Backups written to a drive partition by 2012 bootable meda are not visible in Windows 7

Considering that the drive letter assignments in the Linux based Acronis recovery disk and Windows do not necessarily match, it is possible that you are backing up to another partion or drive. Since you are using Intel's RST software and have caching enabled, you are probably using a feature called Intel Smart Response Technology. If this is the case, only 64GB of your mSATA drive is used for caching and the remaining capacity is use as a standard drive. It is possible that you are creating the backup to the mSATA drive not the third partition on your 1TB drive. If you could post a screen capture of your system's disk management information, it may be helpful to see how your disks are configured in Windows.

Thanks for your response. I am aware that drive letters can change with the bootable media. I am certain I wrote the files to the correct partition because I selected the destination based on (1) the volume name and (2) the folder receiving the files (I created the folder on the partition in Windows, booted the media and navigated to the folder). I checked the folder in the bootable media after the backup competed and the files were there. But they weren't visible when I rebooted to Windows ... but they were visible to the media on another reboot.

I've attached a disk managemen screenshot from Win7

With respect to RST / SRT - yes the laptop is using it and has the Intel HM77 chipset. I'm new to the RST / SRT concept.

I'm REALLY uncomforatable with the fact that changes made to the partition by the bootable media (creating files) are not reflected in Win7. This gives me no confidence that if I use the media to restore a partition, that it will restore properly ... or worse, cause even worse problems.

Based on my limited understanding of what happened, it seems possible that the bootable media is incompatible with the new HM77 chipset in some way. I hope I'm wrong.

Sorry, failed to mention my prior reply that I backed the files up to the 781GB partition labeled 'Storage'.

You may be right concerning the support for the HM77 chipset. I don't have access to a system using the Intel RST/SRT combination of two drives in cache mode for testing. I would be interested to know if you have made a backup from Acronis while in Windows to the "Logical" (Storage) drive and then booted to the recovery disk and checked to see if the backup created in Windows shows up while booted to the recovery disk. It is likely that since you have to have RAID enabled in the BIOS to use the Intel RST/SRT features, the Linux based recovery disk does not "see" your drive as a "RAID" due to lack of support for the HM77 chipset in RAID mode. I use the Plus Pack WinPE rescue media on newer systems instead of the native Linux media. Support (drivers) for newer chipsets and storage controllers can be injected into the WinPE based recovery environment to allow proper detection, backup and restore of "RAID/AHCI" drives and arrays, but newer drivers can not be added to the Linux based media. Acronis is aware of some of the newer chipsets not being supported on the 2012 Linux based media, and are planning to add support in the 2013 release. I hope they can address this issue in the 2012 bootable media as well. This post has been flagged for review by Acronis personnel.

I haven't installed the Windows software; my backup approach with PCs for years has been to create image backups of partitions using the bootable media. This is in conjunction with separating the Windows OS and applications from user data as much as possible into separate partitions and replicating the data between systems for additional protection of user data. I've found that this approach makes restoring a prior image of the OS much simpler and much less disruptive.

Given my primary concern about whether I can successfully restore a partition from the bootable media given the issue I've run into, I'm not inclined at this time to install the Windows software. Although I must admit the Plus Pack looks intriguing - but it doesn't seem to be without its own complications based on the research I've been performing. And, quite frankly, my preference is to keep everything as simple as possible.

My plan for now is to see what Acronis has to say about the possible incompatibility with the HM77 before doing any more experimentation.

Thanks so much for your assistance - I really appreciate it.

After extensive research and after trying another backup product, I am convinced that the Linux bootable media for both True Image 2012 and Disk Director 11 are incompatible with the RAID configuration for the 1TB HDD and 128GB mSATA drives on my new laptop.

Unless this is fixed, I cannot use either because they will not work properly in a catastrophic failure that would require their use to partition new drives and restore my data.

I have an open ticket with support, but little has been accomplished in over a week.

Thanks for the update. I hope it gets fixed as well. I am considering a purchase of a laptop with the same features as you describe.
Please send me a PM with your results of testing other software. Thanks.

I too have the same problem. Running the same HM77 Chip with RST enabled. Was there any solution?
Please let me know. Thanks