How can I record ima. Creating a multiboot CD based on the Bootable CD Wizard. Using the USB Image Tool
Title (English): WinImage Disk Image
Name (Russian): WinImage disk image
Developer: Gilles Vollant
Description: IMA or WinImage Disk Image is a disk image format recorded using WinImage, an application designed to create exact copies of disks. The developer of this format is Gilles Vollant. IMA files are most often used to create disk images that accurately preserve the file structure of the original. The created images can be written to physical media or used as a virtual disk. An IMA file can contain images of hard drives, CDs, and DVDs, including bootable disks, floppies, USB drives, and some types of virtual machine disks, such as VHDs.
To open (edit) a file of this format, you can use the following programs:
Format 2
Title (English): Sage ACT! Email Message
Name (Russian): Email Sage ACT!
Developer: Sage
Description: IMA or Sage ACT! Email Message is a mail message format created in the ACT! program, designed to manage user contacts. This format was developed by the British software company Sage Group. The IMA format is used to transmit email data. An IMA message file is a text document containing either plain text or standard HTML code that is easily readable by any browser. IMA files can also contain one or more attachments. IMA is a relatively new format, replacing the format used in earlier versions of the ACT! DET format.
You can use the following programs to open (edit) a file of this format.
Why do you need mounting and how does it work:
The mounting process itself involves connecting a device or archive file with a specific file system.
For example: The CD\DVD disk image we made and saved on the hard drive is stored as a file, a file - inside of which there is its own file system and the same files that were on the physical disk. When recording an image onto a physical CD\DVD, the file system and structure of files and directories are reproduced the same as on the original CD\DVD.
These images may include the following formats:
- CD\DVD image format - ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG, UIF, DMG
- Floppy disk image format - IMG, IMA, FLP
- HDD image format - VHD, VMDK, Qcow2
Sometimes there is a need to get something from an image file or view its structure; of course, an archiver, for example the same IZArc(), can handle this task. But what to do if the task is for the operating system to access this archive file directly as a device? That's right, emulate this device (drive, hard drive, floppy drive, USB device), and then connect the image so that it is visible to the operating system as a real storage medium.
Everyone is well aware of programs such as Alcohol 120%, Daemon Tools, etc. This is of course a good solution, but as a rule, such programs do not allow you to process hard disk images or images of removable media.
A free driver program called "ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver" is great for this.
System requirements for the program Windows NT 3.51/NT 4.0/2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista/Server 2008, both 32-bit and 64-bit
After installation, in the context menu of the mouse, when you right-click on any image, the item “Mount as ImDisk Virtual Disk” will appear - which in translation means mount as a virtual disk:
Next, the program will ask for parameters for connecting the image; in 95% of cases, the default settings are sufficient. Some settings:
Drive Letter (Device After) - i.e. as we will see it after mounting, for example it could be disk E, D, F, etc. Such virtual devices with a mounted disk are also called “Mount Point” or “Mount Point”.
Size of virtual disk - we can specify the size of our virtual disk.
Image file offset - allows you to specify the file size of the image itself.
Device type - device type: CD-DVD, Floppy, Hard Disk. In general, I don’t remember a case in which the program would not be able to determine the image format in Auto mode and open what it needs with the default settings.
Copy image file to a memory - copy the image file to RAM.
Removable media - emulates a USB device.
Read-only media - if changes occur within the image, the image will not be overwritten.
In order to return everything as it was before mounting, just right-click on the virtual (mounted) disk and select “Unmount ImDisk Virtual Disk”:
And there is another very useful function in this program - creating images of physical disks.
On the physical device, right-click and select "Save disk content as image file":
After installing the program, the ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver icon should appear in the “control panel”, allowing you to launch the GUI form of the application, from which all of the above functions are launched.
ImDisk also supports working from the CMD command line, which is important when using the utility in MS Windows Server Core
The syntax of parameters and commands of the CMD console, man is in English, but I think those who use the command line do not need it:
Control program for the ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver.
