Booting Acronis from USB?

I didnt get it booting from the ISO image but got it booting this way the other day

I created the boot usb through the media builder
I downloaded syslinux and ran syslinux f:(or whatever the usb drive is) from the command prompt
I moved all the files in the recovery folder on the usb to the root of the usb

I renamed agent_ramdisk to ramdisk
Create a syslinux.cfg file on the root of the USB containin the text below and it booted

timeout 100
default ati
label ati
  kernel kernel.dat
  append initrd=ramdisk.dat vga=0x314 ramdisk_size=40000 quiet

paul williams wrote:

Anyone managed to take the ISO created by Acronis Media Builder, tranfer it to USB and boot a machine this way?

Looks like its some sort of minimal linux boot?

I use grub4dos.  You can do a search for it.  Here is an example of my menu.lst.  The three options show up at boot and I select the one I want.

title ATI Backup Adv Work 10.11105
map (hd0,0)/acronis/ati_ur_s_en.iso (hd32)
map  --hook
root (hd32)
chainloader (hd32)

title ATI Echo Work 9.7.8353
map (hd0,0)/acronis/ati_ework.iso (hd32)
map  --hook
root (hd32)
chainloader (hd32)

title ATI 2009.9796
map (hd0,0)/acronis/ati_2009.iso (hd32)
map  --hook
root (hd32)
chainloader (hd32)

The Grub4DOS ISO booting guide can be found here: Using Grub4DOS to Create a Bootable Drive

Hello Paul,

Thank you for using Acronis Products

To create Acronis bootable flash drive (Windows XP) you can also follow these instructions:

1. Download the Forensic Acquisition Utilities from

http://www.gmgsystemsinc.com/fau/

2. Unpack the downloaded ZIP archive;

3. Place installation file of Acronis product in the same folder where you unpacked the ZIP archive:

4. Open the command-line (Start->run->cmd)

5. Issue the following commands:

cd [drive letter]:\fau\fau.x86

dd if=[drive letter]:\[name of the .dd file] of=\\.\[flash drive letter]: --localwrt

where

[drive letter] – Drive letter and path to the file on your hard disk

[name of the .dd file] – Name of the file you have downloaded on Step 3

[flash drive letter] – Letter of your flash drive that you would like to use as Acronis Bootable Media

Example

cd c:\fau\fau.x86

dd if=c:\atis_8115_s_e.dd of=\\.\e: --localwrt

6. Make sure that the partition is active using Disk Management (Start->Run->diskmgmt.msc);

7. Detach the USB flash drive.

You can now boot your machine from it.

Dmitry wrote:

Hello Paul,

Thank you for using Acronis Products

To create Acronis bootable flash drive (Windows XP) you can also follow these instructions:

 

1. Download the Forensic Acquisition Utilities from

http://www.gmgsystemsinc.com/fau/

 

2. Unpack the downloaded ZIP archive;

 

3. Place installation file of Acronis product in the same folder where you unpacked the ZIP archive:

 

4. Open the command-line (Start->run->cmd)

 

5. Issue the following commands:

 

cd [drive letter]:\fau\fau.x86

 

dd if=[drive letter]:\[name of the .dd file] of=\\.\[flash drive letter]: --localwrt

 

where

 

[drive letter] – Drive letter and path to the file on your hard disk

[name of the .dd file] – Name of the file you have downloaded on Step 3

[flash drive letter] – Letter of your flash drive that you would like to use as Acronis Bootable Media

 

Example

 

cd c:\fau\fau.x86

dd if=c:\atis_8115_s_e.dd of=\\.\e: --localwrt

 

6. Make sure that the partition is active using Disk Management (Start->Run->diskmgmt.msc);

 

7. Detach the USB flash drive.

 

You can now boot your machine from it.

Thanks Dmitry (and everyone else)

Bit confused. Where do I get the .dd file from?

I have no idea what the ".dd" file is or where to get it.

Personally, I haven't tried this method and I don't see how copying the "installation file" (as stated in Step 3) to the flashdrive will work. The "installation file" is a Windows installer and isn't bootable. Perhaps Acronis means something else. If so, it's not clear to me.

On a side note, be very careful with "dd" commands. This command is common in Linux and is very useful. It allows you to do many things with drives. However, it is also very easy to get a typo or use a wrong option and wipe something or everything out.

I found this article in the Knowledge Base:

http://www.acronis.com/r/support/en/kb/388/flash_syslinux.html

I'm going to test it out now, see how it goes...

This appears to work ... it generates a USB flash that will boot up and present an apparently functional ATI2010 Home.

However attempts to backup a disk fail at the 'Proceed' point, and the application indicates that you're working with a TRIAL version

Not helpful. Not useful. But it does look useful initially. LOL

Apologies - I was referring to the syslinux approach. I haven't tried ther others yet.

I find the Grub4Dos approach (mentioned above) extremely useful as stated in post #2 & #3.

I have it installed on my 2nd internal Sata disk plus installed on several of my external drives.

As stated in post #2, I can boot into a menu of choices and I too have images of 2009, 2010, V10 & V11 as menu choices. Grub4Dos can co-exist with other data on the drive without any conflicts.

doddsy wrote:

This appears to work ... it generates a USB flash that will boot up and present an apparently functional ATI2010 Home.

However attempts to backup a disk fail at the 'Proceed' point, and the application indicates that you're working with a TRIAL version

Not helpful. Not useful. But it does look useful initially. LOL

Do you have this working yet?

I use grub (not gub4dos) to boot Acronis and several other tools on a 16G flash fob.

I had the "TRIAL version" problem initially when I built the flash drive - using the files from the Acronix bootable flash builder running in Win 7 - until I realized I should use the .dat files from the root of the drive, not the ones in Recovery Manager.

It's working as expected now. If anyone's interested, I'll post the steps here.

Bill

Grub4Dos doesn't seem to work with Windows 7 64bit. Anyone know of a way to hack through this?