Recently I needed to restore a backup made with Acronis True Image, however when I booted using the True Image recovery CD it didn’t work. Instead of restoring the image it rebooted the PC. Not very helpful.

After a bit of research it turns out that Acronis uses Linux for their recovery CD and sometimes this has problems with the hardware. An alternative is to use a free tool to create a Windows based recovery CD that runs True Image.  The software is called BartPE.

Download BartPE (PE Builder)  and install it.

If you have Acronis True Image 10 then you already have the BartPE plugin. If you have Acronis True Image 11 then I believe you have to register your copy and log into the Acronis site for the free download. For True Image 10, go to C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome and rename the BartPE folder to “AcronisTrueImage”.

Copy the AcronisTrueImage folder to the “plugin” folder inside the BartPE installation folder. In my case that meant copying it to  C:\pebuilder3110a\plugin

Run PE Builder from the Start menu.

Select the location where your Windows installation files are

Click on “Plugins” and make sure that Acronis True Image is enabled (should be by default).

Choose desired media output.

Click on “Build”.

This will either generate an ISO file for burning to a CD or burn the CD for you (depending on the options you choose).

Next, boot your PC with the BartPE CD inserted. Once you have gone through the network options, Acronis True Image can be found on the Go menu at:

Go -> System -> Storage -> Acronis True Image