Using Acronis 11 Home

[Harvey Pickover]

Hopefully my purchase of TI 11 Home will solve the outstanding problem I had with version 9.1 and further, will not raise other issues. Its impending use does bring a question to mind and one that I feel is important. I want to know if my intended use falls within the no problem category.
I configured my external hard drive as one partition and backed up all four partitions of my desktop as a disk to that drive. All went well and I can see all backed up partitions properly lettered in Windows Explorer.
I will not restore until something happens to my desktop requiring replacement of its contents. Should that happen I intend to return the computer to its purchased state using the disks that came with the computer. That means that I will have restored the operating system (XP) before attempting a restore of backed up partitions using my Acronis software. When I restore my “C” partition which contains the backed up operating system to its original location now containing the purchased state of the operating system, will I have a havoc creating conflict? Is my intended use a valid one?
It is after reading some of the restore problems allegedly caused by the Acronis emergency boot process that I plan to restore the operating system with the manufacturers disk. Help on this issue is appreciated.

[bodgy]

In your scenario, there is one thing you may have forgotten - a copy of the TI 11 or 9.1 install file plus a txt file containing your licence information.

However, having said that, I think you've overcomplicated things slightly - even with your caution about the rescue CD. There is the thing that you'll be playing with the partition table twice on your drive - once with the XP install anbd second when you restore your images.

As far as the rescue CD is concerned, that could be tested to some extent without actually performing a restore, though with the system that you are proposing, you could in fact try out the rescue Cd and a restore.

The main problems with the rescue CD are - partitions and drives look different in Linux than they do in Windows - this is easily solved by giving each partition/drive meaningful names.

Most USB devices (keyboards/mice etc) now work as advertised -if they aren't recognised, then either the safe option from the CD works or the Quiet...... solves the problem - though that is a nuisance.

The biggest problem might be if the RAID chip isn't recognised, though if you don't RAID then this isn't a problem.

If you intend to use this particular set of images, as a master, sort of as an advanced manufacturers disk, then if the rescue CD recognises your hardware, it is just one simple restore - so long as the MBR has also been included, which in a complete disk image will be the case.

Obviously you are trying to cover all your bases (they are not mine :) ), so I'd suggest not only doing what you've done, but include TI on th eexternal drive (your internet connection may be unavailable, so you can't rely on redownloading your install file or getting your licence number.

Then make another full image with a different name and make subsequent increments or differentials - so that your backups are always up to date.

Colin

[jonyjoe81]

With windows xp and a hard drive with multi partitions, the problem your going to have is drive letter change problems. If you do everything right step by step, you might get the restored hard drive to bootup the first time.

My advice get a program that can change drive letters quickly and have that handy when you try to restore windows xp. From the many restores I have done of windows xp thats the only problem I have ever run into that has prevented my restored hard drive from booting up. But thats a 5 minute fix with the right utilitys.

If you know how to change drive letters on a non-booting hard drive, you'll be able to restore windows xp everytime. I have yet run into a hard drive using true image 9.0 and windows xp that I couldn't restored just doing something as simple as changing a drive letter.

Everything else raids/scsi/usb etc you can work around that, the saved image will have all the required drivers. Get your image restored on a hard drive, stick that hard drive in your computer and it should work, if it doesn't check your drive letters.

One more thing is to make sure your original computer installation cds are good, if they are all scratched up, it might present problems, but as long as you have a known good image backup of your c: drive, you can bypass that step.

[DwnNdrty]

You're flirting with danger if you do not do get a spare hard drive and do an actual restore using the Rescue CD to see if the Backup you made will actually work.

There is no need to restore with the factory cds before restoring your Backup. Restoring your backup will only wipe out the factory restore.