Use Acronis True Image to image multiple EMMC tablets

noodlemctwoodle wrote:

Will i be able to take an image of an emmc storage Windows Tablet and then restore that image to at least 300 more tablets of the same make an model?

The answer is that it should be able to do so but with some caveats, in particular, that you can boot the Windows Tablet from the Acronis bootable Rescue Media in the same boot mode as Windows on the tablet uses, i.e. UEFI or Legacy/BIOS, and that you can do so whilst also connecting an external USB backup drive on which to store the backup image (and restore the image from).  You will probably need to use a powered USB hub or dock to connect the boot media and external backup drive, plus keyboard & mouse to your tablet.

There are two types of Acronis Rescue Media, the default media uses a Linux OS to boot into the Acronis application environment, whereas you can also create a Windows PE version of the media to which additional device drives can be added (inserted) if needed to support specific devices that the linux media doesn't recognise.

If you have a 32-bit Windows Tablet (as opposed to 64-bit) then you would need to create the MustangPE version of the Windows PE Rescue media as this is only available for 64-bit devices as created by ATIH, whereas MustangPE supports building both 32-bit and 64-bit media.

Hope you have a volume license for Windows for all those tablets!

@Steve Smith - Thanks for your input, yes I am able to boot the tablet to USB using a powered USB hub, which has mouse, keyboard, storage device and boot key, I have sucsessully taken an image using macrium, however I have been unable to put the image back on another device same hardware different tablet. I just didn't want to purchase further software if it was not going to be able to do the job at hand. I already own a copy of Acronis 2015, however I see that emmc has only been implemented in 2016, I presume this is also supported in the 2017 version also?

All the devices are X86 and I have tried various methoeds of imaging though none of them have been easy or straight forward like the service Acronis offiers and nothing I can pass down to our build team with an easy process to follow to build 300+ tablets. 

Currennly we are building and configuring these these tabllets using 300+ lines of powershell to push applications, Office 365 and config and it is a long drawn out process as the initial steps after you switch on the device is very time consuming. Building a ready to go device, Windows updates, applications, user config and settings, then imaging it is a more sensible option.  

@Enchantech - No there is no need for a volume licence key as all the tablets will be manually be reactivated using the keys stored in the MSDM table in the bios, which I have scripted in powershell to retrieve and re-activate the device using SLMGR. 

Many thanks for your input. 

What make and model of tablet are you working with here?

My own recent brush with a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2, 32-bit with Windows 8 was a mixed experience where I was unable to get the ATIH 2017 standard Linux based Rescue Media to boot successfully on the tablet.  
See post: 126708: Impossible to restore a TI 2015 image to a Lenovo Tablet 2 (win8) for more details.

I was able to restore a Macrium image to that tablet but didn't get opportunity to try using a 32-bit MustangPE (Windows PE) boot USB with ATIH 2017 that I expect would have worked - I tested one on my own Samsung NC10 Netbook computer with a 32-bit Atom processor.

See post: 126974: Guide to Creating 32 or 64 Bit WinPE Recovery Media with WiFi Support which has links to the download page for MustangPE - you must have ATIH installed to be able to build this media.

Great, just wanted to make sure you understood those requirements.  I would encourage you to have a ggod look at MustangPE 32 bit with the Treu Image plugin.  I believe it will be a great help in your deployment.

@ Steve Smith - We are using a bunch of different models ranging from Linx 7, Linx 8, Linx 810, other unknown brands, possibly other low end unbranded tablets all under £100 mark soon, therefore I'm looking for a solid solution which I can hand off to our build team further down the chain. We also deploy android tablets and other hand held devices, although that is more of a manual process as nothing seems to work unless you root the device. Although I may look at True Image as suggested by Enchantech, from the info one the Acronis site looks like it may be able to handle Android now too...

MustangPE looks like a good product, having now glanced at the details this is something I shall investigate further, having had little success with other products. 

@ Enchantech - I have been working with Windows Licencing for many years and building with MDT for a good 5 years, primarily Windows based environments. I will have to check out MustangPE, I just googled it up and it looks promising. If I can pair that with True Image as you say hopefully I can get something working. Thanks for your input.

MustangPE was developed by fellow MVP Paul Larini explicitly for users of  True Image.  You should drop him a PM (private message ) Indicating what you have in mind.  I think he would be most helpful to you.  You will find link to him for a PM in the Sticky section of these Forum pages.

noodlemctwoodle wrote:

@Steve Smith - Thanks for your input, yes I am able to boot the tablet to USB using a powered USB hub, which has mouse, keyboard, storage device and boot key, I have sucsessully taken an image using macrium, however I have been unable to put the image back on another device same hardware different tablet. I just didn't want to purchase further software if it was not going to be able to do the job at hand. I already own a copy of Acronis 2015, however I see that emmc has only been implemented in 2016, I presume this is also supported in the 2017 version also?

All the devices are X86 and I have tried various methoeds of imaging though none of them have been easy or straight forward like the service Acronis offiers and nothing I can pass down to our build team with an easy process to follow to build 300+ tablets. 

Currennly we are building and configuring these these tabllets using 300+ lines of powershell to push applications, Office 365 and config and it is a long drawn out process as the initial steps after you switch on the device is very time consuming. Building a ready to go device, Windows updates, applications, user config and settings, then imaging it is a more sensible option.  

@Enchantech - No there is no need for a volume licence key as all the tablets will be manually be reactivated using the keys stored in the MSDM table in the bios, which I have scripted in powershell to retrieve and re-activate the device using SLMGR. 

Many thanks for your input. 

You'd probably be better off with Snap Deploy 5 which is designed for unattended multi- system deployments and it does have both 32 and 64-bit winpe support (as well as the standard Linux version) of the offline bootable recovery media too - you can purchase a per-deployment license (one deployment per license) or a per machine license (deploye to that machine an unlimited # of times) 

If you are deploying images to 300 machines, you need an Acronis license for each one.  A single license is only valid for one machine (even though the recovery media doesn't prevent you from using it elsewhere).  As a business, I'd be sure to keep up with license agreements - especially when posting intentions in public forums.  Just saying - cover your butt. 

Macrium is also licensed per system and states so when creating the media.  The free version also states it is for personal use only... and it does not include universal deployment options (bare metal restore to different hardware).  To do what you want, technically, either software would work with the right licensed business edition of the product.