E2B Users Forum

Hi Steve, Can you please expand the F7 "Boot First HDD" functionality to a more general menu that supports "Boot drive X partition Y"? It would be very useful. I already know that I can achieve this task manually by invoking a grub4dos shell (shift-P, enter "easy2boot" as passwd, shift-C to get shell, then enter command "chainloader (hdX,Y)+1", then command "rootnoverify (hdX,Y)", then command "boot"). However manual operations are cumbersome, there is the complication you need map (hdX) (hd0) when X!=0, and perhaps other complications that makes the task somewhat ardous. So an automated system would be much better and more accessible to non-experts.
Bonus points if the "Boot driveX PartitionY" menu has an optional command to generate a list of possibilities that includes useful hints such as fstype, e2label/volname or other indicators/reminders as to what is stored on each partition.
How does that sound?

Well there is a sample menu for booting to the 2nd hard disk.
$Boot_to_Disk_2.mnu
Does that work?
It boots by default to the MBR on that disk. You can always change the last line to boot to a particular partition.
Let me know if the menu works for you first...

I don't know where to copy a sample menu to make it active. Can you explain? Long story(*).
(*) I'm on linux, hence no access to E2B_editor.exe. I'm using a SATA SSD drive, not USB drive, so even if I get a windows machine (win7) I have to reboot each time for it to find the SSD when I want to change the menu system. It's complicated ;).

It's a .mnu file. Just copy it to the \_ISO\MAINMENU folder.

I made two new .mnu files in _ISO/MAINMENU. They do not appear in the main menu when I boot. Is there something more I have to do?

Well, your system has to contain two hard disks.

LOL, I fixed the iftitle line. It used to say

iftitle [cat --hex --length=1 (hd2)0+1 >nul] Boot from Disk 2\nBoot from second disk

Now the whole file is called \$Boot_to_hd0_part1.mnu
and contains

iftitle [cat --hex --length=1 (hd0)0+1 >nul] Boot (hd0,1)
errorcheck off
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader (hd0,1)+1 || chainloader (hd0,1)+1 || chainloader (hd0,1)/bootmgr || chainloader (hd0,1)/ntldr

Thanks.

Hi Steve.
I've been using a Sandisk Ultra 3.0 32GB with E2B for a few months, maybe close to 12 months now.
During this time I created a Manjaro KDE imgPTN install and used every now and then, mostly at weekends.
A couple of days ago I upgraded to the latest E2B version and right after that I loaded another 4 or 5 isos that I tend to need on occasions.
Suddenly the disk stopped permitting me to write on it. My Windows 7 hadn't been rebooted for 4 or 5 days in a row and I decided to reboot it. After that it still didn't allow me to copy or delete any files on the disk.
Tried diskpart that says the disk is write protected. Not even a diskpart clean will clear the write protection.
Reading about it on the internet, it appears that Sandisk will lock a disk with WP if the disk presents any sign of degradation. This way Sandisk guarantees the data present in the disk.
Do you think it could be something like that?
When I decided to go imgPTN I knew that I would be wearing the disk but I thought these disks would allow more time doing this. I was expecting maybe 3 or 4 years doing this.
To your knowledge, is there anything I could do to minimize the wearing? Like booting to ram, running everything from ram and only writing the changes to disk once a day or when we issue the shutdown command.
Would WindowsToGo be as bad for disk wearing as linux on imgPTN?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers

I am surprised a Sandisk Ultra is fast enough to run a full OS.
So when you boot to E2B then E2B reports that the drive is write-protected? If not, then what you are seeing may be something to do with Windows and the drive is not write-protected in h/w.
If you are talking about running a full linux installation or a full Windows (WinToGo) installation from USB, then it is going to perform many write operations every day. AFAIK, SanDisk do not warranty their flash drives if used in such a manner. This is because flash drive controllers do not have the advanced (static) wear levelling support in the controllers. AFAIK, most SanDisk controllers in their flash drives should have dynamic levelling (others may not), so writing to LBA0 every time you switch to a .imgPTN file should have no discernible affect. Corsair may use static levelling in some of their drives (but they won't say which ones!) but seem to stick with their 10 yr warranty even if used as WinToGo\Linux.
If you are running a full OS every day, then you really need to use an SSD or M.2 USB drive that is intended to be used with a full OS.
See also:
https://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/54---how-to-fix-write-protected-disks

ISO9660 are not easily modifiable, it's necessary to unpack all, change a single file and repack them, which is harder than modifying a file in a file system such as FAT or EXT4 (just mount it to a loop device).

