Windows XP in RAM quick guide
single image build
First, prepare a reduced Windows XP using nLite with the XPSP2Core.ini presets. Make changes for language settings, updates, or personal preferences
1. Add XPnRAM_s.exe to the nLited XPSP2 setup disc (before making iso) and install to VMware.
2. Replace PC and IDE drivers with standard drivers after first boot, see example screenshot.
3. Double click on XPnRAM_s.exe in VM if it wasn't added to setup. Reboot once, if any new hardware wizards are presented after the standard drivers are added, click through choosing defaults until they're done, then shutdown.
4. Mount VMware disk on an emply drive using the VMware disk mount tool.
5. Mount a new filedisk image big enough for new system and format it as compressed NTFS. "Filedisk WB" in WinBuilder's NativePE can assist you.
6. Using robocopy.exe or similar, copy the VMware image to the new filedisk image.
You may use the following command, where V: is VMware disk and W: is new filedisk image:
Robocopy.exe "V:" "W:" /E /ZB /COPYALL /R:3 /W:5
7. You may delete all files in the filedisk image root leaving just folders. Unmount the two images.
2. Replace PC and IDE drivers with standard drivers after first boot, see example screenshot.
3. Double click on XPnRAM_s.exe in VM if it wasn't added to setup. Reboot once, if any new hardware wizards are presented after the standard drivers are added, click through choosing defaults until they're done, then shutdown.
4. Mount VMware disk on an emply drive using the VMware disk mount tool.
5. Mount a new filedisk image big enough for new system and format it as compressed NTFS. "Filedisk WB" in WinBuilder's NativePE can assist you.
6. Using robocopy.exe or similar, copy the VMware image to the new filedisk image.
You may use the following command, where V: is VMware disk and W: is new filedisk image:
Robocopy.exe "V:" "W:" /E /ZB /COPYALL /R:3 /W:5
7. You may delete all files in the filedisk image root leaving just folders. Unmount the two images.
8. The new filedisk image
may now be added to bootable media in several
ways. You may add it to your active harddisk partition (at your own
risk), USB flash disk (using grub4dos), or add it to a bootable ISO
image.
I've provided one template example, bcdw201a(mod)-XPsp2-dualboot.7z, which will allow you to simply replace the 2 (dummy) zero byte images with your own, and then create a bootable iso. All files (for the disc root) are prepared and ready, less the 2 images. You may make the second Windows PE image in Winbuilder using current scripts. Extract it from the 'RAM' iso image produced by the inram imaging script, .ima and .img raw vhd formats may be used.
* The boot media must contain ntldr from Server2003 SP1 which uses ramdisk.sys inside the image.
* Boot.ini must be present in the root with a correct entry and ntdetect.com must reside in the i386 dir. (in root).
* Ntldr may also be renamed to setupldr.bin and placed instead in i386 (for ISO booting).
Further information on boot options can be
fount at CD Forum, MSFN, and Boot Land. This guide is a work in
progress, more details will follow sometime soon. It will not be published in this form.
XPnRAM Utilities