WinPE Recovery of Acronis True Image 2016 Backups from a Network Drive
Hello,
I've pretty much given up on creating a recovery (from a WD network drive) using Acronis USB recovery media, and have moved on to Win PE.
I have created Win PE USB recovery media that boots into X:\windows\system 32. From here I can't seem to find detailed instructions on locating my (Z:) WD MyCloud network drive.
Do I use Win PE recovery media in tandem with the Acronis recovery media? Not sure how to proceed.
I'm using Windows 10 Pro 64 bit ...
Thanks in advance for any idea's how to do a test recovery ...
Chet
What was the issue with the Linux-based recovery medium?
See How to Map Network Drives From the Command Prompt in Windows which should help with how to connect to your network drive from the Windows PE command prompt window.
I assume the "persist" option doesn't apply to Acronis bootable recovery media. Is there any way to add scripts into the build process and have them automatically executed?
At launch, the following is what kicks off Acronis in the WinPE:
X:\Windows\System32\startnet.cmd
Open startnet.cmd with notepad and edit the text. You could put your **edit** Net Use command before the line that launches Acronis or call a .bat script that does the same thing. In order to modify the boot.wim file in your Acronis bootable media so that you can modify the startnet.cmd file (I assume your using a USB flash drive - you need to be able to modify the boot.wim file on the flash drive which is located under sources/boot.wim from the root of the USB drive), you can mount it and modify the file with DISMGUI pretty easily.
Steve, no luck there so I went on to install the Acronis sanctioned PE recovery media, but I could still not locate my WD My Cloud drive.
I went back to using the Acronis standard USB recovery media, I find my network drive under "computers near me" but the recovery time is stated at approximately 28 hours over a gigabit connection.
Apparently im not the only one having problems doing a recovery from a WD My Cloud 4 TB drive https://forum.acronis.com/forum/65654
I'd love to hear from someone who has had success using ATI 2016 doing a recovery from their WD My Cloud 4 TB network hard drive ...
Chet
Hello Chet,
Have you created WinPE media with Acronis builder or used some other tool? After black command-line window opens, it should launch Acronis program automatically. If you do not see Acronis window, I suggest you to recreate the media: open Acronis True Image in Windows, click on Tools tab, click "Rescue media builder" and choose WinPE option.
Once you see Acronis window in WinPE media you need to click Recover disks, click Browse and type the name or IP-address of your WD My Cloud in the file name field, like this: \\192.168.0.12 (replace 192.168.0.12 with your WD device`s IP address). After you hit \ after IP address, so that path typed becomes \\192.168.0.12\, the program will attempt to connect to that device and will show you login prompt. You will need to enter credentials for your WD My Cloud. Then you could browse its contents, select desired backup for restoration and proceed with recovery.
Additional troubleshooting steps are at https://kb.acronis.com/content/57992
Regards,
Slava
Hi Slava,
Thank you very much for this information, it is very useful.
If I use the true image application to do a recovery off the network drive it works extremely well ...
If I use the Acronis WinPE media I cannot locate my network drive by any means that you mentioned in your reply. If I use the standard Acronis back up media I can see my network drive under "My PC" (but not listed under NAS), I can authenticate my share, but from there I cannot even find a button to click to continue the recovery.
I'm following the referenced document, and as mentioned, my networked drive is not listed under "My NAS Connections"
I do have Bonjour installed, but I'm uncertain how to proceed in step 1 for 64 bit Windows 10, how to use 7-zip to extract Bonjour64.msi from the iTunes installation file https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ (version 3 of Bonjour service) and thus far I do not see mDNSResponder process running in task manager. How do I go about doing this ? Do I need to install 7-zip?
Its a shame that Acronis makes network drive recovery so difficult. Seems that I should not need to download any external applications to perform a recovery, but rather should be self contained within the recovery media ...
Thanks for any help or advice,
Chet
With Linux-based, you have built in ethernet networking and you can see regular (SMB) shares under computers near me.
With WinPE, you have first to use the net use command to mount the share where the backup is. See bobbo's post above.
With none of the above, you will see your NAS under my NAS Connection. That section is for legacy/obscure networking protocols that you will not find in a typical NAS, contrary to what the section name might suggest.
I had a WD 4TB my cloud before, and I couldn't restore anyway. Acronis was declaring the backups corrupted. I had to copy the backups to a USB disk before restoring... For this and other reasons, I actually ditched the WD NAS and went to Synology. No regret.
I read a similar post by MVP Colin B whom experienced the same issue with the WD My Cloud device. I have also seen posts from a few other users complaining about the same issue.
It appears to be a device specific issue. I myself have a WD 4TB My Book and a WD 2TB Passport drive and have no issue with backup/restore operation from either. Of course these are not network devices either.
