Acronis Bootable Media of Acronis True Image Home Boots into Garbled or Low Resolution GUI

I should have mentioned that the Bootable Media tab is simply not there.

William:

The Bootable Media tab will only show up for the current and prior versions of TrueImage, so unless you have TI 2009 or TI 2010, you won't see the tab.

If that's the case, send a PM to Acronis Support or contact them via Live Chat on their web site.

Hello William and K0LO,

We are terribly sorry for the delay with the response.

I'm familiar with the issue and shall do my best to help you.

K0LO, you're absolutely correct, thank you for your help.

William, most likely, standard bootable media has failed to detect your video card correctly and that fact caused the issue (garbled GUI).

I have sent you a Private Message with a direct link to the alternative bootable media that allows changing the screen resolution as described in this KB article. Note that you were not able to download it by yourself because Acronis True Image 2009 Home wasn't registered under your account, now I've registered it under your account.

Please let me know if the issue still persists with the new CD, I'll be glad to assist you further.

Thank you.

Installed is ATIH 2009, Build 9809. RescueCD had been generated as descibed in the ATIH 2009 Users Guide. After boot of the RescueCD the GUI results in low resolution and is out of alignment. To work with this GUI is almost impossible. According to the referenced KB article http://kb.acronis.com/content/3836 an ISO Image should be downloaded from the Acronis website to resolve the problem. However, this KB article seems to apply to ATIH 2010 and 2011 only.

Nevertheless, I downloaded the .iso file offered under the bootable Media Tab. This RescueCD boots with a very good GUI. I assume that this RescueCD is based on the ISOLinux loader. For interest only I tested the possibility to change the GUI resolution, as described in the KB 3836 article. I did not succeed. Pushed F11 when the message 'Starting Acronis Loader ...' was displayed. Command line window occured and I typed in vga=ask and then ok. The list of available graphic modes didn't occur.

Is the RescueCD .iso Image (ATIH 2009, Build 9809), offered as a download by the Acronis website, based on the ISOLinux loader? How could one find out which of the two different loaders is actually loading? In both cases message 'Starting Acronis Loader ...' seems to be displayed. Did someone succeed to change the screen resolution or other parameters? How could this be done?

Now my biggest problem. The KB article 8134 describes the scenario, that the system might become unbootable after restoring using the ISOLINUX Bootable media. It strongly recommends to resort to ISOLINUX Bootable Media only if Acronis Loader Bootable Media does not work! For me this means, that I should use the normal RescueCD (Acronis Loader based). However, I can't use this recommended solution because of the GUI resolution/out of alignment problem.

Is the BartPE solution the only way to cut the Gordian knot? It would be nice, if also the Acronis Support people could give there view on this matter.

Thank you! Wolfgang

Acronis has gone through so many loaders that it's hard to keep track of them. The problem with the ISOLinux loader version not restoring a drive to a bootable state would only happen on some systems.

Have you tried it? If it works okay, then don't worry about it. For lots of people, the ISO media version was required because the media created by TI wouldn't work correctly. It's a case of using the version that works.

You may find some useful information on the resolution problem in this thread. It's usually possible to use different resolutions with either media version (it's just a matter of pulling the Linux files out and using Grub4DOS).

Hello MudCrab,
thank you for the information and links. I am using ATIH 2009, Build 9809, the downloadable (ISOLinux) RescueCD image to make the system backups. I backup all partitions, i.e. the whole HardDisk to an externally USB connected drive. The backup and the following validation steps, both performed with the RescueCD, works fine. I hesitate to make the restore test now, will take the risk and hope, it will work if needed. Thank you! Wolfgang

Decided to minimize the risk of a failing restore when using the ISOLinux RescueCD. Will use either BartPE or MustangPE. Scanned the links MudCrab gave me in comment #5. The follwing is my understandig. Please correct me, if I am wrong or have missed some important points. Which product would be the most appropriate one for my environment? My PC is about 7 years old. I usually perform backups of the whole drive (all partitions) in standalone mode only. I am running Windows XP, SP2, ATIH 2009, Build 9809.

- MustangPE Builder can run on different Windows Operating systems.
- BartPE Builder can run on Windows XP only.
- MustangPE, is based on Windows Vista. Vista contains more Hardware support/drivers than Windows XP, where BartPE is based on. I assume that Vista has more/additional support for newer hardware. However, does it also contain improved/more efficient support for older hardware?
- MustangPE has in contrary to BartPE no Forum (at least I didn't find it).
- MustangPE has no service/support contact mentioned on their homepage.
- MustangPE has compared to BartPE only few Plugins.
- Most MustangPE Plugins are licensed and will be charged for. BartPE Plugins seems to be free of charge.
- For the Mustang solution I would need two licenses charged for, Mustang PEBuilder and MustangPE Plugin for ATIH 2009.
- The ATIH 2009 BartPE Plugin can be downloaded from the Acronis webpage. Support is given by Acronis. It is free of additional charge. Acronis is producing and distributing an up-to-date BartPE Plugin for every new product build.
- Could there be a situation, that MustangPE Builder with MustangPE Plugin for ATIH 2009 is not able to build a new bootable Mustang PE Image based on a new Acronis ATIH 2009 Build code, which e.g. includes additional functions? Must these additional functions not be descibed in an updated MustangPE Plugin for ATIH 2009?

If you want to try something free, go ahead and try BartPE. You're already on an XP system so drivers and such shouldn't be an issue. A BartPE build can be created on XP, Vista, or Windows 7 (you just need to have an XP CD).

MustangPE Builder uses the full version of TI instead of the reduced version Acronis uses. As a result, more functions are available (such as mounting). However, I'm not sure what the current status of the project or scripts are. It can use either the Vista WinPE or the Windows 7 WinPE. Requirements for both are higher than BartPE.