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Errors when initiating a backup from rescue media

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Hi, 

I just purchased a subscription license for Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office.  I installed and activated it on my Windows 10 PC and made "single version" backup of my entire hard drive (all partitions) that completed successfully.

Next, I wanted to see if I would be able to create the same backup using Bootable Rescue Media.  I created the Bootable Rescue Media (onto a USB flash drive) using the "Simple Method".  I then booted my PC from this Rescue Media.  I tried doing the backup twice (to another USB drive that is not the same drive as my rescue media drive) and got errors.  The error log from both attempts is shown below.

 

The error messages are not very detailed.  I got these errors when attempting to make the same backup, on the same PC, to the same removable (USB connected) drive.  The only difference is that I got the failures when I booted from the Rescue Media.  If anyone here can suggest how I might be able to determine what caused this failure, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,
Paul

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Paul, the first check point here is for the BIOS boot mode being used by your Windows OS and whether you are using the same BIOS boot mode for the Acronis rescue media?

In Windows, run the msinfo32 command then look at the BIOS Mode value shown in the right side panel of the report shown.  This is normally UEFI for most modern computers, but could show as either Legacy or the name of the OS disk drive for older systems.

When booting the Acronis rescue media it is important to use the same BIOS boot mode as used by the OS.  The media is capable of booting in both UEFI and Legacy modes.

KB 59877: Acronis True Image: how to distinguish between UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot modes of Acronis Bootable Media

The next check point is to ask whether any encryption such as BitLocker is being used?  If the OS drive is using BitLocker then it will need to be unlocked before any operations from the Acronis rescue media can be performed.

Beyond this point, if you are booting from the rescue media correctly to match the OS mode, then you would need to save a copy of the error log while still in the rescue environment.  You can right-click on the top line of the log and select to save the log to your USB media before leaving the rescue environment when the log would be lost.

Thanks Steve,

I confirmed that the BIOS boot mode being used by both my Windows OS and the Acronis Rescue media is UEFI.

I also confirmed that BitLocker is not being used.  (This a brand new PC I purchased from Dell - when I start a project like this, making sure I can get my image based backup procedure to work before I start installing and configuring my own software.  So, any settings and installed features would be as typically provided by Dell at this point).

To this point, I have been unsuccessful at capturing the log file.  I attempted to save it on my USB media, but when I opened the log file to view it, it was empty.  I am right now in the process of making another attempt.  The only think I am trying differently on this attempt is that rather than using two usb flash drives (one for the rescue media and one for my backup), I am now attempting to save my backup on the same usb flash drive as the rescue media.

While I am waiting for the backup procedure to run its course, I have one thing I'd like to run by you.

When I boot from my rescue media, Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office starts up and works just like I would expect (except for my inability to successfully complete a backup). My keyboard, mouse, and monitor all work just fine in this environment.  With this being the case, I have a rectangular window that says "Input Not Supported" that constantly floats around the screen.  I have disconnected everything I can think of from the PC that I don't specifically need for the backup process (my only connections now are power, keyboard, mouse, and monitor), but I cannot make this "Input Not Supported" message go away.  Do you think its possible that this could be related to my inability to successfully complete a backup?

Thank again and best regards,
Paul

Paul, working backwards - your 'Input Not Supported' is a mystery as I have never seen / heard of that being reported previously!

In terms of rescue media, I prefer to use a bootable external HDD drive rather than use USB flash drives.  The latter are typically much slower than either an HDD or SSD.

Acronis can create a 'Survival Kit' drive where a 2GB FAT32 partition is created at the start of the external drive and used to store the rescue media & make the drive bootable.

In my own case, I have created a custom USB 3.x bootable external drive using a 2TB Seagate HDD (2.5" laptop drive) from which I can choose to boot into Windows 10 installation media, or into Acronis or other utilities that use boot media.  My drive has a 32GB FAT32 partition to store the different boot media that is initially created using the Microsoft Media Creation tool (with both 64-bit & 32-bit install options), then the BCD files (for UEFI & Legacy) updated to add further boot media stored in a WIMS folder.

See the attached PDF document that describes how the above was done.

Attachment Size
602619-324974.pdf 926.89 KB

Thanks Steve,

I honestly never thought about the speed difference of USB attached external hard drive and a USB attached flash drive.  I certainly have no issue using an external HDD or SSD if they are faster.

Your idea of creating a 'Survival Kit' drive is interesting.  I have never used the Microsoft Media Creation tool, but I think I'll give it a try.  In the .pdf you referenced, you said you started by creating a new FAT32 partition at the beginning of your external USB HDD with the remaining space in a single NTFS partition.  You said you set the HDD to use the MBR partition scheme, and that you assigned a windows drive letter to the FAT32 partition.  If you don't mind me asking, did you do these preliminary tasks using tools built-in to Windows?  Or did you use a third party disk partitioning tool?

Thanks and best regards,
Paul

Paul, I typically will use MiniTool Partition Wizard to prepare the external drive and assign a drive letter to the FAT32 partition as it is such an easy tool to use and avoid picking an incorrect drive etc.

I chose to use MBR for the bootable drive because it works with both Legacy & UEFI systems of which I have a mix around.

Thanks Steve,

I'll give MiniTool Partition Wizard a try.  Do you think if I try out the free version, it should have the functionality I need to follow the instructions in the .pdf you referenced?  Or do you think I will need the professional version?

I appreciate your help with this.

Best regards,
Paul

Paul, I have only been using the free version of MTPW and it does all that I need it for!  The Pro / licensed version is only needed if you want to create bootable media for the wizard or if you want any of the advanced options.  I did have a one year Pro license at one time for an older version from the Giveaway of the Day website when they offered it as a download.

Note: there are a number of different partition tools available that could equally be used, i.e. AOMEI, Easeus, Paragon, Gparted etc.  See webpage: 10 Best Free Disk Partition Software Tools

Thanks Steve,

I used the Minitool Partition Wizard to create a 32 GB FAT32 partitions on my external USB HDD (1 TB) and made sure it was assigned a drive letter (which was D: on my system).  Then I created a second NTFS partition that includes the remainder of the space on the HDD.

I then used the Microsoft Media Creation tool to create the installation media on D:.  This completed successfully, after which the folder structure on my D: drive looked similar to that shown on the .pdf instructions you referenced.  There were just a few things that were different:

  1. Whereas the .pdf showed folders named x64 and x86, I do not have these.  I do have a folder named \sources and one named \support.  When I started the Media Creation Tools, I was presented with a choice of whether I wanted to create installation media for 64-bit architecture or 32-bit.  I chose 64 bit because I didn't see a way for me to choose that I'd like to create media for both architectures.  I'm just wondering if you could give me a clue how you managed to include installation media for both?
  2. The Media Creation Tool did not create a \wims folder for me?  Should it have?  Or should I just create this manually?
  3. The Media Creation Tool did not create the BOOTICE executable files shown in the .pdf?  Do I have to get these from somewhere else?

I really appreciate your help with this.

Best regards,

Paul

 

Paul, I have taken the option with the Media Creation tool to create the media for both x64 and x32 which I assume is the reason for the two folders of the same names.  I still have some older machines which use the latter.

The \wims folder has to be created manually and the Bootice tools are easily found via a Google search from such as Snapfiles and other sites.