Media Creation
Good afternoon,
when I try to boot from the Acronis CD for system recovery, the harddisks are not seen by the Backup/Restore program. So I tried to create a bootable USB-Stick which would include the required RAID and chipset driver, media creation says "successfully completed", but the USB stick does only contain just 1 GB of data and booting is not possible. The last one I tried to create shows a blue screen with "Recovery" very small in the top left corner and after some time shuts the computer down.
To inject the driver during media creation I folled your very instructive article in the knowledge base:
Power User Insights: Advanced WinPE/RE Driver Injection in Acronis Media Builder.
It sounded promising, but the results are staggering. What am I doing wrong?
Hello Steve,
thanks for your reply. I wasn't in place for 2 days and will be at the computer again tomorrow. I will try to find the useful links section and read up on this script you mention. So is it, that the built in function to create a bootable media is faulty? It seems I can create the Linux based bootable stick without problems, but of course, this version will not detect the system drive and will not show the RAID properly.
It is really unfortunate that Acronis fails with its easy backup strategy on this computer. I really hope I can somehow create this bootable rescue stick, otherwise all backups (at least those of the system disk) would be in vain.
I will come back to you on monday. Thanks so far.
Wolfgang
In fact I am not Andreas but Wolfgang, the guy who helps Andreas to get this computer running. Of course it is his account, because he bought the software. :)
Hello Wolfgang, the Linux version of the rescue media is not faulty, simply restricted in function due to the limitations of the OS being used which does not have RAID support etc.
There is a separate Forum Topic in the ATI 2017 Forum for the MVP Tool - CUSTOM ATI WINPE BUILDER which has a lot of discussion around the tool which you may find helpful. This also has links to the Google Drive repository where the tool is held.
Raid drivers are proprietary, and Linux licencing conditions preclude the inclusion of proprietary drivers in Linux distributions - they have to de loaded when installing the OS, which the Acronis media does not do. Non-proprietary drivers for display drivers have been reversed engineered by the Linux community, but they have not doe so for raid drivers.
Hello Stev and IanL-S,
I think you mistook my question. Of course the Linux version is not faulty and I am aware that those drivers might not even be available for Linux.
I was asking if the Media-Creation-function within Acronis 2018 program is faulty, because I went through all steps of creating a bootable medium based on RE as well than on PE, including the injection of the drivers as explained in your knowledge base, but the resulting stick was not even booting.
Wolfgang,
Can you post the media creation tool log here for review? It may help in answering the question.
Hello Enchantech,
I think I can, if it is C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Logs\ti_media_builder\ti_media_builder.log. You'll find it attached. I could also copy it into the post if you like.
I have just downloaded the ATI-PE-Builder, read the readmes and studied the construction. If I understand it right, I just have to click on the link 'HP WinPE Driver Pack downloads' to get the drivers for my HP computer downloaded, or shall I proceed otherwise? Like how do I extract drivers from the running PC and what files do I have to put in Drivers_Extracted\x64?
Ok, by now I have downloaded the HP Client Windows driver pack for PE 10 and unpacked it. But now I'm not sure what to do with them. There are so many of them for intel or amd in some level nested folders. I'm not sure which ones to choose and how to put them into the ATI-PE-Builder.
So, I thought, while I was waiting for an answer, I could always try to build a rescue medium without my custom driver, just to see if the process is working. I ran the ATIPEBuilder.exe in the Advanced folder. It went through the process without error, skipping some things like Snap Deploy (whatever this is) and let me select to create an USB-stick.
It formatted the stick, copied files to it and said "successful" in the end. But booting from this stick results in
Recovery
Your PC/Device needs to be repaired
An unexpected error occurred
Error code: 0xc000000e
blah, blah.
An inspection of the stick showed me that there is only 423MB of data. There are lots of language-like folders like en-us and de-de, even so I chose to leave it in english language. The same folders are again in the Boot folder and then there is nothing else on it. Of course it cannot boot like that. What went wrong?
Btw.: This is the same result I got when using the Acronis-Extra "Create Rescue Media". What's missing?
Wolfgang, you should not need to include the majority of your HP Client Windows driver pack drivers in your MVP Custom WinPE media - only those which are required to allow access to such as RAID drives.
When running the MVP Custom script, there are options shown during the process to ask what you want to include where the script can take device drivers from your computer based on what is already installed, plus an option to install the Intel RST RAID driver which is included with the MVP tool package.
I would recommend trying the simplest approach with the MVP tool initially, use a 'small' USB stick and test creating the media on this. The USB stick can be between 1GB up to max of 32GB size and must be FAT32 formatted. You can repeat using the MVP tool to experiment with different options to become familiar with what these are and try out the media for booting etc.
The tool creates a log file for each use which is kept in the Logs subfolder for the tool, i.e. on my computer in C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Logs. My most recent log shows the following options that I used when I last ran the tool.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
MVP ATIPeBuilder LOG DETAILS:
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
20-06-2018 21.18.50 You chose [2.] "64-bit Media Builder" - USER selected.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Skipping network share mapping - USER selected.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Mounting amd64 winpe.wim.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Leaving the WinPE default language as English - USER selected.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 True Image Found. Adding It.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 True Image snapman Version: 4.7.0.2583
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Snap Deploy Not Found. Skipping It.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Universal Restore Found. Adding It.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Disk Director 12 Found. Adding It.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Disk Director 12 snapman Version: 4.7.0.2556
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Acronis Revive 2017 Not Found. Skipping It.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Adding in extra goodies.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Skipping Double Driver local system 64-bit driver injection - USER selected.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20-06-2018 21.18.50 START injecting CUSTOM 64-bit drivers - USER selected.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.17134.1
Image Version: 10.0.17134.1
Searching for driver packages to install...
Found 3 driver package(s) to install.
Installing 1 of 3 - C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Custom\x64\IRST\iaAHCIC.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 2 of 3 - C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Custom\x64\IRST\iaStorAC.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 3 of 3 - C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Custom\x64\NIC\Killer e2200 Gigabit Ethernet Controller\oem59.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
The operation completed successfully.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20-06-2018 21.18.50 END injecting CUSTOM 64-bit drivers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Skipping MSiScsi Support Packages - USER selected.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Adding Bitlocker Support Packages - USER selected.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Do not prompt for any key at boot - USER selected.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Skipping WinPE screen resolution - USER selected.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Saving changes to amd64 winpe.wim file.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Creating Acronis_MVP_PEMedia_amd64.iso.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Acronis_MVP_PEMedia_amd64.iso is located in "C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\ISO"
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Creating Acronis_MVP_PEMedia_amd64.wim.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Acronis_MVP_PEMedia_amd64.wim is located in "C:\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\ISO\Wim".
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Creating USB flash drive - USER Selected.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 USB flash drive letter is [N:] - USER Selected.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Skipping CD/DVD burning - USER Selected.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 Cleaning up now.
20-06-2018 21.18.50 FINISHED.
Hello Steve,
as I just wrote, I have run the ATIPEBuilder just to see if it creates a bootable stick at all, but it does not. In my previous post I described what came out. Here I will now paste the log. I think the windows PE file (or wim or what it is) gets not copied to the stick at all, as there are only 423 MByte of data on it after creation.
Here comes:
*************************************************
06-08-2018_13.59.58
MVP Tool - Acronis WinPE Rescue Media Builder
v.18.2
*************************************************
------------------
SYSTEM INFORMATION:
------------------
PC NAME: JUPITER
BIOS UUID: 2B003DE5-329D-0A7C-7F89-2C3E588D5B93
---------------
OS INFORMATION:
---------------
NAME: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
VERSION: 10.0.17134
BUILD: 17134
ARCH: 64-Bit
DIRECTORY: C:\WINDOWS
LANGUAGE: de-DE
OS UUID: 8b4d0a65-aab9-4d76-b19f-3ff1654e7cfe
-------------------
ACRONIS INFORMATION:
-------------------
WINDOWS SNAPMAN VERSION: NotFound
ATIH VERSION: NotFound
ATIH BUILD: NotFound
SD BUILD: NotFound
UR VERSION: NotFound
DD VERSION: NotFound
DD BUILD: NotFound
Acronis Revive VERSION: NotFound
Acronis Revive BUILD: NotFound
--------------
VARIABLE PATHS:
--------------
SCRIPT SOURCE: E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182
ATIH PATH: C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\TrueImageHome\WinPE
SD PATH: NotFound
UR PATH: C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\UniversalRestore\WinPE
DD12 PATH: NotFound
Acronis Revive PATH: NotFound
ADK PATH: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Windows Preinstallation Environment
----------------
ADK INFORMATION:
----------------
Installed: NotFound
WINRE64: NotFound
WINRE86: NotFound
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
MVP ATIPeBuilder LOG DETAILS:
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
06-08-2018 13.59.58 You chose [2.] "64-bit Media Builder" - USER selected.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Skipping network share mapping - USER selected.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Mounting amd64 winpe.wim.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Leaving the WinPE default language as English - USER selected.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 True Image Found. Adding It.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 True Image snapman Version: NotFound
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Snap Deploy Not Found. Skipping It.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Universal Restore Found. Adding It.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Disk Director 12 Not Found. Skipping It.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Acronis Revive 2017 Not Found. Skipping It.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Adding in extra goodies.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Skipping Double Driver local system 64-bit driver injection - USER selected.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06-08-2018 13.59.58 START injecting CUSTOM 64-bit drivers - USER selected.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tool zur Imageverwaltung fr die Bereitstellung
Version: 10.0.17134.1
Abbildversion: 10.0.17134.1
Searching for driver packages to install...
Found 3 driver package(s) to install.
Installing 1 of 3 - E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Custom\x64\IRST\iaAHCIC.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 2 of 3 - E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Custom\x64\IRST\iaStorAC.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 3 of 3 - E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Custom\x64\NIC\Killer e2200 Gigabit Ethernet Controller\oem59.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Der Vorgang wurde erfolgreich beendet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06-08-2018 13.59.58 END injecting CUSTOM 64-bit drivers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Skipping MSiScsi Support Packages - USER selected.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Skipping Bitlocker Support Packages - USER selected.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Prompt for any key at boot - USER selected.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06-08-2018 13.59.58 START Setting WinPE screen resolution 1920 x 1080 - USER selected.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06-08-2018 13.59.58 END Setting WinPE screen resolution 1920 x 1080.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Saving changes to amd64 winpe.wim file.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Creating Acronis_MVP_PEMedia_amd64.iso.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Acronis_MVP_PEMedia_amd64.iso is located in "E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\ISO"
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Creating Acronis_MVP_PEMedia_amd64.wim.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Acronis_MVP_PEMedia_amd64.wim is located in "E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\ISO\Wim".
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Creating USB flash drive - USER Selected.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 USB flash drive letter is [H:] - USER Selected.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Skipping CD/DVD burning - USER Selected.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 Cleaning up now.
06-08-2018 13.59.58 FINISHED.
Wolfgang, the tool log looks OK to me at first glance.
What size of USB stick are you using, how is this formatted? We have had some problems with some USB sticks not being bootable where a full format of the stick was needed to remedy. (Not a quick format as offered by Windows Explorer).
The file size for the WinPE media sounds about correct. Using TreeSize on my own USB stick shows about 460MB total size used which includes some screen images stored on the stick that I captured using the IrfanView tool.
Really, so small a size only?
The stick is 16GB USB 3.0. I will try a full format now and rebuild the standard rescue stick without custom drivers. I think, if this general process fails, we'd have to find the reason before we can try to include custom drivers.
I just saw it was formatted with 8k block size. I think FAT32 default is 4k. So I make a full format with 4k blocksize, now.
Ok, that's what happened:
Obviously the media creation (without custom drivers) were successful, insofar as I could boot from the stick with a Dell-laptop I have for my peruse.It starts beautifully with your MVP logo and shows all the available drives for backing up.
On the HP for what it was meant, however, it still produces that blue screen I described before. It does the same on another HP computer (ProDesk Mini). As the Linux version at least boots up and shows the Acronis program (without recognizing the drives, of course), we must look for the problem in the boot process. If the Linux comes up properly without special drivers, the winPE should come up as well. I don't know why it is.
HP support gives a lapidar answer: We do not support Acronis. :-/
Btw.: I really LOVE this bootstick already deeply. :-) All the gimmicks are fantastic. It really upgrades my beloved Acronis linux-bootstick I was using before. Just great work.
That is strange about the HP Wolfgang - I have used my own MVP Rescue stick on a variety of different computers & laptops without any issues other than getting past Secure Boot on an Acer laptop!
One important point to check: are these all 64-bit computers? The MVP script can create both 64-bit and 32-bit media but these have to be made separately. I tested the 32-bit version of the media on my older Samsung NC10 Netbook which has an Intel Atom 32-bit CPU and it worked fine plus would also boot on a 64-bit machine if needed, but not the other way round (64-bit only on 64-bit machines!).
En réponse à That is strange about the HP… par truwrikodrorow…
Hi Steve, today I have unfortunately no access to the HP computers in question, so I can't proceed with the bootstick-building.
I'm quite sure and confident, that I have chosen every option for 64bit. The Win10 on the machine is a Pro 64bit, so I understood I need to build a 64bit stick. (I will certainly also make a 32 bit one for other computers, because it is such a beatiful tool).
I had an Acronis 2015 bootstick for cloning drives and making drive backups, which worked on every computer I had to use it on, so far. I don't know if it is 32 or 64 bit, but I'm sure it works on the 64bit Dell laptop, too. Although it fails on those HP computers either, but it boots (in legacy mode, because this screen resolution issue) and shows the acronis program, without recognizing the drives.
But the issue is, why does the MVP-stick not boot at all, but shows a kinf of blue screen?
Wolfgang, I agree that the MVP tool media is good, it is my own preferred media to use too.
No ideas presently as to why it doesn't want to boot on the HP computer, but one option might be to try creating the MVP media on the HP, assuming that you have ATI installed to do so?
When you refer to seeing a blue screen, is this just blank or is there anything shown on it, such as for a BSOD?
One further thought, there have been some issues with some computers with dual video adapters where it has been necessary to disable one of these in the BIOS before the media would boot correctly.
See forum topic: Video mode setup error: Error 0x1480006 - HP ProBook 450 G4 and read through to the end where it mentions having dual video cards
Hi Steve, yes I posted the blue screen's content earlier. It looks like a BSOD but has no QR code on it. It is like:
Recovery
Your PC/Device needs to be repaired
An unexpected error occurred
Error code: 0xc000000e
blah, blah. (3 more lines to allow pressing esc and other keys dor options, none of which work)
This is what I have achieved and found out by now:
First, I tried to boot in legacy mode. Of course it is a bit irritating having to go to the BIOS first and enabling legacy boot, but this is one big step to success: The created resue stick boots in Legacy mode to the beautiful WinPE environment and runs Acronis. That's already not bad. I don't know why it would not boot in UEFI mode. I'm quite confident there is no dual video adapter, just the standard on chip/on board thingy.
Now for the drives: Alone with the iastora.sys driver in the Drivers_Custom folder I can see now the RAID array and the used space is properly identified. However, I cannot see the actual system drive which is an M.2 SSD of 256GB and which is definitely what I want to backup as a whole drive with bootsectors and everything as I was used to. I shall now try the driver insertion. In the device manager I can see 2 drivers in the Storage Controller section
Intel Chipset SATA RAID Controller and Microsoft-Controller for Storage Spaces (it is german, I try to translate). The first of which looks similar to the driver in the Drivers_Custom folder.
Do I also have to include the drivers in the Drives section (of device manager)?
When testing, a second problem occurred: Acronis says the RAID is bitlocker encrypted and cannot be handled. The thing is, obviously this encryption came upon by default because I did not intend it. Checking windows' storage management shows the system drive as bitlocked, too. But bitlocker console says, bitlocker waits for activation... I'm a bit baffled about that. But however, I don't want bitlocker. Is there a way to get rid of it? Because the bitlocker control panel does not offer an option like "deactivate" or "decrypt" or "remove" or something.
Thanks for your patience.
And of course, have I installed the ATI on the HP computer and try to create the rescue media from there.
Meanwhile I have created another one in 64 bit and chose "include drivers from this PC". The stick was created and again had tobe bootet in legacy mode. This time in UEFI there was message like: "Selected boot image did not authenticate.", so I went to legacy mode. The system came up nicely but again did not show the system drive.
The log says there were errors extracting drivers from my PC: Sorry it is in German, but so is my PC. It says, drivers 1, 2 and 3 could not be installed. I will try to look into the other logs for the reasons. Albeit it says the SATA RAID driver was not installed, the stick could read the RAID perfectly.
Anzahl der zu installierenden Treiberpakete: 5.
1 von 5 - E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Extracted\x64\DDBackup_UUID_2B003DE5-329D-0A7C-7F89-2C3E588D5B93\SCSIAdapter\Intel Chipset SATA RAID Controller\oem4.inf wird installiert: Fehler - Fehler: Das Treiberpaket konnte nicht installiert werden.
Weitere Informationen finden Sie in den Protokolldateien im Ordner "<windir>\inf" des Zielabbilds.
2 von 5 - E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Extracted\x64\DDBackup_UUID_2B003DE5-329D-0A7C-7F89-2C3E588D5B93\System\Intel(R) Management Engine Interface\oem18.inf wird installiert: Fehler - Fehler: Das Treiberpaket konnte nicht installiert werden.
Weitere Informationen finden Sie in den Protokolldateien im Ordner "<windir>\inf" des Zielabbilds.
3 von 5 - E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Extracted\x64\DDBackup_UUID_2B003DE5-329D-0A7C-7F89-2C3E588D5B93\System\Intel(R) PMC - A2A1\oem16.inf wird installiert: Das Treiberpaket wurde erfolgreich installiert.
4 von 5 - E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Extracted\x64\DDBackup_UUID_2B003DE5-329D-0A7C-7F89-2C3E588D5B93\System\Intel(R) SMBUS - A2A3\oem16.inf wird installiert: Das Treiberpaket wurde erfolgreich installiert.
5 von 5 - E:\Install\ATI_PE_Builder\ATI_PE_BUILDER\Advanced\MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v182\Drivers_Extracted\x64\DDBackup_UUID_2B003DE5-329D-0A7C-7F89-2C3E588D5B93\System\Intel(R) Thermal subsystem - A2B1\oem15.inf wird installiert: Das Treiberpaket wurde erfolgreich installiert.
Fehler: 2
Der Befehl wurde mit Fehlern abgeschlossen. Weitere Informationen finden Sie in der Protokolldatei.
Wolfgang, the 0xc000000e error relates to the Boot Configuration Data for the media stick but this should be correct if the same stick works on other computers!
One thought here, I have had some issues where Secure Boot has been enabled even though with WinPE this should not be an issue! It seems that UEFI & Secure Boot is not a level playing field and is implemented differently by various manufacturers!
If your Windows OS uses UEFI as the BIOS mode when booting, then you need to be able to boot the Rescue Media in the same mode too. If you attempt a recovery from the media in Legacy mode on a UEFI system this will not give a bootable OS.
The driver extraction / insertion from your own computer doesn't look to be of any real issue and given that the Intel RST RAID driver support is injected and working, can be ignored. I doubt that any of the 5 drivers you are showing in the log data are actually needed here.
The BitLocker situation with your RAID & system drive is more puzzling and makes me wonder if this is being enabled at a BIOS level - have you checked for any related settings there?
I suspect that the rescue media needs to be in UEFI mode for the M.2 SSD drive to be recognised.
Thanks for your reply, Steve.
First, you are absolutely right, the drivers from my system are not needed at all. I built a new stick where I just inserted the RAID driver found on my PC by extracting it with pnputil and putting it into Drivers_Custom instead of the IRST folder. The stick boots in legacy mode, but again does only show the data RAID.
Perplexed I tried it on the other hp computer which has Acronis not yet on it. This hp ProDesk mini also didn't show the system disk... up to now. Currently I am making a drive backup of everything on the M.2 (NVMe) drive.
But you were saying, a backup made in legacy mode would not produce a bootable media when restoring? This is bad news again, because I can't get UEFI mode to boot this stick a damn.
Concerning the bitlocker I will inspect the BIOS for it. Thing is, the PC came with only the system disk, which seemed to be encrypted factory default. I peronally installed the data RAID myself and definitly didn't chose the bitlocker, but there it is. Unactivated, though, but says encrypted. Puzzling. I don't know how to get rif of that. I don't want no encryption and I must get rid of it.
So the only chance would be to make this stick boot in UEFI mode, somehow. Currently, when trying, it does not show this blue screen anymore, but the message "Selected boot image did not authenticate". How can we make an authentication happen?
The message "Selected boot image did not authenticate" sounds like it could come from having Secure Boot enabled, Wolfgang - have you tried turning this off?
Erm... this is what we were talking about, weren't we? I went to the BIOS and selected
Lagacy Boot Enabled, Secure Mode Disabled
and then selected to boot in legacy mode... what do you now mean? Disable Secure Mode but still boot in UEFI mode? Ok. I could try that right now.
But I want to say: some weeks ago a friend asked me to image the system of an hp ProBook to another one. I had only a linux based Acronis 2015 on a stick, which wouldn't boot in UEFI mode because of some strange screen resolution issue. So I did exactly the same what I did here: I disabled secure boot and booted in legacy mode, which worked. Then I stored an image of the system disk with Acronis Drive Backup on a portable USB drive. On the second computer I proceeded equal so and played the image onto the system drive. Of course I had to change then back to secure boot, but it had created a perfectly bootable image.
I am not so sure about what happens during UEFI boot at all anyway, but in this case I was able to create a bootable system in legacy mode, although I had to go go back to secure boot to restart the second laptop.
I tried it: Disable secure mode, enable legacy mood and booted in UEFI mode, but the same blue screen appeared again.
Wolfgang, UEFI can be booted with or without Secure Boot being enabled, and if this is how your Windows OS boots (UEFI mode) then there should be no need to try using Legacy/CSM boot mode.
See forum topic: Warning "After operation completion, operating systems will not boot from destination disk in the BIOS" - where an unbootable system has resulted from using the rescue media to recover in the wrong boot mode.
See also the ATI 2018 User Guide section on Migration method which shows the end result of different boot scenarios, including: BIOS-booted system, GPT, UEFI supported
Thanks, I will read up on that.
But why do you think, the imaging process worked on the hp ProBooks, although Acronis was booting in legacy mode?
There is one other option in the BIOS: Enable MS UEFI CA key, which is checked. Shall I try to uncheck it without possibly losing the key?
Also I found nothing about bitlocker in the BIOS.
Wolfgang, from a quick search via Google for the MS UEFI CA Key, this looks to restrict what applications can boot when Secure Boot is enabled to only those authorised my Microsoft which is not likely to include the Acronis Rescue media.
You should be able to disable this option without losing the key involved.
See webpage: Microsoft UEFI CA Signing policy updates - for some more information.
See also: Cannot disable HP secure boot
Ok, I will then try this tomorrow, because I'm going home now.
But now come a big surprise, which completely baffled me: I tried to include Samsung NVMe drivers, and for that purpose I chose an older 4GB stick I had here. To my complete surprise, this stick booted properly in UEFI mode and also showed the system drive!!! (Although I couldn't make a backup because of this bitlocker encryption).
Why is it, this older stick booted in UEFI mode no problem? I'm not even sure I need those NVMe drivers at all: I think booting in UEFI mode will reveal the system drive anyway.
So what is the difference between the sticks which lets this older one boot? I have a 16GB USB3.0 (failed), an older 8GB USB2.0 (failed) and this older 4GB USB2.0 which finally did it.
I'm perplexed.
Wolfgang, very strange but progress at least! Unfortunately not all USB sticks are created as equals - I try to stick with Integral make of USB sticks where possible and have never had any issues with these.
Yes, progress at least. :)
Most of my sticks are Kingston, but I also got one Integral 3.0 and several other makes. I will definitely try the Integral tomorrow.
But I don't understand how the brand of an USB stick can have influence of the way of booting...
Andreas,
It is not so much the brand of drive but how and what you use to format the drive with.
As a best practice I recommend that a new drive be used void any data. If the drive has been previously used then I recommend that the Diskpart Clean command be used on the drive to clean all data. Then use the Windows format tool to perform a long format of the drive.
It seems that the quick format method leaves some remnants of data that corrupt the media build process.
Hi Enchantech,
(I'm Wolfgang, not Andreas. Andreas is the guy who bought the software, but I have to get it running :))
I have now this morning tried a choice selection of sticks, some of which had linux life systems, some only data on them. They all failed except one. The failures showed either the msg: "Selected boot image did not authenticate", or simply failed to boot at all. Only one stick (which had an Acronis 2015 on it before) boots now successfully, and I did only a quick format as done in the ATIMVP script.
Looking at the sticks I testet so far makes one assume that the stick size is decisive. The latter one is an older 2GB USBest, the other one a 4GB Verbatim. All other sticks I tested where 8 or 16GB.
I will now go and try your recommendations as clean per diskpart and full format on one or two of the larger sticks and see what happens.
After that, there is still this bitlocker business to resolve. :)
@Steve: Also a 16GB Integral failed.
Wolfgang, all my working USB sticks are Integral 16GB size.
The Diskpart commands needed are as follows:
diskpart
list disk (to identify USB drive, i.e. 1)
select disk 1 (ensure correct drive is selected!!!)
clean
create partition primary
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit
Hi Steve, I just went up to the Clean command and then used the disk management console to create a partition and full formatting it as per Enchantech's recommendation. The formatting is still running. It is very slow. In a couple of minutes I will try the empty stick. If it fails I go again with the full diskpart command set you gave me.
Meanwhile any idea about that bitlocker business? I found an article where bitlocker is disabled via powershell cmdlet, but I'm not so sure, because it says "bitlocker awaits activation". I can't afford to destroy the system drive and restart from scratch again. I had that just before, because a ransomware virus encrypted all my files and left the system ruined. I got a recovery stick from HP to reset the computer to factory default, but everything was lost of course. Don't wanna do that all over again. :) Unfortunately I can't make a backup with Acronis stick, albeit I have included bitlocker support during media creation.
Wolfgang, found the following webpage that might help with the BitLocker issue.
