Guide to building a 64 bit UEFI Secure Boot WinPE 5.0 CD or USB Flash Drive running TI 2015 and Universal Restore with DD12
Thanks, Paul.
Guessing you were successful in getting WOW64 to work only with some 32-bit programs, and Opera wasn't one of them. A43 is 32-bit, as are the Acronis programs, aren't they?
I'll give Opera64 a try tonight.
That's correct. I wasn't able to succeed completely with WOW64. Opera 32 bit is one of the programs that would not work.
Yes - Opera x64 works. Everything in the build works!
Two comments:
1) With the included version of A43 File Manager for PE you can map network drives from its Tools menu. That feature didn't work with the standard A43 File Managers used in past builds. This removes the need to do mapping from the command line or from PENetCfg.
2) I don't mean to be heretical but I really like TI 2015, despite all of the negative comments on the forum. It reminds me somewhat of TI10, my favorite version of TI, doing just the essentials without the weight of too many features.
***Posted from the MustangPE2 x64 recovery environment using the 64-bit version of the Opera web browser.
Mustang,
Thanks for this write-up, I have successfully created my own boot flash drive. I do have one problem I was hoping you could assist me with. I am unable to access my NAS from MustangPE. Are there instructions somewhere explaining how to set this up? I tried adding my network drivers but nothing changed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I also have tried PENetCfg, it says the service is not started. I don't know what this means either.
Mark,
A43 is different because it is a 64 bit version. The 32 bit version would not work properly. Again, my failure to replicate the WOW64 system completely.
Edward,
There are several things to consider. First, is your network functioning properly? Can you map a network share on a normal hard drive? Second, does your NAS require drivers to work in Windows? If it does, you need to add those drivers to MustangPE.
Mustang
Thanks for the follow-up. I discovered that all I had to do was map the drives with the "Net Use" command. I am not very proficient in networking and haven't used that command in a long time. All works well now. This brings me to a follow-up question. Is there a way to execute the "Net Use" commands automatically at startup? Thanks again.
Edward,
Yes. Just look in the MustangPE folder for AutoRun.cmd. Right click the file and choose "Edit." Enter your net use command lines and save the file. Rebuild MustangPE.
Thanks, works perfectly.
Paul:
3 out of 4 of my machines will boot the 64-bit build of MustangPE2 ADK64LaunchBar. The oldest machine won't but will boot a 32-bit build of MustangPE2 ADK built with TI 2014.
Is it possible to get a 32-bit build of MustangPE2 ADK working that incorporates TI 2015? I've tried, unsuccessfully. The 32-bit versions of every other program in the build (DD12, Universal Restore, Opera, A43) are working, but not TI 2015. The build contains a generic desktop icon in BSExplorer for True Image and when double-clicked, the program does not start. Browsing X:\Program Files\Acronis shows no trace of TI; only DD12 and Universal Boot.
hi there,
i have a question, does it necessary to enter to audit mode when making a WINPE?
Mark,
It's not possible to run TI 2015 in a 32 bit WinPE. Acronis has only supplied a 64 bit version of the WinPE program. In my opinion, that was a major mistake on their part. Older computers with processors that are not 64 bit capable and newer tablets that have 32 bit only processors will not boot a 64 bit WinPE. You need to use the Linux recovery media for TI 2015 or the WinPE media for TI 2014.
Imher,
You do need Administrator authority to make a WinPE. The Microsoft tools used to produce WinPE will not run in standard user mode.
Paul:
I'm looking at two possible solutions currently. The problematic machine doesn't have an issue with a 64-bit OS per se; it boots the 64-bit Win7RE but not the 64-bit Win8.1RE. So I will try builds with the other ADK versions to see if I can get one to work.
The second solution is to just use the 32-bit MustangPE ADK built with TI 2014. I have found by experiment that TI 2014 will read archives written by TI 2015 just fine. Acronis probably hasn't changed the .tib archive format between these two versions.
Mark,
I wonder if it could be a memory issue. How much memory does the problem machine have? It could be that 8.1 WinPE requires more memory than 7 WinPE.
Paul:
The problematic machine has 4 GB of RAM, 3 GB usable. My office machine that boots Win 8.1PE successfully has 4 GB of RAM, 3.87 GB usable.
@mustang,
Thanks you very much for the info.
I try to add dd12 but I cannot find Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Acronis\DiskDirector\WinPE64.zip.
What am I doing wrong?
Just search your computer for WinPE64.zip. If you don't find it, try reinstalling DD 12.
Paul:
I couldn't get any 64-bit PE8 working with the problematic machine so I gave up on that approach and went back to a 32-bit ADK build using TI 2014 instead of TI 2015. While it works, I have a small cosmetic issue. The DD12 desktop icon is missing in BSExplorer, as shown in Snip 1. While BSExplorer is running, if I edit the bs_desktop.ini file and change the DD 12 icon file from ManagementConsole.exe to DiskDirector.exe, then refresh the desktop, the correct DD12 icon is displayed (Snip 2).
