USB Emergency Disk Size issue

[AdvancedSetup]

When using the "Emergency Disk" tool to create a bootable USB disk to boot from for Restore or other work I noticed the following behavior.

Hardware: SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 64GB 


The Flash drive is recognized and shows as 57.29GB 

   

However, the Flash drive is formatted to 31.9GB thus losing 30GB of usable space. 

   

Similar Backup programs that create Rescue Disks format to the full size of the Flash drive. Why is Hasleo not using the full size?

Yes, I can create a new partition and use that if I want to copy other files to the disk but it's an unexpected extra step.



DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status        Size    Free    Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 8    Online          57 GB    25 GB


DISKPART> select disk 8

Disk 8 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###  Type              Size    Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary            31 GB  1024 KB



Volume 15    K  HASLEOBS    FAT32  Removable    31 GB  Healthy

[AdvancedSetup]

I see - you're using FAT32

I'd need to go back and check. Perhaps the other tools are doing something different

[AdvancedSetup]

Looks like I was wrong.

Macrium Reflect rescue disk creation makes the disk partition even much smaller.


Macrium Reflect 8 building of the Rescue Disk


DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status        Size    Free    Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 8    Online          57 GB    55 GB


DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###  Type              Size    Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary          2048 MB  1024 KB

DISKPART> list vol

Volume 15    K  MACRIUM_PE  FAT32  Removable  2048 MB  Healthy



On another note about FAT32

Windows 11 Insider Release Preview Build 28000.2176
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/window...28000-2173

release preview build 28000.2176 - Windows Insider Program | Microsoft Learn
release notes for release preview 28000.2176

[Storage] This update improves:

• Performance when viewing storage information for large volumes in Settings > System > Storage > Advanced Storage Settings > Disks & Volumes.
  
• The size limit for formatting FAT32 volumes from the command line from 32GB to 2TB.
  

[garioch7]

@AdvancedSetup,

Thank you for your posts.  I think all Rescue Media from all vendors is currently confined to the "old" FAT32 maximum of 32 GB.

I have NOT tested with other vendors other than MR8 and Easeus Todo Backup Home.  My "assumption" may be mistaken therefore.

The latest post I have found, in researching posts for the HBS FAQs Topic, is this one, dating from 2024-03-06: https://www.easyuefi.com/forums/thread-1...ml#pid5343.  I plan to include that information in a post there when I find the time.  It is on my "roadmap."

I will be interested to hear from @admin if that has changed in the current, or planned future, versions of the Hasleo Backup Suite.

Have a great day.

Regards,
Phil

[Bespoken]

Anyone using a backup program and creating a rescue/emergency disk has the technical skills to use an ISO manager for all their bootable USB's.

Ventoy is my choice and I have been using it for years. No wasted USB space and all ISO's in one place. My Ventoy USB has an HSB Emergency ISO for each of my 4 PC's, a Linux build for those annoying cases where Win will not not delete a file, and some other utilities that can create a bootable ISO.

[AdvancedSetup]

Yes, Ventoy is an awesome piece of software to be sure. But not exactly related to the built-in tool as most users are going to use the built-in tool to make one.

More advanced techs are going to do various different things

[admin]

I'm sorry for the late reply. After communicating with the developer, I found some issues with my previous reply and would like to correct them.

Why are USB flash drives formatted as FAT32?
When a UEFI-based computer starts up, the UEFI firmware loads the UEFI bootloader from the EFI System Partition (ESP). The EFI specification requires that the ESP must be a FAT32 partition, which is why USB flash drives are formatted as FAT32.

Why is the FAT32 partition limited to a maximum of 32GB?
Although the Windows graphical format tool limits FAT32 to 32GB, FAT32 can actually support larger partitions (as pointed out by @AdvancedSetup). Hasleo limits the FAT32 partition size to 32GB because we want the created USB flash drive to boot on both legacy BIOS and modern UEFI computers. When booting on legacy BIOS, if the FAT32 partition exceeds 32GB, booting will inevitably fail. Based on our tests, there seems to be no 32GB limitation on UEFI computers, but we cannot confirm that all UEFI computers support booting from a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB.

How to solve this problem?
To solve this problem, simply create two partitions on the USB flash drive: a small FAT32 partition and a large NTFS partition. The FAT32 partition is used only for storing boot files, while the WIM file is stored on the large NTFS partition. This resolves the 32GB size limitation of the FAT32 partition on legacy BIOS computers, while NTFS offers better security than FAT32, allowing users to store other files with greater confidence. In fact, Hasleo WinToUSB does exactly this, but this feature has not yet been ported to Hasleo Backup Suite.

I deeply apologize for the errors in my previous reply.

[Epictetus]

Very educational reply by @admin. Not sure what issues he was correcting but great reply/clarification as usual.

Personally, I just use old, small 4GB USBs or similar to make my stand-alone HBS EDs on. 

But mostly when I have needed to really USE an ED to actually recover something, like @bespoken, I use a Ventoy SSD with all the ISOs (including an HBS.iso) that I am likely to need in the one place. Since that Ventoy SSD is 2TB, there is also plenty of space for the image (.DBI) file to be on it too.