I'm confused about how to create bootable media
My mother-in-laws old Vista machine will no longer boot. I suspect that the hard drive is ok and would like to examine it and possibly pull off all of her user files, maybe even make it bootable again.
It looks like a good time to use the Acronis Disk Director 12/Acronis True Image 2016 "Bootable Media Builder" function.
My machine is running Windows 10.
The instructions for creating the bootable media say that I need to download and install an AIK.
My question is for which machine do I download? For my [Win 10] PC or for the target [Vista] PC?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Howard
Thanks Ian for your response and suggestion. No, she's in a nursing home and any disks or documentation is long gone.
I have Recover My Files which will let me recover files and partitions but you have to remove the HDD and connect it to my PC to use it. I'm interested in being able to use the "Bootable Media Builder" function on machines without having to take anything apart.
Do you know the answer to my question about which AIK I need -- the one for my machine or the one for the machine that I'm gonna use the newly created bootable media with?
You only need the AIK if you plan to create WinPE boot media. You can use the Linux version of the boot media which should be sufficient to work with the Vista disk. You could attach the disk to your machine via USB cable adapter or enclosure to work with it. Create the boot media using the Media Builder tool in the True Image app and make certain you can boot your machine with it first. If that won't work then you would have to create a WinPE.
Thanks - sounds like you are very knowledgeable on ATI and this will be very helpful to me.
If I do need the AIK, which one? The one for my OS or the one for the target machine's OS? I'll be creating it on my Win 10 machine but will be using it to boot the target Vista machine, right? When I get to that step I'm given a choice of different downloads based on OS but they don't say whether its my OS or the one that I will be using it on.
Plus, the latest AIK is for Win 8.1 -- there doesn't seem to be one for Win 10 -- at least I haven't found one.
Howard
I think the situation your in is one where the Linux version is not only your best option but possibly your only option. Create that media and give it a try. I think it should work for you.
Thanks again. I'll let you know how it turns out.
I wanted to add here and hopefully you will get this that I am a little confused about your intent. You stated that you wish to recover some user files from the Vista machine, that you think the HDD is still good, and I am assuming that yo want to attempt to boot this machine. So you have 3 things here that I think you are wanting to do.
If you think that the Vista machine just has a boot problem that is not some hardware problem but is simply a boot record problem then you might solve the problem using BCDEdit commands. If you wish to simply extract user files from the Vista machines so that you can have them for another machine or different install and the Vista disk is in fact good then you could do that by simply using an adapter of some type to attach the drive to your machine externally and then access the disk using File Explorer for extraction. If your intent is to attempt to boot the Vista machine and then backup user data for later restore to something else then the Linux based media should be sufficient.
If you have another use for the Windows WinPE environment for use of the Vista machine which would be used to boot that machine and run recovery tools and such then the AIK would be the one found at the links below:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10333
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=9085
The 10333 link is for version 2.0 Vista specific. The 9085 link is for Server 2008 and Vista SP1.
Hope that helps
Thanks for your note with the additional detail. I probably should have been clearer.
I have the ability to attach the Vista HDD to my Win 10 machine and edit boot files as well as recover lost/deleted partitions and files using "Recover My Files". I am new to Acronis and though the Create Bootable Media" function offered some interesting possibilities -- including the ability to boot up just about any unbootable machine so long as the HDD wasn't totally trashed. I am especially intrigued with the WinPE approach. If I understand you correctly I would need to download and install the Vers 2.0 (Vista) AIK on my Win 10 machine in order to create WinPE bootable media for the Vista machine. Correct?
Just trying to figure out the various ways to do that with Acronis. More of an education issue than a problem to solve.
Thanks again for taking the time to help educate me.
Howard
I am not a WinPE expert, there are others here whom know far more than I do about that medium. I believe that the answer to your question is yes, you would download the AIK to your machine and create the boot media for the Vista machine.