Bootable Rescue Media Questions
Hi all,
I've been using Acronis True Image and Disk Director for over 10 years and just got 2021. I am looking to create a Bootable USB that satisfies the requirements below, but didn't have much luck the other day. I just got a new HP Spectre x360 15t (Comet Lake / 2020) and it did not magically work like other systems I've used it on. I did use WinPE and then later made the USB with the MVP script.
The system has one USB-A port which I'm using for a UEFI memory stick. Then there's two USB-C/Thunderbolt3 ports which I can attach a USB Ethernet NIC or an external drive.
With the MVP script I managed to add chipset drivers and got the TB3 drive to mount and backed up to that. I suppose that's fine and I could stop there but here's what wasn't working...
- Display looked like it was scaled to my 4K display but text was very large and cut off, but the GUI graphical elements didn't all scale. The toolbar buttons were nearly invisible.
- Could not get a USB Ethernet adapter to work. I tried a few and they are all Realtek chipsets. I've never had to add drivers on other systems with Acronis so this is odd. I did download Realtek drivers and added them with the MVP script but I still didn't have anything show up under Network Adapters. Am I missing something here?
Thanks!
I didn't change the resolution.. it defaulted to something high-res. How do I change it or force XGA?
The best way to set screen resolution is to boot the media. Once loaded look at the task bar on the bottom and you will see a single monitor icon. That shortcut will open the SetRes application from which you will be able to choose all supported resolutions which are available.
Again I recommend 1024x768 and SetRes will show you what is currently in place. Select another if you like and if that resolution will work on your PC then it will load it and the TI app will scale to the new setting. If the resolution you select will not work with your PC you will get a message to that effect.
After you find one that works for you then you can rebuild the media and select that resolution during the build process.
I just made a new WinPE USB and had it use the current system drivers. That worked for getting Ethernet working. When prompted for resolution, I selected 1024x768 but WinPE still picked UHD.
The other problem currently is that with Intel Optane enabled, TI is telling me it can't backup the disk because of BitLocker, which isn't actually enabled. Shouldn't it at least let me back up byte-by-byte method? It says the filesystem type for the partitions are unknown.
Intel RST drivers are included and it sees the disk but TI can't read them I guess.
Nick,
You need to test resolution settings in the booted media using the SetRes app then apply that setting to new build of the media.
At the time of development of the MVP tool Optane enabled storage was not available so remains untested. In my opinion this would be something that is limited by ATI and is unsupported. In the past when Hybrid drives enjoyed modest popularity those devices were not supported by ATI. I am referring to Intel Rapid Storage Technology Hybrid drives of which Optane is the latest incarnation. So I would suspect that ATI still does not support this scenario.
To backup your disk you would need to temporarily disable Optane (IRST) to create the backup and then re-enable it when the backup is finished. Same would apply when attempting a recovery.
So it turns out that every single resolution in the SetRes menu returns "The graphics mode is not supported".
Intel Optane requires a later IRST driver than is included in the MVP Tool. You will need to supply that yourself when building the media. The later IRST drivers support both RAID and Intel Optane.
There are only a few resolutions supported natively by WinPE. You need to check what resolutions your monitor supports in Windows. Both WinPE and your monitor must support the resolution for it to work. If WinPE doesn't support the resolution you need, you will need to get the Windows video driver installed in the MVP build. That usually turns out to be very difficult.
Bitlocker problems can be caused by the system being set to allow Bitlocker to be enables even when it is not actually enabled.
It's a laptop LCD so I know it will support almost anything thrown at it. This is not a problem of matching resolutions to what a monitor or LCD will support. In Windows, all of the common standard resolutions are supported... and I've tried 1024x768, 1280x720, 1600x900, 1920x1080, etc. Every single resolution returns "The graphics mode is not supported". Something isn't right. My full time work is as an AV engineer so I know the ins and outs of how EDID works.
