Restoring from TI backup fails after Windows 10 update (1803)
Because of an error with win10 latest update I had to restore my complete system with True Image. It tooks me weeks to find out what went wrong. After restoring the backup my system failed again and again to boot. When I installed a fresh windows nothing was wrong, only when I used the backup. I used my laptop to find a possible reason causing my desktop's problem. After many days searching I used Disk Director 12 to find out if there was something wrong with my windows SSD. Disk Director did not show anything wrong. I used several programs to check this , among them EaseUS Partition Master. And what happened: after several hours trying I noticed every time I restored the windows drive the partition layout changed to MBR. Disk Director has no option (I think) to convert from MBR to GPT. I'm using only GPT because I'm using drives from 1 to 4TB. EaseUS PM had the option to convert MBR back to GPT layout. After doing that my system booted again. Strange: my TI backups are all made from GPT disks but when I restored the backup again and again the windows disk layout was every time changed to MBR instead of GPT. If I had not used EaseUS Partition Master I think I had never seen the cause. It had probably costed me few months If I had everything to reïnstall from scratch.
Thanks for your explanation. Till now I never had to look for Legacy or UEFI, it was always a standard setting. As this pc is now prox 1.5 year old and my first with an UEFI bios I have no experience with this. So, if I use the acronis bootable media I have to choose for Legacy for MBR and UEFI for GPT disk. Is this correct?
With the EaseUS Todo Backup Home it choose automatic between MBR and GPT according to how the backup was made and with TI 2018 I have to choose myself.
Is this correct?
Angel, in reality the way the boot media defaults to booting depends on how your BIOS is configured, assuming that you are able to change these settings.
As you have a UEFI system, then you should set the BIOS to UEFI only if possible rather than allowing for a choice between Legacy/CSM and UEFI at boot time.
The actual BIOS options are determined by your PC make/model and manufacturer.
My system boots standard in UEFI (can be changed manually in BIOS settings) mode so if I have to restore with Acronis Bootable Media should I choose for legacy or UEFI manually (if ABM gives me a choose, I think I have seen no choice when booting from ABM).
You should always boot the Acronis Rescue Media in UEFI mode when this is how your Windows OS does the same - run the msinfo32 command which will show you the BIOS mode used by the OS.
KB 59877: Acronis True Image 2017: how to distinguish between UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot modes of Acronis Bootable Media shows you what to look for at boot time, but you should not be choosing the Legacy (or CSM) boot option for a UEFI system.
The Acronis Rescue Media is capable of booting in both Legacy and UEFI modes, so the choice has to be made via the BIOS options shown at boot time.
I have been looking how my system boots from the ABM. It's starting from a winPE stick but when Acronis Window opens above the black window. I select the dos box but I noticed the 3rd command (x:system32) does not show. It's also impossible to use other commands. My systems keyboard does not work. Is this an error on the bootstick or bootmedia? Bad stick? So I can't see if acronis TI was booted in UEFI or Legacy mode.
KB 59877 has screen images showing the difference in how the boot media looks according to how it is booted - the only key difference depends on which type of rescue media you have created?
There are 3 possible rescue media types:
Linux kernel based media - as was default in all older versions of ATI (now created via the Advanced option in the Acronis Rescue Media Builder tool).
Simple Windows PE (WinPE) based on the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)
Advanced WinPE which requires the Windows 10 ADK to be installed to provide the PE files.
See KB 60820: Acronis True Image 2018: how to create bootable media and KB 60091: Acronis True Image 2018: how Simple bootable media creation mode works which covers the above in detail.
According to KB 59877 I have a bootdisk with WinPE. Also according to the text it is also possible to boot with WinPE in a legacy or UEFI mode and this is something I can not check because I can't enter any commands in the dos box.
I assume that using a WinPE disk with an UEFI pc should the bootstick use also UEFI. Other information says that using a WinPE disk in combination with UEFI mode the GPT format stays the same. Very confusing. So for me it is strange after al this explanations every time I restore the backup it uses MBR format instead GPT
The only other suggestion I can offer is to use the MVP Custom ATIPE Builder tool to make your USB Rescue Media - this is my preferred media as it includes extra tools such as a File Manager, Web Browser, Image capture / PDF reader and command prompt.
The tool can be found via the Useful Links > MVP User Tools and Tutorials link in the forum, and can use either the WinRE or Win 10 ADK methods for the WinPE media.