What is a suitable file format for bootable file such that it is modifiable?

Would an ISO that contains an image of a bootable disk with a partition table works, or should I use the makepartimage tool to make a .imgPTN file (how to run this from Linux? I read the persistent tutorials but makepartimage is required in all of them.)

I tried to make a file with `dev if=zero of=file.img bs=...`, format it with `mkfs.ext4` or `mkfs.vfat` (tried both) and copy the iso content over but it does not work (just return to E2B menu, doing nothing or show a corrupted label name).

PowerISO (Windows) can be used to remove\add files to an ISO but keep its boot code intact.
If you want to work on a bootable linux USB then making a .imgPTN file might be a good way if you just have it all on one partition. You can then just directly add/remove files.
MakePartImage.cmd is a Windows only tool - you will need a real or virtual Windows system.
You haven't explained what you are trying to do or what the target payload/ISO is, so it is difficult to guess at your requirements...

I have several bootable ISOs working quite well from within E2B v1.B5, but there is one that will not boot from within E2B (even after trying the suggested changes to the .iso file extension). When I attempt to boot that iso from within E2B I get the message: "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD" (???). At that point pressing any key results in total lock-up and the only recourse is to power-down!!

To test the integrity of that ISO I have written the ISO image onto a separate UFD (by itself) and it boots up just fine!

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

Look up the iso on the 'list of tested isos' page. Tell me what iso it is ( or am I supposed to guess!).

Steve, it's not on the list of tested isos or I would have told you. It's a WinPE/RE multiboot that with x86 and x64 versions of Terabyte's IFW on it.

How did you write the image to a USB drive? Did you use their utility to make a new flash drive?
Look at the USB drive. If it has a single MBR partition you should be able to drag-and-drop it onto the MPI_FAT32 shortcut to create a .imgPTN file from the drive. If it is not a straight-forward single MBR partition, then it is not a normal WinPE ISO. Unless I can get the ISO it is difficult to reproduce the problem and fix it. If you just want to MBR-boot and it only contains a boot.wim file, then just copy the boot.wim file to the E2B drive.

Thanks for replying - Yes, I used E2B to make a new UFD. Re your suggestion to make a .imgPTN file, isn't when using UEFI (which I am not doing)??? S

No boot.wim - it seems to me that E2B is finding something with the ISO's bootmgr it doesn't like.

If its WinPE\RE then AFAIK they always have one or two .wim files. Look in \sources folder or maybe \x86\sources and \x64\sources?
.imgPTN is not only for UEFI, it is used for many different purposes where a 'flat-file' is wanted. It is just that UEFI BIOSes are required to boot from a FAT32 partition, thus using a .imgPTN file which has a FAT32 format is useful for UEFI booting.

Steve, this is 'way above my paygrade'. Can I get the iso to you (in a secure manner)?

Sure, just upload it to DropBox or Google Drive or MS OneDrive and send the shared download link to [email protected]

Sent via Google Drive. ;)

[The ISO worked fine for me and also booted using QEMU. Seems to be a BIOS compatibility issue with the users systems]

Hello,
what is the difference or change between SWITCH_E2B v1.1.25 and
SWITCH_E2B_Paquet_TEST and SWITCH_E2B_MakeSFXTEST ?
Sorry, I couldn't find a description.
Thank you

They are just test files for a specific user who had problems with the standard switch_e2b.exe. He found that on one system it gave errors and would not show any drives, but we found that it was due to the self-extracting exe package used. So these TEST examples are just packaged using different SE tools. If WinRar or SFX is used then it worked on his system (but those exe files give loads of false positives on antivirus packages). The standard download and the pacquet version did not work on his system but dont give loads of AV warnings.

The easy2boot downloads contain numerous copyrighted works by others (e.g. memdisk, grldr) which are redistributed apparently without a legal license and the required offer for the source code. Is this some kind of oversight or is easys2boot simply pirating other peoples work?