For copyrights and credits, type imdisk --version
imdisk -a -t type -m mountpoint [-n] [-o opt1[,opt2 ...]] [-f|-F file]
[-s size] [-b offset] [-v partition] [-S sectorsize] [-u unit]
[-x sectors/track] [-y tracks/cylinder] [-p "format-parameters"]
imdisk -d|-D [-u unit | -m mountpoint]
imdisk -l [-u unit | -m mountpoint]
imdisk -e [-s size] [-o opt1[,opt2 ...]] [-u unit | -m mountpoint]
-a Attach a virtual disk. This will configure and attach a virtual disk
with the parameters specified and attach it to the system.
-d Detach a virtual disk from the system and release all resources.
Use -D to force removal even if the device is in use.
-e Edit an existing virtual disk.
Along with the -s parameter extends the size of an existing virtual
disk. Note that even if the disk can be extended successfully, the
existing filesystem on it can only be extended to fill the new size
without re-formatting if you are running Windows 2000 or later and the
current filesystem is NTFS.
Along with the -o parameter changes media characteristics for an
existing virtual disk. Options that can be changed on existing virtual
disks are those specifying wether or not the media of the virtual disk
should be writable and/or removable.
-t type
Select the backingstore for the virtual disk.
vm Storage for this type of virtual disk is allocated from virtual memory
in the system process. If a file is specified with -f that file is
is loaded into the memory allocated for the disk image.
file A file specified with -f file becomes the backingstore for this
virtual disk.
proxy The actual backingstore for this type of virtual disk is controlled by
an ImDisk storage server accessed by the driver on this machine by
sending storage I/O request through a named pipe specified with -f.
-f file or -F file
Filename to use as backingstore for the file type virtual disk, to
initialize a vm type virtual disk or name of a named pipe for I/O
client/server communication for proxy type virtual disks. For proxy
type virtual disks "file" may be a COM port or a remote server
address if the -o options includes "ip" or "comm".
Instead of using -f to specify "DOS-style" paths, such as
C:\dir\image.bin or \\server\share\image.bin, you can use -F to
specify "NT-style" native paths, such as
\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1\image.bin. This makes it possible to
specify files on disks or communication devices that currently have no
drive letters assigned.
-l List configured devices. If given with -u or -m, display details about
that particular device.
-n When printing ImDisk device names, print only the unit number without
the\Device\ImDisk prefix.
-s size
Size of the virtual disk. Size is number of bytes unless suffixed with
a b, k, m, g, t, K, M, G or T which denotes number of 512-byte blocks,
thousand bytes, million bytes, billion bytes, trillion bytes,
kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes and terabytes respectively. The suffix
can also be % to indicate percentage of free physical memory which
could be useful when creating vm type virtual disks. It is optional to
specify a size unless the file to use for a file type virtual disk does
not already exist or when a vm type virtual disk is created without
specifying an initialization image file using the -f or -F. If size is
specified when creating a file type virtual disk, the size of the file
used as backingstore for the virtual disk is adjusted to the new size
specified with this size option.
The size can be a negative value to indicate the size of free physical
memory minus this size. If you e.g. type -400M the size of the virtual
disk will be the amount of free physical memory minus 400 MB.
-b offset
Specifies an offset in an image file where the virtual disk begins. All
offsets of I/O operations on the virtual disk will be relative to this
offset. This parameter is particularly useful when mounting a specific
partition in an image file that contains an image of a complete hard
disk, not just one partition. This parameter has no effect when
creating a blank vm type virtual disk. When creating a vm type virtual
disk with a pre-load image file specified with -f or -F parameters, the
-b parameter specifies an offset in the image file where the image to
be loaded into the vm type virtual disk begins.
Specify auto as offset to automatically select offset for a few known
non-raw disk image file formats. Currently auto-selection is supported
for Nero .nrg and Microsoft .sdi image files.
-v partition
Specifies which partition to mount when mounting a raw hard disk image
file containing a master boot record and partitions.
Specify number 1-4 to mount a partition from the primary partition
table and 5-8 to mount a partition from an extended partition table.
-S sectorsize
Sectorsize to use for the virtual disk device. Default value is 512
bytes except for CD-ROM/DVD-ROM style devices where 2048 bytes is used
by default.
-x sectors/track
See the description of the -y option below.
-y tracks/cylinder
The -x and -y options can be used to specify a synthetic geometry.
