Official MediCat USB - A Multiboot Linux USB for PC Repair

[Nintendo Maniac]

Maybe it only consolidates posts together if they're relatively soon one-after-another, e.g. without 24 hours, rather than days apart?

Regardless, perhaps the reason RustDesk isn't included is because, for whatever reason, it actually doesn't seem to work on MediCat's mini Windows 10. Curiously though, there's another, shall we say, "less legit" Win10 PE that I was previously using before MediCat's that RustDesk works perfectly fine on, so I'm not sure what the limitation is.

That being said, RustDesk also doesn't work on Hiren's BootCD PE v1.02 but, in my experience, MediCat's mini Windows 10 also has better software compatibility than Hiren's BootCD PE.

...but even Hiren's BootCD PE included Macrium Reflect, so clearly software compatibility isn't the issue there. Heck, I'm even kind of wondering if I can even straight-up install it from within MediCat's mini Windows 10.

EDIT: Wait, what the heck? Macrium Reflect is present—you can find it on the ramdisk within B:\Programs

Yet for whatever reason, Macrium isn't listed in the Start menu? Is this a bug or something? I mean, the program seems to "just work" without issue...

Post automatically merged: Jan 3, 2024

Let's test out this post-consolidating thing...

Minor request: does the "Start.exe" for the PortableApps launcher need to have that exact file name?

So in my situation, I have some checksum files on the root of my MediCat disk to make sure disk integrety is good and the like (I just had a 128GB USB drive bork out on me like 3 days ago) but, as a Linux Mint user, everytime I double-click on those checksum files, it instead launches the PortableApps launcher.

Basically, on Linux with wine, if you have something like HashCheck File Extension installed and associated with checksum files (which I do), then any time you open a checksum file located in the same directory as that Start.exe, wine will install launch that PortableApps launcher instead, presumably because the corresponding wine command is "start [something something]".

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

Not to continue junking up this thread, but I do kind of want to see if my theory of if consolidating posts only happens if the posts are within 24 hours. EDIT: This seems to be the case considering that this post was not merged with the previous.

And so as to not just leave a stupid pointless annoying message, I don't suppose anyone more technically minded in the ways of software have any idea why DiskFresh (which rewrites all of a drive's sectors in order to avoid bit rot) doesn't seem to work on any Win10 PE I've ever tried, MediCat's own mini Windows 10 included?:

• https://www.puransoftware.com/DiskFresh.html

The program installs and runs fine but, after selecting a drive letter and selecting "refresh only", it always says that I can't find the drive or something.

The thing is, because it relies on drive letters unlike something like H2testw, it can't be properly used via Wine since most mounted hard drives on Linux via Wine are a sub-folder within the Z: drive (so if you have two different drives connected, they'd both be located under Z: but with separate sub-folders)

 

[ppol]

Installed medicat in a spare ssd in my desktop. Nice to see it supports secure boot, and I now have the option of booting from my usual C:\ or the medicat SSD via selective boot in the BIOS.

It's much faster than USB for me, and allows me to store a lot more ISO images.

Has anyone worked out if it's possible to create this kind of setup on just one hard disk? I'd like a similar setup via partitioning my laptop single drive, so if I'm on the road and windows won't boot, I can simply boot from the other partition and have medicat launch. (I carry a USB version just in case).

 

[XFoxPrower]

Way back before UEFI was a thing, my PSP in USB mode was my bootable Acronis True Image tool.

 

[MON5TERMATT]

Sanity check: is Macrium Reflect present in the newest 21.12 version of MediCat, or was it removed? Unless something is behaving wrong, I'm not able to find it in either the start menu or the portableapps menu...

For reference, Macrium Reflect is included in Hiren's BootCD PE (which is sort of like a precursor to the MediCat concept is it not?), and there's mention of Macrium in the older 21.06 version in a post just one page back from Sept. 23.

Thing is, I've been using Macrium Reflect for what must be like a decade now and I'd really like to be able to use it within MediCat proper without having to reboot into the stand-alone WinPE Macrium Reflect image (which itself is compatible with Ventoy if you use wimboot mode) so that I can mount a disk image to a drive letter and then run and verify checksum files stored within said image (which itself requires installing something like the previously-mentioned HashCheck File Extension which is possible on MediCat but isn't possible on the stand-alone WinPC Macrium Reflect image).

its there. Idk why it didnt show up.

 

[0x6A7232]

Quick note - When installing Medicat 21.12 on Linux, in the Medicat_Installer.sh,
It has Ventoy2Disk.sh perform an MBR installation on the drive, like this

sudo sh ./ventoy/Ventoy2Disk.sh -I -$drive

, without giving the user the option to choose GPT style partitioning. It would be nice if it offered a choice (some people have extremely large drives etc, or just want to use GPT). The line for doing the same but with GPT would just need to add

-g

, like this:

sudo sh ./ventoy/Ventoy2Disk.sh -I -g $drive

.

