Hurry - EaseUS ToDo Home Backup free for 48 hours (normally $29)

I have never used it, but the offer is here. You must provide a valid email address to get the key (it takes 5 minutes or so for the email to arrive).
Late note: My activation did not work and it said it had already been used  :-(  Others seem to be having the same problem so it may be fixed later...

Offer expired! Check HERE for more offers.

There is a ToDo Backup Free version

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.

E2B v1.72BetaK available

SteveL found some problems with 1.72BetaJ and the latest grub4dos

• If 1024x768 bmp used, pressing F8 to reload menu caused screen corruption.
• If use the code line
  cat --locate=\x02 --replace=\x00 --skip=0x2073 --length=1 /grldr > nul
  in \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg to suppress boot-up messages, it caused payload files to not be detected and thus not added to the Menus.

These issues have been fixed with a new version of \_ISO\e2b\grub\menu.lst.

E2B 1.72BetaJ now available

This version has the latest version of grub4dos 0.4.6a 2015-08-07.

Yaya appears to have fixed the .jpg display problem so that we can use standard 95% quality .jpg files (e.g. as created by MSPaint) as background images.

Please try it and let me know if you find any problems,

The latest version of E2B_Editor will allow you to load .jpg files as a wallpaper as well as .bmp files.

If you want to convert your \_ISO\MyBackground.bmp file to a smaller .jpg file, just load and save it using MSPaint (but keep the filename+extension the same - i.e. MyBackground.bmp or MyBackground.bmp.gz).

P.S. Progressive jpg's, as used by some websites, contain both low-res and hi-res images and are not supported. If you re-save them using MSPaint then they should work OK with E2B/grub4dos.

How to check your CPU cooler using software

Is your heatsink correctly seated onto your CPU? Is the cooling system up to the job?

How would you check that it is correctly fitted and is working correctly?

Many people fall into the trap of measuring the CPU temperature to check that their heatsink and heatsink fan are working correctly. There are many software utilities that will check the internal CPU temperature, such as CPU-Z or RealTemp. For Intel CPUs there is also the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility but this needs to be installed (.Net and drivers) and the system must be restarted.

Intel Extreme  Tuning will run a stress test and show you if thermal throttling is occurring (in my case this happened once 100 deg C was reached).

E2B v1.72BetaH available

1.72h has the latest grub4dos 0.4.6a version which includes support for .jpg wallpaper files, right-aligned menu support and the new setmenu command.

If you want to try using a .jpg file for a background wallpaper, make sure you save it using 100% Best Quality setting or the picture will display with defects (fixed in 1.72BetaK)!

Download and add Windows 10 ISOs to Easy2Boot

You can download Windows 10 'Retail' install ISOs from Microsoft and install them using Easy2Boot.

See also this blog post for direct download of many MS ISOs.

1. First go to the MS page and download and run the Download Tool (choose the 32-bit or 64-bit MediaCreationTool.exe, depending on what version of Windows you are currently running).

How to copy your E2B USB drive to another USB drive

If you have your E2B USB drive working nicely and you want to make other bootable E2B USB drives from it, then you can use the MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd script.

Why can't I boot Easy2Boot on some old systems?

If you use Easy2Boot on a wide range of different and older systems, you may find that some of them won't boot, even though they look like they should support USB-booting.

This problem is usually caused by the BIOS on the system.

Here is a checklist of things to try:

Quickly install Windows 7\8\10 To Go onto an Easy2Boot USB drive using WinToUSB

The free version of WinToUSB can quickly install a full version of Windows from a Windows Install ISO onto a USB drive. We can use it to make a Win7ToGo .imgPTN or .VHD file on our E2B USB drive (or Win8 or Win10). You can have as many different WindowsToGo files on your E2B USB drive as you like!

Here are the steps, in outline, for an MBR-bootable version of Win7ToGo (but also works for Win8 and 10).

You can use VBox+VMUB instead of a real system for booting Windows, if you prefer.

E2B v1.72BetaG

The latest Beta of E2B has a few tweaks to cope with the latest changes in grub4dos 0.4.6a.

Note: 

E2B v1.72BetaG does NOT contain this latest version of grub4dos.

The latest grub4dos 0.4.6a versions have a few new features (and bugs!):

1. Support .jpg files for splashimages (wallpaper/background images)
2. New setmenu command to position the menu (with or without border)
3. Change to color command (colour for 'Notes' can be defined separately)
4. New  echo -v command which displays the version number

Ready-made WinPE ISOs (from Gandalf)

If you are looking for ready-made WinPE ISOs (with UEFI-boot support too), check out the Gandalf's WinPE builds of WinPESE8.1 (Google for 'Gandalf WinPE').

Win8.1U1SE_x86 updateable (UEFI+MBR bootable) - This PE had external Portable Apps and Programs folder, allowing you to add more programs.

There is even a dual-boot x86/x64 ISO (64-bit UEFI + 32&64-bit MBR booting)...

