External USB HDD not found

My product is actuall Acronis True Image 2019 - just upgraded!

Are you sure that you created a backup on the Survival Kit disk?  It is possible that you did not.  You should be able to use Explorer to see if there are backup files on the drive.

Enchantech wrote:

Are you sure that you created a backup on the Survival Kit disk?

Yes I did - the drive and all backup files are accessible in Windows Explore! As I stated in my post that no USB drive holding backups was visible after booting from a USB flash drive. All drives and content are visible in Explorer.

I am quite disappointed that after upgrading to v 2019 one of the most important function, i.e. restore using your own boot environment is not working!

I would try creating winre rescue media. It will have all drivers for the local system. Your USB controller probably doesn't have drivers in the default Linux rescue media once booted into the OS.

Also, just in case, if you have a USB hub, remove it and connect directly to a USB port to test.

If your Survival kit drive does contain backup files then once you boot that drive this will give you access to those backup files.

Something is not right in what you say about this.  For clarification you are booting the Survival Kit drive correct?

Edit:  Once you boot the Survival Kit drive the True Image application on the drive will search for backup files.  Any files found on any drive connected to your PC will appear in the Recover my Disks screen.  Depending on how many backup files the application finds will dictate how long this process takes.  If you have many files for example stored on an NAS device the app will find those providing your network is setup correctly, and the process can take a couple of minutes to complete.

Enchantech wrote:

  For clarification you are booting the Survival Kit drive correct?

True Image application on the drive will search for backup files. 

As I have stated before, the system boots from the drive (Windows environment) but finds no backups. The drive letter of the backup drive is NOT visible when trying to browse.  I am not using a USB hub. Should I try to boot with Linux?

Please post some images showing how your Survival Kit drive looks in Windows Disk Management, i.e. how it is formatted, sizes of partitions?

What type of drive is this?  How exactly is it connected to your computer?

Drive letters in bootable media are often different to those used in Windows, so please ensure that you give descriptive labels to the partitions on your Survival drive and look for those labels when booted from the drive.

Agree with Steve here.  Drive letters shown in the Windows Environment media will not be the same letter you see when booted into an installed Windows OS.

What drive letters do you see, any at all?  Have you looked in those that do show if any for your backups?

Hi,
I'm having the same problem - when booting from USB disk (made bootable via  Acronis Sirvival Kit) - AcronisTrueImage2019 does not see my USB disk. My PC: (HP EliteBook 745G3).

I'm a TrueImage user for years (started with TrueImage2011, then 2017, recently upgraded to 2018,
and now got a new PC, so attempted to try the Trial of 2019 from https://www.acronis.com/pl-pl/homecomputing/thanks/acronis-true-image-2019/  - to see if it will work with my new PC, but it doesn't:

- I was able to create a backup of my PC  to the external USB disk (so at this step no problem with discovering the USB disk)
- during creation of such backup I was able to make my USB bootable, using the  "Create Acronis Sirvival Kit" option
- then was able to boot from that USB disk
- however when trying to restore - my USB disk is not recognized  by the system, see attached screens.
- it is possible to select AcronisCloud as a source of my backup file, however I haven't tried it.

Any idea ?
I did not have such problems with TrueImage2018, however used the on different PCs.
I have USB3.0 on my PC.
Attached screenshots.
Is it a problem with TrueImage2019 ?

Adding one more screen, showing the content of disk X - my backup file *.tib is not available there.
Also under the Computer my USB disk is not listed.

Romuald, welcome to these public User Forums.

Please tell us what version of Windows OS you have on your HP EliteBook 745G3 PC, and what type of disk drives are involved here for both your Internal drive and your USB drive?
How are these drives connected, what format is being used?

Most important: how does your computer boot into Windows from the BIOS settings?
Is it using a Legacy / CSM boot for a MBR system or
is it using UEFI (with or without Secure Boot enabled) for a GPT system?

If you have a UEFI system, then you must boot the Acronis Survival Kit drive in UEFI BIOS mode.

