TBWinRE Build

[yottabytes2]

You may have answered this question many years ago, but I am still confused about adding items to TBLauncher on the TBWinRE .iso. On my USB key, I can clearly see the directory TBData with all my TBLauncher programs but nowhere, do I see it, before: either when I pause TBWinRE creation to see what's mounted or in the tbwinre diretory on my hard drive, where Image for Windows lives. In the past, I had simply modified the TBLauncher.ini file and added it and the TBData folder manually to my USB drive or altered the .iso image to include the folder. But I'm sure there's a better way to do this. Also, when I boot with TBWinRE now, the Windows OS on the hard drive doesn't show up in file manager for some reason. All the other partitions are readable and writeable, but not C:\. Apparently it isn't assigned a drive letter and I can't that either with Partitionwizard or DOS commands to make it show up as another logical drive. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Brian K]

How many drive letters are assigned in your TBWinRE?

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

Not exactly sure how you’re updating the TBData folder on the boot media, but by default it will look for a match for the Build ID. Make sure you’re using the current build’s TBWinRE.txt file and not an old one. For example, copy the build’s ISO\TBData\TBWinRE.txt file to your custom TBData folder before copying the custom TBData folder to the USB drive.

The build’s TBData folder is external to the WIM so whether or not the build is paused when you look at it doesn’t matter. From what you describe, it sounds like you would want to update/configure the build’s TBData folder with your custom TBLauncher.ini and program files. It would then automatically be copied to the boot media when it’s created. It would also have the current TBWinRE.txt file. However, having the custom TBData folder at some other location and manually copying it is fine. Just remember to update the TBWinRE.txt file when you create a new build.

If TBLauncher is finding the boot media and importing the TBLauncher.ini file it will be logged (assuming logging is enabled). The log file is X:\Windows\System32\TBLauncher.log.

Is the Windows drive not getting assigned a drive letter a normal Windows partition? Is it encrypted? Is it set to not be assigned? Are you getting an error message when you try to assign a drive letter to it? Are the drive letters being assigned by WinRE or by TBLauncher? Also, as Brian asked, how many drive letters are being used? If you have a lot of partitions it may be running out of letters.

You say C: doesn’t show up, but normally that would be the first drive letter used. Is C: being used for another partition? Is the Windows partition being assigned a different drive letter than C: (assignments in WinPE/RE are usually different than in Windows)?

[yottabytes2]

My IFW folder is structured like the tree, below. After a clean install of IFW, I don't ususally see a TBData folder created initially. Just a default TBLauncher.ini file at the root of the tbwinre folder. I just want to confirm that a user must use the plugin system to add apps or, alternatively like me, manually create a TBData folder inside tbwinre in order to copy the custom apps to the final setup medium. And that if that folder is not copied, add it to the USB drive after creating TBWiniRE.iso.

├── LogicalDrive\
└──IFW\
├── tbwinre\
│ ├── mount
│ ├── Drivers
│ ├── ISO
│ ├── WinRE_Backup
│ ├── IFW_BootWIM
│ ├── language
│ ├── Plugins
│ ├── config
│ ├── TBData <---contains TBWinRE.txt file + apps + autorun.cmd + TBLauncher.ini

As for not being able to access the Windows installation with a TBWinRE boot disk, it may be a permissions issue because I'm learning that Windows Enterprise is pretty strict about permissions. When I boot Linux, I can access C:\Windows after unmounting and remounting it. But I cannot access Windows when I use TBWinRE unless I use my partitionwizard.exe app on my TBWinRE boot disk. However, even it offers only limited functions, like re-sizing or deleting the Windows partition. Most partition operations are grayed out. TBWinRE is usually assigned logical drive X:\ for some reason.

Sorry for the lengthy post.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

On a clean install, some of the TBWinRE files and folders won’t be created since no boot media build has been created yet. When adding custom programs to a build you would generally use a plugin or the BuildScript because those can be automated and handled for every build. However, you can certainly manually copy files into the build if you wish.

Assuming C: is the Windows partition and C:\IFW is the IFW installation folder. The TBData folder that gets copied onto the boot media is the C:\IFW\tbwinre\ISO\TBData folder. If you’re maintaining a different TBData folder (like C:\IFW\tbwinre\TBData) you would need to copy that onto the boot media after it’s created. As mentioned previously, the C:\IFW\tbwinre\ISO\TBData\TBWinRE.txt file is the current file for the build. However you copy/move files around you would want to keep the current TBWinRE.txt file in the C:\IFW\tbwinre\ISO\TBData folder. (Just to be clear, in the case of having your TBWinRE files in C:\tbwinre, the TBData folder would be C:\tbwinre\ISO\TBData. It’s the ISO\TBData folder that gets copied to the boot media.)

What type of boot media are you creating? You say a USB drive but also mention creating TBWinRE.iso. If you’re booting an .iso file via some USB ISO file multi-boot setup, the boot media will not be detected as TBWinRE media and any custom programs wouldn’t be available from it. Normally, when using .iso media that’s booted directly (e.g. a VM booting an .iso file or a booted DVD disc) you would want everything included in the ISO. Generally, including the custom files/programs in the WIM is best if you want it to work with all boot methods (files in the WIM are available on the X: drive when booted to TBWinRE). X: is the drive letter used for the RAM drive WinPE/RE uses when booted.

For the drive letter not being assigned to the Windows partition, did you check that the flag to leave it unassigned isn’t set? Have you tried assigning the letter with TBLauncher? You can do this by selecting Tools | Drive Letter Assignments…, then right-click on the Windows partition and select the "Assign Drive Letter" item. If that works, then it’s likely the partition is flagged to no get assigned. The TBLauncher Advanced Options plugin also has an option to assign drive letters to unassigned partitions or to just unassigned Windows partitions.

[yottabytes2]

Ok. Thanks for answering. I thought I was going crazy not seeing TBData after a fresh install. I like the method I use now because when I do a clean install of Windows I can just put a copy of TBData with my saved apps back inside the tbwinre folder and modify TBLauncher.ini, if needed, and I'm back up to speed for a new build of TBWinRE. I usually make an .iso because they are easier to keep track of and archive and I use a program called UltaISO to add or remove things from the .iso before I copy the files to a USB stick. I'll have to re-visit the drive assignment options in IFW. As I recall, there was an option to "match" Windows drive letters under boot.wim. But I'll have to re-check to see if I missed the option you mentioned. I'll update later, thanks.