Hot Topic: Multi-bootable N-in-1 Cd Howto

[khauyeung]

[12-20-2001] (Part 5)

Where are we?

Some people get lost, let us take some more time to digest what we have cooked so far. (I mean to take a quick look-back.)

In order to make a "Corporated Professional & Home Edition 2in1":

1. We put DevilsOwn as our first OS under the SourceRoot Directory of our hard-drive (under E:CORP2IN1_EN). Appeared under E:CORP2IN1_EN now are folders i386, DOCS, SUPPORT, VALUEADD ... and files ... all from the DevilsOwn.
2. We put Home Edition as our second OS under a directory WXHVOL_EN which is one level down from our SourceRoot (under E:CORP2IN1_ENWXHVOL_EN). Appeared under E:CORP2IN1_ENWXHVOL_EN now are folders i386, DOCS ... and files ... all from Home Edition.
3. But the Home Edition is from an Untouched Version. In order to turn it to a Corporated Home Edition, we have to replace in the i386 folder (E:CORP2IN1_ENWXHVOL_ENi386) with 8 Corporate Files. Where can we find the 8 files? The i386 folder of DevilsOwn (E:CORP2IN1_ENi386) contains them all. We therefore can simply copy them from E:CORP2IN1_ENi386 to E:CORP2IN1_ENWXHVOL_ENi386.
4. Now that we have both the Corporated Professional & Home Edition being put under the SourceRoot. We add 2 more files to the SourceRoot: BOOT.BIN which is a Boot-Image file; WIN511C from the Home Edition. (We need to have WIN51, WIN51IP and WIN51IC located in the root directory of our 2in1 CD to make multi-boot possible)
5. After we have finished preparation on our SourceRoot Directory E:CORP2IN1_EN, we use the CDIMAGE with -o option to generate an ISO CD-Image of the 2in1 CD: [b:a0bb287f2e]cdimage -lCORP2IN1_EN -t08/23/2001,12:00:00 -bE:CORP2IN1_ENBOOT.BIN -h -n -m -o E:CORP2IN1_EN E:CORP2IN1.ISO[/b:a0bb287f2e]. -l option for Volume Label; -t option for Time Stamp; -b option for Boot Image; -h for hidden files; -n for long filename; -m to disable ISO Size-Limit; -o for optimize magics.
6. The generated CORP2IN1.ISO is a CD-Image contains the DevilsOwn (i386 folder located under of the CD) and the Home Edition (i386 folder under WXHVOL_EN of the CD). The CD is bootable to DevilsOwn (it runs i386setupldr.bin during boot). If you insert the CD under Win32, it will autorun the setup.exe of the DevilsOwn (setup.exe)

People, take a deep breath now! Feel better? OK, I shall give you one more minute to get ready... Oh, sorry, typing mistake. I mean one more day!

New content segment is now in [12-22-2001] (Part 6), check it out!



Last edited by khauyeung at Jul 20 2002, 10:13 AM

[khauyeung]

Short answer to some of you:

VoiX, different language versions of XP may have quite a lot of files in difference. Even though optimization still work on those duplicate files, but the total size will always exceed the 650 MB standard CD boundary!

craftyc, I will talk about the multi-boot menu in the multi-bootable time. Be patient and Smile!



Last edited by khauyeung at Jul 20 2002, 10:14 AM

[[SiN]]

Can't we push it a little bit on the images? I mean all we have looked at so far is keeping the size under 650MB. I have disks here that are 700MB, and I am pretty sure there is more a bit higher. CDIMAGE.exe can go over the default CD size with the -m switch right? So we can maybe squeeze some more on there?

[khauyeung]

What Lucky said is true. CDIMAGE has no problem in generating ISO CD-Image of size larger than GB, it is our CD having its capacity limit. We do have 700 MB CD available in the market, but not all burners/software can burn beyond the 650 MB boundary. I therefore always use 650 MB as my standard.

[petal666]

I think that maybe 700MB would be acceptable (I can't even buy 650MB Kodaks anymore) but going over that would be difficult. My Sony burner won't go past 700MB at all and I'm sure some of the other burners around wouldn't either.

[g-string]

@ khauyeung - I have one very basic question: Is a boot.bin file "generic", i.e. can I save this file from any bootable CD and use it to [b:484bbc9c31]make ANY other CD bootable?[/b:484bbc9c31]. Your insights into the Nin1 are much appreciated.

g-string.

[khauyeung]

g-string, the boot.bin is the generic boot-sector for WinXP, .Net and Win2K. It should not be used beyond them. We shall need to edit this generic boot-sector later for multi-bootable purpose.



Last edited by khauyeung at Jul 20 2002, 10:15 AM

[[SiN]]

[quote:45428cf7ce][i:45428cf7ce]Originally posted by khauyeung [/i:45428cf7ce]
[b]What Lucky said is true. CDIMAGE has no problem in generating ISO CD-Image of size larger than GB, it is our CD having its capacity limit. We do have 700 MB CD available in the market, but not all burners/software can burn beyond the 650 MB boundary. I therefore always use 650 MB as my standard. [/quote:45428cf7ce]

Very good point... I didn't even think of that

[Woogieman]

Mmmh, I found CDIMAGE.EXE ver.2.39, but it says it has to be run under NT4?????

[Bads]

Very, very interesting khauyeung,

I will save these precious informations,

I'm really in admiration for your work,

This is fabulous and really educative