Looking at your screen images, I only see a C: drive (that may be your internal Windows OS drive) and the Boot (X:) drive which is the Acronis Survival Kit WinPE boot partition of your external drive, which may suggest that you have a UEFI system booted in Legacy mode which is unable to see / show GPT partitions?

Hi,

Thank you for the quick response.

I have Windows7.
My internal drive: SAMSUNG MZNLN256HCHP-000 SATA , NTFS
My external USB disk: Segate FreeAgent Go 320GB, NTFS - connected directly via USB cable to the PC.

Note, the problem is only when trying to restore from a boot DVD or Bootable USB created from TrueImage.
When trying to restore from the TrueImage application started on a normally working PC/WIN7 - no problem, TrueImage can access my backup on the USB disk , so I could proceed with restore, if wanted.

I'm attaching the new screens from my BIOS setting.
 

one more screen attached.

Romuald, are you able to create an Acronis System Report in Windows and attach the zip file report from this to this forum topic - it has to be less than 8MB in size for the File Upload option, otherwise you would need to provide a link to the file via a share on Dropbox or other cloud service?

Hi,

I'm sorry, but due to security reasons I will not be able to upload the AcronisSystemReport.zip file.
Possibly I should be able to provide some single files of it , after reviewing it's content.

For example, in the "uefi_vars.txt" I can read :

"

Boot variables are allowed on this system

***

Could not obtain Boot Entries Enumerator, UEFI is not enabledCould not obtain Boot Order, UEFI is not enabled
"

ps.
I swaped the the UEFI boot order , so that the USB comes first, but it didn't help (attached "Clipboard07.jpg").

Ok, understood - can you provide the disks.txt and msinfo.nfo files from the zip file?

It appears the HP elitebook uses an add-in card for m.2 (https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04818135#AbT1).  My guess is that the drivers for this add-on are not found in the default Acronis Linux rescue media - would bet my hat on it.

If you could use the advanced media creation tool and build WinRE, it will likely have the correct drivers for the USB controller and min card devices.  

However, being that this is Windows 7, might still be a little bit of an issue, but I'd start with the WinRE rescue media build and test it first.

If that still doesn't detect the external drive or the m.2 drive, then you may need to look at downloading Windows 10 ADK (1903) and the Windows 10 ADK PE add-on and installing them, then building a Windows 10 ADK rescue media - driver support will likely work right out of the box with Win10 WinPE (ADK) rescue media.

Hi All,

disks.txt attached.

>My guess is that the drivers for this add-on are not found in the default Acronis Linux rescue media

Yes, it is probably the cause of the problem, that the Acronis rescue DVD or USB bootable disk created via Acronis Survival Kit option do not contain all needed drivers, so that after boot, the USB disk, or even the HDD main C disk is not recognized.

>If you could use the advanced media creation tool and build WinRE

Do you mean the tool built in Actonis: Tools/RescueMediaBuilder/WinPE-based media ?
(there is a dedicated option for Windows7 there; it says "Download Windows AIK to create bootable media")

I attempted this option already, but seems to be hanging on "Waiting for Windows AIK" (waited about 30min), so that I never waited till the end.

Apart from that, such option/procedures seem to be not easy ones: as a result it requires me to install "Windows AIK" tool, (I'm not sure if installing it brings any risk for my PC,   I'm not willing to take any such risk), and then probably to create "Bootable WinPE Media"; so even if I did so, then I would probably boot to some set of WIN7,
how about AcronisTrueImage, would  it be there available as well ?

I agree, that the WIN7 might be an important fact.
(on other two PCs (HP Probook 440 G4) I have WIN10 and with TrueImage2018 have no problems to boot from the rescue disk, they also have the M.2 disks)

---
As the whole issue becomes more and more complicated,  not sure if want to continue debuging it futher .

Anyway, thank you for all your ideas.

Romuald

I can see that romuald is still experiencing the same frustrations as myself! After investing a lot of time I finally managed to create boot media for Win10 by choosing the Advanced option (downloading Windows ADK, installing it and creating WinPE on a USB flashdrive). After booting Windows can now recognise my Seagate BUP drive and find .tib files. Wowhh!

