How to Create an Acronis Bootable USB Hard Disk

I've made a note and will try and get that information in the guide. I'm kind of swamped right now so it may be a bit before a get to it.

Different computer do this differently. Most newer computers will only show USB devices if they are connected when the computer boots. When USB booting first came out, most of the BIOS options existed to select the type of USB device (USB-CD, USB-ZIP, USB-HDD, etc.) and you could select them just like you select a CD/DVD or floppy drive. Now, most treat USB devices like internal hard drives; if they're not connected, they don't show up.

 

I am using an external (USB2 - Linksys Router) NDAS network drive. Booting from ATI bootable rescue CD, Acronis TI 10 caters for restoration from NDAS device ( New Connection ) requests Licence ID# and Key. I have previously been able to enter the info to register the device, but ATI will not always register the device. I have not restored from the network drive as yet. Having flicked through "Create an Acronis Bootable USB Hard Disk" I think it would be a good additional/alternative method for accessing the USB network drive. Consider failure of ATI to register new device; network/router fails; ATI bootable rescue CD does not boot. What do you guys think? Could this method be applied to spare internal HDD?

 

I am using an external (USB2 - Linksys Router) NDAS network drive. Booting from ATI bootable rescue CD, Acronis TI 10 caters for restoration from NDAS device ( New Connection ) requests Licence ID# and Key. I have previously been able to enter the info to register the device, but ATI will not always register the device. I have not restored from the network drive as yet. Having flicked through "Create an Acronis Bootable USB Hard Disk" I think it would be a good additional/alternative method for accessing the USB network drive. Consider failure of ATI to register new device; network/router fails; ATI bootable rescue CD does not boot. What do you guys think? Could this method be applied to spare internal HDD?

Good work Mudcrab

 

If the USB drive is connected to a router and you can't access it using TI, couldn't you connect it directly to the computer in an emergency?

The method in the guide (as well as other methods) works just as well on an internal drive as an external. I have mine on internal and external drives.

 

Yes, connecting directly to the computer in an emergency is my intention. I only have average experience, I don't quite understand how I would then access the archive. Would the USB disk be recognized if my C: Drive failed or Windows XP would not boot. Would the USB drive be bootable? Even if the ATI bootable rescue CD failed? Or would I boot the USB Disk through the BIOS? Should the network drive be made into an Acronis Bootable USB Hard Disk?
When I get the time, I will read your document more carefully to try to understand the implications.

I have had many minor problems with ATI10 and would like to make sure that my emergency recovery plan will work.
Currently, both of my computers have a spare/empty D: Drive. I am backing each computer up to folders designated as Acronis backup locations on the NDAS network drive. If the Crive on either of my computers fails I intend recovering to the D: Drive. Is it that simple?

Cheers

PS Mudcrab how did you become so knowledgable?

 

Normally, the computer would be booted to the TI CD (or USB flashdrive or USB hard drive), TI would be started, you would browse to the backup image and then restore it to the internal drive.

If TI properly supports your hardware it should find the USB drive.

If you make the USB drive bootable, and the computer supports booting from USB devices, it should boot from it. The USB drive is independent of the TI CD. However, the same programs are on both. If TI doesn't work from a CD, it most likely won't work from a USB hard drive.

Depending on the computer, you may have to enter the BIOS to select the USB drive as the boot drive or there may be a key to press when you start the computer (F12, for example) to bring up a Boot Menu from which you can select the device you want to boot.

I assume this is the same USB drive being referred to above... You should be able to make the drive bootable. However, don't expect it to boot from the network. It would need to be plugged into the computer to boot it.

That should work. You would most likely want to remove the failed drive and make the D: drive the new boot drive.

A lot of reading, learning, testing and work.

 

Thanks for your input I am beginning to see the light.

 

In response to your last bit of advice "You would most likely want to remove the failed drive and make the D: drive the new boot drive." Understood.

Can I do a test recovery of the healthy C: Drive to the D: Drive just to check that the recovery works. I assume that I would have to make the D: Drive the new boot drive to be absolutely sure that recovery to a new drive will work??
Currently the empty D: Drive is a slave and the healthy C: Drive is a master. Would I have to physically change the positions of the drives and jumpers? Drive letters? Or just change the boot drive order in the BIOS?

How else would I check recovery of C: Drive to a new drive? Would recovery be easier if the D: Drive was unallocated space?
Perhaps you can direct me to an appropriate thread?

