Adding Drivers to WinPE
After creating the WinPE boot USB, when I boot with it I can't see either my SSD or my network (I'm backing up to a Synology NAS). Looks like I need to load the correct drivers. The network adpater is straight forward as there is 1 driver and sys file listed. I'm not as clear on the SSD. In device manager I see drivers for the storage controller (2 sys files listed - spaceport.sys and iastorA.sys) as well as drivers for "disk" (4 sys files listed - disk.sys, ehstorclass.sys, fltsrv.sys, and partmger.sys). Do i need to add all of these with the associated inf files and all files listed in the inf files within the [SourceDisksFiles] section? TIA!
I am stuck trying to make a usb rescue media that will work and see both my ssd and my network (I backup to a synology NAS). The standard rescue media builder allows me to create a usb that will boot and provide access to my network and NAS but won't see my SSD. Using the builder to create a Winpe version gets errors when I boot from the usb and doesn't see my ssd or my NAS. I'm getting a bit frustrated with the whole process.
MVP Mustang has written a tutorial on adding drivers to a WINPE disk. You can find it at the top of the main TI 2016 Forum page. Give it a read.
If your SSD is a standard SATA drive TI should recognize it unless the drive has not been initialized. If so there is an add new disk option that should allow you to choose the drive. . As for the NAS if you are saying that 2016 doesn't see it then you will need to force TI to find the device. From the Destination screen choose Browse, at the top of the browse screen is an address bar. Click inside it and enter either the device host name or the device IP address using the following format, //hostname/. After the name or address has been entered press the Enter key on your keyboard. The device should now appear under the Network folder in the directory tree below.
I have followed MVP Mustangs instructions very carefully, twice, with the same results.
Can you share the specs of your hardware? In particular what type of SSD and what type of connection it uses the motherboard. It is strange that the WinPE doesn't see the SSD drive...
The system is a Dell XPS 15 9550, Windows 10 Pro 64. SSD is a Samsung NVMe PM951 512gb. It is the only drive in the system. It is a PCIe drive and it reports that it is on port 7 and it is the System Disk. It is how I received it when purchased so it is the factory default. What else do you need?
Yoy should make the WinPE with the Windows 10 ADK installed. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/dn913721.aspx Scroll down the page until you find the Link to the Windows 10 ADK. This ADK has built in NVMe drivers that may see your SSD. I have tested with a Samsung 950 Pro PCI NVMe M.2 drive and it works.
Sorry for the delay. So in order to start fresh I uninstalled the Windows 10 ADK that was akready installed as well as the TI 2016 Media Add-on. Reinstalled the Add-on as well as the Windows 10 ADK. Now when I select the Rescue Media Builder and then choose winpe-based media with acronis plug-in as the media type it says I need to install the windows ADK. I have tried it several times now clicking on the embedded link (which BTW nows does down load the Windows 10 ADK) as well as fisrt manyually installing the correct ADK, doing reboots between each step. It simply does not recognize that the ADK is installed. This is a change in behavior from just last week. Not sure what is going on but I am seeing this same error now reported by others on the forum.
I'll wait till next week to work at this again. I seem to be spending an awful lot of time trying to debug some pretty lousy Acronis code. This should not be this hard.
That's interesting. I wonder if Microsoft has made a recent change to the Windows 10 ADK and TI can't find what it needs because Microsoft moved it to a new location. They are famous for this. I'll investigate and see if I can figure out what is happening.
I unistalled the Windows 10 ADK and did a fresh download of the current Windows 10 ADK. I installed it and ran the media builder. It completed sucessfully.
Don't know what to tell you. I uninstalled and reinstalled 3 times today and the media builder would still not proceed because it was asking for me to install the ADK. I'm not alone , see here -
Since I had installed the TI 2016 upgrade over an existing TI 2014 install, and since I have experienced a number of problems/inconsistancies, I have decided to completely uninstall and reinstall TI 2016. I'll do it early next week when I have some time, probably Monday. Is there anything in particular, other than performing the TI 2016 uninstall, that I need to do in order to ensure all remnants of TI 2016 are removed from my system prior to the reinstall? Thanks.
Today I completely deleted all existing backups using TI 2016 and then completely removed it from my system using iobit as well as the removal tools referenced here. I then reinstalled TI 2016. I will be using it only for the disk image functionality and will not be using the files and folders backup. I have found that "file history" that is built into Windows 10 is pretty much perfect, and much easier to use, for that. I'll try creating a USB boot disk tomorrow and see how it goes. Will update then.
After the reinstallation as described in my previous post I again tried, unsuccessfully, to create a boot USB drive that will see my primary SSD. Still no luck. In fact using winpe based media with acronis plugin to create the boot disk it not only does not see my SSD it also does not see my network. Also, when I boot with it it takes an error and I have to either turn off secure boot first or hit PF8 after the error and turn off driver verification.
All in all I find it odd that Acronis has dumbed down the UI and capabilities of TI 2016 as compared to TI 2014 to apparently create a "point and click" product for the masses but then has created a situation where the average user would NEVER be able to create a working boot disk.
After using Acronis for 3 or 4 years I am unfortunately now looking for alternatives. I have already found that the "files history" capability that is built into Windows 10 is fine for creating continuously updated backups of all of my personal files with very good restore capabilities that are even directly built into the windows 10 files system and, unlike the Acronis windows integration, actually work.
Unfortunately WinPE is not a cure all for driver support. Yes, driver support is better than the Linux based TI Recovery Media but is not all inclusive in driver support. I have 2 systems which are Z97 based and the network NIC's are not recognized by Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 until I install the drivers for them. I suspect the same holds true in your case for your SSD. Your SSD being one of the NFF drives is probably not supported by the current driver set installed by WinPE.
Mustang (Paul) has written a very good guide to adding drivers to WinPE media. The link below will take you to it. You may wish to try adding the drivers to the WinPE media and see what the results are.
First I want to express my gratitude to the Acronis MVP's for all of their assistance and support! My decision is no reflection on them.
After 3 weeks and many hours of effort I still did not have a working boot drive. Therefore, I decided to move on and have found another product to use. Since this is an Acronis supported forum I will not name the product (anyone interested can send me a private message and I will be happy to share). Literally 15 minutes after installing this product I had a fully functional WinPE based boot drive. It was very easy and required no extra commands, downloads, research, etc.. Clearly it can be done. The inability of TI 2016 to easily create a working boot drive was not the only deciding factor. I had "upgraded" from TI 2014 to TI 2016 and the removal of the following functionality was also a key component of my decision:
- Inability to delete previous backups from within the program
- No log viewer
- Inability to disable login request at each start-up
- No time line view of backups
There were other minor issues/annoyances but those are the big ones. The key though is the inability/difficulty in creating a working boot drive. Without that the program is essentially useless.
Thanks again to all who have provided assistance. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!