Help! Hard drive crashed - Not sure how to use Acronis to restore

[zrelaxed]

I'm a newbie and my computer's hard drive has completely crashed. I replaced it with a new drive and am now trying to figure out to restore everything... I have Acronis True Image 11 but am not sure how to restore the backup (located on an external hard drive) on to my c:\ so that I can use my computer... I'm using Windows XP. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!!

[DwnNdrty]

You will need to use the bootable True Image Rescue CD and its restore feature. I don't suppose you made one did you?

[zrelaxed]

Unfortunately, I did not.

[DwnNdrty]

If the True Image 11 software is on a CD that you bought retail, that CD can function as the Rescue CD.

[zrelaxed]

Just loaded the disk and was able to start the Restore Data Wizard. Found the *.tib files. I'm not sure which one to load given there are 100+ files. Do I load "Mybackup.tib" or one of the "Acronis FullXXX.tib"?

Thank you so much - I very much appreciate your help!

[DwnNdrty]

You probably would want the latest set of files ... can you see the date they were made? Did you give them names of your choosing instead of accepting the default names? Do you have another computer where you can connect the usb drive and use Windows Explorer to view the file details?

[zrelaxed]

Worked like a charm! As you suggested, I used another computer to verify the latest *.tib file, Acronis took care of the rest. Again, thank you for all your help!

Just out of curiousity... I've backed up my drive now, however my computer only recognizes the size of the old drive vs. the full size of the new drive i.e. only 40GB vs. 320GB. Is there anyway I can have Windows recognize the full new drive?

Last question!

[Acronis Support]

Hello zrelaxed,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

I suppose that you have recovered the archive as is, you should have increased the destination partition during the recovery. You can check if unallocated space is present in Disk Management (Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management).

If unallocated space is present, you can recover the backup file again. You will get a screen allowing you to resize the destination partition. Drag the slider to make the partition larger. Make it take up the entire space.

Or you can use any partitioning software to add unallocated space to the existing partition.

Thank you.

--
Oleg Lee