USB with Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 image

USB Image Tool support forum
Alex
Site Admin
Posts: 272
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:59 pm

Re: USB with Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 image

Post by Alex »

With that information given, I was able to recreate the issue. Looks like Windows is really interfering with partition numbering (at least since Windows 7). Looks like the only option would be to fix the GPT in USB Image Tool before Windows can touch it.
reinhardk
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Nov 19, 2017 4:59 pm

Re: USB with Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 image

Post by reinhardk »

My solution.run Ubuntu. copy the *.image to the Ubuntu desktop.
Double click on the image icon will start Disk. Select the Stick and restore.
After restore select partition 7 and click the Additional partition option and select Format Partition.
Enter a Name and format. Partition type of 7 is now "Basic Data"..
My stick works now. ESXI 6.5
KingTutt
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2016 2:27 pm

Re: USB with Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 image

Post by KingTutt »

@reinhardk Thanks for pointing that out. There are several solutions (see postings before in this thread) to get a "working USB-Stick" using dd on a Linux live system or clonezilla and so on...

But from the point of Alex (who wants to provide a windows tool which is able to clone a USB/SD-Card device) and probably some inexperienced Linux users, it is intended to narrow the problem down so that a working clone can be created on a MS Windows system.
KingTutt
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2016 2:27 pm

Re: USB with Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 image

Post by KingTutt »

Hi Alex,

I just tested your new version 1.75. Thanks again for investigating into the problem! Using the new option “Fix GPT after restore” I was able to restore a zipped image from my ESXi 5.5 server (created live using dd) on my Windows 7 64bit Laptop to a SD Card. A quick check of the partition numbers in my Linux VM confirmed that:

Code: Select all

[root@test]# sgdisk --print /dev/sdd
Disk /dev/sdd: 31422464 sectors, 15.0 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 72FC21C9-FF06-496C-BA07-108A1DA284C8
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 31422430
Partitions will be aligned on 32-sector boundaries
Total free space is 24336509 sectors (11.6 GiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              64            8191   4.0 MiB     EF00  
   5            8224          520191   250.0 MiB   0700  
   6          520224         1032191   250.0 MiB   0700  
   7         1032224         1257471   110.0 MiB   FC00  
   8         1257504         1843199   286.0 MiB   0700  
   9         1843200         7086079   2.5 GiB     FC00  
Great work! Thanks for your effort. :)
illki
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:51 am

Re: USB with Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 image

Post by illki »

Hi everyone,
do I understand correctly, that if I would restore image made with dd on linux machine and with checked “Fix GPT after restore” option - everything works fine now,
but if I will insert USB flash drive with ESXi boot partitions into windows pc, make image from it and then restore it would not work, because windows will mess up partitions numbers during usb flash drive insertion?
Thanks in advance for reply.
Alex
Site Admin
Posts: 272
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:59 pm

Re: USB with Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 image

Post by Alex »

@illki: Yes, that's what happens without activating the GPT fix option (unless you restore to the exact same device).
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