Same files on disk - Image file twice as big as before - Same compression setting

That's the problem then. VistaPE v11 won't work with a Vista SP1 source. VistaPE v12 supposedly will, but v12 is still a work in progress (although I haven't tried it recently).

 

I tried again with the Vista DVD just to see if there was a fluke problem. I got the same result. The log file was just a few K smaller than the first time I did it.

Then I did it from the WAIK and it worked.

My next step is to install your Disk Director 10 and True Image 10 scripts. Along with all of my weekend house work that has been keeping me occupied while my computer works.

I would still like to know why it won't work from the Vista DVD. [EDIT: k0lo answered this in the mssage above that I hadn't read yet when sending this one.] If there is something not set right on my new computer I want to correct it so I can have a clean properly working image before I start installing all of my productivity software.

I am also concerned about how long it takes to boot to the VistaPE DVD. It seemed like the Acronis boot disk was much faster. The whole point of spending all this time on this project is so that I will have fast restores so I'll be less hesitant to do them if something goes wrong when installing new software.

Prior to this mornings installations my Image took 3-4 minutes to create and I was looking forward to 3-4 minute restores after finishing this process. It seems like it takes at least that long just to boot, now. It's still better than over an hour to restore from True Image on my hard drive but if there is anything I can do to speed it up I'd like to know about it.

I am assuming that when I get the scripts working I will have to boot from the DVD and run True Image restore from there. The version on my hard disk won't be able to pass the info about the restore image path etc. to the DVD version, will it?

 

O.K. At least that explains that. Thanks.

 

florida_guy:

Booting VistaPE from a CD or DVD can be slow. You can copy your build to a bootable USB flash drive and it will boot a lot faster (for me it's 4 - 8 times faster depending on the flash drive used). MudCrab has instructions for copying the build to a flash drive (or USB hard drive; faster yet) in his guide. You won't have to build again; just copy some files.

 

O.K. Thanks. Great to know! One more thing I have to do before I can call this project complete and start installing my productivity software. Better start making a copy of all the stuff on my (one) flash drive so I can format it.

 

By the way, you are approaching a new operating system install the right way. I did the same thing when installing Vista on this machine - saved an image of the clean Vista install (using TI 10 in VistaPE ) and then daily images until things were set up the way I wanted.

This was invaluable. If installing a program (like Cisco VPN Client, **cough**cough**) messed things up then all I had to do was roll back to the last image and all traces of the problematic program were removed.

 

Mark

Thanks for the comment. I was afraid you may be thinking that I'm overdoing things a bit. My reasons are just as you described.

 

Progress has been good when I've been working on the project and not talking with friends and relatives on the phone.

I have successfully made my first image from my slow booting VistaPE DVD.

I was proud to see the florida_guy inspired example when I went back to MudCrab's website to buy the TI 10 and DD 10 scripts!

After posting this message I am going to do a test restore. Hopefully it won't take over an hour like it did from the Acronis boot disk. The image took 4 minutes to make not including boot and configure time.

Then I have to figure out how to get VistaPE to see my network. I'm thinking that "Including the VistaPE driver packs" will take care of that.

Then I will make my Flash Drive bootable with it.

I do have a few other questions in the meantime though.

1) 1) My practice in the past has been to keep a text file with a running log. Each time I make an image I update the file. Then I cut and paste from the text file into the True Image comments.

i.e. TrueImage.txt
Clean install of Vista - Acronis installed - OS preferences configured - WinBuilder installled - Office 2003 installed

This way I can see the whole progression without having to read the comments on each image file along the way.

Is there a way to do that working with VistaPE besides editing the comments after the fact when I boot back into Vista?

2) I always like to split my images into DVD sized files in case I ever want to archive them. Is there a way to make that the default on VistaPE?

3) Why is "Total Commander" shareware included in the basic build? I've never heard of that program before.

4) Is my VistaPE DVD or Flash Drive something I can take home at Christmas and use the file management stuff etc. to work on my Mom's ancient Pentium or does it require beefier machines just as Vista itself does?

