There are several issues that are at work here. The first is that Windows 7.1 does not have native support for NVMe SSD, and the other is that the recovery media for ATI 2017 is dated.

There are posts elsewhere outlining the steps necessary to overcome these issues. Not an area in which I have any expertise but there are frequent contributors to the Forum who are on top of this issue.

Ian

So, a couple of things that come to mind first...

1) Are the drivers you're adding Win7 or Win10?  The WinPE is using Win10 ADK installed on your machine according to the log file,  so the drivers you're adding there need to be Win10 and in the custom Win 10 x64 folder.  Don't put win 7 drivers in there since it's building Windows 10 WinPE

2) What is your chipset?  The tool has IRST drivers that should pick up PCIE nvme drives for intel chipsets.  If you're using an AMD Ryzen or something else, you may have to provide chipset drives for storage controllers.  We don't have AMD systems to test with.

3) if this is a new drive, it probably is not initialized.  You should use the 'add new disk' feature in Acronis, or attempt to intialize and format as GPT in Windows first.

If it is intel and you're supplying the correct drivers, the Windows 10 PE should pick up the drive.  In addition to Ian's comments, if you plan for this to be the new boot drive... you need to install the Windows 7 hotfixes first for Windows 7 native support.  And the windows 7 nvme drivers within the OS.  Make sure the OS can see and detect the drive first.

Then use the Win PE to recover to it (with the correct windows 10 drivers).

Keep in mind that PCIE nvme drives can only boot Windows 7 with the hotfixes, the correct drivers and UEFI/GPT layout - you cannot boot a PCIe NVME drive in legacy MBR.  What is your current OS installed as?

The IRST drivers supplied are for Intel systems. The important one for you is iaStorAC.inf. That one is for Intel RAID controllers. I'm surprised to see it failed to install in the Windows 10 ADK you have installed. I assume the computer came from Dell with Windows 7 preinstalled. That would mean that Dell already took care of adding support for NVMe and USB 3.0. They would also have added the drivers needed to support the RAID controller. What type of RAID controller is being used. Look in Device Manager under Storage Controllers and tell us what you see for a RAID controller. That is the one that you need to add the drivers for. However, you need to add Windows 10 drivers not Windows 7 drivers because the ADK is Windows 10.

You also have the option to  build the MVP media using the build from WinRE option instead of build from an ADK option. You should try that next. If that still doesn't work, you will need to add the Windows 7 RAID drivers to the  "Drivers_Custom/x64_Windows_7" folder.

Thank you to Ian, Bobbo and Mustang for the good ideas. I am anxious to try them but will take some time for me to get back to the thread with some answers.

Just to clarify some things:

The System is a Dell Precision 7710 Laptop running Windows 7 Pro. It came with the Toshiba / OCZ 1TB SSD mentioned above, with UEFI Bios and set to Raid mode. Under normal operation the system boots up and operates fine in Windows.

It was purchased in mid-2016 and - just lately - I wanted to be sure the Acronis Rescue disk worked in case I needed it. Well I found out it didn't since it doesn't recognize the SSD when booting from the Rescue disk - thus the problem to resolve.

Otherwise, the system works fine and has no problem with the SSD in Windows. 

Sounds good Mandacat - I know it will work with this Dell (we're a mostly Dell shop) and we've been able to get Acronis working with all of them (new and old).  

In this case, yes, the rescue media needs to be WinPE with the correct IRST drivers.  Again, since it looks like you're using Windows 10 ADK according to your log:

----------------
ADK INFORMATION:
----------------
Installed:               10.0.14393

If building rescue media as WinPE (which I'd recommend since your WinRE would be Windows 7 and takes more work to get PCI NVME working, but is doable), you need to include Windows 10 drivers in the WinPE.  The MVP tool already includes these and should have no issue.  What I believe to be the issue here is...

I see you're running the tool from your profile, which is not recommended due to permission restrictions in Windows needed by the tool.  Please move the MVP tool folder to the root of your drive and give the folder full access to all users or all logged on users and then right-click the .exe and "run as administrator" when you launch it.

SCRIPT SOURCE:           C:\Users\Bob\Downloads\AcronisTrueImage_PE_BUILDER\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v186

After that, I have a feeling your rescue media will build just fine and will see your drive when booted.

Thanks again, I'll get back to you, probably after the weekend when I can try the suggestions.

mandacat (Bill)

Sounds good.  Hope it works better the next time.  If not, we'll sort it out.

