| Further testing of the procedure has found that
Acronis Media Builder does not always write the MBR to the
flashdrive during its creation. This results in a flashdrive that
will not boot and any image created from it and restored to a USB
hard disk will also not boot.
To try and rectify this problem, I have created several "empty" images that can be restored directly to either a
USB flashdrive or a USB hard disk. The images contain the MBR, the boot sector and an empty ACRONIS partition.
Download
Instructions
Right-click on the link and select "Save target
as..." to download the version you want. If you're not sure
which one to use, try them starting with #1. Some computers may
boot better with one partition format than the other. It depends
on how the BIOS is setup. There is more information on this in the
Appendix of the Guide. Older computers that have a BIOS setting to
boot the USB-ZIP format may work better with those images than
with the USB-HDD images.
1. FAT32 125MB
Image USB-HDD Format --
Based on PEtoUSB
2. FAT16 125MB
Image USB-HDD Format --
Based on PEtoUSB
3. FAT32
256MB Image USB-ZIP Format -- Based on Syslinux
4. FAT16
256MB Image USB-ZIP Format -- Based on Syslinux
IMPORTANT:
After you download any of these files (or when saving the download), change
the filename extension to .TIB
(these are not .ZIP files, the files just didn't download
correctly from Internet Explorer with the .TIB
extension)
Basic
Instructions
- Download the Image File.
- Rename the Image File extension to .TIB (if not done during
the download).
- Plug the USB Flashdrive into your computer.
- Use True Image to Restore the Image to your Flashdrive
(if using TI 9, see note below).
This should be an Entire Disk Restore, so check the
Disk # checkbox and make sure the MBR and Track 0 are
included. This will erase
everything on the Flashdrive.
- Once the Restore is finished, you may get a message stating
you need to reboot the computer to complete the restore. If
you do, then proceed with 5a,
otherwise skip to 5b.
5a - Press the button to
reboot. Wait until Windows has shut down and remove the
Flashdrive (don't let the computer boot up with the Flashdrive
plugged in). Once Windows has restarted, plug the Flashdrive
back in. If it doesn't automatically show up in My Computer,
go to Disk Management and assign a drive letter to it. This
seems to happen more when restoring the USB-ZIP images.
5b - Eject/Safely Remove the
Flashdrive. Wait about ten seconds and plug it back it. This
will force Windows to recognize the Flashdrive in its new
format.
- Run Acronis Media Builder, selecting the Flashdrive as the
destination device.
- Once Media Builder has finished, Eject/Safely Remove the
Flashdrive.
- Shutdown the computer.
- Plug in the Flashdrive and restart the computer.
- Enter the BIOS and make sure the Flashdrive is the booting
device. Save the changes (if necessary) and reboot.
- The Flashdrive should boot into the Acronis menu.
To create a bootable USB Hard Disk you still need to have the
Flashdrive processed by Media Builder. This is because you need to
copy the Acronis files from the Flashdrive to the ACRONIS
partition on the USB Hard Disk.
From this point you can continue with the Guide at Step 4 OR
you can do the following:
- Use True Image to Restore the downloaded Image File to the
USB Hard Disk (this will erase
everything on the USB Hard Disk). This should be an Entire
Disk Restore, so check the Disk # checkbox and make sure
the MBR and Track 0 are included. (If asked to reboot,
follow step 5a above,
substituting the USB Hard Disk for the Flashdrive in the
instructions.)
- Copy the files from the Flashdrive created above to the
ACRONIS partition on the USB Hard Disk
- Continue with the Guide at Step 6 to create the NTFS
partition on the USB Hard Disk
- The USB Hard Disk should be bootable and ready to use
More Details on Using the Empty
Image Files
The image file can be restored to either a USB flashdrive or a
USB hard disk. The image files should restore correctly with True
Image 9 (build 3,677 or later) or True Image 10 (any build). NOTE:
When running version 9 from Windows, if it doesn't see the
flashdrive as a valid restore location, you will most likely have to boot into
the Full Mode or Safe Mode of
True Image (using the TI CD) to do the restore. If this is
required, make sure the flashdrive is plugged in before you boot
the TI CD. If you only want a bootable USB hard disk and don't
care about being able to boot the flashdrive, then you can skip this step
since, in this case, all you need are the files put on the
flashdrive by Acronis Media Builder.
The image should be restored as an Entire Disk image (check the
Disk # checkbox; both the "MBR and Track 0" and the
"ACRONIS" partition should be selected) if not resizing the ACRONIS partition (this is
the recommended procedure). If resizing, then select the ACRONIS
partition first, resize to what you want, proceed through the
wizard, select to restore another partition, select the MBR and
proceed to restore the image. Just to be clear: Both the MBR and
the ACRONIS partition need to be restored for the image to work
properly.
If restored to a hard drive (without a resize) the partition size
will be 125MB and the remainder of the drive will be unallocated space.
If restored to a
flashdrive the image will fill the entire flashdrive. This seems
to be a "quirk" with how Windows allows flashdrives to
be formatted (Windows only allows one partition on a flashdrive).
If this is a problem, you may be able to resize the partition
during the restore process. However, you will not be able to
create another partition in the remaining unallocated space using
Windows.
After the restore, copy the files from the
flashdrive (the one created with Acronis Media Builder in Step 3
of the Guide) to the ACRONIS partition on the USB hard disk.
Finally, if restored to a USB hard disk, use Windows Disk
Management (or another partitioning program) to create an NTFS
partition in the remaining unallocated space (Step 6 in the
Guide). |
