Trouble Making Image Backup with Acronia True Image 2016 -- apparent misread of space

Sorry to confuse. You figured it out right. "Advanced Startup" is the recovery environment where the first screen is "Choose an Option". So, I often say "recovery environment (Choose an Option)" for that. I also say "Shift+Restart (or whatever)". The "whatever" refers to the long way you must do it: "START, Settings, Update & Security, Recovery, Restart now (under Advanced startup)". From now on I'll call it "Advanced startup", if I can remember. But those are all the same. (And did you try the other Shift key?)

But you see the letters can be different there. (The worst is when C: is different. Was it?) That's why I added the "damn" part. I left the earlier stuff in because it might have still been R. But you figured it right. Too bad the situation hasn't improved.

I'm not sure what fixed it for me. But, if mine is gone, yours can be gone too. Don't panic. I'll think more on it tomorrow.

(1) In the meantime, let's try to straighten your letters out in Advanced Startup. Make sure the Windows partition has the letter C:. And the only other partition that should have a letter there (these days) is the Recovery partition. So, in Advanced Startup...

"Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt"

DiskPart

List  Vol

(a) Remove the letters from all the volumes except Gateway & Recovery Tools...

Select  Vol=x               <<< Select a volume number (not Gateway or Recovery Tools)

Remove  Letter=?        <<< Remove its letter

(b) If C: is not on Gateway remove the letter it has, & put C: on it instead.

Select  Vol=x             <<< "x" is the volume number of Gateway

Remove  Letter=?      <<< "?" is the letter, presuming its not already "C"

Assign  Letter=C        <<< Give it letter C

(c) May as well remove whatever letter is on Recovery Tools & put R: on it instead.

Select  Vol=x             <<< "x" is the volume number of Recovery Tools

Remove  Letter=?      <<< "?" is the letter, presuming its not already "R"

Assign  Letter=R        <<< Give it letter R

(d) Then Exit DiskPart, exit the Command Prompt, & click "Continue" to get to Windows.

I did that once, & it stuck. Now Advanced Startup always has just those two letters (except the DVD-ROM still gets a letter).

(2) "Well, I was gong to paste in the code"

The clipboard is cleared when you reboot to Windows. So, put it into a file instead. At the Command Prompt in Advanced Startup...

(a) Do a Ctrl-A & Ctrl-C. (Instead of Ctrl-A, you could just drag the cursor over just the text you want.)

(b) Type "Notepad" into the Command Prompt.

      Notepad will open in full GUI mode.

(c) Use Ctrl-V to paste into it.

(d) Use the "File menu, Save as" option to save it.

     But set a reasonable location in the File Name field. For instance, "C:\Stuff.txt"...

The file will be there when you return to Windows. Open it, & copy the text out.

I have an idea. Let's see whether we can get R: out of your BCD. Then it might drop off the partition. I think, if we remove the letter from the partition using DiskPart, "BCD  /Enum  All" will already show the letter is gone, like mine...

Device options

identifier                   {c0838086-cd8a-11ea-b1b4-74e6e2074932}

description               Windows Recovery

ramdisksdidevice      partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume4

ramdisksdipath         \Recovery\WindowsRE\boot.sdi

But yours will say "HarddiskVolume5" instead of R:. Next we will force the BCD to rewrite by removing a useless entry you've got in yours (among many), & then reboot 

So, in Windows, open an Administrative Command Prompt, & remove that letter from Recovery Tools...

DiskPart                        <<< Enter DiskPart

List  Vol                        <<< Is R: on Recovery Tools?

Select  Vol=R               <<< Then select the letter (same effect as selecting the volume number)

Remove  Letter=R        <<< Removes the letter R: from the partition

Exit                                <<< Exit DiskPart

BCDEdit  /Enum  All                                                    <<< Has R: been removed from the BCD?

BCDEdit  /Delete  {4677ba16-45a9-4007-9e32-a87e737c0b41}       <<< Delete a useless entry

Reboot, & see whether R: is gone from both the BCD & from the partition. I really hope so!

1. Yes, I was not surprised that via Advanced Recovery, it had different letters. It has different letters in Acronis too. Slance had warned me about hat way back the first time I worked with him.

I don’t know why that is, but it seems Microsoft has built that into the OS, we have to presume knowingly, although who knows why, but there might be a good reason for it. Why should we now change or take letters off — other that on the Recovery Tools one we are trying to get the R off of so trying different things?

