Why Are Simple Things So Difficult

I am going through the restore attempt right now using my Acronis boot DVD.  I completely wiped all partitions from my RAID array hoping this would not confused the restore.  Now all disk space is unallocated.  I am at the prompt for the C: restore from my backup.  I dare not choose "Auto" again for the drive letter.  However, C: is not a selectable option!  Why would this be?  The starting drive letter I am able to choose is H:.  I do not want my C: drive to become an H: drive.  How can I get this software to restore my C: backup to drive C: during restore?

I do not recall previous versions of Acronis software I had used forcing a change of drive letters during restore.  Unfortunately, I see no way to have the drive letters remain the same.  My restore is started again now and should take around six hours.  Drive C: will become drive H:, and drive D will become drive I: due to no choice this utility is giving me (!)

Jamil, the change in drive letters is documented in the ATI User Guides and is especially true when using the Linux based rescue media found on your DVD.

See the following from the ATI 2019 User Guide: Preparing for recovery

Assign unique names (labels) to all partitions on your hard drives. This will make finding the disk containing your backups easier.

When you use the Acronis True Image rescue media, it creates disk drive letters that might differ from the way Windows identifies drives. For example, the D: disk identified in the standalone Acronis True Image might correspond to the E: disk in Windows.

The drive letters should be shown correctly when you reboot the computer after the recovery is completed successfully.

Thank you for your reply.  I hope after reboot the drive letters will return to normal.  If drive H: and drive I: do change back to C: and D:, I consider this a defect in the restore tool.  It is simply the UI confusing me intentionally.

Jamil, this is not a defect in the rescue media but rather the difference in how Linux works compared to how Windows does.

Given you are working with a RAID computer system, I would recommend creating the alternative Windows PE version of the rescue media which follows the Windows rules a little more closely but which can also show a difference in drive letters in some circumstances.

The MVP Custom ATI PE Builder version of the rescue media has been my own preferred tool to use for several years now since it was introduced, as this gives even more value to users working in these scenarios, and for which there are options to include other support for such as BitLocker and RAID which the Linux media cannot have.  Link in my signature below.

If you're restoring the same OS image and booting from that restore, the existing drives should map exactly the way they were attached the machine when the image was taken.

In some instances, the bios will actually modify the disk mappings, not Acronis (very rare instances).  This can happen if you leave the original source disk and destination disk connected to the machine after a clone and boot into the OS.... the bios will see both drives as the same and get confused and try to compensate in the Windows bootloader which can result in differently mapped drive letters.  

Long story short.., whenever recovering, wether from a full disk backup or a clone, disconnect the other drives that were part of the recovery process and don't need to be there (basically don't boot the system if there are two disks that have the "same" OS installed on them).

Thanks again.  This is not Universal Restore that I am using.  This is the other option I had, because I couldn't get Universal Restore to work properly for my system.  I did try creating a boot disk using that option first, but I failed.  The other boot disk option was much simpler, so I chose it.  This actually does look like Windows PE to me and not Linux.  I see a command prompt while the restore is currently running.  Also, the boot DVD showed the Windows 10 startup logo when booting.

Disregard, thought I was posting to a different reply.  I'm going to leave this here though in case I need to come back to it though ;)

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Disregard the rest of this for this post....

OK, you likely built with WinRE (recovery environment).  I honestly can't remember if WinRE includes bitlocker support by default or not.  I want to say it does though.  To test, minimize the acronis window and go back into command prompt that's running behind it.  type 

manage-bde -unlock C:           

and then provide the password or navigate to the saved encryption key.  

change C: with B: and/or D: depending on the other drives you need to unlock (or whatever drives they show up as in the WinPE environment.

If manage-bde is not an option in your WinRE rescue media, rebuild it with the MVP custom recovery media builder and use WinPE instead of WinRE.  You need to specifically select the option to install the bitlocker components when give the prompt to say yes or no though.  

Basically, when using rescue media, you are going to need to unlock your source drive to take any backups of it and you are going to need to unlock any destination drives to be able to recover to them.  Alternatively, if you are just wanting to recover files/folders from a backup to one of your drives, just double click your .tib file while Windows is running... navigate to your folders/files you need and copy them from there and paste them wherever you want.  I'd just recommend that you paste them somewhere first (like another blank USB drive - to make sure everything copies out fine.  Then copy from there to the final location.  That way, if you get a permission error copying them, then you know it's  file/folder permission issue, and not an Acronis issue).

Ignoring my previous post... do read this....

You can typically disregard the drive letters in WinPE rescue media too.  The booted image will always be X: instead of C: though.

Beyond that, it is a temporary OS and will map drives in the order it picks them up.  Usually, C will remain C, but beyond  that, they could be something else, especially as additional thumb drives and external drives will also get mapped letters.  

Just remember that the recovery environment is completely different than the original Operating System.  None of the settings in the actual OS are ported over or considered in the temporary recovery environment.  

