Updated: 2-17-05 --- 26 Total Questions
1.) Q: What are the minimum computer requirements to make the UBCD4Windows? And what are the minimum computer requirements to run the UBCD4Win?
A: *UBCD4Win building minimum requirements:
1. The files from your Windows Installation CD-Rom.
Supported Windows versions are:
- Windows XP Home Edition (must be slip streamed with Service Pack 1 or higher)
- Windows XP Professional (must be slip streamed with Service Pack 1 or higher)
- Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
- Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
- Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
2. PE Builder runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003 systems.
3. You must be able to record an ISO image to a CD-Rom or DVD media.
Q: Why can't Windows 2000 be used to build BartPE? Is there a technical
reason for this?
A: Yes, the kernel does not support the "/minint" switch and therefor
cannot boot from readonly media... Also the layout.inf does not contain
some needed fields.
From BartPE Builder website
Though you may be confused by the above, you should be able to build the
UBCD4Win in Windows 2000 (along with XP/2003).
Tentative UBCD4Win running minimum requirements: 100Mhz (or
higher) CPU with 128 (or higher) RAM and a 500MB (or higher) hard drive
with at least 100MB of free space on a machine with Windows 2000/XP/2003
and a 2MB (or higher) VGA graphics card and keyboard to ensure complete
and stable functionality. Mouse is optional but highly recommended.
More information on low-end requirements can be found
HERE.
2.) From the
BartPE
website:
Q: In what way is BartPE limited compared to a normal Windows XP
installation?
A: BartPE has these limitations:
- To reduce its size, only a subset of the available Win32 APIs is included. Included are I/O (disk and network) and core Win32 APIs.
- To prevent its use as a pirated operating system, BartPE automatically stops running the shell and reboots after 24 hours of continuous use.
- Distributed File System (DFS) name resolution is not supported.
- The drive letters assigned during BartPE are not saved to any registry that persists when you reboot. The drive letter assignment when you create partitions is in the order of creation, but the drive letter assignments when you reboot will be in the default order.
- BartPE requires a VGA-compatible device and uses a screen resolution of 800 x 600 pixels or higher. If BartPE cannot detect video settings, the default screen resolution is 640 x 480 pixels.
- BartPE is too large to fit on a floppy disk.
- BartPE does not support the Microsoft .NET framework.
3.) Q: What's different about the Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows
compared to the Ultimate Boot CD (if any)?
A: From stidyup:
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http://www.ubcd4win.com Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows Homepage http://www.ultimatebootcd.com Ultimate Boot CD Homepage Hopefully this will stop the confusion people are having between the 2 CD's. The CD's are by different people. UBCD4Windows needs extra files provided by the user ie the I386 folder of the WinXP installation cd Ultimate BootCD (UBCD) is a complete ISO that needs no other files to burn it to CD and it works. UBCD4Windows gives the user a Windows user interface UBCD gives the user a DOS based user interface (won't complicate it by saying it's a Linux boot CD for the sake of simplicity it's dos) Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows boots once and you can access all programs, no further reboot required UBCD boot you need to reboot each time to access different program UBCD4Windows gives you full read/write access to NTFS/FAT/FATS32 drives UBCD gives read/write to FAT/FATS32 and ONLY read access to NTFS (this means you can't alter any data) UBCD4Windows limited support for USB devices ie external hdd's providing they are plugged in at boot UBCD no USB support There are more differences between the two I'll limit it to this. The UBCD is still a valuable tool for any admin or home user, the UBCD4Windows is a enhancement not a replacement. Some real world examples of the difference. You have a virus on a WinXP PC with a NTFS drive. The UBCD will not be able to remove it, as you are limited to running one program at a time, it has NTFS read capabilities but can't run the virus scanner at the same time, even if it could you only have READ capabilities this means you can't write or delete data from the drive. Now the UBCD4Windows has full read/write access. This means it can remove virus's from a NTFS drive, so the UBCD4Windows can do what the UBCD can't. Another example is data simple data recovery. Your hdd won't boot but the data is OK. The UBCD will give you read access but you can only write the data to either FAT or FATS32 drive nor can you write data to a USB hdd. The UBCD4Windows gives you full read/write access to your drives. This means that if you have two NTFS hard drives you could copy your data from one hard drive to another to rescue your data. If you have a USB external hard drive you will be able to plug it in and copy the data that way. With original UBCD you wouldn't be able to do this. I hope that for new visitors this helps to clear the confusion. The UBCD4Windows and Ultimate BootCD are two entirely different projects the only similarity is the name. |
4.) Q: I've created a UBCD4Windows but when I test it all that
happnes is Windows loads up, what's wrong?
