Help with backup strategy

L, welcome to these public User Forums.

Some comments.

First, for travelling with laptops, cloned drives will also require that you have at least a screwdriver or small toolkit to remove the failed drive and install the clone spare.

Next, cloned drives will nearly always be out of date in terms of current data.  Cloning is a manual process and cannot be automated using Acronis.

Updating a cloned drive by restoring a more recent incremental backup will result in the cloned drive being wiped as the first action and therefore makes installing the clone somewhat redundant as assuming the original drive is still 'good', you could recover direct to that drive instead!

Cloning to a second internal drive within the laptop comes with its own issues, one of which is that you then have two drives with the same disk signature which in turn can cause one or both drives to be corrupted if a disk signature clash occurs when booting!

From a personal perspective as a person who travelled a lot with my work laptop, I took the following approach.

I had a backup storage partition created in the laptop where I stored a current backup image to allow quick recovery if needed.  This was in the days when it was very rare for laptops to allow for more than a single internal drive!  I also carried an external 2.5" backup drive with a second backup copy to cover the case of the internal drive physically failing which would also have required carrying a spare drive plus tools.

My current laptop has two internal drives, a 1TB NVMe M.2 Samsung SSD as the main OS drive, and a 2TB Seagate HDD used for data and backup storage, so would avoid the scenario where a OS drive failure also removed a backup storage partition.

The key benefit of using Backup & Recovery over using Cloning, is the ability to continue making scheduled backups even when travelling.  Replacing the NVMe SSD would require carrying some tools as the HP Omen laptop case is a little bit of a challenge to open but carrying a replacement SSD takes minimal space.

One final comment, it is well worth carrying a bootable USB drive or DVD (if your laptop has a DVD player) so that you can boot from such media to test what has actually failed.  The MVP Assistant version of Rescue Media makes a good tool that can be used, as it contains a number of utilities such as a File Manager, web browser, network access etc, along with Acronis tools.

MVP Assistant - New 2.0 with Rescue Media Builder (New Version 2.6.2)

Steve,

First off, thank you so much for the timely reply. This forum would probably die without you. Your peers have lauded you for your tireless efforts here, so I'd like to join them in thanking you for your kind assistance.

Comments below **:

First, for travelling with laptops, cloned drives will also require that you have at least a screwdriver or small toolkit to remove the failed drive and install the clone spare.

**I always carry a small toolkit with me just in case I'm tripped up and need to dig into the issues.

Next, cloned drives will nearly always be out of date in terms of current data.  Cloning is a manual process and cannot be automated using Acronis.

**Yes on out of date. Was aware of this but thought I could clone then restore a current state with an incremental. I was wrong.

Updating a cloned drive by restoring a more recent incremental backup will result in the cloned drive being wiped as the first action and therefore makes installing the clone somewhat redundant as assuming the original drive is still 'good', you could recover direct to that drive instead!

**I didn't understand that an incremental backup would wipe the clone. That would have been a shocker had I attempted to restore using that method. The incremental backup would have wiped my backup boot drive and left me hopeless. Ignorance is bliss. Thank my lucky stars I haven't reached that catastrophic scenario yet. Do you recommend storing a full backup then incremental or differential on your storage drive/partition? Full backups are bootable after restore. Yes?

Cloning to a second internal drive within the laptop comes with its own issues, one of which is that you then have two drives with the same disk signature which in turn can cause one or both drives to be corrupted if a disk signature clash occurs when booting!

**Not sure I follow here. I only have one internal SSD. If I remove the original dead SSD for example, and insert the clone in its place, then would I still cause a signature clash?

From a personal perspective as a person who travelled a lot with my work laptop, I took the following approach.

I had a backup storage partition created in the laptop where I stored a current backup image to allow quick recovery if needed.  This was in the days when it was very rare for laptops to allow for more than a single internal drive!  I also carried an external 2.5" backup drive with a second backup copy to cover the case of the internal drive physically failing which would also have required carrying a spare drive plus tools.

**My internal drives for both laptops are too small to partition with enough space for a backup image. I only have a single internal drive for both laptops at 256gb. I offload most files to an external drive to save space. Since you are a guru on such matters, I'm thinking I should upgrade my internal SSD's to 500gb and partition them to include space for a backup image. Necessary? My full and incremental backups are on an external WD drive. How to mitigate restoring multiple incrementals? How do you resolve this?