How can I incorporate this change into the build so that the correct icon is displayed? DD 12 is build 3223. I didn't have this issue with the previous build 3219 of DD 12 (Snip 3). Acronis must have left the icon out of the ManagementConsole.exe file in build 3223??
Mark,
This probably doesn't help you very much, but I built a 32bit ADK yesterday that included True Image 2014 build 6673, Disk Director 12 build 3223, and Universal Restore. All the icons are displaying properly. I opened the desktop.ini file and the icon file for disk director was already pointing to the diskdirector.exe file.
Edit June 2, 2014:A new version of the Disk Director 12 plugin in step 5 has been uploaded to work with Disk Director 12 Build 3223. New instructions have also been added to the ReadMe.txt file in the plugin.
Are you using the latest Disk Director 12 plugin?
@Mustang
I found it after reinstalling DD 12.
Thanks.
Mark,
Joey is right.
Jan,
You're welcome.
Yes, Joey was right. Thanks for the tip! Done and working.
Wonderful guide! I was finally able to get both True Image 2015 and Disk Director 12 on the boot CD after spending a few hours and making too many mistakes. The posts here were very helpful. Acronis should hire Mustang to do their work. :)
Mustang,
I set up MustangPE successfully on my computer. I now have a new computer. I re-built MustanPE and included the NIC drivers for my new computer. The build processes the drivers successfully, but I can't connect to my network, not even a Ping. Do I have to build the ISO on the computer I am building for? I am at a loss as to what else to do.
Try using the PENetCfg plugin. See if it lists your network adapter. If it doesn't, the NIC drivers are wrong or not complete. If it does, check the workgroup.
Your key word is "complete". Instead of loading the specific .inf file I specified the path of the entire NIC package. MustangPE found a total of 5 and installed all of them. It now works. Sorry for the questions but I have never been comfortable with drivers, so I justbkeep trying. A bonus is that the same flash drive boots successfully to 4 different computers, I thought I might need a separate for each one. Thanks again.
Edward,
You're welcome. I'm glad you got it working. Understanding and acquiring drivers has always been the worst part of WinPE.
thanku for taking the hard work out of making boot devices (USB DVD)
Hi Mustang,
I am setting up a new machine and when I try to run MustangPE I get an error that A43Utility.exe is missing. I checked in the A43 folder in Plugins and sure enough it is not there. I had MustangPE working on my old PC, so I tried to copy the file over. After the copy, it is deleted by Windows. I tried re-installing MustangPE but again the file is missing. I tried changing the read only attribute of the A43 folder but Windows will not let me. What am I missing here?
Try disabling your anti virus program before installing MustangPE.
Are you logged in as a user with Administrative rights?
Thanks, disabling the anti-virus worked. Do I have to do it every time I create a new .iso?
I also have another question if you don't mind.
I'm confused with step #5 of your instructions. I downloaded and moved Acronis Universal Restore plugin OK, but finding the correct Files folder is a problem. My system doesn't look like the path in your instructions. Mine looks like this...
Program Files (x86)
...Acronis
......DiskDirector
......TrueImageHome
.........BartPE
............WinPE
...............Files
...............Files64
............x64
...Adobe
Can you point me to the correct folder?
You need to download the Universal Restore program for TI 2015 from your Acronis Account. It is listed as a separate program from TI 1015. After you install it you will see it at the path in step 5.
You may have continued problems with you anti virus program with other files as well as with A43Utilty.exe.
Mustang,
I wanted to say thanks for the work you put in to make all this work. I tried everything and every version of Linux boot cd's and WinPE versions built directly in TrueImage 2015 and none of them worked or would read my external USB drives. I was able to create an image from your tools and boot up and save/restore from my USB drives. We have mostly Windows 7 x86 machines here, but it was able to backup and restore. It did seem to take a few mins to boot up fully form the disc, but that's alright since it worked at least. I will now wait for an official fix from Acronis since I would like the option of the Linux boot CD to make it quicker and simpler.
Mday,
You're welcome.
If you use the Advanced Option to put MustangPE on a USB 3.0 flash drive, it will boot faster than the Linux CD version.
I think I'm a little confused. I downloaded the "AcronisTrueImage2015_en-US.iso" from my account and I was thinking I could create a bootable USB drive like I did in 2014. Is that not the case and so I need to follow the instructions in this thread? I guess I was thinking that they were providing the ISO to make it easy to create the boot USB.
I don't need the recovery or disk director or anything. I just need True Image 2015 so I can clone drives. That's all I ever use it for. However, I need to make sure I can clone a Windows 8.1 64-bit UEFI drive/image to another drive.
The file you downloaded is for burning to a CD. If you know how, you can use it to create a USB flash drive.
You won't need to follow this thread if it can boot your boot your computer and do the clone.
ok, got it. I couldn't get it to boot from USB so I just burned it to CD and it booted fine (just like v2013 and v2014). Cloned my Win 8.1 UEFI m.2 SSD to a larger drive and it all worked great. Thanks!
I just downloaded the 4 zip files you recommend in steps 3 - 6. When I unzipped them Norton Security killed the .exe file in every one of them as infected with a virus. Are you aware of this or is there something in them that Norton is mis-interpreting?
