Interesting. You're right it has those folders and is formatted ntfs. I tried to copy the contents of the 6 folders but the "system volume information" folder was access denied. It's the one folder that has "system' as a user with full rights, where as the other folders have everyone with full rights. I didn't try to take ownership, not wanting to mess it up.
Ultimately, I have just been keeping images of computers after I get them configured and setup for a user. Just in case I want to restore. I actually haven't ever attempted, nor needed to do a restore now that I think of it. When I get a computer back from a user who left or got an upgrade, I typically format and reinstall Windows. Just always thought it's a good practice to have an image when the computer is untarnished by the user.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 11:12 AM
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive
Hi,
I never used that software as I didn't like the author's sales pitch to be honest. Not sure if it is even developed anymore, everything went quiet from him some time ago.
Some things I would suggest:
- If the USB stick from which you boot has folders like Boot, EFI (EFI being the important one), and is NTFS, try copying all the files from that stick to a FAT32 stick and boot from that. There is no such thing as the boot secter in the EFI world, the BIOS will scan for EFI boot files in the EFI directory on the disk if it is a format that can be read (i.e, FAT32).
I would be concerned that the imaging software doesn't handle EFI based (GPT) partitions and so may not work in this circumstances. Someone with this software may be able to give more info on that. What are you ultimately trying to do with these machines - make an image of them and keep them at the Windows you have, or install your own image on them?
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Troy Hergert
Sent: 05 May 2016 13:57
To: Blind sysadmins list
Hi,
You're going to need eyes. Specifically, you'll have to go into the UEFI and disable secure boot and depending on what you're booting to, potentially enable "legacy BIOS", which is sometimes called "launch CSM". This will let the machine boot from your USB device, but getting it to do so may still be problematic. Easiest way if you're good with a screw driver is to remove all the partitions from the drive then assuming you've mashed enter with enough gusto it should work.
I'm working on a solution to the secure boot in my spare time but it's not going to be done for a while, so best to use eyes in this situation.
Cheers, Ben.
On 5/4/16, Troy Hergert
wrote: I need to boot a group of laptops with Windows 8.1 pro to a flash drive which has my imaging software setup real nice with nvda. These HP Pro book laptops don't boot to the usb drive. I can get them to reboot into their recovery mode by going to advanced startup settings in the charms bar but then get no speech. Has anyone come up with a way to get speech at these screens? Or does anyone know of a way to force the system to recognize the usb drive as bootable? Thanks. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
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