New Drive Snapshot build released.

Hi Greg,

I don't know if you read this recent thread, but it may be relevant. If you want to use DS to faithfully image an RB or EF managed partition I suggest creating a Maintenance Mode backup of each such partition individually after first booting into DOS or WinPE (my preference). Doing this, you should capture the partition in its entirety, including all RB/EF snapshots, and when you restore the image everything should be operational.

Aaron

Edit: I must qualify the above in that I do not use Win7, nor do I use more than one OS on any of my systems, so ymmv.

 

Thanks Aaron, very helpful. Can this Dos enviroment be reached by using my Win 7 install disk? When in Dos, do I just navigate to where DS's exe is located and launch it from there? As of right now, I have made two separate images of C: and E:. Can I just delete these from within Explorer and proceed to do the imaging as you have described?

 

As mentioned above, I don't use Win7, but if the Win7 install disk allows you to boot into a 'live' Win7 evironment there's no need to use DOS (DS' Windows GUI is much easier to use than DOS and DS performs its operations faster in Windows than it does in DOS). So after booting into a 'live' Win7 (or any other WinPE) just navigate to DS wherever it resides an run it (I keep a copy of snapshot.exe on my external backup drive along with the DS images). Since DS is a truly portable app, you can copy it onto any Windows-readable media and run it from any Windows environment ...and that's really cool.

While you can delete DS' sna+hsh files using any means, I recommend saving your old images - at least until you have created new ones and have proved to yourself that you can successfully resore them!

Aaron

 

@ greg,

make sure you test thoroughly DS with Windows 7.

on my machine DS "breaks" the Windows Recovery Environment after restoring an image.

 

Thanks again! Imaging sector areas used by the ISR apps is really just a plus for me and not something that I would really be counting on. My main concern is having an imaging app that actually makes an image for individual file/folder retrieval if needed. DS seems to do this well for me whereas Win 7 System Image kind of puked out on me for some reason. I have mounted the DS images and compared with partitions in place, all is backed up.

 

moontan,

What happens? Is it fixable?

 

Interesting. Now that you mention it, Eaz-Fix and Rollback have always warned not to use the Recovery Console of XP. This of course is with the RC as a boot option. I don't know about bootable media such as install disk or PE. Would that be the same? I do know from experience with Eaz-Fix that you can not boot into the XP Recovery Console, BSOD. That's how I know Eaz-Fix and Rollbacks advice on that.

 

the reason DS breaks the WRE is that it has problems with restoring the Windows 7 "hidden partition", where the WRE "lives".

this can be fixed by running the Windows 7 Repair disk a couple of times.

i contacted the dev and i was told you have to use the "Restore Partition Structure" option when restoring.

trying this from a live desktop causes DS to become unresponsive and crash.
Doing it at boot time increase the time it takes to restore by a lot.
what takes usually 5 minutes to restore becomes a 15+ minutes chores, and i'm not sure it fixed the problem.
i'd have to re-test to make sure of it but i just don't have the time today.

mind you, Windows boot normally, you just can't access the WRE any more.

 

moontan,

The recovery environment, winRE.wim, is in the C: drive, not the SRP. It's too large for the SRP. It can be activated and deactivated.

Try this. At an Admin command prompt use

C:\Windows\System32\REAGENTC /ENABLE

(To disable the RE use C:\Windows\System32\REAGENTC /DISABLE)

Using these lines, "Repair Your Computer" appears or disappears in the F8 menu.

 

To my knowledge, I have no 100mb hidden partition. My install of Win 7 is on E: partition which was launched from F: Usb drive. I think, my boot info is on C: XP partition. Would this make a difference?

 

@ Brian, thanks for the correction!
i am still in the learning stage when it comes to this stuff.

@ Greg,
so apparently, the WRE is not inside the "hidden partition".
nevertheless, you can test this for yourself and see if you have problems accessing the WRE.

you could try Brian's tip if you do run into problems.

anyway, i must get some sleep,
i;m working graveyard shift later on.

later folks.

 

Are you saying this would become a boot option if this command is run? I'll have to search this but I reckon with my Win 7 install on E:, I would need to change the drive letter, correct?

 

Greg,

I've no experience with OS that aren't on the C: drive. I don't use the Microsoft boot manager. Try the line with E: instead of C:

 

You can enable Show protected OS files in Folder Options and search for WinRE.wim. You won't find it. If you use the DISABLE line you can then find WinRE.wim in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery. When you use ENABLE you won't be able to find WinRE.wim. But if you boot to a WinPE you will find WinRE.wim in C:\Recovery.