This is useful for constructing bootable images for later download to
physical devices Default values depends on the device-type specified
with the -o option. If the "fd" option is specified the default values
are based on the virtual disk size, e.g. a 1440K image gets 2
tracks/cylinder and 18 sectors/track.
-p"format-parameters"
If -p is specified the "format" command is invoked to create a
filesystem when the new virtual disk has been created.
"format-parameters" must be a parameter string enclosed within
double-quotes. The string is added to the command line that starts
"format". You usually specify something like "/fs:ntfs /q /y", that
is, create an NTFS filesystem with quick formatting and without user
interaction.
-o option
Set or reset options.
ro Creates a read-only virtual disk. For vm type virtual disks, this
option can only be used if the -f option is also specified.
rw Specifies that the virtual disk should be read/writable. This is the
default setting. It can be used with the -e parameter to set an
existing read-only virtual disk writable.
rem Specifies that the device should be created with removable media
characteristics This changes the device properties returned by the
driver to the system. For example, this changes how some filesystems
cache write operations.
fix Specifies that the media characteristics of the virtual disk should be
fixed media, as opposed to removable media specified with the rem
option. Fixed media is the default setting. The fix option can be used
with the -e parameter to set an existing removable virtual disk as
fixed.
saved Clears the "image modified" flag from an existing virtual disk. This
flag is set by the driver when an image is modified and is displayed
in the -l output for a virtual disk. The "saved" option is only valid
with the -e parameter.
Note that virtual floppy or CD/DVD-ROM drives are always read-only and
removable devices and that cannot be changed.
CD Creates a virtual CD-ROM/DVD-ROM. This is the default if the file
name specified with the -f option ends with either .iso, .nrg or .bin
extensions.
fd Creates a virtual floppy disk. This is the default if the size of the
virtual disk is any of 160K, 180K, 320K, 360K, 640K, 720K, 820K, 1200K,
1440K, 1680K, 1722K, 2880K, 123264K or 234752K.
hd Creates a virtual fixed disk partition. This is the default unless
file extension or size match the criteria for defaulting to the cd or
fd options.
ip
storage server using TCP/IP. With this option, the -f switch specifies
the remote host optionally followed by a colon and a port number to
connect to.
comm Can only be used with proxy-type virtual disks. With this option, the
user-mode service component is initialized to connect to an ImDisk
storage server through a COM port. With this option, the -f switch
specifies the COM port to connect to, optionally followed by a colon,
a space, and then a device settings string with the same syntax as the
MODE command.
-u unit
Along with -a, request a specific unit number for the ImDisk device
instead of automatic allocation. Along with -d or -l specifies the
unit number of the virtual disk to remove or query.
-m mountpoint
Specifies a drive letter or mount point for the new virtual disk, the
virtual disk to query or the virtual disk to remove. When creating a
new virtual disk you can specify #: as mountpoint in which case the
first unused drive letter is automatically used.
imdisk.exe -a -f C:\my_disk.ima -m R: -b 32256
Mount partition in disk image C:\my_disk.ima as drive R: (partition starts at 63rd sector offset) -
imdisk.exe -a -f C:\my_disk.ima -m R: -b 63b
Unmount drive R: -
imdisk.exe -d -m r:
Force unmount drive R: -
imdisk.exe -D -m r:
Create disk image C:\my_disk.ima (superfloppy format) 2104515 sectors in size (1.5 GB) and mount as drive R: -
imdisk -a -s 2104515b -m R: -f C:\my_disk.ima
Create disk image C:\my_disk.ima (superfloppy format) 2104515 sectors in size (1.5 GB) and mount as drive R:, then format using compressed NTFS -
imdisk -a -s 2104515b -m R: -f C:\my_disk.ima -p "/FS:NTFS /C /Y"
The mood now is good
WinImage floppy image creation program
If you read the article on my website “Virtual floppy drive”, then you probably noticed that it also talks about the winimage program. This program is designed to create images of floppy disks, or it can be used in conjunction with a virtual disk drive. You can download it for example Installing it is not difficult, everything is as usual: download, install, enjoy. There is also a localization tool included in the kit. So the program interface can be made Russian. She looks like this:
I don’t see the point in completely analyzing how the program works. The program is designed to create media images and restore information from these images to blank media. This is relevant in the case when simply copying information from floppy disk to floppy disk, for example, does not bring the desired result. I'll show you how to make a floppy disk image. Well, how to burn a floppy disk from an image. The program interface is intuitive, although, as practice shows, not for everyone. There were a couple of calls about the program, but I think that, most likely, people simply did not want to figure it out themselves. For what? If you can call.
