Recovery of Samsung SSD

You would need to be more specific with model number of drive and form factor

Enchantech wrote:

You would need to be more specific with model number of drive and form factor

Thanks for your response. Here is more data:

Drive: 512GB Samsung 950 Pros PCIe 3.0 Solid-State Drive; up to 2500MBps Read/1500MBps write

Motherboard: Asus Z170-P Intel Z170 chipset, ATX Motherboard

Processor: Intel Core I5-6600 Processor, 4-core @ 3.3GHz

Mfg/Model: Velocity Micro/Raptor Z55 SLYLAKE Desktop

Enchantech wrote:

You would need to be more specific with model number of drive and form factor

Your drive is one of the new NGFF form factor devices.  In order to restore your backup image to a replacement drive for that device you would need to use a recovery media based on the  WinPE so that you have the proper driver support.

Enchantech wrote:

Your drive is one of the new NGFF form factor devices.  In order to restore your backup image to a replacement drive for that device you would need to use a recovery media based on the  WinPE so that you have the proper driver support.

OK, thanks for that info. But if I only wanted to restore my backup image to that same solid-state drive, wouldn't that be a normal restore?

If it's a standard SATA drive, yes.  If you're still talking about the 950 Pro, then no.  The 950 pro's do not have default linux driver support as of 2016 v6027.  While in Windows, you can back these drives up just fine as Windows has the drivers for the 950 Pro.  However, when you attempt a recovery in Windows, it will boot into Linux recovery media and drivers are not there in this version.  Likewise, if you try to recover with your default linux bootable recovery media - still no drivers available.  So, you'd have to create WinPE using ADK 5.0 (Win8.1 ADK but doesn't mean you have to have Win 8.1 installed) or 6.0 (Win10 ADK but doesn't mean you have to have Win 10 installed).  That will provide the necessary drivers for the 950Pro in the offline booablce reocvery media.

Linux driver support for these drives shoudl be coming this months update - fingers crossed.  Shouldn't be too much longer until we find out though.

Enchantech wrote:

Your drive is one of the new NGFF form factor devices.  In order to restore your backup image to a replacement drive for that device you would need to use a recovery media based on the  WinPE so that you have the proper driver support.

Enchantech wrote:

Your drive is one of the new NGFF form factor devices.  In order to restore your backup image to a replacement drive for that device you would need to use a recovery media based on the  WinPE so that you have the proper driver support.

Isn't this one of the options when I go to the Rescue Media Builder screen? The instructions on this screen say to choose bootable media type, and the 2nd choice is "WinPE-based media with Acronis plugin".

If I create this WinPE-based media instead of the standard "Acronis bootable rescue media".......would this media type suffice in both cases, i.e., when I wanted to restore my backup image to the same SSD and/or when I wanted to restore my image to a replacement drive?

Thanks again to everyone trying to help me understand how to work with my Samsung SSD

Yes, the WinPE based recovery contains the needed drivers to work with your drive.  Yes the WinPE based media is an option in the Media Builder screen.  Yes the WinPE media would suffice in both restoring the image to the same drive and/or a replacement drive.

Enchantech wrote:

Yes, the WinPE based recovery contains the needed drivers to work with your drive.  Yes the WinPE based media is an option in the Media Builder screen.  Yes the WinPE media would suffice in both restoring the image to the same drive and/or a replacement drive.

Enchantech wrote:

Yes, the WinPE based recovery contains the needed drivers to work with your drive.  Yes the WinPE based media is an option in the Media Builder screen.  Yes the WinPE media would suffice in both restoring the image to the same drive and/or a replacement drive.

Thanks for the reassurance. And thanks much for all your timely and informative responses to all my questions.

But I guess I have another question. When I respond to your posts, your comment is always repeated twice. So I must be doing something wrong. Can you tell me how to avoid this?

When you are replying to posts, you do not need to click on either Reply or Quote, just go to the box below to write your reply then click on post (after completing the Captcha challenge).

Thanks, Steve. I did not know that.......'tis different than most forums, but I'll learn, lol.

My Win 7 Pro desktop has a 512GB Samsung 950 Pros PCIe 3.0 SSD. The Asus Z170-P motherboard uses the UEFI BIOS.

As advised above, I created the WinPE-based media from the Media Builder screen. After the download and installation of both the Acronis Media Plug-in and the ADK component, I burned the DVD disc. But when I tried to boot from it, I got the fatal error message "Boot Manager image is corrupt. The system can not boot".

I don't know where to go from here.........any help or adviced would be appreciated.

Durago, please can you confirm the issue here?

Are you getting the message "Boot Manager image is corrupt. The system can not boot." when just trying to boot from the WinPE DVD media, or are you getting this when trying to boot your Windows 7 desktop normally?

I get the error when trying to boot using my newly-created WinPE DVD media. Normal boot is no problem.

