* *** BIBMINSTALL TXT - 11 Nov 2012 15:49:31 - JKNAUTH BootIt Bare Metal (BIBM) Installation and Configuration ====== ==== ===== ====== ============ === ============= The following is a highlevel description of how I install and configure Boot IT Bare Metal (BIBM) on a Windows PC. I also describe the partitioning that I typically do for a new Dell PC. The following description applies primarily to Windows 7; the partitioning Dell has done over the years differs for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. I currently have had little experience with Windows 8 and none with how Dell ships a new PC with Windows 8. >>> USB mouse warning: For some PCs, BIBM and its setup program do not support a USB mouse. In that case you will have to use the keyboard or touchpad to navigate in BIBM. Alternatively you could temporarily use a PS/2 mouse. <<< PREPARE THE BOOTIT BM INSTALLATION CD ======= === ====== == ============ == Although the term "CD" is used here, the BIBM installation medium could also be a DVD or diskette. The TeraByte Unlimited web page for BootIt Bare Metal is http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-bare-metal.htm Download a BIBM zip file from the TeraByte website. You can install and test with this download as a trial copy. The trial copy is fully functional, but lasts only 30 days. Turn the trial copy into a registered copy by buying a key. Purchase a key (for about $40) from the TeraByte website. Receive e-mails with the registrant's name, key, and instructions. Create a BIBM CD Unzip the downloaded zip file into a work directory. Execute MakeDisk.exe in the work directory and follow the prompts. The default options should work for most people. Select BootIt BM (not Image for DOS) on the first screen. Select the Image for DOS optional component on a later screen. Paste the registrant's name and license key information. The "BootIt Bare Metal User Manual" has program details if needed. (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/bootitbm_en_manual.pdf) The "Image for DOS User Manual" has program details if needed. (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/ifd_en_manual.pdf INSTALL BOOTIT BM IN ITS OWN PARTITION ======= ====== == == === === ========= >>> See the warning above about considerations for using a USB mouse with BIBM. Note that the following is an overview of the installation steps. The detailed BIBM installation dialog is in a subsequent section. <<< Boot from the BIBM CD created above. To do this when using a newer Dell PC: Insert the CD in the CD/DVD/CD-RW drive to be booted. Boot the PC. Press F12 when prompted at top or bottom right of the Dell black screen. Select "CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive" (or some equivalent designation). Alternatively (and less desirably), temporarily change the BIOS boot sequence to boot the CD drive before all other drives. Make space for BIBM to be installed on the hard drive. This requires at least 8 MB of contiguous free space. BIBM will use only 8 MB of the space and leave the rest free. BIBM is usually put at the beginning or end of the drive. One way is to select and Delete an existing partition. E.g., an unneeded Dell Utilities partition. This also makes a primary partition slot available. Or Resize an existing partition to shrink it by at least 8 MB. Install BIBM in the free space. Let the install program find the empty space or select it manually. BIBM will create an 8 MB primary partition there. The BIBM partition will use one of the four primary slots. If Limit Primaries is not used, more than four primaries can exist Register BIBM. This turns off the trial copy timer that would elapse in 30 days. BIBM uses the license key data put on the CD by MakeDisk.exe. On subsequent boots BIBM will display your name as the registered owner. CONFIGURE BOOTIT BM ========= ====== == Configure BIBM settings, e.g., the timeout value. The defaults should work for most people. See jgkhome.name/PC_Info/BIBMprocs.txt for my settings. Rename partitions to something meaningful. Add boot menu items and configure them. Arrange the boot menu items in the desired order. DETAILED INSTALLATION DIALOGS ======== ============ ======= Boot the BIBM CD as described above and then follow these steps. ************************************************************************ ******* CAUTION ************* CAUTION ****************** CAUTION ******* In this document it is assumed that you will install BIBM on the main hard drive. Unless you use BIBM's ability to support more than four primary partitions (Limit Primaries option NOT selected), you might have a problem since Dell now has taken two primary partitions for Dell's own purposes. Windows uses a third of the possible four. That leaves only one partition slot with several contenders for its use: BIBM or a possible extended partition or a main partition for another operating system. You might need to delete one or both of the Dell partitions to free up their primary partition slots. Also, if you do choose to delete the Dell Recovery partition, you should first copy the Windows 7 boot information from it to the Windows 7 partition and make the associated BCD changes. For details, see http://jgkhome.name/PC_Info/BING_WIN7_Dell.htm. Putting that boot information in the Windows 7 partition is desirable if you plan to have multiple Windows 7 operating system partitions, e.g., for testing. ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ Free Up Some Hard Drive Space for BIBM (See above CAUTION) ---- -- ---- ---- ----- ----- --- ---- Setup ................................... Cancel Entering maintenance mode ............... OK Select "Partition Work" icon. Select the Dell Utility partition entry. Select "Delete". Confirm delete (leave defaults) ......... Yes Select "Close". Select "Resume". Install BIBM on the Hard Drive ------- ---- -- --- ---- ----- Setup ................................... OK Enable more than four primaries? ........ No (simplest configuration) Allow setup to choose partition? ........ Yes Dedicated partition? .................... Yes Click OK to begin? ...................... OK Setup completed successfully ............ OK Read the "News Contents" information. Select "Close". Remove boot disk and restart ............ OK Configure BIBM --------- ---- Select "Maintenance". (If desired, here you can also create/resize partitions using Partition Work.) Rename partitions to meaningful names, e.g., WIN7, TEST, and DATA. Select "Partition Work". Select partition to rename, e.g., "MBR Entry 1" or "Local Disk" Select "Properties". Enter the desired partition name. Select "OK". Repeat as needed to rename other partitions. Select "Close". Edit and reorder the boot menu items. Select "Boot Edit". Select "Edit" to edit an existing boot menu item. Fill in information (see examples below). Note that in the MBR Details area (right side of screen), it is very important to order the entries correctly with the "Move Up" and "Move Dn" buttons. See the examples in the next section. Select "OK". Repeat as needed to edit other boot menu items. Use "Move Up"/"Move Dn" to order boot menu entries as desired. Select "OK". Select "Resume" or "Reboot". If you have been testing with a trial copy and have now purchased a license, you must reinstall BIBM for it to become registered. Just create an installation CD (or DVD or diskette, as described above), but now with the name and key. Then boot that CD and select the upgrade option. BIBM will reinstall, placing the registered copy in the same space the trial copy had occupied. All your trial settings, boot menu items, etc., will be retained. The next time you boot, you will see your name as the registered owner. EXAMPLE OF BOOT MENU ITEMS FOR THE MY SIMPLEST CONFIGURATION ======= == ==== ==== ===== === === == ======== ============= Above I renamed the two Windows partitions as WIN7 and TEST. Each boot menu item will boot one Windows partition and make visible only that partition and the DATA (extended) partition. The other two primary partitions are hidden (invisible) to the booted partition and cannot be accessed by it. To accomplish this, set up two boot menu items as follows: Entry 1: ----- -- Identity: WIN7 Icon: (windows) 0: WIN7 HD: 0 1: DATA Boot: WIN7 2: 3: x Default nothing else checked Entry 2: ----- -- Identity: TEST Icon: (yellow) 0: TEST HD: 0 1: DATA Boot: TEST 2: 3: nothing checked HARD DRIVE PARTITIONING SCHEME ==== ===== ============ ====== To set up the simplest configuration, the BIBM Limit Primaries option is used (no more than four primary partitions). I divide my hard drive into four primary partitions: three bootable partitions and an extended partition which is further divided into logical partitions for data. The first bootable partition is where BIBM resides. The second bootable partition, labeled WIN7, is used for my production Windows. The third bootable partition, labeled TEST, is used for a test copy of Windows. The partitions do not have to be in this physical order on the hard drive. For more complicated configurations, Limit Primaries is not used and I set up multiple test partitions (TEST1, TEST2, etc.) instead of just one. I usually buy Dell PCs. Their partition configuration for Windows systems has changed over the years. Each configuration has some unique aspects that must be considered when building a multiboot system. Here is the order of the Dell-installed partitions for various Windows versions pre-installed by Dell. Windows XP system Dell Utilities partition (small -- about 40 MB) Dell hardware diagnostics Windows XP Took the rest of the disk not occupied by the other two partitions Dell Restore partition Factory image of Windows partition (compressed -- about 4 GB) Windows Vista system Dell Utilities partition (small -- about 40 MB) Dell hardware diagnostics Dell Recovery partition Factory image of Windows partition (compressed -- about 4 GB) Also contains the Vista 7 boot files (I'm not sure about this) Windows Vista Took the rest of the disk not occupied by the other two partitions Windows 7 system Dell Utilities partition (small -- about 40 MB) Dell hardware diagnostics Dell Recovery partition Factory image of Windows partition (compressed -- about 4 GB) Also contains the Windows 7 boot files See CAUTIONs above and below about this partition Windows 7 Took the rest of the disk not occupied by the other two partitions ************************************************************************ ******* CAUTION ************* CAUTION ****************** CAUTION ******* If the Limit Primaries option is used, primary partition slots are then very scarce; there are only four. To do even the simplest multiboot test configuration, described above, means that the two Dell partitions must be deleted to free the primary partition slots they use. Since the Dell Diagnostics can be run from a CD and since the factory image in Recovery isn't too useful if you have been modifying your system a lot and backing it up with BIBM, there isn't much loss of function by deleting either or both of those Dell partitions. When I get a new PC, the first thing I do is run BIBM from a CD and back up all the partitions (Windows, Dell Utilities, and Dell Recovery) to an external drive. Then I can reorganize the hard drive any way I want to. If something goes wrong, I can always run BIBM from the CD and restore the original drive completely. You do have to be careful with a Dell-supplied Windows 7 system because Dell and/or Microsoft has put the Windows boot files in the Recovery partition instead of in the Windows partition. Deleting Recovery, as is, would make the system unbootable. The placement of the boot files in Recovery is incompatible for a full BIBM multiboot system anyway. A procedure to copy the boot files back to the Windows partition is described in jgkhome.name/PC_Info/BING_WIN7_Dell.htm. Once this is done, the Recovery partition can be deleted. (A similar situation may apply to Vista. I'm not sure about that.) On the other hand, if Limit Primaries is not used (so the "only four primaries" constraint does not apply) and you have a big disk (so you don't care about 4 GB of "dead space"), you can just leave the two Dell partitions in place and have as many other primary partitions as you want for BIBM, multiple operating systems, and an extended partition. However, you still must copy the boot files from Recovery to WIN7 to ensure those files get copied to any test partitions when WIN7 is copied there and have those partitions be bootable, e.g., if you copy WIN7 to TEST so you can then experiment with TEST. Putting the boot files in the operating system partition makes that partition self-contained, i.e., not dependent on any other partition for booting. ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************