So, to make a floppy image, or recover from an image, we need only two menu items. These are "File" and "Disk/Disk Drive". In the picture above, these menu items are indicated by red arrows. Well, let's install a floppy disk (clean) into the drive; if you don't have a floppy drive, then you can use the program , and install the floppy disk in this program. When you click on the "Disk/Disk Drive" menu item, you can see the following picture:
Before reading a floppy disk, you need to make sure that the program will read the floppy disk and not, say, the C: drive. That is, the checkbox is installed as shown in the figure above, opposite the A: drive, and not the C: drive. Are you sure? Then click “Read disk (floppy)”, as shown in the picture above and wait for the floppy disk to be read in the drive. The floppy disk is read track by track, so you have to wait. If the drive is physical, then 3-5 minutes, if virtual, then a few seconds. It should be noted that even if an empty floppy disk is inserted into the drive, reading will still occur, and as a result you can get an image of a “blank” floppy disk. But we don’t need this, so I threw the files into the drive, as shown in the figure below, and read the floppy disk (by the way, I used a virtual drive):
Our task is to make a floppy disk image, so let’s make it by clicking on the menu item “File” --> “Save as...”, see the figure below:
A regular explorer opens, come up with a name for the image and indicate the location on the disk where this image will be stored. I recommend creating a separate folder and putting all your images there, if, of course, you decide to use this program. So, here's what we got:
In general, I prefer to save images in the *.ima format, although in principle it doesn’t matter in what format you save it. This doesn't mean you have to do the same, whatever you want, keep it that way. As a result, we get a floppy disk image file that can be stored on your hard drive:
As you can see from the figure, the file size corresponds to the capacity of the floppy disk, and no matter what information was on the floppy disk, the image will always be the same size. As you already understood, in order to recover from an image, you must first open the image file using the "Open..." menu item (see Fig. No. 4), and then, inserting a blank floppy disk into the drive, write it using the "Burn" menu item disk (floppy disk)" (see Fig. No. 2). Well, that's basically all. Good luck in mastering this program.
Boot floppy disks (or CDs with a boot area) are used in many cases:
- to change parameters (formatting) of an already used hard drive or when partitioning a newly purchased one;
- to install the Operating System;
- in case of failure of the Operating System (up to refusal to boot at all);
- when restoring the System from an image (for example, Norton Ghost);
- to try to recover a “forgotten” Administrator password;
- as well as in many other cases.
There are a huge number of ready-made BootDisks - boot floppy disks, and many programs (for example, the same PartitionMagic) have the function of generating their own boot floppy disk. As a result, we have a bunch of different boot floppy disks (often double ones to run one program) or ready-made (purchased) boot CDs, and we don’t always remember exactly on which one and what exactly is launched.
I was interested in two main questions:
- have several boot options from one CD;
- have a boot image larger than one standard 1440 KB floppy disk.
The ability to solve both of these issues at once on your own is provided by the CD boot manager Bootable CD Wizard. This is a kind of “designer” of the boot Menu, in which the boot option is selected.
What you need for work
Naturally, the BCDW “constructor” itself is distributed free of charge. There are currently two versions of BCDW commonly mentioned online - 1.50z And 2.0a1. On the official BCDW website, only 1.50z is offered for download. Version 2.0a1 is in an alpha release state and has not been officially released, but is available online. Since it is functionally superior to 1.50z (in particular, it supports loading some ISO images and Windows XP SP2), many people use 2.0a1. You can download version 2.0a1 via a direct link from our website: in a 7-zip archive (84 kb) or in Zip (303 kb). This article covers BCDW 2.0a1 configuration files, however, most problems could be solved using version 1.50z.
