BartPE WinPE, or ERD Commander on a USB Flash Drive.

Computer Help and Discussions Software
1

Very Useful if you don't have a CDROM like my daughters Notebook, but still useful if you do.

I've tried a few times to put BartPE or ERD Commander onto a USB Flash Drive with no joy, but I was trying it with software like UNetbootin or Universal USB Installer, which work directly with Linux Distribution ISO's.

PeToUSB does it differently by working with extracted files

Extract the files from your ISO Image File into a folder of your choice, call it BartPE for example, and place PeToUSB in the same location as that folder.

Open PeToUSB and set it up as shown here ...

Select your USB target drive, and browse to the folder containing your extracted BartPE files, and then select "Start".

PeToUSB:

Please Note.

This is XP based, and looks for NTLDR when booting, so I don't think it will work with Vista or Win7.

2

I have not done a PE for a while using BartPE, but last time I worked with it, it was not able to find SATA drivers. I have been meaning to try again with a DELL CD I have since they have integrated SATA drivers. Another problem on newer DELL systems is and XP based PE will not be able to see the HDD. :(

3

Installing an Operating System onto a flash drive is one thing getting it to boot is another.

Your BOIS must support USB booting and the flash drive must also contain a boot sector area.

Have a look at the following article hopefully you should be able to get it working.

Also you might want to experiment with different brands of Flash drive to see which works better.

This is XP based, and looks for NTLDR when booting, so I don't think it will work with Vista or Win7.

XP bootloader doesn't supports Vista / Windows 7 however it's backwards compatible with NT4 and Windows 2000.

As for accessing SATA hard drives via BartPE you probably need to change your BIOS settings to enable SATA "IDE emulation".

I know SATA access is possible with BartPE because I have used this to access my work PC a Dell with SATA hard drive.

Richard S.

4

I know SATA access is possible with BartPE because I have used this to access my work PC a Dell with SATA hard drive.

Did you use a Dell OS to create your PE? I still have all the files handy so I may just quickly create a PE

5

No it's an old BartPE CD I made from an XP CD with SP1.

Richard S.

6

After starting the topic, I wish I could offer some help Tr3bg0D, but XP is as far as my knowledge goes with this.

I run it, it's worked with two different Flash drives ... PNY Attache (1gb) | San Disk Cruzer (8gb with U3 install removed).

Good luck with it all the same.

7

No worries...I will eventually try it, just have not had time. I also wanted to try with 2003 but I don't have any 2003 OSs which contain built in SATA drivers.

8

Does your BIOS provide SATA IDE emulation??

I just found an old photo of my ex-work computer I guess I was wrong it's actually a HP Compaq probably a DC7100 not a Dell PC although I've always assumed both companies ship the same hardware.

new_pc.jpg

btw: that's a Blue Screen of Death screen saver by Sysinternals not actually a real system crash :lol:

Richard S.

9

Does your BIOS provide SATA IDE emulation??

Yes, but I am looking for a PE that I just drop in without having to go into the BIOS. On several systems, I've created a Hidden-Recovery Portion that I load with grub and kick off various repair tools. I still have not yet found the perfect PE to this everything I want yet....but getting close.

10

Yes, but I am looking for a PE that I just drop in without having to go into the BIOS. On several systems, I've created a Hidden-Recovery Portion that I load with grub and kick off various repair tools. I still have not yet found the perfect PE to this everything I want yet....but getting close.

You may find this of interest :-

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/180800-new-free-system-imaging-program-8.html

Post no. #75 on page 8 give information on a tool that puts together WinPE with Easeus and Macrium image backups with Partition Wizard and sundry other tools.

Right now I am focussed on learning how to use VirtualBox, and then I intend to try out that tool.

I believe it should give me a single Boot CD with assorted partition backup tools plus other tools of my own choosing.