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Boot from SSR 2013 R2 Recovery Disk

gerrypete
Level 3

I assume it goes without saying that the SecureBoot for UEFI-based computers must be disabled to permit booting from the SSR 2013 R2 Recovery Disk via an internal DVD/CD drive.  The following information is provided by Microsoft support:

"After disabling Secure Boot and installing other software and hardware, it may be difficult to re-activate Secure Boot without restoring your PC to the factory state."
 

"Before disabling Secure Boot, consider whether it is necessary. From time to time, your manufacturer may update the list of trusted hardware, drivers, and operating systems for your PC. To check for updates, go to Windows Update, or check your manufacturer's website."

 

I would like to know if I can somehow boot from my SSR 2013 R2 Recovery Disk via my internal DVD/CD drive without disabling SecureBoot so that i don't risk making a mess of my PC, or, if not, what the experience has been with other users regarding the disabling of SecureBoot to permit booting from the SSR disk.

14 REPLIES 14

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Afaik, it is not a requisite for Secure Boot to be disabled before booting up from the SRD. Are you running into any issues while doing so ? If yes, could be possible the loaded drivers are not trusted or signed.

gerrypete
Level 3

Hi, Afaik, thank you for the information.  The validation test on the SRD worked fine with no issues.  My issue appears to be that with my HP Envy dv7 notebook PC I cannot boot from the internal DVD/CD drive unless I disable SecureBoot, enable Legacy Boot and select the internal DVD/CD drive as the boot drive.  I will need to confirm this with HP but I undestand your point that the issue is not with the SRD and SecureBoot but rather with my PC.

oscarpriem
Not applicable

Am running Dell XPS 8700 with Win Pro 8.1 & latest UPDs installed, SSR R2 with ADK & Lights Out installed.

Using Lights Out, I wish to do complete "Recover My Compter" but upon execute cmd I always get "Error EC950006 Destination is not valid."

BTW, backup via SSR R2 is stored on a WD My Book 4TB external drive with USB 3.0 connection.

Help!

I prefer not to not alter UEFI settings.  Win Pro 8.1 has an internal image backup facility that works well and fast, but I prefer SSR because of its flexibility.

Please, Symantec engineers or somebody give me a hand with this.

Old Backup Exec and Norton Ghost user going nuts,

Oscar

 

 

 

 

 

 

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

This sounds like a different issue. Can you please start a new thread for this?

On the new thread, please explain what you are restoring to - the same or different/new/blank hard disk?

DStain
Level 5

I have found that when the target drive is showing as Invalid go to "Edit" and then highlight the volume and then click OK. Get back to the recovery screen and select "Recover my Computer" and the target drive will be valid again and you will be able to re-image.

Deric

gerrypete
Level 3

Hi, Gerry again, I would like to confirm that SSR users are able to boot from the SSR Recovery Disk with Secure Boot enabled.  Perhaps the problem is with my HP Envy dv7 laptop but if I can't restore my backups due to the inability to boot with Secure Boot enabled it looks like I'm out of luck.

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

What issue do you see when trying to boot from the recovery disk when Secure Boot is enabled?

Have you tried (or can you) booting from a USB SSR recovery disk? Just curious if this shows different results or not.
 

gerrypete
Level 3

Hi, Chris,

Thanks for your reply.  I'll get back into the BIOS and review the boot order under Secure Boot and in addition will create a SSR Recovery Disk to a USB thumb drive.  I'll respond with the results later today.  I particularly like the Off-site A and B feature of the program because I alternate USB external drives A & B with one local drive connected to my notebook and one in my safe deposit box in my bank.  I alternate them once a week so I will always have an alternate running backup albeit perhaps a week old.  I run a scheduled drive incremental backup and file backup each day.