With these file settings bcdw.ini available to choose from five options for booting from a CD, loading from a Flopper, or continuing the normal boot, bypassing the Menu, from the hard drive, and if you do not touch the keyboard, the last option occurs automatically after 10 seconds.
All text data can be changed arbitrarily. If you want to toggle different Menu windows (location, sizes, background colors and letters) - read the file description bcdw.ini in the Complete Guide (if you bothered to download it) or on the website. Here are the settings options from OSZone conference participants:
Sections of each option are collected in one text file.
Creating Boot Images
Typically, bootable floppy (IMA) or disk (ISO) images are used.
Boot disk images (IMA)
If there is no ready-made image, we assume that we have a Boot floppy disk and WinImage.
Insert the floppy disk into the computer, select WinImage disk A: , read the floppy disk and save it into an image (with *.IMA extension). The description with pictures is again either in the Complete Guide or on the website. If there are TWO of these floppy disks, the image is made from the first floppy disk, then the image format changes to 2880 KB, and all files (by replacing matching ones) from the second floppy disk are transferred to the image window. During the process, it is advisable to “slightly” adjust the download description. For example, for floppy disks from the package PartitionMagic You can completely remove lines from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file
ECHO.
ECHO Please Insert PartitionMagic Disk 2
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO *** Press Any Key to Continue ***
ECHO.
PAUSE >NUL
Now we don’t need to wait for a replacement with a second floppy disk.
To create an image of an arbitrary size, it seemed to me that the easiest way is to take a hard drive (any old one, whatever size you can get your hands on), mark its first partition as active and set the size to 700 MB (and where more?), transfer it to it correctly system files from the boot floppy disk ( Sys A:C: ), copy the remaining files from the Boot floppy disk there, and then dump EVERYTHING that you would like to see after loading there: CD and mouse drivers, DOS test programs, NTFS partition viewer, Norton Commander along with all archivers (ZIP, RAR, ARJ, LHA, ICE and other exotics), and even in general DOS Navigator, the overall size stopped worrying us. Now, having connected this hard drive as the main one, reboot the computer from it and completely configure applications, along with General Settings and Menu NC(or another file manager). It would not hurt to insert the line into the AUTOEXEC.BAT file
otherwise, many DOS programs will not run from the CD; they may also not work if all hard drives, and even the disk itself C:, are marked as NTFS.
Then we boot in normal mode, attaching this screw additionally to our main one, take the same WinImage(we are now interested in him Professional mode) and, pointing it to this same 700-MB partition, we make an image of the entire partition, saving it as *.IMA. The size of the resulting image is 700 MB. If WinImage indicate " Cut off unused part of the image" - the size of the image file will be determined only by the size of the files that make it up (in my case - about 8 MB), but you can add more files to this image up to its full size, 700 MB. It would not hurt to carry out the operation " Defragment the current image" - then its volume will be even smaller.
Bootable disk images (ISO)
To boot from ISO you need BCDW 2.0a1, but it cannot load absolutely any ISO image. Boot images can be found on the network (for example, memtest) or created yourself using the same WinImage (Disk - Create CD-ROM ISO Image). In this way, for example, you can create ISO images of Acronis True Image and Disk Director Suite boot disks.
In general, BCDW recognizes an image not by extension, but by content. So you can rename the extensions of all your images to at least *.APO.
How to register image loading in bcdw.ini
All that remains is to put all your resulting images into a folder and make the appropriate changes to the section of the file bcdw.ini , placing there the names of your download options and brief descriptions of these options. You probably already guessed how this is done by looking at the code above. Just in case, let's explain the format:
; the path to the image; Name; description
; ^ - line feed
\img\Quicker.IMA ; System floppy DOS 7.10; ^ Fast loading without frills
\img\memtest.iso ; Memtest ; ^ Indispensable for thorough testing of random access memory (RAM)
All. Ready to record.
Burning a bootable disc
We will look at creating an ISO image using the CDImage utility, as well as the classic method of burning a bootable disc using programs such as Nero or Easy Media Creator. It is recommended to first play around with a rewritable CD-RW a couple of times, so as not to launch damaged disposable CD-R discs from the balcony towards the horizon.
To begin with, to the root of the Project Boot disk place folders And .
