Byte-for-Byte Validation Failure again

[Bob Coleman]

The validation errors are beyond my understanding, but that aside ...

Yes you want to create an image of a Windows system, but that doesn't mean you can't use IFL to do it. I'm not necessarily saying you should, but you could.

I guess IFL can be installed into a Linux system. I don't really know. I don't use Linux. The IFL boot disk you can create can definitely be booted and used to make images of Windows systems/disks. Such images are completely compatible with those created by IFW.

It definitely takes less time to create an IFL boot disk than an IFW (TBWinRE) boot disk. Probably not important, but it also takes less time to boot IFL and create an image than to boot TBWinRE and create an image.

I create IFW (TBWinRE) Recovery Boot Disks, but I hardly why. I always use IFL if I want to backup or restore outside the running Windows system.

[TeraByte Support]

Use TBWinRE.cmd option 2 to create the bootable UFD.

https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto ... _tutorial/

The TBWinRE.cmd script is obsolete

[OldNavyGuy]

Use TBWinRE.cmd option 2 to create the bootable UFD.

https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto ... _tutorial/

The TBWinRE.cmd script is obsolete

Since when?

It's still included in the downloaded zip fie, and still works (used it yesterday for the new IFW 4.09 release).

[Gordon2M]

Thank you, Bob Coleman and OldNavyGuy.

I have tried both of your suggestions and, unfortunately, neither worked.

I created an IFL boot disk, but when I attempted to use it, after setting up the source and target drives, I received the error messsage “Unable to Mount File System”. I couldn’t proceed any further. I was trying to image my complete primary drive, with all of it’s usual Windows 11 partitions. So the source was a NVME 512GB M2 drive and the target was the second internal NVME M2 drive, which is also 512GB.

As the IFL approach failed, I then followed the suggestion from OldNavyGuy and created a TBWinRE DVD. After booting with this DVD, I chose IEW to image the primary drive, again using the second internal NVME M2 SSD (the D: drive) as the target. However, IFW wouldn’t let me use the D: drive. Instead, it insisted that I should use a drive labelled X:. This was far too small to accommodate the image, being a little over 500MB.

I have raised some of this before, but I am wondering whether the problem lies with one of the following:
• The system uses Bitlocker on both drives.
• The drives are both showing as RAID, though this is not a RAID setup between the two internal drives.
• There is some Intel Optane memory (I wonder if this is the X: drive that TBWinRE is trying to use) used as a cache, to enhance read and write speeds to the SSD storage.

Gordon

[TeraByte Support]

unable to mount would have had to been the destination you choose couldn't be mounted. X: is the RAM drive WinRE/PE is running from.

Maybe some screen shots of what you're selecting and the target would help.

Also, pay attention to any messages the program gives you like out of sync.

[OldNavyGuy]

Keep in mind that by default, the drive letters listed in TBWinRE do not correspond to the drive letters assigned in Windows.

C: in WIndows could be D: in TBWinRE.

This is where labeling your drives is helpful.

[Bob Coleman]

I really have no idea. Could it be that IFL can't mount a file system because IFL doesn't know anything about Bitlocker (Neither do I).

Can you decrypt these disks while you do this stuff? Again I have no idea.

[Gordon2M]

Well, at last I have been successful, using TBWinRe. Rather than using the second internal SSD as the target, I used an external USB hard drive. The image successfully validated byte-by-byte. The process took about 4 hours, which is about half the time it took when using IFW within Windows.

I don't know why TBWinRE wouldn't let me use the secondary internal SSD, but accepted the external HD without any problem.

Thank you all, for your help.

Gordon

[OldNavyGuy]

Secondary internal SSD may need its vendor-specific drivers included on the TBWinRE UFD.

Using a secondary internal drive for backup is not a good strategy.

If you are infected with ransomware, both drives would likely be encrypted.

Always a good idea to use removable media that is stored offline when not in use.

[Brian K]

Doesn't having the images in \TeraByte_TBI_Backups protect them from ransomware?