MVP Assistant - New 2.0 with Rescue Media Builder (New Version 2.6.3)

Let me add a further clarification to Steve's Note above about PaleMoon.

First, the issue encountered was the fact that the version changed and therefore the built in URL is no longer valid. Steve's process is fine to update it, although this change will only work until the next update. But once downloaded, it will not try to download again unless you delete the .zip file or the .txt file which contains the URL.

To clarify Note 2... be sure to name the .zip file palemoon-portable.zip.

Thanks Bruno and Steve,

I'm slow but I did figure it out. Clarification of Note 2 would have helped figure it out sooner. I tried the manual download but should have picked that up new name in the XML. I'm slow....

But I did edit the XML to the new Version 31.2.0.1 and then the Process Queued Installs did download and install.

Now I know what to do. Thanks guys!

CC

Glad to hear you have it working, CC.

Flexibility was a key factor in my design, and an attempt to balance with complexity. I don't know if you read the help, or if it did help, but I have found that once you get the hang of it, it's easy to use.

Hello, this message is for the moderator.

I entered a message on this thread yesterday. It has not been posted to this thread and it's been over 24 hours.

It contained feedback and questions meant for Bruno

If the message was not approved, I'd appreciate some feedback on it. You have my email address.

Thank you, Drew

Bruno & Steve,

In the end it was a good exercise because now I see exactly how the process works. Pretty ingenious implementation.

The Help Guide is very good. I was just a bit slow in seeing how all the pieces work together.

For some reason I am no longer getting notifications from the Forum? Emails aren't being blocked or sent to spam. I tried turning notifications off/on again so maybe that will fix it.

CC

robert-abg wrote:

...

While MVP 18.6 has been great I was looking forward to using the newer V2x ...but now it seems (from your posts) that 2017 vs newer versions has a slightly different setup.  Any chance that you can include 2017 compatibility or a workaround???? 

bob

Bob and Drew,

I just got a rescue drive built with ATI 2017 on my Windows 10 machine. The workaround is really fairly easy and the whole process took a rather short amount of time.

1. Download the Windows ADK with WinPE

2. With the ATI 2017 media builder, build a WIM using the ADK.

3. With the MVP Assistant builder, create a new project and use the WIM from ATI 2017 as the image source.

When the WIM is first mounted, it will check and find that True Image is already installed and therefore won't have a problem. I found the resultant drive booted just fine with all my added apps, etc.

I think this is an acceptable workaround.

If one wishes to delve deeper, I could suggest grabbing the recovery partition WinRE wim and placing it in the ADK location to replace the ADK WinPE.wim between step 1 and step 2 above. That may provide the needed drivers. I'm not so inclined at this time.

Thanks Bruno, I really appreciate your help on this. You, Steve and other MVPs have done this forum a great service by developing and sharing the tools to simplify a rather complex process. Know that it is greatly appreciated.

I hope to have the time tomorrow to try your latest suggestion using the ADK; I'll post my results here.

I entered a message here, I believe it was last Friday, but it was never posted to this thread. It contained, among other things, my results from trying your previous suggestion from last Thursday of using a wim file from a previous PE build.

Previously, I succeeded in using MVP_ATIPEBuilder_v186 to build a DVD which contained ATI22017 and other goodies, but I couldn't use it because it didn't have Bitlocker support. So I used the \sources\boot.wim from that DVD as the source for MVPAssistant 2.2.1 in EZ-Mode. I started to get my hopes up when it showed that ATI2017 was installed as it was building the USB drive. But when I booted the USB drive the only thing I saw was the MVP wallpaper, then a few quick flashes (like it was trying to start some apps which quickly disappeared) then it rebooted. Did I use the correct win file? or miss something?

In any event, I'm hoping that a successful build using MVPAssistant 2.2.1 will allow me to backup an encrypted drive without having to decrypt it beforehand.

Thanks, Drew

D Rebates wrote:

Hello, this message is for the moderator.

I entered a message on this thread yesterday. It has not been posted to this thread and it's been over 24 hours.

It contained feedback and questions meant for Bruno

If the message was not approved, I'd appreciate some feedback on it. You have my email address.

