Thanks everyone. I looked at this web page and found my model, but ultimately, Ben is right. I can get into the r recovery screen from Windows, by searching for boot then going into advanced boot options which give you a simple dialog and button to restart the computer in recovery mode. You just need eyes at that point. Windows U didn't do anything. I could solve my problem if there was an accessable imaging software I could run from Windows? I suspect the all recquire a bootable device so that Windows isn't running. Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 3:56 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi. You may also wish to take a look at the following site. it contains boot menu keys for loads of HP models of laptop. it seems to primarily be F9 and F10 to enter the 1 time boot menu. i'm not sure if this'll work with an UEFI system, but the website lists work arounds for that as well. https://craftedflash.com/info/how-boot-computer-from-usb-flash-drive#HP cheers, Mo. On 04/05/2016 21:49, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

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

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

I just looked into this. My coworker, some years ago purchased a product from Levtech Core Recovery. It was a downloadable ISO image that you put on a bootable usb flash drive. It boots up to a nice menu which preloads with nvda. The only link I found to them may be out of date and my Email server is blocking this domain, so it may not be secure. My coworker who bought this for us thinks they may not be in business anymore, so I can't verify the validity or security of this link. http://levtec.linkpc.net/files/corecpc/ Let me know if you can get to this safely. As I am being blocked. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 7:20 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi, What steps did you take to create your imaging USB stick? I still think it is worth looking at making this UEFI based as there are systems out there that can't do legacy boot. I don't think for one moment the laptop will be one, but just saying. Andrew. ________________________________________ From: Blind-sysadmins [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of Troy Hergert [thergert@vision-forward.org] Sent: 05 May 2016 13:16 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Thanks everyone. I looked at this web page and found my model, but ultimately, Ben is right. I can get into the r recovery screen from Windows, by searching for boot then going into advanced boot options which give you a simple dialog and button to restart the computer in recovery mode. You just need eyes at that point. Windows U didn't do anything. I could solve my problem if there was an accessable imaging software I could run from Windows? I suspect the all recquire a bootable device so that Windows isn't running. Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 3:56 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi. You may also wish to take a look at the following site. it contains boot menu keys for loads of HP models of laptop. it seems to primarily be F9 and F10 to enter the 1 time boot menu. i'm not sure if this'll work with an UEFI system, but the website lists work arounds for that as well. https://craftedflash.com/info/how-boot-computer-from-usb-flash-drive#HP cheers, Mo. On 04/05/2016 21:49, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

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

_______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive I just looked into this. My coworker, some years ago purchased a product from Levtech Core Recovery. It was a downloadable ISO image that you put on a bootable usb flash drive. It boots up to a nice menu which preloads with nvda. The only link I found to them may be out of date and my Email server is blocking this domain, so it may not be secure. My coworker who bought this for us thinks they may not be in business anymore, so I can't verify the validity or security of this link. http://levtec.linkpc.net/files/corecpc/ Let me know if you can get to this safely. As I am being blocked. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 7:20 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi, What steps did you take to create your imaging USB stick? I still think it is worth looking at making this UEFI based as there are systems out there that can't do legacy boot. I don't think for one moment the laptop will be one, but just saying. Andrew. ________________________________________ From: Blind-sysadmins [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of Troy Hergert [thergert@vision-forward.org] Sent: 05 May 2016 13:16 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Thanks everyone. I looked at this web page and found my model, but ultimately, Ben is right. I can get into the r recovery screen from Windows, by searching for boot then going into advanced boot options which give you a simple dialog and button to restart the computer in recovery mode. You just need eyes at that point. Windows U didn't do anything. I could solve my problem if there was an accessable imaging software I could run from Windows? I suspect the all recquire a bootable device so that Windows isn't running. Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 3:56 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi. You may also wish to take a look at the following site. it contains boot menu keys for loads of HP models of laptop. it seems to primarily be F9 and F10 to enter the 1 time boot menu. i'm not sure if this'll work with an UEFI system, but the website lists work arounds for that as well. https://craftedflash.com/info/how-boot-computer-from-usb-flash-drive#HP cheers, Mo. On 04/05/2016 21:49, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

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

_______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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

levi iven sales software that maybe never work at all on you computer e.g the bios editor Den 2016-05-05 kl. 18:12, skrev Andrew Hodgson:

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 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

I just looked into this. My coworker, some years ago purchased a product from Levtech Core Recovery. It was a downloadable ISO image that you put on a bootable usb flash drive. It boots up to a nice menu which preloads with nvda. The only link I found to them may be out of date and my Email server is blocking this domain, so it may not be secure. My coworker who bought this for us thinks they may not be in business anymore, so I can't verify the validity or security of this link. http://levtec.linkpc.net/files/corecpc/ Let me know if you can get to this safely. As I am being blocked.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 7:20 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Hi,

What steps did you take to create your imaging USB stick? I still think it is worth looking at making this UEFI based as there are systems out there that can't do legacy boot. I don't think for one moment the laptop will be one, but just saying.

