Add a Clonezilla Backup/Restore menu to your Easy2Boot USB HDD

If you have Easy2Boot on a large (e.g. 2TB) NTFS USB HDD, you can add a clonezilla ISO and a .mnu file to E2B. This allows you to quickly and easily make a backup of the first hard disk in all your systems (PCs, notebooks, tablets). You can then perform a 'bare-metal' restore at any later date.

The Tutorial 118 on the RMPrepUSB website gives you all the details. You don't have to save the backup images onto the E2B drive, you can connect a second USB HDD to act as the backup device and then keep it in a drawer, happy in the knowledge that you can restore any of your systems at any time in the future.

Easy2Boot DPMS now with updated XP 32-bit Mass Storage Drivers

E2B v1.63 Beta 5 (Easy2Boot_v1.63DPMSBeta5.zip) has the latest XP 32-bit Mass Storage Drivers added + a few bug fixes to fix a few issues in the DriverPack. The new version will hopefully allow XP to be installed from an ISO file onto newer systems that have more modern chipsets - e.g. Z87/Haswell.

If you have any systems (new or old) that you can install XP onto to test it, please do so and let me know if there are any problems as there may be bugs in the new DriverPack files.

As a very quick preliminary test, try the Utilities - List matching XP DriverPack.ini entries  menu option - this should identify your systems Mass Storage (e.g. AHCI) controller and tell you what driver it will use from the DriverPack. If that works then go ahead and try a 2-Stage XP install from ISO and see if it works. If it cannot find a driver, please report the PCI ID to me by using the 'Show Mass Storage Controller PCI IDs' menu entry.

Don't forget to use a USB 2.0 port and not a USB 3.0 port for the E2B USB drive!

The new Beta is in the Alternate Download Areas as usual. Unfortunately, the E2B zip file is larger than before (38MB instead of 31MB), due to the extra drivers.

OneDrive download area

Google Drive download area

MPI Tool Kit v0.045

Running .imgPTN Windows Install from a Virtual Machine

If you convert a Win7 Install ISO to a .imgPTN file and then boot in a VM to the .imgPTN file in E2B and run Setup from the CSM menu, there was a problem in that Setup would overwrite the boot code on the USB drive and thus both the E2B USB drive and the Virtual Hard Disk would not be bootable after a reboot!

MPI Tool Kit 0.044a

Recently, there have been several instances when you cannot run the MPI_FAT32 or MPI_NTFS scripts because you need to enter a larger size than the calculated default size for the .imgPTN file.

This new version has a small change to the MPI_FAT32 and MPI_NTFS scripts.

Instead of running automatically with no user prompts, it now always prompts for the size of the .imgPTN file that it needs to create.

Normally, you will just press [ENTER] to accept the default size, but you can type in a different size instead.

Although this means it is now no longer fully automatic, I don't think pressing the [ENTER] key is too much of a price to pay for being able to override the default size.

If you wish, you can edit the .cmd files and add a * to the command that runs MakePartImage, in order to return it to its normal 'fully automated' mode.

Add Knoppix+Persistence to your E2B drive

Note: this must be done using an NTFS E2B USB drive rather than a FAT32 E2B drive, because usually the .imgPTN file will be greater than 4GB for a full Knoppix OS + persistence file.

Easy2Boot 1.63 Beta 3 now supports FreeBSD 9 and 10, GhostBSD and pfSense 'memstick' images

Versions 9 and 10 of FreeBSD will not boot as an ISO, but the 1.63 Beta 3 version of Easy2Boot and the new MPI Tool Pack v0.044 do support FreeBSD 9 and 10 and pfSense 'memstick' non-UEFI images.

E2B v1.A5 and later versions now support the .isoBSD file extension and can directly MBR-boot some BSD ISO files using a small .imgPTN partition image file - see here.




GhostBSD.img files are also in the memstick format and work too.


You will need to make a dummy .imgPTN file and then add and rename the memstick .img file to remove it's file extension, as described below...

New E2B+persistence YouTube video

New YouTube video on how to add persistence to linux ISOs

Adding FreeBSD, FreeNAS, PCBSD/TrueOS to Easy2Boot

Update: E2B 1.63 now supports FreeBSD, pfSense and GhostBSD .img files! See blog post here.

Recent versions of FreeBSD, FreeNAS, PCBSD/TrueOS ISOs do not 'just work' when copied to the E2B USB drive. However, if you can make a bootable FAT32 USB Flash drive that works correctly (e.g. using Unetbootin), then it is often possible to use the MPI Tool Kit's MakePartImage to make a .imgPTN partition image file directly from the working USB Flash drive.

E2B v1.63 Beta 2 now available

Changes from v1.62

• QRUN now suggests a 'better' file extension than .iso if appropriate (see previous blog post)
• \_ISO\docs\Make_E2B_USB_Drive\Make_MyE2B.cfg.cmd - this will create language\keyboard settings in a new MyE2B.cfg file.
• MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd and UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd files now will ask if you want to create a MyE2B.cfg file for language/kbd support (if one does not already exist) by calling Make_MyE2B.cfg.cmd.
• New grldr grub4dos 0.4.6a version to fix NTFS bug
• Small tweaks to QRUN.g4b to use language file error messages for 'not contiguous' etc.

Download it from the E2B Alternate Download Areas at bottom of page here as usual.

P.S. RMPrepUSB v2.1.728 now available, includes grub4dos 0.4.6a latest version instead of 0.4.5c version - same as latest E2B.

Add Liberte Linux with persistence to E2B

Liberte Linux is a secure, reliable, lightweight and easy to use Gentoo-based LiveUSB/SD/CD Linux distribution with the primary purpose of enabling anyone to communicate safely and covertly in hostile environments. Whether you are a privacy advocate, a dissident, or a sleeper agent, you are equally likely to find Liberté Linux useful as a mission-critical communication aid.

The latest version is 2012.3 and supports MBR and 64-bit and 32-bit UEFI-booting.

Liberte will automatically make a persistent file at \otfe\liberte.vol if an empty \otfe folder exists in the root of a FAT32 writeable storage medium. It does not seem possible to boot from the ISO with persistence however, so we must use a .imgPTN file: