64 GB USB Stick

[bkruczek]

Hi Folks,

I wanted to use a 64 GB USB Stick as recovery stick with the backuped data on it. Unfortunately, when creating the recovery media, the stick is formatted with FAT 32, which leaves only 32 GB of the 64 GB as usable space. Why can't formating not be NTFS?

Regards
Bernd

[Dima P.]

Hello Bernd,

It’s a general recommendation from MS for the bootable USB drives creation. Besides, creation of more than one partition on the USB stick is not considered to be a best practice. Correct me if I am wrong but you can’t even do that with MS disk manager/diskpart?

[bkruczek]

This information is USELESS! I wanted to know why Endpoint doesn't format with NTFS!

[ninjaburn81]

Bernd:

Dmitry isn't wrong, it is a M$ recommendation if you are trying to boot from a UEFI enabled PC to use FAT32 formatted drives. It is listed in several different pages/articles, one example here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 25109.aspx If you look under 'Troubleshooting' for creation of a WinPE image:

Most USB flash drives support only a single drive partition. The MakeWinPEMedia command formats the drive as FAT32, which supports booting both BIOS-based and UEFI-based PCs.

Thus Veeam is creating a bootable flash that will work on any PC, regardless if it is BIOS or UEFI enabled. The Veeam guys can correct me if I am wrong but I bet they are using a WinPE creation tool to make their bootable flash drives.

As for this issue as a whole, a simple change of tact may be best. I would suggest this be a feature request, perhaps in the 'advanced' options of the bootable disk creation wizard, that allows you to select which type of PC you are planning on using it for (BIOS or UEFI) and a third option "I don't know" where it will default to FAT32 as it is now.

I hope this helps!

[Vitaliy S.]

Bernd, I think Dmitry has already explained the reason for this decision, besides FAT32 can be recognized in any OS (even Linux/Unix). Adam is spot on also.

I'm sorry to hear that you find this answer "useless", but thanks for letting us know your use case, we will keep it mind when discussing new functionality of Endpoint.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Dima P.]

Compared to Adam's explanation my is indeed useless . Thank you guys!

[bkruczek]

Today, with USB sticks available up to 256 GB, it doesn't make sense to format them with FAT 32 and the 32 GB limit. The possibility to format them with NTFS would use the whole capacity of the stick and make it possible to have both, the bootable recovery medium AND the backup of a system partition on ONE stick.

[ninjaburn81]

Note my previous post for some of the main technical reasons for using FAT32, but there are some other thoughts as well.

ISOs: Since the rescovery disk can be created as an ISO too, which can be either mounted directly, burned, or copied, FAT32 is basically the best/only option here.

Size: even if you have a fleet of PCs and one USB stick available, (Lord help you then!) but reasonably 32GB is more than large enough to contain the necessary files/drivers.

Purpose: really you are creating an emergancy recovery stick that has one primary mission: boot your PC so you can run an emergancy recovery. That's it!

In summary, FAT32 is good enough for now.

[Raycaster]

Can't you simply just format the 64G or 128G with FAT32EX. I have a 64G bootable thumbdrive....
I have a 64G bootable rescue thumb drive with ACR%^&*S but the software is too buggy now. (That's why I'm here).

Basically have your boot partition backed up and saved on a Veeam bootable thumb drive for disaster restore.
Having it autoboot and start the restore function with a simple "Y" would be sweet.
My family has 2 PC's and 2 Laptops so having a "factory restore partition" auto restore in emergencies would be great.

A VEEAM function in the application to make a "CRASH KEY" from a 64/128G thumbdrive.

Have Veeam backup a boot partition and give the user a option to create a bare metal restore key.
It creates an autoboot key and places the backup on the key also.
Veeam would set simply parameters in autoboot that just requires a "Y" to start.

Laptops have factory restore partitions but it would be nice to have a "Custom Updated Factory File" eliminating the need for 48hrs and 3G of updates after restore.

[Dima P.]

Hello Lennard,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

Having it autoboot and start the restore function with a simple "Y" would be sweet.

I wonder, which restore point, should be automatically selected in such case?

[Raycaster]

I would only allow 1 restore point with FULL BACKUP as space would be low.
A simple Emergency USBKEY that is made to do just one function.

1) AUTOBOOT from USBKEY with Veeam endpoint backup
2) Ask user to confirm TOTAL RESTORE
3) Check to make sure the enduser has matching Hard drives for the Backup file.
4) Complete wipe and restore.

My wife is an librarian at a school and has over 20 machines to look after.
It would be worthwhile to purchase a 64G thumbdrive for every machine for quick restores.
Yes, the machines can be re-imaged from network level but this sometimes take over a week to happen.
It would take a day to back them all up per key but the downtime per machine could be cut from weeks to hours...
Yes I could accomplish this booting from cd- and restoring from an external but the idea of a Emergency USBKEY almost self restoring would greatly simplify the process.