The restore completed, and my drive letters as shown in Windows 10 were C: and D: as they were when I performed the full backup.  I still think not showing drive letters C: and D: during restore is a defect that can certainly be fixed.  I am not seeing a good reason for showing drive letters H: and I: when this was not the result of the restore.

The rescue media has no idea what drive letters are used in the OS. It is it's own OS. Think of it like this.  If you took out your drives and put them in an external USB case and plugged them into a different computer... They aren't likely to be C and D there either. This is the behavior in all WinPE which is the backbone of most rescue or bootable media and is based on the temporary OS environment that is being booted. Grab some free backup products and test the rescue media in those too - it's the same.

Your best bet is to name each volume uniquely. That way, when you select the drive, you will see the volume name to easily identify it. As a comparison, this works the same way when you name a thumb drive and it shows up with that name no matter what computer you plug it into, even if it has a different drive letter.

But the rescue media clearly does know which drive letter was which, because it showed me that C: would become H: and D: would become I:.  It showed this clearly on the screen.  Since it knows this to display, why not simply show C: as a drive letter to choose from, and give the user the option of changing it to another drive?  This can be done.

You're interpreting it incorrectly.

WinPe (the temp OS that is the baseline dorfrescue media provided by Microsoft) is randomly assigning the drive letters.

It could be any letter, but the OS (again, winpe provided by Microsoft) doesn't know that C should be C and D should be D because it has no interaction with the settings that the OS in your backup file was configured with.

It could show D as C and C as D. The Acronis product is running on top of WinPe and is just using the letters that the WinPE assigned the drives.

I wish I could show a screenshot of it now, but it showed:

C: ->  H:

D: -> I:

It was showing from the backup my partition that was C: will become drive H:  It is difficult to misinterpret this.  It pulled C: from the backup file, because it knows this was the partition.

Here is the logic:

  -If this is a full system back-up AND a full system restore (with all partitions selected) then

    *preserve the original drive letters from the backup file and make available as selections in the drive letter pick list during restore

  -else

   *do not show the drive letters from the backup file as selections in the drive letter pick list.

This is simple and very do-able.  It has nothing to do with Windows PE, since Acronis is the one storing the original drive letters in the backup file to know what to display as the original and the incorrect drive letter changes that then never happen.  This is very fixable.

Nope, sorry, you're still mistaken.  Acronis is not assigning drive letters.  It is restoring the partition scheme of the original backup.  What you see after the recovery in WinPE is what the WinPE OS is providing as the volume letter.

I think what is confusing you is that, when you have the existing drive connected to the system, and it already has the partitions detected by the WinPE, those volumes have been mounted with the existing Drive letters C: and D:  Basically, they are already taken and can't be assigned to another restored disk since C: and D: are already taken and assigned by the WinPE.  This all has happened regardless of Acronis and before Acronis has done anything.  It's how WinPE works - just like your OS does, but it's a temporary bootable environment.

You can test this by minimizing the Acronis window before doing anything else and just typing C: or D: in the command prompt and it will switch to those currently active partitions since they have been mounted with those existing drive letters.  Entire point is that C: and D: are already in use and taken at this point... 

You then proceed to recover your backup image in Acronis and they get assigned the next available drive letters in that WinPE session since C: and D: are already taken and being used by the WinPE at that time.

I just did a disk restore as a test.  Acronis never says it's going to give a partition a specific volume letter, just that it's going to restore the selected volumes from the backup that had those volume letters.  The information for the volume letter assignment is actually stored in the OS that is being recovered and that's why it boots with the correct drive letters when you actually launch the restored OS. 

Acronis isn't changing them in the recovery, just the WinPE has to give it a new letter because they are already in use if you have a drive with those partitions attached with the WinPE is booted.

I just went through this two different times and clearly saw what I described.  Additionally, as I wrote I completely removed all existing partitions from my RAID array the second time I did this.  The entire array was unallocated, and there were no assigned drive letters at all.  Even with this being the case, my restore boot DVD still managed to show me that:

C: would become H:

D: would become I:

It clearly showed this, and I did not accidentally see it two different times.

I used my Windows 10 setup boot disk to completely remove all partitions from the array prior to booting again with my Acronis boot DVD to restore.

My RAID controller is running a patrol read right now that will take a few more hours to complete.  When it is done, I will boot from the DVD yet again and also post some photos.

Jamil, the bottom line in this discussion is that this is a User Forum and we MVP's are also just users the same as you.  We have no means of changing the design of how the Acronis Rescue Media works even if what you are seeking is possible.

Please open a Support Case direct with Acronis Support if you feel that this is an important issue to request Acronis development to try to resolve, and direct them to read this forum topic with all the discussion that has taken place here.

Alternatively, submit Feedback via the tool provided in the ATI GUI and/or add your comments to the Acronis True Image Wishlist topic here in the 2019 Forum and see if other users share your concern about how drive letters are shown during the recovery process.

