Cannot boot with Acronis bootable rescue USB ?

I forgot to write that I checked the same Acronis rescue flash on a laptop and it booted to Acronis normally ?

Recent UEFI based machines can't boot the standard ATI recovery key. Must create the WinPE recovery key with ATI plug-in instead.

First of all, my machine is not the recent one. The Z77 chipset is from 2012.

Second, as I wrote, I was able to boot with the same USB flash in earlier ATI Builds ?

This sounds like a possible screen resolution issue.  Could be that the resolution you are using is not being supported as it was in the past,  To test you could temporarily set your display resolution to a basic default level of 1024 x 768 and attempt boot of the media again.  If you find that to work you should report that to Acronis support as it needs to be fixed.

Yes it seems like a video driver issue to me as well. I have never changed the screen resolution of my Dell U2413 monitor, which is set at 1920 x 1200. However, I recently changed nVidia GForce driver for the latest 368.69. Had no issues in Windows.

It seems that the Linux based Acronis interface is loaded, but some video driver problem prevents it from displaying on the screen ? I have never made a single restore operation starting from Acronis in Windows. Always used a rescue media (a bootable USB). Is there anything displayed on the screen (a progress bar or something) after the restart ?

Enchantech wrote:

This sounds like a possible screen resolution issue.  Could be that the resolution you are using is not being supported as it was in the past,  To test you could temporarily set your display resolution to a basic default level of 1024 x 768 and attempt boot of the media again.  If you find that to work you should report that to Acronis support as it needs to be fixed.

Tried the suggested switch to a default resolution. No difference at all. So the resolution is not an issue.

When you create the Rescue Media, check the Startup parameters option that is given on the bottom of the Rescue Media Builder panel, where you can add the parameter vga=ask

Steve Smith wrote:

When you create the Rescue Media, check the Startup parameters option that is given on the bottom of the Rescue Media Builder panel, where you can add the parameter vga=ask

vga=ask Gets the list of the video modes available for your video card and allows selecting a video mode most suitable for the video card and monitor. Try this option, if the automatically selected video mode is unsuitable for your hardware.

 

Tried this. No difference. Did not ask me anything regarding video modes. Absolutely the same described behavior.

As this is essentially a recovery issue where you need to be able to boot from the Rescue Media, I would recommend raising this with Acronis Support as such, as per document: 18623: How to get Technical Support: Tips, Tricks and Useful Information which states:

5.    Recovery issue
- Related to recovery issues with the full version of the product
- Free of charge
- 24x7
- Not limited (Assistance with the recovery issue can be requested any time, even if you’re out of 30 days free support and don’t have PPI)
- Provided with e-mail and chat
Response time:
-  3 business days via e-mail
 - immediate via chat

Borko - agree with Steve - technical support should be able to help since you can't use the recovery media

However, if you still want to try a few other things...

1) Does your system have a one-time boot override menu (Dell's are F12 after reboot, HP and others are often ESC or F1).  If so, reboot, don't shutdown if using Win10 (your post doesn't mention OS).  Reboot is necessary to ensure a full shutdown and not a faststart shutdown which only goes into hibernation and creates a locked hiberfile.sys file that prevents some systems from being able to boot into 3rd party tools while the hard disk has this locked file. Here's an example of bios with a one-time boot menu showing both legacy and UEFI USB boot options

2) If you have such a menu, do you have the option for UEFI and/or Legacy booting your media?  If so, try one, then the other and see if either has a better outcome.  Perhaps one system is working because it is using one boot method, but the other is trying to use the other boot method.  FYI.. legacy boot method is a blue screen with GUI menu icons and UEFI boot method is a black screen with white letters.  

3) On a handful of older Dell's, I have found that if the SATA mode is set to RAID in the bios, the motherboard limits the memory avaiable to the ramdisk to 500Mb.  This is not enough for Acronis in most cases.  As a work-a-round (if you SATA mode is set to RAID), switch the sata mode to AHCI or SATA instead (just for the purpose of getting Acronis to launch).  This will hopefully remove this 500Mb ramdisk limit, allow the launcher to run and then perform the backup.  Then go back into the bios and switch back to RAID mode before booting the OS again.  Not sure if this applies to your system, but if you have RAID mode set, it's worth a shot.

Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:

However, if you still want to try a few other things...

1) Does your system have a one-time boot override menu (Dell's are F12 after reboot, HP and others are often ESC or F1).  If so, reboot, don't shutdown if using Win10 (your post doesn't mention OS).  Reboot is necessary to ensure a full shutdown and not a faststart shutdown which only goes into hibernation and creates a locked hiberfile.sys file that prevents some systems from being able to boot into 3rd party tools while the hard disk has this locked file. Here's an example of bios with a one-time boot menu showing both legacy and UEFI USB boot options

2) If you have such a menu, do you have the option for UEFI and/or Legacy booting your media?  If so, try one, then the other and see if either has a better outcome.  Perhaps one system is working because it is using one boot method, but the other is trying to use the other boot method.  FYI.. legacy boot method is a blue screen with GUI menu icons and UEFI boot method is a black screen with white letters.  

3) On a handful of older Dell's, I have found that if the SATA mode is set to RAID in the bios, the motherboard limits the memory avaiable to the ramdisk to 500Mb.  This is not enough for Acronis in most cases.  As a work-a-round (if you SATA mode is set to RAID), switch the sata mode to AHCI or SATA instead (just for the purpose of getting Acronis to launch).  This will hopefully remove this 500Mb ramdisk limit, allow the launcher to run and then perform the backup.  Then go back into the bios and switch back to RAID mode before booting the OS again.  Not sure if this applies to your system, but if you have RAID mode set, it's worth a shot.

Thank You for your assistance and detailed answer.

1. Yes, my motherboard (Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe, Z77 chipset) has one time override boot menu. It is available by hitting F8 during early boot.

2. I am using Windows 10 Home, X64. The rest of my desktop PC has Samsung 840 Pro SSD as boot drive, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, nVidia GeForce GX 660Ti and Dell U2413 LCD monitor.

