Re: Booting Vista from external drive violate MS EULA?


I had about 10 000 000 0000 000 bsods before managing this
the vista usb solution. This avoids any ghosting or copying over
of OS install to diff drives. Avoids cross mounting registry hives.

drawback:needs another drive plugged in sata or ide channel or BSOD
after install procedure (used or unused)
Meaning this boots off usb vista, if there is another hard drive
present in the system. Has
something to do with vista verification of disk drives(for now).
Working on a fake ckecksum. The ide or sata
drive doesnt need to boot, it justneeds to be present. If usb boot is
slow its not the install but the hardware bios support on the system.
I read around and compiled my own way of doing so.

Vista wont start installation on a USB interface no matter what. It is
embedded in the OS which I wasnt able to track down.
So I decided to use VMWARE 6 (may work with older vmware not sure).
You can download vmware and an eval license for 30 days can be emailed
to you.
You can also try the free server version of vmware assuming it will
work the same.
download vmware install it. (vmware is easy to use)

Step 1: Get vista installed on your drive either use 1a OR 1b

Step 1a: Install vista via ide/sata install
OR
Step 1b: Use vmware.
Create a new vmware for windows, pick custom pick lsi logic as scsi
card (vista has support for this card)
use cdrom or iso as you wish for the vista install CD.
have your usb drive u want to install on, plugged in. Vmware will see
this device as physical drive 1 (0 being your OS)
use physical disk(advanced) of your usb drive. Make sure you pick the
correct physical drive (drive 1 usually) or else you might wipe the
current OS drive.
Use entire disk.
Click advanced on disk in virtual machine settings. Click on
independent
and persistent changes for the disk.

Now, remove all assigned letters in disk management for the USB drive
(If you dont u can corrupt an install that way).
To make sure you clean install vista, remove all partitions in disk
management of your USB drive.
(if you have needed data, you can still try but not guaranteed to work
it may hang)
Disconnect USB drive!, reconnect.

Play vmware instance.
During vista install, create partitions, format partition (or else u
might get corrupt boot as crcdisk error)
Vmware will show that drive as scsi disk under lsi logic controller,
this is fine as vista will install on a scsi disk.

Step 2: (if you used step 1a just boot as normal on IDE/SATA)
Boot and go through the vista install procedure in vmware.
Let vista boot to the desktop the first time in the vmware
inside vmware vista do start-> run regedit (in the search box unlike
XP)
goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\
Now edit tags
start = 0
Group = boot bus extender

on all these servies
usbccgp
usbehci
usbhub
usbstor
usbuhci
usbohci

If there are no "group" string values add them in for those services


exit regedit

step 3:
goto \windows\system32\DriverStore\FileRepository\usbstor.inf_bb2778a0
copy usbstor.sys into \windows\system32\drivers (ugh not sure why MS
doesnt have it in here)
goto \windows\inf
take control and inherit perms for administrator of the inf folder,
then
edit usbstor.inf,usbport.inf,usb.inf to have inside section
[*.AddService]
StartType = 0
LoadOrderGroup = boot bus extender


(This is because when you boot into regular desktop out of vmware it
will find new usb interface
and mess up the startup type.)

shutdown vista

close vmware
Disconnect USB drive!, reconnect.

Step 4: (if you used step 1a plug drive into USB enclosure)
Now reboot your machine and select USB boot drive from bios boot.
Machine should now boot
to vista desktop.
Also if it finds new usb devices or if drivers are added bsod. Make
sure the
start type and groups dont change on the usb services (verify in
regedit).
It will find your current hardware's usb device and install drivers for
it.
problem is it can overwrite the original usb*.inf file and add new
params into it.
double check this or when you reboot again boot will fail.
If you do windows update, fix the registry or it will fail. Update adds
new files like the original.
After the drivers get installed for the first time it is safe to assume
you wont
have to deal with it being reinstalled unless you goto another machine.
Of course you can always go back to the vmware instance and fix it
there.
In short redo step 2 after first USB boot to desktop (finds new
hardware), full update, machine change, plugging in new type
of storage USB devices for the first time. (e.g. the UHCI, OHCI, EHCI
hardware types change the start type since drivers
weren't prepped yet. )


Hope its simple and straight forward. You can probably install xp and
200(0,3) this way too. (may need
lsi logic drivers to find boot disk though, vista,win2k3 has it
natively)
EDIT: xp and windows 200(0,3) exhibit the same behavior of BSOD during
boot. Even after
copying usbstor.sys and other files from driver cache cabs. So xp and
win2k3 dont work currently.
Still maybe salvageable with other tweaks out there.

The is another way to get WAIK tools for vista and regedit the above
changes directly in the boot(1,2).wim
and install(1,2,3,4,5,6).wim but I will leave that out to the daring.
Vista installer still wont
do direct usb install though even with those usb service changes in the
image.

If your drive doesnt show up under vmware for use then its targetting
as removeable device.
you can install the xpfildrvr driver (the hitachi driver) to remedy
that. (mostly for usb flash drives)
Careful about USB stick since it needs additional drivers to stop those
write cycles in windows.
But atleast the install should be straight forward. No need for extra
copying or dealing with
non working boot sectors as the install is directly on the destination.



Lazy mans quick install (step 2), step 3 maybe skipped, just do step 2
again when moving drive around and/or
after updates.
Close vmware, disconnect USB drive!, reconnect, goto disk management
assign drive letter, copy inf file to your vista's c:\
Go back to disk management, deassign drive letter. Disconnect USB
drive!, reconnect.
Run vmware, inside vmware right click install the inf file. It wont
change the usb
inf files for you but it will add the reg and copy usbstor.sys for you.
When you run
through updates, you can re install the inf file and reboot.


--
Ultimate User
.

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