BIBM keeps erasing partition tables!

[B00ze]

Good day.

So I finally spent the $ and build my new PC. Created some partitions on disk0 (I have 1 one SSD and one Rust disk). Installed BIBM on FAT32 partition, and converted the disk0 to EMBR. Created some more partitions on the SSD. Setup 3 OSes, each not seeing the others on the count of having 1 primary for each OS, 2 more other primaries and 1 extended for data. Installed Win7 on one primary, booted and formatted the Rust disk from within Windoze. Played with the OS, rebooted, hmmm, the Rust disk is not formatted. Formatted the Rust disk again. Plugged in a USB drive and ran IFL and made a backup. Rebooted, hmmm, the Rust disk is again not formatted. Formatted it again. Copied some files onto the Rust disk, and went to bed. Next day, boot-up and the USB disk that had remained plugged in is not formatted. WFT?! Ran TestDisk and restored the MBR. Rebooted. The Rust disk is again not formatted. Ran TestDisk again...

I think you can see the pattern? Started looking at BIBM, and yup, BIBM is erasing my partition tables on all disks but disk0, DESPITE my having set all 14 disks to IGNORE + having the "Ignore Corrupted Partition Table" option set. Disabled all RAW access (e.g. PATA/SATA/USB, all disabled, forcing BIBM to use the BIOS) -> Nope, it still erased the partition table on the Rust disk.

So unless you guys can figure this out, I will have to start from scratch with some OTHER boot manager, I cannot keep running TestDisk to restore my partitions. This is extremely disappointing...

If it matters, the system is brand new, Asus Maximus Z170 with i6700k cpu.

Thank you.
Best Regards,

[TeraByte Support]

You mean the "MBRs may be Encrypted", you'd need that if your drive is
encrypted.



"B00ze" wrote in message news:12266@public.bootitbm...

Good day.

disks to IGNORE + having the "Ignore Corrupted Partition Table" option set.

[B00ze]

Good day.

Configuration:
Asus Maximus Hero VIII motherboard latest BIOS i7/6700K.
1x SSD SATA/AHCI port 0 EMBR more than 4 primaries.
1x 2TB WD Black hard drive SATA/AHCI port 1, 1 primary covering the whole disk.
1x 2TB USB drive, 1 primary covering the whole disk.

Yes, I meant that I *do* have "MBRs may be Encrypted" option set.

The following is now 100% reproducible (I have rebooted a lot tonight):

- Disconnect USB drive.
- Create a boot item, pick some partitions for HD0, and set all 14 other disks to "Ignore".
- Boot into Windows -> HD1 (WD Black) is OK.
- Connect USB drive then reboot -> HD1 (WD Black) has now lost it's MBR!
- Disconnect USB drive, Restore missing MBR on HD1 using TestDisk and reboot -> HD1 is now OK.
- Connect USB drive then reboot -> HD1 (WD Black) has now lost it's MBR!
- Disconnect USB drive, Restore missing MBR on HD1 using TestDisk and reboot -> HD1 is now OK.
- Connect USB drive then reboot -> HD1 (WD Black) has now lost it's MBR!
- Rinse and Repeat...

Conclusion:
- BIBM might get confused because HD1 and USB are both the same size?
- BIBM's "IGNORE" option is totally broken, it does NOT ignore the disks and writes into the MBR anyway.

Fix:
- Use the "RETAIN" option instead, this appears to work.
- However, IGNORE should work "even better" and it does not work at all...

Please investigate; do I need to open a support ticket?
Thank you.
Best Regards,

[B00ze]

PS: None of my drives are encrypted...

[TeraByte Support]

The ignore option wouldn't apply to the boot drive.

What is the drive ordering when booting with the usb drive attached? Does
the USB drive even matter?

Does HD1 have an EMBR and still in unlimited mode? If so, does that boot
item include something in HD1, also, if you remove "Ignore" from HD1, does
it now work. Ignore isn't going to work on the drive chosen for booting and
may have something to do with it.

All you need to do is "undelete" the space.


"B00ze" wrote in message news:12298@public.bootitbm...

Good day.

Configuration:
Asus Maximus Hero VIII motherboard latest BIOS i7/6700K.
1x SSD SATA/AHCI port 0 EMBR more than 4 primaries.
1x 2TB WD Black hard drive SATA/AHCI port 1, 1 primary covering the whole
disk.
1x 2TB USB drive, 1 primary covering the whole disk.

Yes, I meant that I *do* have "MBRs may be Encrypted" option set.

The following is now 100% reproducible (I have rebooted a lot tonight):

- Disconnect USB drive.
- Create a boot item, pick some partitions for HD0, and set all 14 other
disks to "Ignore".
- Boot into Windows -> HD1 (WD Black) is OK.

[B00ze]

Good day.

> The ignore option wouldn't apply to the boot drive.

See what I wrote: "pick some partitions for HD0, and set all *14 other disks* to Ignore". Obviously my boot drive is not set to Ignore...

