Contents ----------- Introduction NT 5 - Install NT 5 - Install Win 8.1 - Dual Boot Win 10 - Install (1) Win 10 - Install (2) Win 10 - WIMBoot Win 11 - WIMBoot (1) Win 11 - WIMBoot (2) Win 11 - WIMBoot (3) Summary and notes GRUB4DOS --------------- GRUB4DOS - Device... GRUB4DOS - Fundamentals... GRUB4DOS - Command-Line GRUB4DOS - Install GRUB4EFI --------------- GRUB4EFI DiskPart ------------ DiskPart DiskPart - Command... DiskPart - USB... Misc. ----- WinPE USB... 64-bit Driver Signing NT 5 - TXTSETUP.OEM Add Hardware... UEFI, BIOS, GPT... UEFI Screen Res... Secureboot...

SVBus

Install Windows 11 - WIMBoot (stage 2)

Follow the instructions in WIMBoot Stage 1 before proceeding. You should have a GRUB4DOS/GRUB4EFI bootable USB with menu options for WinPE and wimboot.vhd, with partition 2 on the USB drive containing the file \win11wimboot.wim and SVBus driver files. This stage covers the following steps -

Step 1 - Setting up the target system (Boot WinPE) (see here).

Step 2a - Setting up the target system (UEFI) (see here).

Step 2b - Setting up the target system (BIOS) (see here).

Step 3a - Create and mount Virtual Hard Disk (see here).

Step 3b - Create and mount Virtual Hard Disk - low RAM systems (see here).

Step 4a - Setting up the target system (Copy .wim) (see here).

Step 4b - Setting up the target system (Copy .wim) - low RAM systems (see here).

Step 5a - Apply win11wimboot.wim to the mounted VHD (see here).

Step 5b - Apply win11wimboot.wim to the mounted VHD - low RAM systems (see here).

Step 6 - Install SVBus to Offline Image (see here)

Step 7 - Create Boot Files (see here)

Step 8 - Unmount Virtual Hard Disk (see here)

Stage 3 - (see here)

NOTE - Windows 8.1 Update based versions of WinPE (or newer) are required to complete Step 6. Previous versions of WinPE/Windows do not include the Windows Overlay File System driver (wof.sys) and will not recognise the filesystem extracted in step 5. Windows 10 (1703) or newer is required to create and mount a multiple partition USB disk if a removable type disk is used.

Step 1 - Setting up the target system (Boot WinPE)

Boot the USB and select the menu option Windows PE -

After WinPE has finished loading, select the keyboard layout and then press the Shift+F10 keys to open a command prompt. The screenshot below shows DiskPart output after running the command list volume -

Step 2a - Setting up the target system (UEFI)

After booting WinPE, run DiskPart commands to identify the internal disk (e.g. list disk > select disk # > detail disk (refer here for more information about using DiskPart)).

After identifying the correct disk, the following series of commands were executed on a UEFI system to prepare the blank disk (with disk # edited to reflect the disk number identified in the preceding step). WARNING - this series of commands will wipe the selected disk and could result in data loss if the wrong disk is selected.

select disk # clean convert gpt create partition efi size=1024 format fs=fat32 label=INTERNAL-1 quick assign create partition msr size=16 create partition primary format fs=ntfs label=INTERNAL-2 quick assign

Step 2b - Setting up the target system (BIOS)

After booting WinPE, run DiskPart commands to identify the internal disk (e.g. list disk > select disk # > detail disk (refer here for more information about using DiskPart)).

After identifying the correct disk, the following series of commands were executed on a BIOS system to prepare the blank disk (with disk # edited to reflect the disk number identified in the preceding step). WARNING - this series of commands will wipe the selected disk and could result in data loss if the wrong disk is selected.

select disk # clean create partition primary size=1024 format fs=fat32 label=INTERNAL-1 quick active assign create partition primary format fs=ntfs label=INTERNAL-2 quick assign

Note that the commands on BIOS firmware will differ to the commands in the UEFI section as GPT type disks are not supported (by BIOS).

Step 3a - Create Virtual Hard Disk

Proceed to step 3b if following the instructions for use on low RAM systems.

A VHD with two partitions is used as this supports booting the same file on UEFI and BIOS firmware. The first partition (FAT32 file system) will be used for the boot files required to load the operating system located in the second partition when the VHD is mapped using GRUB4DOS/GRUB4EFI (see here for more information).

