:: Getting Started ::

What you will need:

  • A LOT of time and patience. Don't expect to get everything to work the first time
  • Various operating system cds
  • SUFFICIENT drive space (5+ GB to be safe)
  • Enable "Show Hidden Files & Folders"
  • Disable "Hide extensions for known file types"
  • Disable "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"
  • WinImage 6.10
  • A hex editor (I HIGHLY recommend Hex Workshop 4.23)
  • CDIMAGE 2.47
  • CD Shell 2.0.11
  • Optional - VMware Workstation 4.0.5 or Virtual PC 2004
  • Any program capable of burning ISO files to DVD

TIP!: Work on one operating system at a time. Test once you have that operating system added to make sure everything works right, then move onto the next OS. It will save yourself time when something goes wrong and you have no idea where to look.

Preparation

Before we get started copying cds and modifying files, we should figure out where we want to store our files. For this entire site, I will be using the D:\ in all of my examples. Keep in mind that my 4.0GB DVD actually takes up 7.8 GB of hard drive space before CDIMAGE optimizes files, so make sure you have plenty of room on your target drive.

  1. In your C:\ (or the root of your OS drive) you should find a file called boot.ini. Make a copy of this file and store it somewhere, we will need it later!
  2. Create a directory on your target drive called AIO-DVD.
  3. Make a folder inside of AIO-DVD called SETUP that will store all of the cds.
  4. If you haven't already downloaded CD Shell from the link above, please do so. Extract the zip file and move the BOOT folder for CD Shell and all of it's contents into AIO-DVD.
  5. Place the tools folder from the CD Shell zip file into the BOOT folder.

Your directory structure should look something like this so far:
D:\AIO-DVD\
D:\AIO-DVD\SETUP\
D:\AIO-DVD\BOOT\
D:\AIO-DVD\BOOT\tools\

NOTE: My guide does not use Gosh's Reducing Size of Source method to trim down installs, nor will this guide cover that method. Using the full cd allows you to call the setup.exe file for each OS in case you want to check for hardware compatibility or install from within the Windows GUI. This will also allow you to install upgrades if you so choose.

NOTE 2: All images used throughout this guide are used for demonstration purposes only. For example: If the image shows PRO1 on it somewhere yet you are working on a Windows 2000 Pro cd, just modify the file according to the guide, not necessarily the image.

Understanding The Boot Process

Okay, before we go on it helps to understand the boot process for NT based operating systems. When a bootable XP cd is created, a file called xpboot.bin is used to create the boot sector. It is possible to extract the boot sectors from your cd, but it's a pain so I will be providing them for you. This boot sector says to access the i386 folder and load setupldr.bin. setupldr.bin has instructions on where to access txtsetup.sif which starts the text-mode setup for Windows.

Are you ready yet? Here we go...