If I remove the DVD, power off my computer, and then boot normally into Windows, I do not get this error message.

Ok, thanks for the confirmation that it is only when booting from the DVD.  In that case I would recommend trying a new DVD and building a new copy of the WinPE Rescue Media - alternatively, you could try creating a bootable USB memory stick if you have a spare one you could use.

Thanks for the response, Steve. I have a couple of questions:

(1) If I build a new copy of the DVD WinPE Rescue Media, do I have to download the ADK component again? I have slow DSL and that download took a long time. What I currently have in my Download folder are these two files; so can I start with them:

  - ADKsetup.exe (1,619 KB)

  - AcronisTI2016_addons.exe (220,377 KB)

(2) I have spare memory sticks. So are you suggesting that if I build my Rescue Media with a stick rather than a DVD, I might have better luck?

Durango - I agree with Steve - you're burned media may be corrupt (discs are sometimes bad to begin with, but writing is not alwasy successful either).  

Also, since your system is UEFI, make sure you are trying to boot into the UEFI mode of the bootable media - it may be trying to boot into MBR/legacy mode - depends on how your bios is setup.  Usually, you can get into the one time boot menu/boot override menu after reboot by pressing F12, ESC, DEL or whatever key is needed for your bios.  See screenshot as an example:

You should not have to download the ADK again.  That is just the installer file.  The ADK is a large download - I have gotten in the habit of selecting the option to download so it can be installed/used on other machines.  That way, you always have the installer to use again down the road, versus the first option which puts everything in temp for the purpose of installing only on the local machine.

Could you verify the version of the ADK you have installed by going to control panel >>> Programs and Features  and finding the Windows Deployment and Assesment Kit and noting the version # here (see screenshot).

Unless I set my CSM boot mode to UEFI and Legacy (rather than UEFI only), it won't even recognize my DVD/CD device. And when I received my BOOTMGR error, I could not even invoke the boot menu (via F8 on my computer). Maybe a new DVD is the first thing I should try?

Yeah, I'd try creating new media, might just be a bad burn to disc.  If possible, also try creating a USB Flash Drive as the destination for bootable media - must be a Flash drive of the "removable" type - not an external USB disk that Windows identifies as "fixed".  

And, instead of using the default bios bootmanager order, have you tried your onetime boot menu instead?  If you can get to that and there is no UEFI version of the CD or the USB bootable media, then it's either a bios setting or the created media is bad (make sure secure boot is disabled in the bios too!!!)

Bobbo, my ADK version number is same as yours - 10.1.10586.0.

You have given me some good ideas to try with my UEFI BIOS setting.......I do have trouble with it (personally I liked the old BIOS....that I understood, lol).

As best I recall, I didn't have the option to save the ADK component to my downloads. So I am confused as to what you are telling me to do should I have to burn another DVD. Can I simply click on the ADKsetup.exe file, which I guess is what you are calling the installer file? Or will I need to do the large ADK download again?

I've got to leave the house for a few hours, but I will continue implementing your suggestions when I return. I will keep you posted, and I do appreciate yours (and Steve's) help.

Regards.........

Once you have installed the Windows ADK there is no need to do anything more with the original installer file.  Just go back into the Acronis Media Builder tool and repeat the build of the WinPE Media as needed.

Durago,

The first time you download the ADK from Microsoft it gives you a file called "adksetup.exe".  This is just a link to download the actual files, and nothing more.  When you open it, you have 2 options (I already have it installed so it's a little different now) though.  The first is to insall on the local machine (mine now says repair since it's already there).  The second is "Download - download features and installation on a separte computer" - see capture.jpg attached below.  

The second one will download everything to a folder on the local computer called "ADK" with the actual install files that can be used later to install on the same computer, or moved to a USB drive or some other media so you can use the same files again without having to download the entire package for each machine (or in the event you need to reinstall or repair on the existing one). I always select the second option now since this is such a big download and can then use it as much as I want over and over.  The funny thing is, it still uses "adksetup.exe" as the installer file, but this one calls on the local files that you now have, instead of asking you to download them like the original adksetup.exe does. See capture2.jpg

I too have a new motherboard and bios (same manufacuter as my old one which also did Legacy and UEFI, but never had any issues with it until the BIOS actually corrupted for no darn reason and prompted me to upgrade my hardware since I couldn't get a decent third gen intel board anymore).  Even though they essentially look the same and are from the same manufacturer, they function very dfferently and I have been having trouble with how it handles different boot managers via the new "Windows Boot Manager" option that I've never had to deal with directly in a bios.  I usually end up resetting by bios to "derfault" just to get everythign working again - and then making the necessary changes.  I don't blame any of my bootable media though, but just how the bios is configured on this board - it's been a frustrating learning experience with this new motherboard, but now I know what works and what doesn't (which a lot still doesn't - hence the bios "default' changes I sometimes I have to fall back on). 