Bobbo, Mustang, Ian ...

I plan on getting back to this on Sunday afternoon and want to go over your questions and suggestions to make sure I have it right.

Before Running the .EXE

-  Move the MVP Tool Folder to the Root of the HD (SSD)
-  Give the folder full access to all users or all logged on users
*  Comment: The only user on Laptop is Bob (admin) - Will be sure has Full Control in permissions
-  Run the exe as administrator
-  Since ADK is Windows 10, any custom drivers should be windows 10 drivers

*  Don't plan on adding any drivers for the first build. If no go, per Mustang: "Look in Device Manager under Storage Controllers and tell us what you see for a RAID controller.
That is the one that you need to add the drivers for. However, you need to add Windows 10 drivers not Windows 7 drivers because the ADK is Windows 10." (I Understand)

Question: The System is has an Intel I-7 CPU (6820HQ), but evidently has AMD FirePro Graphics Is this why the build indicates AMD64 ?

-  I could not find a way - as requested - to turn off "Acronis Active Protection" if it even exists in Acronis TI 2017.

-  The backup files are on a NAS (WDEX2), connected to the ethernet network. Do you think it will be recognized as a NAS or do you recommend mapping it as a share with drive letter ?

I want to THANK all of you again for not only your help to me, but for the time you spend in making life easier for all us Acronis users.

Mandacat (Bill)

Amd64 is the hardware architecture for 64-bit machines, I know it's confusing! Don't worry about the graphics for the Winpe rescue media.

However in some laptops there is a bios setting called something like "enable discrete graphics", or "switchable graphics" or hybrid graphics or something of that nature. If your rescue media is all black or a weird size, you can try disabling the card and use the native graphics. This is rare that it's needed, especially when using winpe rescue media.

In 2017, I believe You have to disable AAP in computer management by stopping the service. I forget. In 2019 it's an option in the application.

When I connect to my NAS with rescue media, I just enter the IP in the path such as \\192.168.1.100\

And am prompted to authenticate and it works. If need be, cancel and try to enter the full share path before authentication as some NAS have different behavior.

If there are issues, you can use "net use"1 in command prompt or A43 file explorer to map as a drive letter, but it's usually not necessary. The custom MVP winpe make it easier to do this though since it was a GUI like menu and easy access to extra command prompts in winpe or just launching A43 file explorer so you can map a drive letter with it's interface.

The reason I suggested to use the Build from WinRE option is that the Windows 7 WinRE from your system will be used and your Windows 10 ADK will be ignored. Also, NVMe and USB 3.0 support will automatically be added to the WinRE. This will allow you to use Windows 7 RAID drivers from your system instead of searching for Windows 10 drivers. With an Intel CPU, the drivers we have supplied should work for your RAID controller saving you the effort to add them.

Mustang wrote:

You also have the option to  build the MVP media using the build from WinRE option instead of build from an ADK option. You should try that next. If that still doesn't work, you will need to add the Windows 7 RAID drivers to the  "Drivers_Custom/x64_Windows_7" folder.

Yes, seems like a good option for my particular issue, assuming that the WinRe file is available to the MVPATI on the dell 7710 Laptop. Will follow-up after working on this tomorrow.

I should have enough time to try them both - WinRe and WinPe

Thanks,
Mandacat (bill)

Here's the Follow- Up:

Some issues I think you may be interested in, but mostly good news.

Since I don't always have access to the Dell Precision Laptop 7710, I thought I’d get a head start on the process by using my old Toshiba Laptop (2008 Vintage) now running Windows 10, 1803. Since WinRe was not available, I used the MVPATI to create a USB Flash Drive with ADK and WinPE – Yesterday – with no extra drivers.

I tried it on the Dell 7710 today and it worked, at least from the standpoint of booting into Acronis and recognizing the SSD. But - since I forgot to Map the NAS (WdEx2), the backup files were unavailable and it wouldn’t recognize the NAS as a NAS

I thought that all I need do was recreate and be sure, this time, to Map the NAS. However, when I recreated with WinPE using the Laptop running Windows 7, I got the same error as last week. The program refused to install the Intel storage drivers, apparently because they weren’t the same version as in the Running OP system ?? I didn’t duplicate the log since it’s the same errors as shown in the log I included in my first post. As a result, when I booted it wouldn’t - again - recognize the SSD.

