FanJ
July 15th, 2004, 02:44 PM
I have waited much too long to upgrade from my TI-6 to TI-7 (although I had bought the upgrade some time ago).
Here are some preliminary experiences.
Why now?
Well, in a few days I have to use TI-7 on a friends new machine (just bought TI-7 for her) so I -finally- needed some experience with it on my own machine.
My Acronis apps
I have most of the Acronis apps.
Last installations were DiskDirector (installed without OS Selector) and finally TrueImage 7 build 613.
My machine
Windows 98 SE, Dutch, IE 5.5 SP2
P3 600; mobo Asus P2b; 512 MB RAM.
Two small internal HD's.
Plextor internal SCSI CD reader and CD burner, connected to very old SCSI-card.
Floppy and ZIP-100 drive.
External HD for backup (later more about that).
History
I had used a Maxtor external Personal-Storage USB-2 HD (80 GB) connected to a Sitecom USB-2 card.
Not any problem to let TI-6 make backup-images to it and restore from it.
No problem to password protect the images.
I did let TI-6 split up the images into parts of about 600 MB.
Now
That external Maxtor HD crashed (I don't know why).
So I bought a new one: Maxtor One-Touch 160 GB USB-2 + firewire.
I also bought a Sitecom Combo-card for USB-2 + firewire, and replaced the old Sitecom USB-2 card with this Combo-card.
To prevent possible problems with the size of 160 GB of the new Maxtor on my W 98 SE system, I split it up into two partitions of about 80 GB each.
I used both Acronis Partition Expert and Partition Magic to do that.
I know that I am no expert with partitioning programs, and indeed I had some trouble to make those two partitions. Most likely due to my own fault the partitioning with Partition Expert was not completely succesful but Partition Magic was able to repair that.
What I want
I know that TI-7 can do a lot more than TI-6 but I still want to use TI-7 like I was using TI-6.
That means no secure-zone, no incremental updates etc, just making full backup images on the moment I want to do that.
Of course I might well change my mind in the future !
Running processes and services
I noticed these three:
1.
Acronis Scheduler2 Service
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Schedule2\schedul2.exe
2.
Acronis Scheduler2 Service
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Schedule2\schedhlp.exe
3.
Acronis True Image Monitor
C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImage\TrueImageMonitor.exe
First I thought that I didn't needed those 3 running, but I suppose I made a mistake here, so I allowed the first two (allowing/disabling through RegRun Gold).
About Acronis True Image Monitor I am not sure. Somehow I suppose that I don't need it running since I only want to make full backups at the moment I choose to do so. But maybe I am making a mistake here... Anyhow, for the moment I have that one disabled via RegRun.
Connecting the external HD
Although I can connected it now both via USB-2 or firewire, I decided to connect via USB-2.
My older Maxtor didn't have a power on/off button, but the new Maxtor OneTouch does have one.
I don't want it anymore always running and connected.
So what I do, is:
It is usually off and not connected.
When I want it connected, I first put its power on, wait a little while and then connect its USB-2 cable to my Sitecom-card.
A little icon comes up then in my taskbar through which I can safely disconnect it.
When I want to disconnect it, I first click that icon, a little menu pops up telling that I now can safely disconnect it, the External HD stops spinning, I disconnect its USB-2 cable from my machine and then I put its power off.
Bootable media
Just like with TI-6 you can with TI-7 make bootable media; I use those when I want to restore a backup.
I decided to make the full version of the bootable media; now requiring 6 floppies.
Then I write-protected those floppies.
Making a backup
TI-7 has a really nice interface !
I had already started and connected my external HD.
TI-7 saw the external HD.
The menus of TI-7 for making a backup are slightly different from TI-6 due to its more options, but as said I only want to make a full backup.
As I did in TI-6 I password protected the backup image of my C drive.
I split it up into parts of 650 MB.
All went well !
Check image
TI-7 has now build in the option to check/verify a backup image, nice !
Checking went fine.
Restoring a backup
I rebooted my machine with the bootable floppies.
