EWF on CF

[David D]

Here is my situation.
I have an XP build with EWF set up for ram.
I tested the build on a normal 2GB HD with a 1GB partion for C and a 32mb
partion for D. The remainder space was not partioned.

I ran FBA and afterwards I looked to see if the EWF was functioning. Using
EWFMGR C: it reported that it was there and disabled. I played around
enabling it and rebooting, disabling and rebooting, hard shutdowns while
enabled and such. It seemed to work ok so far.

I took a Sandisk 512MB flash. Ran the utility to set it to Fixed instead of
Removable drive.

It then partitiond C: as 400MB and D: as 32MB. Left the rest unpartitioned.
I set C as active. Formatted C and D.
Ran fdisk /mbr on C. Ran bootprep on C:
Then i copied the pre FBA raw image onto C: (just like I do with the HD).
I ran FBA and it finished ok.

When I run EWFMGR c: it can not find an EWF volume.

Now I had seen some procedures to do FBA on a HD then transfer the image to
the CF but I figured running FBA on the CF should work as well. Yes I know
it will wear the CF. I have more $$ than time.
What am I doing wrong?
When will a better step by step example be ready on the MS website?
Does formatting the CF with Fat32 vs FAT(16) make any difference?

David

 

[Heidi Linda]

I personally always use NTFS and haven't had any problems,
but then I've not dealt with bootprep either. I just
partition my CF with a NT 4 machine, set the c: active and
off we go.
I use a 256MB card, on which I create an 8MB primary
partition (this is compressed and unprotected, and
contains only the config files and what's needed to boot,
d: has windows on it) the rest I create as an extended
partition (235MB). Within this I create a 233MB logical
drive for windows which I leave uncompressed, leaving 2MB
of free space within the extended partition for the EWF to
be created.

 

[Slobodan Brcin]

Wow Heidi are you sure that this is how you do it?

I personally always use NTFS and haven't had any problems,
but then I've not dealt with bootprep either. I just
partition my CF with a NT 4 machine, set the c: active and
off we go.
I use a 256MB card, on which I create an 8MB primary
partition (this is compressed and unprotected, and
contains only the config files and what's needed to boot,
d: has windows on it) the rest I create as an extended
partition (235MB). Within this I create a 233MB logical
drive for windows which I leave uncompressed, leaving 2MB
of free space within the extended partition for the EWF to
be created.

What is good having 8MB partition compressed, no significant gain is space.
And what about ntldr.? It must not be compressed.
Also why 233 uncompressed? You probably meant 8MB uncompressed, and 233
compressed.

Your boot partition is week link in your system, since it is not protected.

This partition order in not what I would have done, don't take this as a
critic but consider following partition order:

C: primary partition size 233+MB. All except root directory files is
compressed (probably only ntldr. must not be compressed).
D: partition is used for config files.
EWF never creates temporary partition if you use method I described and
posted in this NG. So you can use extra 2MB of space for something else.

Your boot drive will be protected and all XPE files.
If your config partition or files gets corrupted you can always recreate
them from XPE.

This will allow you to be sure that you have done everything in your power
to protect XPE to always boot, and config files are probably not your
problem.

Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[Heidi Linda]

Wow Heidi are you sure that this is how you do it?We have 120 of them in the field, yes this is how we do it.

What is good having 8MB partition compressed, no significant gain is space.
And what about ntldr.? It must not be compressed.

After copying, right-click, properties, untick compression.

Also why 233 uncompressed? You probably meant 8MB uncompressed, and 233
compressed.

I meant what I said. The 8MB is there mostly for a few
config files. There's actually less in there now than
there used to be, but it's also where the latest version
of our app is kept.

Your boot partition is week link in your system, since it

is not protected.

