MVP tool - ssd drive not available in Disk Backup

Chris, if your signature is correct and you have the SSD encrypted with BitLocker, then you need to unlock the encryption when booted into WinPE from the USB rescue media.

Acronis cannot backup encrypted drives from rescue media unless unlocked first.

Hi Steve. I had forgotten about that bitlocker restriction. So, I tried the commands to unlock the drives (the boot volume and data volume) successfully from the command prompt after having booted into the MVP environment. My SSD drive letters appeared in ATI. However when attempting to create a disk backup of the boot volume, it said that the drive is encrypted still. So closed ATI, ran the commands to unlock the drives again but there were already unlocked. 
I started ATI again and still it says the drives are locked. Not sure but maybe this has to be done before the MVP starts? If so I'm not sure how. thanks for your assistance.

BTW, I'm performing this on my other system that has bitlocker encryption. It's an Intel NUC system that's not booting into windows due to a iastorAC.sys error.

Chris, you can close the main Acronis application and restart it later after unlocking encryption.

If you create the 'Simple' version of the ATI 2021 rescue media, and do this on Windows 10 Pro which has BitLocker support, then this is included in the rescue media but there are some steps that are needed in order to access a BitLocker encrypted drive in the rescue environment.

When you boot into the rescue environment, you will see a black Command prompt window along with the main ATI 2021 application window.  You need to close the ATI 2021 window in order to have access to the command prompt in the black window.

Now, you can use the BitLocker commands to identify and unlock your encrypted drive before relaunching the ATI 2021 application again using "X:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\trueimage_starter.exe"

See the following data captured from my own system booted from the ATI 2021 Simple rescue media with an encrypted drive connected.

X:\windows\system32>wpeinit

X:\windows\system32>"X:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\trueimage_starter.exe"
Terminate batch job (Y/N)? n

X:\windows\system32>manage-bde -status

BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.19041
Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Disk volumes that can be protected with
BitLocker Drive Encryption:
Volume C: [Windows]
[Data Volume]

    Size:                 200.83 GB
    BitLocker Version:    None
    Conversion Status:    Fully Decrypted
    Percentage Encrypted: 0.0%
    Encryption Method:    None
    Protection Status:    Protection Off
    Lock Status:          Unlocked
    Identification Field: None
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:       None Found

Volume D: [SSD-Data]
[Data Volume]

    Size:                 263.29 GB
    BitLocker Version:    None
    Conversion Status:    Fully Decrypted
    Percentage Encrypted: 0.0%
    Encryption Method:    None
    Protection Status:    Protection Off
    Lock Status:          Unlocked
    Identification Field: None
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:       None Found

Volume L: [Label Unknown]

[Data Volume]

    Size:                 Unknown GB
    BitLocker Version:    2.0
    Conversion Status:    Unknown
    Percentage Encrypted: Unknown%
    Encryption Method:    AES 128
    Protection Status:    Unknown
    Lock Status:          Locked
    Identification Field: Unknown
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:
        Password
        Numerical Password

Volume H: [Data]
[Data Volume]

    Size:                 114.10 GB
    BitLocker Version:    None
    Conversion Status:    Fully Decrypted
    Percentage Encrypted: 0.0%
    Encryption Method:    None
    Protection Status:    Protection Off
    Lock Status:          Unlocked
    Identification Field: None
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:       None Found

X:\windows\system32>manage-bde -unlock L: -password
BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.19041
Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Enter the password to unlock this volume:
The password successfully unlocked volume L:.

X:\windows\system32>dir L:
 Volume in drive L is Seagate250gb
 Volume Serial Number is 1052-D550

 Directory of L:\

07/11/2020  00:08    46,379,683,840 MyBackup(1).tibx
05/11/2020  00:51    45,030,981,632 MyBackup.tibx
               2 File(s) 91,410,665,472 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  158,538,076,160 bytes free

X:\windows\system32>"X:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\trueimage_starter.exe"

X:\windows\system32>

Hi Steve. I was able to get as far as unlocking my bitlocker drives, using the method above you mentioned. However I'm not able to get the ATI to start. It just shows a dialog box with a moving perpetual clock. I typed in trueimage_starter.exe from the TrueImageHome folder  but nothing is happening. I wonder, is ATI waiting for the drives to become unencrypted before it starts? While I'm waiting, I typed in 'manage-bde -status from the x:\windows\system32 folder and nothing happens. Sure is getting to be quite frustrating simply to just backup my data. I wish that I could boot into windows (even in safe mode) from the WinRE but can't.

Chris, if you boot normally into Windows 10 and run the backup from there, then Acronis will backup the encrypted drive with encryption turned off, so the backup image itself will not show any BitLocker encryption.  You can still encrypt the backup image itself using the Options > Advanced option for this using password encryption for security.