The C drive did not have C on it, I think it was D it had.

You are saying to have letters on only the C and Recovery Tools partition. We have no letter on Recovery Tools in Advanced Startup/Command Prompt now — we just took it off, the G. Are you saying to put some letter on it now? G is as good as any other. D normally goes to the DVD drive, E normally goes to first external drive. (Which shows that those letters do not interfere with them being used outside Advanced Startup — D in Advanced Startup is the C drive, but D out of a normal boot is the DVD drive. Those two views of a letter assigned do not seem to interfere with each other. In other words, I don’t know that anything is gained by changing or taking them off, and maybe there is a reason they are different. Maybe I should simply go back in and pot the G back on Recovery Tools.

Food for thought. I wont proceed on anything of those Advanced Startup letters yet, will wait to hear from you.

I note again, I think the R got locked onto part 5 when we created the partition. I think we assigned R, then deleted and created the partition. Then we took the R off. But it seems it was never really taken off. Could the issue be that we should take it off BEFORE creating the new partition? If so, we could delete again and create it properly, then move the Recovery folder over and again Reagent it. A lot of effort if that doesn’t solve the issue.

Second, rather than do that delete and create a new part, as before, out of Cmd Prompt (Admin), maybe we need to doit from Advanced Startup/Cmd Prompt? I would prefer not to try, then I cant copy and paste in the commands, and not only can that lead to typos, it also means I have to write it all down and then type it in cmd prompt, because I can’t access any file I might put the command in or this forum when in Command Prompt out of Advanced Startup. But if it is he only idea, might have to do it like that, the hard way.

 2) Can’t put it in a file when in Advanced Startup. Have to boot first for that. Oh, I can by typing Notepad into Command Prompt. And when I save, I can select where, I hope/presume. OK. I always prefer to save to the desktop.  where does C:\stuff put it? Can I do C:\Desktop? Can’t I just click on Desktop on the left like normal?

I don’t know what BCD is.

OK, for this code, is that Cmp pmt from the desktop, or from Advanced Startup? What is Device options, is that part of the code or not? Hmm, is that a choice in Advanced Startup? That might be what it is.

RE the code, if HarddiskVolume4 is not what I should use, please write these with what you already know I should use. You are ahead of me on any coding, I can very easily make a mistake if you present it like that. I recognize that volume # is the part #. I can figure that out. So we want it on volume 5 in the coding, not 4 as you wrote it. I think you mean “instead of HarddiskVolume4,” not “instead of R:.”

What is Device option.? Is that term code for me to run, as you gave two sets of code, the second one saying to go into Cmd prompt in Advanced Recovery — was I already in that for the first coded under Device options, or where did I type the Identifier and subsequent code?

OK, those are my questions and input. Will hold off for a bit of clarity, so I don’t make mistakes, or thinking.

How about next response, you nix thought of both of your prior responses from last night, as I think you might have already done that in your thinking for the first post you made last night, and say what to do now/first.

BTW, not criticizing, I thank you, just needing to make sure I’m understanding you.

You are welcome. Sometimes I'm a bit wordy, & it might get confusing. But I think we've done fine so far. You can now make a fit & proper system image of Win 10 (EFI, MSR, Windows (C:), & Recovery) -- without having to include a monstrous Gateway Win 8 in it. And Acronis has stopped bellyaching over your sectors in Partition 5.

(1) Good that you were already aware of letter differences. The reason letters are different in Advanced Startup is that it enumerates them for itself in the order BIOS presents the devices more/less. It doesn't use the letters you set in Disk Management for use in Windows. You should try to have them be the same for one less cause of confusion when switching between environments. Set them as I said, & it should stick (just as they stick in Windows when you change them there). Definitely, you want C: to be C: in both places for sanity sake. There's no Microsoft reason to keep letters different.

"We have no letter on Recovery Tools in Advanced Startup/Command Prompt now — we just took it off, the G."

But the Recovery partition now (since 1903/1909) will always get a letter in Advanced Startup no matter how many times you remove it. May as well make it R. That isn't true for an external recovery environment, such as the one on a Win 10 Installation USB drive (repair your computer). Those won't force a letter on the Recovery partition.

(2) "Could the issue be that we should take it off BEFORE creating the new partition?"

It's an interesting thought. But, as you say, it would be hell to test. And I know my letter was gone before I deleted my new Recovery partition, maybe even before I ReagentC-ed back to my original Recovery partition. I just can't quite remember it all. But the letter hasn't returned yet thank goodness!

