Acronis True Image 8 Question

Can someone please explain to me how Acronis or anyother backup program is able to do a true backup of my hard drive while allowing me to continue working in Windows XP? I am a Ghost 2003 user and Ghost reboots to PCDOS to do its backup then returned to Windows XP.

Thank You

 

I've got no idea how TI does it, but it really does work. I've made images from within Windows XP and I've occasionally had to restore them (but only with TI 7, not since I upgraded to TI 8 ) and the process of restoring an image has always worked flawlessly. Amazing really! I tried Ghost before TI but could never get it to work on my PC.

Sorry I can't offer you any more specific technical info.

 

Yes it's magic isn't it. I believe it takes a snapshot of what's running in memory and works it out from there but don't ask me how!! If it was easy then everyone would be doing it. I guess it's for Acronis to know and the rest to find out .

Regards

 

Tis a good question..........
Would the word "multitasking" fit in here as part of the answer.....

 

I Think the way they (and others) do it is very simple. At the start of the backup, they lock the partition. Then while imaging, they watch out for any changing sector. If a sector is going to be changed, they save the sector before it changes. So the image you get is the state of the partition at the start of the backup, not the end.

 

Still testing TI8 I believe you are correct. And if you are trying to image a very active machine (like a database server), it is the process of locking the partition that might fail, and it will give you an appropriate warning.

 

How can I test a cloned image with True Image 8.0 and windows xp?

I certainly do not intend to wipe my c: drive and then try Restore.

But how can I be SURE I have a cloned image that WILL restore if I need it?

 

Back up with another app, like Ghost. If your ATI restore fails for whatever reason, you've got your fallback.

No disaster recovery routine can be fully tested without doing an actual disaster simulation.

The closest thing to that without actually restoring the image would be to boot with your rescue CD and do an image verify.

 

I understand, but now you have me buy TWO B/U systems, TI and GHOST ?

That is rather expensive.

 

No, I am not saying you need to buy any additional software. If you want to simulate a disaster recovery situation, then it would be a good idea to have a "Plan B", should your primay plan fail. It is just common sense.

I said another backup app like ghost. I'm sure you could google some free ones like PartImage

Several users here seem to be former Ghost users, which is why I suggested it.

 

I put together a new machine this weekend to replace one which was dragging its heals running Photoshop.

After installing XP, I *immediately* imaged it with TI8. Now I create new full images after every major change (for example installing Photoshop).

The punchline: once you have these images the "cost" of trashing your drive to test a new image is minimal. So I test each one by reverting to bare XP, then re-installing what I just imaged. Any problems and I would have a small step to get back to where I was.

Everything works great. I do get a little concerned with the splash screen on the CD boot disk... nothing happens for a while on a *very* fast machine. Just about when I'm ready to hit the bit red switch, the app comes up. The last time I tested things I just left the room so I wouldn't have to watch.

 

I have a question too! but first on testing disaster recovery, here is what i did:

i just restored my primary hard drive partitions to an external device that had lots of space. It worked. However, I did not want to try and figure out how to make that drive bootable, so I am just assuming if I had restored to original location all would be kosher.

BUT, i had an error when I booted my disaster recovery CD. I wish i had wrote it down, but it was something like: can't access drive 0 partition 0. lots of red type and red x's, but i just clicked continue and all looked fine. I mean i could image/restore/see things on my C drive, which I am assuming is drive 0 partition 0. So was up with that?

Also, another question: the ATI Security partition that one can create to store images - does anyone use that? It gives me an error when I want to make a security partition on an external USB device, saying that wont be visable unless I am in windows. This is just not true, so I don.t understand.

Thanks! I am a new ATI 8 user and very pleased with my purchase. I was a Ghost user before and before that Veritas BackupmyPC. This beats those 2 hands down.

 

This error is similar to what you would expect if you had a card reader without a card in it. TI sees it as a logical drive which it can't access.

If this matches your situation, either put a card in the reader or remove the reader device to avoid the error.

Search the forum for more on this it has been covered at least twice before.

 

thanks for that, did a search came up zero, but the card reader theory may be right, as the tr3 i am using has a card stick slot that is always empty, as i dont have a stick. but sounds like it's no biggie.

 

So is losing your ability to restore an image and having to invest all that time and energy into rebuilding your system from scratch. To me, another $ 69 is chump change in the long run.

 

no lordy dont buy ghost, i'll give u mine if you are in Nepal. it s**ks, believe me. better off with drive image to make copies of partitions or maybe that acronic thingee that does it.

 

It seems to me that Norton has a quality control problem with certain software packages.

Ghost 9 for image copying/backups would have been my choice until I read your post. I have now purchased TI8 and can say that TI8 really is a very good piece of software.

I had a similar problem with Norton PC Anywhere. It had always been my standard remote control software but when version 10 was released it was very buggy and I ended up trying Laplink which I still use to this day. I think that Norton may have farmed out the writing of these apps to a different team than they had used previously.

Norton Internet security package works fine though.

 

I agree withu 100%. It just seems that the ghost product was designed with a corporate admin personality, and not for the typical human computer user. TI8 is so so user freindly, i was almost confused by the simplicity (ie. expectations for something more complex). However, I live by symantec antivirus and I even like the entire systemworks 2004 package even though i don't use more than 1/2 of it. LiveUpdate is very cool.

but for backups for the home user, TI8 rules.