Not so lucky with WIN7! After downloading Windows AIK, it wants to burn a CD (OMG!), luckily I knew that my trusty WinZip can unpack it into a folder, installing the kit (a dozen confusing menu items), creating  boot media on USB flashdrive and - after booting  my Seagate BUP drive is still not being recognised!!! I can see all internal disks and partitions and the USB flashdrive and that's it!

I am so disappointed with Acronis backup - as romuald says, it used to work in previous versions, I have not changed my hardware, OS or external USB drives (using the very common Seagate BUP drives for which Windows cheerfully installs the drivers in seconds). It is so deceiving, I kept backing up nicely, blissfully unaware that if my HDD or system failed my restore (Survival Kit hahha) would not work.

All I expect from B/R software is to make a full backup of all disk and partitions on my PC and being able to easily and reliably restore when required. Acronis has failed this basic task. I also find it extrodinary that I have to download many Gb's onto my system (bloating my SSD drive!) and follow a complicated procedure that would confuse any non-computer savvy user just to create boot media - and different ones for different OS's!

I have also asked Acronis SUPPORT with no resolution as yet. I was in the IT business for decades so don't ask me any more patronising questions, just provide a solution that works.

If this does not work soon, I will look for other B/R software. According to various reviews, Acronis is not the best (and most reliable???) solution anyway and quite expensive compared to some simpler programs that at least manage simple full disk backups and restores reliably.

Has Acronis become so bloated that reliability and ease of use has been lost? It used to be fun.

@quarkburner

Thank you for your comments.
I have similar feeling, that AcronisTrueImage backup tool shall be easy to use and working no matter which HW is used and should not be sensitive to the OS version (especially WIN7 in my case).

To be onest , I haven't tried the 2018 version on this particular PC (HP EliteBook 745G3), so don't know if the previous version was any better in this case,
however I did used the previous versions (2011, 2017, 2018) on another PCs (HP Pavilion/WINXP, VIN-Vista, HP Probook 440G3/WIN10) and in all such cases TrueImage was working fine.

Sometimes technical details become more difficult to fix, then it seem to be from the user's perspective.

Hopefully some new version in the future will manage with this issue (  :)  ).

If you have not tried using the MVP Custom ATIPE builder script to create your rescue media, including using the same with the survival kit drive approach, then I would recommend doing so.

I have been using the MVP media since its early days and it has worked on my Windows 7 and Windows 10 systems with no issue, including having 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the media.

To use the MVP media with a Survival Kit, you just need to give the 2GB FAT32 media partition a drive letter then direct the MVP tool to write to it as it would any USB stick.

On the subject of ADK and AIK, I personally installed the Windows 10 ADK on my Windows 7 system and have never used the AIK, and had no issues in doing so.  Because my main laptop is setup as dual-boot (with 2 x Windows 10 OS partitions and Ubuntu 18.04) I have never used the option to create WinRE media as this doesn't work in this scenario for me, but the ADK has worked every time.

Keep your eyes open for when Acronis start inviting people to participate in the beta testing for the next version (2020) over the next month or so - this promises to have some good new features that I am looking forward to trying!

Do you mean the tool built in Actonis: Tools/RescueMediaBuilder/WinPE-based media ?
(there is a dedicated option for Windows7 there; it says "Download Windows AIK to create bootable media")

**** Long story short, please try to build the WinRE rescue media if the option is there and see if that does the trick.  

Read below for more explanation.  Sorry it's long winded, but I hope it explains some of your issues in a better light.

Win 7 has pretty bad default driver support in general.  Win 7 AIK basically gives you the same native drivers that you would find in a new Win 7 installation out of the box - not very good.  Plus, Win 7 does not have native support for things like PCIE NVME drives, and some USB 3.0 controllers, touch screens, etc.  

