Creating BartPE disc with Acronis True Image 2013

BartPE (Bart Preinstalled Environment) is a bootable Windows CD/DVD created from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD. The current version of Acronis True Image 2013 does not have a plug-in for a preinstalled environment based on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The main advantage of BartPE is that it uses Windows drivers and has a Windows-like graphical user interface. It also provides for adding any storage drivers at startup in the same manner as when installing Windows on the hard drive (by pressing F6 and inserting a diskette with the drivers).

Applications are installed into BartPE in the form of plug-ins and the Acronis True Image 2013 plug-in can be included into the BartPE plug-in tab.

The BartPE plug-in installation

If you do not have the boxed version of Acronis True Image 2013, you will need to download a separate installation file from your Acronis account.

To download the BartPE plug-in:

  1. Log in to your account at https://www.acronis.eu/my.
  2. Register the serial number for your copy of Acronis True Image 2013 (if it is not registered yet).
  3. Click My Products & Downloads.
  4. Expand Acronis True Image 2013 item;
  5. On the Free Plugins tab, click BartPE Plugin. This will start the download of the plugin.

To install the plug-in:

  1. Double-click on the downloaded file to start installation.
  2. Having finished the installation, you can proceed with creating a BartPE CD/DVD with Acronis True Image 2013 plug-in.

Creating BartPE CD or DVD

The below description is based on PE builder version 3.1.10a.

To create a BartPE CD/DVD with the Acronis True Image 2013 plug-in:

  1. Download the PE builder using link http://nu2.nu/pebuilder/download/ and install it.
  2. Go to the Acronis True Image 2013 installation folder. (The default folder is C:\Program Files\Acronis or C:\Program Files\Acronis\Media Add-on).
  3. Rename BartPE folder to Acronis.
  4. Inside this folder, find WinPE.zip file and extract files from the archive to the same folder.
  5. Copy this folder into Plugin folder in the BartPE builder installation directory. (The default directory is C:\pebuilder3110a or similar).
  6. In the Start menu, right-click PE Builder and select Run as administrator.
  7. Put in the necessary paths (the online help is available at http://nu2.nu/pebuilder/help/), and click the Plugins button.

  8. Make sure you have the Acronis True Image 2013 plug-in enabled on the Plugins screen.

  9. Close the Plugins window and click the Build button to start the building process. If you want the image to be burned to CD, select the Burn to CD/DVD option and choose the necessary burner in the Device menu;
  10. After the image is created, burn it to CD or DVD. (If you did not check the Burn to CD/DVD option at the previous step.)

After booting from the CD/DVD, you can find the Acronis True Image 2013 plug-in in Go/System/Storage.

Adding drivers

BartPE supports adding two types of drivers: storage drivers and network drivers. For instructions on how to add drivers refer to PE builder driver help at http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/help/english/drivers.htm.

There is also an option to add storage drivers (for RAID or SCSI devices) during BartPE boot-up. (You need to press F6 and point to the diskette with the drivers). Common storage drivers are available at http://nu2.nu/pebuilder/drivers/.

When you boot from the newly created BartPE media, Acronis True Image 2013 can be found here:

Go -> System -> Storage -> Acronis True Image 2013.