(3) "Second, rather than do that delete and create a new part, as before, out of Cmd Prompt (Admin), maybe we need to doit from Advanced Startup/Cmd Prompt?"

A letter added there won't stay after booting back to Windows. We'd have to put another on it to do the ReagentC which is unavailable in Advanced Startup, I think. But I don't know whether it would be a cure, but again it's hell to test.

(4) "I cant copy and paste in the commands"

     "Can’t I just click on Desktop on the left like normal?"

Probably you could use Notepad to open a file with commands in Advanced Startup & still copy/paste, but I never tried it. The Command Prompt remains open behind the Notepad window, & they can be resized. There won't be a button for Desktop (IIRC), but you can navigate to the Desktop folder starting with This PC in the left pane.

(5) "I don’t know what BCD is"

The BCD (Boot Configuration Data) is an important boot file located on EFI. You showed yours with "BCDEdit  /Enum  All". Yours mentions R: in several places, like...

Device options

identifier                   {06a7379e-d1bb-11ea-8997-b888e3b1b2f5}

description               Windows Recovery

ramdisksdidevice      partition=R:                                    <<< R:, it says

ramdisksdipath         \Recovery\WindowsRE\boot.sdi

...where mine uses a HarddiskVolume number...

ramdisksdidevice      partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume4

I'm just thinking, it's worth a shot to get HarddiskVolume5 into yours instead of that letter. I believe that happens immediately after you remove the letter R in DiskPart. If so, I want to force a rewrite of your BCD by deleting something useless inside (of which you've got many). A reboot will cause the rewrite. So, as I said earlier...

In Windows, open an Administrative Command Prompt, & remove that letter from Recovery Tools...

DiskPart                        <<< Enter DiskPart

List  Vol                        <<< Is R: on Recovery Tools?

Select  Vol=R               <<< Then select the letter (same effect as selecting the volume number)

Remove  Letter=R        <<< Removes the letter R: from the partition

Exit                                <<< Exit DiskPart

BCDEdit  /Enum  All                                                    <<< Has R: been removed from the BCD?

BCDEdit  /Delete  {4677ba16-45a9-4007-9e32-a87e737c0b41}       <<< Delete a useless entry

Reboot, & see whether R: is gone from both the BCD & from the partition. I really hope so!

Yes, fine so far, but the R is a problem. So we still have a little work to do.

1. I have checked Disk Management. I see no way to set any partition letters there. If I can, can't we just erase the R there?

We can change them, but I don't see any real benefit, I only deal with that in Acronis, and I do it by volume size, I can tell. Right now, we have no letter on the Recovery Tools partition in Advanced Startup, we took off the G. maybe wecan do it, but if it isn't going to help us get rid of the R, let's put it on the side for later. First things first. Oh,mabe Iwilldo it now. But C is the only one tomatch, the others are matching nothing. You said to put one a Recovery Tools -- there is none now, I can put the G back on it, that seems reasonable for it. D and E are already used fr the DVD drive and External Drive. R makes sense for "Recovery," maybe R. Regardless, I think you want a letter on that one before we proceed.

2. Is it is what I suggested, it would be something in the code we used to probably create rather than delete the partition. I don't recall the code, but if it said to create it as R, rather than just to create it, that might be permanent.

It definitely was before we Reaget'd it. I already was surprised to see the R was still on it before we did that or as we did that. We went to put it on again, but it already was on.

3. If it won't stay, then why is the G not on it now, it has no letter in Advanced Startup now? But that seems to be background stuff of no importance, so doing it there is probably not the issue, as you say.
4. So BCD on the EFI partition shows R? Its identifying to do things with R. OK< well,that could be what is making R come back when I erase it. How can we fix the BCD? And I guess that and part 5 at the same time, so they sync. Can we have it link to "partition 5" rather than to "partition R?" Yes, you seem to be thinking similar. But we need to be very careful about doing it. We don't want to screw it up permenately. We don't want to be guessing and hoping.

So, remove the letter again. Exit. Then run those two lines? What is that entry we would be deleting?

And from Cmd Prompt on the desktop, can't change the letter in Advance Startup.

Confirm that that is what we want to do, and I will do it now. I see we would first take the R off, then delete one unimportant line and BCD will rewrite, so you say. And hopefully the R will be gone as it will not be on part 5 when BCD rewrites. Restart.

How do you know what that line we will delete is? What is it?