Thank you, Drew

Dear D Rebates, 
Moderation on Forum may take some time but we have posted all your comments and verified your account, so you can post without moderation.

Sorry for the inconvenience, we had to add moderation because of the excessive spam attacks

Drew, I'll look forward to seeing results of using the ATI 2017 rescue media builder with the ADK and then using that wim for the MVP Assistant builder. Please capture the log file from that.

Well, I selected wim file using ATI2017 media builder, saved it to the Desktop. Brought up MVP Assistant 2.2.1, selected Local wim file as the image source, browsed to Desktop and selected the newly created wim file, and built a USB boot media. Everything appeared to go successfully, no error messages. I booted the USB drive, had ATI2017 and all the goodies in the launch bar. Tried to make an image of the C drive and could not see it in ATI2017. Also could not see it using the explorer in the launch bar. So apparently the driver for the NVMe SSD was not installed in the image. I don't believe it was a problem with the MVP Assistant because I went back in to ATI2017 and built a PE USB drive instead of a wim, and the bootable USB drive couldn't see the C drive either.

I'm not an expert on this, but I can't help but suspect that the issue may be along the line that I'm using a Win 10 version of the ADK on a laptop running Win 11.

I say that because I initially downloaded & installed a Win 11 version of the ADK from Microsoft. When I ran ATI2017 to build the wim, it acted like it couldn't find the ADK and told me I needed to download it. So I uninstalled the Win 11 ver of ADK, restarted ATI2017 and clicked the link in the Boot Builder let ATI2017 install the ADK which was an earlier version of the ADK. So I'm at a loss now as to what to do next. I'd appreciated any feedback. I've attached a copy of the Assistant log file, but I didn't see any errors in it.

Thanks again for your help, Drew

Hi Drew... well, you are definitely getting closer.

I don't have an explanation about why the Windows 11 ADK would not be found by the ATI 2017 build. Did you install the WinPE addon to the ADK when you installed that one?

Regardless, you should still be OK with the Windows 10  ADK. One thing to note is that when building a wim first using the ATI builder, you want to make sure to use the same ADK with the MVP Assistant builder since the version of the ADK must match the version of the wim.

I don't think the ADK version is the issue here though. I suspect you just need to add your NVMe driver. to the build. An ADK WinPE has only basic drivers and you should add your driver to it when running the MVP Assistant build. In Advanced mode, run a driver analysis and select the NVMe driver to install.

In a prior post, I made another suggestion about using WinRE from your system. That's because a WinRE will generally contain the drivers you need. So, how do you do this?

1. Create a new build project and select WinRE as the wim source. Once you've loaded it into the project, it will be saved in the project \wim folder and you can then access it.

2. Be sure to install the ADK for the same version of Windows as the WinRE. The Image/Source information in the builder will identify the windows version of the wim.

3. Replace the winpe.wim file in the appropriate ADK folder with your Winre.wim (being sure to rename it to winpe.wim). Save the old one too. The folder will probably be
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Windows Preinstallation Environment\amd64\en-us\winpe.wim

4. Run and ATI 2017 build with the ADK to produce a WIM.It should pick up the WinRE wim thinking it is WinPE. That's OK.

5. Run an MVP Assistant build with the ATI 2017 wim.

Hope this helps.

Bruno, thanks for your help with this. I'll answer your questions in the same order as you asked them:

1) Yes, I added the WinPE addon (uninstalled & reinstalled twice). I read that ATI2017 can support up to WinPE 10

2) The ADK was installed by ATI2017 it was the same one used in the Assistant

3) I ran the Assistant again using the same wim file. Switched to Advanced Mode and ran a driver analysis. A few min into the analysis, I received an error: Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. I hit continue and it was still running an hour and a half later when I aborted the process. I saved error message details if you care to see them. BTW, shouldn't the NVMe driver have already been in the wim? Isn't that the main reason for using the ATI PE Builder in the first place; to install drivers from the current environment?

4)I started to do the steps in your suggestion when I realized that I can't. My WinRE is ver 11-21H2 and I can't get ATI2017 to use an ADK for Win 11.

