Issues with rescue media - none of them work.
I have an Asus PN50 - AMD 4700U 'NUC style' PC with a recently purchased ATI2021. I am trying to test/validate the restore procedure in advance rather than on the day of a disaster, but I'm not getting very far.
- Linux rescue media:
- Selection of backup from 'browse for backup' hangs forever. Mouse pointer moves ok.
- Unrelated? but same result, clicking on 'Network configuration' in the toolbar, or whatever it's labelled, shows the dialog 'reading network configuration' or something similar (as I don't have it in front of me), hangs forever. Mouse pointer moves ok.
- By hang, I mean the app stops responding and does not respond to mouse/keyboard input anymore.
- Simple Windows Media:
- After the Win 10 logo, I get a blue "Recovery" screen - Your PC/Device needs to be repaired. Unexpected error. Error code:0xc000000e.
- None of the options listed such as press F8 for startup options etc.. work.
- Advanced Windows Rescue media:
- Downloaded the latest Windows PE/RE/whatever from MS + Acronis plugin. Same result as Simple Windows media section above.
- Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed with this. I came across a post where someone mentioned that ATI2021 had some sort of issues with AMD PC's, is this correct? How can I be sure of this?
- Are there any debug mode/tricks/logs which can help shed some light on what/where is failing?
- Also there are indications that ATI2020 has no such issues, does Acronis allow downgrades? Is the trial installer for ATI2020 still available?
Thanks for any suggestions.
I have been unable to get the Linux recovery media to work with my AMD systems; no problems doing backup from within Windows. Cannot remember if I have recently tried the Simple Win RE or the advance Win PE recovery media with any of my AMD systems. If I get a chance I will test it tomorrow.
Ian
Steve:
- There is a Samsung NVME/M2 + Samsung SATA SSD. (Raid disabled/off in bios) The Windows installation is on the NVME. There is also a USB external drive where the backups are stored.
- Windows 20H2/19042.804
- Building the boot disk to a 4GB USB stick. System is UEFI, Secure Boot disabled. It was built on the same PC as where it is being tested.
- Both Linux and WinPE/RE get past the bios/uefi stage. With Linux, the Acronis TI application starts, but will freeze either by clicking on the "Network settings/configuration" or after selecting a backup .tib file after browsing for it. The Windows PE/RE will show the Windows blue startup logo, then show the Recovery Error screen as I said in the previous post. It never gets to the actual recovery environment where the TI application is started.
- This isn't a trial, I purchased TI 2021 3-computer pack. Though I haven't tested it, I was wondering whether it was possible to "downgrade" a license, should I later find that TI2020 media works ok on this PC.
Ian:
- The TI application works from Windows and I can do backups from there. The issue is recovery from the bootable application. As this is the likely scenario in the future if the Windows installation disk fails for example.
Since the initial post, I'll add:
- I tried booting systemrescueCD (version 6), it booted fine without issues. So technically other Linux distros are OK booting with this AMD system, but this doesn't prove/help anything here.
- I downloaded the MVP Tool and created bootable media. It booted but failed at the same blue Recovery screen on the AMD PC. I tried this same USB stick in my older c.2012 Intel i7-2600 system and it booted fine into the Recovery environment. TI started without issues and didn't hang at all, though I didn't go through with the full restore procedure.
- Does anyone know of any flags which can be added to the Linux media - or the Windows PE/RE so it shows more debugging information? Is it possible to have a console/shell on the Linux media?
Bobby, thanks for all the further information / details.
From what you have shared, it does seem as if there is an issue with the ATI 2021 rescue media when used with AMD systems and the best way forward would be to report this directly to Acronis by opening a support case. They should also be able to advise if there are any additional logs or tools that can be used to gather information from the boot media environment?
Have you had previous versions of ATI before 2021, and if so, were these registered to your Acronis Account? If yes, then you could download a copy of the Linux media .ISO image from your account for an earlier version to test with here. If ATI 2021 is your first version of ATI then try the link here.
With regards to any downgrade of your ATI 2021 license to such as ATI 2020, you would again need to contact Acronis directly to ask about this, so best to have got an open support case for the media issue first that you can point to as a reason why ATI 2021 is not working for you!