Hi Marc
I have worked with the developers of grub4dos (grldr) for many years (some of my code is in it) and as far as I know it is open source and free to use by anyone. The developers don't have a problem so why do you?
The offer of source code is only required if GPL code has been used within my code. This does not apply here since none of the code in my utilities contain GPL code and the compiled GPL utilities are distributed without alteration - see GPL wiki entry below.
I am unaware of any issue with memdisk as it is included in 100s of distributions of llinux and other utilities. If you can point to any specific T&Cs which I have contravened, please point them out and let me know what you think I need to do.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Use_of_licensed_software
https://repo.or.cz/syslinux.git/blob/HEAD:/memdisk/memdisk16.asm

Not understanding the GPL doesn't mean you are free from it's requirements: nothing else gives you the right to redistribute the software - first, e2b is clearly a derived work and thus the GPL would apply to it and you would have to distribute your derived work under the GPL as well (if you think its not derived, remove the GPL components to see if it still works). Secondly, neither the GPL nor the wikipedia link support your false claim that you can distribute "unaltered" binaries without heeding the license. Lastly,
the fact that some people don't care about illegal redistribution doesn't suddenly make it legal (and do you really claim you have asked _all_ copyright holder of syslinux, grub4dos and other software you include for different license conditions? Where is the documentatoon for this?).

So, as it stands, you have no right to distribute the works of others without following their license, and according to the terms of the GPL, e2b is clearly pirating other people's hard work without even giving credit. None of which you are allowed to do under the GPL.

Asking me which "T&C" you violated is also disingenous - you have to have the right to redistribute the software, the default is that you are not allowed to do it. The GPL allows you to redistribute software under certain conditions that you are clearly not implementing. Nothing in the grub4dos or syslinux licenses allow you to claim credit as your own (as you do) not inform receivers of your software about the license, not offering receivers of your software the same rights according to the GPL and not offering source code.

If you really want a T&C clause, take section 4 of the GPLv2, which disallows redistribution except as stated in the license, which you do not implement.

If you were honest about this you could have pointed out which section of the GPL you wrongly think allows you to redistribute the binaries without source/license/credit/or source offer, rather than point to a random link in wikipedia that doesn't support your claim at all.

And if you want to become honest, it would be high time to stop stealing other peoples work and follow their license, especially given that e2b wouldn't exist without their hard work.

The reason why I so aggressively hum on the "honest" here is that if you were honest, you wouldn't see a problem with giving credit where credit is due and following the license - you would just do it. Your weaseling around is just dishonest.

And if anybody wonders about the wikipedia link given in defense, it clearly contradicts the claims made by the e2b author:

For sales or distribution, the entire source code need to be made available to end users, including any code changes and additions—in that case, copyleft is applied to ensure that end users retain the freedoms defined above.

But of course, wikiepdia doesn't own the works nor does it make the rules, so the final arbiter is the licensed of the software, although wikipedia does a good summary.

Neither wikipedia nor the GPL license itself is hard to understand - both are written in plain english. Following it is not hard, and clearly is the morally right thing to do.

From the Wiki page:

Communicating and bundling with non-GPL programs
The mere act of communicating with other programs does not, by itself, require all software to be GPL; nor does distributing GPL software with non-GPL software. However, minor conditions must be followed that ensures the rights of GPL software is not restricted. The following is a quote from the gnu.org GPL FAQ, which describes to what extent software is allowed to communicate with and be bundled with GPL programs:[71]

What is the difference between an "aggregate" and other kinds of "modified versions"?

An "aggregate" consists of a number of separate programs, distributed together on the same CD-ROM or other media. The GPL permits you to create and distribute an aggregate, even when the licenses of the other software are non-free or GPL-incompatible. The only condition is that you cannot release the aggregate under a license that prohibits users from exercising rights that each program's individual license would grant them.

----

Since no program in the E2B project includes GPL code but merely calls separate GPL programs, I don't think I am required to provide source code for my own programs. So I may perhaps be guilty of not including a text file of the GPL licence and another file stating which of the included programs are GPL licensed. I also may be guilty of perhaps not mentioning the GPL programs on the E2B website Licensing page too.
http://www.easy2boot.com/contact-us/licensing/

The free E2B project, web site, forums and blogs have always made it clear that the Easy2Boot menu system is based on an (unaltered GPL) version of grub4dos.
http://www.easy2boot.com/contact-us/howe2bwasborn/

I will try to rectify these oversights ASAP and hope that will satisfy you.

As I said, if you think you are not creating a derived wokr and merely bundling separate programs together. remove the gpl parts from the e2b distribution and see if it still works. Obviously, it won't work, proving that you are not merely aggregating separate programs, but instead create a new derived work.

"Merely including a text file" is still not enough.

I find your continued attempts at weaseling around very disingenous.

Read the license of the programs you are illegally redistributing and follow it - it is not very hard to do so.

Also, you are restricting user freedoms by claiming people must not sell or e2b, as at the very least the gpl parts of it are freely redistributable, and you have to provide source.

And if you can't remove the GPL parts from e2b and still have a working software, you are clearly depeneding on it, and thus create a modified distribution and a derived work.

