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Install to Extended Partition?

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:41 pm
by B00ze
Good day.

I am considering purchasing BIBM for a new build. I would prefer to use something else, preferably something that lives in Track 0 and does not use-up a partition, but nowadays only BIBM is maintained (there's plenty of alternatives to BootIt, but they are all 20 years old). Anyways, one of the plusses to BIBM is that there is this forum here :-)

So I have read the manual, and still have some questions :-(

First, can we install BM to an extended partition (more precisely, a sub-division of an extended partition)? Obviously running the product and trying it would tell me, but my new PC is not ready yet, and the manual doesn't say. I would prefer to install it on a primary, but none will be FAT32.

Second, the manual says that the boot drive which runs BIBM *must* be EMBR. I intend to limit to 4 primaries globally, so what exactly will converting to EMBR accomplish? As far as I know, EMBR is just a custom partition table living somewhere else, and where 4 of the partitions in that table are copied over to the real MBR upon boot. Also as far as I understand, limiting to 4 primaries "disables" this, so what changes, when converting a drive to EMBR, if limit-to-4-primaries is enabled? Why convert to EMBR at all?

This leads me to my next question: If I limit to 4 primaries, can you absolutely guarantee me that the "custom" EMBR partition table will NOT be used and that BIBM will use the standard MBR instead? Because I intend to use other software to manipulate partitions (I prefer a GUI like Partition Magic to entering sizes and starting sectors manually) and if BIBM still uses its own tables (remember, we converted the boot drive to EMBR as required by BIBM) then this will all go to hell very quickly (as soon as BIBM writes over the standard MBR, picking partitions from its custom partition table, which did not get updated when I used Partition Magic to resize partitions etc, then it will all break).

Thank you.
Best Regards,

Re: Install to Extended Partition?

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 3:21 am
by tas3086
Being a former Powerquest - Partition Magic and its image counterpart user, I would strongly recommend that you give bootItBM and IFW/IFD a try. BootitBM offers a great partition manager function, Boot Manager, an almost flawless Image Backuo/Restore capability, and a support capability well beyond any other vendor. With the exception of the Boot Manager function, everything else can be run from Floppy, USB and pen drives. ( after Powerquest was bought out, I went to Acronis, and was utterly disappointed. I found Terabyte by accident, and it has never let me down. Your mileage may vary, but give it a try. I think that you will like it. :) ) And if you use BIBM, Windows does not need to be run in a primary partition, and can be run from one or more extended partitions, thus you can give BIBM a small Fat32 primary partition.

Re: Install to Extended Partition?

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 3:22 am
by TeraByte Support
It needs to be a primary. BootIt loads as the EMBRM part of the EMBR
specification.

If you limit primaries then you can use what you want to manage the MBR
partitions.



"B00ze" wrote in message news:9914@public.bootitbm...

Good day.

I am considering purchasing BIBM for a new build. I would prefer to use
something else, preferably something that lives in Track 0 and does not
use-up a partition, but nowadays only BIBM is maintained (there's plenty of
alternatives to BootIt, but they are all 20 years old). Anyways, one of the
plusses to BIBM is that there is this forum here :-)

So I have read the manual, and still have some questions :-(

First, can we install BM to an extended partition (more precisely, a
sub-division of an extended partition)? Obviously running the product and
trying it would tell me, but my new PC is not ready yet, and the manual
doesn't say. I would prefer to install it on a primary, but none will be
FAT32.

Second, the manual says that the boot drive which runs BIBM *must* be EMBR.
I intend to limit to 4 primaries globally, so what exactly will converting
to EMBR accomplish? As far as I know, EMBR is just a custom partition table
living somewhere else, and where 4 of the partitions in that table are
copied over to the real MBR upon boot. Also as far as I understand, limiting
to 4 primaries "disables" this, so what changes, when converting a drive to
EMBR, if limit-to-4-primaries is enabled? Why convert to EMBR at all?

This leads me to my next question: If I limit to 4 primaries, can you
absolutely guarantee me that the "custom" EMBR partition table will NOT be
used and that BIBM will use the standard MBR instead? Because I intend to
use other software to manipulate partitions (I prefer a GUI like Partition
Magic to entering sizes and starting sectors manually) and if BIBM still
uses its own tables (remember, we converted the boot drive to EMBR as
required by BIBM) then this will all go to hell very quickly (as soon as
BIBM writes over the standard MBR, picking partitions from its custom
partition table, which did not get updated when I used Partition Magic to
resize partitions etc, then it will all break).

Thank you.
Best Regards,


Re: Install to Extended Partition?

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 11:30 pm
by B00ze
Thanks guys.

