PE Builder to USB Flash Drive (UFD)

This page was last updated on Oktober 1, 2008
Written by R.Collewijn

Introduction

All that's needed is a bootable USB Flash drive with at least 256 MB of storage capacity and a Windows Setup CD. Using the program PE Builder, you can install Windows XP on the flash drive, along with other software as needed (and as available space permits).

For successful installing BartPE to a USB flash disk you need

1. PE Builder v3.1.10a from Bart Lagerweij.
2. A USB device with a capacity of 256MB or more (I'm using a 1GB memory stick from Dane memories).
3. The "Windows-based Format Utility for HP Drive Key or DiskOnKey USB Device" form HP to make your USB device bootable.
4. Server 2003 SP1 (or a release candidate). This file is large, about 350MB!!!

Expanding the role of USB Flash Drives

Flash drives aren't always recognized during the PC boot process. The USB flash drive controller and the PC's BIOS must be properly introduced to one another. That said, nearly all flash drives and PC can be configured so that the PC can boot from the flash drive.

You Need This: XP On The USB Pen Drive

In most cases, any compatible USB flash drive makes a suitable target for Windows XP installation. But the following system requirements must also be met:

• A USB flash drive with at least 256 MB of storage is enough for the uses described in this article. Additional system tools or applications require more space. The upper bound limits for storage in this case is 2 GB - a by-product of the tool's use of FAT16 for the local file system.
• Most new motherboards recognize USB flash drives as valid boot media. But conventional motherboards that are more than two years old aren't likely to boot from a USB flash drive. But in many cases, this omission can be remedied through a BIOS update for that board.
• 512 MB of USB flash drive storage space is needed only if boot-up works from a RAM disk. Otherwise, 256 MB is big enough.
• Access to a USB 2.0 port is not mandatory, though booting with a USB 1.1 port takes about five times longer.

Formatting The USB Flash Drive

Most BIOS versions accept a USB flash drive as a boot disk only if it uses the FAT (File Allocation Table) file system. Before you can install Windows on the USB flash drive, it must first be formatted.

NOTE: Warning! Windows XP also provides a tool to format USB flash drives, but the results of that process are error-prone. In a worst case situation, it can even destroy the flash RAM in a USB flash drive.

Installation requires the use of HP's freeware tool HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool instead. Once installed, you can run the program through this sequence of menu choices: Start, All Programs, HP Company. Select the USB flash drive you wish to format from the Device entry, and then select FAT as the target file system for that device. Once complete, you must then copied the Windows boot files to the USB flash drive.

%systemdrive%\boot.ini
%systemdrive%\ntldr
%systemdrive%\ntdetect

NOTE: This files are for testing puepose only and remove those files before you run pe2usb.cmd

The USB flash drive is now ready to boot your system. Next, you learn how to instruct your PC to boot from a USB flash drive.

Set The System's Boot Device Sequence

If your PC has a relatively new motherboard, its BIOS will already include the functions necessary to support USB-attached boot media. If so, you need only make the right selections in that BIOS menu to boot from a USB flash drive. Older PCs, on the other hand, won't accept USB drives as valid boot devices. This means a BIOS update that supports USB boot options is necessary.

Test Your Settings

Whatever BIOS your PC may use, it's important to make sure all of its USB options are activated. These may include "USB Legacy Support" and "USB 2.0 Controller". Whenever possible, you should also extend the setting that governs the timeout period for how long the BIOS will wait for a response from the USB flash drive. Some of these devices take a half minute or more to respond to a boot-up instruction from the motherboard. Thus, if you see a BIOS option that reads something like "USB Mass Storage Reset Delay", set that value as high as it will go whenever boot-up problems should occur.

Many motherboards offer options to change the emulation type for certain devices, including USB flash drives. The default setting for "Emulation Type" is usually "Auto". If this causes problems, try other settings instead. First, try "Hard Disk", then try "Forced FDD", then try "Floppy" as your last option. For each new setting for emulation type, your computer must reboot for it to take effect. Also, you must reset the boot device sequence or priority in the BIOS each time as well.

Many older USB flash drives, especially those that belong to the first generation of USB 2.0 memory devices, have problems with data transfer between the flash drive controller and the BIOS. If boot-up won't work with the flash drive set to "High Speed Mode," try the slower "Full Speed Mode" option instead (if the BIOS offers that choice). This slows the data transfer rate from a maximum of 60 MB/s to less than 1.5 MB/s, which makes Windows boot up at a terribly leisurely pace. Your next step should be to make a BIOS update, so that the PC will also boot using the far faster "High Speed Mode."

Generating Files

Launch this process by selecting "Start, All Programs, PE Builder, PE Builder". For the value of the Source field provide the Main window with the path to the XP Setup files at: X:\ (or other Windows resource). Leave the Custom: field blank, and leave the default value in the Output file (BartPE) intact. That will be the name of the folder that contains the USB flash drive files, in "C:\Projects\PeBdr\BartPE" in other words.

Click on the "Plugins" button at the bottom of the Main window, and check or uncheck the "Plugins" window to make sure that all the necessary plug-ins show a "Yes" value in the "Enabled" column. If that's not the case, highlight the name of that plug-in in the list, then click the "Enable/Disable" button to turn it on. PE Builder will check your settings, to make sure all of the necessary data is available, and will change the final status accordingly. At this point, you can include more plug-ins using the "Add" button, if you've downloaded more of them from the Internet . Click on the "Close" button when you're finished. Upon returning to the Main windows, make sure that the checkboxes next to "Create ISO image" and "Burn to CD" remain unchecked, then click the "Build" button. The necessary files will be generated at that point.

Load The USB Flash (RAM Disk) Drive

When the computer won't boot from the USB flash drive, it's often because the motherboard initializes all USB ports during start-up. A RAM disk often provides an effective remedy in such cases.

A RAM disk works like a virtual disk drive and copies all of the files from the flash drive during boot-up, before it's fully initialized. That RAM disk also replaces the flash drive as the boot medium. To use a RAM disk you need Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003 and the program Pe2usb.cmd (including from PE Builder 3.14 Beta). Download Service Pack 1 (it's approximately 350 MB in size) into a folder of your choosing. Unpack the files from the service pack (this is not installing) with:

sr1sp.exe -x, lets assume you extract it to c:\server2003sp1

Create a subdirectory in your PE Builder folder ("C:\Projects\PeBdr") named srsp1. and copy/expand the following file's into that directory.

• Copy the file c:\server2003sp1\i386\setupldr.bin to the <pebuilder>\srsp1 folder
• Expand the file c:\server2003sp1\i386\ramdisk.sy_ to the <pebuilder>\srsp1 folder

expand -r c:\server2003sp1\i386\ramdisk.sy_ <pebuilder>\srsp1

• You can now remove the c:\server2003sp1 folder, not needed anymore...

NOTE: You only need the two files and still can build it on Windows XP.

Run "pe2usb <drive:>" to install the files to your USB. Use "pe2usb -f <drive:>" to format and install the files to your USB Flash Disk (Formatting is only needed the first time, so next time you can run).

NOTE: For successful booting BartPE from a USB flash disk you need A PC that is capable of booting from a USB flash disk with 256MB memory or more.

After that, the USB flash drive is ready for booting.

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