35 replies to this topic

[Wonko the Sane]

... and in "sources" there is a "boot.wim" file ...

 

It seems the structure of a "recovery" intended to be used from a hard disk partition or from a USB stick AND that can be burned to a set of DVD's.

 

When run/executed the result is likely to be a "factory reset" device.

 

Please do follow cdob suggestion, now extended:

1) open a command prompt

2) in it type dir /s D: dir D: /s (and press [ENTER])

3) you will see a list of files, including path and their sizes scrolling in the window

4) when it is finished, type dir /s D: dir D: /s>C:\mydir.txt (and press [ENTER])

5) in Explorer you will find in drive C: a new file called mydir.txt that will contain the listing

6) upload this file as an attachment (or upload it to a free hosting site and provide a link to it)

 

Wonko

 

EDIT: corrected wrong syntax of the dir command

[cdob]

It's a 16Gb drive, with 11Gb used.

I hope this tells you enough.

There are manufacturer addons on the stick. Additional files at root and \data\ directory.
This is a special case, I don't know which USB multi build tool supports this.
The Recovery procedure rely on that files.
If you wrap this to a ISO file, the recovery won't find \data\ inside the ISO image.
A USB multi build tool may extract the ISO image and copy single files.

The Easy2Boot project may support the request.

Another manual approach:
there is a \sources\boot.wim. It's booting a PE.
Simplified, to get the idea: wrap all to a ISO image.
Copy \sources\boot.wim to USB drive \sources\recovry.wim
Edit recovry.wim, mount the ISO image to a virtual DVD drive at startup.
And continue the recovery.

If you build a new Recovery USB drive, how to test this?
A virtual machine can help.
Do you have a spare hard disk, swap the hard disk and do test recovery?

Overall:
I would keep the existing Recovery USB drive.
And do multi USB with other hardware and other addons.

[drpeppercan]

Wonko,

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> dir /s d:
dir : Cannot find path 'C:\s' because it does not exist.
At line:1 char:1
+ dir /s d:
+ ~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (C:\s:String) [Get-ChildItem]
   , ItemNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Ge
   tChildItemCommand

I also ran this with a capital D, as you instructed, it made no difference.

 

 

cdob

 

 

 

Overall:
I would keep the existing Recovery USB drive.
And do multi USB with other hardware and other addons. 

 

I was starting to feel that way...

[Wonko the Sane]

My bad  , it is:

dir D: /s

 

and I forgot that you were on (stupid) Windows 10, in recent versions the command prompt is replaced by the powershell prompt:

https://support.micr...-command-prompt

http://www.thundercl...-the-winx-menu/

 

 you need a command (cmd.exe) prompt to run that command.

Or you can try running from the PS prompt:

cmd.exe /r dir D: /s

 

Wonko

[ady]

FWIW and IMHO, instead of building an ISO image just to put its content (and booting methods) all in one "multiboot" USB device... Perhaps at some point it might be easier to just learn how to do it manually, adding it to your current YUMI-built USB device.

The middle-step of building an ISO image just so it could be then extracted to some USB device sounds to me like: "to the right side I have a neighbour I'd like to visit, but I don't know how to turn to the right, so I'm turning once to the left and I'll go around the whole globe". Perhaps it would be simpler to just learn how to turn to the right?

[drpeppercan]

wonko,

 

I did try to print the contents of d: to a TXT file, but the feedback was:

"out-file : The media is write protected"

 

ady,

 

Yeap! Either that, or I could just leave it alone where it is in it's own USB key. Lets not forget that I am only doing this just so I could have it along with other ISOs in the same USB key, for CONVENIENCE. But if the process entails to go beyond practical and efficient then we go into wasting time issues. And time is not something I have a lot of.

[Wonko the Sane]

wonko,

 

I did try to print the contents of d: to a TXT file, but the feedback was:

"out-file : The media is write protected"

 

That still seems a PS error.

Which command did you issue?

 

There may be problems in the way redirector characters are parsed by the PowerShell. 

 

Do open a "real" cmd.exe prompt, and see what happens in it.

 

Wonko

[drpeppercan]

Finally got it done by saving the txt file to an external HD

 

"D:\>dir /s > g:\mydir.txt"

 

And here's the results: http://pasteall.org/740640/text

[Wonko the Sane]

 

Finally got it done by saving the txt file to an external HD

 

"D:\>dir /s > g:\mydir.txt"

 

And here's the results: http://pasteall.org/740640/text

 

Good.

As cdob suspected is a "peculiar" setup.

It simply won't work as .iso.

But it seems like it contains a lot of "redundant" things, the several .iso's in the  D:\Data appear as being partly a (set of three) .iso's intended to be burned to DVD, "artificially" divided into files that can be burned and that can reside on a FAT32 partition.

And the directory D:\Data\SCD_FD.DE3A0.019 seems like containing a PE (System CD or SCD as opposed to the above Recovery CD or RCD) containing drivers.

Contents of LPCD_FP.XENXP.164.iso are mysterious, a XEN setup for XP?

 

It is likely (but not given) that combining the contents of the 3 .iso's the result might be a huge .iso containing the whole set of needed files, but it is entirely possible that some further modifications are needed anyway.

 

Wonko

[drpeppercan]

So your findings support the idea of "leaving it alone"?

After all, Acer sent me 2 of this.

[Wonko the Sane]

So your findings support the idea of "leaving it alone"?

After all, Acer sent me 2 of this.

I don't know.

 

On one hand it does seem like that it would be possible (with some work) to reduce the thingy to its "core" (as said most probably the three .iso's are all that is needed), on the other hand it seems to me that it is "futile" in the sense that from what I have seen the whole stuff is likely to be the "normal" recovery setup, which in itself represent one of the least useful things

 

What I mean is that the computer, once "recovered" through that procedure/files will probably be (completely or largely) "factory reset", i.e. you will probably lose most if not all your data and most probably will have to re-install each and every piece of software you installed after first switch on.

 

So, "recovering" is not something that you are likely to do often and certainly not "litely". 

 

Personally, all these years, I never used any "recovery disk" if not, when the device is to be resold, to re-apply the "factory image" after having wiped the disk, so it is not something I would carry with me on a "generic" USB stick, it is IMHO something better suited to stay with the box of the device.

 

I would rather have a minimal. confirmed to be working on the machine, small, PE, capable of booting the machine and retrieve some data in case of OS issues/corruption and of course (but again stored somewhere safe) some periodical backups of the data.

 

Wonko