Creating Rescue Disk using BartPE

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by mfabien, Jan 18, 2007.

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  1. bVolk

    bVolk Registered Member

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    The site from my post #19 also has a tutorial on how to build your own legal Windows installation CD from the files installed on your computer and some additional downloads.

    My be a useful thing to do if you don't get the installation CD, regardless of whether you then proceed with building BartPE from it or not.
     
  2. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Excellent site bvolk. More excellent software from Bart. I might also add a plug for UBCD4WIN http://ubcd4win.com/ which is what I use with one of Mustang's plugins for TI. UBCD4WIN has everything in one package. I also recommend Autostreamer http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=223562.
     
  3. mfabien

    mfabien Registered Member

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    Ok guys, I now have a copy of a Windows XP Home with SP2 (from a retailer's computer repair and installation dept.)

    However, when I put the CD in the player I get the following screen:

    - Install Windows XP
    - Learn more about the Setup process
    - Install optional Windows Components
    - Perform additional tasks
    - Check system compatibility

    Wouldn't know how to extract files... It was suggested that I copy the Windows CD to new folder on my root drive, but how can I do that?

    When I create the BartPE builder CD complete with the TrueImage10 plugin, I can always put in this CD when asked to complete the disk...
    BTW, why is BartPE asking to put the Windows CD in "A"?

    Please advise
     
  4. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Just exit from that screen. Use windows explorer to navigate to the CD drive. Press CTRL+A to select the entire contents of the CD drive. The press CTRL+C to copy the contents. Create a new folder on your hard drive call it WINXPCD or whatever you want. The Press CTRL+V to paste the CD contents to the new folder.
    You won't need the CD to complete the build. Just copy the contents of the Windows XP CD as directed. Use my directions I posted (post 21) earlier to build the BartPE CD or use the link posted by Foghorne https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=839781&postcount=1. See my post #11 earlier in the thread if you are using Mustang's plugin to properly create the plugin. I recommend Mustang's plugin because it includes two files that are missing from the V10 plugin supplied by Acronis.
    When you start PE builder point PE builder to folder you created that has the contents of the CD.
     
  5. bVolk

    bVolk Registered Member

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    mfabien,

    To copy the Win CD contents to a new folder on HD (the suggested way to go - to avoid errors in the BartPE CD building process) you should prevent the Win CD's autostart from running. Hold down the Shift key while you close the drawer and keep pressing it until the CD drive light stops blinking. The CD will not autostart and you will be able to access the Win CD contents from Explorer and copy the files and folders from it.
     
  6. mfabien

    mfabien Registered Member

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    C:\WinXPCD now contains the Windows XP SP2 CD disk. And that will be the source for the Builder

    File (The Mustang plugin) TrueImage10_Getfiles_+lic.cmd was activared and the process was completed successfully. Now what path do I give the Builder,

    c:\TrueImageHome10 (the folder) or,

    folder Files
    folder PRE
    folder z_UpperFilters
    File Autorun0_StartAcrSv
    Reset-Plug.cmd
    file TrueImageH10_nu2me...
    file TrueImageH10.inf
    file TrueImaheH10.htm
    ?

    By the way, I clicked file Reset-Plug.cmd and messaqe is:
    Reset the plugin
    Delete the folder "Files"
    and reset the INF
    press return to continue

    ? I think not. I suspect that command is to nullify what was done with the previous command...
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2007
  7. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Did you not extract the plugin to the PLUGIN folder created when you installed BartPE as I mentioned. In the subdirectory where you installed BartPE is a folder called plugin. This is where the plugins go for BartPE and PE builder will find it automatically if you put it there. When you extracted Mustang's plugin it created a folder called TrueImageHome10 and after you ran the Get_files+lic.cmd file some additional files and folders were created that you listed above. Copy the TrueImageHome10 folder and the Z_upperfilters folder to the plugin folder. The start PE builder and make sure that the True Image plugin says its enabled. It will say "yes" in the left column if it is. If not click on the plugin and click Enable/Disable button. Then you are ready to build. Use a CDRW until you are satisfied.
     
  8. mfabien

    mfabien Registered Member

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    The Z_upperfilters folder is part of the main folder, TrueImageHome10. And that is what I pasted in the BartPE Builder Plugin folder.

    I will restart the Build. BTW, the BartPE disk worked, but nit the TrueImage plugin.

    Later.
     
  9. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    OK. I think I know what you did wrong. When you extract the plugin you get the following structure: TrueimageHome10\TrueImageHome10 folder (appears again) and z_upperfilters folder. Copy the only the second TrueImageHome10 folder and the z_upperfilters folder to the plugin folder. The contents of the second TrueImageHome10 folder should look like this after you have run the Get files.cmd.
     

