ATI Home 2009 & network drives

I have recently purchased True Image Home 2009 for two PC's. These two PC's reside on a home network (one wired (Vista), the other via WiFi(XP)). My primary purpose for using this software is to create full images of my C drives to restore to a new drive in the possible event that my drive crashes and I have to replace it, or if instability is introduced into my system and I need to rewrite the hard drive with a previous image. To this end, I have some questions:

1) Can I back the two PC's to a network drive?

2) Can I recover the drive image from the network drive? If so, how is this accomplished if the PC hard drive is blank or corrupted? How do I connect to the network?

3) Regarding question #2, I reviewed the manual, and found the following reference in chapter 6:

"To enable the network connection, specify network settings manually in the window,
available at Tools -> Options -> Network adapters."

Under tools -> options -> of my version of TI, there is no "network adapters" selection. Again, how can I select a network destination when performing a restore operation?

4) Can I restore from a network drive that is connected via WiFi?

thanks

Keith

 

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Keith

 

I am using Vista but that shouldn't be relevant.
I created a backup on a network drive with no problem.
I then booted from the recovery CD and I could see the network drive and the tib file.
I didn't try a restore but the fact that I could see it shows that it should be OK
In your case I suggest creating the Bootable Rescue CD and then boot with it - that should tell you if the network drive is accessible

 

Oldjim:

Thanks for the helpful information.

I'll give this a try as soon as I can acquire an ethernet cable long enough to reach my XP machine.

Keith

 

If you have a network Drive do not bother with ASZ or the Startup Recovery Manager unless you want to use "Try & Decide". (If your C: Drive dies the ASZ is useless, so is Try and Decide).
1. Yes, give each of your computers distintive names (In XP, Start>Performance and Maintenance>System>Computer Name tab).
Create a folder called Backups on the Network Drive. Within that folder create a folder for each of your computers.
Start ATI Home 2009 and select Task Management>Create Backup Task, when you get to Target Archive, Backup Location, Browse to the location of the appropriate computer backup folder that you just made.

2. I backup 3 computers, 2 wired, 1 wireless to an external network drive that connects to my computers via a broadband router. Wireless backup works, but is not recommended, it also takes a lot longer.

If your wireless laptop C: Drive dies, your computer will not boot into Windows, so you won't have a network to browse. To remedy this go to network connections and enable Local Area Connection (leave it enabled permanently because you won't be able to access it if Windows won't boot).
In case of C: Drive failure, direct connect the network drive to the failed computer with USB cable. Boot the computer from the Acronis Recovery Media and it will recognise the network drive as a local hard drive. Browse to your backup.

Oldjim, the above is the only way that I am able to see my network drive when booting from Acronis Recovery CD. I am surprised that you are able to see your network drive when you boot from the Acronis Recovery CD. How is your network drive connected to your computer? Other Configurations?
In addition, the only way that you can truly know that your restore will work, is by doing a restore.

3. The only way that I am able to access network adaptors is to boot from the Acronis Recovery CD. Although my network adaptor>eth0 is set to auto configuration, this has not helped with recognising my network in Acronis Standalone mode. When booting from Acronis Recovery Media, USB direct connect to the network drive is the only answer that I can offer. If anyone has a better answer I would like to hear from you.

4. As far as I know, Backup and recovery to WiFi are not supported or recommended by ATI Home 2009 (mainly because of signal interference). I have successfully done a backup and validation over WiFi but not a recovery. It is much faster and safer to backup & recover via wire.

 

Hello kmmcdonald,

Thank you for your interesting in Acronis True Image

Please note that standalone version of Acronis products does not support Wi-Fi network cards. As workaround to your situation you can save images to DVD discs. In case system crashes boot computer with Acronis bootable disc and restore the image from that discs.

Best regards,
--
Dmitry Nikolaev

 

I note that the features of ATIHome 2009 state that you can save a backup to almost anywhere including a network share. There is no mention that Restoring from a network share is not possible. So, it is about time that Acronis Support explained exactly how to boot from the Recovery CD and restore from NDAS (external network drive).
Firstly, when I boot from the Recovery CD ATIHome 2009 does not recognise my NDAS.
I can select Tools>Options> Network Adapters>eth0
When selected the eth0 displays the default settings of the Network Adapter
By deselecting "Auto Configuration" the IP Address, Subnet mask, Default gateways and DNS Servers can be changed. Is this the correct approach? If so what should these settings be changed to so that ATIHome 2009 recognises the NDAS?

Suggesting a workaround by backing up to DVD's is a copout!
Does your software do as you claim or not?

 

Any chance of Acronis explaing exactly what the network adapter settings should be and exactly how to find them?