[Mike Resseler]

Lennard,

I'm a fan of the idea... I'm thinking about the following, a special possibility to create an "baseline image disaster recovery USB key".

Meaning, when we start a wizard, we take a full standalone backup, create the recovery image on a USB disk that becomes bootable and put that backup on it.

When booting on that USB, it knows it is the emergency baseline image, asks for confirmation and re-"images" the machine.

Is that what you would like to see?

I'm not sure it is possible, and certainly not for v1 release, but I will look into this further later on....

Mike

[bkruczek]

Yes, that would be great to have the OPTION to format an USB Stick greater than 23 GB with NTFS!!!!! Feature Request!
B.K

[Raycaster]

That's exactly what I was hoping for.

When you say "I'm not sure its not possible", I am probably naive but wonder why?
I do have a 64G USBKEY that autoboots with another companies image based restore software already.
The problem is that although the software runs and I have manually copied the previous backup on to the USBKEY I still have to define SOURCE and DESTINATION.
Another problem is that the software is buggy and very unintuitive making it very easy to screw up.

I think if the EMERGENCY VEEAM USBKEY WIZARD makes assumptions of being just a bare metal restore option not much could go wrong.

I mean if VEEAM endpoint software was script driven (I don't think it is) on boot a simple syntax like c://veeamendpoint.exe -r d://baremetal.img -cc "You will lose all data please confirm restore Y"
-r meaning RESTORE, -cc meaning confirmation comment

The only problems I see are storage size of USBKEYs and format structure. NTFS would not be available (no external USB hard drives), just EXFAT32 formated USBKEYS.
The wizard would have to check the users key for EXFAT32 and if large enough for backup + WEEAM AUTOBOOTING OS.

Heck, you could sell 64/126G USBKEYS with your logo and software all set ready for a one time backup...

[bkruczek]

No, you can format an USB stick larger than 32 GB with NTFS with several tools.
B.K

[Mike Resseler]

Hi all,

The problem is the NTFS part... I have a few more modern laptops that won't boot on a NTFS partition because it is not FAT and the BIOS / UEFI doesn't support it. You might be surprised who is capable and who isn't

That's why something like this needs to be investigated very well, and tested on different platforms before we can actually do something. Again, the idea I like very much, I kind of played with the same idea a couple of months ago but ran into some issues with flashdrives that support multiple partitions and flashdrives who don't...

We will discuss this and try to find a solution but in the meantime, if you have an example of solutions that can actually do the above, I'm very happy to hear about it

Cheers

Mike

[Raycaster]

I just replicated a solution that almost accomplishes everything.

1) Format 64G USBKEY with EXFAT32 (crappy COREMICRO drive $20 VERY VERY SLOW)
2) Ran Rescue Media Builder from Acro*** True Image 2014 on 64G USBKEY
3) Placed previous OS backup on USBKEY
4) Booted old Dell Inspiron 1501 from USBKEY.
5) Laptop booted with restore software running and I completed the restore.

This is OK, but as mentioned earlier the software is very buggy and I have lost a ton of backups.
Also, this is not really automated having to manually copy previous backup and then run the restore software specifying details that are easy to screw up.

[Dima P.]

Lennard,
I wonder if you created a separate partition on the USB stick or just pushed the backup to the bootable volume?

[Raycaster]

The USBKEY was formatted with exFAT and appears as:

57.62 GB FAT32 : Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)

I will reformat the 64G USBKEY tonight to check everything 100% again.
Sorry If I'm driving you crazy... I've just been chasing this process for awhile.

[Raycaster]

Ok, this is what I did exactly:

Formatted crappy $20 64G COREMICRO USB KEY with fat32formater : http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index. ... format.htm - It Formatted to 57.6G



Used software mentioned in past posts to use its auto-booting utility RESCUE MEDIA BUILDER
With boot + Image software the USB KEY still had 57.1G room left over for a image file.



Booted USB KEY in a Aspire 7745G laptop, no problem and auto started the Image Backup software.

[Dima P.]

Lennard,
Thank you for the details! I wonder how you came aroud the 4GB file size limitation, while loading the backup file to the FAT32 partition?

[Raycaster]

I believe the created backup .tib file was chopped into 4G pieces. 001,002,003 etc.
In backup preferences I set file splitting to AUTOMATIC so I guess the software intelligently knew to chop in 4G parts.

[Dima P.]

That’s what I was expecting, but wanted to make check with you. Thanks again!

[bkruczek]

I am dissappointed from the RC. There ist still no option to format a USB Stick greater than 32GB with its full capacaty and with NTFS !!!!! So the program is useless.

[ninjaburn81]

I am dissappointed from the RC. There ist still no option to format a USB Stick greater than 32GB with its full capacaty and with NTFS !!!!! So the program is useless.

Sigh...

This is one of many threads, and you have to see there are technical limitations to going beyond 32GB to boot off of USB. Also the program is not "useless", it just doesn't have one feature that you want, but cannot have due to technical limitation with the booting of a UEFI based PC.