Can someone explain what the below means? I was under the impression that the option to only write changed sectors did not appear if your SSD drive did not support DRAT.
Nate, I think it's now like this. The software asks the SSD does it support DRAT. If the answer is "yes" then Write Changed Sectors Only is available as an Option. If the answer is "no" then Write Changed Sectors Only is not available as an Option. If the SSD doesn't answer the question then Write Changed Sectors Only is not available as an option. When the SSD doesn't answer the question, /wcoa enables the Write Changed Sectors Only option. It's then your "risk" if DRAT isn't supported.
Thanks Brian. Maybe you can answer this for me. Using IFW to hot-image an SSD drive, and restore if needed, to/from another platter driver. The SSD has three working OSes; Windows 10, Redhat (which I use to run a drawing program I need for work), and Mint Linux. What would be the optimum command line switches for a script that images an SSD that will maintain the bootability of those three? Do any changes need to be made or will the default options suffice?
Nate, The easiest method would be to do Entire Drive Image/Restores. All the necessary options are built in. Make sure in IFW/IFL/IFD Settings you have Automatic Boot Partition Update selected. Otherwise it will be a Restore Option and should be selected. If you are using Partition Image/Restores and the SSD fails then with the new SSD (or HD) you would restore the images individually to Free Space and choose... Update Boot Partition Restore First Track
Thanks Brian. I have a few more inquiries w/ IFW/IFL. 1. Is it possible to stick IFW on a flash. Extracting the files from a PE disc's RAM drive, gave me the below files which I copied on to a flash drive. The PE disc is a bit older (i can't seem to build a new PE disc without getting a error when I test it). But that results in IFW not being licensed in the new PE. Is there any way to change that? I like having another alternative to IFW just in case. 2. In order for ISO to be bootable on a flash drive (than you Yumi) they need to be contiguous. Is there a way for IFW to dictate placement on a disk, during image creation or restoration that you allow files to remain contiguous? 3. Is there anyway to make mounting the default action when executing a .tbi file rather than TBIview? It seems pointless to need both, especially when I never use TBIview anymore. 4. Which is better to use with IFW; VSS or phylock? Phylock pre-dates VSS and is terabyte's invention, but VSS is now the default. Which do you use? 5. Which options below need to be selected for proper alignment should I need to restore to another disk? Does aligning the MBR for BIOS negate any settings that I'll need?
Nate, For a licensed IFW on your flash drive you only need... ifw.ini imagew64.exe imagew64.ini If 32-bit PE use... ifw.ini imagew.exe imagew.ini I use TBWinRE so I'm not familiar with Questions 2 and 3. Q4... I use PHYLock as it backs up more files than VSS. There are no "exclusions". I thought PHYLock was the default for the Traditional setup and VSS was the default for the Simple setup. Q5... Leave the Geometry settings as per your screenshot. Now that your partitions on HD1 are 1MiB aligned you don't have to select Align to Target for future restores. You will get the same result whether it is selected or not.
Copy this info to a text file, save it as imagew64.ini Here User Name and XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX represent your own registered user name and key.
The interesting thing is that I was using a 32-bit PE at time, and I have all those file required. Still I was told that IFW would only function in trial mode.
in Windows Explorer, set the file attributes of imagew.ini to be read only. This way, the contents won't get erased every time you restart the program.
oliverjia, Excellent point. It's been so long since I made my imagew.ini that I'd forgotten to mention this essential step.
Thanks for that. Indeed that's true. I just tested it and the registration information is erased upon execution. I wonder why that is? Conscious choice or bug?
IFL is so much faster than IFW. I wonder why that is. I've added an IFL boot entry to my system as well as adding the ISO to my flash. I do wish that it could auto boot to a recovery environment is needed, like Reflect. But still. IFW/IFL have been rock sold here when recovering entire disks.
And IFD is slower than both of them. There are several ways you can do this with IFL. I use BIBM with BootNow to boot an IFL partition and run an automated restore. You can also use Boot File to do automated restores. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/howto-ifl-bootfile.htm IFD and IFW can be used with the above methods but I agree, IFL is the fastest. Edit... You should be able to add the restore script to your IFL ISO.
I thought about doing that, but I have more than one drive backed up and I never know which one will need to be restored when I start IFL.
So, one IFL disc for my flash drive and another for my system drive? Hmm. The only issue there would be how then do I restore an image is the file name keeps changing, which is something that is to expected with weekly images?
Good question but easily resolved. Let's say the image you want to restore is... Win10ssd_2016-03-02-0745_DIFF_2016-03-04-1745.TBI Just put n8 in front of it (temporarily until the restore has completed). So your file would now be... n8Win10ssd_2016-03-02-0745_DIFF_2016-03-04-1745.TBI In the restore script you would have.. n8*.TBI as the image to restore so the one script covers all restores to that particular HD. You would have a second script for restores to the other HD. I use this method.
Interesting. What extension are the script files that need to be placed in the "scripts" folder of the extracted IFL dir; .txt, .bat, .cfg? From there what? just alter the IFL disc to include the option to select the script @ boot?
Nate, this thread covers creating scripts from an IFL UFD... https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thre...g-image-for-linux-without-a-boot-disk.383647/ Script creation is in Post #1 Ignore the posts about boot file.
This sounds a little too complicated for me. I wish IFW/IFL had a bit more polish and intuitiveness, but that won't stop me from using it.
Nate, you are pretty clever but I did provide step by step instructions which you might not need. I've made a complex procedure easy.