Well Mustang - I agree - its time to try WinRe and its available on the Dell 7710. I created the USB Drive with WinRe and all went well. Well almost all. The only thing I must have screwed up was the NAS mapping. Although I’m not sure why, but turns out I didn’t need to map the NAS since it recognized the NAS as a NAS and was able to access the backup files.

Still wonder why it fails to install the Intel storage files when creating the recue media with WinPE and the Win 7 Laptop ? Is it possible that the Acronis Protection Service is causing the problem. I could not disable it in TI 2017 nor could I find it in services.msc.

Well that’s it for now. Thanks to all, I was able to accomplish what I set out to do, create acronis bootable recovery media to reinstall, when / if required, using an acronis backup.

I uploaded the log for the WinRe creation in case anyone wants to see it.

Thanks again, you’re a great team.

Mandacat (Bill)

The mapping of a NAS in Acronis is a bit odd throughout different versions of Acronis.  We recently found this out in a 2018 thread from BrunoC who could not get his NAS to map directly in Acronis using the Acronis GUI with the latest version of 2018, regardless if the rescue media was built with ADK 1803 or 1809.  We then had him test with 2019 and ADK 1803 and 2019 with ADK 1809 and he was able to map just fine in both of those instances, so it seems to be a behavior of 2018 and his particular NAS (as mine worked fine with 2018).  This may be what your experiencing with the mapped share to some extent too in 2017

Long story short in Bruno's case - He was able to use Acronis 2018 WinPE rescue media to connect to his NAS by closing the Acronis GUI and then using a "net use" command to map the share with cmd prompt as a drive letter.  Then he could restart Acronis in the WinPE and connect to it from "my computer >>> mapped drive letter).  In 2019, he can map his NAS share directly in Acronis without issue.  

As for the rescue media not finding your storage controller on when building on your Win 7 system with ADK, not sure what's going on there.  You can use any version of the ADK on Windows 7 (as far as I've experienced) and the drivers that are included with the MVP builder for Windows 10 ADK should work with any version of Windows 10 ADK.

You might want to go back and remove the ADK and or WAIK on control panel on that system, reboot to be sure and grab the latest 1809 Windows 10 ADK instead - just to see.  Microsoft changed the installer on this one so you have to download the main one (small install) and then the additional ADK tool as described here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/what-s-new-in-kits-and-tools

(See Download and install the Windows ADK and ADK tools to get the ADK and WinPE add-on.)

I did some testing using Windows 10 ADK's on a Windows 7 64 bit system. I got the same results Mandacat. The IRST and Killer NIC drivers would not install. There are definitely compatibility issues despite Microsofts's claims that the Windows 10 ADK's are compatible with Windows 7. Users need to stick with the WinRE option on Windows 7 systems to get the RAID drivers installed.

Bobbo,

When I used the Win10 ADK with WinPE on the Toshiba Laptop Running Windows 10  it created the Rescue Disk with no problem and no errors, and installed all the the Win 10 Drivers. But when I tried to create the Rescue disk on the Windows 7 Laptop, I got the following error and all the Win 10 driver installations failed.

"DISM has skipped driver signature check because the version of running OS and that of target OS do not match.
Error - An error occurred. The driver package could not be installed."

No Matter as requesting WinRe resolved the problem, since it pulled the Win 7 drivers from the Drivers_Custom\x64_Windows_7 Folder and the Win 7 Intel Storage Drivers worked with the SSD.

Just thought might be interesting in case anyone ran across the same problem

Mandacat (Bill)

Mustang wrote:

I did some testing using Windows 10 ADK's on a Windows 7 64 bit system. I got the same results Mandacat. The IRST and Killer NIC drivers would not install. There are definitely compatibility issues despite Microsofts's claims that the Windows 10 ADK's are compatible with Windows 7. Users need to stick with the WinRE option on Windows 7 systems to get the RAID drivers installed.

Interesting find! I'll have to test on a VM too. Seems like it was working with earlier versions of ADK 10 on Win7 systems.

Seems weird to me that even though the current OS is Win 7 in this case, it's ADK (for winw10) throwing a compatibility error for a driver that is compatible with that version of ADK.

Im sure we've seen other Win 7 systems use win 10 ADK and the custom IRST drivers with success in the past. Interesting indeed but glad the WinRE method worked on the Win7 system too! 

