Can I use Recovery Manager from CD without messing with MBR, GRUB?

Hello,
I have read through the guide and see it's possible to recover using CD.
Just a few answers and I'm buying this product!
I have dual boot xp and linux with grub loader. I do not want to touch the mbr or grub.
So, I will probably not be using recovery manager. I want to use cd rescue.
If I create the secure zone and place my images there:

Will I be able to access these images and restore them from cd?

Important question 2:

If I happen to restore the windows boot partition, will mbr and / or grub be left unotuched, if I use the cd?

If you can tell me this is possible, that I can use cd, restore bootable partitions selectively, withoput damaging / overwriting grub and thus destroying linux ability to boot, then I'm definitely in.

One less important question. I noticed True Image can close partitions, hard disks just like Migrate Easy. It can expand the partitions to larger hard disk, but can it also shrink them? For instance, if I want to close a hard disk with 40Gb taken space and 100Gb free space, can I do it to a 80Gb hard disk?
[/b]Can I close to USB external drives?[/b]

Mrk

 

Hello Mrkvonic,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay with the response.

Yes, you can restore backups located in Acronis Secure Zone using both Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and Bootable Rescue CD. If the backup restoration process does not require a reboot, i.e. you restore a non-system partition, then you can also restore backups located in Acronis Secure Zone from within Windows.

By the way, it is possible to have both Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and GRUB boot loader activated at the same time. You can achieve this in the following way:

1. Set the Linux boot (/root) partition Primary and Active (you can use any disk management software to do this)

2. Boot in Linux and install GRUB on this partition: #/sbin/grub-install /dev/boot_partition

3. Boot in Windows and activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

The above refers to LILO boot manager as well. To install LILO on a certain partition use the following command: #/sbin/lilo /dev/boot_partition

When Linux loaders such as GRUB or LILO are installed on a partition on your hard drive there is also a boot code in the hard drive's MBR. Upon the boot process this boot code refers to the particular sectors on the hard drive, i.e. sectors where boot loader files are located. However, when Acronis True Image restores a disk\partition images it does not place data to the exactly same sectors it resided originally. That's why Linux boot loaders such as GRUB or LILO may require a re-activation after the image is restored. Please see this previous thread for details.

Please also note that the current version of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home allows you to backup\restore MBR.

Yes, Acronis True Image 9.0 Home allows cloning to a smaller hard drive if the amount of the actual data contained on the source hard drive fits the capacity of the destination disk. You can find more information on how to change the size of partitions during the disk cloning procedure in Chapter 12 of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home User's Guide.

Yes, Acronis True Image 9.0 Home allows cloning to a USB external hard drives. However, you should be aware that none of the currently available Windows versions allows booting from a USB attached hard drive.

We also recommend that you download and install the free trial version of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home to evaluate all the capabilities of this product prior to purchasing the software.

You may also find Acronis True Image 9.0 Home FAQ page helpful.

If you are satisfied with the work of the free trial version of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home please visit Acronis online store to purchase the full version of the product. Note that we have a flexible system of discounts and the amount of the discount varies depending on the number of copies you want to purchase. In case you are planning to purchase many copies, please contact our Sales Team at sales@acronis.com.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Hello,
Thanks for the reply.
I already did send a technical support ticket. In the ticket, though I was told that while restoring an image I can opt not to restore the MBR, which would leave the linux partitions bootable.
Here, though, you say it might be possible that GRUB could get confused.
Does this apply only to Linux partition restore or Windows partition restore? I'm mainly interested in Windows backup.
Thanks,
Mrk

 

Hello Mrkvonic,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Please note that if you have Linux loader installed and you restore Windows partition without MBR restoration, it's not necessary to reactivate your Linux loader.

If you restore Linux partition without resizing, you don't need to reactivate Linux boot loader as well.

If you restore Linux partition with resizing, you need to reactivate Linux loader.

Thank you.
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Tatyana Tsyngaeva

 

Hello,
Very good, then.
You convinced me ...
Mrk