My current laptop has two internal drives, a 1TB NVMe M.2 Samsung SSD as the main OS drive, and a 2TB Seagate HDD used for data and backup storage, so would avoid the scenario where a OS drive failure also removed a backup storage partition.

**This makes good sense. If you have an OS drive failure (dead or massively corrupt Samsung SSD beyond repair) then, you boot from a USB/DVD and restore your newly inserted SSD drive from your NVMe drive using Acronis restore? Am I missing something?

The key benefit of using Backup & Recovery over using Cloning, is the ability to continue making scheduled backups even when travelling.  Replacing the NVMe SSD would require carrying some tools as the HP Omen laptop case is a little bit of a challenge to open but carrying a replacement SSD takes minimal space.

**So, you think I should carry only one replacement SSD with me at all times and continue to use Acronis backup as I have been doing. Which method do you use on the road for backups? Full/Incremental/differential? What's your go to solution if your NVMe SSD goes dead?

One final comment, it is well worth carrying a bootable USB drive or DVD (if your laptop has a DVD player) so that you can boot from such media to test what has actually failed.  The MVP Assistant version of Rescue Media makes a good tool that can be used, as it contains a number of utilities such as a File Manager, web browser, network access etc., along with Acronis tools.

**I carry both bootable USB and DVD (external) solutions with me at all times. I will download MVP Assistant to a separate USB drive. Yes?

Again, thank you so much for your kind attention to detail on your response. This is greatly appreciated.

L

**I didn't understand that an incremental backup would wipe the clone. That would have been a shocker had I attempted to restore using that method. The incremental backup would have wiped my backup boot drive and left me hopeless. Ignorance is bliss. Thank my lucky stars I haven't reached that catastrophic scenario yet. Do you recommend storing a full backup then incremental or differential on your storage drive/partition? Full backups are bootable after restore. Yes?

You cannot just restore an incremental backup on its own.  Incremental backups capture all changes since a previous Full or incremental backup.  Those changes would not match the state of play for the current drive (clone or original).

When you do an incremental restore, it will walk through the backup version chain and restore all data back to and including the Full backup for that chain.  For a Disks & Partitions backup, this includes wiping the target disk & partitions and re-establishing the partitioning structure as it was when the backup image was created.

**Not sure I follow here. I only have one internal SSD. If I remove the original dead SSD for example, and insert the clone in its place, then would I still cause a signature clash?

If you only have one internal SSD then the likelihood of a disk signature clash are minimal, assuming that you do not boot the laptop with both drives connected, i.e. one internal and one via USB.  You can easily connect the clone drive after Windows has booted using USB.

I only have a single internal drive for both laptops at 256gb. I offload most files to an external drive to save space. Since you are a guru on such matters, I'm thinking I should upgrade my internal SSD's to 500gb and partition them to include space for a backup image. Necessary? My full and incremental backups are on an external WD drive. How to mitigate restoring multiple incrementals? How do you resolve this?

Personally, I would suggest that 500GB is the minimum size you should have and 1TB is better if you can afford it.

For any backup stored on the laptop (internal partition) you should keep this to a single version chain, and keep any larger backup chains on your external storage drive.  You are just looking for a quick recovery fix via the internal storage.

See earlier ref restoring incrementals.

**This makes good sense. If you have an OS drive failure (dead or massively corrupt Samsung SSD beyond repair) then, you boot from a USB/DVD and restore your newly inserted SSD drive from your NVMe drive using Acronis restore? Am I missing something?

My backups are on the Seagate HDD not the NVMe SSD.  I have upgraded the SSD multiple times since getting this HP Omen laptop as it only came with 128GB from the factory!

See forum topic: Steve migrate NVMe SSD where I have documented (with images) the process that I have used multiple times for my own laptops using Backup & Recovery. 

**So, you think I should carry only one replacement SSD with me at all times and continue to use Acronis backup as I have been doing. Which method do you use on the road for backups? Full/Incremental/differential? What's your go to solution if your NVMe SSD goes dead?

That has to be your decision.  I have not yet had any SSD die on me but I understand that there will always be such a risk.  My travelling for work days are long behind me and technology has moved along at great pace since those days!  I was fortunate in that I worked for IBM and had access to replacement kit if needed.  These days, it is normally a shop on Amazon for parts when / if needed, with next day delivery.

For backups when travelling, then I carry a 2TB external USB HDD in a pocket sized case, i.e. using a 2.5" laptop drive in a caddy / WD My Passport drive.  These weigh very little, fit in my laptop bag...