A: From stidyup:
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There could be several things wrong. The CD could be corrupted or damaged. Check that the CD can be read with this free utility CD Checker. Another possibilty is that your bios isn't set to boot from CD. Most PC's you need to press delete at the post screen to enter the bios. For the latest Dell's press F12 this will give you a menu of which device to boot from, floppy, cd rom, hdd. If you are unsure how to enter your bios read the manual that came with your PC on how to access your bios and change the settings to boot from the CD. If your not familiar with accessing and using the bios, make sure you write down what the original settings are before you change anything. Older PC's may not support booting from CD. CAUTION altering the bios settings could make your PC not work, altering the boot priority won't have any effect on how your PC works, but if you alter anything else it could do, approach the bios with caution. Another reason why it isn't booting is that the CD-Rom doesn't support bootable CD's, this could be the case with an old CD Rom. If you can try a different CD-Rom in your PC. If none of these tips help post your problem in the forum. |
5.) Q: What can I do if my system can't/wont boot from a CD? Is
there a floppy version?
A: Yes, in a way. You can use a program called Smart Boot Manager
to use a floppy to boot the system in then which can boot from a CD.
Directions for that program below:
From DigiWiz:
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1) download the latest 3.7.1 version
HERE 2) extract to a folder of your choice 3) insert floppy 4) double-click on the CreateFloppyBootDisk.bat file 5) done I made this for myself - always forgetting those command switches DW  |
6.) Q: How do I use the UBCD4Win to recover from a virus
infection?
A:
Please read how to update Virus/Spyware Definitions first
From
stidyup:
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UBCD 4 Windows has several options to remove virus
infections from a PC. Option 1: Use McAfee stinger, however this is limited as it will only detect a handful of virus’s, these are the most prevalent at the time. See http://vil.nai.com/vil/averttools.asp for list of current virus’s it will detect and move, this is updated frequently. Option 2: AntiVir Current AntiVir rating at Virus Bulletin http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archives/pro...xml?antivir.xml Start up AntiVir Personal Edition First update the program: Tools or click on the two computers joined by arrows Start Internet Update Click Start If you see a box telling you the server has updates press Yes After your computer has downloaded and installed the updates another box will come up asking you if you would like to quit the program, press Yes You will now need to open AntiVir Personal Edition again, this time the program and definitions will be upto. Before we scan for virus’s you may want to change the repair settings, some virus’s replicate themselves many times on a single PC so if you leave the settings on repair with prompt you could be sitting pressing yes to deleting a virus several hundred times. If you want to avoid that do the following. Options Configuration Repair Reported items change to Repair without prompt Not repairable items delete without prompt Click OK One word of caution this will remove virus’s without asking, if could remove something you don’t want it to or that’s not a virus by mistake. If you scan with the defaults and it's finding the same virus over and over again, it you select the options/repair box you can alter the settings to: Reported items change to Repair without prompt Not repairable items delete without prompt Now select the relevant hard-drives on your system, you should now be able to click on the magnifying glass, click on the magnifying glass and your scan will start. Once the scan is complete you will get a report window telling you how virus’s have been found and repaired/deleted. Click OK and exit the software. Option 3: Trend Micro SysClean Current Trend Micro rating at Virus Bulletin http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archives/pro...s.xml?trend.xml Sysclean by default is set to scan all hdd's and automatically to repair/delete infected files. If you want to scan a particular drive then you will need to click on the advanced button, this will then allow you to select the partition or folder you would like to scan. To start Sysclean scanning, press Scan. ============================================================= Once you have removed the virus(‘s) from your system, reboot back into windows. Apply any necessary critical windows updates from Microsoft. Update your virus scanner definitions. If you don’t have a virus scanner installed download one of the freeware one’s immediately from: AVG http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php Avast http://www.avast.com/ AntiVir Personal Edition http://www.free-av.com/ And install. Disable system restore on XP as virus’s could be hidden here. Start, control panel, performance and maintenance, system. Click the system restore tab. Tick the turn off system restore option, don’t forget to re-enable it once you have finished the following. Now run a complete scan of your system with your own anti-virus software. “But haven’t I just removed all the virus’s??” Not necessarily I’ve run virus scans on PC’s using UBCD 4 Windows which has removed virus’s but still some have managed to remain on the PC. It’s better to be safe and do another scan and see if anything has been left on your system and remove them. If you haven’t already done so install Ad-aware from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ and remove any spyware on your system. If you’ve bought spyware software on the web via a popup, you’ve probably got a very bad piece of software that might even install spyware on your system. Probably the best spyware remover is Ad-aware another good one is spybot http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=nl&page=home which is also free. If you want any advice on Anti-virus software or security issues I’d recommend visiting http://forum.gladiator-antivirus.com/ there’s a specific section for Anti-Vir in the forum http://forum.gladiator-antivirus.com/index.php?showforum=156 |
7.) Q: How do I recover from a “NTLDR is missing” error?
