clonedisk – Page 4 – Erwan's Blog

Windows 8.1 update 1 and Wimboot made easy part 2

Avr 212014

In the previous article, we have seen how to benefit from the new wimboot feature of MS Windows 8.1 : install, capture with wimboot (from winpe), restore with wimboot (from winpe).

CloneDisk now also support wimboot (thru wimgapi.dll) for those who prefer a GUI rather than the DISM command line.

Capturing with the wimboot flag will make it so that the wim file will use a XPRESS chunk size of 4096 (vs 32768) and the image will have the extra flag wimboot.

Some facts :

-My clean install is around 13 GB.

-My wim file is around 7 GB.

-My « wimboot » install occupies « only » 3.5 GB on drive C. (of which near 3 gigs are taken by hyberfil.sys, pagefile.sys, swapfile.sys)

Discuss it here.

CloneDisk : how to make a bootable image, round 2

Boot, clonedisk No Responses »

Avr 112014

In a previous article, we have seen how to make a bootable image using Windows API and MS Virtual Disk.

Now, lets do the same but this time we will manipulate bytes in the Drive Master Boot Record and in the Volume Boot Sector with CloneDisk and ImDisk.

1-Create a raw disk image (here test.img=64 MB)

2-Retrieve file size in sectors (here 131072 = (64MB * 1024KB * 1024B) / 512 sectors)

3-Modify partition table : chs end/start=1023/254/63, sectors before=2048, total sectors=129023 (131072-2048-1)

4-Write NT6 mbr

5-Mount disk image (ImDisk auto detect offset=2048, size of disk=129023)

6-Format to NTFS

7-Change Hidden Sectors in Boot Sector (since it is incorrectly set to 1)

8-Boot (in qemu or virtualbox)

CloneDisk 2.1.0 is out

clonedisk 1 Response »

Avr 072014

Changes since latest changelog

added : set attributes in a wim image
added : can append datas to a wim file
added : support for dynamic VHD’s
added : detach vhd
modified : moved all virtualdisk functions to a new buttonbar
added : create differencing vhd (i.e a vhd with a parent)
added : open vhd in read only mode
added : expand vhd
added : merge vhd
added : reference file for wim capture and wim apply

2.1.0
added : G4D as bootloader next to nt5/nt6
added : manifest to run with admin rights
added : read offline hal/processor details
added : delete offline currentcontrolset\enum key
removed : dump registry (should be another software)
removed : jvdialogs unit

CloneDisk : how to make a bootable disk image

Boot, clonedisk No Responses »

Mar 112014

There are times where you need to make a bootable disk image, to boot from pxe, or from a boot loader (grub4dos, ms bootmgr, etc).

Lets see how to make it quick and easy with CloneDisk :

1-Lets create and attach a virtual disk
2-Lets create a disk
3-Lets create a partition
4-Lets format it
5-Lets install grub4dos as bootloader
6-Lets copy/paste grldr and menu.lst

1-Lets create and attach a virtual disk
->ignore the parent field
->fill in the path field
->indicate the size (in MB)
->lets go for a fixed one (vs dynamic)

2-Lets create a disk (i.e initialise)

3-Lets create a partition
->CloneDisk will use the whole disk size and will make the partition active

4-Lets format it (FAT or FAT32, NTFS works too)

5-Lets install grub4dos as bootloader in the MBR

6-Do not close CloneDisk yet (or else your new virtual logical drive will away) and copy/paste grldr and menu.lst (in CloneDisk zip file)

You got yourself a bootable disk image, feel free to add your own content.
Even better, since we used a VHD format, you can later on expand this virtual disk.

In a next tutorial, we will see how to PXE boot this virtual disk.

vMount : a VHD command line tool

clonedisk 3 Responses »

Mar 102014

For some time I needed a tool to create, attach, detach, etc MS Virtual Disk HardDrives (VHD) from the command line.
Sure I could do it using diskpart or MS VhdMount but I was always lacking this or that…

Therefore, based on CloneDisk source code, I took 5 mns to write vMount.
It uses MS native virtdisk API available with Windows 7 (x86/x64) and up

Command line arguments :

vmount createfixed path_to_vhd size(MB)
vmount createdynamic path_to_vhd size(MB)
vmount createchild path_to_child path_to_parent
vmount attach path_to_vhd [NOLETTER]
vmount attach path_to_iso
vmount detach \\.\PhysicalDriveX
vmount detach path_to_vhd
vmount expand path_to_vhd size(MB)
vmount compact path_to_vhd
vmount merge path_to_child
vmount disks [filter]
vmount partitions [filter]
vmount mount x: \device\harddiskX\partitionX
vmount umount letter
vmount online disk_id
vmount offline disk_id
vmount ro disk_id
vmount rw disk_id
vmount attributes disk_id

Regards,
Erwan

Download here

Discuss it here.

Clonedisk 2.0.7

clonedisk No Responses »

Fév 022014

New CloneDisk 2.0.7 version out.

Download it here.

Discuss it here.

Changelog since 2.0:

modified : remove some screens/functions for simplicity and focus
added : can backup/restore to/from a wim file (using MS WIMGAPI)
added : can mount/unmount a wim file
added : get information about an image within the .wim file
fixed : support for drives > 2147483647 sectors, now up to 4294967295 sectors
fixed : cleaned all pchar to pansichar to prepare a move to unicode (where pchar=pwidechar)
removed : madsecurity, preparing for a 64bits version
modified : use ms offlinereg for offline registry rather than mounting the hive (less intrusive on the target hive)
modified : dropped getlogicaldrives api in favor or querydosdevice
added : set symbolic link
added : set volume point
fixed : will properly catch message from wimgapi
added : will check presence of wimgapi
added : will exclude files listed in wimscript.ini when capturing to wim
added : ability to backup and restore to/from devio (from Imdisk / Olof)
modified : regorganised menus into clone, disk and volume categories

Clonedisk v2.0.2 is out

clonedisk No Responses »

Jan 122014

Clonedisk now supports WIM format to backup/restore a logical disk.
Clonedisk currently focuses on 2 standard format : RAW and WIM.

In the advanced menu, one can also retrieve WIM informations, capture/apply, export, mount …

Discuss it here.

Cheers,
Erwan

New CloneDisk 1.9.8 out

clonedisk No Responses »

Août 172013

Newer/simpler interface.
Discuss it here.
Download it here

Backup or Clone a disk from Winpe and Clonedisk

Boot, clonedisk, WinPE 2 Responses »

Août 172013

Here below the different steps to backup or clone a (physical or logical) disk (hosting any operating system) using WinPE and CloneDisk.

1.Getting tools
First, lets get the needed files and prepare our working folder :
QuickPE and unzip it to x:\quickpe.
CloneDisk and unzip it to x:\quickpe\extra

2.Preparing
Now, lets prepare our WinPE iso
Generate your WinPE iso using any of the option that suit you best : use WAIK or ADK or your sytem WinRE or a DVD or an ISO …

3.Booting
At this point, you have an iso file in x:\quickpe\x86 named winxx.iso.
you can either burn it to cd/dvd (easiest path),
« burn » to a usb stick with rufus
or (more complex) boot it thru pxe (using these guides).

4.Networking
This step is needed only if you intend to backup your drive to an image file over a network drive.
Once booted, ensure you have a correct network setup using PeNetwork : click on the info button.
Provided, you have a network connectivity, then map a network drive, still using PeNetwork.

5.Backuping
Now, launch clonedisk from x:\extra folder, choose your source drive and either back it up to your network drive or clone your source drive to a new target drive.

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