Thanks, Drew

My end goal was to create a bootable ATI2017 media that I can use to backup and restore images of my encrypted Win 11 system drive without having to decrypt it beforehand. I thought that I would be able to do that by using the MVPAssistant 2.2.1 tool since it adds support for Bitlocker to the rescue disk. Can anyone tell me if I am correct in my thinking? Has anyone actually done this?

I ask this because, I have been able to create a bootable USB drive using the MVPAssistant 2.2.1 tool, but cannot install ATI2017 in that image due to changes in it's file structure. Upon booting from this USB drive I have 2 different file explorer programs in the launch bar. Neither one of these programs can see the contents of the encrypted system drive. They see the C: drive, but when I try to open it they display an empty folder. I would think that the same thing would happen using ATI2017 or any other app.

So, am I in pursuit of the impossible rescue disk? Has anyone actually done this? What am I missing?

Thanks in advance,

Drew

Drew, at this point I feel we should stop trying to put a square peg in a round hole. If ATI 2017 is deemed incompatible with Windows 11, then trying to run it under WinPE 11 may be as pointless as trying to build it under Windows 11.

In order to understand the exception, I would need to see the error details.

Finally, let's take this off this pinned forum topic. If you wish to further discuss it, please start a new topic... perhaps under the ATI 2017 forum if you focus on that product, or this forum if you focus on the MVP Assistant.

Thanks.

Yes Bruno, I'm inclined to agree with you. I believe I was editing my last post while at the same time you sent your latest post. So I would appreciate it if you would read my last post above starting with: "My end goal..."

I'd appreciate it if you could answer any of my questions.

Thanks, Drew

My end goal was to create a bootable ATI2017 media that I can use to backup and restore images of my encrypted Win 11 system drive without having to decrypt it beforehand. I thought that I would be able to do that by using the MVPAssistant 2.2.1 tool since it adds support for Bitlocker to the rescue disk. Can anyone tell me if I am correct in my thinking? Has anyone actually done this?

Drew, sorry but Acronis does NOT backup encrypted drives!

If you create a backup of a BL encrypted drive from Windows, then the image is of the unlocked / unencrypted drive.

If you attempt to backup a BL encrypted drive from rescue media, then Acronis will refuse and say the drive is encrypted!  If you unlock the encrypted drive from the rescue media then it is the same as from within Windows.

Thanks Steve.

When you say "unlock the encrypted drive from the rescue media", how is that done?

Thanks, Drew

When you boot into the rescue environment, you will see a black Command prompt window along with the main Acronis application window.  You need to close the Acronis window in order to have access to the command prompt in the black window.

Now, you can use the BitLocker commands to identify and unlock your encrypted drive before relaunching the Acronis application again using "X:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\trueimage_starter.exe"

See the following data captured from my own system booted from the ATI 2021 Simple rescue media with an encrypted drive connected.

X:\windows\system32>wpeinit

X:\windows\system32>"X:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\trueimage_starter.exe"
Terminate batch job (Y/N)? n

X:\windows\system32>manage-bde -status

BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.19041
Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Disk volumes that can be protected with
BitLocker Drive Encryption:
Volume C: [Windows]
[Data Volume]

    Size:                 200.83 GB
    BitLocker Version:    None
    Conversion Status:    Fully Decrypted
    Percentage Encrypted: 0.0%
    Encryption Method:    None
    Protection Status:    Protection Off
    Lock Status:          Unlocked
    Identification Field: None
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:       None Found

Volume D: [SSD-Data]
[Data Volume]

    Size:                 263.29 GB
    BitLocker Version:    None
    Conversion Status:    Fully Decrypted
    Percentage Encrypted: 0.0%
    Encryption Method:    None
    Protection Status:    Protection Off
    Lock Status:          Unlocked
    Identification Field: None
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:       None Found

Volume L: [Label Unknown]

[Data Volume]

    Size:                 Unknown GB
    BitLocker Version:    2.0
    Conversion Status:    Unknown
    Percentage Encrypted: Unknown%
    Encryption Method:    AES 128
    Protection Status:    Unknown
    Lock Status:          Locked
    Identification Field: Unknown
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:
        Password
        Numerical Password

Volume H: [Data]
[Data Volume]

    Size:                 114.10 GB
    BitLocker Version:    None
    Conversion Status:    Fully Decrypted
    Percentage Encrypted: 0.0%
    Encryption Method:    None
    Protection Status:    Protection Off
    Lock Status:          Unlocked
    Identification Field: None
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:       None Found

X:\windows\system32>manage-bde -unlock L: -password
BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.19041
Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Enter the password to unlock this volume:
The password successfully unlocked volume L:.

X:\windows\system32>dir L:
 Volume in drive L is Seagate250gb
 Volume Serial Number is 1052-D550

 Directory of L:\

07/11/2020  00:08    46,379,683,840 MyBackup(1).tibx
05/11/2020  00:51    45,030,981,632 MyBackup.tibx
               2 File(s) 91,410,665,472 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  158,538,076,160 bytes free

X:\windows\system32>"X:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\trueimage_starter.exe"

X:\windows\system32>

Terrific Steve. I'll try this tomorrow.

Thanks so much, Drew

Well, I used rescue media created using MVP assistant ver 1.86 (the only one that installed ATI2017). I successfully unlocked the C drive using manage-bde, and could see the files on C drive using apps on the launch bar. I could even see the C drive files in ATI2017 when browsing for a backup archive. But if I try to make a backup image of the C drive in ATI2017, it says it can.t make an image of a Bitlocker drive, or words to that effect. (Even though the drive is unlocked). 
I’m going to try again using the latest version of ATI2017. 
Any suggestions?

Thanks, Drew

Drew,

You need to download MVP version 1.90. It was done to fix the BitLocker issue you are experiencing. Acronis never gave it a digital signature, so it will be flagged by anti-virus software. Rest assured there is no virus in it. It will work for you.

Mustang, thanks so much. I’ll give it a try over the weekend. 
I appreciate your help. 
Drew

Well MVP PE Builder ver 1.90 did the trick. The rescue media boots up with ATI2017 and all the goodies, has Bitlocker support, and when I unlock the C drive I can backup the image to a mapped drive on my NAS; everything I wanted.

I guess since my Winre.wim is Win 11 I couldn't take advantage of the script's wireless support. No problem -  I just added a few .BAT files to the EXTRA folder and with a few clicks they start the wireless service, add the wifi profile, connect to my Wifi network, unlock my C drive, map a network drive and I'm ready to go. YEAH!

So a well deserved THANK YOU goes out to BrunoC, Steve Smith, Mustang and all the other MVPs who have spent countless hours developing and sharing these incredible tools to make life a lot easier for folks like me. It is GREATLY APPRECIATED.

Also, Bruno, if you or anyone else would prefer not to "clutter up" this pinned forum thread, it's perfectly fine with me if the dialogue I started here is moved to another forum topic under the ATI 2017 forum or wherever it would be appropriate.

Thank you all so much, Drew

Drew,

Glad to hear you got everything working.

FYI, Norton 365 didn't like one of the files in MVP Tools 2.3.2 as follows:

More of an annoyance than a problem because even though Norton quarantines the file it can easily be restored (see above screen shot)

Bob

Bob,

Check the link provided to remedy this issue.

WS.Reputation.1

For the Acronis Loader issue, check that you don't have the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager feature installed / enabled.  Beyond that, then it may be best to continue any discussion in a different topic rather than this tutorial.

Hi all,

Back in early September, BrunoC kindly helped me get going with MVP Assistant.  It was Version 2.1.2.1D or similar.

The resulting USB memory stick worked fine back then.

I've tried using it now, and on clicking Proceed I hit a roadblock message about using a Trial version and needing to purchase ATI.  I purchased a one year subscription that started 9 September 2022.

To get going again do I need a new subscription and run MVP Assistant (preferably the lastest version) again?

Regards,

Leigh

Leigh, if you are running a valid licensed version of Acronis, i.e. your subscription is active, then when you create media via the MVP Assistant, that should result in the license transferring to the media and not giving you notices about being a trial version.

I have only seen the trial issue when using the same on the desktop.