OR in other words, you are stealing other people's work that has made your work possible and deprive users of their rights.

I would also like to point out that you woulöd have to jave done all this work first, and not only when people complain and point out you what you are doing is illegal.

I would really suggest following the license instead of pirating other people's work, and not continously try to weasel yourself out.

Citing wikipedia as if it were in any way relevant is a good example - you are misunderstanding wikipedia and pretend that wikipedia is somehow an authority, but it is not.

The only thing that counts is the license of the programs you are using.

And this license does not allow you to redistribute derived works under an incompatible license, put extra restrictions on derived works, remove copyright notices of the real authors and relieve you from the requirement to provide all sources.

If you think e2b is a mere aggregatioon you should be able to prove this by making a working distribution of e2b without the GPL-licensed parts - this would prove that it is an independent work.

Which of course it isn't, because you are incorporating modified versions of grub4dos, syslinux and probably other saoftware in your product.

Really, read the license and implemeent its requirements, stop weaseling around and qauoting wikpedia as if it had any relevance.

I also take note that my challenge to provide documentation that you indeed have asked all the copyright holders for permission has been ignored by you, which makes me think you made it up, and you don't really know that the copyright holders are ok with you redistributing their software under another license. IF you think I am wrong, it's easy to prove me wrong, but you continously fail to do so...

You said:
'because you are incorporating modified versions of grub4dos, syslinux and probably other software in your product.'

BUT I have said several times that I have NOT modified any version of any GPL s/w. It is not 'derived' from any GPL sources. It just contains unmodified original GPL binaries, the source code to which is freely available from the original authors. The main bulk of Easy2Boot consists of my own grub4dos batch files which are in plain text and are therefore, in themselves, the source code. Perhaps you do not fully understand how E2B works?

I will endeavour to clarify the licensing in future and include GPL licence text files with the download. Authors of any of the aggregated s/w are free to contact me if they still have a problem (though no one has so far in over 6 years).

Over the years I have asked as many copyright owners as I can if it is OK to distribute their binaries with E2B before I have used them (mostly via forums/bulletin boards) but I have not kept specific records for all the s/w and I don't see why I have to show you the records anyway. I have tried to be careful to not include any s/w which I was not allowed to freely distribute. If there is an issue, then that is between me and the authors and it is nothing to do with you.

I don't understand why you spread your accusations in the forum and don't email the E2B author.
You accuse the author of being a pirate and want to publicly denounce him in the forum.
The developers of e.g. grub4dos have worked with the accused for a long time.
It would be the right and the task of the grub4dos developers to inform the E2B author about a license violation.
Easy2Boot is now very well known and the developers who were cheated in your opinion would have contacted the E2B developer long ago.
What causes you to play police here?

Hello,
Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB / E2B v1.B5 with PC Legacy BIOS
I use updating date and time string and display disk sizes.
For Sandisk Extreme PRO shows WIN 10 Explorer and RMPrepUSB 119GB.
E2B Display disk size shows 116GB, also for HDD1 there is a difference of the capacity. It is not important but is it normal?
UEFI PC also displays 116GB for USB. For SSD NVME 500GB, 2048GB is displayed but is PCIe.
% B64% system RAM shows only 12946MB instead of 16318MB.
USB capacity is read correctly on UEFI PC but not RAM?

1GiB = 1024x1024*1024 and 1GB = 1000*1000*1000
HDD sizes will be rounded down to nearest 4GiB.
The E2B menu shows the values reported by the BIOS in GB (not GiB) it is nothing to do with UEFI since we are in Legacy\CSM\BIOS mode.
So Disk size will depend on disk geometry reported by BIOS and RAM size will depend on what is reported by the BIOS in normal real mode as usable free RAM - often the graphics uses memory and there are unused 'holes' in the memory. If I create a VM in VBOX with 2560MB RAM then E2B reports 2560 for B64.
As for the NVME - I am not quite sure why that is showing as 2TB - possibly because the BIOS does not 'see' it and so the next hard disk you have in your system is 2TB or larger? Some BIOSes only 'see' a PCIe M.2 drive in UEFI mode.
P.S. Try latest 1.B6a Beta - it should be more accurate for HD sizes.