Again, thanks for your respnse and I;ll let you know the results.

gerrypete
Level 3

Hi, Chris,

I just finished a chat with and HP support rep who advised me that with Secure Boot enabled on my UEFI-compliant notebook, I cannot boot from a CD/DVD or USB thumb drive.  I have to disable Secure Boot, enable Legacy Boot, and adjust the Legacy boot sequence to boot from the CD/DVD or USB thumb drive as desired.  I am not certain to what extent disabling Secure Boot and changing to Legacy Boot would impact the security of my notebook computer but I would think that if this is required in order to boot from my CD/DVD drive or USB thumb drive then it would be required for anyone who uses the SSR recovery disk.  I would certainly be interested in knowing if other users of SSR are able to boot from the SSR recovery disk or USB thumb drive without disabling Secure Boot and enabling Legacy Boot.

Thanks again for discussing this issue with me.

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

Thanks for the update.

Have you considered using the LightsOut Restore feature as an alternative option to using the recovery disk? This may workaround the issue with Secure Boot.

Go to Tasks -- Set Up LightsOut Restore ....
 

gerrypete
Level 3

Hi, Chris,

Success! After much trial and error, I found that with Secure Boot enabled, I created an SSR Recovery Disk on a 4-GB USB thumb drive and was able to restart my notebook and boot directly into the recovery environment.  I'm not sure what the HP support rep had in mind when I was told in a chat that I could not boot from a USB thumb drive without disabling Secure Boot and enabling Legacy boot. I was never able to do the same, however, from the internal DVD drive with the SSR Recovery Disk inserted, either via Secure Boot or Legacy Boot.

Prior to successfully booting up with the SSR Recovery Disk installed on the USB thumb drive with Secure Boot enabled, I tried disabling Secure Boot, enabling Legacy Boot and placing the internal CD/DVD drive first in the boot sequence.

Upon booting my notebook with the SSR DVD inserted in the internal CD/DVD drive, I selected the prompt "Press the ESC Key for the Startup Menu", selected "Device Boot Options" to arrive at the "Boot Options Menu" which listed the following:

OS Boot Manager

Boot from EFI File

Notebook Hard Drive

The internal CD/DVD drive was not shown in the list. I booted with the SSR DVD inserted but the notebook booted normally as thought the SSR DVD was not present.

I then added the USB thumb drive with the SSR Recovery Disk installed into the USB port and the "Boot Options Menu" listed the following:

OS Boot Manager (same as before)

USB Hard Drive (UEFI) - Staples Relay UFD (I bought it from the Staples Store)

Boot from EFI File (same as before)

USB Hard Drive - Staples Relay UFD (I don't know why it showed up with and without UEFI).

Notebook Hard Drive (same as before)

I selected the USB Hard Drive -Staples Relay UFD and the notebook booted successfully into the recovery environment.  Success at last!

I then got ambitious and enabled Secure Boot, disabled Legacy Boot and booted the notebook normally.  I inserted the USB thumb drive, restarted the notebook normally and successfully booted into the recovery environment.  I still haven't figured out why I cannot boot from the SSR DVD.

I would like to discuss some issues regarding LightsOut Restore with you at some point, but for now,  thanks again for your advice.

 

gerrypete
Level 3

Hi, Chris,

Gerry again. I have been religiously backing up my PC for some time now with SSR 2013 R2 and would like to run what is meant in the literature as a "mock restore".  Since I have found as indicated in the comment above that I am able to boot into the recovery environment from a 4-GB thumb drive with Secure Boot enabled, I would like to attempt a full restore of my hard drive to confirm that if and when the time comes for me to need to restore my computer, I can do it successfully with this program.

I assume that it would be prudent to run a Restore Point in Windows 8.1 prior to attempting an image restore with SSR 2013 R2 so that I can get back to normal if I have a problem accessing my HD after attemping the restore.  Any further advice or thoughts from our backup community would of interest.

 

I would also be interested to know if SSR 2013 R2 will work in Windows 10 which is due out next month since I would like to have a full image backup of my current Windows 8.1 system in the event that the installation fo Windows 10 doesn't go smoothly.

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

Windows 10 is not supported with SSR yet I'm afraid. More details to follow.

But yes, if you have a full backup of Windows 8.1, you can restore that should your update to Windows 10 not go well.

gerrypete
Level 3

Chris,

Thanks for the update.