9 Connect through Wi-Fi
If you’re trying to connect via Wi-Fi, click
the drop-down menu to see if your
adapter has been detected; in the likely
event it hasn’t, and you’ve manually
added the driver folder to your rescue
media (see step four), you can attempt to
install it manually. Press Win-R, type
“devmgmt.msc,” and hit [Enter]. Look for a
reference to Wi-Fi or Network Controller
under Other devices. Double-click this,
then click Update Driver. Choose Browse
my computer for driver software. Select
the folder containing your drivers [Image
F], and see whether Windows is able to
install them.
If successful, go to PE Network
Manager. Select Force scanning for
new devices on adapter list refresh,
switch to the Wi-Fi tab, click Start,
then OK. Reopen the tool, and your
Wi-Fi adapter should appear under the
device drop-down. Select it, then switch
to the Wi-Fi tab to connect to your local
network [Image G].
10 A brief tour
Double-click the This PC shortcut in the
top-left corner to access File Explorer.
You should see all drives (internal and
external) appear. If any are missing,
you need to source appropriate drivers
(typically RAID or storage controller
- consult your PC or motherboard’s
support site for them) to add to your
rescue media. You’ll notice a drive
marked ‘X’ – this is the drive Windows
PE has installed itself to, and is a virtual
drive, in that it’s stored in RAM. This is
partly why it’s restricted to 2GB, to
work on lower memory (and 32bit)
machines. Your other drives should
be recognisable by their drive letters- though some may have swapped
around, so browse each one
for confirmation.
In case you ever find yourself using
your rescue media to try to recover from
a non-booting PC, now would be the
time to work out which drive is your
backup drive, then launch AOMEI
Backupper from its desktop shortcut to
take a full backup of your afflicted
Windows system drive [Image H]. This
would enable you to then attempt
repairs knowing your files are protected,
should you be forced to perform a
complete wipe and reinstall.
11 Test your apps
Open the UserTools folder via its shortcut
to test any apps you’ve added. Not all
will work, even if they are the correct
system type. Non-functioning apps
usually exhibit no symptoms – you
double-click the shortcut, but nothing
happens, even after a wait (right-click the
Taskbar and choose Task Manager to see if
anything is present).
Some apps fail because they prefer to
run from a physical drive – if you have a
portable apps folder on another drive,tryrunning them from there. There’s no rule- other than convenience – that forces
you to incorporate your apps into your
rescue media.
12 4XLFNÀUHWLSV
There are no quick-and-easy repair tools
built into the AOMEI rescue media – you
may want to pair it with a Lazesoft
Recovery Suite Home Edition recovery disc
(www.lazesoft.com) to cover all bases. The
PE environment is best used for backing up
and recovering data, browsing the web to
troubleshoot boot-related problems, and
perform manual repairs. Built-in tools that
can help include AOMEI Partition Assistant
(recover lost or deleted partitions), BootICE
(examine and repair boot entries), and
Recuva (recover deleted files). You also
have access to a limited set of system tools- press [Win] + [R] to launch Control Panel
(control.exe – most links don’t work,
however), Device Manager (devmgmt.msc),
or Computer Management (comptmgmt.
msc), among others [Image I].
One major thing to remember is that
you’re not directly plugged into your
Windows installation. That means taking
additional steps to connect to files and
settings associated with your ailing
Windows install.
For example, to view and edit your BCD
file on an older PC, with a BIOS rather than
UEFI, you need to direct BootICE to the
system reserved partition’s Boot folder, and
the Bcd file within. To manage your PC’s
startup entries in Autoruns, choose File >
Analyze Offline System, and point System
Root to C:\Windows, and User Profile”to C:\
Users\. Finally, editing your
Windows Registry using O&O RegEditor
would require you to point the program at
C:\Windows. Replace ‘C:’ with whatever
drive your Windows installation is on.
Any changes you make to any apps
incorporated in your rescue media are
lost when you reboot, so while you
might want to synchronize your Opera
profile with the portable app to access
your favorites and add-ons, for example,
you’d need to do so every time you
booted from the rescue media. To get
around this, use portable apps stored
on another drive, where changes
are recorded.
G IHExplore
User-friendly rescue media
November 2019 | |^47