@ Bobbo & Steve - OK, I will burn a new DVD and a bootable flash drive. Since I have to download the ADK component again, I'll probably let that happen after I go to bed (I have slow DSL and it takes forever).

I should mention that after I installed ATI 2016 and before I learned there was a problem recovering with a Samsung SSD, I did create the standard Acronis rescue media on DVD, and it boots just fine on my computer. I have not tried an actual recovery, but my computer booted immediately into the Acronis Recovery Menu. My problem is with the WinPE-based DVD.

@Bobbo - I would like to talk a little about this monster called UEIF BIOS and would appreciate any advice you might could offer. Right or wrong, here's what I have on my system:

- I do not have the option of disabling Secure Boot. The manual talks about various Secure Boot Keys, but I don't really know what that means.

- During bootup, I can get to the boot menu via F8. There my DVD device is listed as both a UEFI device and a SATA device, probably because I had set my CSM boot mode to UEFI and Legacy (rather than UEFI only), just to get the system to recognize my DVD/CD device.

       - If I select the UEFI version, my WinPE-based DVD is totally ignored and the system boots straight into Windows

       - If I select the SATA version, I get the 'BOOTMGR image is corrupt' error.

- The only change I have made to my UEFI BIOS settings is the above-mentioned change of the CSM boot mode to UEFI and Legacy (instead of the default UEFI only). I did this on advice of the computer vendor who said that was necessary for the system to even recognize my DVD/CD device. Sure enough, without that one change my DVD device is not mentioned in either the BIOS boot order or the boot menu.

Thanks to all for the help I'm getting...........

OK.  You have Legacy/CSM and UEFI support for your sytem, so it's a matter of determining how your OS is installed to determine how to boot to the Acronis recovery media.  I'm going to guess UEFI mode if you installed your OS from DVD and had to have UEFI enabled, but run msinfo32 and it should tell you the bios mode there (UEFI or legacy).  

What doesn't make sense is why your vendor said you have to use UEFI to even see the dvd rom at all in the boot menu.  If the sytem supports legacy and UEFI, either should be selectable.  Of course though, for the purpose of Windows installs and Acronis bootable media though, UEFI would be ideal if that is how the OS is installed now (or was installed originally). 

http://tipsandtricksforum.com/thread-248.html

Regardless, you system boots to the default Linux Bootable media so that is good.  However, when it boots, is it colorful graphics menu at first or black screen with white letters.  Color graphics mode is Legacy and black screen with white letters is UEFI mode.  Once you have the right one figured out and verified it can boot, does it see your hard drive and NIC - those are the most important.  If it does, default bootable media is good for your system.

WinPE is really only needed if the default bootable linux media can't detect your drives and/or NIC.  It should boot just fine though if the Linux bootable recovery media can boot.  the only limitation of WinPE is that as of Acronis 2015, the winPE that Acronis can create is only 64-bit capable.  So, if you system has a 32-bit only bios (Asus T100, T200, Aser Aspire Switch 10, etc), WinPE is no good for those types of machines.  Is your OS installed as 32-bit or 64-bit?

Bobbo - thanks for some more good info. I will check all that out and report back to you. I had some unexpected company show up today, so my response back to the forum is a little slow, and now I'll be out of pocket for another couple of hours. But I WILL be back, because I would sure like to get to the bottom of this thing with your help.

Bobbo, I will attempt to answer your questions to the best of my ability, and give you a little background:

- My Win 7 Pro 64-bit OS was installed by the computer manufacturer (Velocity Micro); I was supplied with an OEM install disc.

- Soon after receiving the computer, I created a Windows Repair Disc. When my computer wouldn't even acknowledge the disc, I called Velocity and asked why.......that's when they told me I had to change my CSM Boot Device Control from 'UEFI only' to 'UEFI and Legacy OPROM'. Sure enough,, my DVD/CD device then appeared in the boot menu and I could then boot from the Windows System Repair disc.

- Since I didn't want Windows to be the only program to create a backup system image, I sought a 2nd program. I debated between Acronis TI and Macrium....I chose Acronis and even purchased two copies, one copy for my new computer and one copy for my 7-year old computer.

-OK, I went to the TipsAndTricks website you referenced. Both Methods 1 & 3 show that my BIOS mode is EFI (Method 2 is for Win 8/8.1)

- When I successfully booted to the default Linux Bootable media, after I saw the words Starting Acronis Loader, the screen I got was white lettering on a blue background, so I guess that is what you are calling a colorful graphics? And here's what I saw on that screen (more or less, as I had to write fast, lol):

       - Acronis Universal Restore

       - Acronis Universal Restore (64-bit with UEFI support)

       - Acronis True Image 2016

       - Acronis System Report

       - Acronis True Image 2016 64-bit

       - Start Windows

If I didn't click on any of the options, by default the Acronis Loader loaded Windows

- Currently, my boot order as shown in the UEFI BIOS is:

       - Windows Boot Manager (Velocity tech says this must be first)

       - SATA6G_3: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM G

       - SATA6G_4: ST2000DM001-1ER1

       - UEFI: SanDisk Cruzer 1.26, Partition 1 (7633MB)  NOTE: this is simply a little 8GB flash drive where I store/update data files

I'm sorry to have been so long winded, but I wanted to explain my situation as best I could. Actually, I'm pretty good at explaining my problems, but I'm just not very good at fixing some of them. Thanks again for your help..........