Looking forward to the photos.

Also, once the recovery is done (or now that it's done) boot the rescue media again and take pictures of what letters those recovered partitions have in the rescue media then. What does the WinPE show then?

Steve Smith wrote:

Jamil, the bottom line in this discussion is that this is a User Forum and we MVP's are also just users the same as you.  We have no means of changing the design of how the Acronis Rescue Media works even if what you are seeking is possible.

Please open a Support Case direct with Acronis Support if you feel that this is an important issue to request Acronis development to try to resolve, and direct them to read this forum topic with all the discussion that has taken place here.

Alternatively, submit Feedback via the tool provided in the ATI GUI and/or add your comments to the Acronis True Image Wishlist topic here in the 2019 Forum and see if other users share your concern about how drive letters are shown during the recovery process.

I would love to allow this discussion to end and the bug report I have clearly posted in this discussion be known and seen by all.  However, there are still people who think I am the one who is doing things incorrectly.  I will post screenshots just as I stated that clearly shows my Windows PE boot DVD knows exactly what drive letters were assigned to my original backup.  Of course it knows this, because this information is readily available to it from the backup file.  

Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:

Looking forward to the photos.

Also, once the recovery is done (or now that it's done) boot the rescue media again and take pictures of what letters those recovered partitions have in the rescue media then. What does the WinPE show then?

 

 As I clearly explained in this discussion, the defect is in the restore process showing an incorrect drive letter than what image IMG_20190224_130013315.jpg shows as my original drive letters that I had backed up.  This is the problem within the code.  I am not taking additional images, because my text clearly explains what happens.

This is the issue.  All it needs is a fix to prevent user confusion.

I also have a license for Paragon's backup.  My next backup will see if this utility does a better job in this regard.

Error, file not found ? 

Personally, makes no difference to me. It did what it's supposed to and boots as it should be. Yay, it worked!!!

The, behavior is documented as per Steve's post above and we know how windows PE behavior works for drive letter assignment mapping. I am glad you submitted a support case and feedback to Acronis though. 

Theother pictures show what was in the original backup image and would be recovered and was recovered and what you saw when you booted after. That's what we all expect and how it works and did work - which is awesome. 

The drive letters in the recovery environment are still temporary and documented. What drive letter did your backup drive take on originally, even though the main internal was initiated and blank? Once initiated (which is required first) what letter did it get in the Winpe? Pretty sure those were C and D and already in use in the WinPE so would require a new letter to temporarily be assigned in the WinPE when the backup restoration is done .

That's the point still trying to get across for all others who read this thread. I can't explain it any better though. Working as intended, system boots with the correct drive letters when all is done. Best of luck to you though, I'm unsubscribing from updates on this post now.

Cheers!

As I clearly explained in this discussion, the defect is in the restore process showing an incorrect drive letter than what image IMG_20190224_130013315.jpg shows as my original drive letters that I had backed up.  This is the problem within the code. 

Jamil, sorry but there is no defect in the restore process at work here.  That restore process is following the drive letter assignment allowed by the OS used on the rescue media - so WinPE in your case and in my own too.

Taking this dialogue step by step:

Look first at the drives shown when you boot from the rescue media - this will show what current drive letters are already allocated and which are therefore not available to ATI to select in the recovery panels.  My screen images are captured when booted from my MVP Custom WinPE rescue media as this has tools for this purpose.

In the above image, my USB WinPE Rescue Media shows as WINPE (D:) and as Boot (X:) and you can see immediately that some of my partitions have been assigned different drive letters by WinPE to the ones they hold when booted normally, i.e. my K-Serva partition is using (F:) instead of its normal K: letter, and my Windows 10old partition which is normally D: is using (K:). 

So there are immediate changes shown just by booting from the WINPE media.

The next image shows the drive letters as captured in my backup image .tib file when going through the Recovery process.

The next panel shows that Acronis would allocate drive (O:) to my hidden Dell Diagnostics partition for the purpose of this Recovery process.  Look at the Logical drive letter drop-down box shown near the bottom of the main panel which shows what drive letters are available to Acronis to allocate!

Next, the text "Specify recovery settings of Partition D" demonstrates that Acronis know what the drive letter for this Windows 10new partition was in the backup image file but even so, based on partition placement physically in the disk image, will allocate drive letter (C:) for this partition (was D:).

Next, my Windows 10old = Partition C will be allocated drive letter (K:).

Next, the choice of target disk for the Recovery.

Finally, the Summary panel(s) showing the recovery actions to be performed when the Proceed button is pressed, again this confirms the drive letter assignments being used within this temporary WinPE boot OS environment - this is not a confirmation that these drive letters would be used when the restored disk drive is booted into Windows without any rescue media being used!

Okay -- fair enough.  There is no defect.  The software just makes things difficult from a usability perspective.

Again, I will try out others to see if someone managed to make this simpler (this wouldn't be very difficult, I think).

Thanks for sharing.