> What is the drive ordering when booting with the usb drive attached? Does
> the USB drive even matter?

BIBM sees them as HD0=BOOT, HD1=2TB-Black, HD2=USB-Drive. Of course the USB drive matters, it makes BIBM erase the partition table of the drive before it - if I disconnect it BIBM does not erase HD1's partition table - of course this might happen with a 3rd internal disk instead of USB, but I don't have one here to test with. As I said, this is 100% reproducible; do you have a debug version of BIBM that creates big log files so we can figure this out? This is a serious bug and I am not some clueless user who has trouble turning on a PC. I think my description of what is happening (earlier in this thread) and how to reproduce was pretty clear.

> Does HD1 have an EMBR and still in unlimited mode? If so, does that boot
> item include something in HD1, also, if you remove "Ignore" from HD1, does
> it now work. Ignore isn't going to work on the drive chosen for booting
> and may have something to do with it.

It starts at HD0, not HD1; HD0 is the boot SSD. It is EMBR; I pick 4 primaries out of 6. All the *other* drives are set to Ignore (now they are set to RETAIN because IGNORE is broken). They are standard MBR. If I go to edit the boot items, with all 3 drives connected and with the partition table intact, then each drive is listed with it's partition(s) - i.e. they are not empty. HD1 (and even the USB drive) become empty when BIBM nicely decides to erase their partition table...

> All you need to do is "undelete" the space.

I haven't tried UnDelete in BIBM; TestDisk works. I shouldn't be having to UnDelete partitions in the first place.

Regards,

[TeraByte Support]

we couldn't reproduce.

could you setup a virtual machine with some drives that can reproduce and
send us those drives (the main boot drive really doesn't need to boot
something, it could just be a formatted fat partition). VirtualBox or
VirtualPC would be best.

producing a partinfo listing may help show something. partinfo is on the
free downloads page.



"B00ze" wrote in message news:12298@public.bootitbm...

Good day.

Configuration:
Asus Maximus Hero VIII motherboard latest BIOS i7/6700K.
1x SSD SATA/AHCI port 0 EMBR more than 4 primaries.
1x 2TB WD Black hard drive SATA/AHCI port 1, 1 primary covering the whole
disk.
1x 2TB USB drive, 1 primary covering the whole disk.

Yes, I meant that I *do* have "MBRs may be Encrypted" option set.

The following is now 100% reproducible (I have rebooted a lot tonight):

- Disconnect USB drive.
- Create a boot item, pick some partitions for HD0, and set all 14 other
disks to "Ignore".
- Boot into Windows -> HD1 (WD Black) is OK.
- Connect USB drive then reboot -> HD1 (WD Black) has now lost it's MBR!
- Disconnect USB drive, Restore missing MBR on HD1 using TestDisk and
reboot -> HD1 is now OK.
- Connect USB drive then reboot -> HD1 (WD Black) has now lost it's MBR!
- Disconnect USB drive, Restore missing MBR on HD1 using TestDisk and
reboot -> HD1 is now OK.
- Connect USB drive then reboot -> HD1 (WD Black) has now lost it's MBR!
- Rinse and Repeat...

[B00ze]

Good day.

> we couldn't reproduce.

Darn, I was hoping you could, it is so easy to reproduce here, it never fails in like 1o tests. I wouldn't be surprised if my Motherboard's BIOS is somehow involved in this bug, it's an ASUS board, crazy BIOS. Hmmm, I did forget to mention that I have a optical drive sitting on SATA port 1. So the real config is:

Intel Sata Port 0 = SSD
Intel Sata Port 1 = BluRay
Intel Sata Port 2 = 2TB-Black
USB3 port X = 2TB-Passport

> could you setup a virtual machine with some drives that can reproduce and
> send us those drives (the main boot drive really doesn't need to boot
> something, it could just be a formatted fat partition). VirtualBox or
> VirtualPC would be best.

Ok, but you will have to give me some time (couple months) because this is a brand new system with nothing done on it so far. I am quite OK with using RETAIN instead of IGNORE, but I DO think we need to reproduce this somehow, this could affect someone else!

> Producing a partinfo listing may help show something.
> Partinfo is on the free downloads page.

Ya, I got it installed on the laptop, I'll put it on the desktop later.

The best would be if you could send a "Debug Version" which generates logs; the VM might not behave the same as the real thing. Don't worry about big logs, I created a 2GB partition for BIBM (lol, why not, I have plenty of room) so it could save its log on its own partition.

Thanks for trying to reproduce!
Best Regards,

[TeraByte Support]

Paul reproduced so we're good now. (that 3rd drive had to be attached at
boot, not on the reboot back to BIBM).

"B00ze" wrote in message news:12335@public.bootitbm...

Good day.

[TeraByte Support]

update to 1.34.

"B00ze" wrote in message news:12335@public.bootitbm...