    map --mem --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 (hd0,0)/<DiskDirector>.iso (hd32)
    map --hook
    chainloader (hd32)
    boot
    title Acronis True Image
    map --mem --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 (hd0,0)/<TrueImage>.iso (hd32)
    map --hook
    chainloader (hd32)
    boot
    title CommandLine
    commandline
    title Reboot
    reboot
    title Halt
    halt

How To Install Grub4dos

where <DiskDirector> is the name of the ISO file created in Acronis Disk Director and <TrueImage> is the ISO file created with Acronis True Image.

How To Install Grub4dos In Windows Xp Free

4. Save the file as menu.lst to the root directory of your flash drive. In Save as type select All files, otherwise the file might be saved as a .txt-file while we need a .lst-file.

Install Windows Xp From Usb

You can double-check the file extention in Windows Explorer:
If you don't see the extention, check this article for help.

How To Install Grub4dos To Usb

Now your USB drive is ready and you can boot your computer with it.

How To Install Grub4dos In Windows Xp Download

Tutorials (oldest first)‎ > ‎

110 - Run full Windows XP to Go! from a USB drive


This may not work for all systems but it will only take 30-60 minutes to make and test!

Introduction

This method is adapted from a post by linuxbyexamples on reboot.pro here. There are also more detailed instructions here.
It makes a fixed size VHD file (min approx 2GB for a full XP OS with no updates or drivers added).
This method in outline is:
1. Prepare a fixed size vhd containing Windows XP using Oracle Virtual Box
2. Tweak it and add any extra drivers/apps you like
3. Copy the .vhd file to an Easy2Boot USB Multiboot drive

As this uses a .vhd file, you can easily back it up and restore it at any point in the future.
The procedure below worked when the USB drive was booted from an Asus EeePC Atom-based CPU netbook (IDE hard disk) but did not work (blank screen - if safe mode then hangs on mup.sys) when booted from an Acer Aspire 7741G i3 laptop (in either IDE or AHCI mode).
Below is a brief outline - follow the detailed instructions here if you need more help.

Prepare a full Windows XP VHD file

1. Install VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org).
2. Create new XP 32-bit IDE-disk based virtual machine using vhd format for the IDE virtual hard disk, vhd=fixed-size.
Notice the vhd hard disk size need to be smaller than the usb drive size (2GB minimum for example is just enough for full winxp with no updates, etc.).
Now use the Settings gearwheel icon to change the CD-ROM contents to your Windows XP Install ISO file (if you have a ISO which has nLited Mass Storage Drivers added, then use that as it may then boot on a wider range of systems. You can instead use DavidB's Virtual Machine USB Boot utility to boot to an Easy2Boot USB drive and install XP in that way.
3. Fully install XP to the virtual machine vhd hard disk by allowing the VM to boot from the CD ISO file. Format the vhd as NTFS.
Note: if you intend to fully update it and add more software then you will need a larger vhd file, e.g. 10GB!

System Properties - Performance Settings - Advanced - Virtual Memory Change - No paging file
and delete the C:pagefile.sys file.
5. Using Device Manager, Update the IDE/ATAPI controllers to use Standard driver.
Intel (R) 82371ABEB PCI => Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
6. Using Device Manager, update the System Devices to use Standard driver.
Intel 82441FX Pentium(r) Pro Processor to PCI Bridge => PCI standard host CPU bridge
7. Install the winVblock driver using the Windows Control Panel - Add New Hardware Wizard. Check that there are now two devices in the SCSI and RAID controllers section of Device Manager (I got one unknown device+WinVBlock Driver). Files are in IMG_XPWinVBlock_Install (see below).

Alternatively (or as well as) - Install the FiraDisk driver with Right-mouse click on firadisk.inf in IMG_XPmakebtfiradisk-driver-0.0.1.30 folder

Extra Instructions

This is done on the host computer:
1. Go to this page (or see this post) and download latest Img_XP (IMG_XP_85.exe). This is an .exe file which once you run it, will create a new IMG_XP folder.
2. Then go to the extracted IMG_XP folder and run imdiskinst.exe. This will install ImDisk onto your host computer (if Windows 10 host, you may need to install the latest version of ImDisk).
3. Then run USB_XP_FIX.EXE and select the XP vhd file and hit GO.
4. (optional) Boot from the vhd in VirtualBox again and defragment the Windows drive (c:) (and make any other changes you require.)
5. Now some final tweaks (running XP booted from the VHD file under VBox)...
  • Delete the C:pagefile.sys file (if present)
  • Run C:POST_FIXintelppm_start3.reg so that it will boot on Intel and AMD systems
  • Run the C:POST_FIXPURGE_DLLCACHE.BAT file to remove 350MB of uneeded files.
  • Reduce size and improve settings as usual and install missing Drivers but NOT a specific Video driver. For Universal XP don't Install the Video driver. You can still have high resolution on any hardware.
  • Set Screen Resolution to 1024 x 768 useful on all monitors (right click on Desktop) (or 800x600 if you will boot on netbooks)
  • Using a plain Desktop instead of the Bliss bitmap will improve the time it takes to reach the Desktop.
  • (optional) To save space you can compress the the folders (right-click - Properties - advanced - Compress contents to save space). However, do not compress the files in the C: folder (ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com)
5. Reboot using the VirtualBox VM and check it is booting OK and that no c:pagefile.sys exists (paging is off)

Make a bootable USB drive

1. Prepare an Easy2Boot USB Flash drive or hard disk (FAT32 or NTFS for vhd's over 4GB). Ensure that you have a recent grub4dos (grldr) file - e.g. July 2013 or later.
2. Copy the VHD file to the _ISOMAINMENU folder on the Easy2Boot USB drive - rename the file extension to .vhdboot for later versions of E2B.
3. Run WinContig on the USB drive to ensure the VHD file is contiguous (RMPrepUSB - Ctrl+F2 or MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd)
4. Now boot from the Easy2Boot USB drive and choose the XP.vhdboot menu entry.
Still having problems? See here. This also describes how you can add driver packs to the VHD so that you can install the correct drivers for any system that you boot the VHD on.

Troubleshooting

Symptom - On a real system, you see the XP loader bar load until it becomes a solid white bar at the bottom of the screen - then it seems to stop (no LED activity) - repartition the USB drive but reduce the partition size of the USB drive by only a few MB - i.e. do not use MAXIMUM size. Some USB drives report their maximum size incorrectly and this can cause the XP loader code to almost freeze due to multiple sector access errors from the BIOS. You may not see this if using a VM but only on some real systems. Alternatively, use version 2.1.710 of RMPrepUSB or later to format the USB drive as MAX size (use Boot as HDD (2PTNS) option too).