Acronis - will it recover preinstalled.......

I have just bought a new (Lenovo) laptop which came with a pre-installed XP pro operating system.

The recovery back to XP is also on the HD (no seperate CD). Apparently I have to press a button on boot up and I can reinstall the operating system.

I haven't tried to get a CD yet but wondered if Acronis will copy the hidden partition with the XP operating system etc or do I have to do a low level copy of the HD?

Thanks in advance.

 

Acronis will copy the entire drive, including the partition that has the maker's recovery files.

But you should make your own recovery CDs. Most laptop makers, while not providing the Recovery CDs, will give you the option to make your own. This feature is usually in the Control Panel, if there is not an icon for doing so right on the desktop.

 

Yes Acronis will see the hidden partition that IBM created. You have a choice to back it up or not.

But why keep it when you can have a better alternative; the Acronis Secure Zone. It also creates a hidden partition where you can store your fresh installation of XP with all the drivers already installed. So if ever your system crashes you can revert to default manufacturer's settings at any time.

And its not just limited to default settings; you can even continiously store backup of your whole system including your data in it. But of course as your data increases; that hidden partition must also be manually increased in size (using acronis) so as the new changes would fit.

 

I don't understand how Acronis Secure Zone helps - if that partition were on the only HD on the PC and the HD suffered a headcrash (my work laptop suffered this fate last month) surely you are no better off. Or can that partition be held on a usb drive?

 

Yes, the SZ can be put on a usb drive, but unless you think someone might accidentally erase the backup from the usb drive, it is adding something else to go wrong as only True Image can access the backup in an SZ. Where the SZ is useful (on a usb drive) is if you want your backups to be managed automatically on a first-in-first-out basis.

Personally I don't use the SZ at all. My backups are kept on several hard drives which are disconnected from the computer once the backup is made.

 

Just so I get this right

1. I create a windows bootable cd with Acronis on it -
2. I backup to a USB drive - my complete HD (including the hidden Lenovo partition).
3. do incrementals on this every day or so.

And if the HD goes ping - I can just buy a new HD - put it in the PC boot from the CD and recover my hard drive back to the last incremental?

if it does this I am going to buy a USB drive and Acronis.

 

That's how it is supposed to work. Personally I don't do incrementals, only full backups. If you have the resources, I would get another hd now and test the scenario.

 

thanks All