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How to make Acronis Bootable Mdia - TI Home 2010 Plus Pack

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I understand that in order to restore a backup to a dissimilar machine Acronis Bootable Media is required. I further understand that to create the above, WinPE 2.x or 3.0 with Acronis Plug-In added is required. To create this I followed the instructions at:
http://kb.acronis.com/content/5421

The step 1 of the above was not clear to me but I think I managed to do it. As a result of this step, a folder named as winpe_x86 was created in C:, and in the folder the following sub-folders and files are:

ISO --- folder
mount --- folder
etfsboot.com
winpe.wim

But at the step 3, I got the following message:

The selected folder does not contain the required files.

I wonder what I am doing wrong.

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churin wrote:
I understand that in order to restore a backup to a dissimilar machine Acronis Bootable Media is required. I further understand that to create the above, WinPE 2.x or 3.0 with Acronis Plug-In added is required. To create this I followed the instructions at:
http://kb.acronis.com/content/5421

The step 1 of the above was not clear to me but I think I managed to do it. As a result of this step, a folder named as winpe_x86 was created in C:, and in the folder the following sub-folders and files are:

ISO --- folder
mount --- folder
etfsboot.com
winpe.wim

But at the step 3, I got the following message:

The selected folder does not contain the required files.

I wonder what I am doing wrong.

You can make a bootable disk with Universal Restore using the Bootable Rescue Media Builder and if you have installed the Plus Pack you will get a Universal Restore option during the restore process. This builder will create the Linux based version.

So you don't need the WinPE to be able to use Universal Restore but running TI from a PE environment is better.

Now in answer to your question select "winpe.wim" at this prompt as the source of the files

The PE builder will mount the WIM file and extract the needed files from it.

Follow the instructions in the knowledge article to convert the AcronisMedia.wim file- made above (it has the TI plugin in it) to an ISO file that you can burn to a CD

Come back if u get stuck

One question before I proceed further on:
In the instructions mentioned in my previous post I noticed a statement as "... but Acronis support x86 only". What does this mean? What I want to do is to make a backup image of W7 x64 on my old machine and restore it on to a new machine which is dissimilar in hardware architecture. Am I out of luck?

IT means that TI only supports x86 hardware for the restoration to dissimilar hardware.

See this for what x86 is
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_x86

The Windows version should not have anything to do with it but I assume you are planning to go to 64bit capable hardware on the new machine

What I am concerned about is the following passage:

"where is the hardware architecture (can be x86, amd64, or ia64, but Acronis supports x86 only)"

The above appears to mean Acronis does not support amd64. But Acronis do support amd64. Am I correct?

tatou,

Getting back to the subject of "How to make Acronis Bootable Media", I followed your suggestion and selected "winpe.wim", then "Operation was successfully completed" was displayed. But when this messaged was closed, the wizard dissappeared so that I could not go beyond this point to follow the instructions.
Your further assistance is appreciated.

Edit: Specifically, how can I resume the step 4, "Specify path to the folder with the Acronis Plug-in files."?

There should now be in the folder c:\winpe_x86 a file called AcronisMedia.wim Don't worry about the path to the plug in file. Don't worry about the instructions re specify the path. If it was installed in the default place it was used. The builder is finished. I have to say that instruction had me stumped for a while when I first did this. 

I have remade my WinPE with TI plugin ISO to check the process so please see the following instructions and screen shots. I have followed Acronis instructions (well almost except where they are wrong). I am using Windows 7

 Copy the AcronisMedia.wim to your c: drive so it is in the root directory i.e c:\AcronisMedia.wim

Open a command prompt- go to Start-All Programmes-Accessories -Command Prompt

Type in copy c:\AcronisMedia.wim c:\winpe_x86\ISO\sources\boot.wim

See below 

Open the the WAIK deployment prompt

 

Type in oscdimg -n –bc:\winpe_x86\etfsboot.com c:\winpe_x86\ISO c:\winpe_x86\winpe_x86.iso

You should get this 

Go to c:\winpe_x86 and you should see this

Burn the ISO to a CD and you should have a bootable WinPE with a TI programme.

Lucky Acronis have made it so simple to do :-).

I used Mustangs PE Builder 2 to make my Win 7 PE (and earlier Vista,Xp) . Much easier and well worth the extremely cheap price for the builder and plugin. 

Thank you for your very detailed response!!
While waiting for your response I continued working on it and managed to get to creating the ISO. I think what I did is essentially the same as that in your reply. Let me summarize what I did as follows:
1. AcronisMedia.wim is copied to winpe_x86\ISO\sources and renamed as boot.wim
2. By using oscdimg the boot.wim is converted to an ISO file named as winpe_x86.iso

The file size of boot.wim is 166,901KB, and that of winpe_x86.iso is 194,344KB.