3. I am not using hybernation at all. Hence, I don't have a hyberfile.sys. It is switched off as an SSD saving tweak.

4. The OS is installed in BIOS legacy mode as an upgrade over the previous Windows 7 Pro. The SSD is set to AHCI mode in BIOS (not RAID mode).

5. I have two options in one time boot menu regarding the USB flash drive: UEFI and Legacy booting . It is something like: "Verbatim Store n Go" and "UEFI:Verbatim Store n Go". Untill now I was always able to boot to Acronis Linux interface by choosing a legacy option. I tried the UEFI option just once and got some error. I don't remember the exact error message. It was not important for me as I could always boot by choosing a legacy option. The result was Acronis Linux interface.

6. I don't have a Dell desktop PC. However, I have a Dell laptop, the Latitude E6530. The strange thing is that I can boot on this laptop (in RAID mode) using the same recovery USB using Legacy boot menu option. The problem is that I can't make it on the desktop, while I could do it with earlier builds.

7. I am not sure if I made it clear. I do get a blue screen with white menu items (Legacy boot method). First I get the message: "Starting Acronis Loader...". Soon the Acronis blue screen with the white menu options comes up. After I select the "Acronis 32 bit" (the first menu choice) the screen goes black with the message "loading...." and after some disk activity (according to HDD case LED) I get the blank screen instead of Acronis Linux interface.

Can you rebuild the bootable recovery media on a different UsB flash drive with a different manufactuer type?  Humor me if you have one.

Verbatim has come up as the single point of boot failure on a few systems now.  One guy had 2 verbatim flash diives and verbatim DVD's and all failed on his machine.  He switched DVD's and flash drives and all of the new ones worked just fine - same machine, same medida builder, just different manufacturers of the same type of media.  It took us over a week to figure this out and was something not very obvious becuase he was switchign bewteen two like usb drives and using the same manufactuere DVD's too!

hy would yours work on one system, but not the other?  I'm not entirely sure, especially if worked with previous versions of Acronis.  My guess could be the parition table on the Flash drive.  Windows will only ever see one parition flash drives, but other 3rd party bootable media that uses Linux, can see and create multiple paritions that Linux can natively see.  

Trying a different USB drive is a simple check to accomplish though - even an older USB 2.0 drive would be fine.  

Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:

Can you rebuild the bootable recovery media on a different UsB flash drive with a different manufactuer type?  Humor me if you have one.

Verbatim has come up as the single point of boot failure on a few systems now.  One guy had 2 verbatim flash diives and verbatim DVD's and all failed on his machine.  He switched DVD's and flash drives and all of the new ones worked just fine - same machine, same medida builder, just different manufacturers of the same type of media.  It took us over a week to figure this out and was something not very obvious becuase he was switchign bewteen two like usb drives and using the same manufactuere DVD's too!

hy would yours work on one system, but not the other?  I'm not entirely sure, especially if worked with previous versions of Acronis.  My guess could be the parition table on the Flash drive.  Windows will only ever see one parition flash drives, but other 3rd party bootable media that uses Linux, can see and create multiple paritions that Linux can natively see.  

Trying a different USB drive is a simple check to accomplish though - even an older USB 2.0 drive would be fine.  

Tried a different flash drive. Made no difference. The issue was submitted to Acronis email technical support.

Interested to sese what support finds.  

01) Another thing that comes to mind is the media builder is not working quite right.  Recently, another user could not get one to boot either and he had upgraded from a previous version of Acronis.  He tried building the media several times and could not get it to boot.  He then built it on a different machine that had never had an older version of Acronis and the media worked fine on the system that had not had an Acronis upgrade.  He went back and ran the Acronis Cleanup tool on the first system and reinstalled from scratch and the media creation was then working fine too.  http://forum.acronis.com/forum/121829#comment-373779

02) Have you tried to create WinPE instead of the default Linux boot media as a test.  Download and install the Windows 10 ADK (even if you have Win 7\8\8.1 as your OS).  Once installed, run through the normal media creation, but select WinPE instead of the default and let it do the rest.

03) To be sure, A) you're using ATIH v6559 or newer and B) your letting ACronis build your rescue media directly - not using a third party tool like RUFUS or ISO2USB or something else?  Although those 3rd party tools often do work (I've used them myself), others have had problems with them and then have no issue when they let Acronis build the media on a properly formatted FAT32 drive (I stress properly formatted as other tools, especially those that run Linux kernels, can leave behind other hidden paritions that Windows will not detect on flash drive and can impact bootabliity).

04) A few others have had memory to blame as the ramdisk could not be created, but doesn't sound like your issue if the 2013 media can load into RAM and function.  Worth mentioning though.

I'm out of ideas if none of these help. I honestly haven't found a machine I can't boot media on.  If the Linux media doesn't work, I switch to WinPE and that usally does the trick. 

This would be swell, except Acronis now only allows you to have technical support for its products for two months after purchase, unless you'd like to pay extra.

Recovery issues are always supported.  

18623: How to get Technical Support: Tips, Tricks and Useful Information

5.    Recovery issue
- Related to recovery issues with the full version of the product
- Free of charge
- 24x7
- Not limited (Assistance with the recovery issue can be requested any time, even if you’re out of 30 days free support and don’t have PPI)
- Provided with e-mail and chat
Response time:
-  3 business days via e-mail
 - immediate via chat

YOu also have several other things you can check for as mentioned in my earlier post - trying winpE build, cleaning up and resinstalling the app and recreating the default media, checking both UEFI and legacy boot methods, testing your memory... you never mentioned what version of the boot media you're running either.  You have some options for support and things to test locally as well. 

Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:

Interested to sese what support finds.  

01) Another thing that comes to mind is the media builder is not working quite right.  Recently, another user could not get one to boot either and he had upgraded from a previous version of Acronis.  He tried building the media several times and could not get it to boot.  He then built it on a different machine that had never had an older version of Acronis and the media worked fine on the system that had not had an Acronis upgrade.  He went back and ran the Acronis Cleanup tool on the first system and reinstalled from scratch and the media creation was then working fine too.  http://forum.acronis.com/forum/121829#comment-373779

02) Have you tried to create WinPE instead of the default Linux boot media as a test.  Download and install the Windows 10 ADK (even if you have Win 7\8\8.1 as your OS).  Once installed, run through the normal media creation, but select WinPE instead of the default and let it do the rest.