3 screenshots attached - this is what you need to look for and confirm now... :

capture: EFI Acronis menu - that's what you're looking for as far as text and backround go since your OS install is UEFI - menu items could be different though. I've only ever seen it with white lettering and a black background - maybe yours is blue though?  Note that it actually says starting Acronis UEFI loader...

capture2: Legacy Acronis menu - you don't want that one since your OS is a UEFI OS install according to what you're telling me above (I grabbed it from the web - so ignore the language - just wanted you to see the difference between the two - this is colorful, cartoony graphics.  If you see that, it's booted in legacy mode). 

capture3: A sample bios one time boot menu / boot override menu (usually requires pressing F12, DEL, ESC or F1 - depends on manufacturer though - this is not the boot order that your bios shows necessarily)  showing options for legacy and UEFI boot methods .  The exact menu and look will vary for each bios.  However, you should be seeing your bootable disc or bootable flash drive in the UEFI menu and want to boot to that one.  If you're not seeing these options, someting in your bios settings is preventing it from being listed as a bootable option . Any Acronis media created with 2016 should show up under both legacy and UEFI in your one time boot menu as it is capable of both.  If it is only showing as a legacy boot item - something in the bios settings is preventing it from being able to boot in UEFI mode (safeboot possibly).  If this is a custom build, what is your motherboard manufacturer make and model?  If it's a generic machine (HP, Dell, Toshiba, etc - what is the system make/model?)

You did get to the Acronis menu which is good, I'm just not sure if you got there in legacy mode or UEFI mode yet still.  If UEFI mode (non colorful with no cartoony icons - only white text on a plain background for your menu entries), you're practically there.  Just select "Acronis True Image 2016" or "Acronis True Image 2016 64-bit".  It really doesn't matter which one if your system is 64-bit, both will work.  I usually select the non 64-bit one as driver compatibility for the mouse and keyboard is better with the 32 bit entry.  It will have no diffence on your ability to create or restore backups using the 32 or 64 bit options - both will result in exactly the same way.  

If you're still getting cartoony Acronis menu items - you're only getting to legacy mode, which you don't want.  Backups are fine, but recovery will turn your UEFI system into an MBR/Legacy one which will result in NO BOOT if you recover in this mode. 

Just a quick response to your Capture photos, then I'm off to bed for the evening (this happens when you are 78 years old, lol). I'll give all this more thought in the morning.

Capture: I don't get this at all, only the words "Starting Acronis Loader".

Capture 2: I don't get the colorful, cartoony menu.....mine is white letters on blue background. But I will check again.

Capture 3: I do get a one-time boot menu by pressing F8, and it does differ from that shown in BIOS........primarily becasue this boot menu lists all my USB drives, internal SATA drives, and my DVD/CD device (in both SATA and UEFI mode). But my boot menu is not broken into EFI and Legacy Boot Sources groups........just one big list that shows some UEFI and some SATA devices. As I recall, if I select the SATA DVD/CD device, my system boots from the disc. But if I select the UEFI DVD/CD device, the disc in the drive is ignored and I boot directly into Windows.......but I will check this out again in the morning.

So I guess the big question is.....am I getting to the Acronis menu via UEFI or Legacy? And what in my UEFI BIOS settings are messing things up (I'll check my Safeboot setting). Oh do I miss the old, simple BIOS.........

It sounds like if you got bluebackground and white letters that is UEFI mode - it's only ever black for me on all of the systems I've seen though... perhaps you can take a screenshot with your phone or something and post tomorrow for verification? If you're taking screenshots anyway, perhaps a few of the F8 boot menu while your Acronis bootable media is in the system as well? 

Here are screenshots from my system as they occur for reference of what you need to be looking for - assumign you system is giving you the option to boot to UEFI mode for your Acronis bootable media.   

1348 = Shows my my system one time boot override menu (On my Asus T200 - to get here, I must quicly press ESC right after cold booting the system).  This particular laptop is UEFI only and has not ability to turn on CSM/Legacy/BIOS mode so everything must be booted as UEFI.  Note that it shows my Acronis bootable USB as UEFI in the boot menu - on systems that are UEFI and Legacy capable, you need to ensure you are using the UEFI entry if your system OS is installed as UEFI.  If your system OS is installed as Legacy/Bios/CSM, you want to boot into the Legacy version of your bootable Acronis offline recovery media.  This UFI entry in the boot menu has been the case in all UEFI systems that I have ever used Acronis bootable media wtih (regardless of the type of USB flash drive used or CD/DVD).

