EWF NTLDR required?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jj3000
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J

jj3000

I am a little confused by various MSDN articles. Do I need the EWF
NTLDR when using RAM based EWF?

I am doing the kind where it uses a 32kb hidden partition (not
registry based), so I would think I still need the EWF NTLDR to for it
to write the status?

Or will the original NTLDR work fine?
 
To make some confusion with controversial info.

You should not use EWF NTLDR, you should use ordinary one with RAM EWF.
RAM EWF configured trough config partition or registry, no matter which have
nothing to do with ntldr.
F8 option for EWF restore won't be present in ordinary ntldr. and since this
option is useless with RAM EWF then it is better solution to use ordinary
ntldr.

Regards,
Slobodan

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I agree with Slobodan.

EWF RAM overlay should have nothing to do with NT loader (or EWF loader).

Btw, here is a quote from XPE docs: "When EWF is configured to use
DISK-overlay, a modified version of NT Loader is required.".
And another one: "The EWF NTLDR component is required if booting from
writeable media that is protected by EWF. It is not required for booting
from read-only media with a RAM-overlay.".
 
I believe that EWF NTLDR is important primarily for disk-based overlays, so that the OS loader knows to load cached copies of system boot files if system updates have been applied to the XPe image after the write filter has been enabled. I.e., the EWF NTLDR is aware of the EWF overlay, whereas NTLDR is not.

Also, I have used NTLDR with EWF & RAM-based overlays without issues.

-Jason, Venturcom Inc.
 
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