rescue media does not see Samsung NVMe boot 512GB PM951 SSD
I am an average computer user and used Acronis True Image for few years with mixed results. I just got a Dell XPS 15 9550 laptop with 16GB, Samsung M2 NVMe PM952 SSD 512GB, i7 , 4k screen, Windows 10 Pro OS - the works. Everything works perfectly and after installing my software I wanted to make a backup file and a clone. After making a USB rescue media in Acronis True Image 16 , it boots OK, but cannot see the boot SSD , so nothing to backup! I then tried to make a WinPE Windows 10 USB rescue media: it does the same, it boots the laptop , but cannot see the SSD. I thought that the WinPE 10 should have all the NVMe drivers , but maybe not?! What should I do? I cannot seem to find specific drivers for this Samsung SSD PM951 - if anybody can help that would be great. Also where can I launch a help ticket on Acronis for help??? I am in Australia, so I cannot call , and I do not seem to find any link to contact Acronis for help!!! Not very happy , as I keep upgrading multiple copies of Acronis software since 2009, and most years I had problems.
These Dell laptops use Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers which are not natively present in either the Linux based default True Image Recovery Media or the WinPE based versions.
It is not possible to inject these drivers in the default Linux based media but can be done with the WinPE variant. A comprehensive guide to adding drivers to WinPE can be found at the link below:
HI Steve , Thank you for your reply, I do use the latest build, and also tried the default Windows 10 WinPE (not sure yet where to find the extra drivers and how to add them). Nothing works, just tried the clone process from Windows, it starts OK , but then when it restarts and falls onto Acronis boot , it does not see the NVMe SSD drive and the process locks when I press Cancel! .
Hi Enchantech, Thank you for this advice, this may work, I will try it in few days when I have some time. It is funny that I had a chat with an Acronis guy on their help chat line and despite explaining him all these, he just asked me for all machine logs etc, when it is reasonably clear that it is a matter of missing components in their boot files.
Please see http://forum.acronis.com/forum/122069 for a working solution
Agree with mhch - if using the default Linux media, set the SATA mode to AHCI and it will be detected. Alternatively, if you build Windows PE version, use the Windows 10 ADK and that should work out of the box in most cases. If not, then slip in the Dell driver pack for WinPE 6.0 (windows 10) which has all of the necessary storage controllers, but you have to use DISM ADK commands to add extra drivers.
Going back to default Linux bootable media...If your installed OS is Windows 10 and you only have a single boot disk - you can set and leave the SATA mode as AHCI and it will boot fine after the change (something previous Windows OS versions could not do natively). If using Win 8.1, 8 or 7 and a single boot OS disk, you can temporarily set the SATA mode to AHCI for the purpose of getting Acronis to recognize the PCIE NVME hard drive, complete the backup and/or recovery and simply set the bios back to RAID when you're done before booting back into Windows.
Altnernatively, if using Win 8.1, 8 or 7 and you have the SATA mode set to RAID with only a single drive for your boot OS, you can update the driver in Windows using the Microsoft Fixit Tool to install the AHCI driver in advance, then power off the system, set the bios SATA mode to AHCI and boot up and it will use AHCI from then on without needing to make changes again and your CIE NVme hard drive should alway be detected in Acronis from then on.
Error message occurs after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive - KB922976
Just to be 100% clear
1( Linux based ATI recovery key didn't boot with BIOS SATA as RAID. Didn't try to boot when set to AHCI
2) WinPE ATI key boots in both AHCI and RAID mode, and I checked it contains all the necessary drivers for Intel RST (latest ATI build) for the SSD.
but laptop SSD isn't seen if using RAID, while seen when using AHCI. Recovery works OK then. May be because RAID mode puts some memory limitations ?
Yeah, we're on the same page. I find the same with #1 - usually because of missing RAID controller drivers in Linux. Try AHCI as a test if you get a chance, it (linux recovery media) will probably boot and see the drive if it's a 1 drive setup.
Wondering about RAID memory limitations too as it's only crept up on a few Dells in my office (I don't have an XPS - just precisions and latitudes but almost every model from 2008 to present along the way) I rarely have a a laptop with an actual raid setup so have defaulted to setting them to AHCI and all works well for Windows boot and booting Acronis with Linux or WinPE media too. I can't remember the last time we left the SATA mode as anything other than AHCI as there's no advantage to leaving RAID with a 1 drive setup.
If I ever get my hands on a true RAID Dell laptop again, I will have to test some more. I'd also like to test and see if the snap deploy recovery media behaves the same as the ATIH media when the SATA mode is set to RAID.
In the newer systems, Dell is also somehow using the same hard drive connection for both M.2 sata and M.2 PCI drives so there must be some type of controller setting allowing the switch, while using the same connector and that may be where the RAID controller is unique and unable to pick up the PCI NVME hard drives in SATA mode. Perhaps the Dell driver pack has more than just the Intel RST drivers, but something unique for this hardware setup?
Attached is directory output of the Dell package names and storage drivers in the latest Win10 winPE driver pack
As info, the Intel iaStorAC.inf is the driver file providing RAID and NVME support. The Intel iaAHCIC.inf is of course the driver file providing AHCI support.