IFL auto restore

I used this method a few years ago but found an IFW restore was faster. I started using this method recently as I found it is now about 10% faster than an IFW auto restore (on my hardware).

Anyone like to try it and let us know how it performs?

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/howto-ifl-bootfile.htm

 

Hi Brian

I hope you are doing well! Thank you for this info. I will share with you how I personally have tried a similar set up, but not how TBU mentions although I would like to try it as they state on your link.

I think I have mentioned how I made my bootable flash drive. Using Easy BCD. I format the flash drive in windows. I use an 8GB drive formatted Fat32 4096 cluster size (just my choice). Then I copy the IFL.ISO file directly to the flash drive, making sure the name of the ISO has NO spaces so there is no reading problem to boot the actual ISO.

Then with drive plugged in, I start Easy BCD, and use it to deploy the Win7 BCD to the flash drive. After this, I choose 'Add entry' and with the BCD of the flash drive now loaded, I choose the ISO tab, give it a name, and then you can choose either 'run from disk' or 'load from memory' for the ISO file you want to boot from, in this case IFL.ISO Thenthe last field I choose the actual ISO file that I copied to the flash drive. I click 'add entry' and it creates the necessary boot config data to boot the flash drive along with a boot menu.

Along the same thought, i could place the IFL.ISO file on a partition of my HDD. No flash drive involved. Then run Easy BCD and create or add an entry into the win7 BCD that when finished will offer me a dual boot menu, in which I can boot into win7 normally, or choose to boot IFL. IFL will then boot directly from the location it was placed on the HDD, similar to what TBU is attempting. One can do this with any bootable ISO file and it really works well, but I do not do it in this fashion, as I use the same method but create a bootable flash drive instead of booting the ISO directly from the HDD partition.

I hope I explained that ok. Easy BCD makes it truly 'easy' to create these bootable items, and it does make it nice to be able to create a windows boot menu offering either Win7 or say IFL. Choosing IFL takes you right into the application allowing for a quick backup/restore operation. The downside I see of this is only that if there would be corruption occur on the partition the ISO file resides, then of course it would cease to function, and this is the main reason i utilize the bootable flash drive.

In any case, you brought up a great idea and it sounds it works well. Thank you! I will give it a shot based upon the TBU instructions when I have a chance to try it. Appreciate you bringing this up

Have a nice day!

Edit: After thinking more about it, the autorestore feature, is this meaning it boots and begins an auto style restore on its own that is set within the boot file? I need to read the TBU article again. I never yet have performed an "auto" style restore with any TBU product, only "normal". although auto should be faster as long as it is same hardware, etc. Thanks again

 

can i launch that file from a Linux machine?

 

I don't know. Why don't you try it? There is a Linux version of bootfile.exe and you would have to adapt the batch file which relies on drive letters.

 

Jim, that's correct and is what interest me. In Windows I double click the batch file, the computer restarts into the IFL restore and restarts back into Windows.

 

tnx Brian!

i'll give it a look tomorrow.

 

Thanks Brian...now that is what I call convenient, and I would imagine quite a fast restore in auto mode. In IFL I always use normal mode, which I know is not necessary if it is just a matter of restoring an image. This is indeed a great quick method to get it done, with a launch from a batch file.

Definitely will try this out.

 

Jim,

I always use normal mode too. Never auto mode. You can't choose Options in auto mode.

 

Dear Brain,

I have all these imaging programs WinPE available on boot as Boot Menu with a 3 seconds delay. Please see image.

You can use the iReboot (from the same people of EasyBCD) in Windows, and the computers restarts into any of the WinPE in my image, not just IFL. No need for batch file.

 

Hi aladdin,

The aspect that interests me is I can do a restore with no user input. No menus, no clicks. The restore happens automatically.


Edit... I forgot to mention that the app can email you an IFL log. So when the restore has completed and you boot back into Windows, there is an email waiting describing the restore details.

 

i don't think this is possible:

i run Linux on the ext 4 file system.


i'm wondering if i could 'scrape' the Windows 8 Recovery Environment and put that into it's own little mini-partition.
without using Windows 8 afterward.
i'm not sure but i think i recall seeing that the WRE was on it's own partition.
food for thoughts...

i sure could use a quick way of getting a Windows Command Prompt without having to load a slooooow WinPE disk.
and without having Windows installed...

 

This is made from the Win7 RE.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/tbwinre_tutorial.htm

Mine boots in about 30 seconds and then you have a command prompt, IFW, TBOSDT, etc.

You can image the USB flash drive and restore the image to a HD partition.

 

aladdin,

In your EasyBCD list, what are the file formats of Acronis TI and below? Are they ISO files? Where are they stored on your HD? In the OS partition or a data partition?

Interesting.

 

Dear Brian,

I have two hard disk in my laptops and desktops. The Win7 x64 OS is on SSD. The other regular hard disk has four partitions. Anything Acronis TI and below resides on a partition "K" of other hard disk. All the ISOs are unrar.

P.S. Only one which resides on the OS SSD is Macrium Reflect, which is created by the software and not by me.

Best regards,

 

aladdin,

That's nice. I'm glad they aren't in the OS partition. They won't add to the size of the OS image.

 

Thanks Brian. For the following reasons, I don't run the ISOs from memory as they reside on the OS partition. I unrar the ISOs.

1. One can move the unrar sub-directories anywhere and edit the location with Visual BCD Editor. I moved it once to my OS SSDs, to see how fast they load, the difference in loading was not significant, so I moved them back to the regular hard disk.

2. Any update to the ISOs, I unrar them and replace them with the earlier ones. Like this, I always have the latest version, for example for IFW, I have the latest v2.73

Best regards,

 

aladdin,

How do you make the IFW ISO?

 

Dear Brian,

From the TBWinPE plugins downloaded from their site and WAIK.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/tbwinpe_tutorial.htm

Best regards,

 

Understood.