Re: Rescue disk - Linux or Windows faster?
Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2020 7:40 pm
jbraner wrote:
> well, if it was a CD or DVD (depending if it's >750MB or not) rather than a
> thumbdrive - would that not be a Windows (PE or RE) CD/DVD?
>
Now that you identify it that way, yes that's true. If you install the suite, you will then have a Start Menu item "IFW-Create Recovery Boot Disk" for creating such a boot disk.
Also within the Start Menu item for the suite, there should be a folder for "Image for Linux" and within there "IFL - Create Recovery Boot Disk" or you could create it during the installation of the suite. It's been a long time since I've used CDs or DVDs instead of USB sticks for this, but I suppose CDs or DVDs would still work. You do not need to install IFL in any way to boot and use its Recovery Disk (either for backing up or restoring).
I wouldn't recommend using BIBM or BIU for backup and restore because you would actually be using Image for DOS (IFD) or Image for UEFI (IFU). IFL is much faster than IFD. I imagine it's also faster that IFU, but I've never actually used the latter. I can't compare the speed of IFL to that of the Windows CD (WINRE or WINPE made by IFW because I've never actually used the latter though I keep creating them "just in case".
If you install BIBM (or BIU) it can often be tempting to use the contained copy of IFD (or IFU) to avoid needing to boot IFL, but booting and using IFL will almost certainly be faster.
My periodic disciaimer:
I understand the reluctance to use IFW to backup the running Windows. I also didn't do that for a long time, but I finally started doing it years ago. I've never had a problem restoring backups created this way.
As mentioned above, it's not necessary to install IFL, but I've recently learned it's possible to copy the IFL boot media to a hard disk partition (used only for that purpose) and boot IFL from that partition. Probably useful only if using BIBM or BIU as a boot manager.
> well, if it was a CD or DVD (depending if it's >750MB or not) rather than a
> thumbdrive - would that not be a Windows (PE or RE) CD/DVD?
>
Now that you identify it that way, yes that's true. If you install the suite, you will then have a Start Menu item "IFW-Create Recovery Boot Disk" for creating such a boot disk.
Also within the Start Menu item for the suite, there should be a folder for "Image for Linux" and within there "IFL - Create Recovery Boot Disk" or you could create it during the installation of the suite. It's been a long time since I've used CDs or DVDs instead of USB sticks for this, but I suppose CDs or DVDs would still work. You do not need to install IFL in any way to boot and use its Recovery Disk (either for backing up or restoring).
I wouldn't recommend using BIBM or BIU for backup and restore because you would actually be using Image for DOS (IFD) or Image for UEFI (IFU). IFL is much faster than IFD. I imagine it's also faster that IFU, but I've never actually used the latter. I can't compare the speed of IFL to that of the Windows CD (WINRE or WINPE made by IFW because I've never actually used the latter though I keep creating them "just in case".
If you install BIBM (or BIU) it can often be tempting to use the contained copy of IFD (or IFU) to avoid needing to boot IFL, but booting and using IFL will almost certainly be faster.
My periodic disciaimer:
I understand the reluctance to use IFW to backup the running Windows. I also didn't do that for a long time, but I finally started doing it years ago. I've never had a problem restoring backups created this way.
As mentioned above, it's not necessary to install IFL, but I've recently learned it's possible to copy the IFL boot media to a hard disk partition (used only for that purpose) and boot IFL from that partition. Probably useful only if using BIBM or BIU as a boot manager.
