clarification on DVD issue

I've read that the direct back-up to DVD issues will be fixed in a future release. Until then, can one do a disk image back-up to external USB HD and then burn that image onto several DVDs with something like NERO (span the image file over two or more DVDs) , and will that DVD set be usable as a restore source? Is it hard to do?

 

No, it is easy to do and a lot of us consider it the only way to do it. It is also referred to as the 2-step method. 1. Make the image on a HD, 2. Burn the image to DVD.

Create your image and split the file to fit on DVD. I use 1492 MB as the split size. Three fit on a DVD efficiently and you stay away from the UDF file system. If you have image files over 2GB Nero may give a warning about UDF compatibility; it probably isn't an issue but I don't use it.

Start up Nero and select the files you wish to burn. First DVD will have 1-3 using the split indicated and the second 4-6 etc. Just burn DVDs until you have them all done. Note that if you are restoring from DVDs TI considers each tib file as a volume, the DVD is not the volume.

I always select the "Verify after burning or whatever its called" option to ensure what was burned onto DVD is good.

You will find verifying and restoring from DVD to be a slow process which is why my primary backup is a HD and I only copy selected images to DVD as a security secondary backup.

 

Seekforever, I am confused. If I make a full disk or partition image with system, MBR, everything, in Back-up, how do I split the image? I can see how data back-up would work, but a disk image baffles me. In NERO, what tool do I use?

 

As TI is creating the image it will close one file and open another at the split-point. You set the split point in either the default options at the Main Screen's Tools Options Default Backup Options Archive Splitting. You can also set the split option in the backup wizard at the Choose Backup Options Screen. There is a link there called Tools->Options which will lead you to a menu to select archive splitting.

TI when it runs takes care of the splitting on backup and reassembling the multiple tib files on restore.

In Nero you want to Create a Data DVD. You are copying data files onto the DVD just the same as if they were text files, jpg files etc. You are NOT creating a bootable DVD.

 

Thanks for the help Seekforever. Now I understand. One last question, since DVD holds like 4.3 GB of data why split at around 1.4 GB? Why not more like 4.0 GB? Ohhh, I see...the UDF thingy.. OK, thanks again.

 

By itself, the UDF file system isn't a problem. However, UDF Packet Writing formatted disks may well be for some.

So, using Nero and the two-step method to burn the split image to DVD, you can either enter a manual split size of 1492 MB and burn up to a maximum of three .tib files per disk as a DVD-ROM (ISO) data compilation or set the split size to 4.3 MB and burn one .tib file per disk as a DVD-ROM (UDF) data compilation.

Picking up on the 2GB and Nero thing. Do not set the split size to 2GB and try to burn a Nero DVD-ROM (ISO) compilation as Nero will throw up an error message stating that the file size exceeds the ISO 9660 max file size limitation. You will need to enter a figure of 2000 MB as the split size instead although, as indicated above, 1492 MB x 3 provides much more efficient use of the available space.

Regards

 

Let's say I save my image to a hard drive with a split size of 1492 MB. I end up with about 10 tib files. Next, I use NERO to write these tib files to four DVD's.

Now, my working hard drive fails. I replace it with a new one. Can I simply boot to the TI boot rescue cd and restore from my DVD's? Or do I need to copy the tib files to a network accessible hard drive?

Thanks,
Paul

 

Just boot and restore from the DVD drive.

There may be a speed advantage in copying to a network accessible HD. If I were to do it on my system, I would do the copy to the HD first. Verfiying and restoring from DVD can be quite slow and you may have to do a lot of DVD shuffling in some cases, (based on various posts here).

 

I don't always have a network accessible hard drive. I do, however, usually have a usb external hard drive. Do you know if the TI boot rescue cd will recognize and allow you to restore from a usb drive?

Thanks again,
Paul

 

USB-HDDs are in general supported by Acronis Rescue Media. However, since there is sometimes problematic hardware out there, you could tell us, which brand and model your USB-HDD is.
possibly someone already has this Hardware and can say if it makes problems or not.

 

Agreed. In fact the best thing is to make an image to your USB HD and then restore it. The biggest problem seems to be with the Linux based rescue environment and this is the environment that must be OK to recover your C partition. The linux drivers for some devices are not the best.

The absolute best test is to make an image of C and then restore it. If you don't have another drive and don't want to take a chance you can:

Create an image of C to the USB drive and then bootup the recovery CD and validate the image on the USB drive. For it to do a validate, it has to read the entire image and calculate a checksum for it.

Lots of people on this forum have a spare HD for testing purposes. It also fullfils the function of having a spare drive on hand in case of a HD crash. Naturally, how far you want to go with this depends on your budget and how excited you get about secure backups.

 

don't drag it down. There are reasons for this (Linux is not the reason):
1. USB is not the best solution (some embedded programmer told me that its a horror to work with usb)
2. Hardware is buggy sometimes. (anyone using USB-HDDs with old Genesys Chipsets? they had problems, independent of the OS)
3. The vendors don't care about anything else than Windows. If there is somebody writing a driver its ok. But only for so long until he gets to a serious problem, cause the hardware won't do what he wants to, and asks for docs. Then its a NO-GO. And then he would have to disassemble other drivers to figure out how this thing works.

and now add this 3 things together ...

Thats at least my point of view.

 

Never really said that Linux itself is the problem it is the Linux rescue environment that is provided. It is a memory-resident version that does not have all or good drivers available.

Regardless of the reasons, a weakness in Linux is drivers. What's probably the main issue in Linux support forums - driver availability although it's a lot better the last couple of years.

 

I am backing up to a Seagate 100 GB USB HD. The single image file is 8 GB, and split at 1.492 make 6 volumes on two DVDs. I can varify both sets (single and split) on the USB drive, but the DVDs (2 containing the 6 images ) failed (same spanning/etc prroblems others reports). Maybe I'll try again to write them when an update to 3633 is released.

 

Hello Azdon,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

First of all, please note that if you use two-step method of DVD writing, you should finilize your DVD disks.

Could you please clarify whether you have received any error messages? What exact error messages? When exactly have you received them?

Please clarify also whether you verify the image on DVD within Windows or in rescue mode.

Could you please reproduce the problem and collect Acronis True Image log which can be saved from Tools -> Show Log -> Diskette icon?

Please create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please create an account, then log in and submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
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Tatyana Tsyngaeva