Acronis Loader - boot loop to blank screen
I had to cancel out of my initial cloning process because I received an error about not being able to load a process (or something) and given 3 options - Yes, No or Cancel. No matter which one I picked it would just loop back. On the last loop I just chose the "cancel" button on the lower right and now the system goes from the black screen saying "Starting Acronis Loader ..." to a blank black screen. Nothing happens after that. How do I get out of this boot loop?
Thank you Steve for your reply,
Yes, I have ATIH 2017 and I was attempting to clone a drive in Windows. I am also waiting on a call back from Acronis on my issue.
Unfortunately I do not have either a Windows installation or repair disk nor have I ever done a full backup of my system since the whole reason I bought this product was to clone my disk first and then use the other parts of this product package. Since I haven't performed a full disk backup would I still download a CD image (.ISO) file from m Acronis account? (I doubt it would exist but I'm just asking in case.)
I have the option of UEFI or BIOS method in the BIOS settings and currently it's set to BIOS method.
I didn't see anything in the BIOS about a Secure Boot option.
Any other suggestions?
Tim, you haven't said which version of Windows OS you are running on your computer?
Assuming that you have Windows 10, then please go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 where you can download the Microsoft Media Creation Tool that you can use to download and create the installation media needed to do a repair of Windows.
If you boot from the installation media, you can try a Windows Startup Repair.
Sorry Steve, my bad. I'm using Windows 7 Pro - 64bit. (It may be Win7 Ultimate ... I can't remember 100%)
I will look for the Microsoft Media Creation Tool for Windows 7 (instead of Windows 10) and see what happens. I'll update this post once attempted/completed.
Cheers!
Tim, if you have another Windows 7 Pro 64-bit system, you can create a system repair disc from that one.
See webpage: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17423/windows-7-create-system-repair-disc
Man if it was only that easy. I'm using a Win10 Home laptop now to try and trouble shoot this and I don't have access to Win7 Ultimate 64. My issue with going through Windows is it asks me for a product key and of course I can't get my product key because I can't turn on my computer. I do have access to the HD through by mounting it as a USB (using a dongle) so if there is a way to modify manually modify or reset the boot record I can probably do that. (or find my product key)
I did find an iso mirror of the digitalriver site but I can't seem to download the iso x17-59465.iso The torrent won't download for me using utorrent,
I'll look to some "dark" sites to find a product key I may be able to input to at least get into the Microsoft Windows7 site. What a huge bummer I'm having to go through so many girations just to get my HD back. :(
So I contacted Microsoft through their chat and in about 3 minutes I had a link to the Win7 64 Ultimate iso file. It was actually a very pleasant experience. Now downloading a 3+ GB file on a 3MB connection is going to take some time. I'll update as I attemp to repair this installation after the download finishes (in 7 hours).
So I'm reopening this discussion up again.
First, I tried the repair disk method above to no avail. Next I contacted Acronis Support and that hasn't gone well either.
So I've been working on trying to resolve this issue off and on for the last 3-4 months through Acronis Support. They say my problem is related to the fact that I originally installed Acronis TI2014 on the drive and then tried to use TI2017 later to move the contents to a new drive. I used TI2017 because I had uninstalled TI2014 years ago. Didn't even know or expect there would be an issue with this.
Here's their reply exactly:
This is a follow-up email post the telephonic conversation we had in regards to your query on computer stuck in a boot loop. During the course of conversation we helped you to create a bootable media using Acronis True Image 2017. However, we were unable to disable the Acronis start up Recovery manger using Acronis True Image 2017 bootable media. We found that you had Acronis True Image HD 2014 installed in the computer. Hence, we suggested you to create a bootable media using Acronis True Image HD 2014 and disable the Acronis startup recovery manager. Please refer to the following article for more information on the same: http://forum.cruci al.com/t5/Crucial-SSDs/Using-Acronis-True-Image-HD-2014/ta-p/153150
So now the issue is nobody seems to have TI2014. Crucial points me to Acronis and Acronis points me back to Crucial. Here's a copy of the email exchange with Acronis on their "link" to TI2014.
Hello Debashish, When following the link to the article on Acronis True Image HD 2014 ...
it shows me the following link to download the program.
www.acronis.com/en-us/promo/tihd-download This link then take me to ATIHD 2015 not 2014.
Do you have a direct link to 2014 I could use?
Sincerely,
Tim
Hello Tim,
Thank you for your response.
I understand your concern. I also checked the same.
Unfortunately we would not be able to provide you the link. I would request you to
contact Crucial for the same.
I'm now between a rock and a hard place. Any suggestions would be appreciated as it seems without TI2014 I have a bricked SSD.