CDImage
CDImage is discussed in more detail in the article Creating a bootable ISO/CD. The kit, which can be downloaded from our website, includes everything you need to create a multiboot disk image based on BCDW (except BCDW, which you need to download separately). The set includes a file Create_ISO_BCDW.cmd , by running which you will get the desired ISO image. Let's take a closer look at the file by opening it in a text editor:
@echo off
TITLE Creating ISO Image of BCDW project
ECHO.:: Specify the path to the distribution (files of the disk being created)
SET DISTRO=C:\XPCD:: Specify where to create the resulting ISO image
SET OUTPUT=C::: Enter the volume label (no spaces!)
:: It will also be used as the name of the ISO image
SET LABEL=MULTIBOOT_BCDW
:: List of standard tags
:: Windows XP http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=342
:: Windows 2003 http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=355:: Removing file attributes
ECHO Removing any possible attributes set on %DISTRO% and its subfolders...
attrib -R -H "%DISTRO%" /S /D
ECHO.:: ISO creation
ECHO Creating ISO...:: It is assumed that the folder with BCDW is in the root of the created disk.
:: Change the path to the bootloader (.bin) if necessary.:: For BCDW 2.0a1
CDIMAGE.EXE -l"%LABEL%" -h -j1 -oci -m -b"%DISTRO%\bcdw\loader.bin" "%DISTRO%" "%OUTPUT%\%LABEL%.ISO":: For BCDW 1.50z
:: CDIMAGE.EXE -l"%LABEL%" -h -j1 -oci -m -b"%DISTRO%\bcdw\bcdw.bin" "%DISTRO%" "%OUTPUT%\%LABEL%.ISO"
ECHO.PAUSE
EXIT
You need to indicate where the project files are located (by default - C:\XPCD) and where you want to save the resulting image (by default - the root directory of drive C). You can also easily change the volume label to your own. We assume that the folder , containing the loader, is located in the project root. If you placed the folder in a different location, then change the path to the downloader. Double click on the file Create_ISO_BCDW.cmd starts creating the ISO image. This is perhaps the simplest and most reliable method of creating a boot disk.
Classic recording method
We specify the file as the boot image loader.bin , it is in our folder (so as not to look for it every time) . (Note: we are talking about bootloader 2.0a1; for 1.50z please specify bcdw.bin ). Don't be alarmed, it's really only TWO KiloBytes. File initest.bat we won't need it here.
You can add whatever you want to the remaining space until the CD-R is completely filled.
There is one pitfall here: not all CD burning programs have the necessary settings (for example Small CD-Writer for our purposes doesn't fit). In the recording settings, you MUST specify the parameters " Emulation mode"="No emulation" And " Number of sectors to boot" = 4 . If this is not done, with standard recording of information on a CD with a volume of more than 100 MB, the boot sector of this kind refuses to work. True, less than 100 MB - it works, even when recording via Small CD-Writer.
For those in the tank
Settings (with pictures) for the programs Nero, CDRWin, WinOnCD, Easy CD Creator, Instant CD+DVD, CDImage or mkisofs are all available in the same Complete Guide or on the BCDW website.
If you are not tired, then we still have something to tell you. We offer two examples demonstrating the use of BCDW in real conditions.
Let's simplify it all the way
If there is only one boot image, that is, multiboot is not required (for example, you need to create a boot image of the entire hard drive or only one of its partitions, unless of course it is larger than the volume of a CD-R), then the INI BCDW files are practically degenerate.
The prepared image itself *.GHO the entire hard drive (or just one partition) is transferred directly to the root of the bootloader image No_Ghost.IMA (here you will need exactly the same 700 MB image).
Burn to CD-R folder , which contains two files bcdw.ini And loader.bin (folders are not required here either), and the folder , which contains a single file No_Ghost.IMA . We use the same file as a boot image loader.bin .
Boot from CD-Rom. No input Selection menu, loads immediately Norton Ghost, and, you will laugh, but the file *.GHO (not a bad size) lies right on the disk A:\ . Of course, you can get rid of folders altogether, but this is probably too much...
