Acronis True Image & USB problem - wont boot.

[Technique]

So i had a Kingston DataTraveler 101 16GB USB stick. I used Acronis True Image Home 2011 to make it bootable & to install the backup on it.

Despite the fact that the backup & boot setting was less than 16GB, in fact it's only about 14GB, it wouldn't install to this USB stick as it kept running out of space.

KEY: If i JUST made the USB stick bootable (& put no .tib backup on there) then the USB stick would boot fine - no problems.

So i bought a new 32GB Kingston DataTraveler 101 USB stick, thinking this would solve the problem. It doesn't.

It wont install the backup to the USB stick at all. It keeps erroring with 5 minutes to go, 20 minutes to go etc.

So just now i decided to make the USB stick bootable to see if it would do this as a minimum. It wont even do that. Acronis says it makes it bootable, but when i restart the laptop & then choose to boot to the USB stick - it doesn't. It keeps sending me back to the boot media page (where i can select CD ROM drive, HDD, USB stick).

Not sure if it means anything or whether it's just the design - but the black 16GB stick has no light when plugged in, the 32GB purple stick lights up.

I've just formatted both USB sticks as i type this & made them both bootable with Acronis but put no backup file on there. JUST bootable...

Currently at the boot screen with the 16GB USB stick & it's listed as "USB HDD: Kingston DT 101 G2" & when i select it i get "Starting Acronis Loader" & all is well.

I do the same for the 32GB stick & when at the boot menu it only says "USB HDD: USB Disk". No mention of Kingston DT 101 at all. I select it all the same & it just returns me back to the exact same screen.

What i want to achieve: Having the USB stick bootable AND having the backup file on there too, so that it's an all-in-one.

Help?

[xendrome]

Honestly, Acronis has just gotten buggier and buggier with each release and the GUI even worse... If you want to get something that you can rely on to work, look into Easeus Todo Backup 5.x

[Detection]

What file system do you have the USB sticks formatted with?

NTFS would be necessary for an image over 4GB

[Technique]

No....

Acronis wont make the USB stick (either 16GB/32GB) bootable if it's in NTFS format. It has to be FAT32. If it's NTFS then it says it needs to be FAT32.

As a result, i have to break/split the backup into 4GB sections. This isn't a problem as Acronis will do this perfectly fine.

I tried making them FAT32, making the stick bootable via Acronis & then converting the system to NTFS & putting on the .tib backup file, but the USB then became non-bootable. It seems the ACRONIS Boot Loader wont entertain NTFS.

All this is separate to the fact that the 32GB stick isn't even seen by the laptop boot menu as a kingston stick whereas the 16GB stick is. The 32GB stick seems pretty useless. I've only just bought both of them apparently brand new from eBay.

[Detection]

No....

Acronis wont make the USB stick (either 16GB/32GB) bootable if it's in NTFS format. It has to be FAT32. If it's NTFS then it says it needs to be FAT32.

As a result, i have to break/split the backup into 4GB sections. This isn't a problem as Acronis will do this perfectly fine.

I tried making them FAT32, making the stick bootable via Acronis & then converting the system to NTFS & putting on the .tib backup file, but the USB then became non-bootable. It seems the ACRONIS Boot Loader wont entertain NTFS.

All this is separate to the fact that the 32GB stick isn't even seen by the laptop boot menu as a kingston stick whereas the 16GB stick is. The 32GB stick seems pretty useless. I've only just bought both of them apparently brand new from eBay.

Maybe you should make the USB stick bootable manually using these instructions, then manually copy the .tib and boot files onto that (Copy the boot files from an already created FAT32 USB stick)

------------

Open elevated CMD prompt and type the following pressing enter after each line

diskpart

list disk

select disk x (x = being the disk number of your USB drive)

clean

create partition primary

active

format fs=NTFS quick

assign

exit

[Technique]

I'll try that out & post back. For the record i'll just update with something i found:

Bit of an update:

I made the 16GB stick bootable. I then made a disc image backup, but to the C drive. I split this into sections no greater than 4000mb (so it gave me 4 files - 3 at the maximum & 1 around 2GB).

I then copied these files to the 16GB stick ......... and it finally worked.

I then went to the laptop boot menu to see if it'd boot this time ...... it did. All is well.

Or so i thought. When i went to recover the disk, my USB stick was not listed as a drive. The C drive was, the CD drive was. My USB drive however was not. I took it out, put it in a different USB slot & hit refresh - no luck.

Maybe what i want to achieve isn't achievable?

EDIT: Just tried out what you said, except i didn't put the backup file on there, i just put the boot files on there to see if it'd at least boot.

Instead of booting the Acronis Loader, i just get an error message saying "BOOTMGR is missing".

[+Neowin User 007 Subscriber²]

You're trying to load the flash drive with the actual bootable media AND the backup if I'm reading that correctly.

Acronis Media Builder is very finicky in the first place, but I do not recommend using the same drive for the bootable media and backup. You're going to load the majority of items to the ram but some it still pulls from the drive it self so if you're read/write to it it could delay your pending task.

I use an 8GB stick usually, and then just format it blank as a FAT32 drive - let Acronis recognize it in the bootable media builder and then let it format and create all the partitions. Remember, UEFI and (Legacy) Bios read flash drives differently as well.

[Sarm]

Out of interest, have you tried Macrium Reflect? That uses WindowsPE on a NTFS USB stick and works for sure.

I found it considerably better software, they do a free version which might suit most people but the paid version is also ahead of Acronis IMO.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

[Technique]

You're trying to load the flash drive with the actual bootable media AND the backup if I'm reading that correctly.

you are

Out of interest, have you tried Macrium Reflect?

No. I paid for Acronis, so i'll use it. I'm not about to start throwing my money about or paying for programs & not using them.

Out of interest - could the USB stick be 'bad'? If so, how can i test it?

I mean, i put the Acronis Boot Loader (& just that, nothing else) on the 16GB stick & it boots fine - to the Acronis boot loader, no problems.

I do the same for the 32GB stick & it just wont do a damn thing. There must be a reason as to why.

[+Neowin User 007 Subscriber²]

you are

No. I paid for Acronis, so i'll use it. I'm not about to start throwing my money about or paying for programs & not using them.

Out of interest - could the USB stick be 'bad'? If so, how can i test it?

I mean, i put the Acronis Boot Loader (& just that, nothing else) on the 16GB stick & it boots fine - to the Acronis boot loader, no problems.

I do the same for the 32GB stick & it just wont do a damn thing. There must be a reason as to why.

The USB stick could be bad, usually it'll randomly corrupt files and/or not show in Explorer (My Computer) or ask you to format it.

I really do not know what to tell you about it not working on the 32GB, I'd have to have one sitting in front of me to test it out and see what the cause is. Have you tried the WinPE-Plugin copy instead of the default Linux?

[Technique]

No i haven't.TBH i don't really know what i'm doing outside of backing up using Acronis. I've asked on a few forums & i'll often get terms & names thrown at me, not knowing what they are or mean.

I did backup on the 32GB stick & it did mention corrupt files & i have been asked to format it unexpectedly.