Single GPT drive in four-drive dynamic array — can Acronis TI 2016 boot media handle this?
I have a dynamic-disc array that I have used for years to house my Chain2gen two-generation set of nightly images. I have simply continued this practice with Acronis 2016 — well, until recently when I ran out of room and added a 4 TB GPT Drive to the three existing two-terabyte drives in the array.
Acronis 2016 has no problem saving to this array (Windows 10). Yesterday, however, I thought I might have to step back to my system as it was two days ago and so I tried to see if I could restore from the incremental image for my system from the day before yesterday. To my surprise, nothing I could do would make the boot media (I tried both the self-boot version and the WinPE version) recognize the four-drive array.
First, is it even possible for Acronis 2016 TI boot media to recognize a dynamic-disc array composed of three standard two-terabyte MBR drives and one GPT four-terabyte drive? If so, why can I not get the boot media to recognize this dynamic drive when windows, and Acronis in Windows, has no problem dealing with (all drives are in external cases connected by esata)?
I would be grateful for any help — or even an explanation!
Thank you Steve for the prompt and thought-provoking reply.
Although not exactly a high-end device, most or all (can't tell without opening the box — which I don't have the time to do this weekend!) of the hard drives in my dynamic-disk array are connected through a Vantec UGT-ST310R 6-Part SATA II 150 PCI Card w/RAID using Sil 3114 SATA controller chip. So, in answer to your question, I basically use a hardware solution to provide extra esata connections into my system. Although the card came with its own GUI software, that was pretty well useless but the card itself has proven useful and durable when used with Windows — and yes, when I was running Windows 7, the chipset driver was updated once or twice.
Interestingly (see attached picture), the WinPE version of the Acronis 2016 media, shows what I suspect to be the physical disks, although I have no idea why one of them is showing 450 MB while the others are showing zero. Nonetheless, your comment prompted me to remember that a few years ago — I think when Windows 8 first came out — I put together my own WinPE version of the then-current Acronis. It worked fine, although I never tried it on my main work machine.
I'm hoping you can refresh my memory because I really don't remember much about my experience with creating a WinPE version of Acronis other than that it took me a while. I'm thinking the bottom line question here is whether one can put drivers into the Windows version that goes into a WinPE ISO/disk compilation. I'm pretty sure I could find the most recent version of the driver for the chipset in this PCI esata card. On the other hand, I wonder if it's worth the time and effort simply to confirm that all four drives are connected to the card since it is possible that one or two of them might be connected directly to the motherboard. Still, given that the WinPE version of Acronis appears to be seeing all four drives, that doesn't sound nearly as promising a route as making a custom WinPE version of Acronis that includes the driver — if that is even possible.
Of course, maybe it would be easier just to buy a higher-end card, but this seems like an odd time to be putting money into new esata technology — and I might wind up revisiting the same problem with a different card!
What do you think?
Jerald,
Please see post: 100770: Guide to Add Drivers to WinPE Recovery Media which is the best guide to help you with creating customised WinPE rescue media that you can add in any additional device drivers for your RAID card.
This looks like a promising way forward. I think I'll try it when I have time.
For anyone who may see this in the future, Mustang's solution at the above address worked perfectly.