As I recall in Colin's case there was no problem backing up to the device but recovery was, well, impossible.
Here's some pictures of what works for me...which is pretty much the same thing that Slava is recomending. Boot from WinPE...I don't type in any commands at the command prompt, I just launch True Image. From the main True Image screen select Recover...which brings up a pretty blank screen...see picture 1.
Select Browse in lower right corner. Brings up the browse, screen, but don't click on any of the folder names...click on the blank line "File names" and type in \\yourNASname\ picture 2 below.
Shortly after you type in the last \ ATI will ask for credentials...picture 3 below.
Input your NAS credentials and you should be good to go.
Please let us know if this works for you.
Regards,
FtrPilot
I tested both recovery media options today - both work with my SMB NAS share. However, they require a little different actions.
Linux default media is actually a bit easier to use in regards to NAS access (assuming the NIC and hard drives are all working with it). With Linux media, my SMB share shows up under "workgroup" and then I click on it, it prompts for credentails. Alternatively, I can type in the path to the share by IP or UNC such as:
"\\192.168.1.1\myNASshareName\"
or
"\\Nasname\myNASshareName\"
With WinPE, you have to use the net use commands to map the drive as a letter first and then from there the authentication is bascially the same.
I can authenticate fine, but get this error message after about 3 minutes, Acronis true image cannot detect volume 1 of "Entire_PC_WD_MyCloud_full_b1_s1_v1" archive. I had the same problem with the incremental backups ..
Chet, what happens if you try to validate the same backup archive? That may give you an option to ignore any missing backups.
Chet, it could be limited network connectivity from the WinPE or the NAS itself. During your recovery and/or backup, I would run a constant ping from the command prompt in WinPE as well and check for latency and/or dropped packets. Ping -t 192.168.1.2 (change IP with your NAS) will keep the ping constantly going and you'll need to keep an eye on it.
Are you connecting to the NAS wirelessly or via physical ethenet plug on both ends - I'm assuming ethernet, but want to make sure. One issue others have reported with WD and other "home" NAS devices is their lack of memory and CPU. Often times, they need to be rebooted to free up resources again. If you have multiple devices accessing them at the same time (media server, plex, etc and/or phones, tablets and/or PC's), the NAS may be running out of memory of the CPU may be getting bogged down. Does the WD have a resource monitor as well? During an Acronis restore, while the constant ping is going, also check the NAS resource monitor (if possible) to see what CPU and memory utilization look like.
Last, where are you restoring to? The internal HD of the system or an external USB drive? I have had mixed success with certain USB devices because of underpowered ports where the device would briefly (for a second) disconnect and reconnect over and over. Using a powered USB drive should alleviate this type of behavior in most cases but bad cables or a bad port could also cause this kind of behavior.
I'm assuming if you copy the backup directly to an external drive (as a test) and attempt to restore it from there, it will then work, or do you still get the same error message?
Thanks for everyone's help in trying to solve this problem.
Steve, I just created a new backup and got the green check mark which I believe means it's already validated. Nonetheless, I ran another validation task which took approx 1 hr 20 min, still got the green check mark. Then I proceeded to attempt a recovery using the using the standard Acronis media (USB stick)
This process is very slow with long lags between mouse clicks. I found my nas backup, authenticated it. And then this time I went up to the top banner bar and clicked on recovery. Then after another long lag, "recover to" appeared, I selected the "recover to" drive, & then I proceeded. After approx 20 minutes, the process finally went to step 3 of 6, "recovering partition". The recovery time was indicated as 1 day 3 hours.
At this point I cancelled out of the process. I have a USB3 drive in which the recovery time is only 38 minutes.
Here is how I am configured. Windows 10 desktop connected ethernet to port 1 of a TrendNet TEW-812DRU wi-fi router, and port 2 connected ethernet to the WD MyCloud drive. No other ethernet ports are utilized. I do not use the wi-fi option for doing any backup or recoveries, only for occasional wi-fi use with wireless devices.
Bobbo_3C0X1, that was a good suggestion about the constant pings and I will try that. I can tell you that a single ping works perfect, where I get 4 quick, successful replies using the Acronis WinPE media. Also, I am restoring to a newly purchased Seagate 1.8 TB internal hard drive plugged into the second bay of my desktop for testing recoveries. I unplug the connector from my main Seagate 1.8 TB drive, and then plug in the identical "test drive".
Please give me a few more days to try all your suggestions. I'm wondering if there is something unique with this WD MyCloud. lack of ram, etc. I do not have any other network drives to try.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a follow up from one of the Acronis support engineers ...