Leigh, when you say "I've tried using it now..." I assume you mean the boot media (not the MVP Assistant). Are you saying that the ATI program loaded OK on your booted system, you created a backup job OK and then you tried to Proceed with the backup?

If the license worked OK on the rescue media before, then I see no reason it should suddenly stop working when no change was made to the media.

On the other hand, were you running a trial version of ATI when you created the rescue media in September? In that case, you should rebuild it.

Hi Steve Smith and BrunoC,

Thanks for the updates.

I have purchased a new ACPHO subscription - this screen says it will be auto-renewed on 20-May-2024:

I have built new rescue media with MVP Assistant 2.3.1.

When I boot from the new rescue media, clicking Proceed gives the message "This is a trial version...".

I have booted the standard Rescue Media generated from ACPHO today and there is no Trial issue.

Help!

Regards,

Leigh

In case it helps, I have generated System Reports.

Here are the license.txt files from the System Reports:

1. from MVP Assistant Media

{
   "Activation" : {
      "DaysLeft" : "UNLIMITED",
      "InstallId" : "",
      "LastError" : 0,
      "State" : "NOT_REQUIRED"
   },
   "DaysLeft" : "EXPIRED",
   "Distributor" : 0,
   "Edition" : 0,
   "Language" : 0,
   "Quota" : 0,
   "SerialNumber" : "",
   "State" : "DISABLED",
   "Tier" : "STANDARD",
   "TimeLimited" : false,
   "Type" : "UNKNOWN",
   "Upgrade" : false
}
 

2. from standard Rescue Media generated from ACPHO

{
   "Activation" : {
      "DaysLeft" : "UNLIMITED",
      "InstallId" : "",
      "LastError" : 0,
      "State" : "NOT_REQUIRED"
   },
   "DaysLeft" : "EXPIRED",
   "Distributor" : 0,
   "Edition" : 128,
   "Language" : 0,
   "Quota" : 5,
   "SerialNumber" : "*****************************************************-73GEA9ZM-5J3VXLND",
   "State" : "ACTIVE",
   "Tier" : "ESSENTIAL",
   "TimeLimited" : false,
   "Type" : "PERPETUAL",
   "Upgrade" : false
}

Hello Leigh,

I just ran everything fine on my system. There is one significant difference I see. You are running the "Essential" tier whereas I am running "Premium" tier. It is possible that the license info for the Essential product is in a difference place than I expected.

It may take some back channel communication to get more info about your system. Meanwhile, if you want to use my builder I suggest using the Acronis builder to build a .wim and then use that .wim as the source for my builder.

-Bruno

Thanks, Bruno.

I am happy to help resolve the "Essential" vs "Premium" tier issue.

Regards,

Leigh

Version 2.4.2 is available with a number of improvements. The Release Notes are included with the .zip file.

Clarification: the rescue builder will not be able to install versions of Acronis True Image older than ATI 2019. If you have an earlier version you can first use the True Image media builder to create a .wim file and then use that .wim for the image source for the MVP Assistant builder.

In a future release I plan to flag and explain that situation.

Version 2.5.1 is available with a number of improvements. The Release Notes are included with the .zip file.

The main change is in the Rescue Media Builder to interface to the Acronis Media Builder to make it easy to create a .wim file from the Acronis builder and import that into the project, as is necessary for version of ATI prior to 2019.

Other various UI improvements for robustness and miscellaneous fixes.

Links to download are in my signature below.

I must say that I am overwhelmed with attempting a WinPE build. I've been a very happy Acronis True Image user for over 10 years but was very disappointed when update began automatically installing a variety of functions unrelated to making a backup to a local disk. They are useless to me, but I had almost no control. I now count 13 Acronis background processes ALWAYS running…not using a lot of resources, but really?

I just purchased a 2022 DELL X17 R2 laptop with WIN11. My rescue USB would boot but not recognize the NVME drive. I assumed decrypting it and turning off BitLocker was the solution. Of course, now I realize the NVME driver is missing.