Mustang, I ran on my Win 7 Pro system with ADK 1809 and it built and injected the Windows 10 custom drivers just fine. 

I notice that Mandacat's log is using ADK 1603, which is some time ago and wonder if that has a compatibility issue?  Which version did you use?

Mandacat's log shows:  10.0.14393

Mine (attached) shows: 10.0.17763 

Bobbo, Mustang

Looks like you probably found the reason why PE didn't work for me on the Dell Precision 7710 Laptop. I must have used an old link to download the ADK - My Bad, especially when you called it to begin with. 

Thanks again & again, etc.
Mandacat (Bill)

Bill,

Happy to help. If you do end up upgrading the ADK at some point and test it out - I'd be curious to know if it works for you then or if you still get errors installing the included drivers.  It could be something else, but at least having a newer version might be a work-a-round.  Time will tell as others try it out too :)

Bobbo,

Will do. It’s a friends system, so it could be a while before I can get access.

Mandacat (Bill)

I have done some more testing with this problem. I set up a new Windows 7 system on a virtual machine. What I discovered was that I had problems running the MVP Tool with a Windows 10 ADK installed at first. The script wouldn't even successfully mount the wim file do the digital signature issues. I then went to Windows Update and allowed the system to get fully updated. After that was done, I was able to run the MVP Tool and all the drivers (including the IRST drivers) were successfully installed!

I don't think the issue has nothing to do with what Windows 10 ADK is used. They should all work. The problem seems to be related to either Windows 7 not being fully updated or just something being broken in Windows 7. My old Windows 7 system that has this problem has had Windows Update broken for a long time.

Bobbo, Mustang

Got a chance this morning (Thurs, 3/14/2019) to get back to the Dell 7710 Laptop.

As far as I could tell, the Laptop was up to date ( had just updated this morning).

1. Removed the older version of ADK

2. Installed ADK 1809 (Version (10.1.17763.1) and Associated WinPE  (which installed separately).

3. Ran the MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe file, as Administrator, and chose WinPE (Same as before) 

4. It Failed to Install the IRST Storage Drivers

Unfortunately, I realized when I got back that I forgot to copy the log file. I did look at it and, as I remember it, its the same as the previous failures using the earlier ADK.

Below is a copy of the Previous Log showing the failure to install the Intel IRST Storage Drivers

______________________________________________

"Found 4 driver package(s) to install.
Installing 1 of 4 - C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v186\Drivers_Custom\x64\IRST\iaAHCIC.inf: 
INFO: DISM has skipped driver signature check because the version of running OS and that of target OS do not match.
Error - An error occurred. The driver package could not be installed. 
For more information, check for log files in the <windir>\inf folder of the target image.
Installing 2 of 4 - C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v186\Drivers_Custom\x64\IRST\iaStorAC.inf: 
INFO: DISM has skipped driver signature check because the version of running OS and that of target OS do not match.
Error - An error occurred. The driver package could not be installed. 
For more information, check for log files in the <windir>\inf folder of the target image.
Installing 3 of 4 - C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v186\Drivers_Custom\x64\NIC\Killer e2200 Gigabit Ethernet Controller\oem59.inf: 
INFO: DISM has skipped driver signature check because the version of running OS and that of target OS do not match.
Error - An error occurred. The driver package could not be installed. 
For more information, check for log files in the <windir>\inf folder of the target image.
Installing 4 of 4 - C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v186\Drivers_Custom\x64\OCZ TOSHIBA NVMe\ocznvme.inf: 
INFO: DISM has skipped driver signature check because the version of running OS and that of target OS do not match.
The driver package was successfully installed."
____________________________________________

Mandacat (Bill)

Your friend's Windows 7 system is like my old Windows 7 system. Something about it is broken. I get the same error and can't figure out why. Thanks for reporting that fully updating the system did not fix the problem. I can eliminate that as a possible cause. Maybe it's time for him to upgrade to Windows 10. I only keep mine around for testing purposes.

Win 7 is on its last legs, better to start upgrading sooner, rather than later - especially with all these Intel (chipset and video), Chrome and Windows 7 zero day vulnerabilities happening so often now.

Support for Windows 7 is ending

All good things must come to an end, even Windows 7. After January 14, 2020, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or support for PCs running Windows 7. But you can keep the good times rolling by moving to Windows 10.

Proof-of-concept code published for Windows 7 zero-day

Google reports zero-day exploit in Windows 7, Microsoft yet to release patch