Boot partition size

[Guest]

I am building XPe image for a computer that is normally booting from a HDD

5000MB. As a backup solution we have a CF of 512Mb.

My question is about importance of having correct 'boot partion size'
setting in TA. I have set the size to 5000 and the image will boot OK on both
HDD and CF. Does anyone know if this can cause problems for the future?
Should i build one image for CF with 500MB boot partion size and one image
for HDD with 5000MB?

Thanx
Oyvind Hansen

 

[steves]

I thought I remembered that it was only used for estimating the size of
the run time, and thus not important, but when I checked the Target
Designer Help (I have FP2007 Build 2 installed), it says this:

BOOT PARTITION SIZE:
Specifies the size of the partition that holds your run-time image, in
megabytes.
The default is 1024 MB.

NOTE: The size of the partition affects the functionality of the
Winlogon component. When a partition size is larger than 1000 MB, the
Winlogon component requires the presence of the Winlogon Support Files
component. If your partition is smaller than 1000 MB, be sure to
indicate its size here so that Winlogon can function without the
Winlogon Support Files component. Otherwise you will not be able to log
on to your run-time image by using Winlogon.

So apparently if you are using Minlogon on your small image it will be
OK. Otherwise it is recommended that you make two builds.

Steves
StevesATeyeDASHimagingDOTcom

 

[KM]

Another grief is there. One of the Windows Activation check is done on the booting HDD partition size. If what you set in TD doesn't
match (the difference is huge) the target you may end up with the Activation errors at runtime.
I have seen those errors but frankly I couldn't figure out what is the range of TD acceptable partition sizes is there vs target
partition size.

 

[Guest]

Activation errors, do you mean problem with activation of run time license?
Maybe best to build and maintain two images with different size...

Oyvind

 

[KM]

Oyvind,

One of the beauties of XPe vs XP has always been the no-activation process required - you just use one PID for all your device
deployed with the same image. You don't really have to active the OS on each and every device on site.

However, internally, Windows Activation process is not OFF on XPe. After all, it is FBA and kernel who validates the PID and do some
other checks. Among the other checks there is a check for the partition size. The acceptable range is quite wide but still worth to
keep in mind this restriction.

If by backup you mean just an OS for performing device restore, I'd recommend to create and maintain two different images for
regular and restore OSes. The restore (backup) OS can then be very small and would required very little space on the disk. It can
perform certain steps to restore the main OS and data in a batch automated mode.