Addtional Features

Sir,

I currently build laptops images for technologically challenged users. For this reason the images i create have the following layout
Partition 1: 300MB NTFS partition named SYSTEM
Partition 2: 20GB NTFS partition named RESTORE
Partition 3: 50GB NTFS partition named OS
Partition 4: "rest of drive free space" NTFS named DATA

The System and Restore Partition's are both hidden partition.

The Restore partition has a winPE 4.0 structure copied to it.

Note: I have a restore partition on the load to give the user a quick way of re-imaging thier system while out on the road. Our users have, on several occasions, done something to thier system rendering it unusable. This restore parititon allows them to reimage their system without having to come back into the office from several states way. We had a similar solution using Gurb loader and windows XP however with Win7 this is the best route to go.

I currently use your EASYBCD tool to initially create the boot menu so that when a user boots the computer he is presented with a list Win7 and Restore. If no selection is made within 5 sec's, the system boots into Win7.

On the restore partition i have a wim image of the OS drive and scripts for the user to select which index of the wim he wants to push down to his OS partition incase he wants to or needs to reimage his computer.

It all works great with the following issues:

1- when you re-image the computer, the Win7 and Restore options now read Win7, Win7 and Restore. the original Win7 and Restore are now not usable anymore.

2- I have a script that when re-images his computer, the first time he boots into the OS the EASYBCD tool runs and instructions pop up explaining to the user to delete the old two entries and recreate the new restore partition entry.

*** It all works great, however before i roll this solution out i would prefer to come up with an automated solution if possible.

New Features:

Is there currently a way to execute some of these commands via command line IE: If so, i could have the appropriate executable from within your bin folder to run with the correct switches to clear out the old boot loader then recreate a new boot loader entries after the re-imaging is complete.

NOTE: I assign the restore partition R: drive letter when booted into WINPE as part of the script that runs now, I un-hide the restore partition and give it a drive letter of R.

If command line is not possible then is their a way to compile EasyBCD to use .Net 4.0. If so EASYBCD can then be run inside WinPE 4.0. Having this capability, I could simply have EASYBCD open after the imaging process from within WinPE allowing me to fix the boot menu before booting into windows for the first time.

Thanks again for your time.

Israel
 
Last edited:

I am using 2.1.2. I will download and try. Thanks

Addendum

I downloaded EasyBCD2.2 and it works inside WINPE4.0. I will test the concept modifying the boot menu after re-imaging. Still wondering if their is a command line method that can be used. If so what would be the commands and switches to use. As mentioned in the original post, the partitions are set as follows:
Partition 1: 300MB NTFS partition named SYSTEM
Partition 2: 20GB NTFS partition named RESTORE
Partition 3: 50GB NTFS partition named OS
Partition 4: "rest of drive free space" NTFS named DATA

I could just add the following commands at the end of the re-imaging to make the process seamless for my users:
ie: after re-imaging
Command 1: delete the two old boot entries (Windows 7 and Restore)
Command 2: add boot entry for new Windows 7 partition on C drive and set boot time to 5 sec
Command 3: add boot entry for restore partition in boot menu.
 
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