Guide to using RR v4-1-09 NEW HORM features for EWF Systems

RR and HORM.dat have NOTHING to do with each other

HORM.dat is used to tell ntldr that this is a HORM system
(i also think u have to tell ewf horm is enabled)
ewfmgr must report HORM active

i dont know what ur second partition is, but if u want it OUT of the hibernation file, it must be dismounted when you create the hibernation.

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

Sorry, I guess I worded that incorrectly. I get that message when I power the machine back on into a resume state. I didn't think that it had anything to do with RR, but I was hoping you guys may have run into the same problems. I don't think I am interupting the restore sequence, everything seems to be going normal until I hit that prompt.

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Do you happen to use a remote or keyboard? Some remotes use F8 when the using the mute button, and that interrupts the restore sequence.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

You mentioned getting HORM working first. Does this feature of RR also require the HORM.dat file on the root drive?

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No. HORM and RR are independent of each other. RR performs some additional operations when hibernating and restoring to make sure it resumes correctly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

Do I still need to unmount my second partition (or physical drive) before I do a hibernate through RR?

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If you're second partition or physical drive is the thumb drive, then no, you do not have to unmount/unplug it. Set the drive in RR Config and RR will handle the locking & dismounting of the drive on hibernation and unlocking & remounting on resume.

If you're second partition is another partition of a fixed drive or another fixed physical drive, windows will not let you lock & dismount it programatically. You'll have to physically remove the drive prior to hibernation so that the drive does not get write cached w/ the hibernation file.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

What is this feature actually doing with all the .ini files on the usb drive? I am just trying to get a better understanding of what is happening with my problem. Sorry for all the questions.

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It is creating a backup copy of all the ini's, & m3u's to the usb drive.

Because of the way HORM works, you need to restore the resume data (inis and m3us) for RR to resume correctly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

Oh and a note I have found out through my trials. My old SanDisk Cruzer Mini (256mb) usb drive does not like to consistently power up when booting into Windows. It will be found while the bios starts, but then shuts off before Windows boots. It will show back up if you remove and plug it back in though. My newer 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Mico seems to work fine every time. Strange.

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Can't help you there. I have an old SanDisk 256mb thumb drive that works just fine. In fact, all my thumb drives, disk readers, microSD to thumb drive adaptors in my possesion work flawlessly.

USB harddrive...not so much.

Sal, thank you for your reply. I do have a few other questions. I apologize if this is cluttering up this thread, since it does not have much to do with RR...

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Originally Posted by Sal R.

Do you happen to use a remote or keyboard? Some remotes use F8 when the using the mute button, and that interrupts the restore sequence.

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No, I don't normally have a keyboard attached to the pc. I think what was happening is that I did not realize that you had to have HORM completely working (meaning the HORM.dat file in the root drive) before you used this feature in RR (maybe we should add that to the prerequisites in the OP). Right now my setup is on the bench using a single HDD with two partitions on it:

C: is the OS drive with RR installed and all my apps. It has been protected with EWF.

D: is just a media drive with mp3, videos, and my iG maps loaded. It is not protected with EWF.

My final setup is going to be an 8 GB CF card for my C: drive, and a PATA drive for my D: drive.

When I put the HORM.dat file in the root drive, remove the drive letter for my second partition (through drive manager) and then hibernate, it works just fine when it resumes. However, XP does not reassign the drive letter to the partition. I have to do that manually.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sal R.

If you're second partition or physical drive is the thumb drive, then no, you do not have to unmount/unplug it. Set the drive in RR Config and RR will handle the locking & dismounting of the drive on hibernation and unlocking & remounting on resume.

If you're second partition is another partition of a fixed drive or another fixed physical drive, windows will not let you lock & dismount it programatically. You'll have to physically remove the drive prior to hibernation so that the drive does not get write cached w/ the hibernation file.

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I think this might be what is getting me into trouble. I am using a single drive with two partitions for bench testing. I think I need to move to two separate drives in the future. You said that you have to physically remove the drive. Can you physically remove power to a PATA drive while still running Windows, or would I need to do the following:

-shut down WinXP
-remove power to the second HDD
-boot into WinXP
-reassign the usb drive to F: (its proper drive letter)
-start RR and get it the way I would like it to resume
-hibernate through RR
-either catch the PC while still posting the bios and shut it off and reconnect the drive, or wait until it boots into Windows then shut it down and hook up the drive
-resume Windows with all drives located

My only problem with that is XP likes to assign my usb drive to D: if the second HDD or partition is not there. That will then mess up the resume feature in RR since it is looking for drive F:. I guess this would only be a temporary problem since the next time I boot into Windows all drives should be reattached and assigned their proper drive letters.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sal R.

It is creating a backup copy of all the ini's, & m3u's to the usb drive.

