Boot CD not finding any Hard Disks - THE FIX
I finally figured this out. Keep in mind that this is Motherboard-specific so YMMV
Both the downloadable Boot CD's (regular and Plus Pack) are IDENTICAL to those you make within Acronis Resue Media Builder. For old Motherboards they work fine (they work on my Intel 925).
For some new motherboards (my ASrock P67) they simply CANNOT see the hard drives because the drive I/O controllers use protocols that the boot CDs do not recognize.
I have found that even Paragon Boot CDs do not recognize my drives either, and actually about 3/4 of my Boot CDs stopped working when I bought the P67 motherboard.
The exceptions (working Boot CD's) are:
1) Boot CD's made from Acronis with the Bart PE & Safe Media addon
2) Boot CDs made from AIK ==> WinPE ==> Plus Pack WinPE ISO Builder
Most would prefer Option 1, but if you are intersted, Option 2 is kind of interesting.
1) Boot CD's made from Acronis with the Bart PE & Safe Media addon
When you install the addon, then the Recue Media builder will list 2 options: Full and Safe.
Open Acronis and burn the CD with BOTH options checked.
When you boot with it, Full still fails to find any Hard Disks - but Safe works.
2) Boot CDs made from AIK ==> WinPE ==> Plus Pack WinPE ISO Builder
This is kind of long and complex but it works great. You need the Plus Pack and your Windows must Validate OK.
You must install Vista or Windows 7 AIK, followed by WinPE installation from the AIK, followed by the creation of the ISO file for the CD using Plus Pack WinPE ISO Builder.
Here are the steps :
a) Download AIK for Vista (Validation reuired)
b) rather than burn a CD from the AIK IMG file, use PowerISO to extract the files to a temp folder
1 - if not already installed, install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 from the downloaded AIK
Windows 32 bit: NETFXx86 Windows 64 bit: NETFXx64
2 - If not already installed, install , install Microsoft Core XML (MSXML) 5.0 or 6.0 Parser from the AIK
3 - Run StartCD.exe to install AIK
NOTE: Windows 7 AIK or Vista AIK - for WinPE it works fine on an XP machine:
c) create the WinPE Tool from the AIK as follows:
from Start menu run Microsoft Windows AIK -> Windows PE Tools Command Prompt
Run C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\pesetenv.cmd ) and a DOS box will open
for 32-bit enter: copype x86 c:\winpe_32 (or any folder you want WinPE to be installed to)
for 64-bit enter: copype ia64 c:\winpe_64 (or any folder you want WinPE to be installed to)
d) run the Plus Pack WinPE ISO Builder to create the Boot CD ISO
e) Save the ISO somewhere safe and Burn the ISO to a CD
f) Test the Boot CD - it does take a while since it is similar to a Windows install CD in that it loads a number of Windows drivers first. Then a DOS box opens and that takes a couple of minutes before Acronis finally opens
g) Uninstall your WinPE folders and uninstall AIK - you will likely never need either of those again. Keep your AIK install files just in case.