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  10. mfabien

    mfabien Registered Member

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    ***Victory***

    It works !

    Note to Thomasjk: With the TrueImage10 Mustang plugin, there is only one TrueImageHome10 folder and it contains all folders and files.

    Please take note

    1. BartPE CD will not boot if my USB hardrive is active

    2. The structure tree of BartPE does not see by USB external drive once activated.

    3. Acronis TrueImageHome10 accepts the USB external drive on the command line. For recovery, I do get all archived images .tib files and can make a selection. And I can do a Backup without any difficulty.

    Thanks to all of you for your help.
     
  11. bVolk

    bVolk Registered Member

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    mfabien,

    Could it be that you have the USB device set as the first device to boot from in the BIOS boot order list?
     
  12. mfabien

    mfabien Registered Member

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    First Device is USB CD-ROM
    Second is Floppy
    Third is HDD-0

    The USB HDD would be HDD-1 and is not listed over the above three.

    All things considered, this glitch could be something involving my computer only. It's not a big deal, once I know about it.
     
  13. bVolk

    bVolk Registered Member

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    mfabien,

    I think you should fix that one. Is there really no option to put CD-ROM (without USB) on top? If you don't set the boot order properly you will always have this problem when trying to boot from a CD with the USB external drive already connected and powered. Namely, this is the way to boot from the regular TI Rescue CD too, or the external won't be recognized by TI.

    Is by chance your computer a mini-notebook without an internal CD drive? That would explain the issue. I had one two years ago and got rid of it because of these problems.
     
  14. mfabien

    mfabien Registered Member

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    My internal CD-ROM is inoperative. It was simpler and perhaps less costly to install an external USB CD-ROM than sending the computer out to fix or replace the internal CD-ROM.

    As for the external USB external HDD, the Acronis Rescue CD also will not boot if the external HDD is active.

    But I know about this limitation and the solution is quite simple, I power up the external USB HDD only once the Acronis Rescue CD or the BartPE CD has booted the computer and TrueImageHome10 menu is up. It may not be in accordance with normal conventions, but it's not a problem.
     
  15. bVolk

    bVolk Registered Member

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    I see. You are lucky that your external is fast enough to initialize and BartPE slow enough to boot.

    Now you may want to try if this works: boot from the regular TI Rescue CD and power up the external HD after the computer has started to boot from the CD. When you reach the Full/Safe selection screen wait for a minute or two before you click on Full.

    This trick worked for me when I too had to use a USB CD drive along with a slow starting USB HD. It may put your Rescue CD back in business.

    And when someday you decide to upgrade to a CD/DVD drive, I suggest you opt for an internal one.
     
  16. mfabien

    mfabien Registered Member

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    My TI Rescue CD was never out of commission. My interest in the BartPE was mostly curiosity and as an alternative solution for an emergency.

    That being said, I just completed 2 tests this morning. But I conducted the tests to make a full image backup rather than a restore. BTW, in both cases I activated my USB external HDD upon seeing the Acronis menu.

    1. Using the BartPE CD:

    Duration 14 minutes, the same elapsed time as when using the Internal Windows OS.
    Once I entered the USB external drive letter E:\ in the command line, the E:\ drive and it's content appeared in the structure tree. The new file name given to the backup was limited to 8 characters (but previous backups file names were complete in length in the structure tree).

    The only quirk was the treatment given to the OEM Windows restore hidden partition, BartPE gave that a letter D disk (whereas my USB CD-ROM drive is in fact drive D).

    2. Using Acronis CD:

    Duration 40 minutes. Of course Linux uses a different letter for my backup drive. Knew that and it's not a problem.

    Conclusion: Should I require a Restore, I would first use BartPE because of the difference in time to restore. And for a Restore, my sense is that the image selected would be fully respected, including the OEM hidden partition. Should that not be the case, then I have the Acronis Rescue CD which I can use. Both CD's work well.
     
  17. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    When BartPE loads a ramdisk is created and usually assigned as drive B. So the drive lettering you see may well change. See the attached image:
     

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  18. seekforever

    seekforever Registered Member

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    Congratulations, mfabien ! I wasn't too sure if you were going to get it to fly but you did.

    I think another advantage of having a BartPE bootable CD available is if your backup is on DVDs you can copy it from DVD to another partition in the machine and then do your restore. I haven't done any test restores directly from DVD with TI/BartPE but normally restores are much, much faster from a HD even if you consider the copy to HD time. If you only had a new HD, I imagine it would be possible to partition it with BartPE to create a partition for copying the DVD archive before restoring.

    Anybody know of a reason this wouldn't work?
     
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