 

The whole process:
Click restart
Boot to VistaPE
Configure True Image Restore
Run Restore
Reboot to Vista

took 14 minutes

The reboot to VistaPE took 5 minutes
The actual restore took 6 minutes

The image which took 4 minutes to make was
one 4,550,820 KB file
one 1,700,551 KB file

I didn't keep track of the seconds so the minutes could be off by one each way due to rounding.

Clearly this is a vast improvement in speed. However, it is also not as convenient as the old way; opening True Image from within Vista and letting it reboot and do it's thing while you go take a break.

One other difference was at no time was I given a time estimate to completion. The old way gave me a constantly updating time estimate as it progressed.

 

Yes; browse to the place on your hard disk where you keep the text log and open it. VistaPE has Notepad included, so you can directly edit your log file.

I doubt it. Remember that the VistaPE build is a read-only file system, so even if you make a change to the preferences it will not be saved. Maybe there is a way to hack the TI components before they're included in the ISO, but I haven't tried that.

Probably for historical reasons. VistaPE is an outgrowth of BartPE, which used the Windows XP kernel, and a lot of the BartPE guys preferred Total Commander. Personally, I don't include it in my builds. The build that I'm using now was done a while ago from a non-SP1 Vista DVD and I've included Vista Explorer as the default shell. Maybe when VistaPE v12 stabilizes you can try that out on your SP1 DVD.

You can use it on any machine that can boot from a DVD or a Flash Drive. Vista has thousands more drivers than XP did, so the chances of it working on other hardware are better than was the case for BartPE.

Is your network adapter in the machine you're testing wired or wireless?

You may find the process a lot more convenient if you use an external USB hard disk to store your images on and make it bootable into VistaPE, per MudCrab's guide. You will probably shave another 4 minutes off the boot time and 3 minutes off the restore time when you get rid of the slow DVD reads.

 

[EDIT: Never mind I think I've figured it out at 3. Drivers here: http://www.themudcrab.com/vistapeguide_drivers.php]

I have now read over that section of the documentation and I have added the Add Driver script to my build. However, I don't know what path to put in to install whatever driver is needed to allow VistaPE to see my network. How do I find that out?

 

Here are a couple of things to try. I am assuming that you are using a wired network and that the cable is connected as VistaPE boots. If using Wireless, VistaPE v11 does not support encryption, but wireless will work if you include the adapter's driver and you turn off encryption on your wireless router.

1. Do you get the popup notification that the network is now available? Networking is started in the background as VistaPE boots and it takes a couple of minutes after the desktop appears before the network becomes available.

2. Try opening PENetConfig and have a look at the settings. See the 11th picture in these screen shots to see what it should look like.

3. The VistaPE driver pack may indeed contain the network card driver that you need. I was quite surprised to find out that my plain-vanilla Broadcom Ethernet (on the motherboard) did not have a native Vista driver, but it was in the VistaPE driver pack. Try it and see.

4. If that doesn't work, you can include your adapter's driver in the build. Instructions for adding it are in MudCrab's guide.

5. There is also an alternate method that works for network adapters (but not for SATA or disk drivers). Download the adapter's Vista drivers from the manufacturer and unzip them into a folder. Name the folder anything meaningful (Ethernet driver or whatever). Create a folder C:\Drivers and move your adapter driver folder into this folder. When VistaPE boots, it looks for a folder in the root of each hard disk partition labeled "Drivers" and loads up anything in the folder or in any of its subfolders.

 

Thanks. I realized after sending the message that it is more of an issue when making the images which I'll usually do from within Vista but it's good to have that idea tucked in the back of my head, anyway.

That's what I figured but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on any good tips like many given me.

I don't have Vista Explorer as an option so I'm guessing you can't include that if you are using the WAIK?

Booting from a CD will do the trick too, you don't need a DVD drive, correct?

It is a wired adapter built into my ASUS P5e motherboard.

O.K. Thanks again. One more thing to do before this project is complete.

 

Correct; you need a Vista DVD as the source in order to have Vista Explorer. You can see it in action in the screen shots here; picture #12.

Correct. CD works too.

