I finally figured out to create an USB drive that contains multiple versions of Windows on it. This universal USB drive does have one limitation in that you cannot install Windows with it. It is suitable for running Startup Repair and other commands.
Tools I used:
- YUMI to install Syslinux and GRUB4DOS on the USB drive.
- Dreamweaver to edit the menu files because the menu text files are not in the Windows format.
- ODIN to backup my USB drive in case I lose it or the data on it is corrupted.
- ImgBurn to create an ISO file without the /sources/INSTALL.WIM file to save space.
Steps to get going:
- Run YUMI and first install all the other repair tools you want.
- YUMI will create a folder /multiboot/ISOS. Copy all the Windows ISO’s you want to that directory and give them an easy name without spaces, i.e. windows7_x32_sp1.iso. In Linux, file names are case-sensitive so always use lower-case.
- If you do not have the ISO’s you need, then a legal way to acquire them is through TechNet or MSDN. Just be aware that the TechNet Windows 8 may still be crippled.
- Since you cannot install Windows using the method, you probably should consider removing the /sources/INSTALL.WIM file from each Windows ISO. I used these instructions for creating a bootable ISO. What I did was extract the contents of the disc using a program such as 7-zip, delete the INSTALL.WIM file, and then used ImgBurn to recreate the ISO. You will also want to remove the ei.cfg file from Windows 7 and Windows Vista discs.
- I then used YUMI to add all the repair tools I wanted to the USB drive. These tools include Clonezilla, Memtest 86+, and a few others.
- I then created a GRUB4DOS menu file for each Windows edition in the /multiboot/menu/ folder that YUMI created. For example: windows7.lst.
- Using a file YUMI created as a template, I made the contents of the file as follows: (The text in red are what you need to change for each version and edition of Windows.)
NOTE: Due to the website layout, a line break appears where a line break should not be in your file. If you copy the text in the section below, it will paste correctly in your text editor.default 1 color NORMAL HIGHLIGHT HELPTEXT HEADING foreground=FFFFFF background=000000 title Windows 7 root title <-- Back to Main Menu root (hd0,0) chainloader (hd0)+1 rootnoverify (hd0) title Windows 7 64-bit SP1\n ls /multiboot/ISOS/windows7_x64_sp1.iso || find --set-root /multiboot/ISOS/windows7_x64_sp1.iso map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /multiboot/ISOS/windows7_x64_sp1.iso (0xff) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 --mem /multiboot/ISOS/windows7_x64_sp1.iso (0xff) map --hook chainloader (0xff) title Windows 7 32-bit SP1\n ls /multiboot/ISOS/windows7_x32_sp1.iso || find --set-root /multiboot/ISOS/windows7_x32_sp1.iso map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /multiboot/ISOS/windows7_x32_sp1.iso (0xff) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 --mem /multiboot/ISOS/windows7_x32_sp1.iso (0xff) map --hook chainloader (0xff)
- I repeated that file for Windows Vista and Windows 8.
- Next I modified the /multiboot/syslinux.cfg file to include these entries:
label Windows 8 menu label Windows 8 MENU INDENT 1 KERNEL /multiboot/grub.exe APPEND --config-file=/multiboot/menu/windows8.lst label Windows 7 menu label Windows 7 MENU INDENT 1 KERNEL /multiboot/grub.exe APPEND --config-file=/multiboot/menu/windows7.lst label Windows Vista menu label Windows Vista MENU INDENT 1 KERNEL /multiboot/grub.exe APPEND --config-file=/multiboot/menu/windowsvista.lst
- I then safely removed the USB drive and tested it. Once I saw everything was working, I immediately used ODIN to make a backup of the USB drive.
Of course, you can create the menu however it suits you. The important thing is you now can have a USB drive that can repair any version of Windows from Vista on. I am probably going to add Windows Server 2008, 2011, and 2012 to my USB drive too. If you remove the INSTALL.WIM file, you can easily fit this on a 32GB USB drive. Since this cannot be used to install Windows, I will not put the various service packs on my USB drive.
NOTE: To be fair, I never did try to install Windows using this method.
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thanks but can u give me win8 menu.lst and win7 menu.lst
The menu.lst file template for Windows Vista, 7, and 8 is the first text file listed above.
Thanks alot for this, it was just what i needed to get rid of those terrible DVD’s!
Now we will have a external HDD with all the commen Windows versions, and Hirens Boot – all bootable.
And when using a HDD, there is lots of space for all the Office versions aswell, this is great!
Best regards, Dennis René Holm
http://dennish.dk/
I did not understand one thing. You have mentioned above to delete install.wim file and ei.cfg file and create ISO. All the installation files are in install.wim file. How will the installation work>
Thanks.
You cannot install Windows with this method. In fact, you cannot even use Startup Repair or System Restore with it. You can only use it to boot to the repair tools. Deleting the install.wim file allows you to easily fit all versions of Windows onto one USB stick so that you can run commands such regedit, chkdsk, sfc, and delete malware files.
It didn’t work =( Windows 8 Boots without problems, bu when i start windows 7 install, it throws it couldn’t find any DVD drive and won’t allow to install
I think it’s a problem of space formatted in fat 32 as they say in yumi(yumi web:IMPORTANT NOTE: Your USB drive must be Fat16/Fat32/NTFS formatted, otherwise Syslinux will fail and your drive will NOT Boot. NTFS is buggy, and data may become corrupted if you use it!), install.win 8.1 on my windows x86 x64 has more than 5 gb, so the flash drive needs to be formatted in NTFS, I will continue doing tests.
I can not Boot Windows xp with Yumi Multiboot.
Problem – Fatal 15 error, File not Fond
I don’t know what could be the problem. YUMI is not my program, it is one I just found. If I was trying to figure out what to do, I would format the USB drive then use YUMI to install Windows XP first. I have used YUMI to put Windows XP on my USB drive, but that was an older version of YUMI.