Hello Chet,
"I apologize for the delayed response and appreciate your patience.
I am glad to know that recovery from USB drive completed successfully. Since recovery has completed successfully through USB drive, you do not have to share any reports.
I would like to inform you that Acronis True Image 2016 is compatible with WD MyCloud NAS.
As discussed earlier, recovery from NAS depends on the connectivity between the NAS and the destination drive and it is always slower than the recovery from any external drive connected directly through SATA or USB. Hence, there is no technical glitch to be investigated.
Please let us know if this answers your query. I look forward to your response.
Feel free to get back to us should you have any difficulties. We are always here to help you"
--
Best regards,
Priyotama Kumari
Support Engineer
Acronis Customer Central
While I suspect that everything said by Acronis support is true, I don't think the difference of 38 minutes and 1 day vs. 3 hours is explained by SATA or USB vs. network connectivity unless you have a horrible network problem. That kind of problem would cause problems in both backup and recovery. Is the backup equally slow? (Sorry if you've alrady answered that.)
Hi Pat,
I do my scheduled backups daily using Acronis 2016 directly from the "C" drive. A full 2.6 GB backup takes approx 1 hr 20 minutes to the WD MyCloud network drive.
I have not attempted to do a backup utilizing the Acronis standard media (USB stick) though it seems the capability is there ...
Chet
If it takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to backup 2.6GB over your network you have serious network issues. What happens when you ping the ip address of your my cloud?
I may not get to it for a day or two, but I'll run a test first backing up to a USB 3.0-attached 3TB WD MyBookLive and then to a Gigabit Ethernet-attach 2TB MyBookLive NAS. A full Entire PC backup (2 internal drives) is about 300GB so there's ample chance for any speed differences to show up.
I've never been able to find a true head-to-head comparison of MyBookLive and MyCloud NAS performance, but I've seen several reviews saying the MBL transfer rate is slightly greater than MC. That means my numbers won't reflect your environment, but it's the best I can do.
I do my backups (including backups of some files on the NAS) to my USB-attached drive, but I'm considering getting a larger NAS - either MC or MBL - and want to see how fast the backup goes.
Chet,
Just for comparison. I backup about 72Gb (primary disk) to a network SMB share that is directly attached to my home router (ASUS AC-1900) which is hanging off a USB 3.0 external port on the router that is connected to a 7200RPM 2.5" 500Gb drive. With this very basic setup, it takes about 35-40 minutes for a full backup to complete to the SMB share.
2.6Gb in 1 hour and 20 minutes is most likely a network connecivity issue (and hopefully not NAS performance in general).
You can run LanSpeedTestLite (free) and have it copy different file size tests to a share on the NAS and it will tell you your transfer speeds. I'd start with 500Mb chunks and run 3 of them to get your average. If it's looking OK, the bump them up to 1Gb and do the same.
Thanks for your replies. There was a typo in my backup size, it's 260 GB in 1 hour 20 minutes ..
How does that compare?
Thanks !
Chet
Thanks for your replies. There was a typo in my backup size, it's 260 GB in 1 hour 20 minutes ..
How does that compare?
Thanks !
Chet
Big difference obviously. That's a shade over 55 MBps which is resonable for most configurations.
I did run the constant ping Ping -t 192.168.x.x (changed IP for my NAS) for about 10 minutes and got consistent replies bytes=32 time <1 ms TTL=64
I'm still plaged with very very slow recovery speeds. I think my next step is to ethernet connect my new Win 10 laptop and try to transfer some directories of very large files to the desktop. I guess I'm trying to disprove a network problem ...
Thanks to everyone for your assistance.
Chet, I think your recovery time is pretty reasonable with your newly posted speed of 260Gb transferred across the network to a NAS in 120 minutes. I'm getting about 70Gb done in 35-40 minutes on an SMB share and a USB 3.0 attached 7200RPM drive. You're getting a little faster than me with about 3 x times as much data in about 3 x the amount of time. I'd say this is about normal for a NAS using slower 5400RPM drives and limited memory. The bottleneck is probably the drive speed/NAS performance more than your network. However, hard wiring everything and using Gig E switches certainly won't hurt. The type of router and/or switch can make a difference too. In locations where I need extra connections I use cheap-o 5 and 8 port Gig switches and they work great. However, I've had back luck with "green" switches and others that just wear out quickly. I've found that paying $10 more for the metal cased switches (still under $30) is worth it as they tend to hold up better since they are less prone to heat issues (usually).
I wonder if there is a firmware difference for those people who have no problems using a WD MyCLoud drive and those that do.
Colin I've heard anecdotal comments that recent WD firmware was causing various issues.
