How to Access Survival Kit with newly formatted USB external drive
Hi. I've been using Acronis TI 2021 with my USB Seagate BACKUP PLUS 5Tb. I had to clean install my Windows 10 Pro PC and reinstall all my apps. I formatted the above external disk and expected to select Survival Kit from Acronis. However it is not an option - or I'm missing it some how. I previously used the Kit and successfully recovered with it before my system later failed.
Where do I find the Survival Kit?
Cheers
I have installed ATI 2021 and selected my whole system. When I begin the backup it launches into backing up without the option to create a Survival Kit. I stopped the backup.
This was the same disk that I had the Survival Kit on previously so the disk should allow it.
Tork,
Can you post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management showing your external USB Seagate drive? This will help us see what partitions as currently on the drive.
Normally the 2GB FAT32 partition mentioned by Steve is hidden from view so if you formatted the remaining data partition which would have drive letter showing to do so then the 2GB partition is likely still intact. If that is the case then the Acronis application is behaving correctly and simply creating a backup on the newly formatted partition which once completed can be accessed by booting the 2GB FAT32 partition on the drive.
Here you go, Enchantech ..
Your image shows a valid 2GB EFI System partition which as far as I understand is not an Acronis Survival Kit partition.
The SK partition normally has the label 'Acronis HM' (or similar) and should show as FAT32 with flags for Healthy (Active, Primary Partition).
Have you tested that your PC will boot with the external drive disconnected (to confirm that the EFI System partition on that drive is not required by Windows to boot correctly)?
I don't use the actual Acronis Survival Kit method for my own external drives but have adopted a similar approach using larger FAT32 partitions as shown in the image from disk management below:
Both the above drives are external rescue media boot drives. Disk 2 is multi-boot with a variety of boot media selectable. Disk 4 is Acronis rescue media only but created from the latest ACPHO version where a larger FAT32 partition is often needed due to Acronis wanting to include full graphics adapter drivers for such as NVIDIA cards.
It is normally possible to use either the MVP Custom PE builder tool or the Acronis Bootable Rescue Media builder tool to format and write the rescue media to the FAT32 partition provided it has been allocated a Windows drive letter (i.e. I: above) and is seen as a removable drive. Once you have the base WinPE files on the partition, you can easily create a new boot.wim image file and put it in the Sources folder in that partition when it needs to be updated.
Thanks for your help, guys.
Steve, the PC starts normally without the external attached. I never start the PC with any externals attached, relying on the internal HDD. I have a UEFI boot system.
Since I'm not a heavy techy, what I would like is ..
1. If my current Windows 10 system fails (eg Windows update gets stuck no matter what I try), I'd like to plug in the backup external and boot from it and recover my system. I did this recently and it recovered perfectly.
2. Since my hardware is around 5 years old, the main board, CPU or memory may fail. I would then get a new, up-to-date set of all three items. I would want the backup to boot from the external and recover my system.
My understanding (and please correct me if I misunderstand) is that the external rescue media builder option in Acronis TI 2021 handles 1. but not 2.
That universal restore handles 2. but not 1.
That survival kit handles 1. and 2.
Therefore my interest in using the Survival Kit.
Every week I want to be able to plug in the external USB drive and hit backup. Whether I have a software or hardware issue I'd like the backup to be able to boot and recover by plugging in the USB external, selecting it as the UEFI first boot device, and recover via the Acronis GUI. Also, as Acronis versions update/upgrade, I need the recovery function to be maintained.
Is there a way to remove any/all external drive partitions that when I start Acronis and select this drive for the first time then the Survival Kit option would kick in, after which I need only select Backup each week?
Tork, the Survival Kit is essentially the same as the 'Simple' version of WinPE bootable rescue media but written to the small 2GB FAT32 partition on an external drive instead of to a USB memory stick or DVD.
As such, the SK is a stand-alone version of ATI 2021 and can be used for Backup, Recovery and Clone operations. SK does not include Acronis Universal Restore, so will not help if that is needed to migrate to different / new hardware.
AUR on its own has no value for normal Backup, Recovery or Clone operations - it's one purpose is to help prepare an already restored backup of a Windows OS from another PC - it does this by doing a SysPrep of the restored OS, substituting generalised drivers and identifying any new drivers that may be needed.
