Re: How to add files to an existing img partition.

[DC]

Thanks for all the suggestions, Frantisek.  The two things I'm trying to 
accomplish are


1) Generate a Win98 bootable partition that can be opened with Bochs on 
Android.


2) Same with an XP partition.


I've generated both, and tested them, and they work fine.  The problem 
is two fold


1) For Win98, I don't know how to resize it.  I used the BxImage tool to 
resize the file (not the partition), and it becomes unreadable.  I have 
a backup, no problem.


2) For WinXP, I can't edit the one the image generated by Qemu.


If there's a better tool for loading a Windows partition in Android, 
then absolutely I'm open to suggestions.  I'm not married to Bochs ; 
that's the only tool that I've been able to use.  I tried others, but 
during the setup process there's always something that goes wrong.


Here's some more specific detail, maybe too much:



"Hi Dan...

I've just taken a look at Qemu Manager...
...what format is the .IMG file?"

The image file is created by Bochs Bximage.  It's then used as the 
target of the install process (Win98 and WinXP, in this case) inside Qemm.
So eventually it becomes the repository for the hard drive for that 
operating system.

The source of the Install is an Iso.

"BTW, what makes you believe that PowerISO is able to mount
FAT/FAT32/NTFS volumes, and further, do that from raw HDD images that
can possibly contain an MBR?"

If you look at the attached Win98_PowerIso.jpg, this is the Bochs image 
containing the Win98 partition that was generated inside the Qemu 
environment.


"https://www.hackingarticles.in/multiple-ways-to-mount-raw-images-windows/";

This might actually be the answer to my question.  I just need a tool 
that can open an image enclosing a partition, and be able to resize and 
add files.

If there's also a tool that performs the entire Install process without 
having to combine Bochs & Qemu, that would be ideal.


One of the problems with the tools I've seen so far, is that they 
require you to understand something about the structure of the images, 
and be able to do calculations.
The old partition magic, was just a matter of changing the size of the 
partition with the tool, and it performs all of the calculations internally.

The utility at http://www.fysnet.net/ultimate/index.htm seems to do the 
resizing (of a Win98 image), but then requires you to add a Append a VHD 
footer afterwards.
I don't even know what a VHD footer is, and am hoping to be spared that 
learning process.

See Win98_UltimateImager.jpg for an example.

Note that the Delete & Insert buttons are enabled, in 
Win98_UltimateImager.jpg.


In contrast, in the XP image shown in WinXP_UltimateImager.jpg, Insert 
is disabled.  I don't know why it's not editable.


It's taken more than a month, with frustration breaks in between, to 
finally put together a bootable XP that can be opened in Android, using 
Bochs and Qemu.

I can't even reproduce the steps taken to build the Windows 98 image.  
Almost none of the advice on the web works completely ; there's always 
some kind of glitch.  So it's been primarily a process of trial & error.


So I think 
https://www.hackingarticles.in/multiple-ways-to-mount-raw-images-windows 
will help the most.


If you know of any commercial software that does the entire process of 
generating a Windows partition in an image that can be loaded by iBochs 
or Bochs, that would do the trick.

I have the iso files for both 98 and XP, and I've loaded both on a 
Galaxy Tab S6. But I can't resize the 98 image, and cannot add to the XP 
image. (That's a summary of the problem)



Regards,


DC


On 6/28/2020 7:19 AM, Frantisek Rysanek wrote:
> On 27 Jun 2020 at 23:04, Dan Campbell wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm using a virtual disc created in Qemu Manager.  It contains a
> > Windows XP partition.
> >
> > I'm not able to add files or change anything with PowerISO.  If I
> > open the c.img file with PowerISO and try to add a few files,
> > PowerISO returns an error that it has to truncate dozens of folder
> > names including C:\Windows.
> >
> > Is there another tool I should be using to make changes to the
> > partition like add files or install programs?
> Hi Dan...
>
> I've just taken a look at Qemu Manager - seems like the software is
> getting a little stale :-) But that alone should not be a problem.
> I don't know Qemu Manager and have no clue what it does.
> Perhaps the key question is: what format is the .IMG file?
> Per QEMU docs, "IMG" is not listed as some particular image file
> format. It could be a "raw" image in QEMU parlance. Which would mean
> that any tool that's able to loop-mount an XP-level NTFS partition
> (or is it FAT?) from an image should work fine.
>
> BTW, what makes you believe that PowerISO is able to mount
> FAT/FAT32/NTFS volumes, and further, do that from raw HDD images that
> can possibly contain an MBR? Doesn't seem to be the right tool for
> the job... Take a look here:
> https://www.hackingarticles.in/multiple-ways-to-mount-raw-images-windo
> ws/
> I believe these tools are all commercial software.
>
> In Linux, I'd suggest to loop-mount the image:
> mount -o loop /my_raw.img /where
> But if the image is not a single partition (or a floppy in the old
> days), i.e. zector 0 in the image is not a filesystem bootsector,
> i.e. sector 0 contains a partition table, you will need to refer to
> the particular partition. In Linux I'd start using one of the
> following, to learn about the partition layout within the image:
>    fdisk my_raw.img
>    sfdisk -l  my_raw.img
>    sfdisk -d my_raw.img
> ...and figure out the offset of the boot sector of your partition of
> choice. You need to multiply the starting sector number (zero-based)
> by the number of bytes in a sector (typically 512). E.g., suppose the
> partition starts at sector 63. In that case, I'd use
> mount -o loop,offset=32256 /my_raw.img /where
>
> >From there, it's a matter of having the right filesystem drivers in 
> your kernel for NTFS/FAT/FAT32/EXFAT/whatever, and maybe having the
> right flavour of the user-space mount tool in your Linux OS.
>
> If you're interesting to learn more about HDD partitioning, try this
> howto:
> https://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/index.html
> It is nowadays a little dated (with UEFI, GPT, 4k sector size and
> binary alignment) but should be valid for XP-level partitioning
> = for the legacy BIOS master boot record and its partition table.
>
> The above should be valid for raw images = bitwise identical copies
> of a harddisk. Note that QEMU can use more advanced image files that
> are not raw, such as the qcow2 and others. Other hypervisors have
> their proprietary image formats in various versions... I can see that
> mounting qcow2 images should be possible in Linux:
> https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+loop-mount+a+qcow2+image
>
> This is just a quick idea off the top of my head.
>
> Frank Rysanek

Win98_PowerIso.jpg
Description: JPEG image

Win98_UltimateImager.jpg
Description: JPEG image

WinXP_UltimateImager.jpg
Description: JPEG image