Thanks for mentioning the MVP tools. I did'nt know what to use it for. As I understand it can create a disk with both TI and DD (installed on my 2 pc's), something the build in media builder from TI can not. I remember with one of the former ATI's it created a boot disk with the two programs. With the latest I had to make 2 separate boot disk (one for TI and one for DD).
Before creating a boot disk with MVP I must turn of the Active Protection from TI2018, right?
When booting from the MVP disk, do I have to choose for a specific setting to restore (MBR and GPT) a backup or is it automatic?
As I know my system boot standard with UEFI mode.
Angel, I would recommend using a small USB stick for any of the rescue media, the MVP media included - a USB stick is more flexible and allows you to update when needed, or to save logs or screen images etc from the PE environment.
The boot mode for the MVP rescue media stick is exactly the same as any other boot media but the advantage here is the ability to confirm which mode has been used by running regedit from a command prompt as per the earlier KB document steps.
You should be able to tell AAP to trust the MVP tool, the latest version has been signed for this purpose but you can also turn AAP off temporarily if you prefer while creating the media. The MVP tool will check for other installed Acronis applications such as Disk Director and Universal Restore and add these to the media if found. You can also inject additional device drivers, including RAID and BitLocker support etc if you want.
Thanks for your help and clear explanations.
I was already using USB sticks because of their usability. Since a windows 10 boot stick and Acronis only supports sticks with a minimum capacity of 8 Gb can you tell me how big the USB stick used for MVB rescue media must be?
Angel, for the Acronis Rescue Media you can use a USB stick of between 1GB up to 32GB maximum size. I tend to use a 16GB stick but only because I made a bulk buy a while back.
See KB 58108: Acronis products: using USB sticks with more than 32GB capacity which was written by one of the other MVP's in the forums (Karl).
Keeps getting errors when making an MVP bootstick. One error after the error, first WHEA errors, then it won't boot without an error but keeps hanging. Finally I succeeded to make a stick that worked with 32bit drivers, the 64bit drivers gave the WHEA-error.
Then at last I managed to open (load) the MVP bootdisk and it looked very pretty according the original Acronis bootdisk.
Maybe I'm still doiing something wrong?
You know any reason why the 64bit drivers do not work and can I restore my 64bit system with the 32bit stick?
During the making of the USB boot media it looked as it also implemented disk director 12 (it is really on my pc) but it seems not to be installed on the boot stick. Can I implement it afterwards?
Angel, can you post the MVP ATI PE builder log to show what options you are choosing when making the MVP Custom WinPE media please? The logs are stored in the MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Logs folder and will show the date/time for when you used the tool.
You should be creating the 64-bit version of the MVP WinPE media unless you have a need to use the tool on a 32-bit computer. Drivers should always match the type of system where the tool is to be used, i.e. both 64-bit.
I have never encountered any boot errors when using either the 64-bit or 32-bit versions of the MVP WinPE Rescue Media, both have always worked fine for me.
I would recommend testing by creating the simplest form of the media, i.e. do not include any additional drivers, keep to basic functions. The builder script will install any other Acronis applications to the USB media if they are found to be installed on the customer where the script is run.
I managed to create a 64bit version of MVP but only with the basic video driver, if a use the system drivers to build the MVP stick it always gives WHEA_errors when booting. My pc is updated with all correct drivers (checked this today) ang gives no errors while using 64bit drivers.
Tough Disk Director is installed on my pc it's not on the USB stick. TrueImage seems to be working as it should.
Log file included.
Thanks for helping me.
Glad that you have got a working USB stick - other programs such as Disk Director are available via the main menu > programs.
Hi, I probably overlooked DD in the main menu. As you say it is there but I did not notice, I just looked to if it booted. Anyway it's working now. Just need to do a restore test and hoping the MBR/GPT problem is solved.
The support engineer from Acronis I mailed with said they could not help solving it because I corrected the error with a program from another manufacturer than Acronis.Strange as it is, when I restore a backup with ATI 2017 I get no errors. ATI2018 changes partition layout from my windows SSD from GPT to MBR (of cause it could not boot). Another problem was then Disk Director can not convert an MBR layout to GPT. EaseUs Partition Master dit it and is free. Seemed to me as the support engineer would not search for the problem.
Anyway I'm using ATI for more than 10 years now and it feels no good if I after such a long time for another (working) backup tool. I like ATI it feels good to me.
Tomorrow I want to try a backup restore from my system disk to an external disk to see if the MVP stick works fine. Till now I just have looked for it to boot from it.