Bootable Media Issue: Acronis Loader error: "Unable to run Boot menu" on classical BIOS/MBR system

Bertrand, welcome to these user forums.

I am not aware of any issues with the standard Linux based Acronis Rescue Media that would give the 'Unable to run Boot menu' with ATIH 2017 so would suggest several options going forward:

1. Try using different optical media for the rescue media, try a different manufacturer make of media.  We have seen some very obscure problems that were caused by a specific brand of optical media or USB memory stick that were solved by changing to a different make.
2. Try building the rescue media on a USB memory stick instead of using optical media (CD or DVD).  You can use a 1GB USB stick or up to 32GB.
3. Open a support ticket with Acronis Support - ATIH 2017 comes with a full year of support.
4. See post: 127281: MVP Tool - ATI 32-bit WinPE Builder which could be worth trying.

As far as I understand, to get the rescue media to operate in your French language you would need to use the Windows PE version and then make changes to include the French version of the Microsoft ADK used by Windows PE.  Please search in the forums for how to do this. 

Hello Steve and thank you for your answer,

I tried different brand of CD unsuccessfully, I tried with a USB stick and it didn't work neither on my BIOS/MBR pc.

I still have an error "Unable to run Boot menu" from the "Acronis loader"

I tried the same Bootable medias on a UEFI/GPT system and it works on this one, my laptop.... Both CD and USB stick !

I wonder why it works then in this "configuration" ?

So I will open a ticket with Acronis support to tell them this issue and will be back here to tell you the solution if there is any...

Kind regards.

Bertrand, thank you for the update, please do let us know the outcome of your support ticket for this issue - the ability to boot the rescue media is a very important factor for this product - essential in the event of any bare metal recovery or critical disk failure etc.

Bertrand,

When you select the boot media in your bios to run on your BIOS/MBR machine how is the media listed?  Do you see more than one media choice and if yes what are the differences?

With the boot media running try pressing CNTRL-SHIFT to change language.

Hi Enchantech,

On my BIOS/MBR machine I don't have any choice in my BIOS start menu to select the bootable media other than simply reordering the sequence between DVD, USB or HDD to boot first.

On my UEFI/GPT laptop I can choose between UEFI or classical boot and they're both functionnal.

When I use an USB stick I don't have the possibility to start Windows (last choice) as I do have this choice with the bootable CD.

I never had this issue with ATI 2015.

Thanks.

Sounds like your BIOS/MBR system is functioning correctly with respect to the boot listings, you should see only one entry.  On your UEFI/GPT machine you should see 2 entries as you do, if your machine is booting UEFI (which it sounds like it is) then you should of course select the UEFI entry to boot into.

I think you might have an issue with how you are creating the media.  It is best to use the built in Media Builder found in the tools section of the Windows application GUI.  USB thumb drives have been causing issue with bootablility because of drive formating.  You can use Windows Diskpart from an Admin command prompt and run the "clean" command on the USB thumb drive to remove all formatting and then format the thumb drive again.  If you are not familiar with Diskpart however I recommend against using it as you can easily delete/clean the wrong disk.

The best tool I have found for clena and format to FAT32 for USB thumb drives is RMPrep tool. 

For writing the ISO to a thumb drive try Win32DiskImager tool.

I built the medias the way you say, using the Windows application GUI to do so.

The USB drive was fully formatted to FAT32 before creating the bootable media on it, I will try Diskpart and let you know if there is any progress...

Still puzzled because I never had this issue with ATI 2015.

Thanks.

Hello everyone,

Steve Smith wrote:

Bertrand, thank you for the update, please do let us know the outcome of your support ticket for this issue - the ability to boot the rescue media is a very important factor for this product - essential in the event of any bare metal recovery or critical disk failure etc.

Acronis support took a week to answer me and they suggest what you told me about using WinPE media instead of the standard rescue bootable media but I'm not satisfied with this.

The ATI 2015 bootable media is working on all the systems I tested it on as the 2017 version doesn't.

The only system on which there is this issue is a BIOS/MBR 64 bits system with Windows 10 Professionnal, what is strange is that the 2017 version works on a BIOS/MBR 32 bits with Vista.

I wonder if there is a bug with this 2017 version or not...?

I'll keep you posted if there is any progress with Acronis support.

Kind regards.

Bertrand, thanks for the further update - please keep these coming.

