Slipstream Windows 7 SP1 into a Installation DVD or ISO File

Glad to hear the retry went well. One thing I found for the 64bit Windows was ImgBurn seemed to be out. The native ISO Recorder 3.11 I believe in 7, the iso burn option in the RT 7 Lite, UltraISO(trial or full version), and a few others with some having a 300mb limit if trial not full paid version.

The problem used has to see the blank disk or even write to usb flash as an alternate for physical not VM installs made bootable. Some programs will not make a disk or drive bootable or you have to select the correct burn option for results. For various disk images like isos I've even tried the free for home version of StarBurn but have the Nero Burning Rom and PowerISO(full paid version required) in use here.

For flash drives and installs to physical drives the RT 7 Lite or UltraISO(free to try version) seem to work out well while I did go with the full version of the later there. Works well for slipstreams and other projects involving flash drives. Remember if you are adding a large number of updates along with SP1 on a flash the total will generally exceed the capacity of a 4gb flash drive. 8gb recommended.

For flash drives and installs to physical drives the RT 7 Lite or UltraISO(free to try version) seem to work out well while I did go with the full version of the later there. Works well for slipstreams and other projects involving flash drives. Remember if you are adding a large number of updates along with SP1 on a flash the total will generally exceed the capacity of a 4gb flash drive. 8gb recommended.

I used this program to re-install XP via USB on my old Dell 2200 with a bum CD drive I restored last year & donated to a needy friend-- FlashBoot (Demo, $29.95 euro to buy) I found it to be very good & virtually idiot-proof (perfect for me,lol) Installing via USB flash drive in VMWare is not supported, but I've been perusing the innernetz and found a couple possible* workarounds...to be honest, they seem a bit too advanced for me at this point so I'm gonna put the USB boot on the shelf for now.

Thanks again, I really appreciate the input!

Night Hawk said:

...One thing I found for the 64bit Windows was ImgBurn seemed to be out. The native ISO Recorder 3.11 I believe in 7, the iso burn option in the RT 7 Lite, ...Some programs will not make a disk or drive bootable...but have the Nero Burning Rom...For flash drives and installs to physical drives the RT 7 Lite or UltraISO(free to try version) seem to work out well...

The ImgBurn issue could be the root cause of my problems here...or not. The & SP1 DVD I've been using as my "source" DVD/and/or ISO were burned/extracted with...ImgBurn. In deference to your opinions/experience/expertise I've decided to go back to SP 0 and start the process from scratch, integrating SP1 & post SP1 updates with RT7 to ISO form, test it in Workstation & then (depending on success/lack thereof) decide if/how to burn the DVD(S)--

A) Nero Burning Rom (Trial ver here)
B) RT 7
C) Win 7's Native w?/without? the 7 DVD Tool
D) Ultra ISO (free to try, will d/l that and have a look...not familiar with it)
E) ALL OF THE ABOVE, ROFL!

...to be continued

ETA: I've been using not so good quality DVD's--Memorex 16x DVD+R (got 100 of them dirt cheap from my nephew) Would it be worth investing in a higher quality Media or is the burning software more "important" for lack of a better term?

As far as writing any SP1(with or without updates)/7 iso to a flash drive that wouldn't be for an VM project but an install to a physical drive. Optical media is still a requirement at this point for VMWare or another VM type program unless you were working with some other tedious floppy project and why "floppy A" is still seen along with cd/dvd drive.

ImgBurn is an old XP geared program that could be installed on the 32bit Vista and maybe 7 but definitely not for the 64bit Windows. ISO Recorder 3.1(slight typo on the 3.11 earlier) is what will appear when going to use the built in burn option in 7.

As far as brands of blank dvds I never preferred Memorex anyways while the brand name wouldn't stop any reliable burns. A bad batch of disks is more likely. That can be seen with premium name brands as well as with generic media you may find in bulk online.

For some time now when blanks were low a 50ct container of Sony dvd blanks picked up while in a local retail store have sufficed seeing good burns on 16x and later 22x drives not even reducing the burn speed to see good results. Also have dvd-rw blanks onhand when simply wanting to test something fast without using up a good blank since you simply reformat to clean those.

