Firesage Bootsage Reference

Bootsage Reference

Operation

BootSage has been designed to create a bootable installation flash drive from a Windows 7 / Server 2008 DVD, or a WinPE environment built from the latest Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK).  The process has been designed to be as simple as possible, and requires only a few fields:

  • Select the target flash drive
  • Provide a path to the Windows files to include on the drive
  • Optionally, additional settings may be configured under File->Preferences, such as the filesystem to use for the flash drive.

Only removable drives are listed as available targets for this process.  If one or more removable drives are located, the first detected drive will be automatically selected.  Make certain the desired drive is selected before starting the process.

At program startup, all DVD drives will be searched for Win7 media, and will be used by default if located.  Otherwise, simply point to the DVD or folder containing the desired WinPE or Win7 files to begin.
Warning: All files and folders will be permanently removed from the selected removable disk once the process starts. Please make sure to backup all files before starting this process!

Installation

No installation is required. Simply unzip the contents of the zip file and double click on bootsage.exe to start building your flash drive.

Technical Overview

In the background, the BootSage process consists of a few simple steps, namely:

  • Create a Win7 bootable MBR on the flash drive
  • Format the drive
  • Configure the boot sector
  • Copy the Windows files

Platform Dependency

BootSage currently uses tools contained on the Windows DVD to configure the boot sector on the flash drive.  When creating a Win7 flash drive, the platform of the DVD must match the current running operating system, ie. both must be 32bit or 64bit and they may not be mismatched.  A warning will appear if they are mismatched, and the flash drive will remain un-bootable if the user chooses to continue the process.  An option has been added under File->Preferences to select the specific bootsect.exe when the platforms are mismatched to resolve such a conflict.

These limitations do not affect WinPE environments as multiple versions of bootsect.exe are installed with the AIK, and BootSage identifies and properly utilizes the correct version.

Requirements

BootSage is designed to run under all Windows operating systems from Windows XP through Windows 7, including Windows Server operating systems. The following operating systems are supported for building the boot environment:

  • Windows 7 (all flavors)
  • WinPE 3.x
  • WinPE 2.x

Troubleshooting

For difficulties or problems with BootSage, please check out the Support page for common problems, or you may contact us with as much information as possible, such as:

  • Operating system under which you are running BootSage, eg. Windows XP SP3 64 bit
  • Selected Windows files to include on the flash drive, eg. Windows 7 Home 32bit
  • Make, Model, Size of flash drive
  • Any error messages displayed by BootSage