4

Hello again my fellow StackOverflow friends!

What I would very much like to do is copy the contents of my Windows 7, Windows XP (Pro and Home SP3), Windows Vista, and assuming I have space left for it my most updated copy of 98 SE installation CDs onto a flash drive so that I can use that for any OS installs that I need to perform.

Obviously I am going to need a boot loader that will allow me to select which OS install we're going to boot into; so I'm curious if this is possible at all.

So - A) is my little project even doable?

B) Would I have to program my own custom boot loader to do this, or would it be possible to modify the loader that the Windows CDs already use by default (or even hack LiLo or Grub to do it)

C) Do any of you know of a good place to learn how to program bootloaders, or is this completely out of my league? I am ..decent.. at programming, but am by no stretch of the term an expert.

The reason that I want it on a flash drive is simply because the read speeds from them tend to be FAR faster than from a DVD or CD-ROM - ESPECIALLY if the computer is a bit older and the optical drive is flithy.

As always, thank you for your help!!

-Sootah

Sootah
  • 1,771
  • 3
  • 23
  • 42
  • 1
    No need to program anything. Use the Windows 7 bootloader and BCD (boot config database), it has ramdisk support and can boot Windows 7/Vista (bootldr), Windows XP (ntldr) and legacy OSes. – Anton Tykhyy Jun 20 '10 at 07:49
  • I don't think trying to program a bootloader is a good idea in your case. However, reading about how bootloaders work (for instance [here](http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/X86_Assembly/Bootloaders)) may assist you in using existing software to help you out. – Artelius Jun 20 '10 at 08:14
  • Does anybody have an example or writeup on how to create a DVD or USB flashdrive that has a bootloader that allows you to select what OS install to load? I've LOVE to have a flash drive that has the ability to install Windows 7, Vista, XP, Linux, etc all off of it. Why carry around 7 different install discs when you can have an all-in-one flashdrive/fatty DVD? – Sootah Jul 15 '10 at 09:06

2 Answers2

1

You can use Easyboot and it will automatically create the specific bootloader and make an ISO file contains the boot and the data files. Then you can move your ISO on your USB flash and make it bootable using third-party software like "Win To Flash".

Ahmed Suror
  • 439
  • 6
  • 17
0

No need to program a bootloader, you could use the Windows 7 bootloader or syslinux or grub4dos among others. The guys at http://www.boot-land.net have several tutorials and tools to solve similar problems and are willing to help you also.

Camilo Estevez
  • 637
  • 1
  • 8
  • 16