WINPE how-to for a rookie

Discussion in 'Paragon Drive Backup Product Line' started by emmjay, Sep 21, 2010.

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  1. emmjay

    emmjay Registered Member

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    I have Drive Backup 10 Professional and I have just downloaded WINPE from my account. I opened it and it created a bootable image onto a new DVD. I have no idea if I am supposed to put anything else on this disc.

    I have some questions (rookie speaking here, so forgive my ignorance)...

    1. How-to-use WINPE? Can not find it in the help or knowledge base FAQs ... your help section is very confusing!

    2. Do I have to copy my drivers folder onto this disc ? My laptop came preloaded with a drivers folder which is full of stuff specific to my PC (internal). I have a USB connected DVD burner (the drivers did not come on a CD, they are internal to the unit).

    3. If the MBR has been expanded by the PC manufacturer with some extra stuff , does that mean WINPE will boot for me but I might have problems using my laptop? Do I create a copy of my MBR onto my WINPE disc or onto a separate disc? Would I need to get down to the BIOS to update the MBR after the WINPE boot (sorry about this, but I am completely lost here).

    4. If there is no 'how-to-use' WINPE, do you have any screen shots of what it all looks like? I am assuming that once the PC boots there is a subset of drive backup 10 professional that can be opened which will allow me to restore from my backup discs.

    I am assuming a whole bunch of things but I really have no idea just what to expect.
     
  2. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    Hi,

    Just boot the winpe cd. It will load into memory.

    What is on there is windows 7 preinstall environment and Paragon.

    The 7 environment should already contain the drivers needed to see your drives and you then navigate with Paragon Resore Wizard to the backup archive and restore it.

    It's pretty simple.

    In the unlikely event your drives aren't seen by win 7 pe, paragon has a load driver function.

    I don't understand question 3.
     
  3. emmjay

    emmjay Registered Member

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    Thank you for your response. I really do appreciate it.

    In regards to question 3: I had a repairMBR exec available from the manufacturer of a PC I had some time ago (which was XP). When I got my new W7 PC last year from the same manufacturer I went looking for a repairMBR exec and there wasn't one available, so I asked 'why' on their forum. I got this answer...
    ' I've actually had to deal with the fallout of poorly written off-line scanners resetting the MBR (the sector) without considering the fact that there may be an, oh, say, eight sector boot manager inside the boot track that just uses the MBR itself as a redirect. Or a third party boot manager (which a surprising amount of programs use) simply claiming the first 20 sectors in the boot track without first checking to see if there's someone else's boot manager already there. When this happens, you need a way to restore your previous boot manager.'

    My PC uses a custom boot manager, so I got a little spooked when I read this response.
     
  4. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    Booting the WinPE CD should in no way affect the MBR or any booting setup on the hard drive. It's just booting the CD and loading it into RAM.

    Most boot managers provide a "reactivation" program to reset the MBR and any other booting code necessary. And most of these programs don't bother checking what already exists because their sole purpose is to replace it. It's pretty much left up to the user to "know" what to use where in those cases.
     
  5. emmjay

    emmjay Registered Member

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    So you are saying that the boot record will be replaced no matter what is there. It will be vanilla. I have the responsibility to over ride it. Now I am scared stiff.
    Do I make a copy of my boot record or not?
     
  6. Paragon_MattK

    Paragon_MattK Paragon Moderator

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    Booting from the WinPE will not overwrite your Master Boot Record, or change your boot manager whatsoever.

    What I recommend doing to protect your custom MBR structure (and boot manager) would be to make a one time backup of it (along with the first hard disk track). This will allow you to restore your custom MBR no matter what happens to it.
     
  7. mack_guy911

    mack_guy911 Registered Member

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    you are getting confused when you boot from cd it load into your ram without changing the real setting of your laptop so your mbr will be same as is it

    now what you can do from that bootable cd is you can copy your entire hardisk including your original mbr and save it to some external drive.....etc

    (ie one time backup which already mentioned by Paragon_Matt)


    so in case in future if you having trouble with your os like for example got virus and OS unable to boot ....etc

    what you can do now is still you can boot from cd and from that cd you can restore your entire system back when you restore entire system it restore every thing including your original mbr which is none other than the copy of your laptop mbr

    in simple words cd is just a medium containing same as your window like os and software paragon installed thats all and it does what you tell him to do ......
    .

    please check this video its old but it put some light

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1651917&postcount=1
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2010
  8. emmjay

    emmjay Registered Member

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    Tnx Paragon_Matt. I now understand that WINPE does not ignore my PCs boot structure, however if the MBR has been corrupted, I can use the one time backup of my custom MBR before using the WINPE disc. Does the copy utility in my Drive Backup 10 Pro allow me to be as specific as you suggest or do I have to chase down another utility?

    Tnx for the email. I got it backed up.

    Tnx to everyone who responded.
     
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2010
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