Indeed it's not, but it needs to be that way. The reason
it's that way round, with c: the small partition and d:
the large one with windows on is that during development I
was working on a hard drive, and did not wish to be
plugging it in and out of another machine just to copy a
new image across. I therefore had XP Pro on c: so that I
could just reboot, copy across the network, and boot to
the XPe instead.
If I used c: as the XPe drive and a later partition as XP
Pro, the XPPro would get muffed up on a fairly regular
basis by the EWF.
The developers therefore wrote our app to deal with things
this way round.

This partition order in not what I would have done,

I was planning to change as soon as I had got to a stage
where the system was working, however, I did not believe
it was possible to get this to run on a 128MB card (which
is what I had to work with at the time) right up until it
happened. It happened after a fortnight of 20-hour days,
so I think you'll appreciate how tight the deadline was
becoming. There was no time to get the developers to
change the code.
Now that it works, my manager would not authorise that
sort of change.

don't take this as a
critic but consider following partition order:

C: primary partition size 233+MB. All except root directory files is
compressed (probably only ntldr. must not be compressed).

Compression slows the system (which is already rather
slow) so much that the web front end tends to time out and
not be displayed if the unit is doing anything else as
well. We do not have a fast processor on here.

D: partition is used for config files.
EWF never creates temporary partition if you use method I described and
posted in this NG. So you can use extra 2MB of space for

something else.

We never commit. We *must not* commit. The device buffers
data temporarily. This data must not ever be permanently
written to the drive, as sending it twice would cause
major problems. We do occasionally have to reboot to make
permanent changes to a unit, so we need the partition.

Your boot drive will be protected and all XPE files.
If your config partition or files gets corrupted you can always recreate
them from XPE.

The unit would have to come back from site in any case to
be fixed here. It takes no longer to completely reflash
the box.

This will allow you to be sure that you have done everything in your power
to protect XPE to always boot, and config files are probably not your
problem.

They very much are. If the config files are corrupted, the
device becomes remotely inaccessible anyway as the config
files set the static IP.
I may be just a helpdesk monkey, but in this case I *do*
know what I'm doing.

 

[Slobodan Brcin]

Sorry I had made few assumptions that in your case are wrong.

I assumed that you use RAM EWF also. Since you replied to:

-----Original Message-----
Here is my situation.
I have an XP build with EWF set up for ram.

I thought since you use 2MB partition that it is there for RAM EWF setup,
nothing more. But you probably would not waste your space with that since
you probably don't run pre FBA on CF either.

I took a Sandisk 512MB flash. Ran the utility to set it to Fixed instead of
Removable drive.

It then partitiond C: as 400MB and D: as 32MB. Left the rest unpartitioned.
I set C as active. Formatted C and D.
Ran fdisk /mbr on C. Ran bootprep on C:
Then i copied the pre FBA raw image onto C: (just like I do with the HD).
I ran FBA and it finished ok.

When I run EWFMGR c: it can not find an EWF volume.

I can't see original post so I have posted on top of your post. And tried to
adjuct procedure for original post. Since you gave your solution I assumed
that you have used similar scenario as David.

This might have made great confusion.

Regarding the decompression speed, yes this is true if you have slow
processor. But since we are using very fast processors this is not a issue,
and might even speed load from flash drive.

And what about ntldr.? It must not be compressed.

This was more meant like a statement than a question.

And I could not see purpose of compressing config files. But they are
probably not encrypted internally so you can use compression.

I was planning to change as soon as I had got to a stage
where the system was working, however, I did not believe
it was possible to get this to run on a 128MB card (which
is what I had to work with at the time) right up until it
happened. It happened after a fortnight of 20-hour days,
so I think you'll appreciate how tight the deadline was
becoming. There was no time to get the developers to
change the code.
Now that it works, my manager would not authorise that
sort of change.

Fair enough.

I may be just a helpdesk monkey, but in this case I *do*
know what I'm doing.

I never said that you don't.

I would answer directly to David if I could see original post.


Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[Slobodan Brcin]

Sorry I had made few assumptions that in your case are wrong.

I assumed that you use RAM EWF also. Since you replied to:

-----Original Message-----
Here is my situation.
I have an XP build with EWF set up for ram.

