Image For Windows

F12 boot menu with the USB HD (not SSD)...

 

F12 boot menu where a mistake has been made...

 

Thanks, I'll try it tonight

 

I don't need to use the F12 boot menu anymore. I have a shortcut in my main Win11 which causes a restart into USB Win11.

 

What method do you use for that, Brian?
Maybe you've told me before and I've forgotten.

I still use the TeraByte Recovery Environment with Boot.wim method using the tbwinre folder and reboot straight into it.

 

Hadron,

I left out a few sentences. I was referring to booting Win11 on the USB HD. The shortcut was to bootnowu.exe.

 

Thanks, Brian.
I'm aware of BootNow.

 

BootIt UEFI created a Boot Item for the USB WBM. So the USB OS could be booted from BIU or from a BootNow shortcut in the original Win11.

I'm amazed how well Win11 runs on the USB SSD. It was a real dog on a USB HD.

 

BootIt UEFI isn't necessary for this project. But it's a nice addition.

 

tyee,

Success or failure?

 

@Brian K
Do you happen to have any experience with Paragon Backup software?

 

Hi.

Before when doing automated restores with IFW it went through the motions in the booted restore menu without extra clicking than the initial clicking, now when installing v.3.64 on a fresh installed W11 Pro, it asked for 2 different confirmations in the mentioned restore environment. This of course makes it a non-automatic restore.

Have they changed it or have something gone wrong with my W11 installation.

In short, what is wrong?

 

moredhelfinland,

Sorry, I have minimal experience with Paragon Backup software. Certainly none in the last 5 years.

 

Brian, I got delayed editing a video so I'll try tomorrow.

 

OK, I just updated my BIOS to the latest. It was 2 versions out of date. It went well. Question - I read that to make a clone (or an image?) that fast boot must be off. I just made sure of that now because the new BIOS default is ON. Also I read that secure boot must be off also? Yes or no? Mine is currently ON.

 

tyee,

Re Fast Boot. It doesn't matter. I have it off. Boot time is not effected.

Re Secure Boot. It doesn't matter. I use both, enabled and disabled.

 

Well, success! Thanks a lot for all your help Brian! No problem this time, although last time I went into the BIOS to select the boot drive, but this time pressed F11 to get to the select menu which did show Windows Boot Manager. Now if I reboot onto the main ssd and pull the usb copy out of the computer will it constantly silently reboot into the main ssd?

I did this using a front panel USB port. Last time I used an external usb hub which failed but why I don't know. I could try it again using the usb hub or I could just plug this good clone into the usb hub and see if I get the WBM menu, that would be interesting.

 

tyee,

Nice work. You can disconnect the USB drive and internal Windows will boot. If the USB drive is connected, it will only boot if you choose WBM from your F11 boot menu. So the internal drive will boot by default. After disconnecting the USB drive, you can reconnect it at any time and boot its Windows from the F11 boot menu.

If you remove the current internal drive and install the current USB drive internally, the new internal drive will boot without using the boot menu.

 

Great, thanks. I'm reading your thread about failed uefi restores to a new drive - https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/failed-uefi-restores-to-a-new-hd.373634

Do you think Drive Snapshot would work to make an image to a usb drive, then restore that image right away to another usb drive and it would be bootable without doing any of that right click options during the restore?

 

I've no idea.

I tried to create a Windows bootable USB drive with IFL (Image for Linux) and failed. IFL has usbboot.tbs. I can only do it with IFW using Simple Mode copying or using Traditional copying of the Windows partitions. Both IFW methods need usbboot.tbs.

One observation. After doing the IFW copy, if you then restart the computer and run usbboot.tbs on the next boot, the Windows USB drive will not be bootable. You must not do a restart prior to running the script.

 

Restoring images in IFW also works.
Restoring images in IFL works.
Copying partitions in IFL doesn't work.

 

I meant to ask you what's the difference between IFW and Bootit uefi?

 

The main difference is BIU is a Boot and Partition manager. It can also create/restore images with IFU (Image for UEFI).

https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-uefi/

It's my favourite piece of software. I'm amazed at what it can do..

 

I wish I could be too!
A video tutorial with an expert like you would be just great to teach different scenarios where this software can show its full power.

 

I can't do a video tutorial but I can easily describe how you can multi-boot.

Edit... Here is a BIU video. Download the .wmv

Edit... Virtual Box makes it look too complicated.