Unable to Use Any Acronis Tools from Directly Downloaded Bootable Media build 6581
I purchased a 1-computer licence, actually for True Image 2015, in a blister pack. I registered and logged in to the Acronis web-site and registers the so-called Personal Activation Code (under Acronis 2016) and downloaded the Bootable Media Build 6581 from http://www.acronis.com/my. (I understand that the discrepancy in version, between the licence and the version downloaded, is normal).
Having burned the resulting ISO to a TDK CD, I am now trying to run it on a PC with the following characteristics:
- Fanless Intel Core i7-4500 CPU @ 1.80GHz 2.40GHz
- 8G RAM
- 240G SSD
- USB 3.0 External CD RW/DVD RW
- Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) with SP1
- American Megatrends BIOS version 5.010, supporting UEFI 2.4, PI 1.3
On this platform, none of the Acronis tools appears to work properly but they fail in a number of different ways. More details of the procedure and failure modes can be found below.
Data Preparation
The ISO of the bootable media for Build 6581 was downloaded from http://www.acronis.com/my onto a USB pen drive. This was burned to the CD using a native Windows 7 burner, accessible by right clicking on the ISO file in Explorer. The dialogue to launch the burner offered the possibility to verify the result of the burning operation, which was used in these tests. No errors were reported.
I have read, in other forum entries for similar problems, that the data on the CD was suspected as being corrupt. For me, there are two ways that this could happen: either by errors during download or errors during burning. I would expect the second of these to be covered by the verification function. To check for errors during download, I downloaded the file twice and compared the contents, using the DOS-like program "FC". Both downloads were identical.
Some of these other forum entries also suggest using different CD brands but I am not sure how any erroneous performance there would evade these checks. Also I would normally regard TDK as a reputable brand of CD.
BIOS
The BIOS in this computer appears to support 2 different ways of accessing the CD drive:
- HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-T5ON RX05
- UEFI: HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-T5ON RX05
Using the UEFI mode appears to bypass the Acronis Bootable CD entirely so I assume that the CD isn't partitioned in an appropriate way for that. It directly starts Windows.
Failure modes in the non-UEFI mode vary, according to which program you select. In all cases, the session begins with the message:
Starting Acronis Loader ...
Followed by the Selection Form, offering the following 5 possibilties:
- Acronis True Image
- Acronis System Report
- Acronis True Image (64-bit)
- Acronis System Repost (64-bit)
- Start Windows
Result for Non-UEFI Mode and "Acronis True Image" Selection
- Acronis Splash Screen, showing the list of Patents involved
- "Unable to load initial ramdisk. Press <Enter> to proceed..."
- On pressing <Enter>, a series of messages indicating that a kernel panic has occurred.
Results for Non-UEFI Mode and each of "Acronis System Report", "Acronis True Image (64-bit)" and "Acronic System Report (64-bit)"
No Splash Screen is displayed.
- "Unable to execute program. Press <Enter to preoceed..."
- On pressing <Enter> "Unable to load initial ramdisk. Press <Enter> to proceed..."
- On pressing <Enter> again, "Unable to load Linux kernel. Press Enter to reboot..."
- On pressing <Enter> again, the sequence returns to the message:
Starting Acronis Loader ...
Result for Non-UEFI Mode and "Start Windows"
Always appears to start Windows correctly.
I am now looking for advice on what to try next.


- Accedi per poter commentare

Thank you for your reply.
This computer is actually the second one that I am running True Image on. The first one is much older and runs True Image 2013. The difference with that version is that it was sold on CD, or at least a base release of it was. No question ever arose of burning your own CD (or pen drive). There was a tool for producing (burning) a new CD, with an updated version of Acronis but I never had much success with that. It appeared to generate a version, incapable of reading images written with earlier builds.
What I am trying to achieve is to be able to create "offline" images of this newer Windows7 system. I am always nervous that, running True Image from within the operating system, will find conflicts with open files so I have always preferred to work with bootable versions of Acronis.
This is the first time I have used the Forum so you will probably have to explain things in full, rather than for example using abbreviations, like ATIH (or indeed MVP). Is ATIH one of the tools which is naturally installed in the "hard disk version" of True Image?
Thanks for any further feedback you can give.
- Accedi per poter commentare

Sorry about the various acronyms, they just save time and typing.
ATIH = Acronis True Image Home and obviously is used a lot in these Acronis forums.
MVP = Most Valued Professional but in reality just means we are users like yourself but with more experience in using this and other products, and on this and other platforms.
Acronis is designed to be able to create valid backup images from within a running Windows Operating System (OS) and it does this by utilitising features of the OS itself in the form of the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to create a snapshot of the OS and files / data that would otherwise be locked and unavailable for backup.
The key benefit of installing the application is that you can also schedule regular backups for when the system is idle or with minimal use, and can choose to backup whole disks & partitions or to backup selected files & folders.
This does not negate the ability to create wholly offline backup images of the computer by using the bootable Rescue Media, but adds to that ability by reducing the downtime that such offline backups require, especially if needing to backup on a regular basis.
Another benefit of installing is that you can use the Rescue Media Builder tool that I mentioned in my earlier reply plus you will also be notified automatically of when there are new updates for the ATIH application that resolves known issues in the application.
- Accedi per poter commentare

I re-wrote the bootable Rescue Medium from the installed software and it worked much better.
All four options now behaved as expected (at keast at the menu level) in non-UEFI mode.
In UEFI mode, a textual menu with 3 options was displayed: "Acornis True Image (64-bit)", "Acronis System Report (64-bit)" and "Continue booting".
My external disk arrived today so I should soon be able to test it in greater depth!
- Accedi per poter commentare

Thanks for the update and feedback, hope your testing continues to go well with positive results.
- Accedi per poter commentare