bootable Compact flash
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?


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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.
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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).
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