Drive Snapshot bootable media!

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by ams963, Jun 13, 2012.

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  1. Moosehead77

    Moosehead77 Registered Member

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    Dont know what a winpe cd is, although i heard that the program macrium does it for you. I have been researching but i dont always comprehend what they are eluding to. So i came here for guidance. Dont want to do something, than when a crash happens find out the image i burned is useless. I had my important files and what have you on a separate hard drive when i had my crash, however re-installing all the software and setting adjustments takes a long while.
     
  2. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    check out https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2081102&postcount=160 and https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2081166&postcount=162 :)
     
  3. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Moosehead77,

    I misunderstood. I thought you wanted to restore a DS image from DOS. Actually, DOS restores are very easy. I prefer them to WinPE restores as you don't have to wait for the WinPE to load. DOS loads quickly.
     
  4. Moosehead77

    Moosehead77 Registered Member

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    I didnt even know i could dos it up on windows 7 64bit. If thats easier ill do it.
     
  5. Moosehead77

    Moosehead77 Registered Member

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  6. Moosehead77

    Moosehead77 Registered Member

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    Ok so i see there is a 3.1 update to 3.0 waik. So i download waik 3.0 burn it to dvd and install. Than i follow the directions provided to upgrade to 3.1....sound right?...than i burn disk image in macrium..which i than would probably have to make a disc, using the image onto waik, to create a winpe cd...getting close or still off to the left?
     
  7. aladdin

    aladdin Registered Member

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    It is very easy. First download WAIK from Microsoft, which is 1.7GB download. Install it in your OS and then you will have WAIK in your OS. That is the extent with WAIK.

    Don't worry about the update to WAIK.

    Install Macrium Reflect Free in your OS and open it. Go to Tool Menu, and there will be an option to build a WinPE CD/DVD/USB/ISO.

    Best regards,
     
  8. aladdin

    aladdin Registered Member

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    You don't have to burn it to DVD. Just unrar the WAIK ISO with 7 Zip and install. Don't worry about the update to WAIK. The update contains the Windows 7 SP1.

    Best regards,
     
  9. aladdin

    aladdin Registered Member

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    If you burn/install the WinPE ISO to a USB, then every time an update is made to Macrium Reflect Free, you can build a new ISO of WinPE and then burn/install it to the same USB again.

    Here are some nice programs to burn/install the WinPE ISO to the USB. You can install more than one WinPE ISO on the same USB. I have eight imaging programs WinPE ISO on the same USB.

    XBoot:

    https://sites.google.com/site/shamurxboot/

    http://www.pendrivelinux.com/xboot-multiboot-iso-usb-creator/

    YUMI:

    http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

    All others:

    http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

    Best regards,
     
  10. Moosehead77

    Moosehead77 Registered Member

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    Thanks so much Alladin.

    Ok so Macrium lets you download waik from within the program, but what i did was i used active boot to make the disc. I burned the image, however when i tried to burn its 50gb. So i did some research and it says to go into advanced settings and burn it to a max of 4gb. Im gonna burn the image again, my question is would reducing it from 50gb to 4 gb cause any problems since so much data is being compressed or will it be ok?
     
  11. aladdin

    aladdin Registered Member

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    You need to download WAIK and install it in your computer. I am not sure if Macrium Reflect Free does this for you. Here is the download link for WAIK.

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5753

    You don't need to burn the above, just unzip (unrar) the ISO with 7-Zip and install it in your computer.

    Here is the link for 7-Zip:

    http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

    Forget about burning anything!


    I am not sure what you mean above. WAIK download is 1.7GB, so where do you get 50GB from?

    Once you build the WinPE ISO, it will be from 180MB to around 640MB, depending which Imaging Program you are building the WinPE ISO for, again where do you get 50GB from?

    Best regards,
     
  12. Moosehead77

    Moosehead77 Registered Member

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    Ok perhaps i wasnt clear since most of the time i tend not to be...lol..

    I used macrium to make an image which is 50gb, using the option which is labeled make image of partitions, i chose the entire C drive which totals 50gb.

    I than used a program called Active boot disk to take the 50gb image and place it onto a dvd.

    However the file is too big. So i have to redo the 50gb image in macrium at only 4gb max so i can than place it into active boot to create a winpe iso disk, a boot disk creator.

    Active boot disk program is actually doing the job of waik i believe. Taking the iso image to place it on a disk in case of system failure you load from the dvd.

    here is a link to the site so you can correct me if im wrong about active boot. And if im not following directions correctly.

    http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2012
  13. aladdin

    aladdin Registered Member

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    Active@ Boot Disk, Active@ Disk Image and Macrium Reflect PAID PRO give you a WinPE disk included with their programs. Because one pays for these programs, therefore they are able to give you this as they pay royalty to Microsoft.

    With Macrium Reflect Free version, since one doesn't pay for it, therefore they don't give a WinPE with their program. If they did, they have to pay royalty to Microsoft, so they will be out of money from their pockets. You have to build it yourself.

    I am surprised, why are you putting your image on a DVD, rather than a separate hard disk?

    What if one 13 DVDs fail on restoration?

    And, if you do regular imaging, like every two weeks or once a month, then you will be using 13 DVDs every time?

    Best regards,
     
  14. Moosehead77

    Moosehead77 Registered Member

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    Ok now im confused. I put the image from macrium on an external hard drive but i thought i had to burn that image to a dvd. If i can simply leave it on an external hard rive which i have it on now why do i need waik. What is its function in the process. I used active boot to put the image onto a disc but if that step isnt needed, i already have used macrium to save the image to my external drive, so all im confused about is the waik step in the process. Thanks.
     