So, taking that in consideration, don't use Windows 7 AIK to build rescue media - that is very old WinPE with bad driver support "out of the box" too - the default drivers available are those provided by Microsoft in the Windows AIK or ADK when creating WinPE rescue media.  You need to manually download and install Windows 7 AIK before you can use this build method. It's a large package and will take some time to download and install. But I would avoid Win 7 AIK entirely.

Windows 10 ADK installs on Windows 7 just fine and the driver support built with that media is much better.  So if you want/need to build WinPE media, use the most current Windows 10 ADK, regardless of your current OS and that will give you the best native driver support.  You need to manually download and install Windows 10 ADK before you can use this build method.  It's a large package and will take some time to download and install.  I would use this on any Windows OS (7,8,8.1 and/or 10).

However, instead of building WinPE with Windows 10 ADK, if you have a working recovery environment on your system, try the "Windows Recovery Environment" option instead.  This does NOT require any additional downloads or installations like WinPE builds do because the WinRE environment (your recovery partition) is installed with Windows OS (or it's supposed to be, unless it has been deleted, moved, or something like that). 

As you have a Windows 7 OS, the WinRE built would be Win 7 based in this case.  However, the benefit of WinRE is that it will include all of the drivers already present in your main system OS into the resulting WinRE rescue media. So, if the hardware (hard drives, usb controllers, etc.) is already working and available in the main Windows OS, it should be available in the resulting WinRE rescue media.

If you do not have a WinRE option, your recovery partition is either missing or corrupt.  In that case, you would want to manually download the Windows 10 ADK and PE add-on to build Windows PE.  I would download and install Windows 10 ADK - even on Windows 7.  Drivers are much better out of the box with Windows 10 and each major upgrade (1903 is the most current and just released this month) provides newer and better driver support.  

Ultimately, ANY rescue / recovery media cannot have drivers for every type of hardware, OS and configuration.  When you try to provide a driver for every type of configuration, you end up with driver conflicts.  This is why Dell provides specific drivers or driver packs for each specfic model as well instead of one large jumble of every driver known to man (as do other vendors like HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, Asus, Acer, etc.)

The default Linux recovery media from Acronis uses a small environment based off of busybox.  The drivers available in it are those built into the busybox firmware for that version.  These tend to be a much smaller pool than are available in Windows 10 based WinPE / WinRE, especially on much older systems or very new systems... because newer versions of busybox drop some legacy support drivers that were there in an earlier busybox build or they don't have the newest drivers for more current devices like RAID controllers - IRST for PCIE NVME drvies, NICS, etc. 

Once you build the correct rescue media, you'll find that it works just fine and is as easy to use as earlier versions of Acronis.  The issue is that current machines are much more complicated than they were just a few years ago with newer hardware (PCIE NVME, USB 3.1 and USB C controllers, newer IRST/RAID controllers, modern UEFI vs legacy bios, secure boot, native encryption, tpm, etc.).  As such, it takes a little more doing from the user end to understand their system bios/firmware than we had to in the past. 

Thanks Steve and Bobbo for your valuable information!

Steve Smith wrote:

If you have not tried using the MVP Custom ATIPE builder script to create your rescue media, including using the same with the survival kit drive approach, then I would recommend doing so.

On the subject of ADK and AIK, I personally installed the Windows 10 ADK on my Windows 7 system

 What is the "MVP Custom ATIPE builder script ", where do I find it and how do I use it?

Regarding suggested Acronis media builing options I first tried the 'SIMPLE' one - did not work; then under 'Advanced | recommended ... for this computer' - did not work; then I thought ADK was for not for WIN7 and used AIK! I will try and use ADK (which worked on my WIN10 computer. I think the options should be simplified or better explained!

BTW is it OK to use the boot media created on WIN10 with ADK or do I have to install ADK on WIN7?

Just saw your reference to MVP and will try to get my head around it!

Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:

... I would avoid Win 7 AIK entirely.