TI-7 saw my external HD and gave nice info.
BUT: alas, I needed of course to put the password in but there was no way I was able to do so...
Again
I made again a backup image of C, but this time not password protected.
Restoring the backup (using the bootable floppies) was this time OK :)
(although first TI-7 told me again it was password protected, which it wasn't; but finally it was OK, maybe I myself did something wrong...).
Restored backup image OK
This is NOT a scientific test !!!
Just only a little test for myself but I thought I'd let you know.
I have on my D-drive my file-integrity-checker NISFileCheck installed; so this one is not affected when I restore a backup of C.
I let NISFileCheck check all exe, dll, ocx, vxd, sys, bat, com files plus lots and lots of other files included manually (there are thousands and thousands in its database now).
Before making the backup and after restoring it I ran NISFileCheck.
Not any file, checked by NISFileCheck, was changed, deleted or new added.
(a little remark comes later).
I also have the file-integrity-checker ADinf32 Pro, installed on C.
I did run that one also before and after (ADinf32 checks ALL files).
A few changes were made but absolutely nothing to worry about !!!
For example a new file was added in the scripts-section of TI:
C:\Windows\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImage\Scripts\<deleted by me>.tmp.tib.tis
In the past I made for myself a little bit more thoroughly test on TI-6 using also ADinf32 Pro and comparing the registry using BeyondCompare. I don't know whether I have the energy to do such thing again...
Note-1:
After restoring the C backup image I did run a quick scandisk.
It found some errors on C; I let it repair them.
This could very well be caused by my own fault.
I should later do the whole process again to see if it happens again.
Note-2:
I wrote that NISFileCheck did not find any changes after restoring the backup.
That still is absolutely true !
But a little remark:
When I first tried to make a backup unsuccesfully (the two Acronis Schedulers were not running at that time), I saw a new file was added:
c:\tildr.sys
Final remark
I want you to see this only as a preliminary experience.
I apologize for not earlier doing this and in a far more better way.
Wish
I hope that in a future version of TI-7 the issue with not being able to use the password-protection feature will be fixed ;)
Here are some preliminary experiences.
Why now?
Well, in a few days I have to use TI-7 on a friends new machine (just bought TI-7 for her) so I -finally- needed some experience with it on my own machine.
My Acronis apps
I have most of the Acronis apps.
Last installations were DiskDirector (installed without OS Selector) and finally TrueImage 7 build 613.
My machine
Windows 98 SE, Dutch, IE 5.5 SP2
P3 600; mobo Asus P2b; 512 MB RAM.
Two small internal HD's.
Plextor internal SCSI CD reader and CD burner, connected to very old SCSI-card.
Floppy and ZIP-100 drive.
External HD for backup (later more about that).
History
I had used a Maxtor external Personal-Storage USB-2 HD (80 GB) connected to a Sitecom USB-2 card.
Not any problem to let TI-6 make backup-images to it and restore from it.
No problem to password protect the images.
I did let TI-6 split up the images into parts of about 600 MB.
Now
That external Maxtor HD crashed (I don't know why).
So I bought a new one: Maxtor One-Touch 160 GB USB-2 + firewire.
I also bought a Sitecom Combo-card for USB-2 + firewire, and replaced the old Sitecom USB-2 card with this Combo-card.
To prevent possible problems with the size of 160 GB of the new Maxtor on my W 98 SE system, I split it up into two partitions of about 80 GB each.
I used both Acronis Partition Expert and Partition Magic to do that.
I know that I am no expert with partitioning programs, and indeed I had some trouble to make those two partitions. Most likely due to my own fault the partitioning with Partition Expert was not completely succesful but Partition Magic was able to repair that.
What I want
I know that TI-7 can do a lot more than TI-6 but I still want to use TI-7 like I was using TI-6.
That means no secure-zone, no incremental updates etc, just making full backup images on the moment I want to do that.
Of course I might well change my mind in the future !
Running processes and services
I noticed these three:
1.