Use the DiskPart list volume command to identify mount points (drive letters) for the different devices and partitions -

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 C GRUB4DOS1 FAT32 Removable 1024 MB Healthy Volume 2 D GRUB4DOS2 NTFS Removable 56 GB Healthy Volume 3 F INTERNAL-1 FAT32 Partition 1024 MB Healthy * Volume 4 G INTERNAL-2 NTFS Partition 446 GB Healthy

For the Windows 11 WIMBoot tests, the following DiskPart commands were used to create a 10GB virtual hard disk on drive G:\ (identified using the DiskPart List volume command). Change size, filename, path and mount point according to your own requirements -

create vdisk file=G:\wimboot.vhd maximum=10240 type=fixed attach vdisk create partition primary size=100 format fs=fat32 label=vhdboot quick assign letter=V active create partition primary format fs=ntfs label=vhdos quick assign letter=W

Step 3b - Create Virtual Hard Disk - low RAM systems

Ignore this step if you followed step 3a.

On low RAM systems, win11wimboot.wim can be copied to a local disk rather than the mounted VHD file. This can significantly reduce RAM requirements when mapping the VHD file as a RAM disk, as the VHD file only needs to be large enough for file dependencies that are extracted in full from win11wimboot.wim (in step 5b). Additional space is required for the systemdrive so that Windows will run, however the RAM the requirement is effectively reduced by the file size of win11wimboot.wim.

Use the DiskPart list volume command to identify mount points (drive letters) for the different devices and partitions -

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 C GRUB4DOS1 FAT32 Removable 1024 MB Healthy Volume 2 D GRUB4DOS2 NTFS Removable 56 GB Healthy Volume 3 F INTERNAL-1 FAT32 Partition 1024 MB Healthy * Volume 4 G INTERNAL-2 NTFS Partition 446 GB Healthy

For the Windows 11 WIMBoot tests, the following DiskPart commands were used to create a 5GB virtual hard disk on drive G:\ (identified using the DiskPart List volume command). Change size, filename, path and mount point according to your own requirements -

create vdisk file=D:\wimboot.vhd maximum=5120 type=fixed attach vdisk create partition primary size=100 format fs=fat32 label=vhdboot quick assign letter=V active create partition primary format fs=ntfs label=vhdos quick assign letter=W

Step 4a - Setting up the target system (Copy wim)

Proceed to step 4b if following the instructions for use on low RAM systems.

In this step we will be copying the win11wimboot.wim file created in WIMBoot Stage 1 from the USB disk to the mounted VHD partition 2.

Use the DiskPart list volume command to identify mount points (drive letters) for the different devices and partitions -

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 C GRUB4DOS1 FAT32 Removable 1024 MB Healthy Volume 2 D GRUB4DOS2 NTFS Removable 56 GB Healthy Volume 3 F INTERNAL-1 FAT32 Partition 1024 MB Healthy Volume 4 G INTERNAL-2 NTFS Partition 446 GB Healthy Volume 4 V VHDBOOT FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy * Volume 5 W vhdos NTFS Partition 9 GB Healthy

Analyising the output from the list volume command, partition 2 of the USB drive (which should contain \win11wimboot.wim) is identified as drive\volume D:\. D:\win11wimboot.wim will be copied to the root of the W:\ drive.

Use the copy command to copy D:\win11wimboot.wim to W:\win11wimboot.vhd (the /Z parameter will display progress)

copy D:\win11wimboot.wim W:\win11wimboot.wim /Z

Output -

100% copied 1 file(s) copied.

Step 4b - Setting up the target system (Copy wim) - low RAM systems

Ignore this section if you followed step 4a.

In this step we will be copying the win11wimboot.wim file created in WIMBoot Stage 1 from the USB disk to the internal disk prepared in step 2a/2b.

Use the DiskPart list volume command to identify mount points (drive letters) for the different devices and partitions -

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 C GRUB4DOS1 FAT32 Removable 1024 MB Healthy Volume 2 D GRUB4DOS2 NTFS Removable 56 GB Healthy Volume 3 F INTERNAL-1 FAT32 Partition 1024 MB Healthy Volume 4 G INTERNAL-2 NTFS Partition 446 GB Healthy Volume 4 V VHDBOOT FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy * Volume 5 W vhdos NTFS Partition 9 GB Healthy

Analyising the output from the list volume command, partition 2 of the USB drive (which should contain \win11wimboot.wim) is identified as drive\volume D:\. D:\win11wimboot.wim will be copied to the root of the G:\ drive.

