E09 Image

[Kate]

Hey all,

We've heard about some issues using the some of the E09 USB keys to image the E09 Classmates. We're working on the issue, but until then, here's what you can do to keep making progress...

We apologize for the inconvenience!! Thanks so much for your patience,

Kate

[jsthyer]

I am a programmer mentor who ran into the same problem imaging the driver station due to what appears to be a defective boot sector on the USB flash drive that was shipped. I am in the IT industry and thus chose to solve the problem myself.

OPTION A: Re-Create the BOOT sector only but still make a backup copy of your files just in case.


1. MAKE A BACKUP COPY!!! Copy all the files from the USB flash drive to a directory on your computer. Lets imagine that your flash drive mounts as drive F: when you insert it. I used a command prompt (start->run->cmd.exe), and did the following:

C:\> CD \
C:\> MKDIR E09
C:\> ROBOCOPY /S /COPYALL F:\ C:\E09

*Note: robocopy is an efficient Windows7 command line copy utility that has replaced the old XCOPY that people used back in the WinXP days.

2. REWRITE THE BOOT SECTOR. Find an original DVD of Windows7 and place it in your DVD drive. Lets assume that your Windows7 media drive ends up being D:\ when you have inserted the DVD and USB flash drive is still drive F:\.

What is a boot sector? It is the first 512 bytes of any bootable flash, hard driver, or optical media that your computer reads to bootstrap itself.

*IMPORTANT -> make sure you are only writing the boot sector to the drive letter you intend to write it to!!!

C:\> D:
D:\> cd boot
D:\BOOT> bootsect /nt60 F:\
*this writes a new boot sector to your flash drive.
/NT60 means to write a Windows Vista/7 boot sector which will
use the bootmgr file.

Now safely remove the USB flash media, and try to boot the driver station from the USB generic media option when pressing F11. If successful, your USB flash should work properly and you can image your driver station according to the directions provided by USFIRST.

************************************************** *****

OPTION B: Backup your files, REFORMAT your flash media, and then re-create the BOOT sector. Copy your files back again.


1. MAKE A BACKUP COPY!!! Copy all the files from the USB flash drive to a directory on your computer. Lets imagine that your flash drive mounts as drive F: when you insert it. I used a command prompt (start->run->cmd.exe), and did the following:

C:\> CD \
C:\> MKDIR E09
C:\> ROBOCOPY /S /COPYALL F:\ C:\E09

*Note: robocopy is an efficient Windows7 command line copy utility that has replaced the old XCOPY that people used back in the WinXP days.

2. REFORMAT YOUR USB FLASH: To reformat the USB flash media, you will need to use the disk part utility from the command prompt as follows:

C:\> DISKPART
DISKPART> LIST DISK
** Look for your USB media. Lets assume it is DISK 3 for this example.
DISKPART> DETAIL DISK 3 (show and verify that it is the media of choice)
DISKPART> SELECT DISK 3
DISKPART> CLEAN (clears all config off the USB media)
DISKPART> CREATE PRIMARY PARTITION
DISKPART> SELECT PARTITION 1
DISKPART> ACTIVE
DISKPART> FORMAT FS=NTFS (format will take a while)
DISKPART> EXIT

3. Copy all of your files back again.

C:\> ROBOCOPY /S /COPYALL C:\E09 F:\

4. Use BOOTSECT to recreate boot sectors as described above in item 2. You will need Windows 7 DVD optical media. If mounted in the D: drive, and assuming your USB flash is mounted as F: drive, then:

C:\> D:
D:\> CD BOOT
D:\BOOT> bootsect /nt60 f:

5. Safely remove your USB drive, and try to boot your driver station system.


Hope this helps some people, and just remember to be VERY careful when writing that boot sector. Make sure you are writing that data to the correct drive letter that truly represents your USB flash drive. You have the option to use a completely different USB flash drive if you are concerned about destroying the original media.

-Joff Thyer

[Matt Pilotte]

We've created a step-by-step document describing the process to create a replacement or backup USB restoration key.

The document is now live on the Driver Station section of the Kit of Parts website.

LINK

[youarefunny]

For those of you with access to linux a really quick fix is using gparted to toggle the boot flag as well as doing a file system check. I don't know which one fixed the problem but I could then boot off my usb without copying all the files over and back.

Something to note is it says my copy of windows is not genuine although I don't know how anything I did would change the files in a way different then doing the copying meathod.

[Kevin O'Connor]

Something to note is it says my copy of windows is not genuine although I don't know how anything I did would change the files in a way different then doing the copying meathod.

You have to activate Windows after imaging. See page 8 of Getting Started with the 2012 Control System

[youarefunny]

You have to activate Windows after imaging. See page 8 of Getting Started with the 2012 Control System

Thank you. My mistake.

So if you want a quick (under 1 minute) fix, gparted is a great way to go.

[brimsa]

I followed the directions on this link and I can not complete the uninstall, I keep getting an error message

Error: 1612 - can not uninstall this item, do you want to continue

what does this error mean and how do I get around it.

[Matt Pilotte]

I followed the directions on this link and I can not complete the uninstall, I keep getting an error message

Error: 1612 - can not uninstall this item, do you want to continue

what does this error mean and how do I get around it.

Hi,

Can you be more specific about the overall problem you are trying to solve, and to which link you are referring? There are several mentioned in this thread. Also, at which step to encounter this message?

Thanks,
-Matt

[brimsa]

Hey Matt,


I was unable to run the update off the flash drive you supplied - it seems to have a corrupted boot sector.

I followed the directions on your web site to create a new usb restoration drive and got the following error.

>NSIS Error:
>
>install integrity check has failed. Common cause include incomplete
>download and damaged media . contact the installers author to obtain a
>new copy.

then I got the like below from this forum:

here is the link that i was refering to ;
http://forums.usfirst.org/forumdisplay.php?f=1340

I am able to select all the files “National Instruments Software folder in add/remove programs. But when I press remove it give me the Error:1612 error message.

Thanks

[Matt Pilotte]

Hi,

We have posted 2 sets of instructions on how to deal with an corrupted E09 restoration key.

This first procedure was released early on, the one Kate posted in the first message of this thread, and required uninstalling the 2011 software from the E09, and replacing it with the software needed for 2012. Link #1

Once we understood the issue with the E09 restoration key, we posted a procedure to create a new one. Link #2

Based on your message, it sounds like your using the procedure in Link #1, is that correct?

Thanks.
-Matt