I built the WinPE ISO with drivers from the same system using the extraction method. The drivers must be working for me to be getting UHD resolution, but the problem is the text and raster graphics scaling. There's no reason why 1024x768 shouldn't work but WinPE is running at 4K and can't be changed...
Okay, it's clear the problem isn't with your monitor not supporting the resolution you want. The problem is that the basic display driver in WinPE doesn't support the resolutions. WinRE usually supports the native resolution of the monitor in Windows, but not much else. My system has a monitor of 1920 x 1080. WinPE supports that resolution. I made a list of all the resolutions supported by my monitor in Windows. When I try them in WinPE they all fail with a not supported message except 1920 x 1080. After I add the video driver to WinPE, all the resolution work!
Well, I used the driver extraction from the script which I thought pulled all of the drivers from the running system. Does it not pull that video driver? It's just Intel UHD graphics on a Comet Lake chipset...
Nick, does your laptop support dual graphics? There have been a number of posters here logging complaints about the same issue you are that have laptops with dual graphics.
It does but generally the 2nd GPU is only invoked on application request for it. I'll note that the Windows installation environment looks and works fine.
I tried searching this forum for "The graphics mode is not supported", setres, resolution, rescue resolution, and various other keyword combinations but did not return any results. Not sure this forum's search is very useful. This forum also seems very slow for some reason. Can you point me?
There are issues with getting the video driver working in WinPE. It's not a straight forward process like other drivers. Dism.exe is used to inject drivers. Dism.exe doesn't actually install video drivers due to the coding of the inf files used by manufacturers. What actually happens if the driver is just copied to the WinPE driver File Repository during the build. Then after WinPE boots it is necessary to load the driver using the command line tool drvload.exe.
There is also a problem with the program DoubleDriver.exe used to get the drivers from the Windows system during the build. DoubleDriver usually fails to get the complete video driver.
The MVP Tool has been written to automate the process. Here are the steps needed to get it working the first time:
1. You must build the MVP Tool using the Build from ADK option. If you select the Build from WinRE option, the video driver will Not be installed.
2. During the MVP build elect to use System drivers. You should already have done this, so you can skip this step.
3. Go to the MVP folder and look at \Drivers_Extracted\DDbackup_xxxxxxxxxxxxxx\Display\driver name. In your case you should see a folder name starting with Intel. You will need to replace all the files in that folder with the drivers files from C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository. It may be difficult to find the driver there. Here's how I did it:
a. Look at the Display adapter properties in Device Manager. Select the Details tab at the top. Click on the Properties drop down arrow and select inf name. Get the inf name from the Value box.
b. If the inf name is oemxx.inf, you need the go to C:\Windows\INF\oemxx.inf and open it with notepad.exe. Look down in the code for the name of the .cat file. (In my case I had oem2.inf. Inside the inf file I found iigd_dch.cat. Iigd_dch.inf is the proper Intel driver needed.)
c. Go to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository and scroll down to a folder that starts with the actual inf name.
d. Now replace all the files in the \Drivers_Extracted\DDBackupxxxxxxxxxxx\Display folder with the files in c. above.
e. There is one more step needed. You MUST rename the inf file to custom_dd.inf. In my case I renamed iigd_dch.inf to custom_dd.inf.
4. Rebuild the MVP media and select Build from ADK and select use drivers from the system. You also need to select the resolution you want during the build. If you select option A. to keep the default resolution, the video driver will NOT be installed.
5. When you boot the MVP media, you should see a command windows open with a title that includes the word drvload. You will just see a blinking cursor while the video driver is being loaded. The window will close when the driver finishes loading. You should now see the screen in the resolution you selected.
As I mentioned before, the process in not easy. The good news is that you only need to go through all the steps once. Later builds will automatically include the video driver. When the video driver is working in WinPE, you will be able to use the set resolution manually to any resolution supported by your monitor.
I just read your post that the laptop does have dual graphic. That is a problem and you may not have any luck with the above method.
If I were you I would give Macrium Reflect Free a try and see how the WinPE resolution is handled. Let us know how you make out.