03) To be sure, A) you're using ATIH v6559 or newer and B) your letting ACronis build your rescue media directly - not using a third party tool like RUFUS or ISO2USB or something else?  Although those 3rd party tools often do work (I've used them myself), others have had problems with them and then have no issue when they let Acronis build the media on a properly formatted FAT32 drive (I stress properly formatted as other tools, especially those that run Linux kernels, can leave behind other hidden paritions that Windows will not detect on flash drive and can impact bootabliity).

04) A few others have had memory to blame as the ramdisk could not be created, but doesn't sound like your issue if the 2013 media can load into RAM and function.  Worth mentioning though.

I'm out of ideas if none of these help. I honestly haven't found a machine I can't boot media on.  If the Linux media doesn't work, I switch to WinPE and that usally does the trick. 

 

Well, as I already wrote I am using ATIH 2016 build 6571. I have always made Acronis rescue media directly from Acronis, either from the Tools menu option or from the relevant entry in the Start menu. Actually, I don't remember whether it worked in ATIH 2013. But I am sure it worked in previous builds of ATIH 2016.

However, I followed your advice, installed Windows 10 ADK, and made a WinPE instead of the default Linux boot media. After the restart, when one-time menu appeared I had the following two options among the others:

"Verbatim Store N Go"

"UEFI: Verbatim Store N Go"

First I chose the "Verbatim Store N Go". It produced a "Disk boot error".

Then I chose "UEFI: Verbatim Store N Go" and finaly I got that Acronis Linux screen (attachment).

Could you please explain me what was the problem ? If only I knew that I could boot that way I would never initiate a recovery operation within the Acronis in Windows. It costed me a lost windows update history. Why would it work only that way when the OS is installed in the BIOS legacy mode ?

To be honest I must tell that I upgraded the BIOS to the latest after the last recovery which was acomplished using a default Linux boot media. Does that make any difference ? However, I remember that with the earlier builds only the default boot option worked. The UEFI option didn't work then ?

By the way, when one iniates an image restore from within the Windows and when PC restarts in an environment when actual recovery is performed, is there any indication on the screen a progress bar or something ? Untill this time I have always used recovery media for this purpose.

I followed this thread with interest and now Borko posts a mouthful when I see the word Verbatim.  This is the second time now that Verbatim media has been at issue with boot problems and the Recovery Media created using the Verbatim brand.

Have nothing definitive to point to regarding why the Verbatim brand is at issue in this but clearly as of late the brand seems to be a problem.  Try a different brand of USB flash drive or CD/DVD, recreate the Recovery Media anew, and see if the issue remains.  My quess is it won't!

Enchantech wrote:

Have nothing definitive to point to regarding why the Verbatim brand is at issue in this but clearly as of late the brand seems to be a problem.  Try a different brand of USB flash drive or CD/DVD, recreate the Recovery Media anew, and see if the issue remains.  My quess is it won't!

Your guess is wrong. Already tried a different USB flash drive, an Apacer one. Have a look at the post #13: "Tried a different flash drive. Made no difference". The problem was not a faulty drive. Still looking for an explanation why does it work with WinPE and "UEFI:Verbatim Store N Go, while not as default Linux and as "Verbatim Store N Go" ?

To be honest I must tell that I upgraded the BIOS to the latest after the last recovery which was acomplished using a default Linux boot media. Does that make any difference ?

That would be my guess.  Often times, a bios flash can reset certain configurations because the options in the newer version are different than what was available in the previous one.  That's a major system difference than how you were using bootable media previously so is most likely the culprit.  You should go back into the bios and check settings to see if secureboot is stiill off, if the SATA mode is still the same, etc.  Most likely they are, but needs to be checked and verified.

I never start a recovery in Windows - it can cause issues with your Windows bootloader since it essentially modifies it, replaces the primary boot witih Acronis and then goes from there.  Nice in theory, BUT, if it fails to boot into Acronis, then it won't automatically restore the bootloader option back to Windows and you can end up with a non-bootable system.  I always (and only) use recovery media for full disk and/or partition restores because of this possibility.  

Regarding your question why WinPE UEFI boot works and not the others?  Well, something on the bios is probalby the cause as to why legacy is not working at all.  If UEFI WinPE can boot, there's no reason UEFI legacy shouldn't boot if the bios is configured correctly.

If you could build the media from another machine (or download the iso from your account and use it as a secondary test), it might help determine if the burns are not happening correctly for your media too using the default media builder in Acronis.  As mentioned earlier, there was just a post where a user had upgraded from 2013 to 2016 without issue, but the media creation always failed.  He built it on a fresh Acronis 2016 install and that media worked just fine. You did mention that the media works on another system though, so I'm more inclined to think it is something in your bios configuration that needs to be tweaked now after your bios flash upgrade.

Make sure you're not using a USB hub if you don't need to to rule that out too (just in case).  It's really hard to say without being able to have hands on to this particular machine. 

Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:

To be honest I must tell that I upgraded the BIOS to the latest after the last recovery which was acomplished using a default Linux boot media. Does that make any difference ?

That would be my guess.  Often times, a bios flash can reset certain configurations because the options in the newer version are different than what was available in the previous one.  That's a major system difference than how you were using bootable media previously so is most likely the culprit.  You should go back into the bios and check settings to see if secureboot is stiill off, if the SATA mode is still the same, etc.  Most likely they are, but needs to be checked and verified.

You were right !!!.

Please find attached the screenshots of the secure boot option in my motherboard's BIOS. Could you please instruct me how can I change (disable) the Secure Boot State. Is it enough to change the OS type setting from "Windows UEFI mode" to "Other OS". Do I also have to clear the Secure Boot Keys (under the Key Managment, as shown on the second screenshot ? The Secure Boot setting cannot be directly changed, probably by altering the OS type setting and/or settings under the key managment ?

mhch wrote:

Recent UEFI based machines can't boot the standard ATI recovery key. Must create the WinPE recovery key with ATI plug-in instead.

In my case this prooved to be right. Although I thougt that this does not apply to my problem as my motherboard is not the recent one and the OS was installed in BIOS legacy mode not in UEFI mode.

