How to create a BartPE Rescue CD for Macrium Reflect

So, you’ve created your Linux based recovery CD, you push it in and boot up and it doesn’t find your hard drives, network or both – what’s next?

If the Linux Based Recovery CD option doesn’t work for you – usually because it has trouble recognizing your disk or network cards - then you may want to use the BartPE or Windows PE 2.0 recovery CDs.

BartPE is a freely available preinstallation environment for 32-bit Windows XP or Server 2003. It's a bootable environment created from your exisiting Windows system files. It can also potentially support your RAID controller although that is not going to be covered by this article. If you do want to add RAID support to Bart PE then the best place to start is on the PE Builder website.

If you're working with 64-bit Windows, Windows Vista or Server 2008 then you'll need the full version of Macrium Reflect which includes paid-for licensing for Windows PE 2.0. The Windows PE 2.0 environment includes RAID support.

BartPE has the benefit of providing a graphical user interface and a plugin architecture that means many 3rd party custom plugins are available. Macrium Reflect provides a plugin that allows you to restore files and partitions directly once you are booted from your CD/DVD drive into BartPE.

Anyway, to business; you will need:

• Access to Windows XP or Windows 2003 installation files
  
• The latest PE Builder install file (the BartPE rescue disk creation software). You can download it via http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#download
  
• Macrium Reflect installed
  
  Note: BartPE is only suitable for 32-bit Windows XP and 32-bit Windows Server 2003 environments.

To create your BartPE / Macrium Reflect Rescue CD:

1. Install PE Builder from the install file you downloaded earlier
   
   Make a note of where PE Builder is installed. The default location is similar to C:\PEBuilder3110a
   
   
2. Finish the installation by allowing it to run to check it works.
   
   You are presented with a Search files? dialog
   
   
   
   
   
3. Click No
   
   The main PE Builder dialog is displayed. We shall return to this once we’ve configured the Macrium Reflect plugin from within Macrium Reflect
   
   
4. Start Macrium Reflect
   
   
   
5. Select Other Tasks > Create Rescue CD
   
   The Rescue CD Wizard is displayed
   
   
   
   
6. Select BartPE and click Next
   
   This displays a dialog for copying the necessary Macrium Reflect plugin files to the BartPE plugin folder.
   
   
   
   
7. Click Updates to check online for updates to the Macrium Reflect plugin
   
   
8. Click the browse button ‘…’ and select the plugin folder below the PEBuilder installation folder. For example C:\PEBuilder3110a\plugin
   
   
9. Click Finish
   
   The Macrium Reflect plugin is immediately copied to the PE Builder plugin folder.
   
   Now when you use PE Builder to create a BartPE rescue CD it contains the files necessary to run Macrium Reflect and restore disk images or files.
   
   
10. Return to PE Builder
    
    If you closed it earlier then start it from the Start menu.
    
    
    
    
11. Specify the path to your Windows installation files in the Source text box
    
    For me these were on my original Microsoft installation CD/DVD which occupied the only drive bay on my server – more on that later. If you believe they may be on your hard drive but don’t know where then you can search for them by selecting menu Source > Search. Otherwise, simply select their location
    
    Note: The directory that contains the Windows installation files is called ‘i386’ but the path that PE Builder wants is the parent directory to ‘i386’. So, if you have your installation files at ‘c:\i386’ then you need to enter ‘C:\’ as the path to the Windows installation files.
    
    
12. Leave the Custom text box empty
    
    
13. Leave the Output folder as BartPE or point it to a location suitable for storing 153Mb of data
    
    
14. Select the Media Output.
    
    You may be able to directly Burn to CD/DVD at this point. I couldn’t because, as I mentioned, the DVD drive was already in use for my Windows installation files. Instead we selected Create ISO image and resolved to burn it to disk later. An ISO image is a complete disk image as a file.
    
    Note: Your CD/DVD burning software may or may not support ISO. If it doesn’t, it is often an extra cost option that you get for buying the full version. Alternatively, you could use CDBurnerXP; a free utility that you can download from http://www.cdburnerxp.se/.
    
    
15. Click Build
    
    If the BartPE folder does not exist then the Create directory dialog is displayed
    
    
    
    
16. Click Yes to create the folder and continue
    
    BartPE uses your Windows XP or Server 2003 installation files and so you need to read and agree to the Windows license before proceeding.
    
    
    
    
17. If you agree with the terms click I agree
    
    PE Builder builds the BartPE installation. In my case, as an ISO file:
    
    
    
    
18. Click Close to finish
    

That’s it! You may now eject your BartPE CD/DVD and check it by using it to boot your machine.

Note: If your machine isn't set to boot from CD/DVD then you need to adjust the boot settings in your BIOS. Accessing the BIOS varies from PC to PC but you will always see a brief message that tells you how to do this as the PC is starting. Power on your PC and watch the screen carefully. Look for a line of text that says something like, 'Hit Del to enter setup' or 'Press F2 for BIOS settings'. Once you've found the correct key (generally, Del, or one of the function keys), press it repeatedly until you see a BIOS setup screen - from there you can set the boot order so that CD/DVD takes precedence over your hard disk drive (HDD). You can find pictures of BIOS setup screens at http://www.hiren.info/pages/bios-boot-cdrom.

Once booted into BartPE, to start restoring files or partitions, select Go > Programs > Macrium Reflect.