Use the copy command to copy D:\win11wimboot.wim to G:\win11wimboot.vhd (the /Z parameter will display progress)

copy D:\win11wimboot.wim G:\win11wimboot.wim /Z

Output -

100% copied 1 file(s) copied.

Step 5a - Apply win11wimboot.wim to the mounted VHD

Proceed to step 5b if following the instructions for use on low RAM systems.

Extract the contents of image 1 in W:\win11wimboot.wim to the target drive (W:\ - partition 2 in the mounted .vhd file) - adjust paths as required. Note the use of the /WIMBoot parameter -

DISM.exe /Apply-Image /WIMBoot /ImageFile:W:\win11wimboot.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:W:\

Alternative using wimlib. Extract the contents of image 1 in W:\win11wimboot.wim to the target drive (W:\ - partition 2 in the mounted .vhd file) - adjust paths as required. Note the use of the --wimboot parameter -

wimlib-imagex.exe apply W:\win11wimboot.wim 1 W: --wimboot

Step 5b - Apply win11wimboot.wim to the mounted VHD - low RAM systems

Ignore this step if you followed step 5a.

After following step 4b (low RAM system), \win11wimboot.wim is in the path G:\win11wimboot.wim rather than copied to the mounted VHD file. This will reduce RAM requirements by the file size of win11wimboot.wim when mapping the VHD file as a RAM disk.

Extract the contents of image 1 in G:\win11wimboot.wim to the target drive (W:\ - partition 2 in the mounted .vhd file) - adjust paths as required. Note the use of the /WIMBoot parameter -

DISM.exe /Apply-Image /WIMBoot /ImageFile:G:\win11wimboot.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:W:\

Alternative using wimlib. Extract the contents of image 1 in G:\win11wimboot.wim to the target drive (W:\ - partition 2 in the mounted .vhd file) - adjust paths as required. Note the use of the --wimboot parameter -

wimlib-imagex.exe apply G:\win11wimboot.wim 1 W: --wimboot

NOTE - do not move, rename or delete G:\win11wimboot.wim if using this method.

Step 6 - Install SVBus to Offline Image

Locate the SVBus driver files. Use the DiskPart list volume command to identify mount points (drive letters) for the different devices and partitions -

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 C GRUB4DOS1 FAT32 Removable 1024 MB Healthy Volume 2 D GRUB4DOS2 NTFS Removable 56 GB Healthy Volume 3 F INTERNAL-1 FAT32 Partition 1024 MB Healthy Volume 4 G INTERNAL-2 NTFS Partition 446 GB Healthy Volume 4 V VHDBOOT FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy * Volume 5 W vhdos NTFS Partition 9 GB Healthy

Analyising the output from the list volume command, partition 2 of the USB drive is identified as drive\volume D:\. SVBus driver files should be in the path D:\svbus\.

The SVBus driver can be installed to an offline system using the DISM tool. E.g. -

dism.exe /image:W: /Add-driver /Driver:D:\SVBus\svbus.inf /ForceUnsigned

Output -

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool Version: 10.0.19041.844 Image Version: 10.0.19044.1288 Found 1 driver package(s) to install. Installing 1 of 1 - D:\SVBus\svbus.inf: The driver package was successfully installed. The operation completed successfully.

More detailed information about using DISM to install the SVBus, including errors linked to requiring the latest version of DISM, is available here

Step 7 - Create Boot Files

Use the bcdboot command to create boot files in Drive V:\ (the first partition in the virtual hard disk. See here for more information about bcdboot usage).

bcdboot W:\windows /s V: /f ALL

Specifying the /f ALL parameters will create BIOS and UEFI boot files, facilitating the use of the VHD on BIOS or UEFI firmware.

Step 8 - Unmount Virtual Hard Disk

Enter the following DiskPart commands to detach/unmount the virtual hard disk -

select vdisk file=G:\wimboot.vhd detach vdisk

Proceed to Stage 3

Proceed to stage 3 after completing the steps listed above (see here)

Document date - 12^th April 2023