Borko, I don't think that is quite right, regardless of WinPE or the defalt Linux media, if booting UEFI mode, it should work either way.  However, secure boot needs to be disabled to boot third party bootloaders - this is by design of secure boot to provide enhanced security to your system.  

I have a modern UEFI system with a Gigabyte Z170X motherboard with a an intel i5 6600K CPU and it boots the Acronis media in UEFI and/or legacy mode with the default Linux bootable and/or the WinPE media; all options work as I have configured my bios to allow this.  The key is making sure that the bios supports it though and that it is properly configured.  I can say that some of the newer Dells I've used (Latitude E7440 / E5440) do not want to boot legacy mode though - even when the bios is configured, but UEFI does work fine with the default Linux bootable recovery media even on those systems.  WinPE is more customizeable by end-users with the ability to add additional drivers using DISM ADK commands so it will always be a little more flexible though so may be preferable on systems with newer hardware with newer RAID controllers or NIC's that may not yet be in the Linux bootable media yet.

I'm not familiar with ASUS motherboards, but your settings look pretty similar to mine on my gigabyte board.  You may need to change OS type from "Windows UEFI" to "other" first.  Then save that and reboot and go back into the bios again.  You should then have some additional options to enable legacy/CSM mode.  After that, you want to disable secure boot, which most likley means you need to clear the secure boot keys.  Once that's done, you should be able to boot legacy mode discs as well.  In your case though, there really is no need to boot legacy mode with Acronis reocvery media if UEFI is working.  You really don't want to boot legacy mode with a UEFI system anyway... taking a backup really doesn't matter, but when you go to restore, you want/need to boot the USB media in UEFI mode on a UEFI OS system. 

I have almost the same motherboard (Asus P8Z77-V Pro). There is very little difference between the Pro and Deluxe. I can boot all forms of Acronis TI 2016 build 6571 media. Both the Linux and WinPE media can be booted in both UEFI mode and Legacy mode.

I have set the Secure Boot setting for OS Type to Windows UEFI Mode because I use Windows 10 64 bit Secure Boot. You should set this to Other OS because your Windows is booting in Legacy mode. You do not need to change anything with regard to Key Managment. I can change my Secure Boot setting to Other OS and all the Acronis media will still boot.

You need to set CSM as follows:

Launch CSM------------Enabled

Boot Device Control---------UEFI and Legacy OpROM

Boot from Network Devices----------Legacy OpROM first

Boot from Storage Devices-----------Both Legact OpROM first

Boot from PCIe/PCI Expansion Devices---------Legacy OpROM first

When you boot the Acronis media, hold the F8 key until the one time boot menu appears. Hitting the F8 key at the correct moment or repeatedly tapping the key is hit or miss, just hold it down the entire time. You should be able to boot the Linux TI media with either the UEFI or non UEFI menu item.

If you are still not able to boot the Linux media after setting your BIOS as described above, you have some hardware item that is not supported by the Linux media. You may need to go to the WinPE media.

Mustang wrote:

I have almost the same motherboard (Asus P8Z77-V Pro). There is very little difference between the Pro and Deluxe. I can boot all forms of Acronis TI 2016 build 6571 media. Both the Linux and WinPE media can be booted in both UEFI mode and Legacy mode.

I have set the Secure Boot setting for OS Type to Windows UEFI Mode because I use Windows 10 64 bit Secure Boot. You should set this to Other OS because your Windows is booting in Legacy mode. You do not need to change anything with regard to Key Managment. I can change my Secure Boot setting to Other OS and all the Acronis media will still boot.

You need to set CSM as follows:

Launch CSM------------Enabled

Boot Device Control---------UEFI and Legacy OpROM

Boot from Network Devices----------Legacy OpROM first

Boot from Storage Devices-----------Both Legact OpROM first

Boot from PCIe/PCI Expansion Devices---------Legacy OpROM first

When you boot the Acronis media, hold the F8 key until the one time boot menu appears. Hitting the F8 key at the correct moment or repeatedly tapping the key is hit or miss, just hold it down the entire time. You should be able to boot the Linux TI media with either the UEFI or non UEFI menu item.

If you are still not able to boot the Linux media after setting your BIOS as described above, you have some hardware item that is not supported by the Linux media. You may need to go to the WinPE media.

Followed your advice and changed the CSM settings in BIOS accordingly. Left the Secure Boot setting for OS Type to Windows UEFI Mode. Still not able to boot the Linux media using either the UEFI or non UEFI menu item.

However, I received a first reply of the tech support:

"Some time the driver will not detected and its took long time compare to the usual time.

If there is an issue with driver detection we suggested to create WinPE Media with Acronis Plug-In to recover,
so that it will help to detected driver and process the recover." 

I am confused now, as it seems to be a driver detection problem, not an incompatible hardware item ?

Borko,

You did not read Mustangs instructions correctly " I have set the Secure Boot setting for OS Type to Windows UEFI Mode because I use Windows 10 64 bit Secure Boot. You should set this to Other OS because your Windows is booting in Legacy mode."

His instruction to you is bolded above.  If your installation is UEFI Windows 10 X64 Secure boot enabled then you would set OS type to Windows UEFI Mode

Enchantech wrote:

Borko,

You did not read Mustangs instructions correctly " I have set the Secure Boot setting for OS Type to Windows UEFI Mode because I use Windows 10 64 bit Secure Boot. You should set this to Other OS because your Windows is booting in Legacy mode."

His instruction to you is bolded above.  If your installation is UEFI Windows 10 X64 Secure boot enabled then you would set OS type to Windows UEFI Mode

It makes no difference with respect to Acronis Linux media boot failure. Either secure boot settings do not work. By the way, did you notice the quotted text of the tech support reply ? If it is a driver detection problem then secure boot settings in BIOS have nothing to do with the cause of this problem.

I agree that the Secure Boot settting has nothing to do with the problem. How TI recovery media is booted is very important to the recovery procedure. If your Windows boots in Legacy mode, you must boot the media in Legacy mode. If you do get the media booted in UEFI mode, TI will most likely convert your disk from MBR to GPT during a full disk recovery and the resulting Windows would not be bootable.

