Acronis Secure Zone Management

[Tom_ZC]

I have several complete images in the Acronis Secure Zone on a secondary internal physical hard drive. I don't need all of them. I really only need to keep the most recent one I did (Oct '06) and the first one (July '06). The ones in between I don't need anymore. However, I know that Acronis automatically deletes the oldest one first when it starts to get short on available space.

Is there any way for me to make sure I hang onto my oldest image? All backups were done as full images; I did not do any incremental or differential ones.

I'm using Acronis Home 9. Also, can this be more easily done in version 10. More flexibility with the Secure Zone would be reason enough by itself to upgrade.

[bVolk]

That can't be accomplished from Windows or TI9.

I don't know if TI10 allows that (I didn't see it mentioned among the new features) but even if it does you may be better off with a second internal drive or an external drive just for storing images - and no SZ. You'll then be able to manage your image files at will.

Oh, I see now ... you have the secondary drive! Why the SZ then?

[Tom_ZC]

-{ Quote: "Oh, I see now ... you have the secondary drive! Why the SZ then?" }-

I like the fact that the SZ cannot even been seen by Windows and therefore couldn't possibly ever get infected by a virus. On the other hand, my PC is well fortified against viruses. Maybe I should consider housing an image on the non-SZ part of my secondary hard drive. Is it possible to copy my first image from the SZ and onto the non-SZ part of the drive?

[Ralphie]

If you're worried about viruses affecting the images, then a better way to keep them would be on an external hard drive which can be disconnected from the system. If you must have that first image you created, then one way to get at it would be to Restore it, then make a backup of it to a non-SZ space on the second internal.
You have tested a Restore already, haven't you?

[Tom_ZC]

-{ Quote: "You have tested a Restore already, haven't you?" }-

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I would prefer not to use an external hard drive, though. I don't want the hassle of booting to the bootable CD and then having to fool with a driver to get the external hard drive running. I'll use the non-SZ part of my secondary internal hard drive. I've had mega hassles with external hard drives with products like Ghost, and thus just quit using them for anything other than data files. No sense bothering with that when a secondary internal hard drive works so well.

The one rub about doing a restore of the first image and then doing another backup is I would have to reactivate Win XP Pro. This computer used to be an HP Pavilion a750e. However, its motherboard fried, and so I bought a new motherboard, case, video card, and power supply and rebuilt the PC, re-using both hard drives, the processor, DVD drives, and monitor. That change made me have to reactivate Windows by calling Microsoft (the auto internet way wouldn't work).

If I ever use that first image, I'd have to reactivate anyway, so I guess it can't hurt to do it now. I could go ahead and use that opportunity to update the many drivers before re-backing it up. One reason why my Acronis images are so important is that my HP Recovery DVDs will no longer work now that the motherboard has changed. My most recent Acronis image is the only one that won't require activation via Microsoft, and so it would be nice to have my earliest one working.

A bit of a project, but doable.

[bVolk]

Tom,

I remembered later on that there was a post less then one month (?) ago, where a method to convert the hidden SZ into a normal one was presented. It involved changing a partition's system parameter by means of a partition management program, if I recall correctly.

You may want to run a search for Secure Zone on this forum.

[Xpilot]

Tom,

One way of preserving your early image would be to restore it to a spare hard drive. You could check out its functionality then remove it from the computer and pack it away carefully.


Xpilot

[[suave]]

-{ Quote: "If you're worried about viruses affecting the images, then a better way to keep them would be on an external hard drive which can be disconnected from the system. If you must have that first image you created, then one way to get at it would be to Restore it, then make a backup of it to a non-SZ space on the second internal.
You have tested a Restore already, haven't you?" }-

I just had an idea while reading what you wrote.

What if he stores his backup image files on the non-SZ space, but marks them as read-only.

Will that pretty much make viruses unable to tamper with them in any way?

He can even use a checksum tool to get the MD5 value for each *.tib backup and be able to check them in the future just to make sure they are un-altered.

[Ralphie]

Well, Tom does admit that his pc is "well fortified" against viruses so I think he is just being overly cautious. For whatever reason an external usb drive he does not like to use, so another option is to use a removable hard drive rack where he can "have his cake and eat it" ;D - an internal drive which can easily be removed for safe keeping. Those removable racks are one of the most useful items for implementing a backup protocol.

[Tom_ZC]

These are excellent ideas. Thanx for the help.