Acronis Scheduler2 Service
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Schedule2\schedul2.exe
2.
Acronis Scheduler2 Service
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Schedule2\schedhlp.exe
3.
Acronis True Image Monitor
C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImage\TrueImageMonitor.exe
First I thought that I didn't needed those 3 running, but I suppose I made a mistake here, so I allowed the first two (allowing/disabling through RegRun Gold).
About Acronis True Image Monitor I am not sure. Somehow I suppose that I don't need it running since I only want to make full backups at the moment I choose to do so. But maybe I am making a mistake here... Anyhow, for the moment I have that one disabled via RegRun.
Connecting the external HD
Although I can connected it now both via USB-2 or firewire, I decided to connect via USB-2.
My older Maxtor didn't have a power on/off button, but the new Maxtor OneTouch does have one.
I don't want it anymore always running and connected.
So what I do, is:
It is usually off and not connected.
When I want it connected, I first put its power on, wait a little while and then connect its USB-2 cable to my Sitecom-card.
A little icon comes up then in my taskbar through which I can safely disconnect it.
When I want to disconnect it, I first click that icon, a little menu pops up telling that I now can safely disconnect it, the External HD stops spinning, I disconnect its USB-2 cable from my machine and then I put its power off.
Bootable media
Just like with TI-6 you can with TI-7 make bootable media; I use those when I want to restore a backup.
I decided to make the full version of the bootable media; now requiring 6 floppies.
Then I write-protected those floppies.
Making a backup
TI-7 has a really nice interface !
I had already started and connected my external HD.
TI-7 saw the external HD.
The menus of TI-7 for making a backup are slightly different from TI-6 due to its more options, but as said I only want to make a full backup.
As I did in TI-6 I password protected the backup image of my C drive.
I split it up into parts of 650 MB.
All went well !
Check image
TI-7 has now build in the option to check/verify a backup image, nice !
Checking went fine.
Restoring a backup
I rebooted my machine with the bootable floppies.
TI-7 saw my external HD and gave nice info.
BUT: alas, I needed of course to put the password in but there was no way I was able to do so...
Again
I made again a backup image of C, but this time not password protected.
Restoring the backup (using the bootable floppies) was this time OK :)
(although first TI-7 told me again it was password protected, which it wasn't; but finally it was OK, maybe I myself did something wrong...).
Restored backup image OK
This is NOT a scientific test !!!
Just only a little test for myself but I thought I'd let you know.
I have on my D-drive my file-integrity-checker NISFileCheck installed; so this one is not affected when I restore a backup of C.
I let NISFileCheck check all exe, dll, ocx, vxd, sys, bat, com files plus lots and lots of other files included manually (there are thousands and thousands in its database now).
Before making the backup and after restoring it I ran NISFileCheck.
Not any file, checked by NISFileCheck, was changed, deleted or new added.
(a little remark comes later).
I also have the file-integrity-checker ADinf32 Pro, installed on C.
I did run that one also before and after (ADinf32 checks ALL files).
A few changes were made but absolutely nothing to worry about !!!
For example a new file was added in the scripts-section of TI:
C:\Windows\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImage\Scripts\<deleted by me>.tmp.tib.tis
In the past I made for myself a little bit more thoroughly test on TI-6 using also ADinf32 Pro and comparing the registry using BeyondCompare. I don't know whether I have the energy to do such thing again...
Note-1:
After restoring the C backup image I did run a quick scandisk.
It found some errors on C; I let it repair them.
This could very well be caused by my own fault.
I should later do the whole process again to see if it happens again.
Note-2:
I wrote that NISFileCheck did not find any changes after restoring the backup.
That still is absolutely true !
But a little remark:
When I first tried to make a backup unsuccesfully (the two Acronis Schedulers were not running at that time), I saw a new file was added:
c:\tildr.sys
Final remark
I want you to see this only as a preliminary experience.
I apologize for not earlier doing this and in a far more better way.
Wish
I hope that in a future version of TI-7 the issue with not being able to use the password-protection feature will be fixed ;)