What are you using for your video? Is it the built-in Intel video? I am using an older nVidia PCIe card (GeForce GT 620).

Do you have any expansion cards in your system. If you do, try removing them to see if the Linux media will boot. Also try removing any USB devices to see if they are stopping the media from booting.

Also try disabling some of the on board devices one at a time:

Marvell controller

AsMedia controller

Intel LAN

Realtek LAN

Bluetooth

I'm using the on board sound, so I know that works.

Ditto Mustang amd my point in wanting to clarify his instruction. 

Mustang wrote:

What are you using for your video? Is it the built-in Intel video? I am using an older nVidia PCIe card (GeForce GT 620).

Do you have any expansion cards in your system. If you do, try removing them to see if the Linux media will boot. Also try removing any USB devices to see if they are stopping the media from booting.

Also try disabling some of the on board devices one at a time:

Marvell controller

AsMedia controller

Intel LAN

Realtek LAN

Bluetooth

I'm using the on board sound, so I know that works.

I am using a pretty basic configuration. The video card is GeForce GTX 660 Ti inserted in the PCIe slot #1. The Dell U2413 monitor is connected to a display port on the GTX 660 Ti. The CPU is i7-3770K with Intel HD Graphics 4000 iGPU. Both the nVidia drivers 368.69 and the latest drivers for Intel iGPU are installed. The iGPU Multimonitor option in BIOS is set to: enabled and Primary Display is set to: Auto.

The rest of the hardware is:

Samsung SSD 840 Pro as a boot drive with Windows 10 Home x64 (C:) and WD 2003 FAEX as storage drive (D:). Both drives are set to AHCI on Intel onboard controller and run in SATA 3 mode with the latest IRST drivers that are compatible with Z77 chipset. Using 4 sticks of DDR3 memory (populated all slots), onboard sound (ALC 898), the onboard Intel LAN, the additional AsMedia (1061, 1042), Marvell and Realtek controllers are all enabled in BIOS. I had absolutly no issues in Windows 10.

However, trying to solve the Acronis rescue disk boot failure, yesterday I faced a strange problem. I switched the connection of a display port cable from GTX 660 Ti to the motherboard's display port connector ie. to the iGPU connector. After that there was no display on the screen untill the PC booted to Windows. While in Windows everything is OK, but there is no display on the screen during boot and restart untill the Windows log in screen ???

I have never used the iGPU before, so I did not face this issue. The IGPU actually works in Windows using the Intel video driver, just there is no display on the screen during boot, so I cannot change anything in the BIOS with such connection.

I don't know if that has anything to do with the Acronis rescue boot failure. With respect to that, to cut a long story short, here is the summarry after many experiments:

1. With Acronis Linux media ----------Unable to boot using either a legacy or UEFI menu option, ends up with blank screen in both cases,

2. With WinPE media          -----------Unable to boot using a legacy menu option, a message appears: "Disk error, Press any key to restart",

                                           -----------Successful boot using UEFI menu option

The results with WinPE media are irrespective of the Secure Boot settings in BIOS ie. the same, whether the UEFI or Other OS setting is used. I did not try these different settings with Acronis Linux media.

Regarding the additional experiments (disabling motherboard controllers one at a time), don't you think it's up to Acronis to make their software works as advertised ?

I raised the problem to tech support more than seven day ago, [case #02747520] and received just one reply suggesting the use of WinPE media due to a driver detection issue and asking me to confirm the boot success using this remedy. I confirmed the request, and added the info that the boot was possible with WinPE media, using the UEFI menu option only. After that there was no reply from Acronis. I even don't know whether the case was closed or not ? However, it was not solved for sure. Based on such experience with the Acronis support, ATIH 2016 will be my only and last Acronis product ever.

Mustang wrote:

How TI recovery media is booted is very important to the recovery procedure. If your Windows boots in Legacy mode, you must boot the media in Legacy mode. If you do get the media booted in UEFI mode, TI will most likely convert your disk from MBR to GPT during a full disk recovery and the resulting Windows would not be bootable.

Are you sure about automatic conversion from MBR to GPT ? If the disk had MBR, I dont't believe that Acronis may convert to GPT without asking anything ?

I do not have experience with UEFI and GPT, but I thnik that Windows can boot in UEFI mode while the boot drive is still MBR partioned ?

Thanks for the info. I think your boot problems are due to using the Intel IRST feature. Disable that in the BIOS and see if you can boot the Linux media. The Intel IRST drivers would need to be added to the WinPE media for it to boot with IRST enabled. I see no reason to have IRST enabled on a desktop booting from a fast SSD. Go back to the display port on the video card.

Windows will only boot in UEFI mode on that motherboard if you are using a 64 bit version and the disk is initialized as GPT and you select the Windows Boot Manager entry for the first boot device. Make no mistake. TI will change the formatting of the disk on a full disk restore without asking you. If your disk is initialized as MBR, you must only boot the TI media in Legacy mode.

Mustang wrote:

Thanks for the info. I think your boot problems are due to using the Intel IRST feature. Disable that in the BIOS and see if you can boot the Linux media. The Intel IRST drivers would need to be added to the WinPE media for it to boot with IRST enabled. I see no reason to have IRST enabled on a desktop booting from a fast SSD. Go back to the display port on the video card.

Please do not confuse the Intel AHCI/RAID drivers:

http://www.win-raid.com/t25f23-Which-are-the-quot-best-quot-Intel-AHCI-…

with Intel Intel Smart Response Technology and Intel Rapid Start Technology. Both are already disabled in BIOS (see the attachments). I am only using the AHCI drivers, not using fast SSD as a cache. The drivers do not prevent the Acronis Linux media from booting as I was uble to boot with the same drivers and BIOS settings in earlier Acronis builds.

If you don't mind my asking, what model of ASUS motherboard are you running?

If you don't mind my asking, what model of ASUS motherboard are you running?

Enchantech wrote:

If you don't mind my asking, what model of ASUS motherboard are you running?

No problem. Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe, as I already wrote. See posts #1, 11, .....