1349 = the Acronis USB bootable in UEFI mode - black background with white text.  Mine is customized so there are many more entries and I've modified the names to show the specific version and 32-bit or 64-bit for my own referenc.e  Teh default menu will slightly different options, but I wanted to show that it does start with "starting Acronis UEFI loader" at the top and it is a black screen with white text (that's the only way I've ever seen it appear as when booting correctly to the UEFI version of the Acronis offline bootable recovery media.   Why yours would blue (unless it's just the screen color on your system, I have no idea unless you're booting into something else like the hidden parition of the Acronis bootable partition on your C: drive - which we dont' really want to use.  I've never seen that show up in the bios or boot override/one time boot menu on any systems so I'm curious to see your screenshots for comparison. 

1351 = The Acronis True Image 2016 v6027 default Linux offline bootable recovery environment (looks the same in 32-bit and 64-bit).  For the most part, WinPE will look the same as well, once True Image actually comes up.  If you're at this menu and have booted in UEFI mode - you're ready to rock-n'-roll

Before I forget, here is the computer/motherboard info you asked about:

Computer Mfg/Model: Velocity Micro/Raptor Z55 SLYLAKE Desktop

Motherboard: Asus Z170-P Intel Z170 chipset, ATX Motherboard

Processor: Intel Core I5-6600 Processor, 4-core @ 3.3GHz

And attached are the applicable screenshots you requested:

- csmsettings: this is where the Velocity Tech had me change the Boot Device Control from UEFI only to UEFI and Legacy OPROM

- biosbootoptions: these are the resulting boot options/priority listed in my UEFI BIOS

- F8bootmenu: this is the boot choice menu I get when I press F8 during bootup

- loadernotice: this is the message I get when Acronis disc is loading

- restoremenu: and this is he resulting Acronis menu I get; if I don't press any keys, it will soon default to Start Windows

To further illustrate where I'm at in trying to create Acronis rescue builds, attached are images showing the partial contents listing of the rescue builds that I have created thus far:

oldwinpe: this shows the end of the contents listing for the WinPE-based rescue disc......looks very strange to me. I can't boot from this disc; instead, I get the error "Boot manager image is corrupt. System can not boot'.

stdrescue & stdrescue2: these show the beginning and end of the contents listing for the standard Acronis rescue media. I can boot from it, although I have not actually tried a recovery.

OK - makes sense now.  From what I see, you're still booting to the Legacy version of Acronis.  

In your F8 menu, you have highlighted the MBR/Legacy instance of your Acronis boot media CD ROM . About 4 lines down is the UEFI one.  

Have you tried that one yet with your new DVD menu?  ***EDIT - you mentioned earlier it was completely ignored - is it still ignored and boots straight to windows?  Sometimes you get prompted to press a key to continue booting to the CD/DVD - are you seeing this, maybe press some keys after selecting the option, in case the notification is coming and going too quickly.***

When you try that one, with the newly burned disd, hopefully you'll get the UEFI menu and can then boot fine.

If it still fails to progress, try burning a new disc/dvd one more time - maybe this one still didn't burn correctly - I'm doubt it, but still worth a try.  

I also see you have a San Disk Cruzer Facit 8GB flash drive.  I use those as well, however, many people have complained that they don't get recognized by their bios as boot drives.  I can use them on my gigabyte board, however, Acronis doesn't like them for creating bootable media (my version anyway) because they show up in Windows as "fixed" disks (if we have the same skinny colorful ones - mine was a 4-pack from Costco several years ago) so Acronis ignores them during the media creation process.  If you have another USB flash drive, you can try creating bootable Acronis media to a USB drive instead which should be faster (possibly more reliable too) than the CD rom that takes more time to load the Acronis menu into memory (shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes at most though - usually less than a minute). 

Durago,

I have an ASUS board that uses the same bios as your machine.  What I have found is that to get the board to boot to the desired device when using UEFI I must first set the Boot Options Priorities Boot Option #1 (your biosbootoptions.jpg) to the desired boot device.  In your case this would be the desired device which is preceded by the UEFI notation.  Once you have made that selection scroll down the page to the Boot Override section and select the same device again.

The machine should then immeduately boot the chosen device.

This seems to be a bug in the bios code when running in UEFI mode.  I have found the F8 boot selection popup menu to be unreliable at booting the selected device when using the board in UEFI mode so I do not use it.  When I desire to boot to recovery media I always do so as described above and have complete success.  If I attempt to use the F8 option it will fail to boot every time and instead will boot straight into the installed OS.

Hope this helps.

Enchantec - very good to know.  

I have a gigabyte Z170x motherboard and have experienced similar behavior, but didn't think it stemmed to others!

