Monday 17 August 2015

Add BitDefender Rescue ISO to E2B

BitDefender provide a free bootable ISO for scanning and cleaning viruses from systems (details here). This is a very useful tool to add to your E2B USB drive.

Recent versions of the BitDefender AntiVirus rescue ISO use grub and support UEFI x64 booting.





If you simply add the bitdefender-rescue-cd.iso file to E2B, you will have to download the latest updates each time (if an internet connection is available) and you will not be able to UEFI-boot.

The sample bitdefender-rescue-cd_persistent.mnu menu file included with E2B only works for older BitDefender ISOs which do not use grub.

New BitDefender ISOs

If you want to have persistent updates, MBR and UEFI-booting, you can choose one of the two methods below to make a .imgPTN partition image file...

PLEASE NOTE: There is a bug in older versions of the MPI Tool Pack v0.053 which corrupts the \boot\grub\i386-pc\command.lst file - this prevents it from booting via grub2 from the CSM menu. Please download the MPI Tool Kit  0.054 or a later version.
Some versions of BitDefender have been reported to be buggy (e.g. persistence does not work) - test BitDefender on a separate USB Flash drive and make sure the updates are persistent (see Method 2 below). 

1. Make a .imgPTN file directly from the ISO file


Download the BitDefender ISO (the link for the latest download is here).

Drag-and-drop the ISO onto the MPI Tool Pack MPI_FAT32 Windows Desktop shortcut to make a .imgPTN file. When prompted for the size, I added 200MB to allow for future updates. BitDefender suggest at least 1GB in total for a partition size (currently it seems to take up approx 650MB with all updates added).

Then simply copy the .imgPTN file to your E2B USB drive (e.g. \_ISO\ANTIVIRUS) and boot.
Tip: To avoid the warning about changing partition table entries, use the .imgPTNAUTO file extension.

  • boot option #2 (grub) to boot in MBR/CSM mode
  • boot option #4 to boot via Clover
  • or just use the system's UEFI boot menu to directly boot in 64-bit UEFI mode.
Boot options #1, #2 and #3 all have the same function (i.e. MBR boot).

Note that the boot options #1 and #3 will not work if you used the semi-automated MPI_FAT32 shortcut to make the .imgPTN file, because the wrong version of syslinux will have been automatically installed (you can delete these two menu items from the \menu.lst file to keep it tidy).

If you want these menu entries to also work, then instead of using the MPI_FAT32 shortcut, drag-and-drop the ISO file onto the MakePartImage.cmd Desktop shortcut and specify Syslinux 6 when prompted. Don't forget to make the size of the .imgPTN file at least 700MB+ to allow space for future updates.


Note: Some versions don't seem to boot although you do get the main BitDefender boot menu (older versions worked fine). This may be due to a buggy version of BitDefender - try another download a few days later to see if it has been fixed or use method 2 below.

2. Make a .imgPTN file from a working BitDefender USB Flash drive

The BitDefender website describes how to make a bootable USB Flash drive using their 'Stickifier' app here. Note that you must format the USB stick first (I suggest using RMPrepUSB - FAT32).

I used a spare USB Flash drive to make the BitDefender boot drive and then tested it to make sure it was working OK and to get the latest updates. Make sure persistence is working (some versions have had problems)!

I then drag-and-dropped the Explorer's USB drive letter icon of the BitDefender USB flash drive onto the MPI Tool Pack MPI_FAT32 Windows Desktop shortcut to make a .imgPTN file. When prompted for the size, I added 200MB to allow for future updates. BitDefender suggest at least 1GB in total for a partition size (currently it seems to take up approx 650MB, the downloaded updates can be 150MB or more).

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