Because of the way HORM works, you need to restore the resume data (inis and m3us) for RR to resume correctly.

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Does RR copy those files every time it shuts down? So it should resume all playlists and whatnot to where you left it every time you resume?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sal R.

Can't help you there. I have an old SanDisk 256mb thumb drive that works just fine. In fact, all my thumb drives, disk readers, microSD to thumb drive adaptors in my possesion work flawlessly.

USB harddrive...not so much.

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I can't explain this either. I have tried 5 other usb thumb drives (all newer than the one I am having issues with) and they all work as well. I don't really consider it a problem, but I wanted to give others a heads up that if you have an older usb drive it may not work correctly.

It is times like these that I wish I had some local people to contact and hash all these details out with. :confused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

No, I don't normally have a keyboard attached to the pc. I think what was happening is that I did not realize that you had to have HORM completely working (meaning the HORM.dat file in the root drive) before you used this feature in RR (maybe we should add that to the prerequisites in the OP).

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Since that is necessary for HORM to work properly, regardless of RR, I don't think it serves any purpose to add that to the OP.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

Right now my setup is on the bench using a single HDD with two partitions on it:

C: is the OS drive with RR installed and all my apps. It has been protected with EWF.

D: is just a media drive with mp3, videos, and my iG maps loaded. It is not protected with EWF.

My final setup is going to be an 8 GB CF card for my C: drive, and a PATA drive for my D: drive.

When I put the HORM.dat file in the root drive, remove the drive letter for my second partition (through drive manager) and then hibernate, it works just fine when it resumes. However, XP does not reassign the drive letter to the partition. I have to do that manually.

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Just because the drive is not seen by "My Computer", doesn't mean Windows will not write it to the hibernation file. Trust me, you'll get corruption errors. The volume/partition HAS to be locked AND dismounted prior to hibernation.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

I think this might be what is getting me into trouble. I am using a single drive with two partitions for bench testing. I think I need to move to two separate drives in the future. You said that you have to physically remove the drive. Can you physically remove power to a PATA drive while still running Windows, or would I need to do the following:

-shut down WinXP
-remove power to the second HDD
-boot into WinXP
-reassign the usb drive to F: (its proper drive letter)
-start RR and get it the way I would like it to resume
-hibernate through RR
-either catch the PC while still posting the bios and shut it off and reconnect the drive, or wait until it boots into Windows then shut it down and hook up the drive
-resume Windows with all drives located

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I, personally, have never disconnected a drive while the computer is running. I don't know what the impact it is. My response is...better safe than sorry. I'd power down and then disconnect the drive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

My only problem with that is XP likes to assign my usb drive to D: if the second HDD or partition is not there. That will then mess up the resume feature in RR since it is looking for drive F:. I guess this would only be a temporary problem since the next time I boot into Windows all drives should be reattached and assigned their proper drive letters.

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Why not just set the drive to "d" in RR Config if that is the drive location of the usb drive?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

Does RR copy those files every time it shuts down? So it should resume all playlists and whatnot to where you left it every time you resume?

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Yes. On resume, it copies all the files from the thumb drive back into the appropriate directories for a proper RR resume of media.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LYHTSPD

I can't explain this either. I have tried 5 other usb thumb drives (all newer than the one I am having issues with) and they all work as well. I don't really consider it a problem, but I wanted to give others a heads up that if you have an older usb drive it may not work correctly.

It is times like these that I wish I had some local people to contact and hash all these details out with. :confused:

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Forums are great for that reason. I don't know anyone else in my area running a carPC and places like these are an awesome resoure of somewhat like-minded individuals.

So... Just to clarify, the USB drive should be CONNECTED during the hibernation file write because it doesn't cache like a second HDD? I just dont want to get a corrupted hibernation file.

And then after this, the computer cannot just shutdown on its own, you have to manually tell riderunner to shutdown the computer everytime?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by roflcopter

So... Just to clarify, the USB drive should be CONNECTED during the hibernation file write because it doesn't cache like a second HDD? I just dont want to get a corrupted hibernation file.

And then after this, the computer cannot just shutdown on its own, you have to manually tell riderunner to shutdown the computer everytime?

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The USB drive should be connected during hibernation.

Whether it's thru the power switch or RR, the computer just has to shutdown.

Hi Guys, tried this out this evening and got everything working first time (YAY) .. howver i have one tiny tiny issue. Riderunner only seems to copy the necessary files to the USB Drive if i click on Shutdown Via RR, if i shutdown using the power button it resumes from the previous point (the point from when i used RR to shutdown) .. i have checked my power options and under the section "what to do when the power button is pressed" i have it to Shutdown.. Any ideas ? Thanks

7/22/09
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+ Small addition for HORM, rr now sees how if windows session has ended, and does HORM save functions

use 8-1-2009 riderunner