I thought I was going nuts... My bios will actually "remember" previusly attached drives that are no longer attached (at times), but then, it will not list new ones that are attached other times.  Reflashing the bios would then get things working again, but I wonder if doing the same as you've recommended above will solve my issue when it returns again - I'll have to try it out.  

Currently, I always have to have the  "windows boot manager" listed first in the bios or my OS won't boot.  I can no longer boot to Windows by merely selecting the drive as I've been able to do in the past with other motherboards and/or chipsets.  I wonder if this is a limitation/restriction of Z170 chipsets and/or something that the bios manufacturers are implementing due to how Windows 10 handles bootloaders these days.  Good to know it's not just my board - this has been bugging me for weeks!

Bobbo,

The situation is the change in the boot process brought about with the advent of UEFI.  Booting with UEFI is now a 2 step process, at least to my understanding, first up is the windows boot manager which looks around for boot candidates and then checks to see which one has priority, then runs the boot loader found of that priority device (first listed in boot options in bios). 

The boot manager itself for Windows is found I believe at this path: "\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi". 

So, with the windows boot manager as first selection in the bios boot options priority #1 position that election is run.  UEFI by default looks to the boot manager to make the boot selection.  The popup boot menu is suppose to interrupt and override this but as I said I have found that to not be the case with the current ASUS bios.  So I contend that it is a bug.

WOW, thanks to Enchantech and Bobbo for the corroboration that I wasn't going nuts..........I've been fighting this boot problem for a month. Not just with Acronis rescue media, but sometimes the Windows Repair disc itself.  The only guidance I got from the computer manufacturer (Velocity Micro) was: (a) under CSM in Boot Menu, change the Boot Device Control from 'UEFI only' to 'UEFI and Legacy' in order to recognize the DVD/CD device, and (b) always make Windows Boot Manager first in the boot list.

And I have also found the F8 key to be sporadic........sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Another quirk I have encountered.......sometimes at bootup my system freezes at the Velocity splash screen and I can't even get into UEFI BIOS via F2, much less the boot menu via F8. When my system freezes like this, I was told that it was probably due to an errant USB device. Sure enough, if I power off the surge protector where 4 external drives are plugged in, then I usually get some error message about overclocking or power surge and the message to press F1 to enter setup. If I continue to leave the USB devices powered off, then I can enter and exit BIOS, after which the F8 key usually works. But even then, I can never get my Acronis WinPE-based rescue media to work.

After I enter Windows, I can power up the external drives and all is well. Have you all experienced any issues with USB devices affecting the boot process on this motherboard? If so, any advice there?qmcy

Thanks again.........I'm anxious to try some of these UEFI BIOS settings.

Back to trying to burn another Acronis WinPE-based rescue disc. I'm embarassed to say that I guess I don't know how. And I'm not even sure that the first one I burned is valid. Please look at the partial contents listing shown above in my 'oldwinpe.jpg'....that disc is 455 MB and contains 41 files, but the files just don't look right. So I'm thinking I might have screwed up trying to download and install the two components: Acronis Media Add-on and Windows ADK.

If I go to Control Panel>>Programs & Features, I find that I now have the following programs installed on my computer:
- Windows ADK, version 10.1.10586, 6.62 GB in size
- Acronis True Image 2016 Media Add-on, version 19.0.6027, 207 MB in size

With these programs onboard, can someone please tell me the exact steps for creating another WinPE-based rescue disc? Thanks in advance.....
 

Enchantech, I ran into a problem trying to reset Boot Option #1 to the desired UEFI device in Boot Options Priorities. Unfortunately, my DVD/CD device is only listed as a SATA device. The only UEFI device listed was a little 8GB SanDisk flash drive that I use to save new/modified data files. Same thing happened when I dropped down to the Boot Override section.....my DVD/CD device is only listed as a SATA device.

Recall that to get my DVD/CD device listed at all, I had to go under CSM in the Boot Menu and change the Boot Device Control from 'UEFI only' to 'UEFI and Legacy'. A few minutes ago, I reverted to 'UEFI only', and sure enough my DVD/CD drive did not appear anywhere.

Any ideas what to try next? Thanks in advance.....

Durago.  I have the same ADK and media add-on versions.  You only need ADK for WinPE media - you can burn the original Linux version and/or the WinPE directly in Acronis - get one of each and see if one fares better than the other.   

Open Acronis 2016 main application. In the left hand panel click on "tools" >>> "rescue media builder".  You'll have 2 options:

Top one is the default Linux bootable media.  Just pick it and tell it where to create it (.iso, CD/DVD, or a USB flash drive).

The second one is WinPE.  It will use your previously dowloaded Windows ADK and create a WinPE version (which may have better driver compatibiltiy for your system - currently needed for PCIE NVME hard drives like the Samsung 950 Pro and the Samsung 951 OEM versions).  Again, select to create a .iso, burn to CD/DVD or create it directly on a USB flash drive.  

