====== Part 1: HOWTO Make a Standard USB Image under Linux ======

This part of the tutorial will shred the contents of a usb hard disk. You should only follow this tutorial if you understand what you are doing. You are entirely responsible if something goes terribly wrong.

(link back to [[howtocustomrestoreimage:introduction|Intro]])

===== Setting Up a Working Directory =====

My shiny Gentoo workstation mounts the Asus DVD at /media/EeePC, so

<code>0x0065 / # mkdir -p /tmp/working</code>

<code>0x0065 / # cd /tmp/working</code>

<code>0x0065 working # ls /media/EeePC/
2007.10.19_13.01.bld  boot           P701L.gz            techsupp.txt
asus.ico              Drivers        Readme.txt          techsupp.txt~
autorun.inf           Filelist.txt   Setup.exe           user_start.dat
Bin                   Filelist.txt~  Setup.exe.manifest  ver.tag
blockcount.dat        Manual         Software            ver.tag~ </code>

<code>0x0065 working # cp /media/EeePC/P701L.gz . </code>

<code>0x0065 working # ls /media/EeePC/boot/
boot.cat  initrd.gz  isolinux  usb.img.gz  vmlinuz </code>

<code>0x0065 working # cp /media/EeePC/boot/usb.img.gz . </code>

<code>0x0065 working # ls
P701L.gz  usb.img.gz </code>

===== Understanding the USB Key Image =====

<code>0x0065 working # gunzip usb.img.gz </code>

<code>0x0065 working # file usb.img
usb.img: x86 boot sector; GRand Unified Bootloader, stage1 version 0x3, stage2
address 0x2000, stage2 segment 0x200, GRUB version 0.94; partition 1: ID=0x6,
starthead 1, startsector 62, 2738044 sectors </code>

So the usb.img.gz file is just a gzipped regular disk image made with dd... (^_^) sweet (^_^)

==== WARNING: ====

We're about to shred the file system on a usb key & replace it with
our disk image. If you don't understand what you're doing stop now or seek
help specific to your computer setup, or there will probably be tears. I
seriously doubt that your setup will match mine exactly...

===== Transfering the Rescue Disk image to a USB key =====


My usb key has been given device /dev/sdg so...

<code>0x0065 working # dd if=usb.img of=/dev/sdg
8192+0 records in
8192+0 records out
4194304 bytes (4.2 MB) copied, 2.50702 s, 1.7 MB/s</code>

...remove usb key, pause, 2, 3, and replug your usb key again...

...and my shiny gentoo workstation has automagically mounted the usb key at /media/EEEPC.
One way or another, mount the first (and only) partition on your re-imaged USB key. (It is now FAT16, by the way)

<code>0x0065 working # fdisk -l /dev/sdg
Disk /dev/sdg: 2079 MB, 2079326208 bytes
/dev/sdg1   1      701     1369022      6    FAT16</code>

<code>0x0065 working # ls /media/EEEPC/
boot</code>

<code>0x0065 working # ls /media/EEEPC/boot/
grub  initrd.gz  vmlinuz</code>

===== CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE =====

...if you want to customise the disk layout, initrd & boot options of the restore image, [[howtocustomrestoreimage:pt2mkcustomimage|skip to Part 2 now]]. The rest of this tutorial is busywork that you'll have to re-visit later anyway.

...if you just want a standard USB restore key then please continue to the end of part 1.

===== PART 1 (CONTINUED) =====

<code>0x0065 working # cp P701L.gz /media/EEEPC</code>

For the standard restore image we need to copy some more files from the Asus system restore DVD to the re-imaged USB restore key...

<code>0x0065 working # cp /media/EeePC/2007.10.19_13.01.bld /media/EEEPC/</code>

<code>0x0065 working # cp /media/EeePC/blockcount.dat /media/EEEPC/</code>

<code>0x0065 working # cp /media/EeePC/user_start.dat /media/EEEPC/</code>

<code>0x0065 working # umount /media/EEEPC</code>


You now have a disk that's ALMOST identical to the 'Windows Genuine Advantage' option for creation of the USB Restore Disk. The Windows scripts rename the filesystem to EEEPC-701 at some point... ...this seems to be irrelevant.

It works for me.