Create Windows 7 64-bit UEFI Bootable USB with True Image 2015
I'm using Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. My hard drives are partitioned as UEFI/GPT. I'd like to create a WinPE 3.x UEFI bootable USB that includes True Image 2015. Is this possible? If so, how do I do this?
Thanks,
Bill Vallance
https://kb.acronis.com/atih2015/winpe
Follow the instructions in this link to create WinPE 3.0 rescue media. You may want to use the WinPE 5.0 instead. It is backwards compatible with Windows 7 and definitely capable of booting UEFI.
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/71918
If you want to create WinPE with True Image 2015 and Universal Restore follow the instructions in MVP Mustang's excellent guide.
Geez, I must have misread the post. I thought he asked to create a bootable Windows installation on USB. I blame Saturday night drinking. ;)
(I'm sure he said Windows. I think he may have edited the post after I replied.)
Heh, heh. It was always WinPE boot. Thanks for the help, though! :>))
When I follow the instructions in the first link posted by Joey I get "Failed to create bootable media. Failed to update boot sector."
I formatted an 8GB Verbatin USB stick as a single FAT32 partition using the "long" version of format. I'm assuming that because the USB stick I used is formatted as a single FAT32 partition that the WinPE Rescue Builder won't work, correct? I'm also assuming it won't work because it is expecting the USB stick to be formatted as a bootable UEFI device? For the life of me I can't find ANY intelligible instructions on how to create a UEFI bootable USB stick!
What do I do now? I won't continue to use True Image 2015 unless I can recover failed drives using a WinPE environment. I want to be able to have both the WinPE command prompt and True Image 2015 available when I boot using a UEFI bootable USB stick. I have this configuration working great in a laptop that has MBR drives. This is my first time trying to make that configuration work with UEFI/GPT drives.
Any help would be appreciated.
Following the links to https://kb.acronis.com/atih2015/winpe, and those embedded within that URL, I find that the Windows ADK (AIK?) points to links specifically stating 8 and 8.1. Do they also work with Win 7 x64 Ultimate?
Thank you for the excellent information.
Jim,
The Windows 8.1 ADK works perfectly on a Windows 7 system. Microsoft tells you what operating systems are supported in the System Requirements section on the ADK download page.
Bill,
Why do you want to use WinPE 3.0? Just follow the guide in Joey's second link. It will do what you want using WinPE 5.1.
Much gratitude Sir! I shall proceed on this advice.
I am familiar with WinPE 3.0/3.1 as I used it on an MBR laptop in December 2012. Given that I've now installed another OEM copy of Windows 7 Pro SP1 64-bit on a new PC, I figured it would be the shortest path to success to pull out my old notes and get 'er done. It certainly hasn't worked out that way.
I can't format the EFI partition (as FAT32) that I created on a garden-variety 8GB USB stick using diskpart. It seems that my USB flash drive is a "removable" type rather than a "fixed" type of USB flash drive. Diskpart says it can't format the EFI partition. So if I can't format the EFI partition, everything comes to a halt, right?
I thought this was going to be fairly straightforward. All I want to do is create a UEFI USB flash drive that can boot into the WinPE environment. I don't want to be able to install Windows from the drive - I only want to use it to have access to the WinPE command line and True Image 2015 so that when one of my UEFI drives dies I can restore with a True Image 2015 .tib file.
My MBR USB flash drive with WinPE 3.1 and True Image 2013 Home works beautifully. I want the same EXACT functionality with True Image 2015. IS THAT POSSIBLE?
You don't need to format the USB drive ahead of time! Just follow my guide and it will create the USB drive for you. A 64 bit WinPE will boot in UEFI mode from a single FAT32 partition. There does not need to be an EFI partition present.