Just remember that you can't use the same flash drive and have both - it's one or the other as it will format the drive and recreate it each time you select the flash drive. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Regardng not seeing UEFI mode - I bet that if you put one of your burned Acronis discs in it - it will show up in UEFI mode then (hopefully).  It probably defaults to CSM legacy mode, but hopefully it will detect as UEFI if sees the disc in it is UEFI capable.  If you reset your bios, don't forget to disable secure boot again too.

Bobbo -

OK, I will follow your guidelines for creating another WinPE rescue media.......I prefer to do so on a DVD disc. Then I will load it and see if my system recognizes it as UEFI capable. Come to think of it, yesterday when I was playing around with all of this, I was using the Windows Repair Disc, which is probably not UEFI capable. My bad......

As regards disabling Secure Boot. I do not really have the option of doing that. What I see under Secure Boot is the following:

     Windows UEFI Mode

     Other OS (to include Windows non-UEFI mode)

I just assumed that my Windows install (done by the vendor) was UEFI Mode, since my BIOS was shown to be UEFI Mode. So that's the option I chose above, and then I can't disable Secure Boot. Maybe I should see what happens if I select other OS, because the manual says Secure Boot only supports Windows UEFI mode.

Thanks again for your help.........

The manual talks about various Secure Boot Keys, but I don't really know what that means.

Durago,

Your bios can be in UEFI mode and use that mode with or without Windows.  You mention that you do not have an option to disable Secure Boot and I can understand why you see it that way as the settings are not plain in this regard.  You obviously know where to do this disabling however given that you mention what you see under Secure Boot in the bios.  Selecting Other OS will disable Secure Boot.  The entry will still read as Enabled but will become greyed out and the Platform Key (PK) state will read unloaded.  With the Secure Boot option set up in this way you have Secure Boot disabled.

You did verify that your Windows install is running in UEFI mode by using the msinfo32 method described earlier in this thread correct?

I agree with Bobbo in that you should recreate the boot media once again.  I will admit that I do not use CD/DVD as a boot media, I use USB thumb drives for that purpose.  So I cannot state for certain that your CD/DVD drive will correctly write a UEFI capable boot disk.  Having said that I must also say that you would be the first poster to my knowledge with this issue so I would think then that if this were a problem others would have been here saying the same thing.

In all likelyhood if you change the entry in the Secure Boot section of your bios to Other OS as indicated above the media you have created will then show a UEFI boot option in addition to the SATA one that you describe.  If that is not the case then do recreate the media and try again.

OK, I made some progress today, thanks to the hints you all gave me about UEFI BIOS settings. However, I made my progress without disabling Secure Boot, because I had not yet received your posting on how to do that. I suspected that was the correct way to do it, but I was reluctant to do so without confirmation....thanks. Do you think I still need to do that.....I never did exactly understand why?

Here are my current applicable BIOS settings:

     - Under CSM, I set Boot Device Control to 'UEFI and Legacy' (instead of default UEFI only); if I didn't do this, I could never read any non-UEFI disc

     - I could then see my DVD/CD device as both UEIF and SATA. The DVD/CD device and my little SanCruise flash drive were the only two UEIF devices listed, but there were several SATA devices (DVD/CD, HDDs).

With these settings, I started inserting different DVD discs and got the following results. In all cases I had to press F8 to arrive at a boot menu, where I could make my selection; if I didn't press F8, I went straight into Windows.

       - My Standard Acronis Rescue Disc: this disc was successfully seen as a UEFI disc, and for the first time I finally got to the black & white Acronis loader message that you talked about (photo attached). However, when I clicked on 'Acronis Universal Restoration (64 bit with UEFI support), I got an error screen (photo attached). At this point I simply exited and booted back into Windows. I didn't think this disc could be used as recovery media because of my Samsung 950 SSD, but at least I could read it.

       - My Acronis WinPE-based Rescue Disc: this disc totally locked up my computer, so I had to power down and then back on. This result doesn't surprise me, because I think I screwed up making this disc and will be trying again (my next project).

       - My Windows System Repair Disc: this disc was seen as a SATA disc. When I arrived at the Advanced Boot Options menu, I chose to 'Repair Your Computer' but soon got the following error...This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows that you are trying to repair.  Once before I got this same error when I was trying to create a Windows System Repair Disc, but it went away the 2nd time I tried. I have no idea what this error message means.

       - My Windows 7 Pro Install Disc: this disc was successfully seen as a SATA disc, and I successfuly arrived at the System Recovery Options menu where I could elect to restore from a system image created by Windows. So I considered this a success.

All in all it was a good day. However, unless I can successfully create an Acronis WinPE-based Rescue Disc, the only way I can recover my system is with the original Windows 7 Pro Install Disc. That worries me a bit.