I thought since you use 2MB partition that it is there for RAM EWF setup,
nothing more. But you probably would not waste your space with that since
you probably don't run pre FBA on CF either.

I took a Sandisk 512MB flash. Ran the utility to set it to Fixed instead of
Removable drive.

It then partitiond C: as 400MB and D: as 32MB. Left the rest unpartitioned.
I set C as active. Formatted C and D.
Ran fdisk /mbr on C. Ran bootprep on C:
Then i copied the pre FBA raw image onto C: (just like I do with the HD).
I ran FBA and it finished ok.

When I run EWFMGR c: it can not find an EWF volume.

I can't see original post so I have posted on top of your post. And tried to
adjuct procedure for original post. Since you gave your solution I assumed
that you have used similar scenario as David.

This might have made great confusion.

Regarding the decompression speed, yes this is true if you have slow
processor. But since we are using very fast processors this is not a issue,
and might even speed load from flash drive.

And what about ntldr.? It must not be compressed.

This was more meant like a statement than a question.

And I could not see purpose of compressing config files. But they are
probably not encrypted internally so you can use compression.

I was planning to change as soon as I had got to a stage
where the system was working, however, I did not believe
it was possible to get this to run on a 128MB card (which
is what I had to work with at the time) right up until it
happened. It happened after a fortnight of 20-hour days,
so I think you'll appreciate how tight the deadline was
becoming. There was no time to get the developers to
change the code.
Now that it works, my manager would not authorise that
sort of change.

Fair enough.

I may be just a helpdesk monkey, but in this case I *do*
know what I'm doing.

I never said that you don't.

I would answer directly to David if I could see original post.


Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[Heidi Linda]

-----Original Message-----
Sorry I had made few assumptions that in your case are

wrong.

Assumptions are dangerous things.

I assumed that you use RAM EWF also. *snip*
I thought since you use 2MB partition that it is there for RAM EWF setup,
nothing more. But you probably would not waste your space with that since
you probably don't run pre FBA on CF either.

No, the first part of FBA is run on a hard drive, and the
only part which runs on the compact flash is the reseal
and initial setup, which is automated using those
aforementioned setup files.

I can't see original post so I have posted on top of your post. And tried to
adjuct procedure for original post. Since you gave your solution I assumed
that you have used similar scenario as David.

This might have made great confusion.

It certainly seems to have...

Regarding the decompression speed, yes this is true if you have slow
processor. But since we are using very fast processors this is not a issue,
and might even speed load from flash drive.

My processor however *is* very slow, and so compression in
my case is a bad thing. I was not in any way suggesting
that anyone else set their system up exactly as I have
mine, I assume they have the intelligence to adjust what I
have done to fit their own needs.

Fair enough.



I never said that you don't.

Perhaps not, however your 'tone' seemed to imply it,
especially the first line. I shall give you the benefit of
the doubt and put this down to your not being a native
speaker.
I'm well aware that there are plenty of people here with
far broader knowledge than me, however, I've been working
with XPe pretty much since it came out, and I like to
think I've got a pretty good grasp of how it works. When I
started this project I didn't think it was possible, and
continued not thinking it was possible right up until I
got it working, at the end of that two weeks of 20 hour
days. Of course, by that point I also thought I was a
hummingbird...

I would answer directly to David if I could see original post.

While at work I only have access through the web
interface, though at home I can connect to the news
server. It does seem that there's something of a
discrepancy between them at the moment.

 

[Dan Simpson [MS]]

Hi David,

What does your FBA log say about trying to set up EWF? Check the FBALOG.txt
in C:\Windows\FBA.

What kind of partitions are you using? If D: is an extended partition, EWF
may run into problems during setup. We've seen that EWF sometimes runs into
problems during setup if it tries to create the EWF temporary configuratin
partition after an extended partition. Try resetting D: to a Primary
partition and run the tools again. I'm assuming that C:\ will be the
protected partition and D:\ will be writeable.

