Wrong drive letter in WINPE
Good day Forum,
Let's start with the basics here, I've reached out to Acronis support multiple times ranging from multiple issues
getting lack luster / cookie cutter responses from their "wonderful" templates.
Issues I've faced so far:
- Acronis Windows Software doesn't let me recover my backup, just sits after loading from dos and does nothing on the Acronis restore except for an hour glass.
- Linux version does not working in 2021 to do restore, just freezes when choosing the backup or when trying to restore.
After working with their lack luster support, having them telling me that the application shouldn't be used from Windows to do restores (which was working perfectly in 2020) and being told that the Linux version of the ISO I boot from for my media should be used through WinPE, (was working perfect once again in 2020) NOW I have a new issue.
When trying to make a backup a partition (C) with Windows PE on 2021 (latest build / or build just before) tthat just My Drive letter for my C drive changes to a F or a G. So of course when I go to restore the backup, the drive letter is wrong. Does the software let me select the right drive letter? Of course not!
I'm forced to them use MVP with a CMD editor to disk edit the drive to return the C drive to the right letter and change whatever of my other drives it thinks is the C drive to something else.
Has anyone else seen this and knows how to fix?
I've attached screenshots showing the letter change.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
1 (Medium).jpg | 201.18 KB |
2020-12-01 17_22_40-Window555 (Medium).jpg | 171.22 KB |
Build (Medium).jpg | 279.98 KB |


- Log in to post comments

Guess you didn't read to well, I said every time I try to do the restore and it selects a different drive letter the PC won't boot anymore. It is no longer on the C drive. It changes over to a drive F or G as shown in my screenshots. Then I need to use disk part to change the drive letter back to C to make the system boot again.
- Log in to post comments

Adam,
I cannot explain your experience but personally I have never experienced what you describe. Then again, I do not perform recovery from Windows either as a matter of good practice.
- Log in to post comments

Adam Gervais wrote:- Acronis Windows Software doesn't let me recover my backup, just sits after loading from dos and does nothing on the Acronis restore except for an hour glass.
- Linux version does not working in 2021 to do restore, just freezes when choosing the backup or when trying to restore.
After working with their lack luster support, having them telling me that the application shouldn't be used from Windows to do restores (which was working perfectly in 2020) and being told that the Linux version of the ISO I boot from for my media should be used through WinPE, (was working perfect once again in 2020)
Do you have SSD drive?
- Log in to post comments

Enchantech wrote:Adam,
I cannot explain your experience but personally I have never experienced what you describe. Then again, I do not perform recovery from Windows either as a matter of good practice.
When I recover from Windows, it reboots so its no longer a "Windows" recovery it's just the software booting its kernel to do the restore. Shouldn't change anything from booting with the media of Linux or doing it this way. The main issue here is booting directly from a WinPE and doing the recovery, it gives it a different drive letter. Upon restoring with the same drive letter Windows will no longer boot because the boot sector is looking for C: and not another drive letter.
I'm going to create a video on it to show it not working. As I said before, zero issues when doing the same operation from 2020.
- Log in to post comments

VVS wrote:Adam Gervais wrote:- Acronis Windows Software doesn't let me recover my backup, just sits after loading from dos and does nothing on the Acronis restore except for an hour glass.
- Linux version does not working in 2021 to do restore, just freezes when choosing the backup or when trying to restore.
After working with their lack luster support, having them telling me that the application shouldn't be used from Windows to do restores (which was working perfectly in 2020) and being told that the Linux version of the ISO I boot from for my media should be used through WinPE, (was working perfect once again in 2020)
Do you have SSD drive?
All my drives are NVME, it's restoring to a different NVME drive with no additional partitions. As I explains just before as well, it works perfect with 2020. 2020 was gold for me never had an issue.
- Log in to post comments

Adam Gervais wrote:VVS wrote:Adam Gervais wrote:- Acronis Windows Software doesn't let me recover my backup, just sits after loading from dos and does nothing on the Acronis restore except for an hour glass.
- Linux version does not working in 2021 to do restore, just freezes when choosing the backup or when trying to restore.
After working with their lack luster support, having them telling me that the application shouldn't be used from Windows to do restores (which was working perfectly in 2020) and being told that the Linux version of the ISO I boot from for my media should be used through WinPE, (was working perfect once again in 2020)
Do you have SSD drive?
All my drives are NVME, it's restoring to a different NVME drive with no additional partitions. As I explains just before as well, it works perfect with 2020. 2020 was gold for me never had an issue.
ATI 2021 does not work with all or some types of SSD drives.
ATI 2020 works with the same SSD drives.
- Log in to post comments

