Bootable Rescue Media Testing

I just installed T.I. 10 Home. Then I did a backup image of my OS on an exterior USB hard drive. T.I. verified that the image was ok - so I feel comfortable with that step.

Then I made a T.I. bootable rescue disk on a CD. So far, I have no way of knowing whether it will work when it's needed to recover from a disaster. Is there a way I can test this disk before hand to be sure that it will work properly when I need it?

I've searched but found nothing discussing this concern. Help will be very much appreciated.

 

If you can boot from it, it will work.

 

@rckowal

All or nothing

Hi,

you are right to verify your created image.
If verifying is successful you have an evidence that the emergency recovery works.
But not sure for 100%...

The way to find out is to take annother (not needed) hdd to your PC and try to restore.
That's the only way for a 100% assurance.

 

I think he meant the created image and not the rescue CD, right?

 

Thanks all for the replies. To clarify my question - I was asking about how to test the bootable rescue disk - not the image.

Mr. Morse said: "The way to find out is to take another (not needed) hdd to your PC and try to restore." Are you saying to use a (wiped or formatted) internal HDD as the destination for the OS? With the source being an image of the OS on a backup (like external USB HDD, DVD's or internal HDD) Please clarify.

Is there possibly a tutorial for doing this this some where?

Best regards

 

Until you've done a restore you have no certainty that you can do it when you really need it. So the recommendation to put in a spare HD and restore your image to it via the recovery bootCD and then see if the PC boots up and runs is right on the mark.

Now if you don't want to put in a spare HD and do the test restore, the next best thing is to:

Boot up the TI recovery CD and validate an image on your storage media. If this works then go through the Restore Wizard up to the last screen where you have to "Proceed" to do the restore. Cancel out at this point. This test shows that you can find an archive on your backup media, open it and read it properly such that the 4000 checksums/GB can be sucessfully reconstructed.

A Windows validate is really of limited value until you have done a validate/restore with the recovery CD. The reason is that the CD uses a Linux environment, not Windows, when it needs to restore the active partition, so it is imperative all the Linux stuff works on your PC when you need it. After you know that, a Windows validate is adequate. Many restoration problems are caused by inadequate Linux drivers for some hardware configurations.

For a user guide see:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=168165

 

Thanks Seekforever for the concise & helpful reply. I'll give that a test run to see if it works on my machine. If I run into any problems I'll be back for more help.

Thanks again

 

Seekforever,

I can boot into TI7 menu but my mouse & keyboard are not being recognized - so I can't navigate to select tasks. Please see this thread for details.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1272829#post1272829

 

The only way this can be fixed for operation with the bootCD is by Acronis since drivers can't be added by the user.
This is not totally unheard of problem for the TI boot CD - problems with wireless mice and some USB mice have been reported in the past. Have you tried it with TI11?

You could create a BartPE or VistaPE CD with the TI plugin. This would permit you to load your IR keyboard drivers if necessary.

Another option, and you probably won't think much of it, is to plugin a regular keyboard and mouse for TI work.

 

Thanks again Seekforever.

In the sticky "Please read before you post" on this forum, I found a workaround. It involves modification of the command line in the Linux interface. Modifying the line where it says "quiet" to "quiet usbmouse=off" enabled my wireless mouse to work as if it were in Windows.

The only downside is that it has to be done every time the boot media is used to open TI. It would be better if this could be a default setting. There is also a work around there to get wireless keyboards to navigate the boot menu.

I don't have TI 11 so that's out for now. I don't know anything about BartPE but sounds like it's worth investigating.

Best regards

 

Hello rckowal,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Backup software.

You can submit a request for technical support with the issue description. In this case we'll be able to provide you with the ISO image of the bootable CD where acpi=off noapic parameters are added already. So you'll only have to download ISO file, burn it and use in case of disaster.

Thank you
--
Nikita Sakharov