Problems with loading Win MBR from folder in SYSLINUX 4.06

[doestergaard]

Hi all Fellow Linux users!

I have a problem with loading different Windows installations of a multiboot USB I've made with SYSLINUX 4.06.

If i put all on the root of my usb-drive it loads the winsetup perfectly! But putting them into a seperate folder, changing the .cfg file to referer to the new directory, where MBR is at, it fails!

Any clue about what causes this?

Thanks in advance!

[yancek]

Any clue about what causes this?

microsoft.

You could post a little more information. Is this a flash drive or a standard external usb drive? Which versions of windows are you using? Why are you not using the windows bootloader to boot windows systems?

But putting them into a seperate folder, changing the .cfg file to referer to the new directory, where MBR is at, it fails!

If they work in the root of the drive, why move them? You need to post a little more detail on what you are trying to do. Also, what do you mean by "new directory, where MBR is at", the mbr isn't in any directory.

[doestergaard]

Sorry, I have been playing around with this for days now, im getting used to it :P

Its a 16GB Flash Drive, which is formatted to NTFS and have SYSLINUX installed on it.

What i want to achieve, is have the ability to have multiple Windows installationens on one drive.


My drive looks like this:

D:
D:/menu.c32
D:/syslinux.cfg
D:/boot/chain.c32
D:/os/win7/ent_da/ <-- Windows 7 Enterprise install files

If i put the window files to the root, it will boot it without issues, but putting them into a folder doesn't.

My syslinux.cfg looks like this:

#boot
DEFAULT menu.c32

#menu layout
MENU TITLE USB Multiboot Windows Installation

#content
LABEL Windows 7 Enterprise with SP1 x86/x64 Dansk
COM32 /boot/chain.c32
APPEND fs ntldr=/os/win7/ent_da/bootmgr <-- needs to change whereever i put it.

I get the following error

File: \BOOT\BCD
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: The Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.


Thanks Again!

[yancek]

D:/os/win7/ent_da/

Is this the entry that fails? or the one that works?
While searching for ways to multiboot Linux in the past, I have come across sites explaining how to do the same with windows. I didn't have any interest so I never read any of them but I'm sure they are out there. Is there any reason why you are using syslinux instead of a windows bootloader? Have you already tried booting with windows bootloader?

APPEND fs ntldr=/os/win7/ent_da/bootmgr

What is the "fs ntldr" for? Have you found that line is needed? Windows hasn't used ntldr file since xp. Is there some other reason you have that?
Also, you only have one entry, for windows 7. Have you tried other windows systems on the disk?

I don't know much about windows errors but googling the one you posted above took me to the microsoft site below which has some possibilities:

Boot error&#58; status&#58; 0xc000000f - winload.exe missing or - Microsoft Community

Do you have a Linux Live CD? If so, could you boot it up and open a terminal on it and run the command: ls -l. That would need to be run on the directory on the flash drive which is usually auto-mounted under the /media directory and would allow us to see your root folder/file structure. I haven't used windows since w2k so I don't know that I'll be any help.

[doestergaard]

D:/os/win7/ent_da/ - Is this the entry that fails? or the one that works?

This is the entry that fails.

Is there any reason why you are using syslinux instead of a windows bootloader? Have you already tried booting with windows bootloader?

I wanna use syslinux because its simple and gives me opportunity to use only what I need. Haven't yet tried grup4dos as an alternative.

What is the "fs ntldr" for? Have you found that line is needed? Windows hasn't used ntldr file since xp. Is there some other reason you have that?
Also, you only have one entry, for windows 7. Have you tried other windows systems on the disk?

Honestly, I don't know. Saw documentation on a different forum that stated it should be use, and other users has repported it working, I'll try to remove it and see if that could fix it.

Do you have a Linux Live CD? If so, could you boot it up and open a terminal on it and run the command: ls -l. That would need to be run on the directory on the flash drive which is usually auto-mounted under the /media directory and would allow us to see your root folder/file structure. I haven't used windows since w2k so I don't know that I'll be any help

I can also give this a try if above fails. Thank you, I'll post my Progress!

[yancek]

I did a little googling and didn't find much on this. You might take a look at the site below under #13 where the poster has a different menu entry. I don't have any windows CD to experiment with. Good luck.

software walk and software talk: Dual Boot USB stick with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)