VVS wrote:Adam Gervais wrote:VVS wrote:Adam Gervais wrote:- Acronis Windows Software doesn't let me recover my backup, just sits after loading from dos and does nothing on the Acronis restore except for an hour glass.
- Linux version does not working in 2021 to do restore, just freezes when choosing the backup or when trying to restore.
After working with their lack luster support, having them telling me that the application shouldn't be used from Windows to do restores (which was working perfectly in 2020) and being told that the Linux version of the ISO I boot from for my media should be used through WinPE, (was working perfect once again in 2020)
Do you have SSD drive?
All my drives are NVME, it's restoring to a different NVME drive with no additional partitions. As I explains just before as well, it works perfect with 2020. 2020 was gold for me never had an issue.
ATI 2021 does not work with all or some types of SSD drives.
ATI 2020 works with the same SSD drives.
Do you have an Acronis KB source that says that?
- Log in to post comments

Adam Gervais wrote:VVS wrote:Adam Gervais wrote:VVS wrote:Adam Gervais wrote:- Acronis Windows Software doesn't let me recover my backup, just sits after loading from dos and does nothing on the Acronis restore except for an hour glass.
- Linux version does not working in 2021 to do restore, just freezes when choosing the backup or when trying to restore.
After working with their lack luster support, having them telling me that the application shouldn't be used from Windows to do restores (which was working perfectly in 2020) and being told that the Linux version of the ISO I boot from for my media should be used through WinPE, (was working perfect once again in 2020)
Do you have SSD drive?
All my drives are NVME, it's restoring to a different NVME drive with no additional partitions. As I explains just before as well, it works perfect with 2020. 2020 was gold for me never had an issue.
ATI 2021 does not work with all or some types of SSD drives.
ATI 2020 works with the same SSD drives.
Do you have an Acronis KB source that says that?
No I do not have.
But I have a request for technical support, which is already 3 months old.
And I don't see anyone solving this problem.
- Log in to post comments

Also you can look at the threads on this forum where you can see the same error symptoms:
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2021-forum/2021-vers…
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2021-forum/restore-f…
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2021-forum/acronis-t…
- Log in to post comments

VVS wrote:Also you can look at the threads on this forum where you can see the same error symptoms:
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2021-forum/2021-vers…
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2021-forum/restore-f…
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2021-forum/acronis-t…
Sorry, but those topics do not have any mention of incorrect drive letters being assigned as per this topic title! Your focus in these topics (where you have commented) has been on the Linux based (BusyBox kernel) OS which as already stated in the above is something that Acronis started moving away from with ATI 2018 in favour of creating WinPE media.
Adam, like Paul (Mustang), I too have not seen the issue with drive letter assignment being incorrect on Recovery but I would suggest that your PC is not typical of the majority of users, including myself, with having multiple NVMe type drives installed.
I have a HP Omen laptop with a single NVMe M.2 SSD alongside a SATA HDD which I have recovered to the SSD several times without any issue when upgrading to a larger drive.
If you haven't already done so with your Acronis Support Case, then please ask for this to be escalated to either the Acronis Expert team or else to Acronis Management to gain some additional focus on the issue you are reporting. You need to stress the drive configuration of your PC with its multiple NVMe SSD drives where this issue is being seen on recovery. I would suggest submitting Feedback using the tool in the ATI GUI quoting your support case number and expressing your dissatisfaction with how this has been handled to date (as this will be seen by a different group within Acronis).
If you continue to get the run-around from Acronis Support, then send them a daily email to chase progress and request escalation! Don't forget to add a link to this forum topic too for additional reference and to show this is being aired in the public forums!
One final thought: have you tested any other competitor applications for this Backup & Recovery scenario to prove that this is an issue only with ATI 2021? If yes, then add a comment about that to your support case / feedback escalation notes!
- Log in to post comments

Steve Smith wrote:VVS wrote:Also you can look at the threads on this forum where you can see the same error symptoms:
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2021-forum/2021-vers…
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2021-forum/restore-f…
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2021-forum/acronis-t…
Sorry, but those topics do not have any mention of incorrect drive letters being assigned as per this topic title! Your focus in these topics (where you have commented) has been on the Linux based (BusyBox kernel) OS which as already stated in the above is something that Acronis started moving away from with ATI 2018 in favour of creating WinPE media.
Adam, like Paul (Mustang), I too have not seen the issue with drive letter assignment being incorrect on Recovery but I would suggest that your PC is not typical of the majority of users, including myself, with having multiple NVMe type drives installed.
I have a HP Omen laptop with a single NVMe M.2 SSD alongside a SATA HDD which I have recovered to the SSD several times without any issue when upgrading to a larger drive.
If you haven't already done so with your Acronis Support Case, then please ask for this to be escalated to either the Acronis Expert team or else to Acronis Management to gain some additional focus on the issue you are reporting. You need to stress the drive configuration of your PC with its multiple NVMe SSD drives where this issue is being seen on recovery. I would suggest submitting Feedback using the tool in the ATI GUI quoting your support case number and expressing your dissatisfaction with how this has been handled to date (as this will be seen by a different group within Acronis).
If you continue to get the run-around from Acronis Support, then send them a daily email to chase progress and request escalation! Don't forget to add a link to this forum topic too for additional reference and to show this is being aired in the public forums!
One final thought: have you tested any other competitor applications for this Backup & Recovery scenario to prove that this is an issue only with ATI 2021? If yes, then add a comment about that to your support case / feedback escalation notes!
Thanks for the reply, I'm moving all my backups to another SSD I just installed and I will see how it goes doing a backup and restore from the SSD using both the Linux and WinPE 2021 software. I have a case open with them, their reply has pretty much been that they don't support using their Windows application and that they don't support the Linux boot method.
For some reason I thought it might be because I had an active Windows boot drive on a different parition or drive but I checked it out and only my C drive is active. I've run the same tests on a laptop I have and didn't run into the same issue so for sure Acronis is treating my desktop differently then my laptop.
Still many more test to perform on my side, I'll let you guys know if I find anything.
- Log in to post comments