For recovery media, then the same external USB drive can also function as the recovery boot drive if you use the Acronis Survival Kit approach.

If using the MVP Assistant, then create a FAT32 partition at the start of the external storage drive (the size should be a minimum of 4GB up to a max size of 32GB). 

Allocate a drive letter to that FAT32 partition, then choose that drive letter when creating USB rescue media from the tool.

If you are not confident of the above process, then use a spare USB drive to practise on.

My greatest fears on the road are mainly theft and a dead primary internal drive. If I upgrade my current SSD to 500gb or 1T and place my backups on a partition on that same drive, then a theft or SSD failure would render my downtime on the road considerably. Your backup to a primary boot drive partition makes the most sense as a time countermeasure. I will upgrade my internal SSD size. I still maintain full backups to an external WD USB drive.

How large is large enough for a backup partition on the primary boot drive? 500 gb SSD or 1T SSD?

What has been your Plan B if your laptop is stolen on the road? Backup laptop?

Do you perform incremental or differential backups on the road?

My uncle was a career IBM lifer. Those days are long gone. He was a kind and gentle soul and phenomenal technician. A true dyed in the wool tinkerer.

Many thanks again for your kind assistance.

SSDs seem to be less likely to fail than HDDs. I have never had an M.2 NVMe drive fail; it is many years since I had a SATA SSD fail. In retrospect, most if not all, of those failures were probably due to a failing power supply. I suspect it also caused/contributed to some SATA HDDs to fail as well.

How large is large enough for a backup partition on the primary boot drive? 500 gb SSD or 1T SSD?

Look at the size of your backup version chain for the laptop OS backup and allow for around 2 or 3 times that size.  A version chain = 1 x Full plus as many incrementals as configured before another new Full is created.

What has been your Plan B if your laptop is stolen on the road? Backup laptop?

Fortunately I have never had a laptop stolen and the only real protections are to ensure you use encryption, i.e. BitLocker to protect vital data, and use a Kensington lock & chain to secure the laptop to an anchor point if will be left unattended.  All laptops have an anchor point for such chains! (it looks like a small oblong keyhole about 5-6mm x 2mm).  Mine is on the rear next to my USB C port.  If you have access to a room safe or security box when travelling, put the laptop in there if it will fit!

I keep to incremental backups when travelling as are smaller and faster normally.

Note: if you encrypt the whole drive using BitLocker then a couple of extra points to understand / consider!

1. Backups created from within Windows are not encrypted (as BL is unlocked at that time) so should be password protected.
    
2. You need to understand how to unlock the BL encryption from rescue media in order to access the drive.  This in turn requires that you use Win PE media, ideally created from the Windows Recovery Environment, i.e. Acronis 'Simple' media or created using the MVP Assistant tool with WinRE as the image source for Win PE.

Life time careers at IBM are almost certainly long gone with the new performance focus in the company!  It used to be a great place to work but I took early retirement after 31 years because the atmosphere was becoming so toxic!

Thanks for the follow up replies.

Just a few questions:

What's the difference between MVP Assistant and Rescue Media Builder? I have RMB on a USB bootable stick.

I noticed that MVP Assistant loads ATI 2019 only. I have a license for 2018. Will this cause an issue if I restore from backup files created in ATI 2018?

I'm assuming that MVP Assistant requires a separate USB to boot from. Any idea what size the MVP app file is? I need to dig for a spare USB that is large enough to boot from.

Thank you.

Both tools can create valid rescue media however with the MVP Assistant it will only recognise ATI 2019 and later due to changes that Acronis made to program paths etc from the earlier versions.

There is an easy work-around for users with earlier versions of ATI such as 2017 or 2018, and that is to create the rescue media as a .WIM (image file) with the standard Acronis rescue media builder tool, then choose that .WIM file as the WinPE source for the MVP Assistant and then use the latter to add in additional features and tools to make the rescue media a more comprehensive toolkit media.

Any backups created by ATI 2018 can be restored by that version and any later versions that follow it.  See the link in my signature to a document ref Backup Archive Compatibility that goes into much more detail on this subject.

There is no need for any separate MVP Assistant USB media or app file - the tool is just an alternative media builder tool. 

Many thanks again for the timely reply Steve.

This has been an enjoyable learning experience. My attention has turned to Acronis Survival Kit works.

Is the Survival Kit a feature of ATI 2018 or do I need to upgrade to at least ATI 2019?

