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TI 2016 does not restore the Win 10 system on MS Surface Pro 4

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When I try to restore, after rebooting the system, TI 2016 does not restore from the backup and exit to the current system.  Anybody can hlep? Thank you.

S Yuan

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Please use rescue media instead of trying to start the process from Windows.  Many systems require changes to the BIOS or do not have compatible drivers for Linux.  When you start the process in Windows, it will reboot and try to load the LINUX version of Acronis.  

1) This is risky as if it starts, but fails, may not restore the original Windows bootloader

2) bios settings can prevent this from working (things like having secure boot enabled or a system that doesn't support CSM/legacy or needs to have that enabled first

3) driver compatibility - if you use RAID as the SATA mode in the bios, chances are the Linux version won't work because of the lack of compatible RAID controller drivers.

Long story short, build rescue media and boot to that to start yoru restore.  If the rescue media doesn't boot or doesn't detect yoru hard drive, then you will need to build WinPE rescue media.  We have created an MVP tool to help with that and it includes the most common IRST RAID controller driver which provides support for many newer systems that use PCIE NVME hard drives.  Try the default rescue media first though and then try WinPE if you need to.  

Most MVP's will never recommend you start any RECOVERY or CLONE process from within Windows - it's just not worth the risk of potentially rendering you OS unbootable.  When you use your rescue media, you avoid this possibility completely. 

More information is available here...

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/126072#comment-391792

Thank you for your advice. Sounds very complicated.

I have been using TI for many years (from Win XP, Win 7, Win 8 to Win 10) and I always restore from windows without any problems.  Currently, I also have a MS Surface pro 2, on which TI 2016 works fine with Win 10.

It sounds I trust TI too much? Shouldn't TI give a message if it fails to restore? No message at all.

S Yuan

Si Yuan, there is a large difference between running ATIH 2016 inside of Windows 10 where this is running as a full Windows application, and running it where ATIH requires Windows to be restarted to perform a function such as a Restore.

When ATIH triggers a Windows restart, it then modifies the Windows Boot Loader Configuration / BCD and creates a temporary Linux OS kernel environment from which to launch the Acronis application.

This can work fine for many systems, but with newer computers like your MS Surface Pro 4 which has UEFI & Secure Boot in the BIOS enabled, then this may well prevent the Linux OS environment from booting correctly.

At best, this will result in the computer just rebooting back into Windows 10, but at worse, it could leave the computer unable to boot into Windows at all!

This is why the MVP's in this forum strongly recommend creating and using the offline Acronis bootable Rescue Media, and in particular, the Windows PE version of that media for devices such as your Surface Pro 4 - this provides an offline Windows environment to boot into from which the Restore will be performed, and eliminates the need to modify any Windows Boot configuration files.

Thank both of you very much for clarifying the case. In deed, by defalt sp4 does have UEFI & Secure Boot in the BIOS enabled and bitLocker enabled as well.  I think I now understand better and I will give rescue media a try.

By the way, what MVP stands for?

And what's the advantages of ATIH compared to backup & restore (Win7's) built in Win 10, which seems also to creat a disk image?

Forgive me for those elementery questions.  If I did not encounter any problems with ATIH I wouldn't bother them.

Thanks again.

S Yuan

Si Yuan, MVP stands for Most Valued Professional but essentially we are volunteer users similar to yourself, but perhaps with more experience of using the product and willing to share that with others.

If you have BitLocker enabled, then please be aware that the Acronis Rescue Media does not have support for this and you would need to disable BitLocker in order to perform a restore, plus when you make a backup from within Windows, this too is of unencrypted data.

See KB document: 56619: Acronis True Image: Compatibility with BitLocker which explains about using ATIH with BitLocker more.

ATIH has many advantages compared to the Windows Backup program from Windows 7 - you have much greater control over what you include in an Acronis backup, i.e. Disks & Partitions (which can include those used by other operating systems such as Linux), Files & folders, plus you have integration of these backup images into Windows / File Explorer which will allow you to Mount or Explore your backup images and copy / paste data from them etc.

Your SP4 is also a strictly Windows 10 device. Drivers for Windows 8.1, I, or 7 don't fully exist for the sp4 which has Windows 10 drivers only for the touchscreen and surface keyboard. It also uses an nvme pcie hard drive in RAID mode. As a result, the default Linux version of Acronis is likely to not be bootable by default as it also needs to have secure boot disabled and legacy enabled. When you start the process in Windows it will need to reboot and the failure will occur at the bios before Acronis can load, but the changes have already started just before the reboot. 

Windows 10 backup and recovery actually isn't bad. However it only works for the same system so you can't move an image between PCS. The features and schedules and locations are also limited compared to other backup programs. Working in tandem though, you diversify your backup and restore options for more opportunities to recover from so I'd encourage you to use both. Windows also has no clone feature and although I don't recommend starting the clone from Acronis within windows, the few times I've done it with the rescue media have been fine.

Frustrated again!

I have disabled bitLocker within Win 10.  I tried to restore by booting from a USB rescue media and encountered the following message:

One or more of the selected boot devices had a SecureBoot violation! Returning to Surface settings. Please verify SecureBoot key configuration and boot device selection.

It seems I need to change Secure Boot from MS only to none. But I was afraid that the drive may be relocked by the system I retreated out.

S Yuan

 

Yes, you must turn secure boot off to boot 3rd party bootloaders on the Surface Pro 4 - this is what secure boot is designed to do.  Being secure is fun, no?

http://www.howtogeek.com/116569/htg-explains-how-windows-8s-secure-boot-feature-works-what-it-means-for-linux/