RECOVER & REPAIR
Create the ultimate Windows rescue disc
YOU’LL NEED THIS
IF WINDOWS FAILS TO BOOT, or you’re otherwise locked out of your system, what can you do? Builtin recovery tools are certainly helpful, but they’re not the most user-friendly. Microsoft developed a special “pre-installation environment,” called Windows PE, which gives you access to a cut-down version of Windows that can be started from a bootable DVD or USB flash drive. It’s basic, but it contains a familiar, user-friendly graphical interface that gives you access to your system even when it won’t boot.
Creating this recovery media by hand can be tricky, but AOMEI PE Builder 2.0 doesn’t just simplify this process, it makes it possible for you to build your own customized recovery disc, complete with the tools you know and trust for recovering data, restoring a previous backup, researching the problem online, and even performing certain repairs to bring your ailing PC back to life.
In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to build (and use) your own customized rescue media using PE Builder, which now runs on all flavors of Windows, from Windows XP up to the latest iteration of Windows 10. Without further ado—and while your PC is still working correctly—let’s jump on the recovery wagon.
1 DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL Head over to www.aomeitech.com/pe-builder.html, where you’ll see a pair of links, for 146MB and 72MB downloads. The larger download contains AOMEI’s Partition Assistant and Backupper utilities, which will be incorporated into your rescue disc. These are key tools—Partition Assistant can recover lost and deleted partitions, for example, while Backupper can be used to take a full system image of your drive—so we recommend downloading the 146MB version.
Once downloaded, simply double-click PEBuilder.exe, and follow the on-screen prompts to install the software. Once complete, launch it from the Start menu or via a search for “AOMEI.”
2 SELECT RESCUE DISC SYSTEM TYPE The opening screen provides a series of hyperlinks, explaining various aspects of the rescue disc’s interface, as well as included tools and utilities. Once you’ve reviewed these, click “Next.” By default, “Download WinPE creating environment from the Internet” is selected—it’s required if you’re running Windows XP, Vista, or 10, and is recommended (but not compulsory) on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, too [ Image A].
Your key choice here is 32-bit or 64-bit. Typically, you should choose the same system type as your own Windows installation (press Win-Pause/Break if you don’t know this), but there are two considerations. First, 64-bit boot media will work with both older BIOS and newer UEFI systems, while 32bit media only supports older legacy systems (see the troubleshooting box on page 62 for a possible workaround). Second, you need to source portable apps and drivers of the same system type as your rescue disc—32-bit apps are more common than 64-bit ones. Make your choice, then click “Next.”
3 CUSTOMIZE PORTABLE APPS Expand the “File,” “Network,” and “System” sections to see what bonus tools are included with your rescue disc by default. Select one to read a description. In most cases, you’ll leave these all selected— but we recommend deselecting the web browser QtWeb (it doesn’t work properly in 64-bit environments).
Click “Add Files” to add your own portable tools to the rescue disc—up to 2GB of programs can be added this way. It’s worth gathering these apps in their own folder, then adding each tool’s subfolder individually as shown [ Image B]— they’ll be accessible from the rescue disc’s desktop under the “UserTools” folder. See the box opposite for tips on tools to look for, but remember you can also run portable apps directly off other drives, so long as they’re detected by your rescue media, so don’t go overboard.
4 ADD CUSTOM DRIVERS All the core drivers you need—graphics, keyboard, mouse, and wired network—should be covered by PE Builder, but there’s a chance that certain network (specifically Wi-Fi) and hard drive (storage controller or RAID) drivers aren’t present, while some advanced USB mice and keyboards aren’t recognized either. You’ll only discover this after you’ve created (and booted from) your rescue media.
If you discover missing drivers, you need to source the driver installation files yourself to add them to your recovery media from this screen. First, obtain the latest version of driver from the manufacturer—if you’re struggling to track it down, try www. driverscape.com, where you can search a range of popular PC and laptop models, as well as hardware devices.
You need to be able to extract the contents of whatever driver file you download, so you can locate a .INF file, which is what PE Builder needs to build the driver from. Use a tool such as 7-Zip ( www.7-zip.org) to do this—if the file is a setup.exe file, try “Open inside” to see if the driver files can be manually retrieved; if not, you need to look elsewhere for the drivers.
If you’re able to obtain the files and all-important .inf file, return to PE Builder, and click “Add Drivers” followed by “Add File” to locate and select the .inf file you identified [ Image C]. Click “OK” followed by “Next” when you’re done.
If you’re attempting to add drivers to your boot media, we suggest taking out an insurance policy by clicking “Add Files” again—this time, click “Add Folder,” and add the folder containing your extra drivers to your rescue media. This will enable you to attempt a manual installation of those drivers within the recovery environment, should they not automatically load with your rescue media. Once done, click “Next.” 5 CHOOSE BOOT MEDIA Your rescue disc is now ready to be burned or copied. Select “Burn to CD/DVD” if you have a blank DVD inserted (we recommend rewritable media, because you may find your disc doesn’t work, or requires tweaking later). Alternatively, select “USB Boot Device” to choose a flash drive to build the recovery media on—note the drive is completely wiped by this process, so copy off any data you wish to keep from it first. If more than one USB drive is connected to your PC, verify you have the correct one selected by its drive letter. The “Export ISO file” option generates an ISO file you can burn or copy manually, or use in a virtual machine, such as VirtualBox. Click “Next” when you’ve made your choice. Read any warning [ Image D], then click “OK.” 6 CREATE DISC Wait while your recovery media is created—the first time you run the tool, PE Builder downloads a Windows 10 PE installation image, but the file is retained for future use, so subsequent builds should be quicker, unless you switch system type between 32-bit and 64-bit. Once the process is complete, click “Finish.” 7 TEST MEDIA Leave your bootable media inserted and reboot your PC to make sure it works. It may automatically be set to boot from your CD/DVD or USB drive, or you may need to look for an option to press a key—typically a function key—to select your boot device. Once selected, look for your CD/DVD or flash drive. If more than one option is supplied, try the UEFI option first; if that fails, try the USB option [ Image E]. If no option appears, or the disc or drive fails to boot, check out the troubleshooting box (left).