 

When the destination partition is smaller than the orignal image's partition, the official suggests to mount an image and use xcopy to copy to the destination.

Other than using xcopy, you can also use another imaging app that can perform "Partition to Partition" operation, copying includes both files and MBR/PBR.
If the imaging app can use parameters e.g. Ghost and IFW, you can also do both mount and restore to a smaller partition automatically by using in one batch file.

 

ok,

i tested a DS restore this morning using the "Restore Partition Structure" option.
DS still "breaks" the Windows Recovery Environment.

when i enter "Repair this computer" in the WRE i get the same message i always got after DS finished trashing the WRE:
- "Windows failed to start"
- Status: 0xc0000002
- "Boot failed because a required device is inaccessible".

this is as much time as i'm willing to spend investigating this.
people using Windows 7 that are experiencing this problem will have to either contact the dev to resolve this situation
or perhaps folks here @ Wilders can find a solution.

 

Hi moon,
Is the WRE similar to the XP Recovery Console boot option?

 

i dont know.

i did not even know Windows 7 had a WRE until a couple of months ago.
im sure someone more qualified will come along soon.

 

Hi,

On a "good" Win 7 installation the Reagentc /enable and /disable commands are doing two things:
1. Write/delete some info in the BCD.
2. Move 'winre.wim' from/to '[drive]\Recovery\{GUID}\' and
'[drive]\Windows\System32\Recovery'

The result is having or not having "Repair your computer" in Advanced Boot Options ( on F8 ) for the OS (or technically having or not having a recovery loader for the OS).

"Reagentc /info" shows the current state.
{GUID} seems to be as well as part of the path to a corectly installed recovery (winre.wim) image as well as the BCD loader ID for the recovery loader object.

A GUI tool for inspecting/editing the full contents of the BCD can be found here:
Visual BCD Editor - Windows 7/Vista

 

boyans,

Do you know what happens to winre.wim after Reagentc /enable? When Win7 is offline I can find it in C:\Recovery\...

 

The connections are as follows:

1.We have a Win 7 loader entry in the BCD. This loader object has eventually two "properties":
a) "RecoverySequence" - GUID1 of recovery loader entry. (link to recovery loader entry)
b) "AutoRecoveryEnabled" - set to "true".
This means that for this Win 7 loader the F8 advanced boot option "Recover your computer" is functional.
If a) not present and b) set to "false" the advanced option "Recover..." is not visible and not available.

2. The recovery loader entry (if present) is linked to winre.wim and boot.sdi.
Winre.wim - the recovery image is loaded with winload.exe in 'ramdisk' with the help of boot.sdi

winre.wim and boot.sdi are placed in "drive_letter:\Recovery\{GUID1}\"

If the OS is offline I think the reagentc /setreimage and /setosimage specify the path to the image file and path to OS to be used when /enable /disable operations are executed.
When the OS is online paths are "C:\Windows" for OS root and path for recovery image is in the BCD.

 

Just an addition for clarifying things:
Every boot-menu entry is a loader entry. (=object in the BCD)
A loader entry can have a "recovery loader entry" (another loader object) linked to it.
Only Windows 7/Vista loader entries can have recovery linked to them.

A loader entry for XP is a different kind (type) of loader object.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just put a copy of winre.wim to another drive ('f:') and path:

C:\Windows\system32>reagentc /setreimage /path f:\JustRecovery
Directory set to: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\JustRecovery
REAGENTC.EXE: Operation successful

C:\Windows\system32>ReAgentc.exe/info
Extended configuration for the Recovery Environment

Windows RE enabled: 0
Windows RE staged: 1
Setup enabled: 0
Custom Recovery Tool: 0
WinRE.WIM directory: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\JustRecover
y
Recovery Environment:
BCD Id: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Setup Files:
Recovery Operation: 4
Operation Parameter:
Boot Key Scan Code 0x0
REAGENTC.EXE: Operation successful

This info says only one thing:
the 'drive + path' addressing is absolute e.g.
"\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\JustRecovery"

And if you add or remove partitions things are going to break !!!
The same is valid for drive addressing inside the BCD.

'Drive letter' to 'absolute partition' mapping is valid only for the currently loaded OS as long as you don't add or remove partitions. DriveLetters are remapped dynamically when adding/deleting partitions to keep the user happy but 'f:' can be partition1,2,3,4....

 

@ boyans:

many thanks for taking the time to help.
although i am not a DS user (i was just trying to find out about the WRE problem for users here) i'm sure your help will help a few folks with this issue!

 

Great tip, thanks ! May I ask how did you find it ?