I am wondering if BiBM would be something suitable for me. As I understand it, it allows for booting into multiple OSes via multiple partitions. I can do this already with EasyBCD. BiBM allows for other partition activities, creating, wiping, resizing, etc. These can be done with other applications too, but the integration won't be there. Imaging, which is part of BiBM can be done with IFL/IFW. So there's nothing new there either. I boot from three partitions, Win10, Redhat Enterprise, and Mint 17. Do I need a third party bootloader? There was one line in the BiBM description that piqued my interested. Does that mean that any potential boot error can be corrected? If so, that can replace Macrium's PE option. (I also have a license for that). Is it worth it adding BiBM to my toolkit of Terabyte products? Or am I mostly covered by IFL/IFW? Thoughts?
Nate, One question to start. Can you delete any one of your partitions and have the other two OS boot? What I'm getting at is are your booting files for the three OS in a common partition?
Since EasyBCD uses the BOOTMGR/BCD bootloader, and that is stored on the active partition, I'd have to say that my answer is conditional on which partition is being deleted; if it is the active than no other will be bootable, but if it is not then the other two will be bootable. If I'm following your thought process correctly, you want to see if each partition is truly independent, and thus more secure, correct?
Nate, that's where BIBM differs from EasyBCD. BIBM supports independent OS. No shared files and any OS can be deleted without affecting the ability of the others to boot. You already have three OS and I think you would be interested in having IFL and a WinPE on the HD as well. Apart from not having to use boot disks, automation is easier. BIBM supports 16 HDs and you can have over 200 OS on each HD but I doubt anyone needs 3200 OS. From your running OS you can select which OS will be the next to boot. BootNow. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-bootit-bare-metal.htm BIBM contains IFD as the imager but I agree IFL is better. With a BIBM license you can have BIBM Work with Partitions on your IFL boot disk and IFL partition. Edit BCD store is included. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=492 BIBM has Scripting which you might not use much at first but BIBM Scripting is more powerful than TBOSDT Pro. We have a few tablets with UEFI firmware that don't support Legacy boot. The tablets won't boot Linux (the Atom processor doesn't support it). I was able to boot a 32-bit UEFI WinPE and do partitioning with BIBM scripts. For you I think the Boot Manager module would be the most used. Work with Partitions would be handy too, for installing new OS and later if you want to Multi-boot UEFI systems.
Here's a question, could BiBM be used create a flash drive that has the option to boot both uefi and legacy? I can't really see it being too useful for me otherwise, since I have IFW/IFL. I wonder though, is there any Terabyte product that can fix boot issues? That would negate me having to use Macrium's PE, or a separate bootable ISO. I get the feeling there's something I'm not seeing here.
BIBM will only boot in Legacy mode, not UEFI. If you have a UEFI system that needs partitioning then you can boot IFL and use Work with Partitions. As far as boot issues are concerned, I don't see them anymore. I used to with Win7 and some other imaging apps like Ghost, fixed with BIBM BCD Edit.
That requires a BiMB license, right? Interesting. I just tried BiMB, and I was never even able to get the mouse to work right. I even enabled mouse support when creating the trial ISO. That's a bummer. Using the keyboard sucked w/ BiMB.
Not necessarily but Work with Partitions in IFL is limited if you don't have a BIBM license. Try another mouse. If you have a PS2 port use that, otherwise use the cheapest mouse you own. Expensive mice are less likely to work. If you can't get it to work let me know. Some people have reported success with ctmouse.exe. Edit... Meanwhile... http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=514 http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=531
If you use a USB mouse it may not work in a USB 3 port. Try a USB 2 port unless you already did. PS2 always works for me.