Skip to main content

bootable Compact flash

Thread needs solution

I am using Acronis True Image 2017 bootable media to backup a system that runs on a bootable 2G compact flash memory, no hard drive.  When I boot up, I can see the CF card and make an image with no problems.  On my windows 7 PC I can easily see the image and Mount it to view files.  All is well at this point.  When I try to restore the image, Acronis will see the CF card as a generic storage device, but not restore the image to it.  The card is grayed out and I cannot select it.  I have done hundreds of backups and restored a lot of hard drives, this is my first attempt with a CF card running Windows xp embedded.  An image that I can't restore is useless as a backup, what can I do differently?

0 Users found this helpful

Russ, you may want to open a ticket with Acronis for this one.  I've only seen a few instances where CF cards were at play and most have not been successful.  However, we don't see much in the forums, so don't have a lot to go on with these, but hopefully technical support can give you some direct support to get you back in business soon.

Please take a look at this thread... (https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-home-forum-older-versions/recovery-cf-card) as another user had a similar issue and turned out that the CF cards being used had different identifiers (like some USB flash drives do / did when Windows 8 first came out).  Do you know if your CF card is configured by the manufacturer as "removable" or "fixed" disk in Windows disk management in both instances?  If they are different, this may be part of the issue as it sounds like to be bootable, they both need to be of the "fixed" type.

Also, how are you attempting to restore?  From Windows or the default Linux rescue media?  If trying with Windows, then disregard that and first try the default linux rescue media as linux can see other partitions on removable media such as flash USB drives, but Windows cannot.

If that also fails, then try grabbing the Acronis MVP custom media builder and attempting to build WinRE rescue media with it - it may have the drivers needed to move things forward.

And a last thought... I'm assuming the recovery is happening on a different system, or is it the original XP embedded system?  Just want to be sure since XP embedded is likely on legacy hardware... if the system where the recovery is happening is a newer UEFI system and the restore is starting in UEFI mode, instead of legacy mode (assuming it should be legacy), that could be an issue as I don't think UEFI would be supported on a CF card.

Bobbo,

Thanks for the response.  I removed the card from its original system (the XP embedded one) and created the image on a Windows 7 Ultimate PC with an external USB card reader, and a second image from an Acronis rescue media on a bootable external hard drive using the same hardware.  I also tried Universal restore, but wasn't paying close enough attention and messed up the MBR of my PC.  Good thing I had it backed up.  The Universal restore didn't even recognize the CF card was there.  As to the fixed disk, I even tried to restore the image back on the card that I made it from as well as a separate card of the same size.  Same results.  When attempting to write the image in Windows or from the rescue media while selecting image destination the CF card is recognized, but greyed out and non-selectable.

Russ, 

Bummer.  I don't have much experience with CF cards to help here.  I know this is dumb, but does it have a write protection feature that is enabled?

https://itstillworks.com/remove-write-protection-cf-card-6862370.html

If that's not it, you could try grabbing the 2019 trial and see if the newer version has different results (or not). Just be aware that if you want to revert back to your existing license, you'll either have to restore an OS backup, or start from scratch with Acronis again - ideally, you'd do this on a different machine or a temporary VM so you don't have to muck with this if possible.

Alternatively, try creating WinPE as well to build your rescue media.  Download and install Windows 10 ADK (1809) and use the MVP custom media builder to create a WinPE rescue media.  Perhaps, the Windows drivers will be helpful - as long as it's not a limitation of the actual application code that is not allowing the restore to be made.  

A couple of other thoughts... how is the CF card formatted - Fat32, exFAT?  Not that it should matter if doing a full disk restore, but maybe if you use the "add new disk" function to initialize the card first, then you might be able to restore.

Also, just curious, but can you restore the backup to another backup medium such as an external hard drive - just to see if it's possible (not that it helps in the long run, but just to make sure you get the option to).