Failure to write Boot record when MVP WinPE is attempting to create a usb recovery drive
I upgraded ADK and the WinPE add-on to v2004. Then attempted to create new boot media. MVP WinPE v 18.6 would not create the boot record on several usb drives. I did successfully create a bootable CD and I was also able to burn the usb drive using the ISO created by MVP WinPE.
So I do have good recovery boot media. But I am puzzled about this new behavior.

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Final note: to check the Defender hypothesis I turned Real time Protection off in Defender for a minute while the boot record was added to the usb drive. This time it worked so I guess the culprit was Defender. I have no idea if this is reproducible.
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Ken, that is unexpected. I do not recall any other reports of that happening.
I have a feeling that it may be a solution rather than the underlying cause. Anything to do with virus protect and the like is very iffy in ATI 2021.
Ian
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Ken, the normal culprit with issues writing boot records to USB media etc is usually Acronis Active Protection in my experience, and you need whitelist the MVP tool to AAP.
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I agree with Steve. You should add the MVP folder to the Protection Exclusions.
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As it turns out, I had the all the protection turned off in ATI because of possible conflict with Defender which also has active protection, "Real time Protection." But thanks for the recommendation. I will start by trying to whitelist the MVP folder on Defender before making any additional usb media.
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My Solution: Windows Defender blocked the creation of the boot record on my usb drive by MVP WinPE and, in fact, had generated a notification that bootsect.exe had been blocked when attempting to write the boot record on the usb drive which in this case was harddisk10. The solution for me was to list bootsect.exe for harddisk10 in the "Allow an app through Controlled folder access."
I must say that I never had this problem with Norton Antivirus. Seems Defender is being a bit aggressive here.
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Ken,
It seems that MBR records are a prime target these days for malware thus most security apps are now providing protection for them. I think Defender is a bit behind the curve here myself.
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