Are you a Survival Kit devotee and is it a safer bet to recover quickly if I continue with incremental backups to the same Survival Kit external USB drive?

Thank you.

The Survival Kit option was introduced in ATI 2019 but you can manually create one yourself very easily as follows:

On an external USB HDD create a FAT32 partition at the start of the external storage drive (the size should be a minimum of 4GB up to a max size of 32GB). 

Allocate a drive letter to that FAT32 partition, then choose that drive letter when creating USB rescue media from the standard Acronis rescue media builder tool.  Select the 'Simple' option to create WinPE media using the Windows Recovery Environment.

This will populate the FAT32 partition with the files needed to be used a bootable media and will create a \Sources\ folder with a boot.wim file within it.

Once you have done the above, then you can use that ATI 2018 boot.wim file as the image source for the MVP Assistant tool to allow you to add extra tools to the survival kit drive.

Note: this is one reason to make the FAT32 partition at least 4GB in size to accommodate the extra tools.

If you are not confident of the above process, then use a spare USB drive to practise on.

I use the survival kit approach on my own external USB drives but created manually as above not via the Acronis create method.  Acronis defaults to a 2GB FAT32 partition which is too small as I like to keep several different boot.wim files on the drive to swap between as needed, so I typically use a 32GB FAT32 partition on either a 1TB or 2TB USB HDD drive.

Many thanks for the reply.

I will attempt this MVP tool on a spare (formerly internal) SATA HDD via usb.

Clueless on a FAT partition drive letter. Suggestions? Recommended free space format? Same? FAT32?

Once I partition to FAT32 4GB, I create the Acronis rescue media builder>Simple on the FAT partition drive letter. Correct?

Next step: Launch MVP Assistant and save to the 4GB FAT32 partition using the FAT partition drive letter. Correct?

I will have more than 500GB of useable space on the HDD. Is it possible to do incremental backups to the free 500GB space for both laptops and if yes, do the backup files for each laptop need to be in their own folders?

Suggestions of vital tools? Hardware diagnostics? A tool to determine if the laptop SSD did indeed kick the bucket?

Thank you for your patience and kind assistance.

To create the FAT32 partition and allocate a drive letter to it, the easiest method is to use a partition manager tool such as the free MiniTool Partition Wizard - this has options that will allow you to move the existing external drive main partition to the right to create free space where the new partition can be created, plus a further option to give it a drive letter.

Using the normal Acronis Rescue Media Builder tool, you can treat the new FAT32 partition on the USB external drive like you would any USB media where you want to create as rescue media - this is necessary to create all the required files to boot from that drive.

The MVP Assistant tool can then be used in conjunction with the \Sources\boot.wim file from the new FAT32 partition to create customised rescue media that includes many other utilities such as a file manager, web browser, PDF reader, image capture etc.  The process here is to use the MVP Assistant to create a new boot.wim file then copy this .wim file over to the new FAT32 \Sources folder to replace the existing boot.wim file there.

I will have more than 500GB of useable space on the HDD. Is it possible to do incremental backups to the free 500GB space for both laptops and if yes, do the backup files for each laptop need to be in their own folders?

If you are making backups from more than one computer to any external drive, then it is very strongly recommended to use separate folders for each different computer - this will avoid any confusion plus prevent overwriting files if you use any default backup names.

Suggestions of vital tools? Hardware diagnostics? A tool to determine if the laptop SSD did indeed kick the bucket?

Take a look at the tools already offered with the MVP Assistant before thinking about adding in any further ones.

I'm very likely overstaying my welcome here, but I have a follow up question:

I've wiped a SATA HDD that was barely used (swapped out of a new machine for an SSD) and intend to use it for backups on two different laptops. Formatted the HDD (partition R) 4gb FAT32 for rescue boot media and the remaining space NTFS (partition S). One laptop is running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit UEFI bios and the other laptop running Windows 10 64 bit UEFI bios. The NTFS space on the drive will be used for incremental backups on both laptops. Went with GPT to initialize the HDD. Hopefully all good per your instructions.

Question:

If I apply the Acronis Rescue Media Builder to the FAT32 HDD partition using Acronis Rescue Media on the Windows 10 laptop, then, will that boot partition also boot the Windows 7 Pro laptop or do I need to run Acronis Rescue Media Builder and create boot media from the Windows 7 laptop and add it to the same Windows 10 boot rescue media FAT32 partition?