OK; you should be able to get networking to work after trying some of the suggestions in post #37.

 

I have now added the LAN and SATA drivers shown in figure 1.4 here
http://www.themudcrab.com/vistapeguide_drivers.php

but I still can't see my network from inside VistaPE.

I have connection via my wired motherboard adapter from within Vista and when I boot from the Acronis Boot disk.

No. A few minutes after boot while I was configuring my restore I got a popup saying something like [some file name - Network is not available] something like that.

I will try your other suggestions and report back.

 

OK; understand. You're getting close.

If you are using DHCP on your network and the correct driver is included then networking will happen automagically. If using a fixed IP address then you will have to open PENetConfig and manually enter networking parameters.

Suggestion #5 is an easy one to try and usually works like a champ.

 

I'm unable to find this in my VistaPE environment. The run command says not found to penetconfig.

 

While trying stuff a message came up...
"wpeinit.exe finished now you can try (sic) use network"
which sounded hopeful but I still couldn't see it.

I'm rebooting to Vista to look for my Yukon Gigabyte network drivers.

 

Sorry; I misled you. This is from the first few lines of the PeNetCfg script (emphasis added):

I'm not sure how you configure network parameters when running VistaPE built from the WAIK. On the LiteStep shell, look on the menus under "Network".

Maybe someone else knows?

 

I must have done something wrong because doing that caused PE to lock up shortly after it finishes booting. Then I have to hard refresh because reset doesn't work.

WinBuilder wants an .inf file to load the driver and I can't find the file that is supposed to be the .inf file for my driver anywhere on my C: using Vista's search.

I was talking to a friend of mine earlier on the phone. She was talking about how on her Mac everything just works.

I need some sleep. Perhaps in the morning all will become clear.

 

I was just searching around some more and discovered that DHCP is enabled in Vista where the Network is working. Therefore, based on what you are saying I just have to figure out how to get the drivers installed.

 

In VistaPE
Under "Network" I have:
Map Network Drive
SecNet

When I click SecNet I get a dialog box
At the top is a drop down with one item
Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller

So it knows what kind of LAN adapter I have

Next to that is a button labeled Refresh
Clicking that does nothing.

Below that under a section called Mac Address is an empty drop down and an empty text field. Next to that is a button labeled Generate Mac Address.
Clicking that fills in the text field but leaves the drop down empty.

Below that are two radio buttons
Dynamic IP (This is selected)
Static IP (This is not selected)

Below that three empty text fields labeled
IP
Subnet
Gateway

Then three buttons
OK
Cancel
Apply

Finally and I believe most importantly at the bottom is a message that says:
"Error at bartpe -pnp"

Almost unbelievably Googling "Error at bartpe -pnp" returns no results!

Less specific searches indicate that this may mean that a network card is not detected.

This seems to indicate that my driver should be included with my already installed LAN script?
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3660#entry27042

 

When browsing my the VistaPE shell and clicking on "Public" I get the message

"ShellBrowser.SetFolderID Desktop.BindToObject: Could not getISShellFolder interface. (The specified module could not be found.)"

 

I'm been re-reading your messages looking for any tips I hints I may have missed. I'm not sure what you mean by "Vista driver pack"?

At this point I am reasonably certain that I have properly installed the latest Yukon drivers in my VistaPE build. However, doing that didn't change anything.

 

Try this:

Go to Marvell's driver search site. Enter the details for your OS and Ethernet adapter part number. This should lead you to a download for the driver. If Marvell Yukon 88E8056 is the correct part number then the file for Vista 32-bit is yk60x86_v10.61.2.3.zip. Verify in Vista Device Manager that this is the driver file that you are currently using (you may have an earlier version currently installed in Vista but that should be OK). Extract the contents of this zip file; it will contain the .cat, .sys, and .inf files required. You can just dump all of the extracted files into your C:\Drivers folder or one of its subfolders.

I am unsure of what will happen if you have built VistaPE with the "add drivers" script and have added the Ethernet adapter there, and you also have put a copy in C:\Drivers. You may want to just do one or the other but not both when you test.