Can someone give me step by step instructions?

Hello.. I own Acronis True Image 9. I bought it a year ago to clone my system to a new hard drive.. It worked fantastically.. Thank you (Ghost sucks!)

But now I want to back up an image.. I have an external drive on a USB. I run Windows XP Home and my external drive is 160GB

My main drive (system) is 250GB but only using 70GB...

My question: I'm not worried about my data; but I want to clone my system just in case.. Am I better making an image on the external USB, or on DVD's?

In either case, how would I reboot my system in case of failure? And last, how many DVD's would I need to back up 70GB? I didn't partition my drive, which in hindsight I should have.. Is it possible to partition a system drive on the fly and separate the OS from the Data?

Thanks

CD

 

As you already have a usb drive there is no question it is the best solution. Even if you had to go out and buy one it would still be the better way to go.

For speed and reliability an external hard drive can only be beaten by a second internal hard drive.

Xpilot

 

1. If you are not using the very latest version, you should visit the registration site and download the current/latest version plus the pdf help file. Upper right corner for logins. There have been many changes in the last year. This would also imply that you would need to make a new user created Acronis Recovery CD. Previously created Recovery CD not compatible with current backup files but newer Recovery CD backwards compatible.
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/updates/

2. Should you have need to replace your current drive, the image that you use must be one using the "full disk" option which copies all partitions and mbr. If you do not have a current full disk image, I would strongly urge that you create one.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182030

2. As Xpilot stated, storing your backup files on the usb drive is fine. I would also suggest that you consider copying one full set of backup files to a dvd/cd. This is a normal data copy from the hard drive to the DVD. You will need to set the spanning option in the backup options so the files will fit on a DVD--such as a 1492 mb sizing. Having a set of backup files on DVD is just one more safety precaution--should you lose your usb or boot drive.

3. Burning backup direct to DVD has been problematic--at best and not recommended at this time.

4. Perform some of your backups using the Acronis Recovery CD so that you know all your drives are recognized by True Image. Should you need to recover your system, it is this User created Recovery CD which is to be used.

5. Cloning: Be careful how you use this term. In Acronis terminology, cloning is where you copy or clone a drive and one those drives is removed before any further usage. Windows chokes (assigns wrong drive letters or won't boot) when it sees two identical boot drives that's why it is recommended that you remove the data cable or disable one drive in the bios before the first subsequent bootup. After Windows recognizes the new drive as the correct drive letters, etc, then you can reconnect the second drive.

6. Imaging: Creating a full drive image gives you the capability to replace either the entire drive or to replace individual partitions. It is this feature that is used almost exclusively by many--as compared to using the cloning feature--which is used rarely.

 

Yes it is.

I did that twice in the last few months. It's done with TI itself (partition restore with resize) and the Windows Disk Management tool. No special program needed.

But I suggest you get familiar with the imaging and restoring procedures before going into that. Then, you'll receive step by step instructions here. I'm posting this info now, so as to prevent you destructively partitioning the system drive just to create an additional (data) partition in the case you were considering that.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for using Acronis Backup Software

To cdmazoff:
As it was stated above, using external HDD is much more safe than optical media. CD/DVD corrupts much easier and you may lose your backup image.

Please note that if you have not partitioned your HDD yet you should to do it because you will need many DVDs to backup 250 Gb (as one partition).

Please note that Acronis True Image 9.0 Home allows you to exclude any file you want from an image. So you can exclude non-system data from an image.

We rather recommend you to download and install the latest build of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home (3677) to avoid any issues of previous versions.

Thank you
--
Alexander Gladkov

 

Hello Alexander,

If I understand correctly, cdmazoff wants to backup his system, ie. OS and application programs. To achieve that, a disk/partition image is required. And as far as I know, file exclusion is not possible in disk/partition imaging.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Hello bVolk,

Actually there is no ability to exclude files and folders when you are trying to backup an entire disk or partition.
You are always able to make an image of a partition, mount it in read/write mode and delete any unnecessary data.

Thank you
--
Alexander Gladkov

 

Yes, that could be done.

But it would be against cdmazoff's aim to reduce the size of the system image files and the time to create them. That, in my understanding, is the reason for his trying to find a way to exclude the not so valuable personal data from the system image.

 

Hello everyone,

I'm very sorry for the previous support replies. I believe that Alexander misunderstood the initial question.

First of all, please note that, as it is mentioned above, the best way to reduce the size of the resulting backups is to partition your hard drive. Having operating system (and applications) located on one partition and the rest of your data on another allows you to backup your system partition only.

If you want to change the partition layout of your hard drive, we recommend using special disk and partition managing software for your purposes, such as Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0, for example. Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 allows you to resize, move, merge, copy, etc. partitions without the data loss.

The free trial version of Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 is available at this page.

You can find more information on how to use Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 in the respective User's Guide.

Please visit Acronis online store to purchase the full version of the product.

I'd also like to mention that, as bVolk said, the individual files\folders exclusion option is available for creation of file-based backups only. The current version of Acronis True Image does not allow excluding individual files\folders for the disk\partition images.

Please also note that Acronis True Image automatically excludes paging and hibernation files when it creates a disk\partition image.

You can find more information on how to use Acronis True Image 9.0 Home in the respective User's Guide.

We also recommend that you take a look at Acronis True Image 9.0 Home FAQ page, Acronis Public Knowledge Base and this article providing the illustrated instructions on Acronis True Image 9.0 Home installation and usage.

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

 

May I suggest this simple measure when you wish to exclude any personal files from the complete disc image backup AND a second hard drive, internal or USB external, is used.

Move the personal stuff to the second hard drive as a temporary measure and then you can do the complete backup of the primary hard drive. Once the backup is done move the personal files back again. It's quick and easy to do.

This method reduces the backup image size and if/when you need to restore the image, it doesn't contain stuff like music and videos that are destined to be burned to cd or dvd anyway.

Also, any data that you wish to exclude from backup could be kept in folders on the second hard drive. Create shortcuts to these folders to make them quickly accessable. Then it's just like accessing any normal folder on the primary hard drive and ONLY your shortcut icons will be on your full image backup, not the data itself.

True Image 9 and a second hard drive make it easier to sleep. No more tears on the pillow.

Hope you find this helpful.