See #26:
Hi Walter,It is definitely a false positive. The programs are written with the AutoIt 3 programming language. Anti virus software can't see inside, so a number of them brand all AutoIt 3 programs as a virus.
Thanks for the quick response. I will try to tell it to allow them.
ATI 2015 build 6625
FYI ...
After building 5 different types of classic "recovery" media using the the internal utility as well as the universal media booting stuff, nothing seems to work properly, unless severely mistake, on a different PC (built on W8.1, trying out on 2 socket 775 PC's but 64 bit capable, one with an E5300 cpu the other an E6800, both running W10 tech preview). First, I'm at a loss because of the semantics "universal restore" versus "universal boot" but ok ... two names for the same thing?
I've read a lot about the issue but the thing that I'm doing is seemingly not working everywhere ?
I am always getting stuck with, or the "this is a trial version" or "no operating system found". I agree that the test machines are running Windows 10 but in the spirit of a "universal restore/boot" this, aka HW wise, should is not supposed to be an issue ? or is it ? or am I missing something ?
Any way, I need to provide the command line switches, on both machines, "acpi=no noapic and force_modules=usbhid" in order to be able to boot but I fear that those first switches may well be the reason that the "U restore/boot" cannot find the OS ... ?
Now I'm prepared to try the WinPE solution because I am going to swap motherboards on the W 8.1 machine and I want a security card up my sleeve, especially as I go from an Intel P55 chipset to Z97. Although intense reading suggests that no problems should arise, my experience suggests me to be more than cautious.
I already tried the install of the ADK library but that is a PITA because painfully slow even on an I7-870 cpu PC, an ssd as drive C: and a reasonably fast network link (40Mbps).
BTW Avast flags the AcronisUB file as infected as well and blocks the download.
So, any suggestions are more than welcome before I muck up ;-)
Thanks for reading this far !
Most Anti Virus companies have trouble with my programs. I use the AutoIt3 programming language. AV companies can't see inside AutoIt3 programs because of the encryption used, so they label them as a virus. If you download them from my website, they are safe.
Universal restore and universal boot do pretty much mean the same thing. To be technical, Universal Boot is the name Acronis gave to the program being booted to run the universal restore process.
Universal Restore isn't going to work yet on Windows 10 Technical Preview. Windows 8.1 can patch itself to boot on new hardware without using Universal Restore. Windows 10 should also be able to patch itself, but I haven't tested it.
Most Anti Virus companies have trouble with my programs. I use the AutoIt3 programming language. AV companies can't see inside AutoIt3 programs because of the encryption used, so they label them as a virus. If you download them from my website, they are safe.Universal restore and universal boot do pretty much mean the same thing. To be technical, Universal Boot is the name Acronis gave to the program being booted to run the universal restore process.
yep .. ok thanks ... just finished to build a recovery usb stick ... will test it asap ...
terminology is a bit confusing ;-) universal restore versus universal boot ... actually doing the same thing?
Universal Restore isn't going to work yet on Windows 10 Technical Preview. Windows 8.1 can patch itself to boot on new hardware without using Universal Restore. Windows 10 should also be able to patch itself, but I haven't tested it.
ah ok thanks ... I'm a bit confused then about the concept "universal reboot independent from the harware" which should allow a equally independent restore to other hardware ... :-D
Hallo, i need some help pls :(
I created the iso and on my hdd all Acronis apps (TI and UR) are inside the created folder under "Program Files" but when i doot the Stick i got a empty Windows only with the cmd. When i than check the folder he is empy. I also tested to edit the MakeWinPEMedia.cmd file and replaced the original xcopy line with the new one but this didnt help.
I'm on Win 8.1. Is it possible that this didnt work under an German OS and ATI ?
Btw. The files inside "winpe_amd64" have mostly "TrustedInstaller" as owner and the are hard to delete :)
Is this normal ?
I'm not convinced about the functionality in this whole issue. I did build the recovery stick as per instructions here and then used it on the same PC ... After booting I just get the same message "no operating system found" ... OS is Windows 8.1 ...
It seemed extremely less time consuming to take a backup of my personal data, note parameters of the installed programs and rebuild the whole system from scratch on the new hardware.
The "universal recovery" independent of HW seems to be a very ephemeral feature of the package ... When switching HW you'd better be prepared in other ways ... JMHO
Michael,
The German language is the problem. I'm sorry, I don't have a solution for you.
Willy,
The no OS found error most likely means WinPE does not see the hard drive with the OS installed. Use the A43 File Manager to verify if the Windows partition has a drive letter assigned. If not, it means you need to add a driver for the hard drive controller during the WinPE build. This is done using the AddDrivers.ini file in the MustangPE folder.
Michael,The German language is the problem. I'm sorry, I don't have a solution for you.
Thats to bad :(
The WinPE that comes with TI works but i need to mount a networkdrive every time i use it and this is crap in the 2015er Version :((
Would it work when i change the sys language to english or do i need a whole new OS ?