We are experiencing an issue with Automation Studio 6.5 when performing an offline installation on new, uninitialized memory cards.
When trying to perform an offline installation with AS6.5, the memory card is not detected/listed as an available disk, making it impossible to proceed with the installation.
However, the exact same memory card, PC, and card reader work perfectly fine with AS4.12.
Even more interesting:
Once the memory card has been initialized using AS4.12, it is also recognized by AS6.5, and offline installation works as expected.
The issue is reproducible with different memory cards and card readers (both CFast and CFexpress).
What I’ve found out so far
Windows detects the physical disk, even though it does not appear in Windows Explorer, Just like a brand new SSD/HDD would.
New memory cards do not have a partition table (recognized by Windows). This can be verified using PowerShell’s Get-Disk command, which reports PartitionStyle = RAW.
If the memory card is initialized using Windows Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc), meaning a partition table is created, AS6.5 recognizes it and offline installation works.
Unfortunately, initializing a disk using Windows Disk Management requires administrator privileges, which we do not have on our company laptops.
My suspicion: B&R Disk Image service?
We have experienced issues with the B&R Disk Image service in the past, so I suspect that it might be involved again.
Both services are installed and running on the same PC:
Both services are configured to start automatically and run under LocalSystem.
My suspicion is that AS6.5 might handle the initial disk initialization differently from AS4.12, or that there might be an issue with the newer Disk Image service.
Has anyone experienced something similar?
Is this a known issue with AS6.5, or does anyone have an idea what could be causing it?
In particular, is there any difference in how AS4.12 and AS6.5 handle uninitialized (RAW) disks during offline installation?
Any hints or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
as far as I know, you’re completely right - the Disk Image Service of ASW6 needs a pre-initialized CF / CFast / CFast Express to use the card (or, as I understood it: a mapped drive letter to the card in Windows).
I’m personally not aware what’s the reason behind (but I could imagine it’s a combination of cyber security measures + avoiding elevated rights when using RUC).
Unfortunately, I also don’t know if this changes in future - if my assumption about the reason behind is true, then sure not.
But, afaik, at least in past normally storage cards were delivered from B&R with a default partition setup, not as RAW system (exactly for compatibility reasons).
To check if there is / was a change in that delivery strategy, or if there has been some temporary issue in production / delivery, can you please reach out to your local support with a reference to this post + the CFastExpress serial number(s) so that we can check if there’s a supply chain topic behind?
I opened a ticket regarding this behaviour (drives for offline installation need to be initialized by Windows before AS6 detects them) in August 2025. I asked about the current state in October 2025 and the local B&R support answered my question: “The ticket is with our development team [in austria]. I have asked them for an update on its current status.”
The ticket was closed without any answer from Austria in July 2026.
@alexander.hefner:
Sounds very plausible, thank you.
I will try to get some serial numbers and open a support ticket.
@corne.geerts:
I honestly didn’t try, as this hasn’t been our workflow in the past. We also deactivate the USB install functionality on our PLCs.
But I may give this a try (may take a few days).
@Bjorn_Kanter:
Did you get a CASE-number for this issue?
It may be helpfull to reference it, when our local (german) B&R office reaches out to the HQ.
I will try to get some more information about this issue and keep you updated.
I already got the number from @Bjorn_Kanter, and as I already assumed it was a CSP not a CASE which at least maybe explain the “automatic closing” … I’ll check and if I find out more I’ll share it here.