Hello,
the new E2B v1.B6a does not change the HDD capacity display.
Would the display disk sizes string in the My2B.cfg also need to be adjusted?
But you are right. If you round the capacities to 4GB, the display is correct. In the display on UEFI PC, I have made a mistake, here is not 2048GB but 2044GB displayed and no other hard drive installed.
The displayed RAM is correct on 2 Legacy BIOS PC 24GB: BIOS = 24574MB E2B = 24574MB
and 12GB: BIOS = 12280MB E2B = 12280MB
UEFI PC 16GB: UEFI BIOS = 16318MB E2B = 12946MB

Please re-download v1.B6a - I updated it yesterday without changing the version letter.
UEFI may be able to use more RAM than the Legacy BIOS. Since grub4dos boot via Legacy BIOS, E2B just reports what is reported by Legacy BIOS.

Hello,
unfortunately the revised E2B v1.B6a leads to the same result.

The updated version of 1.B6a should be showing disk sizes to the nearest 1GB. The RAM size issue is just due to your BIOS so it is not an issue - it is reporting correctly what the BIOS is returning to grub4dos.

Hello,
they changed the code to \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file.
Now the display disk size works perfectly with e2b v1.B6a and v1.B6b.

%SIZE_E2B% should give USB size
%SIZE_HD1% should give size of first internal HDD

Yes, thank you.

Im using SWITCH_E2B (v1.1.23). I select the imgPTN file.... click on "Access Partition 2 on Removable drive"
SWITCH_E2B asks me to "OK to swap Partition 1 (type=0E hex) with partition 2 (type=07 hex) on drive 6. I click "ok" .... the drive doesn't appear... this is only happened in the last day or so... i'm using e2b 1.B4. Any thoughts?

when I switch back using SWITCH_E2B... "Restore E2B Partition" - it says " WARNING: Volume L: does not appear to contain valid Easy2boot CSM files"

Sorry, disregard!... I was not double clicking on the imgPTN file... perhaps the Author of Switch_E2B could put an extra "option" box below the "Access Partition 2 ......." to switch into selected imgPTN file?

Tool Tips are displayed when you hover over each of the controls and there also a Help button. You just need to read ;-). No one else has had this trouble.

As you can tell by the title I am trying to install windows XP onto a computer.
The computer is simple with a SATA hard drive. I have gotten a windows XP iso and have done everything required to start trying to install it. It works but when I start the installing after I choose on the easy2boot to do the first step I go and make sure to add the SATA drivers so it won't give me a BSOD. I add the following. WinVBlock 32-bit FiraDisk 32-bit as well as for my AHCI driver Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller. This is the driver that everyone on google seems to use to install Windows XP. Than says starting the setup and at the bottom left says "Examining 305243 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on ahcix80x. . ." then the computer turns off and well nothing happens. I can't disable SATA in the bios because it won't let me. I don't know what to do because it seems whatever I do it crashes because of my SATA hard drive. :(

edit: And yes I have tried the DPMS. I load and I choose the second option which is like the firaDisk and winVBlock and the driver than I press enter and things and the same thing happens.

Thank you, Steve, for the fix! It worked and all is working now :D
[Edit by SSi] Fix was to press F5 at point where it prompted to press F6 and choose an alternative PC type[/Edit]

Hi,
I use easy2boot to boot from a Linux or Windows PC to launch either Clonezilla or gParted or the Mageia installation.
I have under _ISO/LINUX the Mageia6.iso file which is about 3.9Gb. But the new Mageia7.iso is about 4.5 Gb big.
How can I add this greater than 4Gb iso file in the _ISO/LINUX directory ?
Thank you for your help.

Just copy the file! What is the problem?

I can't as it is bigger than 4Gb and the FAT32 partition where is the _ISO/LINUX directory does not accept such big files.

Easy2Boot uses an NTFS partition by default.

If I remember correctly, I have run a script to create the easy2boot partitions : fmt.sh.
It is possible to ask for NTFS partitions instead of a FAT32 ones ?

Why not use the NTFS script that is provided! fmt_ntfs.sh

I didn't know it was available. It might solve my issue.
Thank you for your help.

It worked and I could write the 4.5Gb file on the ntfs partition. Thanks.

Hello,
I would like to create two subfolders for e.g. Acronis and EASEUS or AOMEI under Backup in the main menu. Can you help me how to proceed?

Use the Site Map
http://www.easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/add-a-new-menu-folder/
For a sub-sub-menu see the example for Linux_Ubuntu.

I just tried the currently most recent Easy2Boot_v1.B2 both on Windows and Linux.
On Windows 7, use the installer then copy iso using Windows Explorer.
On Linux (Ubuntu 18.04) use the fmt_ntfs.sh then copy iso using rsync.
I was completely stumped by the fact that the usb drive created by Windows did not complain that the iso was not contiguous but the Linux one did complain about the iso was not contiguous !!!
What's the magic on Windows?