Hi Steve, Allow me to back up here. I'm not able to boot into windows on my troubled system (which is running Windows 11), not even in Safe Mode in the WinRE. I'm getting a perpetual reboot from a iastoreAC.sys error SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, so that's why I'm having to try the WinPE environment to backup my data. I'm able to unlock the drives in this environment, however as I stated above, immediately after unlocking the drives, ATI will not start. So I'm wondering if ATI is waiting for the drives to be fully unencrypted before it starts the application.  I suppose I could wait overnight to see if ATI starts. I'm wondering if anyone out there has had this issue too. 

I saw this thread:

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2019-forum/winre-win…

but it looks that the solution was not posted, or there IS STILL no solution. I think my time spent on this with ATI has run its course. I do appreciate all the suggestions you've provided. Thank you.

Chris, sorry that I missed the point about not being able to boot into Win 11.

Which version of the MVP Custom PE Builder tool are you using here?

http://www.mechrest.com/plugins/MVP_ATIPEBuilder/Advanced/MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v190.zip is the last version that Paul / Mustang released and which I have been using without issue (though I have most probably also been using ATI 2021 rather than 2020).

Another option that you may be able to consider would be removing the drive from the problem PC and attaching it to another PC via a USB adapter or dock etc then unlocking BitLocker from within Windows to be able to make a backup image.

One further thought is that you could use the MVP media to decrypt your drive after first unlocking it by using the -off parameter for manage-bde

C:\WINDOWS\system32>manage-bde /?
BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.19041
Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

manage-bde[.exe] -parameter [arguments]

Description:
    Configures BitLocker Drive Encryption on disk volumes.

Parameter List:
    -status     Provides information about BitLocker-capable volumes.
    -on         Encrypts the volume and turns BitLocker protection on.
    -off        Decrypts the volume and turns BitLocker protection off.
    -pause      Pauses encryption, decryption, or free space wipe.
    -resume     Resumes encryption, decryption, or free space wipe.
    -lock       Prevents access to BitLocker-encrypted data.
    -unlock     Allows access to BitLocker-encrypted data.
    -autounlock Manages automatic unlocking of data volumes.
    -protectors Manages protection methods for the encryption key.
    -SetIdentifier or -si
                Configures the identification field for a volume.
    -ForceRecovery or -fr
                Forces a BitLocker-protected OS to recover on restarts.
    -changepassword
                Modifies password for a data volume.
    -changepin  Modifies PIN for a volume.
    -changekey  Modifies startup key for a volume.
    -KeyPackage or -kp
                Generates a key package for a volume.
    -upgrade    Upgrades the BitLocker version.
    -WipeFreeSpace or -w
                Wipes the free space on the volume.
    -ComputerName or -cn
                Runs on another computer. Examples: "ComputerX", "127.0.0.1"
    -? or /?    Displays brief help. Example: "-ParameterSet -?"
    -Help or -h Displays complete help. Example: "-ParameterSet -h"

Examples:
    manage-bde -status
    manage-bde -on C: -RecoveryPassword -RecoveryKey F:\
    manage-bde -unlock E: -RecoveryKey F:\84E151C1...7A62067A512.bek

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Also while in the rescue media command prompt, try running SFC /SCANNOW to see if this can fix any corruption in the OS files.

Another option here would be to try to reinstall the Intel RST drivers (that include iastoreAC.sys) using the method described in forum topic: Inaccessible boot media - but ensuring that you use the correct version of the driver for you system.

See also webpage: Fix iaStorAVC.sys Blue Screen on Windows 11/10 

Version 19.0 was release to solve the BitLocker problem you are seeing.

An update -- On my SSD drive, my boot drive partition that had the problem with the iastorac.sys b-s-o-d had a myriad of other errors I discovered when running chkdsk and running repair. I could unlock the drive from bitlocker after having physically removing it and connecting the drive to a USB adapter. Sadly it had too many errors for the partition to be recoverable, so I had to format the drive. Luckily I didn't lose any data which I kept on another primary logical partition. Though it too had errors it could be repaired .

In ATI2020  in windows, I had a full and incremental backups created within the last two months. Recovering any data from them isn't going well. I used an external drive as the destination. I hadn't copied or moved them manually or changed them in any way, but nonetheless they cannot be recovered so far. I tried 'add existing backup' and the error is:

"Failed to add the backup to the backup list. The backup may be locked or corrupted. Also, make sure the folder contains the last volume of the backup, and does not contain a renamed copy of the same backup."

Event code: 0x01010005+0x01010005+0x01E50015+0x01E5001A+0x0004000E

I tried memory tests, checked the external drive for bad sectors, etc. but not able to view, much less validate the backup chain. I also copied the files from the ext. drive to the internal drive but no go. Anything else that I might try, to see if I can recover the data? At this point I just need to be able to access some of the data in my backup chain. I'm not going to recover the entire images. 

Chris, rather than adding the backups in the ATI GUI, have you tried just double-clicking on them in Explorer to see if they will open and allow you to use normal Copy & Paste commands instead?

I have tried, and the full folder/file backup does open but after 8 minutes per time I double-click. It's nearly 300gb in size so could be why. However, I cannot get to open at all, the incremental backups which I believe have the data I'm looking for. I receive an error like the one above when I try to open in Explorer.