Startup Recovery Manager

Startup Recovery Manager is a bootable component residing on the system disk in Windows, or on the /boot partition in Linux and configured to start at boot time on pressing F11. It eliminates the need for a separate media or network connection to start the bootable rescue utility.

Startup Recovery Manager is especially useful for traveling users. If a failure occurs, reboot the machine, wait for the prompt "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager…" to appear, and then press F11. The program will start and you can perform recovery.

You can also back up using Startup Recovery Manager, while on the move.

On machines with the GRUB boot loader installed, you select the Startup Recovery Manager from the boot menu instead of pressing F11.

A machine booted with Startup Recovery Manager can be registered on the management server similarly to a machine booted from bootable media. To do this, click Tools > Register media on the management server, and then follow the step-by-step procedure described in "Registering media on the management server".

Activating Startup Recovery Manager

On a machine running Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux, Startup Recovery Manager can be activated by using the service console.

To activate Startup Recovery Manager in the service console

  1. Select the machine that you want to activate Startup Recovery Manager on.
  2. Click Details.
  3. Enable the Startup Recovery Manager switch.
  4. Wait while the software activates Startup Recovery Manager.

To activate Startup Recovery Manager on a machine without an agent

  1. Boot the machine from bootable media.
  2. Click Tools > Activate Startup Recovery Manager.
  3. Wait while the software activates Startup Recovery Manager.

What happens when you activate Startup Recovery Manager

Activation enables the boot-time prompt "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager…" (if you do not have the GRUB boot loader) or adds the " Startup Recovery Manager" item to GRUB's menu (if you have GRUB).

The system disk (or, the /boot partition in Linux) should have at least 100 MB of free space to activate Startup Recovery Manager.

Unless you use the GRUB boot loader and it is installed in the Master Boot Record (MBR), Startup Recovery Manager activation overwrites the MBR with its own boot code. Thus, you may need to reactivate third-party boot loaders if they are installed.

Under Linux, when using a boot loader other than GRUB (such as LILO), consider installing it to a Linux root (or boot) partition boot record instead of the MBR before activating Startup Recovery Manager. Otherwise, reconfigure the boot loader manually after the activation.

Deactivating Startup Recovery Manager

Deactivation is performed similarly to activation.

Deactivation disables the boot time prompt "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager…" (or, the menu item in GRUB). If Startup Recovery Manager is not activated, you will need one of the following to recover the system when it fails to boot: