Acronis True Image Recovery can't detect Dell XPS 13 Samsung NVMe PM951 M.2 SSD system drive -- SOLUTION
Acronis True Image 2017 boot media would not detect my Dell XPS 13 laptop’s Samsung NVMe PM951 M.2 SSD disk drive, therefore I could not recover backups. After hours spent both on my own and (fruitlessly) with Acronis Support, I determined a solution and thought that I should share it here. Hopefully Acronis Support will read this and in future give better assistance to folks using Acronis backup software on this popular laptop with a Samsung NVMe PM951 M.2 SSD system drive (& I suspect other Dell systems). The problem is Dell configures XPS 13’s like mine in SATA RAID mode and Acronis boot media do not have the necessary drivers for this mode -- NEITHER “Acronis Bootable Rescue Media” NOR “WinPE-Based Media with Acronis Plug-In” have the necessary driver(s). Before performing an Acronis recovery, you must go into the XPS 13’s BIOS setup and set the “SATA Operation” (under “System Configuration”) to “AHCI” before booting up using an Acronis boot media. After performing the Acronis recovery, you must go back into the BIOS setup and set the “SATA Operation” back to “RAID On” so that the XPS 13 can boot (at least mine didn’t have drivers for AHCS operation).
Hi highly recommend the MVP winpe utility - it works great and is a nice WinPE recovery enivormment with some extra utility (like a web browser, file explorer, etc.). Ultimately, once you have it created (using Win 10 ADK) it should work on most systems just fine and will definitely work with your Dell and other systems using NVME PCIE drives in SATA mode.
The alternative for 1 drive NVME PCIE systems is to temporarily change the SATA mode to AHCI in the bios (the Dell's typically allow this). Boot to the Linux Acronis rescue media and it should see the drive. Backup and/or restore as needed and shutdown the system. Then change the SATA mode back to RAID before booting the OS. This should work fine for 1 drive NVME PCIE setups that are not actually using a real RAID or any dynamic disk setup.
However, I still recommend the WinPE rescue media over this. Other than having ot download and install the Micrsofot ADK, it's just as easy to create when using the MVP winPE too (try the advanced mode - it's just as easy to use/build but has all the extra goodies).
The MVP too is very easy to use - just follow the instructions in the thread discussing the tool and all should be well. I managed to do so and it is not something I had ever tried to do before.
Ian
I sure wish that my searches had found this solution! Better yet, I wish that Acronis support knew of it (at least the two that "chatted" with me over 3 sessions didn't). Better yet, I wish that Acronis supported my very popular laptop "right out of the box" -- customers shouldn't have to jump through these special hoops to recover backups for such popular systems. This "known problem" has existed for at least a year ... ample opportunity for Acronis to have encorporated in a release/update!! Shame on you, Acronis.
Rick,
Please submit feedback directly to Acronis through the app to register it with them as well!
I truly believe WinPE should be the default method as well. However, Acronis uses Linux because it is open source and can be distributed already created - making it easier for some users to just download and burn a working .iso - that is handy for many. Micrsoft does not allow for the distrubution of prebuilt winpe so it must be created on an already licensed version of Windows. Some backup products make this seem more integral by automaticlaly downloading it as part of the installation and also making it easier to add drivers when building the media.
As for Acronis method, Linux isn't Windows and systems designed with newer hardware (primarily designed for Windows) may not have those drivers in the Linux media. Acronis has the WinPE rescue media builder for WinPE built in, but it only has the ability to use the default drivers that come with whatever version of Windows ADK is installed to build it and also requires the user to install the ADK separately. Both of these could be improved for sure, but the option has been there all along. If the Acronis WinPE builder allowed users to supply their own drivers, and or could install the ADK more seemlessly, this would definitely be more user frendly and that's the feedback they need to hear from customers - not just here in the forum, but actually logging it with them.