Thanks for confirming your motherboard model.  I note that in post #31 you state " Both drives are set to AHCI on Intel onboard controller and run in SATA 3 mode with the latest IRST drivers that are compatible with Z77 chipset. "  I know that the Samsung 840 Pro is an SATA3 6GBps drive and I would like confrmation if this drive is attached to port SATA6G 1 and your WD drive is attached to port SATA6G 2, these are the Gray colored connectors?

I note in your post #17 you state " To be honest I must tell that I upgraded the BIOS to the latest after the last recovery which was acomplished using a default Linux boot media. "  Can you confirm that your BIOS version is now ver. 2104 dated 09/18/2013?  At the time of this BIOS upgrade did you also upgrade the Intel Chipset drivers to the current version V10.1.1.7 dated 09/23/2015 as well as the Intel Chipset Management Engine Interface driver version V11.0.0.1155?  Your statemnt here indicates that you performed a recovery of the OS disk image file using the Linux based True Image media and at that time the Linux media booted with no problem, is that correct?

After this recovery you are now unable to boot the Linux based recovery media, is this correct?

If you performed the BIOS update after the recovery as you say and did not upgrade the Z77 chipset drivers as well this may be the root of the problem.  Update those drivers if you have not done so already and give the Linux boot media another try.

If your drives are not connected to the Gray SATA connectors on your board move them to those connectors.  The Navy (Dark blue) connectors are for the Marvell SATA controller on your board and may not work with the Linux media as they are secondary ports and most SSD drives will have issues being detected correctly if they are not connected to Primary ports 0 or 1 which in your case is port 1. 

Enchantech wrote:

Thanks for confirming your motherboard model.  I note that in post #31 you state " Both drives are set to AHCI on Intel onboard controller and run in SATA 3 mode with the latest IRST drivers that are compatible with Z77 chipset. "  I know that the Samsung 840 Pro is an SATA3 6GBps drive and I would like confrmation if this drive is attached to port SATA6G 1 and your WD drive is attached to port SATA6G 2, these are the Gray colored connectors?

I note in your post #17 you state " To be honest I must tell that I upgraded the BIOS to the latest after the last recovery which was acomplished using a default Linux boot media. "  Can you confirm that your BIOS version is now ver. 2104 dated 09/18/2013?  At the time of this BIOS upgrade did you also upgrade the Intel Chipset drivers to the current version V10.1.1.7 dated 09/23/2015 as well as the Intel Chipset Management Engine Interface driver version V11.0.0.1155?  Your statemnt here indicates that you performed a recovery of the OS disk image file using the Linux based True Image media and at that time the Linux media booted with no problem, is that correct?

After this recovery you are now unable to boot the Linux based recovery media, is this correct?

If you performed the BIOS update after the recovery as you say and did not upgrade the Z77 chipset drivers as well this may be the root of the problem.  Update those drivers if you have not done so already and give the Linux boot media another try.

If your drives are not connected to the Gray SATA connectors on your board move them to those connectors.  The Navy (Dark blue) connectors are for the Marvell SATA controller on your board and may not work with the Linux media as they are secondary ports and most SSD drives will have issues being detected correctly if they are not connected to Primary ports 0 or 1 which in your case is port 1. 

 

Let's go step by step.

1. "Both drives are set to AHCI on Intel onboard controller and run in SATA 3 mode with the latest IRST drivers that are compatible with Z77 chipset. " I know that the Samsung 840 Pro is an SATA3 6GBps drive and I would like confrmation if this drive is attached to port SATA6G 1 and your WD drive is attached to port SATA6G 2, these are the Gray colored connectors?"

Regarding this question see the first attachment. BTW, the installed IRST drivers are 13.1.0.1058.

2. "Can you confirm that your BIOS version is now ver. 2104 dated 09/18/2013?"

For this question see the second attachment.

3. " At the time of this BIOS upgrade did you also upgrade the Intel Chipset drivers to the current version V10.1.1.7 dated 09/23/2015 as well as the Intel Chipset Management Engine Interface driver version V11.0.0.1155?"

No, I did not. As for the chipset drivers, I considered it unnecessary, as no hardware changes were made. As for Intel Managment Engine Interface (IMEI), I have never done that before. I don't know if it will change Intel OROM version which as a consequence might require newer matching IRST drivers which may be unsupported on Intel Z77 chipset ? Where did you find these drivers ? On my motherboard's Asus site or on Intel download site ? Could you please post a link ? The Intel download site has been reorganized and I cannot locate these drivers anymore. Is it safe to update IMEI ? The sceenshot of my BIOS (attach. #2) indicates ME Version 8.0.2.1410 ? Is it the same ? Where can I find the info on the version of installed IMEI drivers ? Somewhere in Device Manager ?

4. "Your statement here indicates that you performed a recovery of the OS disk image file using the Linux based True Image media and at that time the Linux media booted with no problem, is that correct?" 

Actually I don't remember when that was exactly done. I don't need to recover very often. However, as much as I remember, it was prior to Windows 10 upgrade somewhere in August or September 2015. Therefore it had to be done while I was still using the Windows 7 Pro x64. At that time I was using Acronis 2014 which I uninstalled when ATI 2016 was purchased. And yes, it was acomplished using the Linux based USB drive, the same one I tried to boot with now. Untill now I have never tried to recover from an image in Windows 10 as, like I wrote,  the PC worked without any issues under Windows 10. However, I managed to corrupt the registry by manually deleteting the keys after the uninstallation of one program. In the panic I tried to recover from an entire PC image made by ATI 2016. Unfortunately I did not realize at that moment that I could easily repair the registry by  ordinary system restore. If that didn't happen I would have never known for a possible Linux boot failure, as the recovery media has always booted (several times in my Windows 7 history, with the same hardware).

5. I have an idea too. If I install the Acronis 2014 on another machine and create a recovery Linux based USB drive in ATI 2014 there, does it make sense to try a legacy boot with this media on my machine ? That would be may idea how to eliminate the ATI 2016 as a culprit. I don't know if Acronis versions are upward compatible ? I am not sute whether the ATI 2014 will see (and use) a recovery image created by a newer ATI 2016 ?

6. Thank you for your assistance. Sorry for my English, it's not my native language.

Ok,

Confirmed that bios is version 2104.

