Acronis Tech Support - Please Answer

[iflyprivate]

Acronis Technical Support, please provide a clear answer to the following questions.

TrueImage 8 is being used to restore an image as follows:

1) The image was created under Windows XP from a 40GB drive which later failed and was discarded.
2) Just before the image was created, checkdisk was run and several bad sectors were remapped and locked out. The image was then created.
3) The image is being restored to a brand new 40GB drive which was formatted and checkdisk was run with no problems found.

Question 1: How does TI8 handle restoring the image to a different disk considering the fact that the image was created from a snapshot of a disk that had several bad areas mapped out as unusable before the image was created? (Recognize that the old and new disk sectors are entirely different.)

Question 2: How does TI8's restoring the image to the new hard disk affect data integrity and functionality of all files restored, if at all?

Question 3: Is the resulting integrity and functionality of data on a new disk any different whatsoever whether one chooses to restore an image created from a different disk or clones a disk?

Please, Acronis Technical Support, answer these simple questions in clear, easy to understand language. Thank you in advance.

[Acronis Support]

Hello iflyprivate,

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

Let me try to explain how Acronis True Image handles disks with bad blocks:

When you create an image of the disk with bad blocks these blocks are considered as not containing any information (empty sectors). Actually, this seems to be reasonable because you cannot use the info stored on these sectors anyway. Consequently, you get the image which contains the information only from sectors that are readable.

The fact that you restore the image to another hard drive doesn't affect the functionality of installed applications, data integrity, etc. Of course, if your file is corrupted becuase you have some part of it in bad black and you restore the image of this disk (or clone this disk) to a new disk you won't be able to use this file just because Acronis True Image only copies the content of hard drive and cannot "resurrect" corrupted data.

Cloning and imaging/restoring are very similar to each other though they are designed for different purposes. The mechanism of both operations is the same.

Thank you.
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Ilya Toytman

[iflyprivate]

Thank you, Ilya for the answers. For me, that clears up my longstanding confusion as to how TI8 handled the source disk drive bad/corrupted/unreadable block issue when creating images.

I use TI8 every day, sometimes several times a day to create and restore images and to clone disks so any doubts I have tend to get magnified as the day wears on and as problems pop up.

TrueImage 8 is a great value product. I recommend it all the time to others and can say without boasting that I am responsible for over a dozen folks purchasing it since February, 2005 when I bought mine. I refer them to newegg.com for a quick download version.

My trust in the product is important to me so I can continue to recommend it to others. Your continued support in this forum sustains that trust. Thank you again.

[Acronis Support]

Hello iflyprivate,

Thank you for your warm words. I hope all the people you recommended Acronis software to are happy with their purchase.

Please be aware that you can purchase our software at our on-line store (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/sales/online/). In this case you get the downloadable version in about half an hour and you are able to purchase upgrades and not only full versions as well.

Thank you.
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Ilya Toytman