Startup Recovery Manager

Startup Recovery Manager is a bootable component that resides on the Windows system disk or on the Linux /boot partition. With Startup Recovery Manager, you can start the bootable rescue utility without using separate bootable media.

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 starts and you can perform recovery. On machines with the GRUB boot loader installed, you select the Startup Recovery Manager from the boot menu, instead of pressing F11 during a reboot.

To use Startup Recovery Manager, you have to activate it first. Thus, you enable the boot-time prompt Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (or add the Startup Recovery Manager item to GRUB menu if you use the GRUB boot loader).

To activate Startup Recovery Manager, you need at least 100 MB of free space on the Windows system disk or the Linux /boot partition.

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 such boot loaders are installed.

In Linux, when using a boot loader other than GRUB (such as LILO, for example), 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.

To activate Startup Recovery Manager on a machine with Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux

  1. In the Cyber Protection service console, 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.

To deactivate Startup Recovery Manager, repeat the activation procedure and select the respective opposite actions. The deactivation disables the boot-time prompt Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (or the menu item in GRUB).