ALL I want to do is add this NVME driver and create a TIB backup file. I looked through the DELL WinPE files and the Tool version 2.5.1 and I’m even more confused. ATI 2021 is now obsolete!!! Even if I purchase Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office and it has a Rescue Builder that works, I do not want to install it and all its bloatware on the new laptop. I'm almost with others in saying it's time to DUMP Acronis. Is there a simple solution for me?

Thanks.

It looks like a very versatile tool but I must say that I am overwhelmed with attempting a WinPE build. I've been a very happy Acronis True Image user for over 10 years but was I very disappointed when 2021 automatically installed a variety of functions unrelated to making a backup to a local disk. They are useless to me, but I had almost no control. I now count 13 Acronis background processes ALWAYS running…not using a lot of resources, but really?

I just purchased a 2022 DELL X17 R2 laptop with WIN11. My rescue USB would boot but not recognize the NVME drive. I assumed decrypting it and turning off BitLocker was the solution. Of course, now I realize the NVME driver is missing.

ALL I want to do is add this NVME driver and create a TIB backup file. I looked through the DELL WinPE files and the Tool version 2.5.1 and I’m even more confused. ATI 2021 is now obsolete!!! Even if purchase Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office and it has a Rescue Builder that works, I do not want to install it and all its bloatware on the new laptop. I'm almost with others in saying it's time to DUMP Acronis. Is there a simple solution for me?

Thanks.

The latest version of ACPHO allows selective install of the cyber protection features so it is possible to just run the backup functionality. Unfortunately, this is not the case with ATI 2021. There are things mentioned in other forum topics for using brute force to eliminate the unwanted stuff, but I'm not recommending that.

Others have also had issues with missing drivers and BitLocker. Here is a forum topic which might help.

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-cyber-protect-home-office-forum-formerly-acronis-true-image-2021/intel-vmd-raid0-drive-wont-show-true-image-2021-bootstick?page=1

May I suggest starting a new forum topic for your specific issues so as to get proper attention to the problems.

First, what a great tool! Many thanks to all the contributors.

I created a bootable thumb drive using the MVP Rescue Media 2.5.2, following the instructions in the PowerPoint presentation. I used the Windows ADK environment so I could have BitLocker support. I also added my NVIDIA video driver to the build. I have the latest release of ACPHO, build 40278, installed when I created the media.

The process seemed to work fine, and I booted my computer from the drive. I unlocked my drives using the BitLocker commands, started Acronis, and began restoring a couple of files and folders from an external hdd as a test, but I encountered mixed results once the process began. 

One time, Acronis just shutdown and vanished from the screen. I restarted it by clicking the icon in the system tray. Several other times, it functioned normally all the way through, restoring some files and folders. However, a couple of times, the restore operation failed and only a portion of the files/folders were restored. 

Before I try a bunch of troubleshooting, I'd like to know if others have encountered this random behavior. 

When I built the project and clicked on Packages, I received a different screen than that presented in the PowerPoint presentation (slide 39). Instead of an option to install the package, I received a list of packages (see the attached screenshot). Unsure of what to do, I did nothing and carried on with the next steps. 

Should I have included some or all of these packages (particularly the WinPE File Management API)? Should I have included the chipset drivers for my motherboard (Asus Prime H570M-plus)? Anything else I missed?

About a year ago, I built a bootable drive using the older script based tool and it worked fine without injecting any drivers. When I tested it yesterday, it would not run through to completion. The computer would boot, I'd start the restoration process, and then Acronis would shutdown in a blink. No warnings or errors, it just vanishes. In that case, though, I could not restart Acronis and had to reboot the computer. A similar failure occurred the next time, so I abandoned that old boot media in favor of the new tool. 

It's working, but not well enough to be confident I could restore an entire drive in one shot.

Suggestions?

Thanks!

Darryl, glad you like to tool. Let's see if we can figure out how to make it better for you.

As for the Acronis app suddenly shutting down, I think you are saying that it happens with both the newly created media as well as one created with older tool last year. That may indicate a specific issue with your configuration which ACPHO does not handle well. At this point, not enough info but I have not heard of this from others.

In general, you might be better off using WinRE instead of the WinPE from the ADK as your source. The reason is that WinRE generally will have your drivers installed whereas the ADK is a bare bones version of WinPE. How true that is depends on your system build, but when dealing with a manufactured PC (as opposed to home build) that is most likely the case.