Apologies for beating this to death but this process is a tad complicated for a noob. Too much info left to the imagination. I've noticed even the experts on this forum scratch their head sometimes. Acronis should include a team of idiots in the design process to possibly idiot proof and consolidate all the variable workarounds. Big grin.

Many thanks again for your patience.

If I apply the Acronis Rescue Media Builder to the FAT32 HDD partition using Acronis Rescue Media on the Windows 10 laptop, then, will that boot partition also boot the Windows 7 Pro laptop or do I need to run Acronis Rescue Media Builder and create boot media from the Windows 7 laptop and add it to the same Windows 10 boot rescue media FAT32 partition?

Do a quick test:

Create a USB rescue stick on the Win 10 laptop, check that it boots on that laptop OK, then take it to the Win 7 laptop and test on there.  If it works fine, then the same will be true for using the Survival Kit approach.

As an example, I created rescue media on my main Win 11 laptop which has ATI 2021 and was able to boot that same media on a much older Compaq laptop running Debian Linux where the Win 11 has an Intel i7 CPU and the Compaq is AMD.  The Compaq normally runs Win 10 but I was helping another user with a Linux question.  It was upgraded from Win 7 to 10 about 2 weeks earlier.  The key here is that both laptops were 64-bit machines as was the rescue media though the Win 11 is UEFI / GPT whereas the Compaq is most definitely Legacy / MBR with no UEFI support in the BIOS.

I have a few observations to share.

I couldn't for the life of me get the rescue media to boot my FAT32 HDD partition. No clue what went wrong since I used the same process to create the bootable USB flash drives.

The bootable USB flash drive that was created on Windows 10 was able to boot both my Windows 10 and Windows 7 laptops.

The bootable USB flash drive that was created on Windows 7 was only able to boot my Windows 7 laptop. Windows 10 choked on it and required removal and a key press to reboot into Windows 10.

Since you mentioned to test the Windows 10 USB boot flash drive on both laptops that proved successful, I decided to reformat the FAT32 partition on the HDD external on USB and copy the contents of the Windows 10 USB boot flash drive onto the HDD USB external drive. Lo and behold the Windows 10 laptop booted into the HDD USB external drive. The Windows 7 laptop also booted into the rescue media with the HDD USB external drive attached.

Of note, exiting out of the rescue media while the HDD USB external drive was attached to the Windows 10 laptop, using the cmd Wpeutil Shutdown, the program very quietly parked the drive heads without a sound and shutdown followed seconds later. However, shutting down the HDD USB external drive on the Windows 7 machine with the same cmd caused a cringe when the drive heads WERE NOT PARKED quietly and expletives ensued.

Perhaps if you were to cookbook the rescue media procedure for an HDD external on USB, I might be able to determine where I went wrong.

Quite frankly, I'm a skosh hesitant in moving on to my next precarious odyssey; the MVP Assistant load. I'm not happy about the HDD Acronis Clang shutdown feature on Windows 7 and wondering if I should avoid a head banger altogether by keeping the HDD external boot drive as far away from Windows 7 as possible.

I don't recall ever hearing any noisy head parking for my own HDD's when shutting down my rescue media when used with any version of Windows.

The alternative here would be to try using Wpeutil Restart and booting the machine into Windows then doing a safe removal of the external HDD instead of a shutdown.

In terms of the MVP Assistant, then you are already most of the way there with your working rescue media on the HDD FAT32 partition.

You could now use the MVP Assistant to create customised rescue media including the option to Build an ISO image, after which it is simply a case of copying the new winre.wim image file from your MVP Assistant build folder to the \Sources\ folder on the FAT32 partition and renaming it as boot.wim.  The alternative would be to again make a new USB stick media from the Assistant and repeat the process of copying all the files to the FAT32 partition, which would ensure than any extra files provided by the Assistant would be included.

The alternative here would be to try using Wpeutil Restart and booting the machine into Windows then doing a safe removal of the external HDD instead of a shutdown. 

I think I found the clang issue. My Windows 7 laptop had USB "always on" configured in the BIOS. What may have been happening was the wpeutil shutdown would spin down the attached rescue HDD then the USB would power it back up causing a potential head skip. I turned off "always on" USB in the BIOS and it seems to have solved the issue, but the head parking wasn't as quiet as a safe remove. I don't follow your Wpeutil Restart suggestion because in order to boot into Windows 7 the external boot drive has to be unplugged since it's at the top of the boot order. Shutdown, reboot to Windows, reload the HDD just to safe shutdown doesn't seem logical. I'm very likely missing your point. Windows 10 on wpeutil shutdown remains a very quiet and painless process.

