Press F* to start system recovery - How do I do it?

[Bocaj1994]

Hey guys,

 

I want to set up something similar to whats in the thread title, like on the HP/Dell/Asus/Acer prebuilt PCs. So after the BIOS and before Windows 7 loads the user has the option to restore the Windows partition via GHOSTing.

 

I want to have Windows 7 installed on the machine and have a hidden partition containing GHOST and all the correct autoexec.bat files and such *NOTE: I already have all the GHOST and scripting done as well as a Windows image*

 

All I need help with is setting up a bootloader or other method that will give me the option mentioned, or something similar.

 

My thoughts are XOSL, LILO and GRUB but I'm not 100% sure how to set it up. This is going to be used on many hundreds of laptops so free licensing is the only option. I know Acronis True Image has exactly what I want, but it is $40 a PC, which is a no no.

 

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

[Arthur]

I want to set up something similar to whats in the thread title, like on the HP/Dell/Asus/Acer prebuilt PCs. So after the BIOS and before Windows 7 loads the user has the option to restore the Windows partition via GHOSTing.

You may want to have a look at MBR.exe from TeraByte Unlimited. From the included ReadMe.txt file...

 

mbr 0 /install selm 10 9 "Press F9 for recovery" 0xC 0xDB

 

MBR.EXE will install a MBR to hard drive 0. The MBR will display the message "Press F9 to boot the recovery partition" for 10 seconds.

 

If the F9 key is pressed within 10 seconds, it will cause a partition with the file system ID 0xDB to be booted from. The MBR will then be modified to mark the new boot partition active, and the file system ID of it will be changed to 0xC.

 

Once booted in the partition whose file system ID was originally 0xDB, the command line "mbr 0 /reset" should be run, in order to set the MBR back to the state it was in before the file system ID and active partition values were changed.

 

Assuming you already have the relevant partitions setup, it shouldn't be too difficult to get the above working. I think there's a thread on the MSFN or Reboot.pro forums with step-by-step instructions on what to do.

 

If you want to use Grub4DOS there is an excellent guide here (including how to setup PXE booting). Another alternative would be to add Ghost32.exe to your Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE.wim) via WinREConfig.xml or use OEM Recovery Partition Tools Creator.

[Bocaj1994]

THANK YOU!

 

Many options and very helpful, thanks!