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Customizing USB bootable IFL/TBWinRE

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 1:53 am
by Yottabytes
Deprecated

Re: Customizing USB bootable IFL/TBWinRE

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 5:04 am
by Kempy
Hi,

please identify if your are on a EFI system or Bios/Bios-CSM.

The best tool I found for booting multiple ISO's (WinPE and Linux) for multi systems (EFI and Bios/Bios-CSM) from the same USB-Stick is called WinSetupFromUSB.

That will boot WinPE based ISO's via BCD/Windows boot manager on EFI and Bios/Bios-CSM systems (there are two BCD's on the USB-Stick; one for EFI and one for Bios/Bios-CSM booting) and Linux ISO's via grub4dos on Bios/Bios-CSM systems (grub4dos is currently not EFI capable).

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Another thing I found is how to get IFW as fast as IFL in backup-speed for offline backups when the target drive is connected via USB3.0

You will need to integrate IFW into a winbuilder based ISO (to have access to the windows device manager) and switch on windows write-cache and drives write-cache (both caches are off by default for USB connected drives and on for internal/external drives connected via SATA/eSATA) for the target drive in the windows device manager.
That will speed-up IFW's backup speed.
My test setup, winbuilder W10-x64 based ISO with IFW 3.04, went from 10:23min (internal M.2 SDD to external USB3.0/UASP 2.5" HDD, cache switches off/off, bfb validation) to 3:47min (cache switches on/on, bfb validation).
For comparison, TBWinPE (W10PE-x64 based ISO, IFW3.04 x64), took 11:49min for the same offline backup task.

@Terabyte
Perhaps it is possible to switch on windows write-cache and drives write-cache for USB connected drives by default via windows reg-key in TBWinPE/TBWinRE builds ?, it seems Windows PE can handle that.

G.

Re: Customizing USB bootable IFL/TBWinRE

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 7:33 am
by Brian K
Kempy wrote:
>
> Another thing I found is how to get IFW as fast as IFD in backup-speed for
> offline backups when the target drive is connected via USB3.0
>


Kempy, do you mean IFL instead of IFD?

Re: Customizing USB bootable IFL/TBWinRE

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:08 pm
by Yottabytes
@Kempy. I'm on Bios/Bios-CSM.

From the YouTube video @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOxybrlqlRY WinSetupFromUSB seems similar to YUMI. Looks like it has a much better USB disk creation user interface but, unfortunately, produces a similarly graphics-challenged user interface on the actual bootdisk :D

For what it's worth, I have found that emergency boot and save image times are quickest with:

A Lexar 1066x or higher compact flash dives with a USB 3.0 reader (They are much faster than garden variety SD or Micro SD cards. I've also tried Sandisk CF but they seem to fail at a higher rate than Lexar)

Re: Customizing USB bootable IFL/TBWinRE

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:29 am
by Kempy
Brian K wrote:
> Kempy wrote:
> >
> > Another thing I found is how to get IFW as fast as IFD in backup-speed for
> > offline backups when the target drive is connected via USB3.0
> >
>
>
> Kempy, do you mean IFL instead of IFD?

You are right, IFL, just corrected.

G.