recovery discs to usb

[lrod8]

hello everyone, new here!!!

got a question, i have a gateway laptop with win7 hp 64bit. i created the recovery media from the gateway recovery manager & it used 3 dvds. my question is, can i put all these dvds in a usb? the recovery manages will only let me choose dvd media, but i was wondering if there's a way to merge them all into one usb.

thx in advance...

 

[DeaconFrost]

You could always try, I guess. Microsoft has a tool that's linked to on here that takes the .iso files and creates bootable USB drives. You could give that a shot. If the imaging program looks for the second and third file parts...and finds them on the USB drive...it should work. I'd imagine you'd need a 16 GB flash drive for this, though.

Microsoft Store: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool Help

 

[lrod8]

thx DeaconFrost, i was thinking along those lines too. i'll go ahead & buy a 16gb usb, my biggest one is 8gb. now, another point, should i create an .iso of each dvd or make a folder with the contents of all 3 dvds and make an .iso of that? sorry if i sound ignorant, but i am!!!

 

[DeaconFrost]

I'd make an .iso of the first, bootable DVD. Then I'd just have the contents of 2 and 3 on a folder. Usually, the rest of the disks contain one file, something like image0002.xxx and image00003.xxx or something like that. It will boot from the first disc, then look for the rest of the parts. If those are already present, it might just continue on to the end, and reboot.

 

[lrod8]

that makes more sense!!! i'll give that a try. thx again!!!!

 

[gregrocker]

Each disk that is bootable should have an .iso file that can be extracted then written to flash stick using UltraISO trial version.

On File tab Open DVD/CD Image, then on Bootable tab Write Disk Image.

You will have to study the help file or research further how to merge the 3 ISO's if they are all image disks and one not a drivers/apps disk, or try Deacon's approach to write the first disk's image to stick and place the files from the two others on the stick to see if it will proceed. If not you can format other sticks with subsequent disks, or write each one as you go.

 

[lrod8]

no iso's, just files & folders, see

image below:

 

[Bill2]

See here.

Creating a Recovery Disk on a USB Flash Disk - HP technical support (Finland - English)

 

[lrod8]

cool, that looks good, but i wonder if it would work on my gateway. once i get the 16gb drive, i'll give it a try. thx again

 

[j0E]

Hi, my first participation in this forum I've been checking a lot lately.

I actually run through the same issue of merging 3 recovery discs of a gateway laptop deprived from CD drive, I have burned those the RECOVERY DVDs with virtual CD as iso images ( the recovery crating software DOESN't allow Dual layer DVD! size limitation of each DVD 4.7 GB) which I transfered with a usb stick to my desktop and then burned each one of them on a separate USB stick for recovery purpose.

Now when you insert the first usb stick in the laptop in a recovery process, it is recognized and boots up fine and recovery process starts, but it will ask for the 2ND recovery DVD and doesn't recognize the 2nd USB stick ( that has the 2nd recovery CD image on it).
After multiple hours of search on this matter, I decided to try IROD8 trick, which is to gather the 3 DVDs manually to create one iso image on the USB stick (couldn't find any software that does that)
I used ultra iso (to keep boot image valid) to open RECOVERY1 DVD (and then mounted the RECOVERY2 and RECOVERY3 DVDs on virtual drives using magic iso or different software : compared files and folder METICULOUSLY
- deleted any referrers to CD2 and CD3
- gathered all recovery images from DVD2 and 3 in the DVD 1 images folder
- added patch folder present in 2 and 3 to dvd1 and gathered all files and folders from 2 and 3 in it

Burned the iso image obtained directly to usb 16 GB = TOTAL SUCCEsS , recovered laptop WHOLE disk structure with recovery partition and system partition which was amazing by the way.

Later I have tweaked the iso image after saving it, deleting the extras ( located in patch folder) in a way I got an iso image little enough to fit a DVD dual layer to be saved for later ( to free the usb drive and eventually will build an external slot loading slim dvd drive from ebay ! to use with the laptop)

regards

j0E

 

[maxseven]

I for one am very impressed j0E, but I have a question: were you FORCED by a laptop failure to use your recovery method, or did you just have faith it was going to work and rebuild the thing as a test?

I'm inclined to try your method with my Netbook, for which I have 3 recovery ISOs but no external DVD drive with which to make a "disk recovery" (though I suppose I'd buy one if only to recover the netbook), but testing's another matter! :shock:

I'm at least going to take a look at the DVDs and see if the "file consolidation" you talked about looks straightforward enough. I wonder for example how you found/eliminated "any referrers to CD2 and CD2".

Thanks for your post, especially given that we seem to have lost the OP.

