If your computer does not boot or you have a new computer without any operating system installed on it, you can boot your computer with Acronis bootable media. The bootable media is a USB flash drive or a CD with Acronis software on it. This way, you can recover from a backup in case your computer does not boot anymore.
How to create a bootable USB
All current versions of Acronis software can create bootable USB flash drives. We recommend creating a bootable media in advance.
- Plug in the USB flash drive.
- Start Acronis software.
- Open Acronis bootable media builder (Media builder is a component of Acronis software that places necessary files on the USB drive or CD/DVD to make it bootable) and follow on-screen instructions. The media builder offers you to select the media which you want to make bootable; in this step, select your USB flash drive.
How to create a bootable media in Acronis True Image 2020
How to create a bootable media in Acronis True Image 2019
How to create a bootable media in Acronis True Image 2018
How to create a bootable media in Acronis True Image 2017
How to create a bootable media in Acronis Backup 12.5
How to create a bootable media in Acronis Backup 11.7/11.5
Starting from Acronis True Image 2019 you can also create a bootable USB disc with backup file(s). See product documentation for more details.
How to use a bootable USB
- Plug in the USB flash drive.
- Start your computer.
- On the screen, you see Acronis bootable media interface. For example, this is how Acronis True Image bootable media looks:
- Follow on-screen instructions.
How to recover from a backup with Acronis True Image 2020
How to recover from a backup with Acronis True Image 2019
How to recover from a backup with Acronis True Image 2018
How to recover from a backup with Acronis True Image 2017
How to recover from a backup with Acronis Backup 12.5
How to recover from a backup with Acronis Backup 11.7/11.5
What to do, if creating a bootable USB fails
If you encounter issues when creating a bootable USB flash drive or disk by means of Acronis bootable media builder you can try one of the workarounds below:
Creating Acronis bootable media on a USB flash drive (applies to Windows Vista/7/2008/2008 R2)
- Insert your flash drive;
- Hit Win-R (Start-Run) and type cmd to open a command-line;
- Type diskpart to run Windows DiskPart utility:
- Type list disk to list all disks attached to the machine:
- Type select disk [number] to select your flash drive:
- Type clean to remove any formatting from the selected disk:
- Type create partition primary:
- Type select partition 1 to select the only partition, which you now have on the flash drive:
- Type active to mark the partition as active:
- Type format fs=fat32 to format the disk in FAT32 (otherwise the drive will not be bootable):
- Type assign to assign a drive letter:
- Type exit to exit Windows DiskPart utility:
- Run your Acronis product;
- Pick Tools -> Create Bootable Rescue Media;
- Follow all steps of the wizard and select your USB flash drive as media.