RWs can certainly save a world of hurt at times and are recognised by most burning programs as blank media. You just have to reformat them once or twice afterwards however. USB flash drives also solve the going through too many blanks problem..

Default format on usb flash drives is typically Fat 16 in order to cross OS compatible. Fat 32 works. With UltraISO the program will prompt to format if needed before writing. A simple right click on the drive while plugged in will see the option to format where you simply select NTFS or Fat 32.

Interesting reference on Installing 7 from flash drive. It looks at the flash drive as a Hard Disk which is also physical media rather then trying to mount an iso. The UltraISO program can be looked over at ISO CD DVD image creator, editor and ISZ DMG DAA UIF to ISO converter - UltraISO can extract/create/edit/convert CD and DVD image files directly, make bootable CDs and convert ISZ DMG DAA UIF to ISO. That can also be used to burn disk images as well to blank media.

Urthboundmisfit said:

...I do recommend using Player 3 and not the newly released Player 4. I tried to install (several times) via DVD burns of both Win 8 Developer Preview & Windows 7 SP1 on the new Player version and got a "missing DVD?? driver" error...on a 1/2 dozen different DVD burns, using a variety of progs...at a variety of speeds...same error...I rolled back to Player ver 3.1.5...as if by "magic" they all installed correctly using the SAME DVD's that failed in Player ver 4. I suspect a problem in the new version's VMWare Tools' DVD drivers.

Edit to add: Just remembered the precise error message: A required CD/DVD device driver is missing

From VMWare's help files:

Changing Virtual Device Node and Legacy Emulation Settings

You can use the advanced settings to change the virtual device node and legacy emulation settings for a CD-ROM or DVD drive. You must power off the virtual machine before you change these settings.

To configure virtual device and legacy emulation settings for a selected virtual machine, select VM > Settings, click the Hardware tab, select the drive, and click Advanced.

Use the settings to select which SCSI or IDE device identifier to use for the drive. For example, if you select SCSI 0:2, the guest operating system detects the drive as ID 2 on controller 0. You can select the IDE and SCSI node options regardless of the physical device type. For example, if the physical drive is an IDE device, you can select a SCSI node. In this case, the virtual machine detects the drive as a SCSI device.

If you select the Legacy emulation setting, the virtual hardware works as it did in an earlier release of Workstation. By default, Workstation attempts to make the advanced features of your drive available, but sometimes this setting might cause the drive to not work with the virtual machine. Selecting the Legacy emulation setting reverts Workstation to the previous emulation mode for the drive. Legacy emulation is helpful for troubleshooting purposes.

Using the settings Use physical drive and checking (enabling) Legacy emulation under CD/DVD Advanced Settings (attached PNG) the dreaded "driver is missing" error does not rear it's ugly head, lol. My newly compiled SP1 with Post SP updates integrated (RT 7 compiled ISO) is installing as I type this. For the record other than RT 7 no 3rd party tools, programs or software was/were used or needed---I used the Win 7 USB/DVD Tool & the native 7 disc burner to make my bootable DVD.

I just have to check if the updates integrated before declaring this a total success. I suspect the same 3 updates will appear...Surt, "C000034" & MSRT.

EDIT TO ADD: Yeperdoo, those 3 updates offered (after hiding Windows Defender defs), 46 + IE 9 installed (I added 1 or 2 Hotfixes I found @MSFN Forum)

Sounds like you are making headway then. Often reviewing the help section for VMWare or another VM type program will prove to be useful in troubleshooting. Software companies realize that subsquent changes with newer versions will cause problems at times.

As for the other programs mentioned so far those are simply alternatives available. A few here were already onhand for some time to work on other projects but could still be used. At the time I was preparing the integrated dvds and even the one or two flash drives used there were only 27 updates to find along with IE 9 having been just released.

The next step taken will be adding the additional updates to a new burn or wait until SP2 is available where a newer version of RT 7 Lite may be no longer in beta form.

Booting Win 7 with Post SP1 updates, hotfixes & IE9 integrated in VMWare via USB Flash Drive. Me so happy.

installing...

There you go! Congradulations!

Have to make a note that VMLite Workstation does support usb install keys!