Cheers

 

It's usually best to do the restore when booted to the TI CD. Then shutdown the computer and disconnect the C: drive. Set the D: drive as the master (you may have to change a jumper setting) and set the BIOS to boot it. By testing this way, you are duplicating an actual disaster. Note that if the computer uses the Cable Select method of detecting the master and slave drives, you'll just need to connect the master plug to the D: drive and leave the slave plug unconnected.

TI will delete any partitions on the drive before it restores (assuming an Entire Disk Image restore) so there is no need to unallocate the space. If you have any files that you want to save that are on the D: drive, make sure to copy them off before you do your test restore.

 

OK, that makes good sense. It sure helps to have an expert confirm my thought process.
Firstly: I will follow your instructions to confirm full restoration to spare D: Drive works.
Secondly:
I intend returning my computer to it's current configuration, but disconnect the power supply to the Drive ? This would prevent natural ware and tare and safeguard it from electrical faults. Would I also have to disconnect it from the data cable, make any changes to the BIOS?

Alternatively remove the spare drive from the computer?

Thanks with your help, it is most appreciated

 

I would disconnect both the power and data cables from the spare drive. Then, just make sure the main drive is the master and the BIOS has it set to boot.

 

I've seen this activity before where the BSOD appears during the flash drive boot. Try to have other USB devices powered off or unplugged during the intial progress bar. When "Please Wait" appears, or at the very end of the progress bar, power them on or plug them in. Works for me every time.

 

Hi,why can't I download USB-HDD image files from http://www.purviancecs.com/acronis.htm ?

 

They are downloading okay for me. Are you getting an error message? Have you tried both just clicking on the links and right-clicking and selecting to save the target file?

 

I have tried both methods, end with downloaded a file in 7kb size.
Do you have another link that I can download the file? Thanks.

 

Try to disable AV protection temporarily. The actual file sizes are correct, ~4 KB and ~7 KB respectively. Make sure to rename the extensions to TIB as directed. You should be able to right-click the renamed file if Acronis is installed on your PC and select "Mount" to examine it.

 

Have created the bootable flash drive on my kingston 1GB drive successfully.
Thank you guys!

 

Great Illustrated Step-by-Step instructions. Thanks MudCrab. This is my first post and since I'm going to use this for Backup/Restore of 2 small SSD (4&8Ghz), I was wondering if I could use a USB Flash Drive VICE a USB HDD & modify the flash drive to flip the "Removable Media Bit" (RMB) on the USB drive?. This would allow the Flash drive to be recognized in windows as a disk drive and have the ability to create multiple partitions. BootIT.exe supposedly can do this task.

(http://www.lancelhoff.com/2008/05/01/multi-partition-a-usb-flash-drive-in-windows/

The above link shows a step-by-step procedure to perform this mod. Then, maybe all I have to do is restore my Acronis .TIB file to a 3 partitioned Flash Drive. Does anyone think this will work?

Ron

 

Will this allow me to boot into Windows that is already installed on the drive?

My laptop died and I would like to boot into the Windows on it's hard drive.

I have a usb adapter but this does not help me to boot to the drive.

Thanks for any responses.

By the way your tutorial looks great.

Nick

 

I haven't tried the utility so I can't say anything in that regard.

Are you talking about restoring the Acronis bootable flashdrive image or restoring an SSD image? If the flashdrive shows up as a USB hard drive after the change is made, you should be able to use one of the partitions for the Acronis programs.

If you're just using the flashdrive to save the image files, it really doesn't need to be partitioned.

 

No. This will not allow you to boot your Windows drive. You'd need to do a boot repair with the Windows CD/DVD or use BartPE/VistaPE or Live Linux to access any files if you can't get it booting.

 

MudCrab,

Great guide, had no problems following it. This thread should be made into a sticky, or the guide given a direct link in the FAQs so it doesn't get lost in the forum archives.

 

It is already in the FAQ sticky as one of the links.

 

Hello all,

I've been trying to follow the method, but I had problems making my usb flash drive bootable.
I tried the "empty image" method by MudCrab, tried the four different images provided, and failed to boot.

I get the following message :
BOOT DRIVE PARTITION NOT FOUND

Anyway, this is not the primary purpose of my post. Now, my usb flash drive contains only one 245 MB partition, the rest is unallocated space. And I can't find a way to get my flash drive back to its true size (8 GB)

Please, what can I do ?

 

Excuse the question, but is this a cheap 8 GB drive? Some of the ones selling for less than $50.00 weren't actually 8 GB, they just pretended to be.

Anyhow, you should be able to reformat the drive from within Windows, using FAT 32.

If Windows refuses, then I suggest either trying from Windows Console or DOS boot disk mode.

Colin