  15. aladdin

    aladdin Registered Member

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    You have now thoroughly confused me. So, baby steps for me.

    1. What imaging programs you have?

    2. Which program you used to make your image of your OS?

    Best regards,
     
  16. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Okay first of all as Mohammed mentioned - Forget about burning anything.

    Now let's go by one imaging software at a time for your convenience. Let's forget about Active@Boot disk or Active@Disk Image. Just take Macrium Reflect free as an example.

    Now you want to use Macrium Reflect free to make image and restore. You make images and store them in your external hdd. You restore the image from the hdd using Macrium reflect free.

    Notice that all this time we are assuming your system is working perfectly thus allowing you to get to Macrium Reflect installed on your system and taking images and restoring them from the connected external hdd.

    But imagine a situation where the system crashes or does not load and does not boot. What will you do? You cannot gain access to the Macrium Reflect free installed in your system if the system itself does not start/boot/load.

    That's where a bootable recovery media(usb flash drive/cd/dvd/ftp) comes into play. Now there are several ways to do that. One of the most convenient and full featured bootable media is a WinPE CD/DVD. Most paid imaging software(nowadays even some paid partition managers) come with the WinPE for the reasons described above by Aladdin aka Mohammed.

    For a free imaging software you must build your own WinPE CD. To do that you have to first get WAIK. Then build your WinPE CD using WAIK as described in the above posts.

    You can then boot from a WINPE CD which offers a Preinstallation Windows Environment and navigate to Macrium Reflect from there to reach the image files in the external hdd connected and restore or you could also take image the same way. Once the restoration is complete you can now start the system and it loads normally as before.

    I hope you understand now. :)
     
  17. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    If anyone wants to try the DS DOS boot CD, here are some quick and dirty instructions. Download the ISO from...

    http://www.drivesnapshot.de/download/snapboot.iso

    ... and burn it to a CD.

    Let's say your DS image backup is named abc.sna and is on a USB external HD in the 123 folder. You can ignore the drive letter of the external HD partition because the drive letter of this partition will probably be different in DOS.

    Boot from the CD and select the 1 option for USB drives. Select NTFS.

    You will see a list of your NTFS partitions.
    0x80 refers to HD1 (your first HD)
    0x81 refers to HD2 (your second HD)
    0x82 refers to HD3 (your third HD)
    etc

    Your USB external HD will always be the last one listed.

    The numbers following the HD refer to the partition slot.
    0x80:2 refers to the second partition slot on HD1.
    You need to identify the partition on your external HD that is holding the DS image backup so look at the last HD and the relevant partition slot and read off the drive letter. Let's say it is H:

    At the A:\> prompt type H: (and press <Enter>)
    The prompt will now be H:\>

    Type CD 123 (and press <Enter>)
    The prompt will now be H:\123>

    You are now ready to restore your image. Type the following and press <Enter>

    snapshot restore hd1 auto abc.sna

    Read the text about what is going to happen and if you agree press Y

    The restore takes place.

    I don't think it's difficult. Any questions?

    Edit .... There is no HD0 and there is no C: drive letter shown.
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2012
  18. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Thx a lot Brian. The procedure will also work for images stored in an internal drive, right?
     
  19. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Correct. Choose the default Option 0 instead of Option 1.

    Another example. Say you have a HD failure and you replace your old HD with a new empty HD. With a new blank HD you won't see 0x80 in the NTFS list but Snapshot does know about the HD.

    There is only one extra line to type. After you change to H:\123 type this and press <Enter>

    snapshot restore hd1 partitionstructure abc.sna

    Then as before, type this and press <Enter>

    snapshot restore hd1 auto abc.sna

    Done!!!
     
  20. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Ah great Brian. Thx it helps a lot. :thumb:
     
  21. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Iron Man,

    I did multiple restores during the writing of that guide. No problems at any stage. To me it is easy but maybe to someone looking at the white text on a black background it could be frightening. Really, there are only a few steps and I know I can start the restore process earlier from DOS than from a WinPE. DOS boots in 10% of the time taken by a WinPE. Then you just have to change to the drive holding your image backup and enter the standard restore line. Make it easy for yourself by putting abc.sna in the root of the partition instead of in a folder. Then you can omit the "CD 123" step.

    Could you give my first tutorial a try? Go as far as this step..

    snapshot restore hd1 auto abc.sna
    (and press <Enter>)

    ... but next press N instead of Y. No changes will be made to your system. I'd like someone to confirm that it is easier than they expected.
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2012
  22. Moosehead77

    Moosehead77 Registered Member

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    Thanks guys for all your help, Really has helped me out alot.

    Iron Man ok so i burned the image of my system. I than installed the waik and saved the image it created. Basically the waik is creating a virtual environment in order to get windows to boot in that enviorment so in case of a crash i am able to load it up so that im able to access my system image to load it up. However the ISO image that waik created do i burn that to dvd so i can pop the dvd in in case of any system crash to start my virtual world.

    Thanks
     
  23. Moosehead77

    Moosehead77 Registered Member

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    Brian its easy but i still dont get it, its not you its me.

    However make a video of the steps man. This way its foolproof, no pun intended ;0).

    Actually it seems pretty easy, your earlier post with instructions seems easy to manage i even understood why i type what it is im supposed to type.
     
  24. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Moosehead77,

    Could you try my first tutorial? Let me know if there are steps that you can't perform.
     
  25. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    More good news about the Drive Snapshot DOS restore CD. It can be automated. Boot from the CD and walk away. When you return the restore has completed. No typing needed to do a restore. No mouse clicks to make.
     
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