Windows 10 ADK installs on Windows 7 just fine and the driver support built with that media is much better.  So if you want/need to build WinPE media, use the most curren

However, instead of building WinPE with Windows 10 ADK, if you have a working recovery environment on your system, try the "Windows Recovery Environment" option instead.  This does NOT require any additional downloads or installations like WinPE builds do because the WinRE environment (your recovery partition) is installed with Windows OS (or it's supposed to be, unless it has been deleted, moved, or something like that). 

As you have a Windows 7 OS, the WinRE built would be Win 7 based in this case.  However, the benefit of WinRE is that it will include all of the drivers already present in your main system OS

 I will try to use WIN10 ADK on WIN7. As mentioned in my reply to Steve, the 'Windows Recovery Environment' option 'recommended for this computer' did not work either.

Why doesn't Acronis provide just options that do work, e.g. the MVP procedure?

Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:

...don't use Windows 7 AIK to build rescue media

Windows 10 ADK installs on Windows 7 just fine and the driver support built with that media is much better. 

However, instead of building WinPE with Windows 10 ADK, if you have a working recovery environment on your system, try the "Windows Recovery Environment" option instead. 

Just saw your reference to MVP - will try to wrap my head around it! First I will try to use ADK with WIN7 as recommended. As replied to Steve Smith, the 'Win Re Environment ' option did not work either.

Why doesn't Acronis just display options that are simple and do work, e.g. the suggested MVP procedures? The existing options definitely need to be explained better!

SORRY for posting this twice - thought it didn't SAVE 9-)

What is the "MVP Custom ATIPE builder script ", where do I find it and how do I use it?

See either Rob's or my signature where there are links to this, also in the Useful Links section of the forum pages there is a link to MVP User Tools and Tutorials.

BTW is it OK to use the boot media created on WIN10 with ADK or do I have to install ADK on WIN7?

Simple answer is yes provided the architecture is the same, i.e. both are 64-bit.  You only need to install the ADK on Win 7 if you are creating the rescue media on that system.  I tend to make most of my rescue media on my Win 10 box and use it on any Win 7 PC's as needed, but have had to create both 64-bit and 32-bit media as have some older 32-bit boxes around.

Steve Smith wrote:

  I tend to make most of my rescue media on my Win 10 box and use it on any Win 7 PC's as needed, but have had to create both 64-bit and 32-bit media as have some older 32-bit boxes around.

I just booted my WIN7 system with USB flashdrive containing boot media built on WIN10 system with ADK, both are 64bit - my USB 3 Seagate BUP 2Tb nowhere to be seen! I am ripping my hair out!

SUCCESS! I followed the instructions for using 'MVP Custom ATIPE builder script', ran it on WIN10 PC with ADK installed and created boot media on a USB flash drive. I then used it to boot my WIN7 PC and my Seagate BUP USB3 drive was detected at last!

Congrats Steve and Bobbo for providing such excellent tool. I like the extra support for taking screen shots, file and web browsing etc.

If I understand correctly, the script also scans for any other installed Acronis software and provides boot support for all. My goal is to have one drive that contains backup files, Acronis B & R and Universal Backup and Restore.

I know have to work out how to assemble all this and my 'custom' WinPE boot media on a 'Survival Kit' disk that actually works.

I am just wondering why this boot media building method is not integral part of Acronis software instead of all the different confusing and flawed options - it would have saved me hours of grief!

Glad to hear that the MVP rescue media is working as you need it to - this was created originally due to the need to be able to inject additional drivers into the WinPE media, such as those for RAID, NVMe, BitLocker support etc.  Acronis have improved their own rescue media tools since that original time but for me, the MVP media is my first choice due to the ability to have multiple Acronis tools on the one build along with the other added 'goodies' too.

The MVP script is mainly the work of Mustang (Paul) and Bobbo (Rob) who have done the hard work of creating and testing the script, my part has been just in testing and identifying when any bugs have shown up, or when Acronis brought in changes which caused issues with new versions.

I know have to work out how to assemble all this and my 'custom' WinPE boot media on a 'Survival Kit' disk that actually works.

If you are able to successfully create the survival kit (and it boot), all you have to do is replace the original boot.wim from the rescue media, with the boot.wim from your custom created recovery media's boot.wim.