Webpage: Handy Bitlocker tip (If you are 'Waiting for activation') - where it states:
All you need to do to disable the damn thing is open a command prompt as admin, and type in the following simple command :-
manage-bde c: -off
It will confirm 'Decryption in progress' but give no time indication, eventually go back to Bitlocker in Windows settings and it will show 'C:BitLocker off'
Has to be worth giving a try, especially as this was also related to a HP computer!
Wow. That sounds exactly the right thing for me. I will try soon. As soon as I have thanked you and Enchantech for all your valuable help and input. Especially you, Steve, for all the relevant links and info. And your patience. It was an education chatting with you.
The reason being: Obviously the right thing to do was using diskpart to clean up everything. A full format seems not necessarily be required, but with a "Cleaned" stick I can now reliably reproduce the media creation in all details. I have now done 4 runs in a row, with all those sticks which failed before, and all have produced an UEFI-bootable 64bit rescue medium which also shows the system drive (even without the samsung NVMe driver). I also created a 32bit one to test on my PC at home. I'm very happy about that outcome and thank you all again for your great support. Acronis forum is great! The ATI-PE-Builder is fantastic and so is the Rescue-Stick with all it's gimmicks. I will try to add some more tools which need no installation.
One thing: How can I identify if a stick is a 32bit or 64bit version? Would be nice to see it in the volume label like WINPE64. Just an idea.
If I accidentally kill my system drive with that bitlocker, I will come back to you... or maybe not. ;)
Ok, I have now decrypted the data RAID and immediately done a drive backup with my beautiful new rescue stick. :)
Decryption took about 15 min. for 15 GB. You can see the current status with manage-bde -status. It says completely decrypted when ready, and in the disk manager there is no word of bitlocker anymore. Great, Steve. Good finding. I think I can dare a decryption of the system drive later before I'm going home. Then I will finally be able to install the rest of the programs and make a drive backup for emergencies.
Thanks again for your great help.
Glad to have been able to help Wolfgang, and hope all continues to go smoothly with the other tasks you have planned.
Yes, I hope so, too, thank you. I want to buy another PC which would run Acronis as an all-night backup to save the important files on it. Itwould not share its folders to the network, so any malware like this rapid-ransom would not have write access to it, even if it eats up everything else, it cannot encrypt those backups. But I read where the Acronis Ransom-Protection is quite good at it.
I think the new rescue stick becomes my favourite and will replace the 2015 boot stick I used so far. Because of WinPE I can even put some more utilities on it, like Teamviewer.
Thanks again.
Hello, for one final question:
I have tried to put 2 stand-alone programs onto the stick, namely notepad++ and CPUZ, but both wouldn't run. So I suppose, also the Teamviewer stand-alone would fail. Is there a way to make other programs run from the MVP-Recovery-Stick?
Wolfgang, please see the readme text file in the MVP tool Extras folder which has the following advice:
If you have any extra files/folders (portableapps) you want to include, put them in here.
Keep in mind that WinPE is architecture specific.
- You must put 32-bit apps in x86
- You must put 64-bit apps in x64
- 32-bit apps will not run in 64-bit WinPE
- 64-bit apps will not run in 32-bit WinPE
The entire "Extra\x86" or "Extra\x64" folder will be copied into your WinPE, based upon the
version of WinPE you select to create at build. These files/folders will be located at:
X:\Program Files\Extra
----------------------------------------------------------------
In order to navigate to these extra apps in the WinPE:
1) You can use the Launchbar start button >>> "Extra".
2) You can use the BlackBox (bblean) desktop >>> "right-click" >>> "Extra".
3) You can manually navigate to the "X:\Program Files\Extra" folder
using one of the file explorer apps (Explorer++ or A43).
Alternatively, use the shortcut for "Extra" under "X:\Program Files\Extra.lnk"
Ah, ok. I didn't read that yet. Will read up on it. I think I'll make some experiments. I'm not sure whether notepad++ or CPU-Z is a 64bit app or a 32bit one. But thanks for that hint. I didn't understand that up to now.