My guess is that rsync opens several 'streams' and always makes fragmented files. e.g. a file will often be fragmented if you download it from the internet directly onto the USB drive using Windows because that also opens several streams.
Try to avoid rsync for copying files onto the USB drive or maybe try the -W option with rsync to copy whole files.
-W, --whole-file copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
or try the --preallocate switch which may also be faster when copying to a USB drive as well as making non-contiguous files. Let me know if this works...

hello, is the script "make contiguous" mandatory? I have never launched it and my key works perfectly ... What is it exactly for?

Please use the site map first before asking questions on this Forum! There is also a search box you can use. This is explained on many pages, many times! The NTFS file system will always use 'virgin' free space first before it overwrites 'dirty' space from deleted files. When you copy a file to a volume which has been recently formatted the file will usually be contiguous. Once the drive has been 'filled' with files (i.e. a 32GB volume has had 32GB of files copied to it since it was last formatted), then there will be no large contiguous free spaces left and any newly copied files will be spread out over several blocks of free space and thus be non-contiguous.

Hello,
To boot easy2boot in uefi, I have to start a first time in legacy. I wanted to know if it's normal? If so, are future releases planned to work around this problem? I read that Intel could forget the legacy mode to have only bios 100% UEFI. Thanks!

The new Intel UEFI-only BIOSes actually only restrict the INTERNAL disk to UEFI-only booting - they will still allow MBR-boot from external USB media (so they can boot to a DOS BIOS Flash program, for instance).
You can use SWITCH_E2B.exe first to switch in any .imgPTN file.
It is possible to UEFI-boot from an E2B drive BUT many BIOSes have bugs which means that a BIOS will always UEFI-boot from the E2B drive and will NEVER MBR-boot to the Legacy E2B menu even if you enable CSM in the BIOS Settings.
I recommend you look at http://www.easy2boot.com/add-payload-files/refind/ and eBook #3.

Hello, is it problematic to use a hard drive with a partition greater than 128GB as recommended? Thanks

I recommend that the first partition does not exceed 128GiB because some BIOSes have a USB driver bug and cannot access sectors past 128GiB. If you use a BIOS which does not have this bug then you will be OK - if you use E2B on a wide range of systems then you are bound to find systems with this common bug and then you may not be able to boot to E2B or to boot certain ISOs\.imgPTN files, etc.

ok, I understand. But with a 1TB hard drive for example, can I use the rest of the disk space to boot systems with easy2boot? Or can we really only use the 128GB? Thanks!

If you use the Easy2Boot install GUI download, it will make a 128GB NTFS partition for E2B and another NTFS partition to use the rest of the 1TB disk. You can store any files you like on the second partition.

some page in alphabetical order, name application with extension and indicate if it is necessary to change extension to another one. But applications in alphabetical order

QEMU can be used for menu testing and booting some 32-bit ISOs.

To change order use _nnn_ prefix, e.g.
_100_Ubuntu 64-bit.isodef
_200_Linux Mint 64-bit.isodef
_250_Blank_Entry.mnu
_300_Parrot.isodef

Hello,
I need your help with a question:
I use Zalman ZM-VE500 and IODD-2541 to install Sysprep pre-installations via Acronis. This works on almost all systems.
Alternatively with E2B on Sandisk Extreme 256GB USB Stick ???
I thought I naiv a Acronis img.PTN with 10 GB to create and paste the split backup in the img.PTN as a folder. Can this generally work before I test, or is my idea stupid?

Most people use a large E2B USB hard drive with two partitions:
Ptn1: E2B NTFS (16-128GB)
Ptn2: for images NTFS (rest of drive).
Then convert the Acronis ISO to a .imgPTN23AUTO file.
Put all your backup images on partition 2.
Not sure if this will work with Acronis and a Removable USB drive because it depends on what version of Windows they use, but as long as it is not older than 2 years, it should detect the 2nd partition OK.

Hi,
Ptn1: E2B NTFS (16-128GB)
Ptn2: for images NTFS (rest of drive).
Then convert the Acronis ISO to a .imgPTN23AUTO file.
Put all your backup images on partition 2.
It also works with a Removable USB drive.
Tested on 3 PC, on 1 PC the images are not recognized.
In the alternative, I have inserted the images in the .imgPTNAUTO, they are recognized on all 3 PC. I will test if it is installed correctly in this variant. Then I think this is the more compatible option. Unfortunately a little more complicated.
Maybe it would be possible in the MPI Tool Pack to include an option to integrate additional folders.