An alternative method to create your own survival kit could be to use a parition tool like minitool paritions wizard.  Create at least a 2GB FAT32 parition at the front of your USB drive and assign it a drive letter.  Then use the Acronis default media creation or the MVP media creation tool and point it to that drive letter.  The rest of the drive, format it as NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT (whatever you want - probably NTFS since it will just be data).

In the future, same thing as the first suggestion.  Just create new rescue media and replace boot.wim from new builds into the existing flash drive via copy and paste.

Here are 3 different recovery drives I've done this on.  Note that I have 20GB instead of 2GB because I have a multiboot tool with multiple .wim files from various products and need the space.  2GB is plenty for just Acronis.  Also note that I have free space unallocated on each drive as well - that's just me - I always try to leave some unused on drives to help with caching and usability if/when the drive starts to fill up.  Both of these were modified in Minitool Partition Wizard.

I have used 'Survival Kit' option to create the partition on my new drive and made my first backup. I then used Partition MiniTools to unhide the Arcronis partition and used Windows Disk Management app to assign a drive letter. The Acronis partition became visible in Explorer, the data partition was hidden.

I am now planning to use the MVP script to create WinPE media in this partition including Acronis Universal Restore which I installed earlier.

I am still unsure about one thing: there is a backup option which allows you to 'include' Arcronis True Image and Universal Restore with the backup (which I usually do). Where is this stored and why do I need it? I thought all I need is the boot media?

I am still unsure about one thing: there is a backup option which allows you to 'include' Arcronis True Image and Universal Restore with the backup (which I usually do). Where is this stored and why do I need it? I thought all I need is the boot media?

My understanding is that this only applies when writing to DVD or other optical media - I have never seen this happen for other destination types.

You don't need to include with the backup... When you build with the MVP tool, the resulting boot.wim on the recovery media will have ATI and UR if they are both installed on the machine you are building it from. Just make sure you've installed the UR add-on in Windows before you build the media.

Hi All,

An update from me:

I made number of trials and my results are confusing:

I used the AcronisTrueImage_PE_BUILDER”/„MVP Custom ATIPE builder” tool "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe" (based on https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2017-forum/mvp-tool-custom-ati-winpe-builder )

A). I used the above tool on my 1th PC "HP Probook 440G4" , having Windows10Home OS and TrueImage2018, and created .iso image and then burned it to DVD

B). then from such boot DVD I was able to boot successfully and got the "Acronis MVP tool" screen, then under the "Recover" option - was able to see my USB disk with the .tib backup file on it, so SUCCESS.

C). however I have also 2nd PC "HP Probook 440G4" , having  WIN10PRO OS and TrueImage2018 (this 2nd PC looks the same as the first one, just purchased some months latter than the first one; however OS is PRO instead of HOME - maybe this matters), and on this PC the  MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe failed to create an .iso - it fails after the question" Would you like to map a network share in WinPE? - see attached "Clipboard_1.jpg"; no matter if I entered 1 or 2 - the script always terminates at this step with ""was unexpected at this time".

D) I also tried the same "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe" on my 3rd PC "HP EliteBook 745G3" having WIN7 and TrueImage2019 trial on it and the .iso was created successfully and burned the DVD and the PC successfully booted from such DVD and got and got the "Acronis MVP tool" screen, however Acronis still did not see my USB disk, so I cannot access the .tib file.

E) finally - I tried to boot  my 2nd and 3rd PC from the boot DVD created in p.A,  (so created via "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe" on Windows10Home ) and a nice surprise - the boot was successfull, I  got the "Acronis MVP tool" screen, then under the "Recover" option - was able to see my USB disk with the .tib backup file.

---
So at this point all my problems have been fixed - I have a single boot DVD, created via "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe" on PC running on OS=Windows10Home and such rescue DVD works fine on all 3 PCs, so I don't need anything else.

---
I'm not going to debug this further, so thank you for help.
Maybe some improvement could be done to the "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe", so it would not fail (p.C) .