Andrew. ________________________________________ From: Blind-sysadmins [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of Troy Hergert [thergert@vision-forward.org] Sent: 05 May 2016 13:16 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Thanks everyone. I looked at this web page and found my model, but ultimately, Ben is right. I can get into the r recovery screen from Windows, by searching for boot then going into advanced boot options which give you a simple dialog and button to restart the computer in recovery mode. You just need eyes at that point. Windows U didn't do anything. I could solve my problem if there was an accessable imaging software I could run from Windows? I suspect the all recquire a bootable device so that Windows isn't running. Thanks.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 3:56 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Hi.

You may also wish to take a look at the following site. it contains boot menu keys for loads of HP models of laptop. it seems to primarily be F9 and F10 to enter the 1 time boot menu. i'm not sure if this'll work with an UEFI system, but the website lists work arounds for that as well.

https://craftedflash.com/info/how-boot-computer-from-usb-flash-drive#HP

cheers,

Mo.

On 04/05/2016 21:49, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

...

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

_______________________________________________ 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

_______________________________________________ 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

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi Troy. Have you tried booting in to a distribution of linux like arch linux to see if that would boot on your systems? If that works, you could try talking arch and clone zilla to image your drives. you may have to download the latest talking arch image, but purely for reference the guide I wrote for imaging systems can be found at: http://iqbal.me.uk/backup-and-restore/ Also, a lot of people recommend image for windows which can work in conjunction with image for linux. in other words, you image your drives on windows using image for windows, then boot in to a distribution like Ubuntu with speech enabled even if the system is UEFI enabled, install image for linux on a pen drive as part of your linux packages and then run it every time you want to restore or backup an image. if you'd like more info, please don't hesitate to get in touch off list. image for windows is here: https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm cheers, Mo. On 05/05/2016 20:51, Troy Hergert wrote:

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 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

I just looked into this. My coworker, some years ago purchased a product from Levtech Core Recovery. It was a downloadable ISO image that you put on a bootable usb flash drive. It boots up to a nice menu which preloads with nvda. The only link I found to them may be out of date and my Email server is blocking this domain, so it may not be secure. My coworker who bought this for us thinks they may not be in business anymore, so I can't verify the validity or security of this link. http://levtec.linkpc.net/files/corecpc/ Let me know if you can get to this safely. As I am being blocked.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 7:20 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Hi,

What steps did you take to create your imaging USB stick? I still think it is worth looking at making this UEFI based as there are systems out there that can't do legacy boot. I don't think for one moment the laptop will be one, but just saying.

Andrew. ________________________________________ From: Blind-sysadmins [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of Troy Hergert [thergert@vision-forward.org] Sent: 05 May 2016 13:16 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Thanks everyone. I looked at this web page and found my model, but ultimately, Ben is right. I can get into the r recovery screen from Windows, by searching for boot then going into advanced boot options which give you a simple dialog and button to restart the computer in recovery mode. You just need eyes at that point. Windows U didn't do anything. I could solve my problem if there was an accessable imaging software I could run from Windows? I suspect the all recquire a bootable device so that Windows isn't running. Thanks.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 3:56 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Hi.

You may also wish to take a look at the following site. it contains boot menu keys for loads of HP models of laptop. it seems to primarily be F9 and F10 to enter the 1 time boot menu. i'm not sure if this'll work with an UEFI system, but the website lists work arounds for that as well.

https://craftedflash.com/info/how-boot-computer-from-usb-flash-drive#HP

cheers,

Mo.

On 04/05/2016 21:49, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

...

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

_______________________________________________ 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

_______________________________________________ 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

_______________________________________________ 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

Thank you for this solution. I'm downloading the iso image and will attempt to create the CD. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 3:17 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi Troy. Have you tried booting in to a distribution of linux like arch linux to see if that would boot on your systems? If that works, you could try talking arch and clone zilla to image your drives. you may have to download the latest talking arch image, but purely for reference the guide I wrote for imaging systems can be found at: http://iqbal.me.uk/backup-and-restore/ Also, a lot of people recommend image for windows which can work in conjunction with image for linux. in other words, you image your drives on windows using image for windows, then boot in to a distribution like Ubuntu with speech enabled even if the system is UEFI enabled, install image for linux on a pen drive as part of your linux packages and then run it every time you want to restore or backup an image. if you'd like more info, please don't hesitate to get in touch off list. image for windows is here: https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm cheers, Mo. On 05/05/2016 20:51, Troy Hergert wrote:

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 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

I just looked into this. My coworker, some years ago purchased a product from Levtech Core Recovery. It was a downloadable ISO image that you put on a bootable usb flash drive. It boots up to a nice menu which preloads with nvda. The only link I found to them may be out of date and my Email server is blocking this domain, so it may not be secure. My coworker who bought this for us thinks they may not be in business anymore, so I can't verify the validity or security of this link. http://levtec.linkpc.net/files/corecpc/ Let me know if you can get to this safely. As I am being blocked.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 7:20 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Hi,

What steps did you take to create your imaging USB stick? I still think it is worth looking at making this UEFI based as there are systems out there that can't do legacy boot. I don't think for one moment the laptop will be one, but just saying.