The dual-PE ISO has an external Portable Apps folder, so you could add more apps into it.

Using Easy2Boot with UEFI-only systems

Summary

Many people have asked me 'how can I boot to E2B and select a UEFI payload, if I only have one UEFI-only system'?

This is an (old) blog post - Easy2Boot v2 now includes agFM UEFI boot files, so you can directly UEFI-boot to any payload or ISO file from the agFM menu system. You can also add Ventoy too!

Due to some systems have buggy BIOSes, it is best to have two E2B USB drives, one for UEFI booting and payloads and the other for MBR booting and MBR payloads.

SWITCH_E2B.exe is a Windows utility that allows you to switch .imgPTN images without booting in MBR-mode.

eBook #3 contains full details and URLs to sample WinPE downloads.

MPI Tool Pack now has Clover 32-bit support (v 051)

I have added the 32-bit Clover files to the MPI Tool Pack so if your payload .imgPTN file has 32-bit UEFI boot files, you can UEFI-boot from the CSM menu.

A system with a 64-bit CPU will list both Clover 32-bit and 64-bit boot entries.
A system with a 32-bit CPU will list only the Clover 32-bit boot entry.

Fast USB 3.0 drive caddy for SSDs - Inateck FE2005

A few years ago I needed a USB 3.0 drive caddy for 2.5" HDDs, so I bought a cheap ICY BOX  IB-233ST

This ICY does have screws but you can just use the rubber sheath to hold it together - this allows for quick changing of drives without having to fiddle with tiny screws and find a tiny screwdriver!

However, when I fitted an SSD drive into it, I was only getting sequential rd/wr speeds of 150-200MB/s.

After doing a bit of research, I bought this screwless Inateck drive caddy (FE2005S)

Adding WinPE/WinBuilder ISO files to Easy2Boot (WinPE-Yol.iso, Dium_2.0.iso, etc.)

WinPE-Yol.iso (Google for it!) and Dium_2.0.iso are two French WinPE ISO's built using WinBuilder (ChrisR's Win8PESE project here).

Note: E2B v1.90 and later now include automatic support for MediCat and other WinBuilder-based PE ISOs. See here for more details.

Dium-2 booted from a .imgPTN file

WinPE-Yol booted from a .imgPTN file

Add 'Boot Repair Disk' ISOs to your E2B multi-boot drive

I came across a reference to Boot-Repair-Disk a few days ago which was something new to me.
It includes gparted and FireFox, and is very quick to boot too.

It says that it will 'automatically' fix boot problems on both linux and Windows systems:

Here is THE Rescue Disk that you should keep close to your computer !

• runs automatically Boot-Repair rescue tool at start-up
• also contains the OS-Uninstaller and Boot-Info tools.
• repairs recent (UEFI) computers as well as old PCs

Partition Guru Pro giveaway - hurry!

http://reboot.pro/topic/20571-partitionguru-pro/#entry193638

Free offer for this s/w worth $80. Useful for partition/data recovery, etc.
See here for extra features that you get with the Pro version.

Right-Click on a file to show a cluster list and see if it is contiguous.

As soon as you install, Register it quickly before the offer expires (you do not have to use your real email address if you prefer not to!).

E2B v1.72BetaE now has (very!) minimal Arabic language support

E2B v1.72e has a \_ISO\e2b\grub\ARABIC language folder.

It only has a few menu headings and menu entries translated to Arabic (using Google translate!) and they are probably all wrong!

If you wish to correct them, the instructions on how to edit the files are in the \_ISO\e2b\grub\ARABIC\ReadMe.txt file.

The 'source' UTF-8 files that you need to edit are the STRINGS_ARABIC.txt and F1_ARABIC.cfg files.

You need to edit these and then convert them using Fribidi to a STRINGS.txt and F1.cfg file (use the Reverse.cmd file provided - just drag-and-drop a 'Arabic' file onto the Reverse.cmd file).

As a starting point, you could try this \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file (save as UTF-8):

!BAT
#set CENTREHD=1
set RTL=1
set AUTONUM=0
write 0x8308 0 > nul
set bdwidth=0
if "%LANG%"=="" set LANG=ARABIC
set EXTOFF=
#HEADING
set HEADING=ﺔﺷﻼﻔﻟﺍ ﺯﻭﺪﻨﻳﻭ
#FOOTER
set HBTM=3642
set FCOLOUR=0106
set HELPTEXT=ﺑﺮﻧﺎﻣﺞ [F7]   ﻧﻮﺭﺗﻮﻥ [F8]   ﻧﻮﺭﺗﻮﻥ [F9]   ﻧﻮﺭﺗﻮﻥ [F10]

Setting E2B sub-menu defaults and timeouts

I have had enquiries from two different people in the same day about how to set a timeout to auto-run an entry in a sub-menu!

You can set a menu default (and optional timeout value) for each standard E2B sub-menu folder by using a .mnu file.

I have added yet another page to the E2B site here to describe the various options.