I've thought about it and screw it, I'll use more than 4 primaries. I still wont use IFD regularly, I prefer Ghost or [other], but all I have to do is either boot into the OS I want to image/restore or use SHIFT to write the partition table prior to imaging/restoring. I'll still make a full disk backup once a year using included IFD just in case, but it will not be my regular backup tool.

QUESTION: How do I use BIBM to create an Extended partition? I look and look at the partition-work and partition-create dialogs in the BIBM manual, I fail to see where I select that I want the partition to be an extended one :-( I need this...

QUESTION: When installing BIBM or "re-arming/re-activating" it after Windoze OS install, does BIBM retain the DISK Signature when it re-writes the MBR? I'm pretty sure it does, but who knows, xOSL doesn't...

QUESTION: Does IFD included in BIBM support USB3 - What I mean is, I know it doesn't support USB3 speeds, the manual would mention USB3 if it did, but will it be able to write a backup file to a USB drive connected to a USB3 port? Assume latest Intel chipset.

Thank you much.
Best Regards,

PS: Support, no need to quote entire posts when replying, especially if your reply is a 1-Liner, lol ;-)

Re: Install to Extended Partition?

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 12:56 am
by Brian K
B00ze,

To create an Extended partition...

Select Free Space
Create
Name it
File System 5/5h: Extended
Size in MiB

Re: Install to Extended Partition?

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:57 am
by TeraByte Support


"B00ze" wrote in message news:9934@public.bootitbm...

QUESTION: How do I use BIBM to create an Extended partition? I look and look
at the partition-work and partition-create dialogs in the BIBM manual, I
fail to see where I select that I want the partition to be an extended one
:-( I need this...

>> You choose "Extended" as the partition type (file system id) you create.

QUESTION: When installing BIBM or "re-arming/re-activating" it after Windoze
OS install, does BIBM retain the DISK Signature when it re-writes the MBR?
I'm pretty sure it does, but who knows, xOSL doesn't...

>> Yes.

QUESTION: Does IFD included in BIBM support USB3 - What I mean is, I know it
doesn't support USB3 speeds, the manual would mention USB3 if it did, but
will it be able to write a backup file to a USB drive connected to a USB3
port? Assume latest Intel chipset.


>> USB3 support for IFD needs to come from the BIOS (onboard port, usb
>> legacy support enabled in BIOS, and attached at boot (for BIOS to
>> enumerate it)). IFL and its boot disk support USB3, IFW supports USB3
>> via Windows (if creating TBWinRE/PE based on Win7, you need to add the
>> USB3 driver).


Thank you much.
Best Regards,

PS: Support, no need to quote entire posts when replying, especially if your
reply is a 1-Liner, lol ;-)


Re: Install to Extended Partition?

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2015 12:35 am
by B00ze
Good day.

Duh, I didn't know partition ID 5 meant extended - learn every day.

And yes, IFW or IFL do support USB3, hmmm, right, maybe I should indeed buy the package that has IFW, it's just $10 more, and I do want a backup program that understands EMBR (in case of trouble) - it's just that there are sooo many switches in IFW, I'm not sure I'd switch over from Ghost for day to day partition images...

Thanks for your help guys.
Best Regards,

Re: Install to Extended Partition?

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2015 1:04 am
by mjnelson99
You do not need to change that many things in IFW for a normal image.
Same goes for IFL.

I keep IFL on an SD card so I can do an image outside of Windows if I
want to.

I have been using IFW for close to a decade.
Mary

On 7/24/2015 7:35 PM, B00ze wrote:
> Good day.
>
> Duh, I didn't know partition ID 5 meant extended - learn every day.
>
> And yes, IFW or IFL do support USB3, hmmm, right, maybe I should indeed buy the package that has IFW, it's just $10 more, and I do want a backup program that understands EMBR (in case of trouble) - it's just that there are sooo many switches in IFW, I'm not sure I'd switch over from Ghost for day to day partition images...
>
> Thanks for your help guys.
> Best Regards,
>
>

Re: Install to Extended Partition?

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2015 2:37 am
by Brian K
B00ze wrote:

>
> And yes, IFW or IFL do support USB3, hmmm, right, maybe I should indeed buy
> the package that has IFW, it's just $10 more,

B00ze,

Spend a few more $ and get the Special Bundle. It's the best value on the internet.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/purcha ... -metal.htm

Re: Install to Extended Partition?

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 8:10 pm
by Bob Coleman
B00ze wrote:
>it's just that there are sooo many switches in IFW
>

True. I just don't really pay any attention to them since I also don't have any idea what most of them mean. That doesn't seem to prevent me from productively using IFW.