WIN10 PE bootable disk won't see main computer HD
I have a new Dell Inspiron 3881 running WIN Home which has a single 1TB HD. This is working well. I've made an AOMEI disk image of this HD on a USB drive and also created a WIN10 PE Bootable Disk on a DVD using the AOMEI PE Builder. To test this out (before I get any failure) I've booted from this DVD and this gets me to the AOMEI recovery environment just fine. However, when in this environment, the system will not "see" my main computer HD. So when I test out setting up a Restore operation by plugging in my USB drive with the image on it, the main computer HD is not available as the target drive. In fact the only disk visible is the USB drive with the image.
I've used AOMEI disc images successfully in the past for recovery of other computers - what's gone wrong this time?
I've used AOMEI disc images successfully in the past for recovery of other computers - what's gone wrong this time?
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However, when booted from this DVD my Dell 3881 still won't recognise my HD.
I guess I may have picked the wrong drivers for the Western Digital hard drive in the 3881. Does anyone know what the correct drivers are? They'll be on my HD under C:\windows\system32\DriverStore\FileRepository so if can just identify the right ones I can get them onto the PE boot disk
Click Export to export the drivers from your running system into a folder.
DELL3881-DISM++.jpg
Otherwise, you could download from dell. They come as an exe file so first you need to extract it with 7-zip .
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=ktg51&oscode=wt64a&productcode=inspiron-3881-desktop
I successfully exported the IDE Atapi controllers files using DISM++ to a folder and then selected these 4 .inf files under the Add Drivers dialogue when setting up AOMEI PE Builder. I burned a new DVD from this - but when booted from this, it still wouldn't see the Dell's HD, either in Partn Assistant or in the Restore part of Backupper. I've also tried the Dell link and downloaded: Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Driver_KTG51_WIN64_17.9.1.1009_A03.exe.
I unzipped this with 7-zip and got a number of files, including SetupRST.exe. The only .inf files are in a sub folder F6 and sub-sub folders f6flpy-x64, HsaComponent and HsaExtension (one .inf file in each sub-sub folder)
Which of these should I add to the WINPE builder disk?
I successfully exported the IDE Atapi controllers files using DISM++ to a folder and then selected these 4 .inf files under the Add Drivers dialogue when setting up AOMEI PE Builder. I burned a new DVD from this - but when booted from this, it still wouldn't see the Dell's HD, either in Partn Assistant or in the Restore part of Backupper. I've tried the Dell link and downloaded: Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Driver_KTG51_WIN64_17.9.1.1009_A03.exe.
I unzipped this with 7-zip and got a number of files, none of which are .inf files but include SetupRST.exe. Which of these, if any should I add to the WINPE builder disk?
I ask because when accessing these driver files using dism++ I only get the option when clicking "Export" to save the files in another folder. I then add these files u
Then add them with the aomei pebuider.
Yes, it does matter.
Use the Add Drivers function.
I had high hopes of this but once I'd booted to this disk I found that I STILL couldn't see my Dell's main HD.
Can anyone advise me what's going wrong - or what I'm doing wrong?
At the moment the image of the HD that I made with AOMEI Backupper is useless because I can't access the HD to restore it. I've restored without trouble several HDs on previous computers from AOMEI images so I don't understand what is different about this new Dell 3881.
BTW after one general reply from AOMEI Support saying "use dism++", I have no further input from them to my request for support.
Maybe I'd be better with other imaging software suites. Does anyone have experience of successfully making a WINPE boot disk for a Dell 3881with other imaging softwares?
I am not sure why you are having that issue. Did you let the pebuilder use winre - or did you download the winpe ?
The winre.wim file you already have as part of your dell windows installation should contain any necessary divers.
edit fixed: 1904FIXED.iso
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkcyDjKJJ6KwiF7AGroOWqot4Jtf?e=glAhyl
I can boot OK from the DVD made with AOMEI WinPE Builder but of course it doesn't see my HD!
I've also my Windows folder for winre.wim but it was not found.
I think winpe was downloaded when I downloaded and installed AOMEI WinPE Builder.
I do appreciate your help in trying to sort out this issue.
