Howard Davis Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 I have Acronis True Image as backup for my Win 7 OS and HD. I made the rescue media with a USB flash drive for the hard drive files and the bootup data on another flash drive, but have not run tests yet. The instructions are that the booting sequence should be configured for the USB flash drive to be the first boot device. How do I arrange the booting device order? I tried but have not been able to find this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 This change needs to be made in the BIOS. When you first turn the computer on, the splash screen should tell you to hit either DEL, F2, ESC or some key to enter BIOS or BIOS Setup. Once you are in the BIOS, look for a tab or page that says Boot. You should be able to change the boot order from there. Howard Davis and goretsky 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Davis Posted October 15, 2016 Author Share Posted October 15, 2016 I went to BIOS setup and saw: BOOT MODE: Legacy USB boot support enabled. 1st device: Internal HDD device. 2nd device: USB storage device. Am I correct to assume that if the first (internal device) is not working, the USB would be then be used to boot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 23 hours ago, Howard Davis said: I went to BIOS setup and saw: BOOT MODE: Legacy USB boot support enabled. 1st device: Internal HDD device. 2nd device: USB storage device. Am I correct to assume that if the first (internal device) is not working, the USB would be then be used to boot? That is correct, if a boot device is unavailable the sequence will move on to the next device. You could also switch them and make USB the 1st device. Howard Davis 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Supervisor Posted October 17, 2016 Supervisor Share Posted October 17, 2016 Hello, You may also want to check with your computer/motherboard manufacturer to see if there is a key you can press to temporarily change the boot order of the storage devices attached to your computer. For example, on my laptop, if I press the F12 key as the system is starting, I am presented with an option to attempt to boot off of any of the attached storage devices (USB flash drive, USB external drive, CD/DVD drive and so forth). That might be a little more convenient if you do not want to have to keep going into the BIOS/UEFI firmware to change things. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Davis Posted October 19, 2016 Author Share Posted October 19, 2016 Thanks Aryeh. I'll try that - I can access the boot order list by hitting F12 before Windows starts, but have not found how to change the sequence. goretsky 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 Generally, using the boot menu via F12 only provides you with an option to override the current boot order, not make a permanent change. Is this a custom computer or one built by an OEM like HP, Dell, etc? goretsky 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Veteran Posted October 19, 2016 Veteran Share Posted October 19, 2016 14 minutes ago, Howard Davis said: Thanks Aryeh. I'll try that - I can access the boot order list by hitting F12 before Windows starts, but have not found how to change the sequence. If it's like most firmware you should be able to move the drives around in the BIOS boot list with +/-. goretsky and Circaflex 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Davis Posted October 20, 2016 Author Share Posted October 20, 2016 17 hours ago, Circaflex said: Generally, using the boot menu via F12 only provides you with an option to override the current boot order, not make a permanent change. Is this a custom computer or one built by an OEM like HP, Dell, etc? It's a Dell - not custom built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Davis Posted October 21, 2016 Author Share Posted October 21, 2016 I went to the boot order list, selected the second boot device choice "USB storage device: Sandisk," and hit ENTER - with no results. I am using a USB flash drive with the Acronis rescue boot on it. This "Sandisk" was the only USB device choice. I did not try to move the second device choice to first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 19 hours ago, Howard Davis said: I went to the boot order list, selected the second boot device choice "USB storage device: Sandisk," and hit ENTER - with no results. I am using a USB flash drive with the Acronis rescue boot on it. This "Sandisk" was the only USB device choice. I did not try to move the second device choice to first. That is unfortunate. If you plug the USB into a working computer, is it recognized? What shows up when you view the drive? I believe it should just be one folder, labeled 'Recovery.' Is the USB formatted FAT32 or NTFS? Using the boot menu is fine, it *should* work. How was the rescue drive created? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Davis Posted October 21, 2016 Author Share Posted October 21, 2016 Circaflex - thank you for your response. The computer recognizes the Acronis backup flash drive. It shows 14 items - SanDisk secure access, SanDisk secure access V3 win.exe, and 12 tib files which I assume are the data backup of my HD. The boot flash drive shows many files, including one called bootmenu.exe. Not sure of the formatting - my system is 64 bit. Both of these were created using Acronis True Image 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Davis Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 Am I correct to assume that a tech that replaces a bad hard drive would be able to restore everything from my Acronis backup files on the flash drive, even if my Acronis boot does not work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 13 hours ago, Howard Davis said: Am I correct to assume that a tech that replaces a bad hard drive would be able to restore everything from my Acronis backup files on the flash drive, even if my Acronis boot does not work? If it were my data, I would not assume that and would want to ensure I have a proper backup. Do you have extra storage space that is free on the external? I would do a manual copy of your Users folder, obviously a manual backup will not have your applications, but those can be reinstalled. That way, if the tech cannot perform a restore using the Acronis method, you at least have your files and can restore those from the manual backup. If you have the free space, copy the entire folder 'C:\Users\' to your external, if you have space constraints you can manually copy your user folder from that directory and leave out Onedrive and any cloud software you might be using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Davis Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 Thank you! I am putting C:\Users\ on the same flash drive that has the Acronis backup data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 4 hours ago, Howard Davis said: Thank you! I am putting C:\Users\ on the same flash drive that has the Acronis backup data. That sounds like a great plan. The users folder will contain: Appdata Desktop Downloads Documents Favorites Pictures Videos Music OneDrive(You can always skip this one if you do not have a ton of free space, this is stored in the cloud) Double check you did not save anything to C:\ or another location that might not fall under C:\Users. I would hate for something not to be backed up. Best of luck. Howard Davis 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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