This is a problem...
Let me make a very long story short. I attempted to install an SSD 8 days ago. It turned out that when I plugged it in, it effectively trashed my RAID 5 array because my M.2 SSD slot shares two connecters with my RAID array. I didn't realize this until the RAID array had been destroyed and the Intel RAID software had attempted a rebuild. I blew everything way, restored my system config and set about restoring the good Acronis backup I had from the day before. This crashed. Said that there was a missing component "WINDLOADER.EXE".
I have since been down the road of attempting every possible combination of Acronis options and windows command line help with no success. I have installed Windows 10 25 times in the last 10 days. I have attempted disk restores, partition restores, file restores and everything in between. I have a windows recovery stick so that I can reinstall windows at will and recreate the install environment at will but every option has failed. This should not be this hard. I do this for a living. I've paid good money for Acronis for years and always assumed it was there for me. This is a complete frigging disaster. Nothing has worked.
At this point, I am hopeful that I can do a directory by directory restore to get my data back. That has crashed when I've done a complete disk restore but I'm hopeful I can restore user folders. If that works I will be happy but I will spread the word far and wide that Acronis backup is a sham and can't be trusted with windows 10 and beyond. I am so PISSED!!!! My email address is rschoon@du.edu. If anyone out there can give me a concise set of instructions for how to restore my system in the next few days, that would be greatly appreciated.


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To me it seems that the raid 5 was probably using Intel® Rapid Storage Technology. M.2 SSD use SATA rather than PCIE and will disable one or more SATA ports.
1 Create Recovery Media: The first thing to do is to create WinPE recovery media; you should use the MVP Tool - CUSTOM ATI WINPE BUILDER to create recovery media with the RST drivers. (If you had ATI 2018 rather than ATI 2017 you could use the native recovery media creation tool as it will inclede the necessary drivers).
2. Remove the M.2 drive SATA drive
3 Rebuild the raid 5 array: Power up the system and enter the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology during boot-up - this may be in the UIEF/bios or a separate setting (on older chipsets). You can then rebuild the raid as all disks will now be present (and hopefully have not been trashed by what happened previously). This may take quite some time depending on the speed of the drives and the CPU.
4 Use Acronis recovery media to create a disk image of the raid array: Use the Acronis recovery media - not the Linux version as it does not have the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology drivers - to backup the raid disk.
5 Delete the raid array: Once this is done, go back into raid management and delete the raid array (do this via UEIF/BIOS).
Reinstall the M.2 SSD: You can now put the M.2 drive back in and assuming you have enough SATA ports, recreate your Raid 5 array. Then use ATI to recover the recover the raid partitions.
If you do not have enough SATA ports, if your mother board supports it, get an M.2 NVMe SSD which uses PCIe rather than SATA connection. Bit more expensive but very much faster.
Hope this helps. Please keep us informed of your process
Ian
Update: If you have a current backup of the raid partition use that rather than creating a new one - avoids the need to create the recovery media.
Update 2: For a moment I thought there was a possibility that the boot partition was on the raid array but this obviously is not the case. Just another seniors moment.
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HI. I'll address your comments as best I can. That email address is an old one that has long since been hijacked by numerous folks out there. I can still receive emails there so it's OK. It's not associated with my personal Internet footprint as far as I can tell.
The array is an Intel Rapid Storage technology array. The boot manager has continued to work throughout this ordeal and always comes up with the array intact.
The SSD was added in to the system with intent of moving the OS to that drive. Wasn't replacing any other drive.
Before I attempted to install the SSD, I had the array (3 1TB drives in a RAID 5 configuration) and a 2 TB data drive.
I downloaded and created a WIN 10 install USB stick that has worked reliably throughout. I attempted to create an Acronis boot media but found no way to do this using a USB stick and I didn't want to fight with trying to build a DVD.
I built a Universal Restore DVD but when it boots up the UI is completely cryptic and to me, unusable.
I can install WIN 10 at will, and have installed it probably 2 dozen times over the last week onto the single drive and onto the numerously rebuilt disk array. Every time I do a restore, either disk recovery, partition recovery, or files recovery, acronis reboots the machine and the system can't find the boot files. I've been through numerous website suggestions for BDCBOOT restore, fooling with partition names and such. Everytime the system fails to reboot and I reload the WIN 10 recovery environment the RAID array has no partition information. I have to believe there is a simple set of DISKPART or other commands that might recover the partition but I haven't been able to find them.
I have literally spent 80 hours on this over the last week and a half. I am a VERY saavy PC user. I have built and maintained my PCs literally since the first release of WIndows and this is the first time I have been completely defeated by this sort of problem.
My current approach is that I've been able to restore the user folders and if I can get WIndows to allow me access (TO MY OWN DATA!) I will set about re-installing all my software and bringing things back up. IN THE ABSENCE OF A BETTER ANSWER THIS WILL BE THE LAST YEAR I RENEW MY ACRONIS SOFTWARE.
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Robert, thank you for the additional information.
"The SSD was added in to the system with intent of moving the OS to that drive. Wasn't replacing any other drive.
Before I attempted to install the SSD, I had the array (3 1TB drives in a RAID 5 configuration) and a 2 TB data drive."