Here's how to tell if the problem is related to the processor. In your Windows system, open Device Manager and look at the properties of the processor. On the Driver tab click Driver Details. Note the name of the sys file being used. On the Details tab, click the drop down arrow in the Properties window and select inf name. Boot your MVP WinPE media on the older computer and check if the inf and sys files exist. You will find the inf file at X:\Windows\System32\Inf. you will find the sys file at X:\Windows\System32\Drivers.
If either of the above files don't exist, you can pull the driver from your Windows system and add it to the MVP media. Take the inf file from C:\Windows\Inf. Open the file with notepad.exe and search for SourceDisksFiles. You will see a list of files that are needed for the driver. Put the inf file and all the SourceDisksFiles found in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers in a folder. That is the driver you need to add to the WinPE media.
Steve:
- Many thanks for the info. TI2021 is my first purchase, hence I'll need to ask Acronis Support what to do.
- On a more positive note, the TI2020 link to the ISO image you posted worked fine! I verified my image and then went through the restore wizard up to the selection of the destination disk but didn't actually go through with a restore.
- I noticed 2 things,
- On the working USB image/TI2020, the network icon to the bottom right next to the keyboard language layout, goes from animation to solid in a matter of seconds, meaning the network has got an address from DHCP. (Network configuration then confirms this) On TI2021, this remains in an animated state forever meaning it never seems to complete the network setup, and clicking on the network configuration hangs the application/system.
- On TI2021, booting up the USB stick and doing nothing, except for clicking on the close (X) in the window to exit, will also hang/freeze the application.
Mustang:
I sort of have a working restore setup with the Linux boot disk, so I'll pause for now regarding trying to get the Windows RE setup working, though your help is appreciated.
This is a very serious matter. I have reported it to the ATI product manager. Hopefully the matter will be progress as a matter of urgency.
Update: I created a Simple recovery media on USB Stick, rebooted my Gigabyte Aorus GA-AX370-Gaming 5 M/B; AMD Ryzen 1700X and selected the USB stick (UEFI) and it loaded without issue. I was able to select the partition to backup and the destination partition without problem. Started the backup of a data disk (still going, estimates 2 hours). Not sure if it is relevant, but my mother board does not support Ryzen Pro 4700U (indeed any 4000 series CPU). Also, you Asus would have a different chipset, and it may require different drivers. What chipset does the unit have - a quick search of the Asus www site did not indicate the chipset used. The Ryzen Pro 4000 series has integrated graphics which may be another complication.
Ian
These AMD chips are APU's and I don't think they have a separate chipset. Whatever functionality a chipset provides is built into the CPU/APU.
Thanks to all of you for your help, I'll follow up with Acronis support and take it from there.
The Windows RE recovery media created on my Ryzen PC worked perfectly on my ancient PC with AMD APU - it has an A8-5600K APU with an ASRock FM2A88X Extreme4+ motherboard - uses the AMD A88X (Bolton-D4) chipset. So being an APU does not seem to be the explanation. It could be chipset related but it is merely speculation on my part.
Ian
Hello again, just to bring some final info to this thread in case it helps anyone else.
- I spoke to Acronis support and they suggested I re-try the MVP tool. This time with Malware Protection disabled.
- I disabled Malware Protection, created a folder under the "drivers" directory for my custom Drivers. In this directory were the contents of 'c:\Program Files\Samsung\NVME Driver' (It's on another PC, name might be different). There were a total of 3 files in there for the Samsung NVME controller.
- Went through the menus in the MVP media creation tool, ADK, custom driver, default settings for everything else.
- It failed to write to the USB, though this worked OK last time I tried it. So I used Rufus to write the .wim file (default settings, it somehow created an NTFS boot disk which booted fine on UEFI). Rufus did give a warning about
WppRecorder.sysfile which needed to be removed from Windows ver 1809? RE based media. I continued nonetheless. - This USB booted perfectly into the recovery environment where the Acronis application started automatically and I could select my backups etc...
- So I have a working restore solution, either with ATI2020 Linux, or the Windows ADK created with the MVP tool, and narrows it down to just the ATI2021 Linux boot media application freezing. But I'm happy with the options I have now.
@bobby, thanks for the update. Glad that you got the Windows based recovery media to work using MVP tool. Glad that I have never needed to go to those extremes to create Windows PE recovery media for my AMD 1700 system with also has Samsung NVMe boot disk.
I have had similar issues with the Linux recovery media stalling requiring a hard reboot. I am about to try it again, this time I will record the process and send the recording, together with log files to Acronis technical support.
Ian