An egregious oversight - MRB

[pepegot1]

I could find no mention, in your documentation, stating that: "if the whole disk is not backed up, then no MRB is copied." Therefore, you cannot restore your image to a new drive. If you backed up your MBR & Partition tables before hand, using other party software, then you are in good shape to restore your image by restoring the MRB & Partition Tables. If not, you are in deep trouble!!
THIS INFORMATION SHOULD BE PLAINLY STATED IN YOUR HELP SCREENS SO THAT A BLIND MAN COULD SEE IT! I'll bet that there are many users backing up single "system" partitions on a multi-partitioned drives and think they are safe. What a surprise they will get when a new HD fails to boot!
Acronis: Please make the above perspicuous to all users. Also, give an option to save MBR's as "Drive Image" once did, if possible.
Thank God for this forum, where I found this out and that I did not have a failure on my multi-partitioned Disk 1.
This means, if you have two HD's, then Disk 1 should be a small drive 20-40 gig (for the OS.) Your second drive can be the big one. If you have only one big drive, the backups will be a long process.
The users in this forum are more sophisticated than some poor guy who just bought the program and assumed it would solve his problem of backups.
Poor Communication and an inability to put yourself in the other fellows shoes is at the root of this problem-it goes on to much these days!

[Acronis Support]

Hello pepegot1,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

Please accept my apologies for the delay with the response.

-{ Quote: "...I could find no mention, in your documentation, stating that: "if the whole disk is not backed up, then no MRB is copied"..." }-

-{ Quote: "...THIS INFORMATION SHOULD BE PLAINLY STATED IN YOUR HELP SCREENS SO THAT A BLIND MAN COULD SEE IT!.." }-

Your collaboration on this matter is very much appreciated.

Actually, this information can be found in section 1.3 of Acronis True Image 9.0 User's Guide (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/docs/) which clearly states that:

- A partition image includes all files and folders independent of their attributes (including hidden and system files), boot record, FAT (file allocation table) and root;

- A disk image includes images of all diskpartitions as well as the zero track with master boot record (MBR).

However, I've forwarded your request to the appropriate person and so we will probably make the apprpriate changes to Acronis True Image 9.0 User's Guide so that this information will become more clear.

-{ Quote: "...Also, give an option to save MBR's as "Drive Image" once did, if possible..." }-

Please be aware that we have already received similar requests from other Acronis customers and they have already been forwarded to our Development Team. The ability to backup MBR separately will most likely be implemented in the future versions\builds of a particular product, but exact time frame is not decided yet.

Please also note that if you want us to change the behaviour of Acronis True Image in any way or add some new features to this product the feel free to post any of your suggestions in Acronis True Image WISH-LIST thread (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=85595).

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

[JimGreen]

I think this may be my problem. How do you "back up your MBR and partition tables" with another party software? Which software? TIA for your help.

[Chutsman]

As stated in the Acronis reply above, you have to do a *disk* image, not a partition image.