All the above were done on a Windows 7 x64 system so the AIK is 64bit version.

Now bad news is that it did not work.
I burned a bootable CD out of the above ISO, booted from it on the new machine and restored a backup of my old machine. In the above process I specified the drivers' location on the DVDROM which came with the mobo of the new machine(I assembled it myself).
I attempted to boot from the restored system on the new machine but it did not. I attempted to repair it but to no avail.
My questions:
1. Did the Acronis Bootable Media created as you described work for moving Windows 7 x64 onto a dissimilar hardware machine?
2. Mustang softwares: I got Mustang PE Builder 2 and MustangPEBuilder True Image Home 2010 Plugin, but their web site indicates that these do not support "x64 system". This has been confiremed by eMail from Mustang. The reason is that "Microsoft did not include the 32 bit emulation layer in the 64 bit PE." as quoted from their reply. Another word Acronis support 64bit OS but not 64 PE.
If this is true then the bootable media I created would never work. Your comment is appreciated.

The Acronis tools will not run in a "native" 64-bit PE. You must build an x86 PE.

As DwNDrty said, the restore PE doesn't care whether you're restoring an x86 or 64-bit system.

I used the Win7 AIK on a 64-bit system to build an x86 3.0 PE. You just need to be sure everything is done in the x86 branch of the tree.

You can still use this x86 PE and "Universal Restore" to restore a (supported) 64-bit OS to new hardware. This is assuming you have all the required drivers available to the recovery disc for the new hardware.

Hi

Sorry to hear after all that trouble it never worked

1 I have never tried a dissimilar restore. The main reason I got the plus pack was to try out the Acronis PE environment as compared to the BartPE and Mustang

2 I work in a 32bit Windows world so I am afraid I can't offer any help re 64 bit

3 Mustang would be a lot more knowledgeable than me on such details but his answer seems logical.

4 Acronis should be publishing this fact (not supporting 64bit PE) in their Plus Pack information.

5 Have you tried the Linux based recovery disk to do the restore- it has the universal restore option in it after you install the Plus pack.

garryj and tatou,

After all you are saying get a machine with 32bit OS installed, make a WinPE with TI 2010 plugged in and use it to restore the 64bit OS. Now I understand how the WinPE should be made. Problem is that I do not have 32bit machine.

The very first response by tatou indicated that I do not need WinPE to use Universal Restore and instead the Bootable Rescue Media(Linux based) will work. So I created one, tried it and it worked.

Thank you and everyone for your help.

Glad to hear you finally got there

I too have learnt something about WinPE

On another unrelated note I just bought O&O DiskImage 5 Pro to examine and tryout.
They have a special cross upgrade (for owners of competing programmes) offer of US$19.95 and state it includes a WinPE CD and machine independent restore aka Universal Restore :-).
I will be interested to see what the usability is like compared to TI

Thanks for the info. I reviewed the product info at their web site but I did not see any mention of the WinPE CD or the cross upgrade discount offer. So I sent eMail enquiry on that.

I had downloaded a trial but never got around to installing

They sent me this info below and here is the link to cross upgrade

http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/oodiskimage/upgrade/index.h…

"The O&O DiskImage 5 Pro functions at a glance
Imaging
• NEW: One-Click Imaging
• Images single partitions and entire systems
• Job Assistant
• Images just the changes made (differential and incremental)
• Forensic and direct forensic images
• Advanced burning functions to CD/DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD
• 1:1 copies of drives (cloning)
• Various compression and encryption methods
Restoration
• NEW: Restoration onto different hardware (M.I.R.)
• Start CD based on Windows PE with system rescue tools
• Retrospective loading of drivers
• Image can be mounted as virtual drives
• Change computer name and security ID (SID)
Handling
• NEW: E-mail notification
• NEW: User guidance with Information Bar
• Works with Microsoft Virtual PC Disks (VHD)
• Graphical display of hard disk usage
• TrayIcon to provide information on service and job status"

I won't post anymore as this is an Acronis board. Interestingly I couldn't see any company support forum for the product - I normally go and read them before purchasing software- so you won't see any public airing of problems at company site :-) but their support policy looks good

Thanks for the info. I have just got one and will see how their version of WinPE based bootable CD work.
Thanks again.

churin:
The "bitness" of your machine shouldn't matter when creating any of the restore media.

I'm currently running 64-bit Win7, and used the Win7 3.0 AIK to create my x86 PE disc, and a Linux-based one.

I'm glad you finally had success with the Linux-based version.

garryj:

Well, it appears that I have not seen the whole picture yet. Can the 32bit version of Win7 3.0 AIK be installed on 64bit version of W7?