TIH 2010.7046 help creating bootable non-trial USB Flash drive issues
I have a fully licensed copy of TIH 2010 running on Win XP but can't get a working bootable flash drive.
Also have Plus Pack installed if that makes a difference.
If I follow the directions at:
http://kb.acronis.com/sites/default/files/content/2006/3/1526/flash-sys…
I get a bootable flash drive, but it claims to be a trial version every time I try and make a backup.
If instead, I create a ISO using Bootable Rescue Media Builder and use unetbootin-windows-442 to burn it onto my flash drive, it starts to boot and then locks up with nothing but a flashing cursor upper left.
My flash drive is one that doesn't show as "removable" so I can't burn directly with BRMB.
Tried combining the two by copying the files from the ISO over the syslinuxed drive, but f11.cfg doesn't work. Renamed to syslinux.cfg and most every line is an error. Use syslinux.cfg from link above and it boots but is back to claiming to be a trial version.
Help!
As I said in my first post, I did build an ISO with Bootable Rescue Media Builder and extract the files and copy them over. I am unable to make that process actually boot.
If I follow the process from
http://kb.acronis.com/sites/default/files/content/2006/3/1526/flash-sys… the former
I get a working 'trial".
If I use unetbootin to install the Bootable Rescue Media Builder image, I get a cursor stuck in the upper left forever.
If I use "syslinux.exe -ma [drive letter]" and then copy the files over from the Bootable Rescue Media Builder ISO it does not find the f11.cfg file and it fails to a "boot:" prompt.
If I rename or copy f11.cfg to syslinux.cfg almost every line comes up as an error during boot and it fails to a "boot:" prompt.
If instead of f11.cfg, I use the syslinux.cfg file from the link above and detailed below I am back to a working "trial":
timeout 100
default ati
label ati
kernel kernel.dat
append initrd=ramdisk.dat vga=0x314 ramdisk_size=40000 quiet
Files on my Bootable Rescue Media Builder created ISO
/Recovery Manager
bootwiz.bin
f11.cfg
gen_bootmenu.bin
kernel.dat
mouse.com
ramdisk.dat
splash.run
Hopefully that is a little clearer as to what I have tried with which files from where.
Any help would be appreciated.
Does it work if you boot the ISO file directly with Grub4DOS?
What happens if you use the files from the downloaded ISO instead of the installed versions?
The downloaded ISO I have of .7046 has a structure of :
\boot
catalog.bin
image.bin
Not sure that will work on a syslinuxed flash drive.
Will try the grub4DOS method later today. Thanks.
I just downloaded the current ISO files. They've changed it. The first ones released had the isolinux folder and all the files. These have the boot folder and .bin files.
You need to extract the kernel.dat and ramdisk.dat files from the image.bin file. I use UltraISO for this, though I'm sure there are other programs that'll do it too.
Thanks MudCrab.
Grub4DOS ISO method (Section 3) worked once you figure out menu.lst is short for menu.LIST not menu.FIRST. :)
The font on your page at least on my computer make the "1" and "l" look nearly identical.
Glad it worked for you.
Good point about the filename. It does kind of look like a one. I've known for years that it's .LST so I didn't even think about it. I'll add a note so it's clear.
I just downloaded the current ISO files. They've changed it. The first ones released had the isolinux folder and all the files. These have the boot folder and .bin files.
You need to extract the kernel.dat and ramdisk.dat files from the image.bin file. I use UltraISO for this, though I'm sure there are other programs that'll do it too.
I tried several programs but none of them succeed with extracting anything from the image.bin. I am using the latest to me available TrueImage2009_s_en.iso. Any ideas before I go and try the grub4dos method?
Give me a few minutes and I'll check.
You should be able to get the files out either by extracting image.bin and then extracting the files from it or by saving the Boot File (BIF) and then extracting the files from it.
What "other" programs have you tried? I've only used UltraISO. Others have posted that the trial version works for this too.
It seems I should have tried UltraISO first, it got the files from the image.bin, will report back if they can be used for the boot media.
--
TI now reports as a full version, thank you for the nice tip with UltraISO. One question, can there be any complications when mixing up backup/restore operations that have been made from BartPE by 12.0.9709 and booted from Linux by 12.0.9809? Just to be sure.