I am interested in the one that didn't work.
Was this UEFI booting or MBR booting?
You can copy images to the .\CUSTOM folder in the MPI folder and whenever you make a .imgPTN file, they will also be copied over. But they must be under 32GB because of the FAT32 partition size limitation imposed by Windows. If you use MPI_NTFS then they won't UEFI-boot.
Also, the E2B first partition must be under 128GB in size if you want to MBR-boot from the .imgPTN file.

Hi,
it was MBR booting.
But the PC on which the backup images were not found: it was the data partition that was visible to Windows. That is, on all three PCs, the E2B partition for Windows must be visible, otherwise it will not work on all 3 PC, which can be accessed in Acronis on the data partition.
With Windows 10 it is no problem if the EB2 partition is visible, because I still have access to the data partition.
With Windows 7 I want to access the data partition and boot E2B. Therefore, for me the solution of a .imgPTNAUTO file with integrated image of a pre-installation would be the max. 15GB is supported and UEFI (FAT32), the better choice.
For permanent backups, a USB Hard Drive is the better choice.

You can access the Data partition under Windows 7 using SWITCH_E2B.exe - 'Access partition 2 on Removable drive' button.
Copy SWITCH_E2B.exe to your Win7 system from the E2B drive and run it. You can then add/delete files from the DATA partition. You can then use the same button in SWITCH_E2B to switch back to view the E2B partition.

I noticed on v1.B1 and newer that when I built the drive and booted, when counting the windows install ISOs (before the main menu) it would get to XP (0) and then just jump to the main menu. Once in the main menu, I noticed that the "windows install" menu was missing entirely. After many hours of trying to fix this, I was able to fix it by replacing the file at _iso\e2b\grup\countfiles.g4b with a version from my old flash drive. My old file was dated 3/7/2016. I'm not sure if anyone else has had this issue, but just in case.

Thanks for the report, I will look into it. Are there any ISOs present in any of the \_ISO\WINDOWS subfolders? If so, which ones and how many?
No one else has reported an issue and presumably they would not see any menu for any of the other windows folders. Can you think of why your E2B drive may be different? Any special files in the XP or VISTA folders or special extensions on the ISO files? Maybe you deleted the VISTA folder? Try E2B v1.B2e1 Beta.

I am using a SanDisk 256gb extreme 3.1 drive with a single NTFS partition. I have deleted all of the folders that I do not put ISOs in. The only folders left in the "Windows" directory are:
SVR2012 with 1 ISO
SVR2016 with 1 ISO
SVR2019 with 0 ISOs because I deleted it while testing.
Win7 with 2 ISOs
Win10 With 3 ISOs

I see where you're going with the deleted folders, but I also deleted the XP folder and it was showing up when counting ISOs. I tried v1b1 - 1b2d_beta with no luck. I'll try 1b2e1 and let you know. Also, is there a way to either remove the box around the menu, or make it clear?
Thank you
Jeremy

OK - so that explains why no one else has reported a problem! It should be fixed in new beta.
Use the \_ISO\E2B_Editor.exe to configure the menu including the menu border width (0 for none).

Right again, sir! Everything works perfectly now. Next time I'm in the UK, I owe you many beers!

Hello Steve,
I tried to add a PfSense Memstick image (VGA - 2.4.4-RELEASE-p3) to my E2B following the following Guide:
http://www.easy2boot.com/add-payload-files/freebsd/
I created a .imgPTNA5 File with an empty folder and extracted and renamed the .img file matching the .imgPTN without any dots and file extension.
Afterwards I made the drive contigous and switched it in using the E2B menu. But I get only "Boot Error" when trying to boot. I looked at Switch_E2B and the images are recognized properly.
Did you have this Problem on your own or do you have any idea?
Thank you very much :)

Using pfSense-CE-2.4.4-RELEASE-p3-amd64.isoBSD (non-memstick ISO) MBR-boots OK. I will try the .imgPTN memstick image soon.
Do you want to UEFI boot or MBR boot?

I wanted to MBR Boot generally. I'm not sure if pfSense is generally bootable via UEFI. It would be interesting for future use cases but at the moment servers still support MBR Boot.