Recreate the WinPE boot media.  Use the in app Acronis Media Builder tool to do that.  Given your response in your post #15 of this thread i believe you have the necessary components installed on your computer to successfully do so.

If you have problems booting using the F8 boot option then set the priority list to have the UEFI WinPE boot as the first device.  That should get you where you want to be.

Enchantech -

Recreating the WinPE boot media is my project for tonight. I will try another DVD and a thumb drive.

You asked earlier if I had verified that my Windows install is running in UEFI mode. The answer is yes.

Two questions:

(1) What does disabling Secure Boot do for me? I have yet to try that because I wasn't sure how until your last post. But I'm already getting both UEFI and SATA boot options for my DVD/CD device, and it depends on the disc as to which will work.

(2) Have you ever seen that Windows compatibility error that I encountered; if so, can you point me in the right direction to find a solution?

Thanks again for your support.....

Secure Boot enabled establishes security keys in the bios and in the OS that must match or else the machine will not boot.  It is necessary to disable this feature in order to boot an alternative deivce.

Agree with Enchantech - try recreating your WinPE again and go from there now that you know what to do to get it made via Acronis.  Your Linux bootable media looks like it's working (well, at least booting) so you're on the right track.  

Also, currently, you do not want/need to use 1. Acronis Universal Restore (64-bit) from the UEFI menu of your recovery media.   That is only necessary if moving an image from one type of hardwar to another.  

Instead, you should be using 2. Acronis True Image 2016 (64-bit) from your UEFI boot menu.  That should take you into the bootable recovery environment for offline backups and/or recoveries.  

I still don't trust CD's/DVD's >>> too many bad burns have resulted in unnecessary coasters and frustration.  A cheap USB 3.0 flash drive may save you some heartache in the future.  For the price, size, and relatively decent speed, I have been using SanDisk Ultra Flair USB 3.0 16GB flash drives for bootable recovery media and other custom WinPE tools with Portable Apps and have been pretty happy with them.  Ditch any USB 2.0 drives - boot times with USB 3.0 is way better.  However, most USB flash drives still suffer from small file write slowness (4K speed) unless you get something more highend, but those are usally also much larger in capacity and a waste of space for the purpose of a portable recovery drive.  For the puropse of a bootable USB flash drive though, a relatviely cheap USB 3.0 flash drive should be a lot faster than a CD or DVD and rule out bad burns as well.  

Well, I ran into some problems tonight. I did manage to create an Acronis WinPE-based USB flash drive, but my system would never even recognize it at all. My little USB SanDisk data drive was recognized as a UEFI device, but my WinPE drive never appeared anywhere in any boot device menu.

I then went back into BIOS and disabled Secure Boot as you instructed. Unfortunately, that didn't help....my USB flash drive was still not seen by the system. To make matters worse, when the system booted back into Windows with Secure Boot disabled, my mouse and keyboard were also disabled. So I had to power my computer off/on and then go back into BIOS to once again enable Secure Boot......that was the only way I could get my mouse and keyboard operatational again.

So I must be doing something wrong when I create a WinPE recovery media......I've now burned 4 DVDs and created 1 USB flash drive, and none of them work. Hopefully you can tell me whether the contents of my USB flash drive look correct........I have attached the folder/file listing (in 2 parts). Since I've never done a WinPE before, I don't know what to expect. But these contents look wierd to me.

Thanks again for your patience and guidance........

The contents of you WinPE recovery look fine.  Most of what you see there are various language support files so the reason it looks odd I suspect.

Did you attempt to boot to your USB flash drive with Secure Boot enabled and then changed that selection afterwards?

Did you then go looing for your USB drive to be in the list of boot device without restarting the machine?  If so that would be why the USB drive did not appear.  It that case, with Secure Boot already disabled, start the machine and have a look for the USB drive, it should be there.

Durago,

The WinPE drive looks fine.  Those are just language packs mostly.  The main file is in "sources" which is boot.wim.  This is the file that gets loaded into ramdisk and boots into the WinPE environment.  

I was experiencing the same behavior as you on my gigabyte Z170X motherboard.  I ended up just reflashing the bios firmware adn it all started working again.  Prior to that, I kept having the same weird behavior where a bootable USB flash drive would show up and then not and then only as Legacy and then not, etc.

I don't blame this on Acronis bootable media, it works on every single Dell in my office and my old Gigabyte motherboard just fine - it's only an issue with this new Z170 motherboard I have ever seen this and it sounds like it's not just an issue on my board or yours, but possibly Z170x boards in general or possibly due to how the Windows bootmanager is behaving with PCIE NVME hard drives, or who knows.

If you're up for it, re-flash your bios and before you do anything else, pop in your WinPE usb drive and press F8 and see if it shows up and if it does, can you select UEFI mode and boot into Acronis media then (make sure to boot into Acronis and not Universal Restore) if it does.  

Lord, I hope we don't have to regulary flash our Bios to get bootable drives working on a regular basis!!!!