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2nd time using ATI 2021 recovery failed after succeeding the 1st time

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I do weekly full backups to a 5TB external drive via USB 3 with full validation including having used the external drive configured as an Acronis Survival Kit drive so that it is bootable as rescue media. The backups include every option to be able to recover my 64bit Windows 10 Pro desktop. In the UEFI selection at startup after turning on the computer, I moved the Seagate external drive G to the first position which automatically means it would be selected for the Acronis startup rather than the usual Windows startup. I have many files taking up around 600GB.

The reason I recovered was that the Windows KB5007186 ran overnight with no disk accesses showing with the LED.

The Acronis recovery worked perfectly. I updated some data then did a full backup and validation on my other external drive H which is set up identically to the one I used above, with Acronis Survival Kit set.

I tried the windows update KB5007186 again but after 21 hours shut it down went through the procedure as before in KB 65539: Acronis True Image 2021: How to restore your computer with WinPE-based or WinRE-based media.

When I selected the destination disk to be the C disk, it analysed it and showed the message that the H disk was not a Linux media disk and would not do the recovery so to close it, which I did.

So I shut off the PC, attached the previous disk G which had worked perfectly, made sure it was the first boot disk in UEFI, and answered all the Acronis recovery questions as before. Since it had succeeded before, I expected it to do so again. However, this time it showed the same message as H above. So I closed it down, removed the disk and this time set the UEFI boot for windows.

Unfortunately, windows startup never happened and instead it seems to have continued with the update KB5007186 in never ending spinning dots.

I am baffled as to why the recovery that I used successfully before failed the second time.

 

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When I selected the destination disk to be the C disk, it analysed it and showed the message that the H disk was not a Linux media disk and would not do the recovery so to close it, which I did.

Tork, I think you have misread or misunderstood the message that is being presented by the Acronis rescue media!

I have never seen Acronis suggest that the boot rescue media was not Linux, but have seen error messages saying that the destination disk (for the recovery) could not be locked and to try using Linux based rescue media.

The lock situation can arise because the Windows OS has set flags to indicate the disk is locked due to a pending install or because the OS is in a hybrid sleep state aka hibernation state etc.  I suspect that this is what you are seeing here due to the interrupted Windows Update operation and forcing the PC to reboot, perhaps also having Windows Fast Start enabled.

One method around this that I have used is to boot from the Acronis rescue media then click on Tools > Add new disk then select the locked OS disk and prepare it using this tool in the correct partition scheme being used, i.e. GPT if UEFI, or MBR if Legacy BIOS boot.  
Note: even doing this can bring up the same lock message and the answer is then to persist in retrying the action!

See YouTube video here showing exactly the above situation and how it was resolved without using Linux rescue media.

Tork,

As far as your first problem where the, I'm Guessing, Windows update version 20h2 is stuck at 20% installing?

All tests checked out, mem, sea tools etc., The Problem was an update hung, regardless the comp., needed a factory reset.

I had same problem a few nights ago(After a 12hr factory reset) First thing I did was turn off updates for 7 days while I copied files back to it and a couple of programs. When I got it booting in about 2 minutes, I turned on  updates and boom shut down got stuck on Blue screen with circle/ do not shut computer,  yea right... It would slowly restart, say finishing updates etc., back to 10 minute boot on brand new computer so to speak. I was nutz!

Try restarting or stopping the Windows Update Service. To do this, follow the instructions below: In case link don't work, search was for " update 2h20 hung at 20 " fwiw the hyper link was not allowed

I went to services.msc then at bottom double clicked windows update. I started it and stopped it like 10 times over an hr., with windows update window open( Showing update @20%) and after a couple of times the % started moving. It Stuck again at 46%, so I repeated on and off with Windows update under services, another few times got me to 77%, I think I finally rebooted there, and when I finally got back to check updates screen, boom it went to 100% and said to restart it.

It took another 1/2+ hr., to boot and install/ updating windows don't shut comp...

So that was that...I hope it helps someone els,  lol, or you.

Your second problem Trying to restore from Acronis boot media, error Not linux etc., I ran into that  too last week b4 factory reset, I ran it from inside windows Acronis program/restore the second time, not the USB boot. and it rebooted and restored above computer to workable state to do the reset. 

Well the reason I came here I was looking for "acronis backup stuck on calculating time remaining" 

Well I thought I'd share...

Good luck

TS

 

Tork, glad the video was helpful.

Touching on the points made by Thom above, I hit a similar issue yesterday with a brand new laptop doing Windows Updates for Windows 11 as part of initial setup!

The things that helped resolve this for me were:

  1. Using the Windows Update Troubleshooter (found in the Settings page).
  2. Open an Administrator level Command prompt or Powershell window then issue the following commands:
    SFC /SCANNOW
    DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

It may be necessary to do a Windows restart after the above but for me, the problem update then installed successfully.

Steve, I tried your advice here on 20H2 update KB5007186, saw it run to 100% and state 'restarting' and then the never-ending dot-circle took centre stage again for a long time. So I recovered again and set Windows updates to their latest date in December. I'll try updating again then, and if it fails I'll stop Windows updates and look for a solution to fix it.

Thanks for your input guys.