How to create ACPHO rescue media with AUR included

Prerequisites:

1. The MVP Assistant tool has been extracted from zip to a local drive folder.  In my systems, this is either to my C:\MVPA or D:\MVPA folder, then run from that location.
2. Acronis Universal Restore has been downloaded and installed from your installed ACPHO or ATI application.

As per the summary in the initial post of this topic, the first step is to create the AUR media using the WinPE (from WinRE) option as a WIM file.

Note: all the images below are also attached as a single zip file below, including the AUR.XML file for if needed.

Launch the AUR media builder as shown below:

Follow the options as shown below:

If needed, add any additional drivers to include in the AUR media.  If migrating Windows 10 or 11 to new hardware, then running AUR without any extra drivers can tell you if any further drivers are needed?

Select the option to create a WIM image file for the output type.

Select where the WIM file will be stored (and give it a name!)

Check that all is correct then click on Proceed.

You will see several progress indicators while the WIM media is created.

Next, launch the MVP Assistant tool (as Administrator).  Click on 'I Agree' if this is the first time running the tool after a new version is used.

Click on Settings then on the Rescue Media tab.

Select where you want to store your rescue media projects / files, i.e. C:\MVPA\Base on the system I am using for this tutorial.  You can also set where the launch bar will be positioned in the rescue media environment (I set it to be at the Top, Centre to avoid it being off screen when used in Virtual Machines I use for testing).

When done, click on the Advanced Customisation button.

The image shows the default location for where apps will be downloaded to but this can be changed to your own choice of location.

Click on the Import button and select to import the AUR.XML file (described in the initial post of this topic) - this will add an extra entry for AUR in the list of applications shown in this panel.

The imported application will add the AUR option to the bottom of the list.  You can reorder the list by selecting an entry and using the Move Up or Move Down buttons.

Don't forget to click on the Save button to keep the changes you have made then click Close.

Click on Rescue Media then on Project and New to start a new rescue media project.

Give the new project a name and set the location to store its files.

I tend to create a new project folder from my Base folder to keep projects separate.

Next, click on Source then on Local .wim file, then on Load source into project which will prompt for where to find the local .wim file.

The panel will show a confirmation of the Source settings.

At this point, you could click on Build and accept the default options, otherwise click on Advanced to have full control of all options.

After clicking on Advanced Mode additional options will be shown in the top menu bar.

Click on Image then on Mount image from the list of options.

Check the list of Applications and make any changes to the selections as needed, then click on the Applications menu option and select Process queued installs.

Next, click again on Image then on Commit changes to save the changes for Applications.

Next, click on Drivers then on Analyse to identify any drivers from the host system that would be suggested to be applied, or other drivers to include.  If any drivers are selected after the analysis has run, then click on the option to Apply chosen suggested updates.

Click on Image then on Commit changes if any drivers have been selected, otherwise, click on Unmount image to save all the changes made.

Next, click on Build then select your chosen build target (USB drive or ISO image).

Note: a USB drive needs to be plugged in to use that option.

Select where an ISO file is to stored or use the default values shown.

Finally, click on Close for the project / close the MVP Assistant tool.

Steve, thanks for putting this out there. Very useful.

As a time saver... if there are no extra drivers or packages to be installed (generally not), then instead of switching to Advanced mode it can be left in E-Z mode and go right to the Build option. When in easy mode, the Build choice will automatically mount the image, install the required packages and queued programs and then unmount the image before creating the media.

Thanks for the detailed explanation, Steve. But I am stuck here:

Acronis Universal Restore has been downloaded and installed from your installed ACPHO or ATI application.

The AUR box in the TI panel won't work so i can't download it. From your signature I downloaded from this page - https://kb.acronis.com/content/59335 - but it says to turn off the protection setting and that doesn't exist in my version so I am wondering if that is what I should use?

The link in my signature is to the older MVP Custom PE Builder tool (KB 59335) which is not the tool to be used here.  You need to use the MVP Assistant tool.

MVP Assistant - New 2.0 with Rescue Media Builder (New Version 2.3.2)

For the AUR not launching from the TI Tools panel, then as advised in your other topic, uninstall AUR via the normal options (Control Panel > Programs & Features or Settings > Apps), then try the option again.

Alternatively, try a repair install of TI to see if that changes anything but I suspect that you may have a mismatch between the installed versions of TI and UR.

I did try that version initially but when I installed it there wasn't a restore builder option in it, that I could see. I thought I may have misunderstood your instructions so I tried the older version.

The AUR program isn't listed in the control panel so I couldn't use that option. I thought I would dig out my last install file and see if there was a rebuild in it. But when I looked in that location I saw an AUR install program. I tried that and it did install. I ran it and create a restore disk. Then the fun began. :(

I rebooted to that disk to make sure it would work. But when it got to the last step of displaying the backup files it failed due to not being able to find the USB ports. I figured I did something wrong and rebooted so I could do it again. Unfortunately, it appears to have destroyed all of the drivers since I could not reboot into Windows. I tried many things but ended up doing a restore from yesterday. However, even now, when I reboot I get the message to open the acronis loader even though that disk is not in the drive. Will that ever go away?

I don't know what I should do at this point. I can't afford risking my system again but I need to be able to have an emergency backup. Any thoughts?

Tilden, if you are working with either Windows 10 or 11, then it is unlikely that you will need AUR as Windows does a much better job of identifying new hardware and finding drivers.

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.