Is there some way to include a safe remove option in the rescue boot media home screen instead of having to type in a cmd to avoid a potential HDD head skip? Why can't an X out of the rescue boot media result in a safe removal and exiting of the cmd tool?

On to best practices.

The Boot Rescue Media offers Disk/files and folders, partition backup and my data backup. ATI 2018 allows for a computer backup in three modes; full, incremental and differential. If I were to guarantee a perfect recovery should my Windows 7 or 10 SSD fail, which backup method would you bank on?

Many thanks again for your kind assistance.

I don't follow your Wpeutil Restart suggestion because in order to boot into Windows 7 the external boot drive has to be unplugged since it's at the top of the boot order. Shutdown, reboot to Windows, reload the HDD just to safe shutdown doesn't seem logical. I'm very likely missing your point. Windows 10 on wpeutil shutdown remains a very quiet and painless process.

I rarely need to adjust the BIOS boot order as most PC BIOS provide a method of accessing a one time boot select menu to allow the default Windows boot option to be overridden, i.e. I was working on an older Compaq laptop this morning where I pressed ESC key to access a list of options with F9 being the Boot override list option.

Is there some way to include a safe remove option in the rescue boot media home screen instead of having to type in a cmd to avoid a potential HDD head skip? Why can't an X out of the rescue boot media result in a safe removal and exiting of the cmd tool?

I am not aware of any option to include a safe removal tool or option in rescue media so this would need to be engineered into the tool by Acronis if it is possible.

The Boot Rescue Media offers Disk/files and folders, partition backup and my data backup. ATI 2018 allows for a computer backup in three modes; full, incremental and differential. If I were to guarantee a perfect recovery should my Windows 7 or 10 SSD fail, which backup method would you bank on?

This question probably returns us to your initial post, i.e. that you are looking at a recovery when travelling away from home, therefore the backup scheme choice should fit in with the options you will have when travelling?

Personally, I would stick with using an Incremental backup that could be updated as / when needed while away as this will create much smaller incremental backup files than using differential.  Both schemes will always require an initial Full backup image to work from.

If you are looking at your different PC's in your home scenario then you should have more backup storage options to allow for various different methods and also to ensure you are keeping multiple backups for each PC for redundancy and data safety.

Future rescue media request: Safe Shutdown on the home screen including cmd window.

I suppose I should have asked, why/when would I want to run Disk/files and folders, partition backup or my data backups from the rescue media? Can you suggest a typical scenario?

Shutting down Windows 10 includes the below message. What operations are involved and is it possible to turn these operations off? Just how intrusive are these operations?

The choice of using Disks & Partitions or Files & Folders really depends on what data you are wanting to protect?  The former is protecting a whole disk and/or its partitions whereas the latter is focussed on a specific set of files or folders so would be expected to be much smaller unless very large files / folders are involved.

The image above purely indicates that Acronis believes that there is an active task still running at the time you are trying to shutdown the computer - it should do as it says in the message and terminate gracefully allowing time for data to be saved etc.

The choice of using Disks & Partitions or Files & Folders really depends on what data you are wanting to protect?  The former is protecting a whole disk and/or its partitions whereas the latter is focussed on a specific set of files or folders so would be expected to be much smaller unless very large files / folders are involved.

My phrasing is terrible. What is the difference between running disk/folder/partition backups from the Acronis desktop application vs running disk/folder/partition backups from the rescue boot media? Do they not accomplish the same task?

The image above purely indicates that Acronis believes that there is an active task still running at the time you are trying to shutdown the computer - it should do as it says in the message and terminate gracefully allowing time for data to be saved etc.

Why is Acronis checking to see what's running prior to shutdown? Is this a function of active protection which is currently turned off? I don't see this message when my Windows 7 laptop shuts down.

My phrasing is terrible. What is the difference between running disk/folder/partition backups from the Acronis desktop application vs running disk/folder/partition backups from the rescue boot media? Do they not accomplish the same task?

No real difference other than running backups from Windows benefits from caching, VSS etc plus greater / easier choice of destinations.

Why is Acronis checking to see what's running prior to shutdown? Is this a function of active protection which is currently turned off? I don't see this message when my Windows 7 laptop shuts down.

Acronis is only checking for active backup related operations i.e. a scheduled backup or validation or sync.  It doesn't care about other system activities, those are for Windows to handle during the shutdown phase.