Andrew. ________________________________________ From: Blind-sysadmins [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of Troy Hergert [thergert@vision-forward.org] Sent: 05 May 2016 13:16 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Thanks everyone. I looked at this web page and found my model, but ultimately, Ben is right. I can get into the r recovery screen from Windows, by searching for boot then going into advanced boot options which give you a simple dialog and button to restart the computer in recovery mode. You just need eyes at that point. Windows U didn't do anything. I could solve my problem if there was an accessable imaging software I could run from Windows? I suspect the all recquire a bootable device so that Windows isn't running. Thanks.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 3:56 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Hi.

You may also wish to take a look at the following site. it contains boot menu keys for loads of HP models of laptop. it seems to primarily be F9 and F10 to enter the 1 time boot menu. i'm not sure if this'll work with an UEFI system, but the website lists work arounds for that as well.

https://craftedflash.com/info/how-boot-computer-from-usb-flash-drive#HP

cheers,

Mo.

On 04/05/2016 21:49, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

...

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

_______________________________________________ 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

_______________________________________________ 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

_______________________________________________ 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

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi. Were you downloading using a WiFi connection? or did your connection break while the download was in progress? if so, this could've resulted in an invalid iso... cheers, Mo. On 13/05/2016 14:01, Troy Hergert wrote:

Hi Mobeen, I downloaded the iso image. There were many good instructions you have up there. But, when I attempted to burn the iso image, Windows claimed it was an invalid iso image. I just used Windows Explorer from "computer" to start the burn. Not sure what I could try. Any ideas?

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 3:17 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Hi Troy.

Have you tried booting in to a distribution of linux like arch linux to see if that would boot on your systems? If that works, you could try talking arch and clone zilla to image your drives. you may have to download the latest talking arch image, but purely for reference the guide I wrote for imaging systems can be found at:

http://iqbal.me.uk/backup-and-restore/

Also, a lot of people recommend image for windows which can work in conjunction with image for linux. in other words, you image your drives on windows using image for windows, then boot in to a distribution like Ubuntu with speech enabled even if the system is UEFI enabled, install image for linux on a pen drive as part of your linux packages and then run it every time you want to restore or backup an image. if you'd like more info, please don't hesitate to get in touch off list. image for windows is here:

https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm

cheers,

Mo.

On 05/05/2016 20:51, Troy Hergert wrote:

...

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 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

I just looked into this. My coworker, some years ago purchased a product from Levtech Core Recovery. It was a downloadable ISO image that you put on a bootable usb flash drive. It boots up to a nice menu which preloads with nvda. The only link I found to them may be out of date and my Email server is blocking this domain, so it may not be secure. My coworker who bought this for us thinks they may not be in business anymore, so I can't verify the validity or security of this link. http://levtec.linkpc.net/files/corecpc/ Let me know if you can get to this safely. As I am being blocked.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 7:20 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Hi,

What steps did you take to create your imaging USB stick? I still think it is worth looking at making this UEFI based as there are systems out there that can't do legacy boot. I don't think for one moment the laptop will be one, but just saying.

Andrew. ________________________________________ From: Blind-sysadmins [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of Troy Hergert [thergert@vision-forward.org] Sent: 05 May 2016 13:16 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Thanks everyone. I looked at this web page and found my model, but ultimately, Ben is right. I can get into the r recovery screen from Windows, by searching for boot then going into advanced boot options which give you a simple dialog and button to restart the computer in recovery mode. You just need eyes at that point. Windows U didn't do anything. I could solve my problem if there was an accessable imaging software I could run from Windows? I suspect the all recquire a bootable device so that Windows isn't running. Thanks.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 3:56 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive

Hi.

You may also wish to take a look at the following site. it contains boot menu keys for loads of HP models of laptop. it seems to primarily be F9 and F10 to enter the 1 time boot menu. i'm not sure if this'll work with an UEFI system, but the website lists work arounds for that as well.

https://craftedflash.com/info/how-boot-computer-from-usb-flash-drive#HP

cheers,

Mo.

On 04/05/2016 21:49, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

...