Bobbo_3C0X1 - your last post, I wanted to correct the fact that it was a full backup from my Windows desktop to the WD MyCloud which was 260 GB in 1 hour 20 minutes, not the recovery. The recovery with the Acronis bootable media is the problem whereby it just takes over a day or not at all, for example, nothing seems to happen.
I just did a quick network test between my win 10 desktop and a win 10 laptop, both ethernet connected to my router (not using a switch). I copy and pasted 128.7 GB (945 items) first from the desktop to the laptop. The result was it took 57 minutes. Then I did the exact same test, but instead copy and pasting the exact same 128.7 GB from laptop to desktop and it took 31 minutes.
I cannot explain the differences in elapsed time.
I'm going to try some copy and pasting with the same items tomorrow, but instead with the WD MyCloud.
Chet,
The difference in speed between laptop to PC and back again may be due to the types of hard drives. For instance, if one drive has an SSD and the other a hybrid or spinning drive, the SSD write is going to be much faster. You may also find difference in speed among similar drives (like SSD's) as the performance on different models/brands can vary quite a bit too. SSD's will also slow down if they get below about 10% of the total usable size and regular drives suffer from this too, but SSD's more-so since they need that space for file caching. The variation in memory and CPU can have an impact too as it generally takes more power to write than to read (not by a lot, but there's still a difference). Also, are the NICs in both devices 10/100/1000 or is one one 10/100? Sometimes, setting the NIC from auto-negotiagte to 1000 all the time can boost performance too.
I suspect that writing to and from the NAS will be generally slower than your first two tests as tas those are probably 5200RPM drives and the memory and CPU in the NAS are probably less than both of your other test systems. I'm curious for the results though.
Hello, well to summarize, I'm ethernet connected into a router with a windows 10 desktop, windows 10 laptop, and a WD MyCloud NAS. I don't feel I have a network problem, here are the results of my tests, moving 128.7 GB of data consisting of 945 files.
From desktop to laptop 57 minutes
From laptop to desktop 31 minutes
Then I changed the network adapter (speed & duplex) settings in both devices from auto-negotiate to 1.0 Gbps full-duplex and ran the test again.
From desktop to laptop 47 minutes
From laptop to desktop 32 minutes
Then I ran the same test to my WD MyCloud NAS ....
From desktop to WD MyCloud NAS 28 minutes
From WD MyCloud to desktop 37 minutes
From laptop to WD MyCloud NAS 24 minutes
From WD MyCloud to laptop 29 minutes
I researched both the hard drives in my computers and both are 7200 rpm and not SSD
Desktop HD is a Seagate ST2000DM001-1ER164
Laptop HD is a WD2500BEKT-75A25T0
So I'm still confused as to why I cannot create an Acronis media recovery from the WD MyCloud NAS to my desktop. Dragging and dropping files between any of these devices works fine.
I have just downloaded the latest build 6571 of ATI 2016 but have not yet attempted a recovery since.
I'm hoping someone may have some insight as to why the difficulty creating a recovery from the WD MyCloud NAS?
I do not have a MyCloud device however, it appears to me that something in the configuration of the deivce is at work that inhibits True Image in a recovery process. In my opinion share settings on the device may be at the root of the problem. Take a look at the share properties for the share you have created for the backup files. If that share is set as public this may be the problem. Setting the share to Private in this case should help. Set the private share to have Full Access.
It's a difficult one to pindown. I too do not have a WD MyCloud device to troubleshoot from directly. Restoring from my SMB share hosted off my AC-1900 router works as expected so it seems like it could be a unique issue of these devices. Anyone want to donate a WD mycloud for testing :) ? I am working on a plan to try and get my hands on one, but don't want to buy one myself if this is indeed a problem with these particular devices.
There was a firmware update for the MyCloud released on 5/23/16 to version 04.04.03.113 which I updated, but still have not been able to perform a recovery in a reasonable amount of time. I attempted one yesterday and it exceeded 24 hrs.
I have read in various forums about MyCloud users complaining of its performance with various tweaks, such as going to administrative tools - services - then changing four services to automatic & started:
1) DHCP Client
2) NET TCP Port Sharing Service
3) SSDP Discovery
4) UPnP Device Host
None of these made any difference in performing a recovery, so I set everything back to Windows 10 default.
I'm doing a factory reset on this unit. Bobbo_3C0X1 let me know if I can send this unit to you for your evaluation.
Thanks for your assistance ...
Thanks Chet, I'm working on getting one, but if I can't get my hands on it, I'll take you up on the offer.
Bobbo, please see post https://forum.acronis.com/de/node/120007 where another users is seeking help with a WD My Cloud drive - I have posted a link to this post in case there may be a common solution here?