 

[Jayro]

Quick note - When installing Medicat 21.12 on Linux, in the Medicat_Installer.sh,
It has Ventoy2Disk.sh perform an MBR installation on the drive, like this

sudo sh ./ventoy/Ventoy2Disk.sh -I -$drive

, without giving the user the option to choose GPT style partitioning. It would be nice if it offered a choice (some people have extremely large drives etc, or just want to use GPT). The line for doing the same but with GPT would just need to add

-g

, like this:

sudo sh ./ventoy/Ventoy2Disk.sh -I -g $drive

.

We have it setup t do MBR by default for maximum compatibility, as older machines can't boot from GPT drives. But @MON5TERMATT may be able to make GPT optional.

 

[Chansm]

No more update to Medicat version 21.12?

 

[Jayro]

No more update to Medicat version 21.12?

Not currently, but it's easy to update the apps and ISOs yourself manually. Just tedious.

 

[kuroraiju]

Aren't EaseUS tools usually paid? How did the devs get them on Medicat, or are they the free versions?

 

[impeeza]

Aren't EaseUS tools usually paid? How did the devs get them on Medicat, or are they the free versions?

you can read the readme and the OP.

 

[0x6A7232]

Installed medicat in a spare ssd in my desktop. Nice to see it supports secure boot, and I now have the option of booting from my usual C:\ or the medicat SSD via selective boot in the BIOS.

It's much faster than USB for me, and allows me to store a lot more ISO images.

Has anyone worked out if it's possible to create this kind of setup on just one hard disk? I'd like a similar setup via partitioning my laptop single drive, so if I'm on the road and windows won't boot, I can simply boot from the other partition and have medicat launch. (I carry a USB version just in case).

Have a look here: (Medicat is Ventoy with a ton of utils put into the data partition for you, basically, so what goes for Ventoy pretty much goes for Medicat).

w w w dot ventoy dot net slash en slash doc_non_destructive.html

(Sorry, guess I haven't made 5 posts yet? So I can't post links)

 

[JBelga]

Hi Jayro,
A time ago, under Win 8.1x64, I created a usb key with Medicat 21.12 and it worked..
I now have a new PC running Win 11, but I get the following error message when I boot on the key: "Invalid signature detected. Check Secure Boot Policy in Setup"
Do I need to create a new key or is there a solution to this problem?
Thank you in advance for your reply.

 

[impeeza]

Hi Jayro,
A time ago, under Win 8.1x64, I created a usb key with Medicat 21.12 and it worked..
I now have a new PC running Win 11, but I get the following error message when I boot on the key: "Invalid signature detected. Check Secure Boot Policy in Setup"
Do I need to create a new key or is there a solution to this problem?
Thank you in advance for your reply.

you need to install the ventoy cert on your UEFI :

https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_secure.html

 

[Jayro]

Hi Jayro,
A time ago, under Win 8.1x64, I created a usb key with Medicat 21.12 and it worked..
I now have a new PC running Win 11, but I get the following error message when I boot on the key: "Invalid signature detected. Check Secure Boot Policy in Setup"
Do I need to create a new key or is there a solution to this problem?
Thank you in advance for your reply.

Either disable secure boot in the UEFI of your system, or enroll the Ventoy key using MOK Manager. By default Secure boot is disabled on MediCat because it's annoying to work with and work around.

 

[Chansm]

Not currently, but it's easy to update the apps and ISOs yourself manually. Just tedious.

Thanks .

 

[Vista1967]

Hello, if anyone can help me, I don't know why the medicat icon disappeared from my usb key? It is no longer visible when I open the file explorer, only the usb key and the letter with the white icon are visible.
THANKS

 

[0x6A7232]

Idea: What if Medicat was split up into multiple archives, and the installer was a script to download them all? Then, for example, if you wanted to update say Aomi Partition manager, you just replace the archive that holds it, and now the installer is getting the latest version. Then have a bi-monthly automatic .torrent + magnet created for the whole set.

I dunno. Probably not worth it but the idea popped into my head so I figured I'd throw it out there.

Post automatically merged: Feb 27, 2024

Hello, if anyone can help me, I don't know why the medicat icon disappeared from my usb key? It is no longer visible when I open the file explorer, only the usb key and the letter with the white icon are visible.
THANKS

Try doing a

chkdsk x: /f

where x is your drive letter. You'll need to do this from an elevated cmd prompt so search cmd, right-click it, and hit "Run as Admin"

 

[Jayro]

Idea: What if Medicat was split up into multiple archives, and the installer was a script to download them all? Then, for example, if you wanted to update say Aomi Partition manager, you just replace the archive that holds it, and now the installer is getting the latest version. Then have a bi-monthly automatic .torrent + magnet created for the whole set.

I dunno. Probably not worth it but the idea popped into my head so I figured I'd throw it out there.

Post automatically merged: Feb 27, 2024

Try doing a

chkdsk x: /f

where x is your drive letter. You'll need to do this from an elevated cmd prompt so search cmd, right-click it, and hit "Run as Admin"

As bad-ass as that sounds, I don't have the slightest idea on how to set that up. I'm not too network savvy.

 

[Vista1967]

Try doing a

chkdsk x: /f

where x is your drive letter. You'll need to do this from an elevated cmd prompt so search cmd, right-click it, and hit "Run as Admin"

Thanks for your help !
I did it but unfortunately nothing changed, still no icons.