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Clarity on M.2 NVMe SSD support for 2020 and 2018 Linux rescue media

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Hoping that one of gurus like Steve can answer this !

I have both ATI 2018 and 2020 (and all the others back to 2010!). Generally I only use the Linux boot media on a USB stick.

I realize that NVMe SSDs in RAID mode are NOT supported in the Linux boot media in either 2018 or 2020.

But what about other non-RAID combinations ?  Regular AHCI SSD are 100% ok in the Linux boot media in v2018 (I haven't tried in 2020).  But where does PCIe and M.2 fit in ?  I've seen a number of comments here that state that the Linux boot media does not support PCIe NVMe SSDs. Is this referring to PCIe slot SSDs, or an M.2 slot SSD that uses NVMe over PCIe ?

The machine I use v2018 on is an Intel NUC 2016 model and it has a Samsung Pro 970 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD and Acronis 2018 bootable Linux media works fine.  I regular image and restore and it's 100% A-OK on ATI2018. I haven't tried 2020 (coz it sux a little). According to everything I have read, that should not work ???   The only point of note is that I have it's BIOS set to Legacy mode and not EUFI mode, so maybe that makes a difference.  

So exactly what combinations of M.2 + NVMe + PCIe SSDs do not work in the Linux boot media ????

 

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Acronis have published KB 58006: Acronis software: NVMe drives in RAID mode are not detected by Linux-based bootable media and Acronis startup recovery manager with information in this area.

I very rarely use Linux based rescue media and have not seen any issues with NVMe M.2 or similar SSD's when using the Windows PE version of the media.  For the last few years, all my rescue media has been created using the MVP Custom PE builder script which also has the Intel RST drivers injected, so works with all the various systems I use it on.

Like Steve I have not used Linux recovery media for some years. Linux recovery media will not support RAID arrays, which require the relevant RAID drivers to be present. However, however the BIOS/UEFI setting for RAID rather than AHIC, where there is no RAID array may not prevent the M.2 drive from being recognised. If I recall correctly, there are reports of M.2 drives being recognised with Linux recovery media. The position is complicated by there being three types of M.2 drives, NVMe, SATA and AHIC (the latter are, as I understand it uncommon). My PCs only have NVMe M.2 drives (see discussion on wikipedia).

Ian

I mainly use the Linux .iso to backup my machines. I have a current 2020 laptop UEFI with an M.2 Optane/SSD and it works fine in ATI2020 and ATI2021, which is the only reason I bought 2020/2021. After a recovery from a .tibx you will need to rebuild the Optane but using Intel's newest RST and Optane tool it's painless. The bootable .iso will also backup Linux ( I mainly use Fedora - 32 and 33b1 ) if the partitions are ext4 and compress them (not sector by sector which is the SSD size). I get tiny tibx backups this way and they restore beautifully. I have both Easy2boot for CMS, Ventoy for both CMS/UEFI (some things like Partition mini tool are shaky in Ventoy) and rufus created UEFI media with the bootable .iso if the first two fail. On the first two I have all the versions of Acronis bootable iso's from acronis 8, echo ...up to 2021 just in case acronis gets rid of some feature I need or newer versions can't mount older tibs (like what happened in 2020 version).

Anthony, thanks for this information, I am sure many users will find it useful.

Ian

I can 100% confirm that both 2018 and 2020 Linux media works fine with Samsung 970 Pro NVMe M.2 SSDs in an Intel NUC (2016 model).  BUT - it does not work in a new Lenovo laptop I have that has a NVMe M.2 SSD. 

So I think the answer is :  " it may or may not work with NVMe M.2 SSDs "

hehe