You can use usb7ice to create bootable usb from iso file . The default seetings are fine. Just point it at the iso and select your usb stick in the dropdown.
Usb7ice.zip
usb7ice.jpg
A problem with using a bootable USB stick (as I first tried to do when I got the Dell 3881) is that, despite seeking help from Dell support, I can find no way to add booting from USB to its boot menu! In the BIOS/UEFI setup, there is a file to select to add booting from DVD, but no file for booting from USB.
Just click Next. Then you shouldn't need to add drivers.
PEBUILDER.jpg
So I guess my system does not have any built-in support for creating bootable media.
I'm going to have another go at adding drivers and making a new boot disk
reagentc /disable
then press enter
reagentc /enable
than press enter
With that USB stick plugged in I could at last select booting from USB in the boot menu and the system booted OK into the Dell recovery environment. However, this only returns the computer to its initial factory state, unlike restoring from an AOMEI image.
I could not previously find a USB boot option when I had an AOMEI PEBuilder bootable USB stick plugged in. Whether that will now change when an AOMEI boot USB stick is plugged in I don't know. I will test this as soon as I've procured a new USB stick (I used the only one I had spare to make the Dell Recovery USB).
I'm not a novice with computers and have been messing with them since the early 1990s, and have recovered a quite few using AOMEI images. But I've never had a system as un-intuitive as this Dell one!
If you can get aomei to use the winre.wim, it should work fine. But the recovery sequence needs to be set up properly, which reagentc is supposed to do..
However, I've now made USB boot drives using RUFUS and SIW2's 190.iso and 190A.iso files. These were indeed bootable and at last the Dell 3881's BIOS setup gave me the option of selecting USB booting to add to the boot menu.
(As an aside, it is now clear to me that the Dell ONLY allows selection of USB booting when a bootable USB is actually plugged in during the initial startup sequence when you select the BIOS setup using F2. This seems counter-intuitive to me, since the BIOS does allow setting up a DVD drive for booting without a bootable DVD being present in the drive).
So with the Dell booted from USB's made from 190.iso or 190A.iso and the computer showing me a recovery environment, I thought I was home and dry. However, although everything else worked in this booted environment, and I could "see" my main Dell HD in Partition Asst, AOMEI Backupper did not work! It just gave various error messages (from "unknown error" when you started it, to "can't find the image drive" when it did occasionally start without the initial error message.
So I then thought I'd try making a bootable USB using AOMEI WINPE Builder (I'd tried this before but thought I'd give it another go). This appeared to go ahead and complete successfully but, when I tried to boot from it, it was unbootable and, of course, would not even give me the option to select USB booting in the BIOS setup.
The next thing I'm going to try is to get AOMEI WINPE Builder to make and export an iso file and then use RUFUS to mount that on a USB drive.
Meanwhile, I do have the Dell bootable USB made with their OS Recovery application, but this only allows me to recover to factory state and of course relies on the recovery partitions on the hard drive still being usable.
This has been the most frustrating process I've ever had with any computer I've owned trying to set up a proper recovery strategy.
If anyone can suggest other actions I can take, I'll truly appreciate it.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkcyDjKJJ6KwiF7AGroOWqot4Jtf?e=glAhyl
Backupper opens OK from this environment (although it looks a bit different from the normal Backupper environment). However, when I test click "restore" it claims that it can find no image to restore from, even though I have the USB drive with the image plugged in.
I've now tried a different backup application - Macrium Reflect. I've created a boot CD with this and, on loading this, the environment does allow me to "see" my HD. I've made an image of the HD with Macrium and the booted environment enables me to access this image for restore as well.
So, unless I do find a resolution, I think I might ditch AOMEI, at least for my new Dell. A shame really because it still works well on my other computers - Thinkpad and HP laptops and an old Compaq desktop. I also bought a new licence for AOMEI on the Dell so that may end up being wasted.
Anyway, many thanks for all your help.
So thanks once again
You can browse to the image you want to restore. I always do this with any of these kind of programs.
aomei-restore.jpg
aomei-restore2.jpg
Click Restore in the Left pane as in this photo
Now you are at the Restore screen, click "Select Image File"
Then browse to the .ADI file