A: From stidyup:
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Recovering from "NTLDR is missing". Run the UBCD 4 Windows Check that the file NTLDR is on the hdd, it will be located on C:\ntldr. If the file is not there replace it with a copy from your original installation disk. Go -> Programs -> System Tools -> Check Disk Type C if this is your partition containing the operating system, adjust according if these files are on a different partition ie D, E etc.... Do you want to fix errors .....: Enter Y Start check disk? Enter Y Then defrag the Hard Drive with Dirms. Go -> Command prompt Then type the following dirms C -q This will defrag the hard drive, once completed reboot. Your system should now boot. If this still doesn't work you will need to do a repair installation of XP. |
8.) Q: Can the UBCD 4 Windows help recover data from a dead hard
drive?
A: From stidyup:
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The answer is yes, but not in all cases. If the hard drive is physically damaged or cannot be detected by the bios (see below for a trick that may help in some cases) then your only option if you need the data to be recovered is to use a specialist data recovery company such as Ontrack or Convar. However this will be expensive. Hopefully you are reading this before you need to use the UBCD4Windows, in which case back up your important data now to other media. The following advice is from my own experience of data recovery. If the hard drive doesn’t appear to be physically working one trick is to put it in the freezer, yes you read correctly put it in the freezer in an air tight bag and squeeze all the air out of the bag. This won’t work in all cases of hard drive failure, but I’ve had success doing this in the past and it does work. DO NOT do this if you hard drive is making a loud scraping noises etc…. Your drive is physically damaged and you need to send it off to the professionals for data recovery, the more you use the drive the less likely data will be recovered. If the drive is accessible after you remove it from the freezer you need to keep the hard drive cool as you will only get a limited time of being able to access the data on the drive, heat killed the drive so you need to keep it cool. Hard drives coolers are a very good idea. Akasa 3½ cooling fans are very good and cheap, but there are others out there. Having the PC case open is also a good idea and having a room fan pointing in the case will also help to keep the temp down on the hdd. If it’s a dusty case you may want to get the vacuum cleaner out first you have a fan blowing dust everywhere. If you can see your data, copy it off to another media ie USB hard drive or burn it to CD. If the still can’t see the data try running PC Inspector file recovery and use Find Lost Drive option, select logical drive and use the options where drive letters are listed ie WinXP on Windows drive C. This could take time which is why you will have to keep the drive cool. Or try Test Disk and see check the partition information on the hard drive. If the drive is physically damaged and you wish to try recovering the data I would suggest using Unstopable Copier, but in attempting this you may damage the disk even more making recovery impossible even for the specialists. ======================================================== Recovering deleted files Use the UBCD4Windows disk. Don’t keep booting into Windows as this could write data over the deleted files. There are several tools you can use to recover deleted data. Restoration Handy Recovery PC Inspector File Recovery PC Inspector also has a Find Lost Data option, which may help. If you get an error message when trying to use this option run chkdsk. DO NOT restore the files to the HDD you are recovering from, always copy to another partition or hard drive. If you use the same Partition your are recovering from you may go over other data you need to recover. If you’ve deleted a file Windows sees that as free space so could potentially use it. If the above tools can’t recover the file and you need the data your only option will be to pay the professionals. ====================================================== Lost Master Boot Record Run TestDisk If this fails to fix the problem, try Ultimate Boot CD which has some other tools that may fix the MBR but these will only run in Dos. If none of those programs help, I’ve used Active Partition Recovery (http://www.partition-recovery.com/ for 30 Euro) to successfully recover the MBR, there’s a free demo version which will give you a good indication of successful recovery. |
9.) Q: What does it mean if I get the following error:
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| Error: SetupDecompressOrCopyFile "D:\i386\efsadu.dll" to "c:\pebuilder\i386\system32\efsadu.dll" returned error 2: The system cannot find the file specified. |
A: This only happens with Windows XP Home Edition. From DigiWiz:
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Glad you got it working. efsadu.dll is a File Encryption Utility, that comes in three flavors:
You must have used Windows XP Home Edition for your build,
which would explain the file's absence. Windows XP Professional
supports the Encrypting File System (EFS), which allows you
to encrypt individual files or folders for local security (EFS is
not enabled over a network). The EFS feature is not found in the
Home Edition, and, therefore, neither is the file efsadu.dll. |
The build will work just fine with XP Home Ed. even without the file (at
least during our testing).
10.) Q: How do I build a plugin?
A: From stidyup:
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First check out the official Bart PE plugin
forum Theres also a plugin builder from http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7333 which should help you. |
The direct link to the plugin builder is
Here.
From LittlBUGer:
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| There is also a guide HERE. |
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