What does AOMEI OneKey check for to determine recovery partition?
I'm trying to manually create the recovery partition for which AOMEI OneKey puts it's "boot" files on. I'm referring to the ~800MB partition that contains...
[BOOT]
boot
EFI
sources
bootmgr.efi
Version.ini
I've tried to delete the partition and recreate it, however, as soon as I go back into AOMEI OneKey and click on the "Gear" icon, I get this message....
I was thinking maybe it checked the Volume Label but that wasn't it. So I'm assuming it checks for some kinda Volume ID or something like that. I wasn't able to find any config files or anything in the registry that would contain said Volume ID's so I'm assuming this is some kinda ID that is hard coded into OneKey.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
Comments
you have probably to set the partition type guid to
C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
and there must be only one of this partitions. ANd if i'm right, Windows also puts its boot manager there.
otherwise try to read out the partition type guid and see what it is.
The OneKey recovery is a mechanism of Windows, which is "filled in " by AOMEI.
Hey Peter, Thanks for the reply.
The GUID you mentioned is for the ESP (EFI Service Partition). OneKey is checking the actual boot partiton that it creates which is right around ~800MB.
Here take a look....
The picture is clear, thank you both are ebd0... this is data partitions. Why do you want to create that 800MB partition yourself? And it tells to make a system backup to somewhere, picture at top.
Extra thoughts:
And that's a 32bit Windows, isn't it? I just created a second virtual disk and did my backups there, when testing backup recently. That would allow for that system backup. Or backed up over the virtual net to shared location on the host.
And your information tells indirectly that AOMEI registers the file bootmgr.efi contained in the 800MB partition to the UEFI firmware boot menu manager (boot menu stored NVRAM on the motherboard). Which makes it known to the firmware, respectively the motherboard...
In case you use VMWare which seems probable, one can hit esc during boot, edit the EFI boot menu, have a look at it, and even add one's own entries to it.
(I did not try OneKey Recovery as I use Windows Create System Image, but I'm interested.).
lol I knew someone was gonna ask that. Lets just say that not everyone is just a "standard user" and has other needs/uses away from the standard implementation of things
The screenshots you're seeing are from Win8.1 x64 running in UEFI mode on VMware Workstation.
And yes I'm aware of how the boot process works, however, the issue I'm specifically trying to solve is what OneKey is checking for to determine if the Backup Partition has been created or not. It's checking for SOMETHING SPECIFIC but I'm just not sure what. This isn't about whther OneKey works properly when using the normal process. I'm trying to tailor OneKey to fit my specific needs. I need to be able to create my partitions how I see fit, not how OneKey sees fit. It's basically the same thing when installing Windows, I ALWAYS manually create my paritions rather than let Windows do what it thinks is best.
Standard process works great for standard users but not for Power Users
In any case, I don't think I'm gonna use OneKey for my project. I think I've decided to go with AOMEI Backupper instead since it allows for command-line usage which should suit my needs a little better. I liked OneKey because of it's simple interface but ultimately I think it will be more flexible to just create a simple GUI that works with AOMEI Backupper.
Basically my biggest hurdle right now was figuring out how the "Press F11 to Enter Recovery Mode" prompt works in UEFI mode so that I can use it as a standalone loader for my own project. I've been using mbldr for years but unfortunately it doesn't work with UEFI and I prefer NOT to use the built-in Boot Manager Menu that Windows comes with as I feel it's too intrusive. The simple 3-second "Press F11" prompt is perfect.
Could it be Press F11 is built into a hardware UEFI but not into the VMware UEFI? VMware UEFI also does not say Press ESC, where VMware BIOS does say so. OneKey recovery from my preliminary understanding is a feature of Windows (or microsoft-compliant firmware). My experience just from VMware Player.
( I notice respectfully you know a lot, from your other posts).
OneKey = AOMEI OneKey ---> http://www.backup-utility.com/onekey-recovery.html
However, you can also find OneKey on certain Lenovo computers. I myself have a Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro which has OneKey preinstalled that handles the OEM recovery parition. It also has a physical hardware button that you can press on the side of the laptop which will initiate the OneKey recovery process. This version of OneKey is exactly the same as AOMEI OneKey but without all the branding and it only gives the option to Restore the system, not Backup & Restore.
Also I'm not sure what version of Workstation you're using but I'm currently using the latest v12 and while it does not say "Press ESC" during boot up, you can in fact press either "ESC, F2, or DEL" and it will take you into the UEFI Boot Manager. From there you can choose a boot loader and/or access the UEFI setup menu.
yes (thank you for the image) that's the VMware efi boot manager menu I know of (I had to set bios.bootdelay="5555"), it can be viewed, edit, augmented using "Enter setup" and it supplements UEFI boot how does that actually work, then .Curious what has made the AOMEI Recovery entry in it and where it points to.
I can't experiment right know in the next few days. Obviously the first entry Windows Boot Manager is not god-given (i.e. VMware-given), but made by Windows when installing it, and the next four are VMware-given. I'm on VMware Workstation 12 Player licensed und usually run 32-bit OS there and 64bit if needed.
AOMEI OneKey is what creates the "AOMEI Recovery" entry. You can download OneKey from the AOMEI website and test it out for yourself. Basically that entry points to "Aomei\AomeiBoot.efi" which is on the "EFI System Partition".
I'm bumping this back up as I still have not found a solution to my problem and I just recently decided to revisit this issue again.
My issue is that I am trying to use the "Boot Editor" settings, WITHOUT having to create a recovery parition. I'm doing testing from within a VM, so creating a recovery parition is not necessary. However, I still want to be able to use the "Boot Editor" settings from within OneKey.
On a UEFI system, I know that OneKey is checking to see if the "AOMEI" parition that contains the boot/winpe files exists. But I just can't figure out EXACTLY what it's checking for. Is it some kind of partition serial number, signature, size?? Basically I want to be able to MANUALLY create that parition so that OneKey will allow me to use the Boot Editor settings.