From the above I assume that your active, working OS was on the RAID 5 array, and thus you are attempting to migrate that OS to be launched from the new M.2 SSD instead, which would require changes to the BIOS Boot sequence plus any new device drivers that may be needed by the SSD?
I would suggest that removing or disconnecting the RAID array while you get the SSD OS working might be the simplest way forward. Assuming this is a UEFI system, then you would only have the choice of one copy of the Windows Boot Manager for the correct SSD boot sequence.
" I downloaded and created a WIN 10 install USB stick that has worked reliably throughout. I attempted to create an Acronis boot media but found no way to do this using a USB stick "
The Acronis USB Rescue Media needs to be a stick of between 1GB and 32GB max size and must be formatted as FAT32. It cannot be formatted as NTFS as can be the case with the Win 10 install media. Also as mentioned by myself and Ian, you would need to create the MVP Custom ATIPE media that can inject the Intel RST drivers needed for your RAID array.
" My current approach is that I've been able to restore the user folders and if I can get WIndows to allow me access (TO MY OWN DATA!)"
When you restore user data, it is very important not to restore using the original file permissions - you have performed a new install of Windows 10 and even if you have created an identical user to that used previously on your RAID copy of the OS, the user is not identical and not recognised as being identical for the purpose of file permissions.
See the ATI 2018 User Guide:File recovery options which covers the above point.
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I agree that Steve's suggestions are the best way to proceed. What you are doing inevitably results in complications.
There is one possibility that may simplify things. Did you by chance create two separate raid 5 arrays; I have done this in the past as it can simplify matters when you have the OS on the array. If so you can then delete the array containing Windows OS removing the issues that arise when you have duplicate system disks.
The way to proceed is to disconnect the HDDs forming the raid (just remove the SATA cable from the HDD). This should not cause any issues preventing from booting from you new M.2 SSD. (This is definitely the case with BIOS but I have not tried it with UEFI.) This will allow you to get Windows working on the M.2 SSD.
How you then proceed depends on whether you have a recent backup of the data partitions on the raid array. If you do, then I would reconnect the HDDs forming the raid array from within the UEFI/BIOS, create an new one, boot into windows, then recover the data partitions to the newly created raid array.
If you do not have a current backup of the data partitions, thing become more difficult, but I will wait for further information before considering how best to proceed.
Ian
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I have a full backup from before the catastrophe. The array was trashed by the installation of the SSD and subsequent rebuild attempt by the Intel RAID software. I have removed the SSD and put the system back the way it was with the exception that I have moved the array drive connections to ports that aren't shared by the SSD socket in the hopes that I can ultimately install that once I have the system recovered. I have WIN 10 installed on my secondary 2 TB drive and can boot from that. I have Acronis 2017 installed and running and can access my backups on a third external USB 3 drive. I have a WIN 10 USB install stick that I can install from at will. I have the WIN 10 ADK installed. I believe this is related to something to do with the GPT status of the RAID array before this all happened but am not sure. I have tried to follow various folks instructions for restoring the array but the instructions inevitiably get to be very complicated and unintelligable. THIS SHOULD NOT BE THIS HARD.j
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Robert, it is good that you have your full backup to call upon when needed. RAID systems with multiple drives and shared drive connections are in themselves a complicated scenario, especially if the RAID software decides that your new SSD should become a part of the array.
I do not have any systems that use RAID and no great experience in dealing with this type of migration scenario beyond offering the advice already given. Perhaps Enchantech, Mustang or Bobbo will chime in with their comments to help further here?
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Steve, I have some experience with Raid5 using Intel RST, but I only use Raid 5 for data, not OS.
Three things need to be done:
- Remove the existing RAID 5 array (this is OK as there is a recent backup)
- Windows running on the M.2 SSD.
- Create a new RAID 5 array, and recover all partitions (other than those relating to the OS).
Ian
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Thanks Ian for your contributions to this topic.
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Steve, it is one of those cases where a user could think it is straight-forward process, but it is complicated (or so it seems to me in this case) by a failure to appreciate how the various bits of the puzzle fit together. It took me a while to work out what was going on and how best to solve the problem.
Over the years I have had my share of issues with raid arrays - the most difficult one to sort out ultimately had nothing to do with the raid set-up; it was caused by a failing power supply (even premium power supplies can fail unexpectedly).
Ian
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Back again. A week later. I was able to finally get my system restored last Saturday afternoon. It ended up the drive was an MBR drive and not GPT. For some reason, installing windows and running the restore from the backup in Windows failed everytime as being unable to find the boot files. I created a WIndows PE restore media using Acronis and the Windows 10 PE files downloaded on line. I then started with a fresh RAID drive, with no partitions established and did a full restore using the boot media. This worked the first time I tried it. The system booted up without issue and was right back where it was the day the backup was made. Whewwww. I was very thankful to find the instructions here in the forum for how to do this sort of recovery but again, why did it not work from within a fresh install of windows on the RAID array itself?
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Robert, always glad to read of good news and pleased that you have been able to recover your system to how you wanted it - thank you for the feedback.
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Robert, glad the you have at last got to where you wanted to be.
Ian
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