Here are two additional articles on EWF and Compact Flash that might also
help:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnxpesp1/html/XPESP1_CF_EWF.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnxpesp1/html/ewf_winxp.asp

Also, I'm currently working on improving the EWF docs with more concrete
examples and better troubleshooting.

Dan

 

[David D]

Here is the log:


15:00:11 PM - ConfigureEwf() Start.

15:00:12 PM - Getting EWF config parameters from registry.

15:00:13 PM - EWF Partition Size = 34816 (KBytes), Levels = 1, Volumes =
1.

15:00:14 PM - Protected Volume Config #0 :

15:00:15 PM - Disk= 0,Part= 1,DiskType= IDE,Type= RAM.

15:00:15 PM - Enable= Disabled, Optimize= 2, LazyWrite= Y.

15:00:16 PM - Found 1 Hard Disks.

15:00:17 PM - Searching for El Torito disk.

15:00:18 PM - Disk0 signature = 0xA155D773.

15:00:20 PM - Checking Start value in
System\CurrentControlSet\Services\redbook key.

15:00:21 PM - Checking Start value in
System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Imapi key.

15:00:21 PM - Disk #0 layout info:

15:00:23 PM - PRIMARY partition,start=0x0000000000007e00,
len=0x000000001901e200, type= 7

15:00:24 PM - EXTENDED partition,start=0x0000000019026000,
len=0x0000000001ffe000, type= 5

15:00:25 PM - LOGICAL partition,start=0x0000000019026000,
len=0x0000000001ffe000, type= 7

15:00:26 PM - FREE partition,start=0x000000001b024000,
len=0x000000000389a000, type= 0

15:00:26 PM - Can't create EWF partition size = 0x000000000000fc00 on
disk# 0.

15:00:27 PM - Failed to create EWF partition.

15:00:28 PM - ConfigureEwf() End, status = 0x80070057.


D is an extended partion.

Yes, C wil be protected and D will not.
Thanks
David

 

[Heidi]

I find it works OK if you leave the free space within the extended
partition, rather than outside it, ie your extended partition is larger
than the logical partition within it.

 

[David D]

15:00:11 PM - ConfigureEwf() Start.

15:00:12 PM - Getting EWF config parameters from registry.

15:00:13 PM - EWF Partition Size = 34816 (KBytes), Levels = 1, Volumes =
1.

15:00:14 PM - Protected Volume Config #0 :

15:00:15 PM - Disk= 0,Part= 1,DiskType= IDE,Type= RAM.

15:00:15 PM - Enable= Disabled, Optimize= 2, LazyWrite= Y.

15:00:16 PM - Found 1 Hard Disks.

15:00:17 PM - Searching for El Torito disk.

15:00:18 PM - Disk0 signature = 0xA155D773.

15:00:20 PM - Checking Start value in
System\CurrentControlSet\Services\redbook key.

15:00:21 PM - Checking Start value in
System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Imapi key.

15:00:21 PM - Disk #0 layout info:

15:00:23 PM - PRIMARY partition,start=0x0000000000007e00,
len=0x000000001901e200, type= 7

15:00:24 PM - EXTENDED partition,start=0x0000000019026000,
len=0x0000000001ffe000, type= 5

15:00:25 PM - LOGICAL partition,start=0x0000000019026000,
len=0x0000000001ffe000, type= 7

15:00:26 PM - FREE partition,start=0x000000001b024000,
len=0x000000000389a000, type= 0

15:00:26 PM - Can't create EWF partition size = 0x000000000000fc00 on
disk# 0.

15:00:27 PM - Failed to create EWF partition.

15:00:28 PM - ConfigureEwf() End, status = 0x80070057.

 

[David D]

I have it working now.
I removed my second drive partition.
I did the FBA on the CF to simplify my life. I had also read that doing the
FBA on a HD then transfering to CF was not working for some (maybe a SP1 vs
SP2 issue)

Thanks for the help

David