Multiboot USB with bootmgr

Question

I need to install two different OS on my USB stick: WinPE and Memtest86 4.3.7 (not Memtest86+).

The difficulty about this is that I need to use the Windows-bootmanager. Unfortunately I can’t use Syslinux or some alternative bootloaders. Making a bootable USB drive with WinPE was of course no problem. But then I struggled editing the BCD.

How can I edit the bootmgr, so that it’s able to boot WinPE and Memtest86?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Solution

You can use a multiboot solution such as Easy2Boot (already contains MemTest) or WinSetupFromUSB. If you want to modify the BCD, you can edit it to run grub4dos (the /grldr file) which can then boot to a menu where you can run many other things such a MemTest. https://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/grub4dos_from_bootmgr

Comments

[Admin]

Take a look at yumi pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator it uses grub, but is able to do a multi-boot usb with windows and many other.

[Admin]

its not possible in my case to use anything else than the bootmgr. so no pendrivelinux.

[Lin0]

First thanks for your answer. But I cant use any additional bootloader in my case. I need to stick to the Windows bootmanager at all costs. Isnt it possible to reference the Memtest86 files in the BCD and boot it this way? I think I need to edit the device option in the BCD to boot the Memtest86 iso into a ramdisk, but I wasnt able to find enough information to make it work.

[Steve]

if you read the article in the link, you will see that you modify the BCD to boot to MemTest86 which is what you want to do. It is just that it actually boots to grldr which then boots to memdisk. But the first bootloader is bootmgr and BCD always.

[Lin0]

I now use the bootmgr to boot either into winPE or into the NeoGrub mbr, which then loads the Memtest86 Kernel. Its not exactly what I wanted, but it works. Thanks