ThinkPad P16s - cannot boot from acronis USB boot media
I got a new ThinkPad P16s (identical to the mainstream T16). After completing the configuration of the laptop, I tried to pull an image of the SSD using acronis boot medium on a USB stick. I was unable to boot from the stick. I tried both Linux and Winre versions. I am using acronis True Image 2021
I tried booting from the Lenovo preboot screen and from Windows advanced startup.
I have used acronis often in the past and either the Linux or the Winre stick worked every time.
Does someone have an idea why the new ThinkPad should give issues?


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I looked at the Lenovo site and find that the P16s can be equipped with either Intel CPU mainboard or AMD Ryzen mainboard.
For the Intel version I find it has dual graphics, Intel and NVIDIA. I also find that it uses a PCIe SSD. Both of these facts can a do affect booting of recovery media. It is likely that either the media cannot determine which graphics driver to add to the media and/or the SSD is using VMD Storage drivers and those drivers are not found in the media.
For the AMD version I would suspect it not to exhibit these problems as they doo not use the VMD storage drivers nor to they come with dual graphics.
As BrunoC says give us more details and you should get more answers.
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Like the previous responders, I am not sure what is going on from your description.
I could just be having a senior's moment, but I cannot work out what you mean by:
I tried booting from the Lenovo preboot screen and from Windows advanced startup.
I assume you are booting the recovery media in UEFI mode rather than Legacy/BIOS.
Ian
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Sorry I was so unspecific in my question. I was hoping this would be a known problem with an obvious solution. Let me give you some more specific information:
The machine is the AMD version with a Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U and 32GB of RAM. 2TB SSD. All components configured at the factory, no manual HW added.
I have now gone back to basics and I burned a CD from the latest boot image listed in my acronis 2021 account, so as to eliminate any issues with rufus and co.
I then proceeded to boot into the lenovo environment and saw the acronis CD listed there as a boot device. However it is not listed as an UEFI boot device. Selecting it to boot from brings me straight back to this screen:
So this method does not work. I then proceeded to doing an advanced startup from windows (Settings / Reset page). I selected USB CD as the boot media. The laptop proceeded to boot, but not into acronis, but into Windows.
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So this suggests that the UEFI boot code was not written to the CD you created. This is probably because the boot image found on your Acronis account page is a Linux version of the boot media.
You should create a new boot CD or better yet a boot flash drive using the Bootable Rescue Media Builder found in the Windows installed application folder or in the Tools section of the app GUI. Use the Simple Creation method of the builder to create the new media and try to boot again.
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I agree that the UEFI boot code may not have been written to the CD/DVD. I have seen this with recovery media. Cannot remember if it was ISO downloaded from my account or one created within the ATI Windows application.
Ian
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I tried to install acronis on my Windows 11 PC to create a boot medium from Windows. I ran into the following error message, which is the subject of a long thread
Incompatible Driver(s): tib.sys? | Acronis Forum
Unfortunately the thread does not list a solution, but to turn memory integrity off, which I will certainly not do.
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acronis for Windows seems to work without the driver that threw the error. So I created a WinRE USB stick and tried it on the ThinkPad P16s. Same result. The USB stick does not show as UEFI:
Next I tried both the (Linux) CD and the USB Stick on another PC with a Gigabyte B250m motherboard. Both media showed as UEFI and boot to acronis true image without issue. Seems to be an issue with the ThinkPad
I cannot upload the second screenshot of the CD, but trust me, it shows as UEFI
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In this case I recommend disabling Secure Boot in the bios settings as some media will not boot on some machines if Secure Boot is enabled on them. After you finish using the boot media you can enable Secure Boot again if in fact that is the issue here.
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I think I figured it out. Booting from an USB stick works only if the stick is plugged into the USB-A socket on the left side of the laptop. Plugged into the righthand socket, it does not boot. Go figure
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Could be an incompatibility between the flash drive used and the port. If the port on left is a 3.0 for example it may not like a 2.0 drive. Could also be the connection internally with the port on the left side. These use ribbon cables and I have seen them when not seated properly cause wonky behavior.
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