Acronis Secure Zone-Can I copy?

If I create a secure Acronis zone on one of my hard drives is there any way for me to copy the tib files created to another drive (such as an external hard drive)?

I currently do an image copy of C drive to F, D to F and E to F. I then have 3 *.tib files (in a non secure zone). I spin these off (do an explorer copy) to an external hard drive for safe keeping. On the external drive I have other things stored as well.

I understand from the little I read that the secure zone cannot be accessed by other programs and is a hidden section on a drive or partition.

If so, how would I best achieve the above copying process or should I just not use a Secure Zone?


Thanks, Peter

 

Since you have an external which is large enough to hold the images you really don't need the SZ. Is the F drive a physically separate drive to the C? For extra security you can burn the images that are on the external to DVD media.

I don't use the SZ at all.

 

Thanks.
Will not use SZ.

The F is a partition. But I also have a separate drive I can use internally.

Cannot burn to DVD unless I span since it is over the DVD size limit.

Peter

 

Hello Peter,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Besides of the Chutsman's advice, I would also like to mention that Acronis Secure Zone is a special hidden partition and therefore can not be accessed by any applications other than Acronis True Image. Hence the reason why there is no way to copy\move the images residing in Acronis Secure Zone to any other location. Note that the free space in Acronis Secure Zone is managed automatically according to the rules described in section 3.2.3 of Acronis True Image 9.0 User's Guide.

As for saving your images to DVD, please be aware that the current version of Acronis True Image doesn’t write to DVD directly, instead it utilizes third party UDF packet DVD writing software.

You can find more information on how to write your images to DVD in this FAQ article.

Please also note that the ability to write images to DVD directly will be implemented in the future builds\versions of a particular product, but exact time frame is not decided yet.

In case you have the appropriate UDF packet DVD writing software installed and all of your DVDs are properly formatted according to the above mentioned FAQ article, but you still can not write your images to DVD, please collect the following information:

- Create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

- What packet writing software do you use to preformat the DVDs and is it running in the background when you try to create the image?

- Reproduce the problem and collect Acronis True Image 9.0 log which can be saved from Tools -> Show Log -> Diskette icon;

- Have you received any error messages? What exact error messages? When exactly have you received them?

- Describe actions taken before the problem appears step-by-step.

Please submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
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Alexey Popov

 

ATI itself should be able to move image files from the secure zone to a non-hidden partition. If it can't do that yet, your programmers should do something about it.

How does ATI hide the secure zone? Rootkit technology? I hope not. A user should ALWAYS be able to unhide any partition on his system.

 

Hello 666,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please be aware that we have already received similar requests from other Acronis customers and they have already been forwarded to our Development Team. The ability to copy\move images from Acronis Secure Zone will probably be implemented in the future versions of a particular product, but exact time frame for this is not desided yet.

If you want us to change the behaviour of Acronis True Image in any way or add some new features to this product, please feel free to post any of your suggestions in Acronis True Image WISH-LIST thread.

I'm afraid that we are not eligible to provide you with the information concerning the technology used to hide Acronis Secure Zone.

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

 

Fair enough.


The good news: my rootkit detectors didn't find any suspicious Acronis entries. So you're either don't use rootkits to hide the secure zone, or you've made an excellent rootkit that evades RootkitRevealer, Unhack-Me, IceSword, and BlackLight.

I guess there's no Acronis rootkit, because the 'hidden' Secure Zone partition is not very hidden at all.

Partition Magic can find it...



...and even XPs built-in disk manager knows where it is:



XPs disk manager can delete the partition, and PM is able to delete or format the partition.

Both apps are unable to assign a drive letter to the partition which keeps it sort-of-hidden for the average user.


Hope I didn't reveal any trade secrets here ; )