EWF mode for HORM

[Timu CHEN]

Hi,

I discovered this function recently and found it interesting for my project.

I am building an XPE for a mobile platform which uses notebook hard drive.

Hibernate Once / Resume Many should be good for my demand of quick boot to a
constant Windows mode (I never wanted to change it because it is a dedicated
platform).

As I am using hard drive with a lot of space, I created my image with EWF
Disk mode.

I added "Power Management Application" component into the config.

There is only one partition - the bootable partition.

The pagefile size is 175MB, and I left an un-partitioned segment about 200MB
right after the only one partition.

FBA looks ok.

Then I use "ewfmgr c: -disable", and reboot.
Back to Windows, when I check "ewfmgr c:", it tells me ewf is Disabled.
filberfil.sys is there, and I created an empty file called "resmany.dat".

Then I use "ewfmgr c: -enable", and reboot again.
Back to Windows, when I check "ewfmgr c:", it tells me ewf is Enabled.

I opened a browser, and a few folders, trying to create a boot up mode that
I wanted after resume.
Then I use "xpepm -hibernate" to force the system to hibernate.

But I got an error code called "error 31:", and nothing happened.
I use standard hibernation through shutdown icon, nothing happened.

The documentation said I should create my image with EWF RAM mode, or EWF
RAM Reg Mode. Is this the reason I cannot do HORM?
Also, did I miss any part of the process between disable and enable EWF?

Any suggestion well be appreciated.

Timu

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Timu,

You MUST USE some form of RAM EWF, to avoid data corruption. (RAM EWF is the
only one who allow you stateless mode of operation)

For hibernation make sure that you have installed all manufacturer drivers
and that they are functioning correctly.
Take extra care about GART and video driver.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Timu CHEN]

Hi Slobodan,

Thanks for the tips.

Yes, the RAM type is the right choice.

MY HORM is now up and running.

A few questions:

(1) The c:\ drive is now protected by EWF Manager. Therefore, whatever I
change, or write to c:\ drive is not going to be kept there, right?
(2) The standby function does not work anymore. Is this correct? How can I
hide the standby button from shutdown menu?

Timu

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Timu,

(1) The c:\ drive is now protected by EWF Manager. Therefore, whatever I
change, or write to c:\ drive is not going to be kept there, right?

Correct. (After the reboot you will have clean factory state)

(2) The standby function does not work anymore. Is this correct? How can I
hide the standby button from shutdown menu?

Why do you think that stand-by is not working? Stand-by is independent of
hibernation.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Timu CHEN]

Hi Slobodan,

When I click "Shutdown" and then "Standby", system does not do anything.

Then I use command prompt and give such a command: "xpepm -standby", standby
works.

When I resume from this standby, I can see "Error: 0" right below the
command I gave.

Is there anything wrong?

Thanks for the help.

Timu

 

[Timu CHEN]

Hi Slobodan,

I have some more interesting findings here.

(1) Use "xpepm -hibernate" to do hibernation.

After resuming back to Windows,

"start" => "shutdown" => "standby". Nothing happens.
"start" => "shutdown" => "hibernate". Nothing happens.


(2) Use "start" => "shutdown" => "hibernate".

After resuming back to Windows,

"start" => "shutdown" => "standby". Standby works.
"start" => "shutdown" => "hibernate". Hibernation works.

It looks like the program "xpepm" is giving the system some strange things.

I also found some other articles here addressing a newer version of
"xpepm.dll". The version that I am using is "2.0.620.0", and I found another
version under "VALUEADD" folder in the CD-ROM, "2.0.870.0".

Unfortunately, the two versions work the same way in my testing.

Timu

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Timu,

Hmm this should not happen but....

xpepm use undocumented native api function "NtSetSystemPowerState".
And shell probably uses Win32 API function: SetSystemPowerState
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/power/base/setsystempowerstate.asp

Can you test this from your application?

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Timu CHEN]

Hi Slobodan,

I have tried some vb scripts in here:

http://www.tabletpctalk.com/faqs/turnoffcomputer.shtml

These scripts work fine. They will be my current workaround for the time
being.

But I will try your suggestions.

Timu

 

[KM]

Timu,

Something must be wrong with your testing. If you take a look at the scripts on that web site you will notices that they do nothing
but just sending the proper key combinations to the shell (Explorer) to get to StandBy or Hibernate buttons on the Turn Off Computer
dialog.
If script worked for you, that mean there is no problem with neither StandBy nor Hibernate (which inherits StandBy anyway) even from
Shell.