How to? Windows 7 Pro NVME recovery method
I have had Acronis for a year or two, and last night, I had the very first need to actually use it. I only went with Acronis as a backup/recovery tool, because Windows 7 recovery options are not compatible with NVME...it contains no drivers natively. I backup every week, and last night, after a blue screen loop, it became apparent I needed to recover. I popped my Windows PE or whatever the boot USB you are asked to make, and booted into Acronis recovery. Chose my HDD with the recovery image, but when it came to where to "write" it or whatever, I was lost. Acronis was not displaying my NVME M.2 boot drive whatsoever.
I went back and managed to get to F8 and ran Windows boot recovery, last known good configuration, which miraculously worked. So how the heck do I recover from an internal SATA storage HDD to my NVME M.2 drive?????
Paul
Paul, welcome to these User Forums.
If you have ATIH 2018, then the default ATI Rescue Media should contain all the device drivers needed for your NVMe M.2 drive, as these are copied from the Windows Recovery Environment which Acronis defaults to using when you select the Simple media builder option. You would need to test booting with the 2018 WinRE USB stick media to confirm that this sees your M.2 drive.
If you still have an issue seeing the M.2 drive, then you may need to either use the Advanced media builder option, which will require the download and install of the Windows 10 ADK to provide Windows PE support, then inject additional device drivers needed for the drive.
You could also use the MVP Custom ATIPE builder script once you have the ADK installed, and this too can simplify the process of injecting additional device drivers - see the MVP User Tools and Tutorials link in the Useful Links section of the forum webpage.
I updated my Acronis 2018 today, and created a simple and advanced USB Windows PE recovery flash drives. Neither one will recognize my NVME M.2 drive, unless this is what comes up as two F and G disks that Acronis says it needs to format before it can access. The Acronis PE builder gave an option for adding drivers, but I have no clue how to get the 950 Pro install exe into the custom PE "add driver" screen. Checking the MVP links, but to be clear, the Windows 10 ADK is just to run the PE builder, and the PE build will be Windows 7 recovery compatible?
Paul
So, I am a bit confused...this MVP thing is not an Acronis product, and I have to custom build a recovery USB flash drive and inject my own drivers. I am not sure why I am paying for Acronis then...as I could just do a Windows Disk Image every week and recover from a "build it myself" Windows PE flash drive. Am I missing something here? I thought Acronis added NVME Windows 7 support.
And I downloaded the MVP thing from the link to the right, but it takes me to the same Samsung page that gets me the same NVME exe file I already have.
Paul
Paul, sorry to hear that the ATI Rescue Media is still not seeing your NVMe drive - can you give some more details of exactly what drive this is, and how it is connected in your computer? There are different types of NVMe M.2 drives and this may make a difference.
The MVP Custom ATI PE tool was created by the MVP community last year to deal with the need for 32-bit Windows PE Rescue Media which the Acronis Builder tool does not offer as a choice for users to make - the tool can create both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, plus can allow users to inject additional device drivers, which again the Acronis tool did not allow until the changes that have been introduced with the 2018 version.
When using the MVP tool, it can collect the device drivers from your Windows system and then inject these into the Rescue Media without the need to unpack the driver installation files - this is one of the options that is offered during the tool build processing.
Yay, success! Thank you Steve...I didn't realize that the MVP thingy obviously requires ATIH install to operate the PE tool install.
So downloaded the MVP thingy from the links to the right...you must be signed in to Google, right click and select download or you'll just be viewing the file structure of the download on Google Drive. Googled Windows 10 ADK, used the internet install selection from Microsoft (1073), unchecked every option except the 3.4GB Windows PE checkbox. Installed the ADK, ran the Google Drive MVP application, created bootable USB after making sure I hit YES to the option injecting NVME, and booted into the USB flash drive, and my NVME is visible.
Thanks again Steve. :-D
Paul
In reply to Paul, sorry to hear that the… by Steve Smith
NVME is a Samsung 950 Pro, operating in 4X mode if that makes a difference.
Paul
Paul, glad that you have got the USB Rescue Media working and recognising your NVMe drive, thanks for persevering with this to get it working and for giving feedback.
I made sure to add a "how I got there" to the post so others who run across this thread have a bit easier time. :)
Paul
Second time ver needing to restore the same Windows 7 PC, and of course the rescue USB stick doesn't work. I get an Acronis screen but it's just some weird looking OS with some option, and in the lower right an eternally present Acronis loading something.
I tried both the UEFI boot and legacy versions, neither get me to anything other than an Acronis logo with some options that are not the restore options. I have no faith in this product actually working when I need it again in the future. 100% failure rate so far.
I am on True Image 2021 now, do I need to create a new MVP rescue drive? OMG that was a hassle last time.
Paul