I'll "bump" this with a similar question. I have a bunch of Images all made from bootable CDs (both the D/L ones and Media Builder ones).
I have versions ATI2010 going back to ATI ver #6. Will my newest CDs restore my oldest Image files? Or at least some recent versions,
(not counting builds...)
Probably back to version 8. Version 6 may be pushing it. Have you tried validating the older images with the newest version?
Does it work if you boot the ISO file directly with Grub4DOS?
What happens if you use the files from the downloaded ISO instead of the installed versions?
Hi MudCrab,
This is an older post so I don't know if you'll get this but.... I want to thank you so much for your "Using Grub4DOS to Create a Bootable Drive" tutorial!!
I'm a Windows person and have never used a Unix distribution. But thanks to you, I was able to get my Windows BootMgr on my flash drive to boot grldr.mbr to show a GRUB4DOS menu to successfully load my Acronis Recovery ISO and my WIN7x64 Professional Install ISO!!
From my flash drive, I can now boot my two installations of Win7, Acronis, and Win7 Install.
It's a multi-stage boot up sequence that works great.
Stage 1: Bios Load MBR on my USB Flash Drive
Stage 2: MBR loads my Boot Sector on my USB Flash Active Partition (which contains BootMgr and BCD Files)
Stage 3: Boot Sector loads BootMgr and uses BCD registry hive to display Windows Boot Menu
Stage 4: BootMgr loads grldr.mbr (if I select that option from my Windows Menu)
Stage 5: grldr.mbr loads grldr and displays GRUP4DOS menu
Stage 6: grldr loads Acronis ISO (if I select that menu option from GRUP4DOS menu)
Stage 7: Acronis Menu displays and loads desired Acronis program. (I have Disk Director Home 11 and True Image Home 11)
I started with a FAT32 flash but ended up with a properly working NTFS flash.
The only main problem I ran into is loading the ISO's with GRUP4DOS is they weren't contiguous on the the flash disk. But I was able to successfully correct that by using "WinContig" to defrag the file.
Again, THANKS SO MUCH for you write up!!! Best Regards, Bob
Bob,
You're welcome. I'm glad you found it useful. You didn't configure yours like I generally do, but that's one of the great things about it -- it's very flexible.
You can also get around the "contiguous" problem by using the --mem option (this is shown at the end of the tutorial). This makes Grub4DOS load the ISO into RAM before running it. With larger ISO files (like WinPE) it can take a little longer to start but then runs almost instantly because it's already loaded. Older systems where the BIOS reads USB devices at USB 1 speeds can take a long time, though. I usually use this option because I change ISO files quite often and don't want to bother with defragging them.
You can also get around the "contiguous" problem by using the --mem option (this is shown at the end of the tutorial). This makes Grub4DOS load the ISO into RAM before running it. With larger ISO files (like WinPE) it can take a little longer to start but then runs almost instantly because it's already loaded. Older systems where the BIOS reads USB devices at USB 1 speeds can take a long time, though. I usually use this option because I change ISO files quite often and don't want to bother with defragging them.
Hi MudCrab,
I did try the "mem" option to load my Win7 x64 Home Premium Install ISO, but it gave me a "Not Enough Memory" error when I tried to run it. This leads me to believe that it GRUB4DOS is trying to use only real memory instead of virtual memory. Or maybe the flash drive doesn't have enough space left for virtual memory. Any insight you might have would be appreciated. I would love to load it into memory if I can figure out a way to do that.
Regards
How much memory does the system have?
I don't know if I've tried it with an ISO that large.
How much memory does the system have?
I don't know if I've tried it with an ISO that large.
Attached is a snapshot of my Task Managers Memory Stats.
BTW... The ISO is an even 3 GB. and the flash drive is 8 GB
It looks like you only have 2GB of RAM (with some maybe shared with video?). You would probably need 4GB or more of RAM to get it loaded and still have RAM left to run it. The size of the flash drive doesn't matter -- it has to fit in the computer's RAM. Of course, even with USB 2 speeds it would still take a while to load 3GB into RAM.