F11 in boot menu?

[highend]

Hi,

I'm using TBOSDTS since many years to create a backup.exe and a restore.exe file.
Both restart the computer and run IFL CUI to make the backup / restore automatically.

Is there any way to create a windows boot menu entry that allows me to do the same
what I'm currently doing with the .exe files? Maybe by displaying something like
"Press F11 to enter IFL" very early in the boot process?

Afaik Acronis TrueImage have something like that.

Please not that I do not want to use BootIt (Bare metal)!

My current license (which I'll upgrade next month) is limited to < v3 atm.

[TeraByte Support]

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=277

or

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/ has booting ifl without a boot disk.



"highend" wrote in message news:13313@public.image...

Hi,

I'm using TBOSDTS since many years to create a backup.exe and a restore.exe
file.
Both restart the computer and run IFL CUI to make the backup / restore
automatically.

Is there any way to create a windows boot menu entry that allows me to do
the same
what I'm currently doing with the .exe files? Maybe by displaying something
like
"Press F11 to enter IFL" very early in the boot process?



Please not that I do not want to use BootIt (Bare metal)!

My current license (which I'll upgrade next month) is limited to < v3 atm.

[Brian K]

highend wrote:
>
> I'm using TBOSDTS since many years to create a backup.exe and a restore.exe
> file.
> Both restart the computer and run IFL CUI to make the backup / restore
> automatically.

highend,

Backup.exe and restore.exe? Is this the bootfile method? Or something else.

[highend]

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=277

Thanks for providing the link. My only problem is: IFD isn't really up to the task nowadays.
At least I haven't found a good solution to bring it on the same speed level as IFL.
My system consist only of SSDs so creating / restoring a (compressed) 6.x GB image
file to the destination size of about 10-11 GB takes (with IFL) ~36 seconds.

IFD takes ages... While I'd like to implement the solution outlined in that kb article,
is there a way to get IFD as fast as IFL (caching?) on modern hardware or as an alternative
use IFL instead?


@brian
Yes, exactly. A bootfile method.

[Brian K]

highend wrote:

> @brian
> Yes, exactly. A bootfile method.

highend,

We share your slow IFD experience. I used to use bootfile. Now I use an IFL GUI partition on a HD/SSD. This can be used in MBR or UEFI systems to do auto restores or to do auto backups if you don't like using IFW.

[highend]

@brian

I have no problem with the boot file method. My restore/backup .exe files boot into an IFL CUI environment and automatically
backup / restore my current OS / image. That's working great. But let's assume the OS is in a non working state but the
MBR is still intact. I'd really like to hit F9 (or whatever) during the early boot process to get into an IFL environment that
(automatically if possible) restores the image.

I guess what you are doing there is: Enter your BIOS boot options and boot from that IFL GUI partition? If that's the case,
sure, that would work. But it wouldn't be as convenient as just pressing a simple key during startup I hope I'm not
wrong on this?

[Brian K]

highend,

If Windows is not bootable but the HD hasn't failed then I could boot into my IFL partition. Or use an IFL UFD which could be automated if you desire. But mainly I initiate IFL restores from Windows as you do with bootfile.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

The MBR utility can be used setup the prompt and which partition to boot. Standard hidden FAT32 partition is probably the easiest to start with. For example, you could create a hidden TBWinRE FAT32 partition on the drive and configure it to boot when you press F9 at the startup prompt. An easy way to create the TBWinRE partition is to create the TBWinRE boot media using a UFD that's larger than 4GB (to get FAT32 formatting) and then copy (or backup and restore) the UFD partition to the drive and hide it.

Of course, with this type of setup you would need to select what type of operation you wanted to do after it's booted since you're triggering it from outside an OS (you can't F9 to create a backup and F10 to restore, etc.). You could use a script to handle that or just do the operation manually if it's infrequent.

If you use the SELM option it's also be necessary to run the MBR /RESET option after booting to fix up the partition changes -- you'd need to implement this in whatever type of setup you created so it's handled when the partition is booted. TBWinPE/RE Builder can do this automatically if you copy mbr.exe and mbr64.exe into the build's folder and enable the option in settings.

A similar method can be used to create an IFL partition. Doesn't have to be IFD.