Steve Smith wrote:Sorry, but those topics do not have any mention of incorrect drive letters being assigned as per this topic title!
In this thread, Adam Gervais also writes about the problem I am writing about.
Your focus in these topics (where you have commented) has been on the Linux based (BusyBox kernel) OS which as already stated in the above is something that Acronis started moving away from with ATI 2018 in favour of creating WinPE media.
However, Acronis distributes a bootable ISO image.
Also ATI installed on Windows computer reboots into this BusyBox, which does not work.
If everything is as you say, then you need to remove the ability to run restore under Windows altogether.
- Log in to post comments

However, Acronis distributes a bootable ISO image.
Also ATI installed on Windows computer reboots into this BusyBox, which does not work.
If everything is as you say, then you need to remove the ability to run restore under Windows altogether.
Correct! Acronis does provide a Linux media ISO image as a download, plus starting a recovery from within Windows or using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager both use a Linux kernel boot OS. These can and do work for some users and are retained because it allows users to access a download of rescue media as Acronis do not have a Microsoft license to enable them to distribute copies of the Windows PE version of rescue media. The latter has to be created by the user on their own licensed Windows PC.
Restore / recovery from within Windows can be useful again to some users depending on what is being restored / recovered, i.e. I have used this in the past to recover an individual non-OS partition or second drive etc. Where it can never be used is when performing a bare-metal recovery, i.e. when the main / only OS disk drive has failed and been replaced and only the rescue media boot is an option.
Note: all the MVP's are just experienced users of Acronis products. We do not work for Acronis and have no ability to change the design of ATI or even influence that design!
- Log in to post comments

In my experience with restore operations, it is prudent to NOT attempt them from within the Windows GUI. It is also prudent to disconnect ALL drives not required to be present for the recovery process. It is best practice to boot from recovery media to perform low level disk operations. Not doing so is a good way to introduce corruption. If you look into it, all manufacturers of disk utilities and backup software will advise using recovery or bootable media to perform recovery or manipulate data on disks in the case of partitioning software.
So even if software is written to have such capabilities the manufacturers advise against it. They also do not support it. So since that is the case, why do it?
- Log in to post comments

It is also prudent to disconnect ALL drives not required to be present for the recovery process
I experienced this all too closely when restoring to SSD, but forget there was a pendrive with hardware licening info on it. Acronis decided this is the drive where the system partition should be restored and made the new system unbootable and losing the licencing info. Produced quite the headache :). Since then I always double check the drive and volume mapping.
- Log in to post comments

Steve Smith and Enchantech!
I can give many arguments (and you will agree with them).
But the most important argument is this: if the functionality is declared, then it should always work.
Otherwise, such functionality should be removed.
There should not be a situation where the functionality sometimes works and sometimes does not work.
- Log in to post comments

VVS, sorry but you need to make your arguments with Acronis not the users in these forums!
ATI has a lot of features integrated but I only use a subset of these personally, i.e. I don't use Sync or NonStop Backup or Notary or Archiving but these are all provided. I assume that they all work but have never tested them all.
The different flavours of rescue media do all work but not all are suited to every user scenario that ATI may be installed in. Example: the Linux media does not have support for RAID so is no good for those users who have this.
See the following known limitations of Linux media:
KB 45330: Acronis Bootable Media Does Not Detect HDD, RAID or NIC
Just because some users encounter the above limitations does not imply that the feature should be removed from ATI.
- Log in to post comments

Steve Smith wrote:VVS, sorry but you need to make your arguments with Acronis not the users in these forums!
Yes, you are right, I completely agree with you.
But many years of communication with Acronis technical support convinced me that it is useless.
I propose to end the argument here, since I completely agree with you about WinPE.
I disagree with how all this is implemented in ATI.
- Log in to post comments