Thanks,
Romuald

---
ps.
Before "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe" - I also tried the following options  built in TrueImage2018/2019:

- RescueMediaBuilder/Simple
- RescueMediaBuilder/Advanced/"Windows Recovery Environment" 
- RescueMediaBuilder/Advanced/ADK Windows10 (this one tried only on my WIN7 PC and got it stucked; now cannot even uninstall it from my PC; fortunately it does not hurt, I hope, exceipt for 200MB stace it uses)

however none of it produced working .iso. Fortunately "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe" on my 1th PC worked and solved my problems for all 3 PCs.

---

Romauld, what is the path where you are running the MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe  from on each PC - the error is suggesting (to me) that you have a ( in the folder path?

I always put the MVP folder in the root of one of my partitions, i.e. as shown in the image below, and have never had any issues in building media from the script.

Hi,

Indeed I had it in some subdirectory,
so I moved it to C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v186,
but didn't help, the script still fails the same way as described in my last update.
Ofcourse I started it as Administrator.

Thanks.

Romuald, please attach a copy of the log file for the MVP script tool as found in the Logs folder of the tool.

The next step for the script after the option to map a network drive is to mount the Windows PE file, so hopefully the log file will tell us why it is having a problem doing so?

::=============================================================::
::       Would you like to map a network share in WinPE?       ::
::=============================================================::
::                                                             ::
:: [1.] Yes                                                    ::
:: [2.] No                                                     ::
::                                                             ::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
2

 

                   ---------------------------
                  [Skip network share mapping.]
                   ---------------------------

 

=================================================================

 

                  ------------------------------
                 [Mounting amd64 winpe.wim file.]
                  ------------------------------

 

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.17763.1

Hi,
Attached "MVP_ATIPEBuilder_05-06-2019_16.47.51.log".

Thanks for the log, unfortunately it doesn't take us any further forward other than confirming you are choosing to build the MVP media using the Windows Recovery Environment and have Windows 10 Pro.

Please run the command:  reagentc /info  to check that your Recovery Environment is good?

Here is the output on on my 1th PC "HP Probook 440G4" - the OK one, for which I could successfuly run MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe and successfully boot :
 

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.765]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. Wszelkie prawa zastrzeżone.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

    Windows RE status:         Enabled
    Windows RE location:       \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE
    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 031e735a-5b61-11e8-ba72-914e2b952fda
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

---
And here is the same from the  2nd PC "HP Probook 440G4" , having  WIN10PRO OS , for which the MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe fails:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.765]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. Wszelkie prawa zastrzeżone.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

    Windows RE status:         Enabled
    Windows RE location:       \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE
    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: ba230534-5cfc-11e8-9fcf-97515332c379
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

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both look very similar.

Both do look very similar.  I am running out of ideas for why there should be an issue with one PC and Ok on the other?

Rob, if you are still watching this topic, can you chip in again on this issue of the MVP script not working on the one PC here?

I'm stumped. It looks like the system.is using Polish for the OS... I wonder if there is a character nit translating in the script correctly. I don't think it's related to the script entirely though as even the default rescue media builder in Acronis is failing in those systems. I'd suggest opening a support case with Acronis directly to figure out why that is, which may she'd she'd onto the underlying issue in the Acronis rescue media builder which is likely replicating to the MVP tool since it relies on the same registry keys.

Also, what is the user profile name? A lot of interaction occurs in the user profile temp directory and that same path may have a character that does not translate to .bat script well. Using special characters such as (, / or % cause issues in scripts where they are used specifically in the scripting language.

My guess is the user profile names are different in the working and failing builds and / or are they all Polish?

Hi,

User Profile view on the OK PC ("HP Probook 440G4" , having Windows10Home OS ) is attached as "Clipboard020.jpg".

while from the NOK PC ("HP Probook 440G4" , having  WIN10PRO OS) is attached as "Clipboard021.jpg".

Not sure if want to spend more time on that issue, so probably will not follow up with Acronis Support.

Thank you for trying to be helpful.