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

---

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

_______________________________________________ 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

_______________________________________________ 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

_______________________________________________ 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

Hi, Don't worry about the System Volume Information folder, that is an NTFS thing and is not needed on FAT32. One thing I would do if you have an OEM system is to make a backup of the OEM recovery partition, I do this using the OEM or Windows provided method depending on the manufacturer to make a USB drive, then I use Rar to compress the files and store them on a NAS. I would very much doubt whether Core Recovery could deal with UEFI systems, but it could be interesting to try. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Troy Hergert Sent: 05 May 2016 20:52 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive 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 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive I just looked into this. My coworker, some years ago purchased a product from Levtech Core Recovery. It was a downloadable ISO image that you put on a bootable usb flash drive. It boots up to a nice menu which preloads with nvda. The only link I found to them may be out of date and my Email server is blocking this domain, so it may not be secure. My coworker who bought this for us thinks they may not be in business anymore, so I can't verify the validity or security of this link. http://levtec.linkpc.net/files/corecpc/ Let me know if you can get to this safely. As I am being blocked. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 7:20 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi, What steps did you take to create your imaging USB stick? I still think it is worth looking at making this UEFI based as there are systems out there that can't do legacy boot. I don't think for one moment the laptop will be one, but just saying. Andrew. ________________________________________ From: Blind-sysadmins [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of Troy Hergert [thergert@vision-forward.org] Sent: 05 May 2016 13:16 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Thanks everyone. I looked at this web page and found my model, but ultimately, Ben is right. I can get into the r recovery screen from Windows, by searching for boot then going into advanced boot options which give you a simple dialog and button to restart the computer in recovery mode. You just need eyes at that point. Windows U didn't do anything. I could solve my problem if there was an accessable imaging software I could run from Windows? I suspect the all recquire a bootable device so that Windows isn't running. Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 3:56 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi. You may also wish to take a look at the following site. it contains boot menu keys for loads of HP models of laptop. it seems to primarily be F9 and F10 to enter the 1 time boot menu. i'm not sure if this'll work with an UEFI system, but the website lists work arounds for that as well. https://craftedflash.com/info/how-boot-computer-from-usb-flash-drive#HP cheers, Mo. On 04/05/2016 21:49, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

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

_______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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

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 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive I just looked into this. My coworker, some years ago purchased a product from Levtech Core Recovery. It was a downloadable ISO image that you put on a bootable usb flash drive. It boots up to a nice menu which preloads with nvda. The only link I found to them may be out of date and my Email server is blocking this domain, so it may not be secure. My coworker who bought this for us thinks they may not be in business anymore, so I can't verify the validity or security of this link. http://levtec.linkpc.net/files/corecpc/ Let me know if you can get to this safely. As I am being blocked. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2016 7:20 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi, What steps did you take to create your imaging USB stick? I still think it is worth looking at making this UEFI based as there are systems out there that can't do legacy boot. I don't think for one moment the laptop will be one, but just saying. Andrew. ________________________________________ From: Blind-sysadmins [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of Troy Hergert [thergert@vision-forward.org] Sent: 05 May 2016 13:16 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Thanks everyone. I looked at this web page and found my model, but ultimately, Ben is right. I can get into the r recovery screen from Windows, by searching for boot then going into advanced boot options which give you a simple dialog and button to restart the computer in recovery mode. You just need eyes at that point. Windows U didn't do anything. I could solve my problem if there was an accessable imaging software I could run from Windows? I suspect the all recquire a bootable device so that Windows isn't running. Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 3:56 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi. You may also wish to take a look at the following site. it contains boot menu keys for loads of HP models of laptop. it seems to primarily be F9 and F10 to enter the 1 time boot menu. i'm not sure if this'll work with an UEFI system, but the website lists work arounds for that as well. https://craftedflash.com/info/how-boot-computer-from-usb-flash-drive#HP cheers, Mo. On 04/05/2016 21:49, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

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

_______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Thanks everyone. I looked at this web page and found my model, but ultimately, Ben is right. I can get into the r recovery screen from Windows, by searching for boot then going into advanced boot options which give you a simple dialog and button to restart the computer in recovery mode. You just need eyes at that point. Windows U didn't do anything. I could solve my problem if there was an accessable imaging software I could run from Windows? I suspect the all recquire a bootable device so that Windows isn't running. Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Mobeen Iqbal Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 3:56 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive Hi. You may also wish to take a look at the following site. it contains boot menu keys for loads of HP models of laptop. it seems to primarily be F9 and F10 to enter the 1 time boot menu. i'm not sure if this'll work with an UEFI system, but the website lists work arounds for that as well. https://craftedflash.com/info/how-boot-computer-from-usb-flash-drive#HP cheers, Mo. On 04/05/2016 21:49, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

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

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Hi, Is there any way you could get your recovery environment working with UEFI? It's the future and there are some advantages to getting your Windows 8 and above machines booting using it - namely that Bitlocker can be used. Thanks. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: 04 May 2016 21:50 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Booting to usb flash drive 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

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