I'm having trouble nailing down a few issues. Please help. (W7)

  • Thread starter Thread starter hesdeadjim
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hesdeadjim

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hey everybody. its been a long time. :)

i just updated to the latest version of ntlite and of course forgot to write down the old version number.

i am using all the same iso file for windows 7, the same updates, the same rufus, same motherboard, etc.

when i burn the iso directly. the installation works fine.

when i use ntlite to add updates and burn the iso, i get gpt incompatibilite errors, a pmap screen that looks like a linux boot screen, and a few others.

also when i use the flash drive that i made with the previous version, it never had these issues. sadly it died lol which is why i needed to make a new one.

i tend to use a lot of old and sometimes fossilized hardware, so is it possible that the newest version of ntlite simply wont work with my old junk anymore?

thanks
 
Did you include the same drivers for the same motherboard in both the boot.wim & install.wim? What happens when you use Rufus to install a clean ISO?
 
hi thanks for the quick reply.

everything is the same, i just tried it again after making this thread and the clean burn with rufus works fine, as does the clean burn with drivers added with the usb utility.

the gpt error seems to be a windows problem as i did not use formatted disks in the past, and no matter what the format the installation reads it as a gpt drive. once the partition is deleted everything goes smooth. so i should not have included that.

the other stuff is just weird and incosistent. when i load the clean iso into ntlite, i get the usual 4 versions , but sometimes a 5th option comes up that says windows recovery.

when i add the updates, the setting had reverted back to parallel instead of standard, otherwise everything appears to run smooth until i have to install it onto something. the only thing i use ntlite for is to add the updates. all other settings are left alone. i install the usb drivers in post with the utility that no longer exists anywhere lol

is there a way to find out what version of nlite i had before so i can try that again? or is it possible that i am forgetting about some default settings on ntlite that i changed all those years ago? as i said, the update seems to have at least changed the add section from standard back to parallel
 
If you've kept the original preset, it will report which NTLite version created it. But I will guess it's been a looooong time.

Did you specify a disk layout in Unattended mode? Maybe you're forgetting about the legacy boot (MBR) vs. UEFI (GPT) settings. NTLite doesn't do anything specific as W7 supports both of them. Check the BIOS settings for current boot mode.

While the UI has dramatically shifted around, fundamentally it's the same NTLite as before. Load an image, then load drivers, add Updates in the correct W7 order, enable Unattended mode, and add Post-Setup items.
 
i dont remember changing anything on the previous version except standard mode and the bios settings for this particular motherboard dont have a choice for mbr or uefi.

i even tried to install win7 to a system that already had it installed from the last version. i grapped a hard drive from the stack and still. had the same problems. im gonna repeat the whole process again and document it so i can post more details here.
 
if your original build was 2018 you were using builds between 1.5.0.5930 to 1.7.2.6650. there will have been changes since then as ntlite changed the way it handled component removals with things being split/kept as issues arose/improvements.
 
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i wrote down the main error during install which is:

Could not locate efi\boot\bootx64.efi : [14] Not Found

i also found out that this issue is common across windows versions from windows 7 to windows 11.

many people are calling attention to rufus making 2 partitions on the flash drive instead of 1. the second partition is small and empty and labled efi.

rufus claims that this is necessary because of the way uefi systems work so i examined my setup more closely.

if i burn the original clean iso to a flash drive, rufus only creates 1 partition, the efi directory has the file needed, and everything works perfectly, but you have to update through windows updates.

if i load the original clean iso into ntlite and add the updates, when rufus burns the modified iso, it creates the extra empty partition, the efi directory on the main partition does not have needed file, and the error occurs.

thanks
 
if its possible try installing from a dvd to see if rufus is the culprit and if it isnt at least you can rule it out. there is an old rufus version that is the last for w7, check the website for details. aswell as being a reliable back medium a dvd drive can help get you out of crap creek when needed. internal hg-lg internal drives are under £20(external usb about £35) here and a small pack of verbatim discs aint expensive.
 
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i checked and the version i use is the last version for windows 7.

rufus is definately part of the issue but i am at a loss as to why it would burn an unmodded iso different than a modded one.

i feel like im missing something right in front of my face lol
 
lol yup.

i think i just found what i was looking for.

according to the rufus developer:

< One thing you should know is that Windows 7 x64 is only "half" compatible with UEFI, meaning that Microsoft did add UEFI compatibility, but they did it in a half-assed way because they didn't put the \efi\boot\bootx64.efi on the ISO itself, but instead they shoved it inside \sources\install.wim, so, to make a Win7 x64 compatible with UEFI boot, an extra operation is needed to extract that file from \sources\install.wim and copy it on the USB.

Unfortunately, this seems to happen for both NTFS or FAT32, so the only workaround I can see for your is either to disable Alt-E and create your bootable media for either BIOS or UEFI (but not both), or, using something like 7-zip to extract Windows\Boot\EFI\bootmgfw.efi from sources\install.wim and copy it as \efi\boot\bootx64.efi (which is the step that is currently missing in Rufus).
Of course, I'll see what I can do to fix that issue in a future version of Rufus (I'll see if I can do that in the upcoming 3.5 which I'm planning to release in a couple of days but I can't promise anything). Thanks for reporting it! >


im not sure if it was ever patched but it would not be helpful to me as the above discussion took place after 3.22 which was the last windows 7 version.

thanks to both of you for giving my brain a nudge and i will add the files in post.

:)
 
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