OK, well use the ISO file and a .isoBSD file extension.
For UEFI booting, use the memstick image and create some partition images as detailed in a blog article https://rmprepusb.blogspot.com/2015/03/adding-freebsd-freenas-pcbsdtrueos-to.html

I would need to MBR boot from the memstick-serial image because i have some appliances with only a serial port.
I will have a look for a workaround.
Thanks for your help :)

You did not say you needed to boot the Serial version!
I have added an extra menu to the blog instructions so you can MBR-boot from a memstick image as well. :-)

I just tested to boot to the memstick image. Works perfectly as described. Thank you for that :)

Hello Steve,
My setup at the Moment is the normal E2B Partition with the E2B files and a second FAT32 Partition with the UEFI Bootfiles for WINPE. I have an aditional folder for tools and data on ptn2 so i would like to format ptn2 to NTFS to store files larger than 4 GB. The first option is to add refind into the payload files. And the other is to use the.imgPTNSWPEFAT32 file extension.
Could you explain me how that works? I haven't found a detailed description yet.
Thank you very much.
Greetings
Steffen

Well if the 2nd partition is NTFS then you wont be able to UEFI-boot to WinPE immediately. Also, if you add refind to the images you wont be able to secure boot. If you use .imgPTNSWPEFAT32 file then you can UEFI secure boot but you will have to switch it in.
Another solution is to have 3 ptns. NTFS,FAT32,NTFS. With FAT32 holding WinPE files. The problem with this is that you cant use Legacy booting of Linux ISOs with persistence because the 3rd partition is in use (but you could convert the linux to a .imgPTN file and use a 2nd image file as the persistence partition).
This is all explained in my eBook #3 - Chapter 9 ;-)

Hey Steve,
thank you for your quick answer. I knew about the problems with the third partition and Linux with persistence thats the reason i wanted to avoid it. Thats the reason i asked about the imgPTNSWPEFAT23 file extension because i didn't know how it works.
I think I will try the linux distro as .imgPTN and add a second image File for persistence.
Thanks for your help :)

Not quite sure what you mean (do you mean .imgPTNX4 file extension?), but you can always contact me using live chat.
e.g. FRED.imgPTNX4DORIS will replace ptn 1 with this file and will also add in Partition 4 using another file \_ISO\DORIS which is also a partition image. So DORIS could contain a FAT32 partition with WinPE files and FRED.imgPTNX4DORIS could contain FAT32 UEFI files for linux or whatever payload you wish to boot to.

Ahh okay now I understand what this extension is for. Thank you :)

Hello All,
I am working on a specific project that I am having trouble with and was wondering if I could obtain some advice.
I have a system that contains a SIL3114 Raid controller. This controller has 2 Samsung 1Tb SSDs that are striped.
The system has ESXi installed on a 1Tb drive and has one VM (so far) that is Windows 10.
The SIL3114 controller is PCI-Passthrough’d to the Win10 machine.
I then cloned the Win10 virtual disk to the stripe and want to be able to boot to it.
The problem is that in ESXi‘s virtual BIOS, the raid controller is not seen because the passthrough doesn’t happen until after the virtual machine has booted, so I cannot set it in the boot order.
A trick for this is to create another virtual hard drive, and install either E2B or Clover or AIOBOOT and have it automatically then boot the VM to the stripe.
The problem is that I cannot seem to figure out how to get any of these boot loaders to contain the right driver for the SIL3114 so it can be seen and then have it as the bootable drive.
Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thank you!!
-=oCeAN=-

Why not install win10 boot files on another virtual disk. Then configure it to load bootmgr and configure the BCD to load the Win10 on the striped disks?
You should be able to boot from a Win10 install ISO as a virtual DVD and then use repair\troubleshooting or BCDBOOT to add in the boot files.

I created a new USB drive with v1.b1 and added all my ISO's that have worked perfectly under v1.a6 and V1.a9.
I booted the new USB fine, but when I try to start Acronis TI it just says "Starting Acronis Loader" and never completes. Assistance please.

Try it on a different system or under a VM.
You can downgrade to one of the previous E2B versions (just click on 'update button' in the GUI of a previous version) and see if the problem goes away.
If the USB drive is brand new, I would test it with FakeFlashTest.

I have tried it on 2 different systems and it fails on both. I created another USB with V1.a9 and same Acronis ISO and that works fine. The Acronis version is 2016. If I can find a 2019 Acronis iso, I will try that on V1.b1

OK, so it is not the target system at fault.
Could it be the flash drive is bad? Is it new? Did you test it? Is the ISO checksum correct?

I used both a new flash and updated an old flash from 1.a9 to 1.b1. Both fail the same. I will download and run fakeflashtest on the new flash and then recreate it. Since 1.a9 still works I will keep that flash drive around till the issue with 1.b1 is resolved. I will also test my other payload files to insure they all still work under 1.b1. I will update this thread as I test.