Surface Pro 4 Image successful
I finally managed to successfully image my Surface Pro 4 using TI 2016 boot DVD. Here's what I did.
1. Updated to latest version TI2016; earlier versions don't see internal storage.
2. My Pro 4 came with BitLocker installed, the drive encrypted, but BitLocker not activated. I activated BitLocker, then right clicked the drive and turned off BitLocker. It took about 30 minutes for the drive to be unencrypted. If you don't do this, Acronis will fail saying it can't image a BitLocker encrypted drive.
3. Accessed UEFI (From powered off state, press and hold Volume up button, then press power button. Hold volume up until Surface Logo appears.
4. Turn off Secure Boot
5. Change boot order to USB first.
6. Connected Sabrent 4 port USB 3.0 hub with external PS to Pro 4.
7. Connect external HD (I used WD My Passport) to 1st port (nearest end with cables).
8. Connect external DVD drive to port #2.
9. Connect USB keyboard and mouse to ports 3 and 4. My Pro 4 doesn't see the Microsoft Keypad / touchpad when Acronis was running.
10. Restart the Pro 4. It should boot into the Acronis Loader.
11. Proceed normally to make image.
12. When done, reverse steps to change boot order and turn Secure Boot back on.
The first couple of times I tried, the image process locked up. I suspected either a HUB or External HD problem. I changed to the WD Passport, and I connected the Passport to the 1st port on the hub. It worked with this config.
Joe


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I tried it but Snap Deploy 4 won't see the hard drive....
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**edited for better clarification**
hackerjoe
Snap Deploy 4 does not have the necessary drivers. Snap Deploy 4 came out a few years ago and that was before NVME PCIE hard drives were available and support for Snap Deploy 4 is not developed further, due to th release of Snap Deploy 5.
As the drivers were not yet available for PCIE NVME hard drives in Snap Deploy 4 and the Surface Pro 4's are relatively new hardware that just came out earlier this year, you would need to be using Snap Deploy 5 at this time.
The current available release of Snap Deploy 5 is 1660 but it too does not have NVME PCIE driver support, as NVME support for Acronis products really only became available about 2-3 months ago and v1660 as already out at that time. However, the current beta of Snap Deploy 5 is v1666 and does support PCIE NVME drives and works just fine out of the box when the system is using AHCI for the SATA mode (RAID still requires specialized drivers so one would need to create WinPE media instead - keep in mind that WinPE media for Snap Deploy does not offer Snap Deploy Stand-a-lone right now either - I have no idea why - I wish it did).
If you have Snap deploy 5 licenes, you can use the SD5 v1666 beta, but if you only have Snap Deploy 4 licenses, installing SD5 1666 won't help until you upgrade your existing licenses.
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Thank you for the reply.
It looks like we'll be buying new SD5 licenses and updating to Build 1666
Thank you
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Hi,
I was looking at this post - I am using the Surface Pro 4 - with Snap Deploy 5 (5.0.1.660) - and the USB boot will not see the Partitions on the Surface pro4.
Any suggestions?
They have suggested that I us the WinPE boot approach to this - Need the documentation on how to create this USB boot with the correct files.
By the way - the USB keyboard worked for me also. Top cover does not work.
Appreciate your help.
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Matt - check your PM. I am sending the link for SD 5 1666 beta which brings NVME driver support directly to the default linux bootable media. Other than that, there's no difference with it from 1660.
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I'm having the same problem. With SD 5 1660 there is no way to restore images to a surface pro 4 (disk not visible). Can you send me the link for the beta SD 5 1666. Thanks
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I'm having the same problem. With SD 5 1660 there is no way to restore images to a surface pro 4 (disk not visible). Can you send me the link for the beta SD 5 1666. Thanks
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Kurt, check your PM
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