Confikrmed that SSD and HDD are connected to Intel ports 1 and 2 respectively.

As for the Windows Intel SATA driver I believe the latest driver is version 14.8.0.1042 See link below (This will not effect booting the Linux meida)

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/55005/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Tech…-

As for Chipset and IMEI these are listed on the ASUS support site for Windows 10 X64 OS.  You must select your correct OS to find them. Link below

https://www.asus.com/us/support/Download/1/39/7/8/OVCFmLeMZdeMER8x/45/

As for your answer to question 4 above,

1.  I take it that you are using the same USB media device for the Linux based boot media, which I presume you have updated to Acronis True Image 2016, that you used for your TI 2014 boot media, correct?

2.  I also assume this media to be a Verbatim Store N Go, is this correct?

3.  I also understand that you tried an Apacer USB medium without success as well, is this correct?

4.   What are the capacities of the above USB medias both the Verbatim and the Apacer?

5.   Before creating the Linux boot media on these USB medias did you format them as FAT32?  This is a must do step in the media creation process for the Linux based media to work.  Again, the Verbatim media has recently been problematic for creation of the TI 2016 Linux based boot media and has proven to be unreliable resulting in failure.  Be aware that there is a 32GB maximum capacity size limit for FAT32.

6.   When creating the media did you create it using the Media Creatoion tool in the Windows installed Acronis True Image applicaiton?  If you did not and used some other application for creation such as Gumy or Rufus or whatever, these tools can and most often do lead to failled boot media as well regardless of media brand.

As for your idea in number 5 of your post I do not think it would prove anything with regard to Linux based TI 2016 media.  The 2016 Linux media has undergone a complete update and uses a new kernel and new boot files as well.  Whether or not TI 2014 could restore a backup image file created by TI 2016 is questionable at best especially if the image is Windows 10. 

@ Enchantech

" As for the Windows Intel SATA driver I believe the latest driver is version 14.8.0.1042 See link below (This will not effect booting the Linux meida)"

Yes, but the Intel Z77 chipset is not supported in the newer versions.

1. Correct

2. Correct

3. Correct

4. Verbatim Store N Go 4 GB, Apacer 8 GB

5. Tried both ways. With prior formating (FAT32) and without it (previous ATI versions did formating in the beginning automatically). There was no difference. However, there is no warning about prior formatting in the utility ?. Tried also a USB 3.0 USB flash drive (Transcend Jet Flash, 16 GB, FAT 32). Also without success. Does it have to be a USB 2.0 drive ?

6. I created the media using Tools menu inside the ATI 2016 and the same menu item in Start Menu. Never used mentioned programs.

" As for your idea in number 5 of your post I do not think it would prove anything with regard to Linux based TI 2016 media.  The 2016 Linux media has undergone a complete update and uses a new kernel and new boot files as well.  Whether or not TI 2014 could restore a backup image file created by TI 2016 is questionable at best especially if the image is Windows 10. "

I have just finished this experiment. The Linux based media created in ATI 2014 booted without problems. It does see the images created in ATI 2016 and Windows 10 and is able to validate them. While in Linux environment tried to backup the SSD to a HDD in an external enclosure . It worked, but there was a warning in the log file: "Index corrupted" or something related with Index, followed by the next messsage: "Forced sector by sector backup". I did not try to restore.

Now I am going to install the chipset and IMEI drivers, to formatt the drive and to try to boot in Legacy mode once again after that. Will report soon.

BTW, I have a strong feeling that the Acronis Linux interface is actually working. I only don't see it due to a blank screen. I think so as the LED on the monitor is "on" indicating that there is a video signal.

Enchantech wrote:

I note in your post #17 you state " To be honest I must tell that I upgraded the BIOS to the latest after the last recovery which was acomplished using a default Linux boot media. "  Can you confirm that your BIOS version is now ver. 2104 dated 09/18/2013?  At the time of this BIOS upgrade did you also upgrade the Intel Chipset drivers to the current version V10.1.1.7 dated 09/23/2015 as well as the Intel Chipset Management Engine Interface driver version V11.0.0.1155? 

If you performed the BIOS update after the recovery as you say and did not upgrade the Z77 chipset drivers as well this may be the root of the problem.  Update those drivers if you have not done so already and give the Linux boot media another try.

OK. The Intel Managment Engine Drivers had already been installed. I have forgotten that I had already done that. See the first attachment.

I have reinstalled the Intel chipset drivers, although I think that it was also done before. See the second attachment.

I formatted the Store  N Go, using FAT32 and full format (not the quick one). Created the bootable media tool in Acronis (Tools option) again. Gave the Linux media anoyher try. No success.

It is not the faulty drive problem. I even burned a DVD-RW as Linux media with same outcome with regard to booting.

What can I do now ???. The only success I had was with WinPE media booting in UEFI mode. However, other users stated that is not safe to use an image of the MBR partioned SSD with Windows 10 which boots in legacy mode (ATI will convert it to GPT on the fly and render the disk unbootable). ????

Ok,

I think you are right in your thinking that in fact the app is running but is not displaying on screen.  Do you have a way of attaching your display to another video port on the PC?  I use a display port connection on my machines which are running ASUS boards as well and do not have issue.  My boards are Z97 however and that may make some difference I suppose.

Given all steps taken and knowing that all updates have been performed and everything else checking out correct it leaves only the display in question.  I will say that on my boards I have HDMI connection as well, that connection proved problematic at times so I switched to the display port and that has not given my any problems.  I did purchase a highend display port cable for the connection as I have had issue with cheaper cables of all sorts not funcitoning properly.  This might be something to consider although a definite long shot.

You might try removing the add in graphics card from the PC as there might be some conflict there, wouldn't hurt to give it a try since at this point your throwing darts at the problem anyways!  I will add here that seeing as how you have upgraded Win 7 to Win 10 on this PC in my experiences with that I have decided that in doing so it works best to remove everything except the bare minimum of devices including additional storage devices for the upgrade to not be problematic in some way.  When I do an upgrade now I only have the main hard drive attached, no add in cards period to do the upgrade.  After the upgrade completes I then add back the rest of the devices one at a time with restarts between each one.  That has solved upgrade problems for me.

