Imaging compact flash dual partition with ewfmgr

  • Thread starter Thread starter robertg
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robertg

Hi,

I've succesfully created a dual partition running on C/F with write
filter on the first partition. On a 512Mb C/F 243 is the first part.
and 200MB for the second part. both part. are NTFS.

When I ghost the drive to an exact same C/F using Ghost7, ewfmgr is
unable to load (don't have the exact error handy) but it's something on
the loads of error no active partition found. Even after it has
requested a reboot since it's detected a different C/F.

Currently to get around the problem:
Boot from dos from another drive.
Usinf fdisk, delete the second partition.
Restart XPE.
Ewfmrg reports everything is fine.
Boot DOS again use Fdisk and create a second partition.
Once XPE is up and running then format the second partition.
Ewfmgr reports all is well.
And copy apps to the D drive
In production this will be a real pain, can anyone suggest another
method I should use to clone C/F's?

TIA

Rob.
 
Rob,

I would suggest trying a different imaging app.

I use Acronis with better success than Ghost. Don't know exactly why, but
images worked with Acronis and not with Ghost for me in the past, so I
switched to Acronis.

www.acronis.com

Get the trial version and see if it makes a difference.

Joe
 
Thanks Joe,

I'll give the acronis software a go.

I've searched and found a workaround by executing Rundll32 ewfdll.dll
ConfigureEwf on the ghosted image. This solves the problem but I'm
still confused as to why I need to do it in the first place??
If anyone can provide additional insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again Joe,

Rob.
 
Rob,

Thanks Joe,

I'll give the acronis software a go.

I've searched and found a workaround by executing Rundll32 ewfdll.dll
ConfigureEwf on the ghosted image. This solves the problem but I'm
still confused as to why I need to do it in the first place??
If anyone can provide additional insight would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...


That's because the cloning software (Ghost) is not capable of cloning the EWF partition properly.
So you have to recreate it on the deployed targets.

Btw IIRC, the newer versions of Ghost had a flag (-IR or something like that). With the flag the ghost cloning procedure was
happening smoother.
Search NG for more comments on that.
 
One tiny coda: do you *really* need the type of EWF you're using? If
you use REG-RAM (registry controlled) EWF, you won't have this problem.
There's about 20 different threads in this group about how to do it;
we use it and it's really saved us a lot of the headaches we used to
get when we used an EWF partition.
 
Thanks Coderer (andKM),

You've now got me thinking... and confused on this matter and hope you
can clarify a couple of things:
Ewfmgr c: shows "TYPE RAM", this must be using RAM as the write
filter??
If this is the case, why is it requiring a EWF partition on the fixed
media or what am I doing wrong?

The media will be C/F so I definetly
A. Milk as much space out of the C/F
B.Reduce the writes to an absolute minimum.

TIA

Rob.
 
Rob,

Coderer was referring to EWF RAM *REG* mode which is the mode for EWF where it stores all the info about protected partitons in
registry so you don't need a special hidden EWF Config partition on disk. Since you don't have the EWF Config partition, you won't
have problems with cloning software.

Depending on what SP you use you will have a couple of workarounds:
- SP2: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...en-us/xpehelp/html/xegrfewframregoverlays.asp
- SP1: Use Slobodan's component from www.xpefiles.com.
 
Thanks KM,

Sounds like I need to do more homework on XPE and how EWFMGR works.
But I'm still confused if I am using RAM overlay and therefore don't
need an ewf partition why it won't automaically initialise after a
ghost.

Rob.
 
Rob,

If you happened to use just EWF RAM (not *REG* mode) that the EWF Config partition is required.

Follow the first link I provided earlier and you will find enough info about different EWF modes described in great details.
 
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