Hasleo Software Forums

(03-06-2024, 11:18 PM)Keith Weisshar Wrote: [ -> ]Do I need the paid version of WinToUSB for creating emergency disk from the winpe.iso included with Backup Suite?  Will loading winpe.iso into Rufus work?

You don't need the paid version of WinToUSB, and you can also try Refus.

Rufus works.

(03-06-2024, 10:15 PM)admin Wrote: [ -> ]I'm sorry that Hasleo Backup Suite does not currently support the creation of emergency disks using an external drive. In order to ensure that the created USB drive can start normally on the UEFI computer, there must be a FAT32 partition on the USB drive and the capacity of the FAT32 partition should not exceed 32GB. You can create partitions on the unallocated space on this USB drive to use the full space, or use third-party software to create the emergency disk, such as Hasleo WinToUSB.

My apologies...I am a newbie here and just starting to check out/experiment with the Backup Suite...and I am somewhat confused by the above. To clarify, if I may:

1. by 'external drive' you are referring to HDD/SSD that are connected to the computer in question via USB/eSATA/Etc., rather than USB sticks?
2. the USB stick to be used as the Emergency Disk needs to be a minimum of 32Gb + however much is required for the WINPE/Etc. files?
3. if 2. above is correct then what is the MINIMUM size USB stick that should be used as the basis for an Emergency Disk?

Finally, when I check out the user guide section "How to create a bootable WinPE media with Hasleo Backup Suite?" there is no mention of any of this in terms of (i) the need for the FAT32 partition, the implied 'minimum' stick size requirement or the fact that the recovery files are hidden (which adds to the confusion of the newbie)

Thanks in advance for your patience, and am more than happy to be corrected should I have gotten the wrong end of the stick  (no pun intended) re. any of the above.

Baldrick

Greetings once again Balders!  I'll try and answer your questions from my current knowledge.

1. Basically, yes.  HBS cannot create a BOOTable ext media on anything that is not considered a portable device by the OS.  USB connected HDDs/SSDs are considered "Local Disks" by the OS, not portable devices.

2. Not at all.  Their response says "up to 32gB," not a minimum of.  That is a requirement of an EFI partition which is required for BOOTing an UEFI-based System.  Usually that partition on a BOOTable System disk is about 100mB or so... Hasleo is using that same partition to house their Emergency Disk media (a WIM file) for BOOTing purposes.  The actual required space for their most recent Emergency Disk is (along with the required UEFI BOOTing environment) about 375mB.  Based on that you could easily use a 1gB UFD for your Emergency Disk.

Their additional info just states that if you use a very large UFD for your recovery media, anything beyond the 32gB of FAT32 needed for their use may be alternately partitioned into any type of formatted storage you would like to use.

3. (explained above)

As far as their documentation is concerned... I won't jump on that issue 

As an addendum to the above missive...

When HBS creates your Emergency Disk on an UEFI System, it will generate the needed FAT32 UEFI BOOTable partition up to the fuill size of your UFD, if <= 32gB.  If the UFD is larger than 32gB, the extra space is left unallocated for your own use.

When using a 32gB UFD for the HBS Emergency Disk, it creates a full 32gB FAT32 UEFI BOOTable partiton, but really only needs about 375mB of real storage for a usable environment.  Based on that, and using a decent partition tool which can resize partitions, I shrunk that 32gB FAT32 partition down to 1gB and the Emergency Disk continues to BOOT just fine.  This allowed me to take that 31gB unallocated space I just created and make an NTFS partition for my own use (a place to possibly store images  ).

Hope this helps...

Offering an additional opinion on this issue...

I would like to see Hasleo only create a minimum FAT32 required partition (500mB or whatever they really need) for their UEFI Emergency Disk BOOTing environment and leave the balance of the users UFD unallocated for their own use.

This is a kind of a request, if possible...

Hi Sir Froggie

Well, fancy meeting you here...

Thank you for the clear explanations provided...they are all been very helpful, and I will adjust my testing/experimentation accordingly.

Appreciate what you say about the documentation...par for the course...in my experience...which is where the forum comes in...in part.

Respect, Baldrick

Thanks Froggie and Baldrick for the discussion. Excellent points Froggie.

I built the Hasleo recovery using an 8GB USB flash drive. I think I mentioned a few times over the years, I have always been one that prefers doing "cold"
imaging, outside windows. I have been using imaging apps for about 23 years or so, only using the emergency disks of those apps to image and restore.

Froggie convinced me "hot" imaging within Windows is reliable with Hasleo, and it has done an excellent job with this, whether system back up or disk/partition backups.

I usually do disk/partition backups. Thanks again guys, always good to see you here, and a big THANK YOU to the Hasleo developers...we really and truly appreciate this fine piece of imaging software, and the effort you have committed to it!