 

[j0E]

Hi Maxseven, thanks for the comment.
You could say that I was forced because during a process of " trying full disk cloning [including the recovery partition [RP] with Clonezilla software (tried some other disk cloning softwares without success in the past), when I lost the original drive Proprietary MBR loosing access to the RP through F8 [option windows repair] at windows start up the PR was still accessible through partition bootable softwares setting it ACTIVE).

The cloning process was successful except for accessing RP through F8, so I spent few days trying to find some trick to repair windows boot file to make them point to the RP @ f8, without great success ( although it gave me the chance to get initiated to some deep stuff concerning windows 7 booting process and the use of a tool called VISUAL BCD very interesting above my humble level ( see " For recovery on F8 you need" superuser.com/questions/55585/how-do-you-recreate-the-system-recovery-environment-in-windows-7") , boyans.my3gb.com/ and geoffchappell.com/viewer.htm?doc=notes/windows/boot/bcd/index.htm)

Any way after trying some neophyte smartness (reasoning shortcuts) playing with Visual BCD thing I had the idea of DVD virtual burn, couple hours later I was playing with Virtual CD options allowing me to create the Recovery DVDS virtually.

The rest of the story you know it already, a little digital adventure of the average user I am (no programmer).

Clonezilla by the way is reputable for it's ability to clone disks with RP, but failed with me for some reason, I'll definitely give it another try later.

Thanks again for your warm welcome.

 

[j0E]

Sorry Max, I missed a part of your question which I am answering now :
gateway recovery DVDs 1 and 2 ( built through gateway recovery tool) have some files referring to the next cd : RCD.DAT and RESTORE.DAT (checked the contents with notepad+)
Then compared folder structure, and files, gathered files in redundant folders, and mostly images files etc...
It was mostly an informed guessing process and testing, it was successful from the first try, probably because of the redundant folders and files and the almost similar folder structure of the 3 dvds (programs pointing to the same file or folder arborescence).

Thanks again for your interest and good luck with your project.
Just bought 2 old used slim laptop DVD multi (one slot loading) in the process of building 2 external slim USB dvd drives!.

j0E

 

[Bill2]

It may depend on the brand. Some new HP notebooks recovery disks have .bin images which are only readable when booted from the dvd, they are difficult or impossible to manipulate with iso apps.

 

[mjf]

no iso's, just files & folders, see

image below:

Recovery partitions like this have 2 key boot elements bootmgr and [Boot] meaning that you may be able to boot directly into the recovery partition by making it the active partition. Alternatively, Hirens Boot CD will allow you to boot directly into the partition without setting it as active.

 

[maxseven]

gateway recovery DVDs 1 and 2 ( built through gateway recovery tool) have some files referring to the next cd : RCD.DAT and RESTORE.DAT

I have these same files, on all 3 DVDs for this Acer netbook, and they are all exactly alike, in fact I've not been able to discern any difference(s) whatsoever that distinguish one disk from the other except of course in (in my case) the Patch folder.

I've consolidated all 3 into one, but of course haven't done anything with it yet. Next I want to look at the Acer's built-in recovery partition, and I expect it will look exactly the same as what I've built.

Interestingly, in looking thru the various files I observe that there's one that references both Acer and Gateway, maybe even Dell and HP. It seems this disc set is used in multiple PCs and there's magic afoot to sort what-to-put-on-give-the-HW-platform.

I gained very little "space" by consolidating these BTW--the total of my 3 discs once combined is 10.2Gb.

Next I suppose I'll see if I can boot any PC from this monster I've created!

 

[theog]

Interestingly, in looking thru the various files I observe that there's one that references both Acer and Gateway,

Acer, Gateway, eMachine, PACKARD BELL, are the same OEM manufacturer.

 

[maxseven]

Interestingly, in looking thru the various files I observe that there's one that references both Acer and Gateway,

Acer, Gateway, eMachine, PACKARD BELL, are the same OEM manufacturer.

How 'bout that... ya just can't keep track these days!

 

[mjf]

And I can boot directly to the recovery partition my Acer recovery partition or image of it.
Again
Boot Hirens - select the partition & boot - recovery is running.

PS: the fact one of my PCs is an Acer isn't an endorsement.

 

[maxseven]

In my Acer Netbook I can see the 12.70GB Recovery Partition, but it's not mountable in Windows that I can find. Right-clicking on it yields only Help and not the expected context menu including "Change Drive Letter and Paths..."

So is there any way to make this partition "explore-able" from Windows? I just wanted to compare it to the recovery disk consolidation I made.

P.S. I see also in Disk Mgmt that partition does not have a "File System" listed for it! What kinda animal is that...?