Hi All,

My problem with failing "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe" is now fixed :)

Thanks to @Bobbo_3C0X1 idea, that Polish OS might have something to do, I came up with an idea of comparing the keyboard setup on the  OK PC(WIN10) and NOK PC(WIN10) :
- on the NOK PC I had only Polish keyboard setup in the control panel, while 
- on the OK PC I have both Polish & English keyboards setup

After adding the English one , the "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe" started working fine and generated the .iso successfully.

Sounds like "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe" is somehow to sensitive to the keyboard type, so that it exited at the following step like this:

::=============================================================::
::       Would you like to map a network share in WinPE?       ::
::=============================================================::
::                                                             ::
:: [1.] Yes                                                    ::
:: [2.] No                                                     ::
::                                                             ::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
2

"was unexpected at this time"

So at this point I'm satisfied.

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The remaining issue is my 3rd PC "HP EliteBook 745G3" / WIN7/English, for which the "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe"  generates the .iso successfully,
however after booting from that .iso/DVD - Acronis does not see any USB disk or even does not see any local drive.
This however seems to be WIN7 specifics or possibly due to that particular PC config.
Fortunately - that WIN7 PC can still boot fine from the .iso generated via "MVP_ATIPEBuilder.exe" on WIN10 PC,
so sounds like the .iso generated on WIN10 PC seems to be an universal one, working fine on all 3 PC, including the WIN7 one.
Of course I did not proceed with actual restore, just terminated after being able to access the .tib backup files on the USB disk;  hope it would work fine, if needed, also on the WIN7 PC.

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At this point would like to close this topic.
Thank you!

Excellent find! I suspect the special characters may be an issue (like the s with the accent on it in the user name). Unfortunately it's only an English script and not sure it handles all of the other special characters.

Yes, windows 7 driver support is not that great. If you build rescue media on a Windows 7 machine and use WinRE, it should have the drivers from the system. But if you build with windows ADK, you want to install Windows 10 ADK so it has the best drivers too. Windows 7 adk (AIK) is not very good for driver support with usb 3.1 controllers, storage controllers and other devices that windows 10 can handle much better.

Using the windows 10 built version, should be just fine and will likely work much better anyway. Glad it's working!

I've exactly the same issue as described above by quarkburner. My environment is a Dell Optiplex 7040 i7 running Windows 7 SP1 Pro. I'm using TrueImage 2018. There is no way to access the backup files on the external HD attached via USB port. It was a real shock for me to discover, that this 5-star rated software fails to fullfil even its most basic task. Pervious versions of TrueImage were definitely working.

Walter, welcome to these public User Forums.

Sorry but the original poster of this topic never came back to us with answers to the questions that we asked when trying to identify why his problem occurred?

Please post some images showing how your Survival Kit drive looks in Windows Disk Management, i.e. how it is formatted, sizes of partitions?

What type of drive is this?  How exactly is it connected to your computer?

Drive letters in bootable media are often different to those used in Windows, so please ensure that you give descriptive labels to the partitions on your Survival drive and look for those labels when booted from the drive.

This is assuming that you are using an external drive setup as an Acronis Survival Kit, otherwise the same questions still apply but more questions will be asked to understand your particular environment here?

Three cheers for Paul, Bob and Steve! Your tool saved my day, my week, my ... !

After having booted my system from the rescue DVD created by the MVP tool, the drive letter of the USB attached WD MyPassport HD is shown in the list and I can access my "tib"-files for doing the system restore. 

You know, my system had been corrupted and I couldn't access any of my backups. What a disastrous and depressing situation - and now I'm really happy!

To answer the questions:

In short, my survival kit consists of a Sony DVD-R for the boot and load process and an external WD MyPassport HD attached via USB (2.0 or 3.0) to the Dell OptiPlex 7040 system running Win7 SP1 Pro for the restore. (see attached files)

Walter, good to read that you are able to get to your backup files correctly now - I suspect that the WinPE MVP media has brought in the required USB 3 support for your drive & USB controller.