Tim,
Was your TI 2014 version a full paid for product that you bought from Acronis or was it bundled with your Crusial SSD? If it was a full product purchased from Acronis then you should be able to log on to your Acronis account and download an ISO for the 2014 product from which you could create a boot media with which to disable the ASRM.
Thanks Enchantech for your quick reply.
No it wasn't a full paid version but an OEM version included with my Crucial MX100 512GB SSD. I have logged into Acronis and it does show the TI 2014 registered to me but when I click the download button the next screen just comes up blank.
Again, the OEM version was always hosted by Acronis (and not Crucial) and all Crucial support (forum, knowledge base & phone) point back to a link to the Acronis site but that link now goes to TI 2015 and not TI 2014.
Any other thoughts on disabling ASRM?
Well, the OEM versions of True Image which is what your version of 2014 is are supported only by the OEM manufacturer which in this case would be Crucial. Unfortunately these arrangements are a problem because the OEM's do not know the product enough to troubleshoot.
Have you tried using the F11 key during boot of the drive? This should boot the ASRM and allow you to recover your drive. Now I have never tried this as I do no and will not use the ASRM. Reason being that it overwrites the MBR on the installed disk. If you can get the disk to boot using the F11 key then I would think that it would be possible once booted to simply end the ASRM session and boot the disk back into Windows again. At that point you could open the True Image app and deactivate the ASRM which should restore your MBR to boot normally. Below is a link describing the basics of ASRM:
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATIH2014/index.html#…
Below is a link to the older versions user guides. You can locate True Image 2014 on the linked page, click on the + next to it, and download the PDF file for the full user guide which should provide additional information that may be of some use.
Sans all of that you could use Microsoft BCDedit tools to remove the current BCD from the drive and then rebuild it anew which is something you may not be comfortable with.
Thanks again Enchantech. I will try the F11 trick as you describe above.
As far as the OEM version goes I agree with you. You should know that Crucial is willing to support it but they don't host the actual TI 2014 product download files on their servers. Acronis has always done that for them but the link now defaults to TI 2015 on Aconis' website. Acronis was to host and maintain the files. Acronis has since changed the files (or at least the link that points to TI 2014) and as of this point can't "locate" the original TI 2014 OEM. So you can see how this becomes a finger pointing match between the two companies getting me nowhere.
On Crucial's side, they have noted the issue and escalated it up through their channels with Acronis (as of yesterday).
If none of these solutions work out I'll have a bricked SSD and so I'd be willing to go down the dark path of the Microsoft BCDedit tools. I'll let you know if I get to that point. Thanks for your suggestions.
You could also PM (Private Message) Ekaterina Surkova: https://forum.acronis.com/user/85273 or Gaidar https://forum.acronis.com/user/197441 and let them know of your problem with the 2014 download links directing to the 2015 product for Crucial support staff. I am sure they could help there.
Keep us posted of your progress.
Hi Enchantech,
OK, so I tried your F11 suggestion and here's what happened. When pressing F11 it did not take me into ASRM but into the Windows Startup Repair screen. I chose Windows Repair and it went through it's routine with the following error at the end, "Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically." Obviously this is taking me into Windows Repair issues and away from my Acronis boot loop issues but I thought I'd give you the Windows repair details below anyway in case it's of any value.
Problem Detials:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem signature 03: unknown
Problem signature 04: 21200296
Problem signature 05: ExternalMedia
Problem signature 06: 4
Problem signature 07: BadPatch
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Then under "view advanced diagnostics" I can choose System Repair and see something called Diagnosis and Repair Details:
Root cause found:
A patch is preventing the system from starting.
Session details:
System Disk= \Device\Harddisk0
Windows Directory: F:\Windows
AutoChk Run= 0
Number of root causes = 1
All tests performed result = Completed successfully.
Not sure if this will help us or not but I'm willing to go down any rabbit trail and try anything.
Thanks again for sticking with me on this. (BTW - I also PM'd Ekatrina to try to get a working TI2014 OEM download link)
My experience with ASRM is nothing so I would advise waiting for a response from Ekaterina. Your best bet here is having a method of disabling the ASRM using recovery media.
A problem I see here is that you stated that fyou had the 2014 version installed but had uninstalled it prior to installing the 2017 product. That uninstall should have removed the ASRM so I am a bit confused by the Acronis Support response to you about that.
Tim, from your previous update about what happened when you pressed F11, I would suspect that you would need to first activate the 2014 ASRM then deactivate it again in order to cleanup this issue, as it looks like the linkage from the F11 key at boot is broken but the key itself wasn't removed correctly or cleanly.
Great observation Steve, that may very well be the case.