2 replies to this topic

[Arvy]

Not exactly sure where this belongs. Admins please feel free to move if not correctly located.

The following are just a few notes for any developers or others who may be working on scripts for the newly released 2012 version of the Acronis True Image Home (TIH) backup and recovery utility.



1) TIH 2012 uses a new and different registry [CurrentControlSet] set-up for its drivers and filters. In particular, the UpperFilters entries for Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} and Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F} are now "fltsrv" instead of "snapman" and the fltsrv service needs to be added accordingly. That new arrangement is backward compatibile with some other Acronis apps (e.g., DiskDirector 2011) but not vice versa. So you'll need to ensure that it takes precedence over any previous Acronis utility inclusions in your PE builds.

2) For creating a 64-bit WinPE build, you need to use the version-matched fltsrv.sys, snapman.sys and snapapi.dll files from an existing full TIH 2012 installation under an actual x64 Windows OS. The 32-bit files that are included in the Acronis Plus Pack (or BartPE download) won't work, of course.

3) I've contacted Acronis directly about an error on line 63 in the [SetupReg.AddReg] section of the BartPE acronis.inf file:

0x4, "ControlSet001\Services\fltsrv", "Group", "PnP Filter"
should be
0x1, "ControlSet001\Services\fltsrv", "Group", "PnP Filter"

Unless they have now corrected that mistake in their downloads, any attempt to use 0x4 (dword) for adding a registry string will result in a fatal error in the WinPE build process.

[Michael*]

Thank you for working on this, because also I intend to use Acronis True Image Home 2012 in the future.

[Arvy]

You're welcome. You might want to wait a while before upgrading as the intial Acronis release is (as usual) not completely "bug free." In any case, to avoid installation problems, be sure to UNinstall any previous version completely before installing the new one.

The "tricky" part for any WinPE scripting is accommodating both x86 and x64 builds which requires some reorganization of the Plus Pack (or BartPE download) to add those 64-bit fltsrv.sys, snapman.sys and snapapi.dll files. And, for x64, snapapi.dll needs to be copied to the "%target_win%\SysWOW64\" folder instead of the "%target_sys%\" folder. The relevant ControlSet001 entries are then handled as follows:

Hive_Load,HKLM

reg_add,0x1,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\fltsrv","DisplayName","Acronis Storage Filter"

reg_add,0x2,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\fltsrv","ImagePath","system32\drivers\fltsrv.sys"

reg_add,0x4,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\fltsrv","ErrorControl","1"

reg_add,0x1,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\fltsrv","Group","PnP Filter"

reg_add,0x4,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\fltsrv","Type","1"

reg_add,0x4,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\fltsrv","Tag","8"

reg_add,0x4,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\fltsrv","Start","0"

If,Not,%SourceArch%,Equal,x86,reg_add,0x4,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\fltsrv","WOW64","1"

reg_add,0x1,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\snapman","DisplayName","Acronis Snapshots Manager"

reg_add,0x2,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\snapman","ImagePath","system32\drivers\snapman.sys"

reg_add,0x4,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\snapman","ErrorControl","1"

reg_add,0x4,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\snapman","Type","1"

reg_add,0x4,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\snapman","Start","0"

If,Not,%SourceArch%,Equal,x86,reg_add,0x4,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Services\snapman","WOW64","1"

reg_add,0x7,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}","UpperFilters","fltsrv"

reg_add,0x7,"%reg%\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}","UpperFilters","fltsrv"

Hive_Unload,HKLM

Note in particular the "WOW64" entries for for x64 builds.