Ed Van Every

Hey - I didn't write the loader (NTLDR)! If you do a Google search on BARTPE and Dual Layer you will see that other folks have documented this as well. In fact, thats what brought me to the ImgBurn product in the first place! I've found a couple of links which indicate that NTLDR can't completely load the O/S if all the files it needs are not in the first layer (and below 4GB). Take the info for what its worth... I did get finally get a Big "DL" BartPE image working using another tool (UltraISO) which simply appends any newly added files (my image files) to the end of an existing ISO image. Consider this a confirmation if you will... I could not get ImgBurn to do this properly since I had no control of file placement. Anyway, I have my solution. Thanks again for a great product! I hope you find some time and incentive to implement the feature as several of us have requested. Bye for now! Ed

...yet another post - sorry... Also, as more and more WinPE and BartPE environments start to exceed the capacity of a standard DVD, this will become more of an evident issue. Its not about Ghost, its about the size of the disc and whether or not NTLOADER and Kernel files get pushed out past the layer break on DL media. Any BartPE or WinPE environment which is greater than 4.5GB, and therefore requires DL media, may have these issues. I can appreciate the fact if you don't want to provide this feature. Just be sure you understand the nature of the request, that others have also asked for this feature, and that the requests will likely go up in the future. These are valid feature requests to improve an already great product. http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=4518 Its your choice... Thanks for a great product in any case!

...and its not a "crappy" Ghost problem, its a limitation of the NT Loader...

Yes file placement ***DOES*** matter... If you have several large files (like GHOST images) in a WinPE or BartPE disc image, and those files get recorded to the media before the kernel and boot loader files, and they end up pushing the boot loader and kernel files out onto the disk past the Layer break, the disc will not be bootable. Its fairly well established that in order for a BartPE or WinPE Dual Layer image to be bootable, the NTLoader and Kernel files must reside on the portion of the disk before the layer break. (IOW: the LBA of the NTLDR and kernel files must be before the LBA of the layer break) Allowing us to make sure the really large GHOST image files are recorded last will solve this issue. Allowing us to lock the recording order to the order in which the items are listed will accomplish this. As some really large GHOST images (with multiple files) can themselves exceed the capacity of a standard DVD (1/2 of a DL), these WILL push the kernel and NTLDR past the layer break if recorded first. Thanks, Ed

There are ***MANY*** reasons why we do not use GHOST to make the DVD. The GHOST CD authoring engine sucks and does not give us the environment we want. In fact, the generic GHOST environment will not run on several specific configurations due to the inability of the underlying DOS environment to support an external DVD connected by USB. But my question is not about the generic Ghost environment... ...nuff said... We have the environment we want and it meets our requirements when the overall size does not exceed a standard DVD. We would like to continue to use this same installation environment as the larger (bloated) VISTA images pushes into DL media sizes. Now, if ImgBurn would let us control placement of the files (at least by recording them in the order they are listed) all would be well... So the query stands... Thanks, Ed

I saw another posting for a similar request so here's my $0.02... Apparently, ImgBurn processes all the files and directories in its source list by recording files at the root of the compilation first, then all the files at the first level directories, then all the files at the second level directories, etc... Its a little odd, but thats the way it appears to record stuff. At least this is what my post failure analysis shows me (after 5 blown DVD-R DL's)... This is causing me big headaches when trying to use a BartPE boot image to record a Dual Layer DVD to make a Ghost imaging disk. The content of this Ghost image exceeds the capacity of a regular DVD so I must use a dual layer disc (VISTA ***IS*** BloatWare). When I put my Ghost image files into the source list, it appears the only way I can make sure they get pushed to the end of the image is to artificially nest them very deep in a directory structure. As another user has also suggested, it might be nice to simply have a check box which allows us to specify that the source files and directories be recorded in the order they appear in the source list (or IBB file). I even tried creating a directory named \ZIMAGES as I thought it was processing each folder alphabetically IN ITS ENTIRETY, but thats apparently not the way its done. Once again, ImgBurn records all the files in the root, then all the files in the first level folders, then all the files, in the second level folders, then all the files in the third level folders, etc. The big issue, is of course, that the large Ghost images push the NTLDR and boot files out into the second layer and then the system will not boot. Making an artificially deep structure should solve this but I don't think thats a very obvious solution. (I can't test this right now as I ran out of DVD Dual Layer discs and am waiting for more). Just let the image be created based on how the directories or files appear in the list. Its that simple. I spent many hours on this and all I have to show is several relatively expensive coasters. Is this possible? I'ld appreciate an email response from the author(s) if possible as I have to get back to more productive endeavors and may not be able to check back for a while. This is very important to us, but I'll have to check into other potential methods for immediate resolution... Thanks! Ed