If successful, be patient—the loading process is much slower than via hard drive, particularly if you’ve added lots of tools and drivers to your rescue media. Eventually, you should find yourself at the rescue media’s desktop, with shortcuts to all the built-in tools. You’ll find the resolution is set to 1024x768, which makes it appeared squashed on widescreen displays. Sadly, this can’t be changed, but it should give you enough room to troubleshoot in. 8 TEST NETWORK CONNECTION Check to see if you have Internet access through your rescue media. The caveat is that Windows PE only works by default with Ethernet interfaces. Doubleclick the PENetwork icon to open PE Network Manager. If your Ethernet adapter has been detected, it should be listed. Click the “Info” button to see if it’s been allocated an IP address. If it appears to have one, open your portable web browser to verify your Internet connection works.
If not, click “Renew” if you connect through DHCP, or “Obtain an IP address automatically” to manually set a static IP address, subnet mask (255.255.255.0), and default gateway (the IP address of your router). Set the DNS server to your router’s IP address; if that fails, try 208.67.222.222.
9 CONNECT THROUGH WI-FI If you’re trying to connect via Wi-Fi, click the drop-down menu to see if your adapter has been detected; in the likely event it hasn’t, and you’ve manually added the driver folder to your rescue media (see step four), you can attempt to install it manually. Press Win-R, type “devmgmt.msc,” and hit “Enter.” Look for a reference to Wi-Fi or Network Controller under “Other devices.” Double-click this, then click “Update Driver.” Choose “Browse my computer for driver software.” Select the folder containing your drivers [ Image F], and see whether Windows is able to install them.
If successful, go to PE Network Manager. Select “Force scanning for new devices on adapter list refresh,” switch to the “WiFi” tab, click “Start,” then “OK.” Reopen the tool, and your Wi-Fi adapter should appear under the device drop-down. Select it, then switch to the “Wi-Fi” tab to connect to your local network [ Image G].
10 A BRIEF TOUR Double-click the “This PC” shortcut in the top-left corner to access File Explorer. You should see all drives (internal and external) appear. If any are missing, you need to source appropriate drivers (typically “RAID” or “storage controller”— consult your PC or motherboard’s support site for them) to add to your rescue media. You’ll notice a drive marked “X”—this is the drive Windows PE has installed itself to, and is a “virtual drive,” in that it’s stored in RAM. This is partly why it’s restricted to 2GB, to work on lower memory (and 32-bit) machines. Your other drives should be recognizable by their drive letters—though some may have swapped around, so browse each one for confirmation.
In case you ever find yourself using your rescue media to try to recover from a non-booting PC, now would be the time to work out which drive is your backup drive, then launch AOMEI Backupper from its desktop shortcut to take a full backup of your afflicted Windows system drive [ Image H]. This would enable you to then attempt repairs knowing your files are protected, should you be forced to perform a complete wipe and reinstall. 11 TEST YOUR APPS Open the “UserTools” folder via its shortcut to test any apps you’ve added. Not all will work, even if they are the correct system type. Non-functioning apps usually exhibit no symptoms—you double-click the shortcut, but nothing happens, even after a wait (right-click the Taskbar and choose “Task Manager” to see if anything is present).
Some apps fail because they prefer to run from a physical drive—if you have a portable apps folder on another drive, try running them from there. There’s no rule—other than convenience—that forces you to incorporate your apps into your rescue media.
12 QUICK-FIRE TIPS There are no quick-and-easy repair tools built into the AOMEI rescue media—you may want to pair it with a Lazesoft Recovery Suite Home Edition recovery disc ( www.lazesoft.com) to cover all bases. The PE environment is best used for backing up and recovering data, browsing the web to troubleshoot boot-related problems, and perform manual repairs. Built-in tools that can help include AOMEI Partition Assistant (recover lost or deleted partitions), BootICE (examine and repair boot entries), and Recuva (recover deleted files). You also have access to a limited set of system tools—press Win-R to launch Control Panel (control.exe—most links don’t work, however), Device Manager (devmgmt.msc), or Computer Management (comptmgmt.msc), among others [ Image I].
One major thing to remember is that you’re not directly plugged into your Windows installation. That means taking additional steps to connect to files and settings associated with your ailing Windows install.
For example, to view and edit your BCD file on an older PC, with a BIOS rather than UEFI, you need to direct BootICE to the system reserved partition’s Boot folder, and the Bcd file within. To manage your PC’s startup entries in Autoruns, choose “File > Analyze Offline System,” and point “System Root” to C:\Windows, and “User Profile” to C:\Users\<Username>. Finally, editing your Windows Registry using O&O RegEditor would require you to point the program at C:\Windows. Replace “C:” with whatever drive your Windows installation is on.
Any changes you make to any apps incorporated in your rescue media are lost when you reboot, so while you might want to synchronize your Opera profile with the portable app to access your favorites and add-ons, for example, you’d need to do so every time you booted from the rescue media. To get around this, use portable apps stored on another drive, where changes are recorded.