As for the ADK, the builder will use the ADK if the correct version is installed regardless of whether you use its WinPE or not. The packages are installed from the ADK.

I've done a number of releases of the MVP Assistant since the PowerPoint presentation was done to introduce the first version so there are some differences.

With the ADK installed, when you first mount the image it will be scanned and a minimal set of ADK packages will be installed automatically if they are not already there. The menu command now is used to manually install any additional packages. You probably don't need any.

As for drivers, if you are using WinRE as your source, you may not need to insert any additional drivers. I suggest running the Drivers/Analyze command. From that you will be able to see what drivers are in your online system and what drivers are in your WinPE/WinRE image. You may also see some suggested driver updates, but these are nothing more than suggestions; they are not necessarily recommendations. A suggestion is created when I find a driver in the online that is 1) being used for an identified PnP devices, and 2) boot critical, and 3) not found in the WinPE image or an older version is found in the WinPE image.

Don't forget to look at the build pane, and/or the log to see just what has been done in the build.

If you install the Driver Viewer app, you will be able to see which drivers are installed and running.

Let us know how it goes or if you have more questions.

Thanks Bruno for your help. Based on your suggestions, I believe I've made some progress. I created a new thumb drive in EZ Mode using WinRE. With ADK still installed, it seemed to still include that somehow. See the screenshot below.

This drive seems to work better. I was able to complete 4 or 5 restore operations over the course of 2 sessions booting into the WinRE environment. No crashes or failures, although it was a bit slower than I would expect at times. 

I was unable to adjust the screen resolution so I think I'll recreate the drive, including my NVIDIA driver. I had that functionality last time and with a 4K monitor, everything is quite small without the ability to adjust the resolution. 

In my screenshot below, you can see that I selected a resolution of 1920 x 1080 with 100% scaling. I assume that this is supposed to be the default view I get once WinRE loads. Yes? I assume that this will work once I get my own drivers in. 

Thanks again. I'll await your answer to my question here, create a new drive, and then I'll report back in a day or two with a final update or more questions. 

Darryl, glad to hear you've made progress.

I can see you based the build on WinRE. Yes, it uses the ADK, but not for the image... it uses the ADK for packages, etc.

Do you realize that you can open the same project and continue to modify the image. No need to start from scratch.

Screen resolution is a tricky thing. We can specify what we want, but WinPE has a mind of its own when it comes to resolutions. What you specify may or may not work as it depends on the drivers. I see you have included Display Settings as an installed application. That gives you access to SetRes and SetDPI applications which allow you to set a resolution after you boot. These are console apps and if you invoke the program without arguments it should show you how to call it.

Are you sure you need to install the NVidia driver? It may already be in the WinRE image.

Hi again,

Between the NVIDIA and Dell Monitor driver, the Display Settings functionality returned, so that's a nice bonus. More testing was rock solid with a few more restores over a couple of sessions going smoothly. 

Thanks for your assistance. I'm in good shape now. 

Darryl

Glad it's now working well for you.

Hi,

A newbie here. I'm using the advanced option, I've just unmounted the wim file, the packages and drivers have been committed, and I'd like to create a USB drive, but Build USB (and copy image to USB drive) options are greyed out under the Build tab.

Anything you can suggest to point me in the right direction would be appreciated.

MF

If Build ISO is enabled, then it is telling you that there is no available removable USB drive to build to. You need to plug in a drive/drives and then the menu will give you the choice to build to any of the available drives.

Curious. Build ISO is enabled. However, Windows sees the USB drive as I can see it in the disk management snap-in and Explorer, I've even deleted the volume and recreated it, yet MVPAssistant doesn't show USB as a build option. I've tried two different flash drives on two different USB ports. Still Build USB is greyed out.Thanks for your additional help.

Does the standard Acronis rescue media builder tool recognise the same USB flash drives and allow you to create media on them?

MF, check the System Configuration page in the MVP Assistant. Next to the FIxed Drives tab should be a USB Drives tab if any drives are found. What do you see there?

EDIT: Also, how does Disk Management display the drive?