How to install CD version of TI v11 on a bootable partition

[Kimberlito]

The hard drive version of TI v11 on my system is unstable but the CD version works just fine. As my boot manager (BootUS) creates a new MBR that can't be configured to work with TI's F11 feature (F11 never shows at boot time), I'm wondering how to get the CD version of TI installed on an empty primary partition. This would allow booting into this trimmed down version of TI like to a separate OS.

Once all the files listed below are copied from the recovery CD to the empty primary partition:

bootmenu.exe
bootwiz.sys
f11.cfg
kernel.dat
mouse.com
ramdisk.dat
splash.run

it seems to be just a matter of writing the boot sector with some command like:

sys c: c: /bootonly

You could boot form eg. FreeDOS CD to get the command line working.

Any ideas are appreciated.

[K0LO]

Kimberlito:

I'm unsure what you mean by the "hard drive version of TI 11 is unstable". Do you mean that you can't run the Windows version of the program at all? Or, do you mean that it won't reboot into the recovery environment properly? I will assume the latter but please correct me if I'm wrong. Here is what worked for me using TI 10, with full credit to forum contributor MudCrab for devising this simplified technique:

1. Use the Bootable Media Builder application in TI to create a bootable FAT32 USB flash drive with the Acronis recovery programs on it.
2. Test boot your PC with the USB flash drive to confirm that it works.
3. Back in Windows, create an image of the flash drive with TI.
4. Restore the image to your hard drive's empty primary partition. When restoring, do not make the partition active.
5. Configure your boot manager to boot to the partition.

I have one of these installations on my hard disk instead of using the Acronis F11 function and I boot to it using GRUB. Your target partition doesn't have to be a primary partition if your boot manager can handle booting to logicals.

[Kimberlito]

-{ Quote: "I'm unsure what you mean by the "hard drive version of TI 11 is unstable". Do you mean that you can't run the Windows version of the program at all?" }-

That's correct, it was very unstable, all parts of it, and I uninstalled it.

-{ Quote: "... or do you mean that it won't reboot into the recovery environment properly?" }-

Actually, once you boot into "recovery environment" (installed in SZ) everything works like a charm, so does the "CD environment" (both "environments" seem to be the same trimmed down version of ATI).

Because my boot manager killed F11 prompt, I decided to try to install another instance of "recovery environment" on its own bootable partition. Thanks for your solution, it should work.

I'm still wondering if you could somehow create the boot sector from the "#" command prompt from Acronis shell:

- boot to empty partition
- when you see a dash flashing insert ATI Recovery CD
- go to ATI shell
- type some magic command to create the boot sector on the partition
- copy all files from ATI Recovery CD to the partition using bootable DOS disk, BartPE, etc.

In case you have never seen ATI "shell" here are instructions:

- boot into ATI Recovery CD (or to F11 environment)
- when you see screen with buttons for Full Version, Exit To Windows: hit F11
- in the command window: delete word "quiet"
- hit OK
- at the command prompt type: Help and hit Enter

Now we are back in the wonderful world of DOS. It looks like HELP doesn't list all the available commands, like:

sysinfo, mount, umount, sys

sysinfo is safe to test, but it's better not to execute any of the other three.

I wouldn't be surprised if you could actually run the backup from the # prompt with command line parameters specifying the drives, backup type, etc.

[K0LO]

-{ Quote: "I'm still wondering if you could somehow create the boot sector from the "#" command prompt from Acronis shell:

- boot to empty partition
- when you see a dash flashing insert ATI Recovery CD
- go to ATI shell
- type some magic command to create the boot sector on the partition
- copy all files from ATI Recovery CD to the partition using bootable DOS disk, BartPE, etc." }-All you need to do is to copy the bootsector from either the CD (use BBIE) or from the USB flash drive (use a hex disk editor), carefully select only the bootloader code from the copied sector, then manually patch it into the partition boot record on the hard disk. I know this works because I've done it. But MudCrab's elegant solution of imaging the flash drive and restoring the image to the disk is so much easier because TI, when it restores the image, takes care of formatting and setting up the new partition and its boot record, and making it bootable.

-{ Quote: "...Now we are back in the wonderful world of DOS..." }-Actually, it's the wonderful world of Linux, and yes, standard Linux commands work.

It sounds like you are well on the way to accomplishing your objective.

[Kimberlito]

-{ Quote: "... MudCrab's elegant solution is so much easier because TI, when it restores the image, takes care of formatting and setting up the new partition and its boot record, and making it bootable." }-

Thanks, k0lo, for your help. I also bookmarked Bart's Boot Image Extractor, it might come in handy one day. Reference to DOS was just a joke. I have also found MudCrab's thread, his web page and his PDF:

http://www.purviancecs.com/acronis.htm