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Backup on SD card or external USB

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I inserted a 64GB class 10 SD card in my laptop and wanted to do a backup.  It did not ask me if I wanted to create a survival kit.  So is this survival kit only for external USB drives?  If it is only for external hard drives, will it reformat the whole entire external drive and only dedicated to ATI backups and cannot use it for other files that I may add later (not related to ATI backup)?

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Yes, it is only for USB drives.  Windows 10 1803 and newer can deal with multiple partitions on media labeled as "removable" in disk management now so we can now partition SD cards or flash drives if using a current Windows 10 system.  However, SD cards are not supported for recovery media... as far as I know, you can't boot off of them.

In some instances, you can put them in USB adapters and they will be treated as a USB flash drive though, and that might allow it to work (possibly - I haven't tried).

As for formatting - it depends.  

https://kb.acronis.com/content/61639

Supported file systems on external HDD for Acronis Survival Kit creation:

Windows version:

    • NTFS
    • FAT32
    • exFAT
    • If the drive has another file system, Acronis True Image suggests formatting the drive.

Thanks Bobbo.. From what I understand, creation of the survival kit will format the usb external drive, if it has some data files on it and then it will create the survival kit.  So in other words, this specific usb external drive should only be dedicated to ATI alone.  Because on my old ATI2016, I can put the backup on any external drive and when I want to restore, I have a bootable rescue media DVD disc which has ATI and then able to restore from any external drive that has the backup I want to restore.  In ATI2020 it embeds the bootable partition together with the backup.  Is it possible to have a USB DVD drive connected to a laptop and will the survival kit + the backup be written so long as it has enough space?  

From what I understand, creation of the survival kit will format the usb external drive, if it has some data files on it and then it will create the survival kit.  So in other words, this specific usb external drive should only be dedicated to ATI alone. 

George, it should not format the USB drive when creating the survival kit as long as it is one of the supported file systems.  I have made a couple now and it never formatted mine.  That said, there's always the possibility, so I would back that disk up first, just in case, or use a different USB drive to test with first.

https://kb.acronis.com/content/61639

In ATI2020 it embeds the bootable partition together with the backup.  Is it possible to have a USB DVD drive connected to a laptop and will the survival kit + the backup be written so long as it has enough space?  Is there a way to create a bootable rescue media disc like in ATI2016 in ATI202?

Only the survival kit makes a bootable partition on the same drive as the backup files.  Instead of a survival kit, you would just the regular rescue media builder option.  You can create an .iso, a usb drive, .wim file, or a DVD/CD with it. When I have made new rescue media, it has not been formatting the existing contents, but you never know.  To be sure, back it up or practice on a spare drive first.

https://kb.acronis.com/content/61632

Or, if you want to make your own survival kit on a USB drive without using the survival kit method in Acronis, this can be a way to have the boot media and your data on the USB while ensuring the data is not formatted.  

Grab minitool partition wizard free.  Use it to create a new 2GB partition at the front of your USB drive and set it as FAT32 and assign it a drive letter.  This will not require you to format the drive and will keep your data on it (however, again, as a precaution, make a backup of it, if you can, or test on another drive first).  Once you have the 2GB partition, you can then use the regular rescue media builder and point it to this letter and the rescue media will only update that partition.

Once you have a bootable USB drive, regardless of the method you chosse, in the future, you don't have to run the survival kit builder or regular rescue media builder on the drive ever again.  Instead, just create the boot.wim file and replace it over the existing one.

Thanks Bobbo will try your suggestions and definitely will have to backup my usb drive first.

George,

To further clarify, you have 2 options with 2020:

- traditional option (similar to what your had with 2016): create an Acronis bootable medium to run Acronis out of the Windows environment. This is now called the "rescue media". These days, users typically use USB flash drives rather than DVDs or CDs, but both should work. In my experience, the USB flash drive content is deleted, then the data for the rescue media is created.

- new option: create a "survival kit" using a USB drive, where both the Acronis application and backup files will be stored. Since backup files are on it, you typically need a larger spin or SSD USB drive. When you create a survival kit, the existing data on the USB drive is not deleted. The partitions are changed and moved to accomodate new system partitions and store the Acronis program.

In either case, make sure you test your recovery medium on all the computers you may use it for. In my case, I end up having a mix of WinPE based and Linux based rescue media on specific USB keys for it to work. Some times a USB key would not be recognized by a computer, sometimes the WinPE based environment would not boot up, only the Linux one...