I'm able to boot the standard Linux rescue media and WinPE media on all of my Windows 10 systems.  Have you tried fully formatting the flash drive first? A quick format will not wiope out the hidden system volume information which is what makes it bootable.  I've had to do a full USB flash drive format a few times with 2017 as well to ensure that a new system volume is created during the media build. 

Hello,

Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:

Have you tried fully formatting the flash drive first? A quick format will not wiope out the hidden system volume information which is what makes it bootable.

Bertrand57 wrote:

The USB drive was fully formatted to FAT32 before creating the bootable media on it.

Even in this case I encounter the same issue, the standard Bootable media of ATI 2017 doesn't show the  Boot menu as It should on my 64 bits BIOS/MBR system as the ATI 2015 one does...?

What are you seeing - nothing, an error, does the screen just stay black?  Can you boot your media on any machine, or none at all?  How was it created - USB or disc?  If using a USB flash drive, how big is it (more than 32GB is no good).  Have you tried to build it on another USB flash drive as well to see if that makes a difference?  

You may need to check the bios to disable secure boot before you can boot 3rd party UEFI media - even though it's working in 2015 - check to be sure.

As of 2015 and newer, the default rescue media (Linux) supports legacy and UEFI and includes 32-bit and 64-bit UEFI options.  If the system is set for UEFI, it should try to use UEFI first, but may still be trying to use legacy.  Your system should have a one-time boot option or boot override menu so you can specifically try try UEFI booting or legacy booting from your USB bootable flash drive.

WinPE built with Acronis is only 64-bit UEFI by default so won't boot on 32-bit only systems (ASUS Transformer T100, many low-end Windows tablets with only 2Gb of memory, etc).  We've developed a 32-bit UEFI media builder (actually it works on 32 or 64-bit) which is in the sticky section of the 2017 and 2016 forums if you have the Windows ADK installed already.

I know that 2017 is capable of booting in Linux and/or WinPE and have not found a system that I can't at least get it to boot to yet.  However, there are some qwerks that have been brought up in the forum... 

1) systems with embedded graphics and dedicated graphics.  The bios should specifically pick one and not use optimus or a switching technology or be set to auto.  If not set, you may only get a black screen and not see what's actually happening 

2) systems with very high monitor resolution may not easily see the UEFI prompts because they appear very small - may look like a black screen

3) Dikpart /clean the USB flash drive.  Initialize it as a new MBR FAT32 drive.  Run a full format on it.  Then build the rescue media again.

If you can't get the media to run on any system - you may want to do a "repair" install of Acronis - possibly an issue if the media is not building corectly if yo upgraded from an earlier version.

4) Some bios will not boot UEFI from a CD or DVD.  Others have had trouble with burning to a disc - either bad burns from the software, or Windows having other cached files waiting to burn that are stuck in the queue, or bad luck with the physical media (entire spindles or certain brands). Using a usb flash drive (verified to work on other systems too) then works

5) Always try to use your one-time boot menu to specifically pick the boot method of the USB flash drive in the bios.  This varies from system to system.  Dell and many custom boards use F12 after a full RESTART (not a shutdown in case fastboot is putting a hibernation file on the disk and locking the drive which prevents 3rd party bootloaders from working at that point).  Other boards may require F1 or Esc or something else.  Others may only be possible through the bios firmware  (F2 >>> last tab where you save the changes).

I'm sure you'll get it sorted out.  There is a reason it's not booting, but only you can troubleshoot this from your end.  If you have another system, test your USB flash drive with UEFI booting on it.  Does it work on that system or not, it could be the flash drive or Acronis needs to be repaired before you try again.  If it does boot on the other UEFI system, but not your main one, it's most likely a setting issue.  I understand that 2015 is booting fine for you, but 2017 should as well.

Hi everyone,

First of all I want to apologize for not giving you some news sooner but the french Acronis support was very slow...

And I was waiting for the last version of ATIH 2017 build 8029 to check if it would be helpfull.

Unfortunately the issue remains, the standard Linux based Acronis Rescue Media still doesn't work on my BIOS/MBR system.

So I am using the WinPE based instead, I am quite disappointed but it works this way.

Thanks to you all for your support, ideas and suggestions.

Kind regards.

Bertrand, thanks for the update, sorry to hear that the issue with the standard media hasn't been resolved, but glad that you still have the option of using the WinPE media and that works OK for you.