EWF System Requirements

5/10/2007

Before deploying an EWF-protected run-time image, ensure that your system meets the following requirements.

Disk Partitioning Requirements for EWF Setup

For EWF Disk and RAM modes, verify that the disk on which you configure EWF has no more than three partitions. During the First Boot Agent (FBA) phase, EWF creates an EWF volume on the media. Disks are limited to a total of four primary partitions. If you are using logical partitions, free space for EWF must be contained within the extended partition.
Verify that there is at least 8 MB of available space in one of the following areas:
- Immediately after a primary partition
  - or -
- Within an extended partition. Even if there is space at the end of the disk, EWF will create the EWF volume within an extended partition, even if there is space at the end of the disk outside of the extended partition
  This space is not required if you are using RAM REG mode.
  For more information about EWF volumes, see EWF Volume Configuration.
Keep your disk partition configurations simple. Complicated disk partitioning can sometimes prohibit EWF from setting up properly. Whenever possible, use a single disk with a single primary partition on it when you configure EWF for the first time.

EWF Media Requirements

EWF does not protect dynamic disks. All protected volumes must be configured as basic disks.
EWF can be configured to protect disk write operations to removable read/write media, such as disks, Zip drives, or external drives like USB. You can protect removable media by using EWF RAM Reg mode, and specifying the proper device path, for example, \device\harddisk1\partition2. For more information, see EWF RAM Reg Mode.
You cannot create an EWF volume on media that is marked as removable, such as CompactFlash. Some CompactFlash manufacturers provide utilities to mark the media as fixed. This allows you to create an EWF volume during FBA. Optionally, you can use EWF RAM Reg mode to bypass the requirement for an EWF volume. For more information, see EWF RAM Reg Mode.

See Also