Question regarding Active @ Boot Disk Creator

Hello fellow members,

I am looking for a imaging software for my relative's laptop(Win7 32bit Home Basic), he doesn't want to (or will seldomely)use internet connection on his laptop so I installed sandboxie and disabled the autoruns so making it safe from USBs.

Now I thought of adding an imaging software that can take backup and can also be bootable type so that the data can be recovered incase of failure. I installed a trial version of Active @ Disk Image on my VM(Win7 32bit home basic) but I have a problem regarding using its Boot Disk Creator feature, below I am showing the snap can anyone help me with what I can add as user files and also at drivers section. I tried searching the help file but I didn't find any relevant or it might also be possible that I might have missed reading the same

regards,
icr

 

od like to know also how to add my "gburner" program...if possible.

 

When you select the "User's Files" TAB, you have the option of adding a folder full of files or files themselves. The results of those additions wind up on the Active@ Boot disk in an area called "User Files."

You need to make sure you have everything needed to allow the application your adding to run successfully. You can't just grab some files from your Windows install folder and put them on the disk, all dependencies will be needed. Usually WinPE or BartPE plug-ins will work fine here. I have "Image For Windows" (an imager) installed on mine... but all I needed were the application itself, the main INI file (for needed settings) and an additional INI file that contained the USER and PASSWORD needed to run IFW... that's all the dependencies it needed.

 

@ TheRollbackFrog
Thankyou for your reply, but I am more concerned whether is it really necessary to add files to user's section and driver's section?

 

not really needed unless there is something extra you want to run while in winpe mode otherwise leave as is.

 

I just left as it was so the corresponding ISO was created. I then booted with that ISO file on my VM and I got this error message?

 

do you need any drivers or anything for the vm or system? did you try burning it to disc or usb?

 

No I don't install any drivers or rather not required and I didn't burned the file just made an ISO and then used in virtual disk drive

 

might be a file format issue, what file system is your VM configured to use? also what is the real systems file system? (NTFS, FAT32 etc)

 

I created a WinPE boot disc using Active @ Disk Image and added the file imagew.exe from IFW to the "Add Files".
Opening the Boot disc contents under Windows I can see the file "User Files" with imagew.exe in it. But booting the PC using the WinPE boot disc I cannot find this "User Files".

Note: Booting from above WinPE disc and opening the Windows Explorer, then File C, I can open the IFW Gui clicking on the imagew.exe file.

How to install IFW in the Add Files in order to open it using Active @ Disk Image WinPE disc

thanks

 

Both NTFS file systems
Virtual Machine : WinXP SP2 (At first I tried installing on Win7 but then I changed my setup)
Main Machine : Win7 Ultimate
Both 32 bit

 

tried booting a default ISO in my virtual machine, works fine for me, might be worth burning a new ISO and trying it on your real system. maybe a more knowledgeable user could help

 

Well I didn't try on my real machine but I rolled back to clean state of the machine and then first software I installed was Active Disk Image, I created an ISO file without figiting any of the configuration but still I am facing that very same problem

 

ah, i think i might know what your doing wrong. no ISO will boot up that way. u need to create the ISO on your real system and then point the VM to the ISO on the real system. your post suggests that your ISO is located inside the VM and then your asking the VM to boot using the ISO which is located in itself, that will never work.

if you want to keep everything in the VM then try creating a small new partition inside the VM and put the ISO there, that might work.

 

I am sorry for my misleading post, my bad I didn't provide more information
I know that VM would never boot using ISO if located in VM itself and right from post no. 1 I did the same thing. Here is what I exactly did :

1. Rollbacked to clean WinXP snapshot (Virtual Box)
2. Installed Active Disk Image
3. Created a an ISO file using Active boot disk creator with default configuration
4. ISO file created of approx 134Mb
5. Copied the ISO file to the desktop of the real machine
6. Now I boot the VM and loaded the ISO file (I am using Virtual Box, Devices-->CD/DVD devices-->Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file)
7. Window is booted with the help of that ISO file
8. But after sometime a black error screen is encountered

 

i just tried doing exactly what you posted but it would not let me copy and paste my key whilst i was booted into the ISO, i should have done this whilst in the normal VM desktop but i forgot so i cant say if the same would have happened to me.

i did however create an ISO on my real machine and attached it to the VM, booted up fine and stayed fine. i would say just install Active@ on your real system and try it on your real system. even if it works in your VM there is no point as there is no guarantee it would work in your real system.

Active@ has no start-up entries so no harm installing it on your real system

 

Thanks for your reply sir, I'll be try out on my real system and will let you know

 

Hi, I believe you've added the file correctly.To browse to the "user files" use the file explorer after you have booted the PE.Hope this helps.

 

WARNING- do not create WinPE boot disks in virtual machines!

i just created a Wondershare LiveBoot 2012 boot disk in a VM and i transferred it to my real system which i then attached back to the VM to see if it would boot... i got the same NTFS error as the one in this thread. it seems that WinPE disks cannot be created in VM's in a reliable manner.

just thought i would let you guys know so you don't waste as much time in the future trying this as i did

 

Well I can't say regarding Wondershare LiveBoot 2012 coz I didn't dowload and never thought in first place. But this is not always the case that you get an error as I have created the same thing with help or Acronis and Macrium both worked very fine for me and even I tried to post my query to their team and they replied me with some baseless troubleshooting techniques so I got my answer from that only. So I never looked back with Active @ disk again.

And as you said you are facing an error with Wondershare so I'll be downloading the same myself and if possible will PM you rather than post over here(as it might lead to offtopic posts)

regards,
icr

 

did you even read my post

here's the deal, u tried using the active@ boot disk in a virtual machine and failed. i tried using wondershare boot cd in a virtual machine and failed.
both of those are WinPE based boot disks.

this means that there is some sort of inconsistency created when using virtual machines to create/boot WinPE disks.

acronis and and macrium have linux based disks aswel so that's why they probably worked in your VM

 

i tried to add drive snapshot and total commander portable
but i can see in the final boot cd

what's wrong?
thanks

 

@mantra
hit run and look for Ds portable....it works

 

mantra, they should be in the User_Files folder. You can browse to that folder by using the "Explore My Computer" app.

If you like you can have both apps auto-start. Auto-starting is interesting as you have to run a script to determine the drive letter of Active@ boot disk. It won't be C: drive from a CD or USB flash drive. You can auto run a Drive Snapshot restore. Just boot from the CD and the restore happens.

 

cool thanks
how can i add some app to auto-start? i mean is there a tutorial to create the script

i would add drivesnap , total command portable and i would love to add portable antivirus with an update feature , sadly drweb doesn't update

and a program that can delete folders and files by-passing windows authorization look https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1961605&postcount=14

thanks a lot Brian

cheers