Boot SRD from hard drive partition?

[fss]

I am testing Symantec System Recovery 8.5 Desktop Edition on our corporate laptops and I like what I see so far.

The one thing I would like to change is the need for the users to have a SRD CD. Instead, I would like to have a second boot partition on the hard drive that the user can boot from and load the System Recovery environment. This would make recovery easier as it would not require the user to have this CD available.

This is the scenario:

• I am running Windows XP Pro on a Dell laptop (D530)
• I have installed Symantec System Recovery 8.5 Desktop Edition and works fine.
• I have created a CD containing the Symantec System Recovery disk and is bootable and works fine.
• The SRD is about 400 MB in size.

It appears that Symantec has a boot partition selector (SRFixMBR) and that the SRD disk boots a version of Windows so NTLDR should be able to work fine with the proper boot.ini configuration. However, I am hitting a wall beyond that since there are no instructions on how to do this.

Any help or leads would be much appreciated!

[Richard_FDisk]

I should hope you never need to restore;

I haven't tried this but I'm wondering if a bootable flash disk / chip
with the SRD on it  would be a better option than the second partition idea

 usually you need to restore from a bombed HDD and that usually includes losing any utility partitions
 bad or failed software installations or Virus / malware infection is not first
 usually restoring just a few corrupt, lost or deleted files can be done as a hot restore (no need to use the SRD)

 also as you probably already know only one partition can be marked as "active" or bootable
so booting and restoring from a second utility partition with the SRD on it
would add extra steps and (possibly confusion) to restoring anything on the original bootable OS partition
plus you'd need somewhere to run the program to change the active partition from anyway before
you could even access the SRD on the utility partition

Cheers

[fss]

Thanks for your suggestions, Richard.

I realize that local backups are no good if the hard drive dies or the laptop is stolen; I am backing up  the user data offline as well, but only the user data.  In my experience, the most frequent scenario involves someone getting a virus, deleting files they didn't mean to or doing something dumb that renders the system useless.  For these scenarios, a SRD restore from local disk would help, especially for remote users.

As for the booting from disk, I am no expert but realize that the MBR can only pass control to one loader program.  I have played some with NTLDR and boot.ini and it is easy to specify multiple OS'es on different disk partitions:

[boot loader]
timeout=2
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

I have copied the contents of the SRD disk to a second partition and in broad terms, I believe I need to make this second partition bootable and create a boot file (.BIN) for NTLDR to load.  Unfortunately wIth SDR, I think I am at a dead end since it appears that it uses a different OS loader (BOOTMGR).  Another avenue is to use a different boot loader altogether (grub4dos) but I am out of my depth...

Fermin

 

[Richard_FDisk]

as soon as you create the possibility of a dual boot system
BESR won't function correctly, as Dual boot systems are not supported
you may or may not be able to still take backup images and restore individual files or folders from the image
but there's no guarantee of ever doing a disaster recovery of an entire HDD

when I posted a previous thread about  a new system that was being built using XP-64
and possibly VM or Dual booting with XP-32 for older programs
I  was informed promptly that dual boot systems are not supported by BESR
however the VM situation is supported

the SRD isn't usually necessary for accidental "User" file deletions, a hot restore is usually fine
using the SRD for a recovery from a virus infection usually means a total OS partition / Disk wipe and System Recovery from image, and to be on the safe side of things concerning recovery from a virus infection I usually recommend totally bombing the HDD and all partitions contained on it with a security eraser program such as DBAN rather than just dumping the C:\ partition as the infection could remain on another partition or portion of the HDD
ie at the very end of the HDD is an unused section of the disk that windows reserves for basic to dynamic disk convertion
and if a malware programmer were to figure out how to write to that section of the HDD a system could be repeatedly / perpetually infected no matter ho many times a full recovery is performed
Also if the client computer is away from the location of the backup images usually network drive / location the SRD installed on the system is usless because the backup images are located elswhere

I think the best option is still an SRD or a bootable USB with the SRD on it (if that can be accomplished)
I know that I've used a bootable USB stick with the win98 boot disk and started systems that way

it can't hurt to try making the SRD on a Bootable USB if you do and it works let us know

if anyone else has successfully created the SRD on a bootable USB stick I'm sure that "FSS" and the rest of us would like to know about it.

cheers

[marcogsp]

Info on creating a Bootable SRD Thumb drive is posted here:

http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/creating-bootable-usb-version-srd

This practice isn't officially sanctioned by Symantec, but for licensing purposes, the argument could be made that the SRD still exists on removable media, and is therefor not installed on any fixed media of the computer.

I remember some of our older Dell Dimension systems having a hidden separate restoration partition from the factory.  You had to boot to the Dell Diagnostics and invoke the recovery environment, which was a pared down version of Ghost.  Of course it is easier to get licensing for PC-DOS or FreeDos in order to setup an environment for this purpose.  I remember when I took the Ghost training class, that we had set up our lab systems for a similar recovery environment.  The target users for such a scenario were mobile users like the ones you are supporting FSS. 

BartPE has the ability to install itself to the hard drive, and I believe it does create a BIN file for making this possible.  Therefore, it should be possible to do this with the SRD, if the multiboot limitation were not a barrier.  The legality of the process is another thing.  Doing so would make the SRD a fixed media installation, and most likely violate the license agreement from Symantec and Microsoft.  I'm not an attorney, but I think the BartPE method is legal because it still constitutes an installation to a single computer, as long as the original license agreement is followed.  Virtual environments would not apply, since you can easily shift them from one computer to another.  However, there is nothing illegal about installing another installation of the same version of Windows to the same computer for recovery and repair purposes.  This was common it the NT40 days before the advent of bootable media with NT specific repair utilities.  I remember the process was outlined in Microsoft documentation for certification courses.

[kculp]

How about formatting a portable hard drive.  We use a caddy the plugs into laptops in the CD/DVD port.  If this could be made to boot easily, that would be cool, particularly if it could be configured with all the drivers for the various versions of the laptop/OS.

Any thoughts?

Ken

[fss]

I got a great tip to get this done. 

Please refer to this PDF:
ftp://exftpp.symantec.com/pub/support/products/Backup_Exec_System_Recovery_Server_Edition/314190.pdf

Page 180 and on details how to configure a feature called “Lights-out Restore,” and how to copy the bootable media to your local HDD.


I have successfully implemented this and can now concentrate on how to either get this data copied over to a internal server or possibly to Symantec's Online Backup or Online Storage service.  Has anyone has any experience with any of these?

FSS

[fss · Accepted solution]

I got a great tip to get this done. 

Please refer to this PDF:
ftp://exftpp.symantec.com/pub/support/products/Backup_Exec_System_Recovery_Server_Edition/314190.pdf

Page 180 and on details how to configure a feature called “Lights-out Restore,” and how to copy the bootable media to your local HDD.


I have successfully implemented this and can now concentrate on how to either get this data copied over to a internal server or possibly to Symantec's Online Backup or Online Storage service.  Has anyone has any experience with any of these?

FSS

[marcogsp]

Great Find FSS!   Could you please mark your last post as the solution?  I'm sure others would like to know this issue was solved at a quick glance, and it would save them from reading through all the responses.