Making it as difficult as possible
This article uses a disk with five different boot options as an example. If you are not modest and continue to add options, you will have to scroll down the menu for a long time to see them all. In such a situation, the question inevitably arises about a more convenient menu navigation system. You can solve the problem by creating tree menu structure.
Let's say your download options can be divided into several categories: Installation of operating systems, Component stability test, etc. Then you can display these categories on the first screen. The user, having selected a category, will go directly to various download options.
For example, by choosing Creating and changing HDD partitions, we get to a submenu containing PartitionMagic And Acronis Disk Director.
This is even easier to implement than to explain in words. All you need to do is bcdw.ini specify the path to the corresponding INI file that defines the contents of the menu. The format of this INI file is exactly the same as bcdw.ini. In the example described above, we have approximately the following (only sections are given, since the rest will be the same, and the descriptions of the loading options are taken arbitrarily and may not fully correspond to the screenshot).
bcdw.ini
\bcdw\OSInstal.ini ; Installation of operating systems;^ Your description.
\bcdw\Test.ini ; Component stability test;^ Your description.
\bcdw\PrtRstrk.ini ; Creating and changing HDD partitions ;^ Your description.
OSInstal.ini
\i386\setupldr.bin ; Windows XP Pro Regular; ^ Regular installation of Windows XP Professional.
\i386\setupld1.bin ; Windows XP Pro Unattended; ^ Unattended installation of Windows XP Professional.
Test.ini
:Return ; Return to previous menu
\img\memtest.iso; Memtest ; ^ Indispensable for thorough testing of random access memory (RAM)
PrtRstrk.ini
:Return ; Return to previous menu
\img\Part_Mag.IMA ; PartitionMagic & BootMagic 8.0; Allows you to change, divide, merge and convert sections.
\img\adds_10.iso ; Acronis Disk Director ;^ The same thing, but on Linux, the operating algorithms are more optimized.
Menu nesting is not limited to two levels. You can attach a submenu to any menu. The main thing is not to get carried away and not to complicate navigation more than necessary. Naturally, you can make your own design scheme for each menu.
The Bootable CD Wizard is being discussed at the OSZone conference.
At one point there was a need create a flash drive image due to the formation of a recovery system by the DELL all-in-one PC on a removable USB drive. Since there is only one flash drive, both the recovery system and the OS bootloader were written to it, it was decided to save the flash drive as an image and store it on another physical medium.
Many users try to find on the Internet the possibility of creating a flash drive image in ISO format, but such a search will not give positive results, because... The ISO format is intended solely for making CD images. Therefore, we had to look for a way out of this situation, and a way out was found - this is a program USB Image Tool.
USB Image Tool is developed by Alexander Beug in Germany and is very easy to use. (http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/download/). It can create an image of a flash drive, either a regular one - just files, or a bootable one, for example, with the Windows operating system. Yes, by the way, if you are interested in the question of creating a bootable flash drive, then you can read the article on the website page “how to make a bootable flash drive”.
Continuing, I would like to note again that the program interface is made for people and without frills!
All interface elements of interest are on one screen. A drop-down menu allows you to select a mode for removing a flash drive image, program buttons offer a choice of action, and an information window shows connected removable media and their technical data.
Now let's look at what each element is intended for:
1 – an area in which all connected removable media are displayed, in our case an 8 GB Transcend flash drive;
2 – image capture mode "Device Mode" or "Volume Mode", the first is device mode, the second is disk mode, which is selected only if several partitions have been created on a removable drive and you need to remove an image of one of them.
3 - button "Backup" is intended to indicate the name of the future image file and save it in a specific directory, see the image.
4 – after creating an image of a flash drive on physical media, if necessary, you can restore the image of the data recorded earlier back to the flash drive, this is what the button is for "Restore".
5 - button "Rescan" is designed to rescan USB drives connected to a computer if the program does not automatically recognize the flash drive.
6 - button "Reset" necessary if Windows OS does not see the full capacity of the drive.
Yes, I forgot to say that the program saves the image in the format IMG or IMA... And I also want to add that an experiment was carried out, which consisted of the following: write data onto one flash drive of 8Gb size, remove flash drive image, and then take another flash drive with the same size and burn the image - and it worked, the program coped with the task!!!
