How to create a multiboot CD for Windows X64

October 8th, 2009 at 12:00pm |

With this post you will learn step by step how to create a multiboot CD for Windows X64

Disclaimer: unfortunately it has passed a lot of time since I put my hands in such a stuff. Whatever suggestion you have is well accepted, however I cannot assist you with any problems arising from following this guide.

1) integrate Service Pack (only form x64 host)

a) extract service pack files

xp64sp3.exe -x:c:\sp3

b) integrate service pack files:

cd c:\sp3\i386\update\update.exe
update -s:c:\xp

2) generate boot foldersCreating the Boot Folder

Thanks to gosh from the MSFN forums, I have discovered a much better way to obtain the boot files. Go to Start -> Run and type or paste the following command with the correct drive letter of course:

D:\AIO-DVD\SETUP\Server2003\Standard\i386\winnt32.exe /noreboot

Windows Server 2003 setup should come up. Choose “New Installation” and go through the options as usual. Do NOT download updated setup files. At the “Setup Options” screen, click on “Advanced Options” and make sure “copy all installation files from the CD” is checked. If it is grayed out don’t worry about it.

Setup should create 2 folders in the root of your main drive. They will be hidden so make sure “Show hidden files and folders” is enabled.

$WIN_NT$.~BT – the boot folder
$WIN_NT$.~LS – installation files folder

Delete $WIN_NT$.~LS that was just created. All we’re concerned with is the boot folder.

Rename $WIN_NT$.~BT to 3STD and move the entire folder into the AIO-DVD folder.

eg. – D:\AIO-DVD\3STD\

Now in the 3STD folder delete the following files:

BOOTSECT.DAT
migrate.inf
winnt.sif

for an x64 product the $WIN_NT$.~BT folder will be renamed as being the 64bit boot folder.

In fact you also have to create a 32bit boot folder where you’ll have to put the following files (taken from $WIN_NT$.~BT)

disk101
disk102
disk103
disk104
ntdetect.com
setupldr.bin

IMPORTANT: Now there’s just one last thing we have to do. When we ran setup like we just did, it expects us to be installing a new operating system the next time we reboot, so setup adds an extra boot option in the boot.ini file and changes the default boot choice to it. If you followed the instructions in “Getting Started”, you should have made a copy of your boot.ini file. Take this copy, and copy it back over the boot.ini file in the C:\. Don’t get rid of your original boot.ini, you will need it again if you plan on using other portions of this guide to add more operating systems.

If you don’t have a backup of your boot.ini file, you can edit it yourself. This is what it normally looks like if you have Server 2003 installed on the first or only partition of your hard drive:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Windows Server 2003, Standard” /fastdetect

3) we have found a permanent solution to to the corruption problem of SETUPLDR.BIN with 64-Bits Windows as well as Windows 2003 Server family (since SP1).

You will need a hex editor program to do so…
1- open the SETUPLDR.BIN file with your hex editor
2- Go to the hex address 0×2060
3- replace value 74 03 with EB 1A
4- Save the file

Now you can edit the SETUPLDR.BIN file with EasyBoot (using the Replace Text… feature under the Tools button) and replace
5 occurence of i386 and 2 occurence of I386

4) Edit setupldr.bin

replace all i386\ occurrences with the 32bit boot folder ie. XPPC

replace all AMD64\ occurrences with the 64bit boot folder ie. XPPC64

NOTE: there is one more occurrence of AMD64 that you SHOULD replace by hand, that can be found by searching for \AMD64 (see images)

5) edit txtsetup.sif

change “setupsourcepath” to reflect the new root folder of the distribution (where AMD64 and I386 folders reside) e.g.\ROOT\XPPC

6) expand those files:

expand AMD64\CMPROPS.DL_ AMD64\CMPROPS.DLL

expand AMD64\HMMAPI.DL_ AMD64\HMMAPI.DLL

7) start cdimage.exe -lAIODVD -t08/23/2001,09:00:00 -b\AIO-DVD\BOOT\loader.bin -h -n -o -m \AIO-DVD C:\AIODVD.iso

NOTE: error in setuperr.log “The system cannot find message text for message number 0xfffffc05 in the message file for syssetup.dll” occures when the timezone fix is integrated.

NOTE: integrating drivers with DriverPacks results in error during finishing when KTD CPU is enabled: http://bugtracker.driverpacks.net/view.php?id=418

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