Enchantech wrote:

Ok,

 Do you have a way of attaching your display to another video port on the PC? 

Given all steps taken and knowing that all updates have been performed and everything else checking out correct it leaves only the display in question. 

You might try removing the add in graphics card from the PC as there might be some conflict there, wouldn't hurt to give it a try since at this point your throwing darts at the problem anyways!  I will add here that seeing as how you have upgraded Win 7 to Win 10 on this PC in my experiences with that I have decided that in doing so it works best to remove everything except the bare minimum of devices including additional storage devices for the upgrade to not be problematic in some way.  When I do an upgrade now I only have the main hard drive attached, no add in cards period to do the upgrade.  After the upgrade completes I then add back the rest of the devices one at a time with restarts between each one.  That has solved upgrade problems for me.

Tried another Display port cable ---------no sucess,

Tried HDMI port and cable----------------no sucess,

Tried a DVI-D port and cable ------------no sucess,

Tried another monitor---------------------no success.

No I will not remove a video card nor I will do anything else. It is an Acronis bug. It has nothing to do with how Windows was upgraded. If that were true I would almost certainly face some problems in Windows. I had no one. And I don't have add-on cards.

The Acronis technical support did not want to help me. Their suggestion was in favour of WinPE instead of the Linux media due to a driver detection problem. However, they closed the case without my final approval, and ignored my last email indicating that WinPE does not boot in legacy mode as well (it boots only in UEFI mode). Probably they are not interested for individual customers.  

I would like to express my gratitude to forum members (you know who you are) for their kind assistance in clarifying my problem.

It seems like I have the exact same problems.

ATIH 2016 rescue disc simply fails to load properly on my pc. Same result if I use an usb stick or a disc.  Have even connected another monitor without success. 

My mainboard is also an Asus, but the model is a  P8Z68 Gen3/Deluxe. GFX card is a MSI GTX570 Twin Frozr.  The computer runs Win7, but I think this is a driver bug on the rescue media. Have been stuck with the bootable media I made in old ATIH 2012 since it works here. The ATIH 2016 rescue disc works fine on my older computers though....

Unfortunately, I don't agree.  I have used the rescue media on countless systems (not many ASUS though so I can't confirm with 100%) certainty.  But no matter what system I have tried, I can always get the media to boot.  Whether or not the disks or NIC are seen, is a different story.  In nearly every instance where this problem comes up, it is a specific bios configuratoin that is the problem.  Acronis 2013 and earlier were strictly Bios/legacy boot media.  2014 and newer include UEFI and/or Legacy boot.  If your motherboard supports both UEFI and/or Legacy mode, then you usually need to find the right setting to make sure it boots properly since it is capable of all methods.  

On some bios, peopel will change the boot order to the USB and that does not work.  Instead, they need to use the one-time boot menu / boot override menu and then check to see if they can see both the legacy and UEFI instance of the thumb drive.  If you do, then try one, then try the other.  Once the proper bios settings are identified, it's easy sailing from then on, but because it's hard to remotely troubleshoot a bios configuration remotely, this is the hard part.

If you could step through your entire bios configuratoin and take cell pics and post, we might be able to help figure it out. You say the 2016 media works on your older computers so I imagine they are only legacy/bios and the system is automatically picking the correct method to boot into, but your newer system is legacy/UEFI and something in the settings is preventing the boot, like secure boot ,or just needing to use the onetime boot menu instead of the bios order.

Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:

If your motherboard supports both UEFI and/or Legacy mode, then you usually need to find the right setting to make sure it boots properly since it is capable of all methods.  

Once the proper bios settings are identified, it's easy sailing from then on,

OK. My motherboard supports both methods. However, only WinPE media and UEFI method work. My Windows 10 was upgraded over an existing Windows 7. It was installed in legacy mode and boots in Legacy mode. Is it safe now to recover from an image created in this WinPE media booted in UEFI mode ?

If you perform a disk mode recovery of a Legacy/BIOS system while booted in UEFI mode, Acronis will convert the recovered disk to GPT.  The recovered system will not boot in Legacy/BIOS mode.  This conversion does not consistently produced a system that will boot in UEFI mode.  More often than not it is necessary to use a Windows repair disc to write the proper EFI files to the EFI System Partition Acronis created.

I've tried to do alterations inside the bios/efi on the mainboard, and have attached a picture showing the current setup.

Both the "PCI ROM Priority" have been altered to EFI compatible, and I've also made did some changes on the Option ROM messages without success.

I should mention that the rescue media boots up, and I'm able to select 32 or 64 bits Acronis. It then loads and I get the Acronis Logo to the left. Some more loading, and then..... black screen. The monitor never disconnects so there is probably something going on but a black screen instead of the Acronis main screen.

Agree with Joey.  

Ultimately, the issue in this instance is why you can't boot the USB in legacy mode at all and still seems related to a bios setting.  

If you're up for it, i would reset the bios to "default", save, reboot and go back into the bios.   I suggest this because I have had issues with other motherboards, where specific settings were not taking effect until i reset to default and this even happened on my current gibabyte board after i upgraded the bios firmware.  

Then systematically change settings one-by-one and save//reboot with each change and try your boot override menu each time to find the option that allows legacy usb boot of your flash drive.

After resetting bios default:

1) Turn off secure boot, save, reboot.... at bios splash screen push the key for one time boot (F8 or F12 - not sure on this mobo so i'm guessing here).  Does it show the UsB drive options for UEFI and Legacy?  If so, try legacy. What happens?

2) If not, go back into the bios and make sure secure boot is still off.  Then look for other settings specifically to enable CSM/Legacy/MBR mode.  In some mobo's this may require an additional change.  From Mustang's earlier post, find the option for Secure Boot and change from Windows 10 to "other OS", then save, reboot and try again, using the one-time boot menu to look for the flash drive options again.attempt.  Is legacy USB shown?  If so, what happens when you attempt to boot the USB flash drive in legacy mode again.

3) Do you have another system to test your media on that is also legacy capable?  Can that system boot in legacy mode?  Just want to try and confirm that you do have a good build of the media as well.  If another system can boot the legacy mode, then we know it's not the media, but something still unique to the bios setup of this particular machine.