If you have both ATI 2021 and AUR installed on your PC, then the MVP Custom PE Builder script will include both applications in the rescue media that it builds. This is one of the reasons I use the approach I described above for my own version of the SK but using the MVP tool.
I am able to boot my PC from my external drive and launch either ATI or AUR by selecting which one I want to use from the WinPE desktop options provided by the MVP builder. The tool also provides a file manager (similar to Explorer), web browser, PDF viewer & image capture plus other system tools such as Registry Editor...
If you would like to try this out, then the steps to do so are:
Download a copy of the latest version of the MVP PE tool from http://www.mechrest.com/plugins/MVP_ATIPEBuilder/Advanced/MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v190.zip (This is the authors own site as Acronis haven't updated the version in the Community Tools KB document)
Download a copy of the free MiniTool Partition Wizard software, install this in Windows, then use it to format the current 2GB partition on your external drive as FAT32 and give it a Windows drive letter.
Run the MVP tool as Administrator taking the option to use the Windows Recovery environment (WinRE) files and to create 64-bit media, and follow the prompts through the script. When you get to the question asking if you want to build USB media, give it the drive letter for the 2GB FAT32 partition, i.e. I: then press enter.
Tork,
What are your system specs? Can you or do you know if your system will present a one-time boot menu on startup via a key or key combo press?
If your system has a one-time boot option try booting to that with the external drive attached. From the menu you should see your external drive listed and in that list you should see a single entry that has UEFI in the description. Selecting that option should boot to the external drives 2GB partition and start the Acronis Recovery application.
Enchantech, my system does not have a one-time boot menu. I have to press 'Del' and the ASUS Z87-PRO UEFI opens before Windows 10 kicks in from the C disk. There I can change the boot order. I did this when recovering with the Acronis backup before.
Tork,
I have used ASUS boards for many years. I have yet to see one that did not have a one-time boot menu that could be accessed by pressing the F8 key during the boot process. Try tapping the F8 key during boot repeatedly and see if a menu will appear on screen.
Will do. Meanwhile, I ran from the external and got this, which was the same as when I recovered W10 before.
F8 worked to get the one-time boot menu; nice!
Tork,
So this all proves that the boot partition (2GB) is intact and working. That suggests that Acronis backup will create a backup on the data partition of your external drive and you can boot to that using the F8 one-time boot menu.
Thanks Enchantech. That covers the 'not new hardware' side.
Next is the 'new hardware' part.
Tork,
For new hardware Acronis uses the term dissimilar rather than new. The Acronis Universal Restore tool can assist in recovering a backup image to new hardware but you should learn how to use the tool and understand its function and limitations before using it. Refer to the links below for additional information:
From .. 65413: Acronis True Image 2021: Restoring to dissimilar hardware with Acronis Universal Restore ..
1. Create 1 & 2: To be certain, is the AU Boot Media Builder installed and extracted on the Windows C system disk?
2. I can't find drivers for the WD system disk. Is that to be expected?
3. "make sure that you have the drivers for the new HDD controller and the chipset". Is the HDD controller on the mainboard? I take it the chipset is the mainboard's.
Tork,
Q1. The AUR builder tool can be downloaded from your online Acronis account. Account login link
Q2. This question is invalid. Storage disks do not need drivers. Storage controllers that disks attach to do need drivers. For new hardware these drivers can be found on the CD that accompany a new board or direct download from the manufacturer support site.
Q3. Storage controllers for SATA disks are embedded on the mainboard. The System Chipset is also embedded on the mainboard. Again, drivers can be found on the CD or direst download.
Some drivers come in .exe files or .zip. These can be extracted using free utilities like 7zip. Once unzipped you can locate the drivers inside. Drivers are in general .inf, .sys, .cat, for the most part. It is best to only copy out the storage controller drivers and chipset drivers for use in AUR. Place these on a flash drive and point AUR to that drive when drivers are requested.
All done!
Thanks guys. I very much appreciate your time and willingness to assist me and others with your probing, direction and references.
Cheers!
Tork,
That's great. Might I ask you to mark this topic as Solved? Thanks