Dead pc, true image 10 - will it work?

Ok, my pc consists of 2 SATA drives in RAID 0 as master and an IDE HDD as a slave for music/photos. It died. The PSU went and took the mobo with it (and I'm not sure what else yet). Decided to upgrade when replacing mobo/CPU. So here is the question: I have a True Image 10 image for both HDDs separately on an external HDD. Can I rebuild my 'new' pc, install the drives as before and get my data back from the 'old' pc?

 

Tom:

Sometimes you can get lucky. You have nothing to lose at this point by trying the following:

Plan A
1. Leave your music/photo IDE drive disconnected for now.
2. Reconnect your RAID array disks and set up RAID on the motherboard BIOS (if it is supported that way).
3. Give it a go. If you're lucky, the array will be recognized, Windows will start up, detect new hardware, and then successfully install new drivers for it. Keep your fingers crossed.
4. If this works, reconnect the IDE drive and hope that your music and photos are still there. If not, they can be restored from your backup image.

If this doesn't work out, go to Plan B.

Plan B
1. If your array is trashed, do steps 1 and 2 above and then boot into the recovery version of True Image. Restore to the array.
2. Reboot and let Windows attempt to install new drivers
3. If the driver installation doesn't go successfully, go to Plan C.

Plan C
1. Reinstall Windows on the array
2. Install True Image
3. Connect your external drive and browse through your backup image looking for personal files. Copy them back to the array.
4. Your IDE drive should be OK, but if it was trashed restore its image also.

You may have to re-activate Windows with a motherboard and CPU change, but maybe not.

Hope it works out for you.

 

Mark, what a fantastically comprehensive answer, thanks.

Will give it a go when my new PSU arrives and post an answer.
Tom

 

Hello tom_cairns,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please notice that what are you going to do is essentially transferring of the system to a new hardwire. Workarounds suggested by k0lo might work (especially the last one, since it doesn't actually involve system restoration, only data). If not, please notice that Acronis Universal Restore is a solution designed for transferring of a system to different hardware.

We recommend you to download and install the free trial version of Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation to see how the software works on your computer. With the trial version of the product you will be able to fully use the windows version for a period of 15 days. The standalone version (bootable media) will have only restore function available. You can temporarily install it on another computer to create Acronis Bootable Rescue Media with Acronis Universal Restore option and then restore the image you have.

Please submit a request to Acronis Support to receive a trial version of Acronis Universal Restore as well.

You can find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation in the respective User's Guide.

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

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Thanks for that. I actually got my important files backed up and went for a full reinstall so am happy with that. However, I backed up Outlook separately and when I try to restore it (mostly address book and calendar I need) I get the message that Outlook Archive/archive.pst can not be found and Outlook then crashes, which required a full reinstall of Windows. ANy ideas how I get these back?

 

you should be able to mount the image and copy the pst files the directdory that OUtlook uses for the pst files. You can go into outlook and make sure that the file locations it uses are the same and that it points to those files. If the files are not corrupted and it's the same version of outlook, they should work. I done this more than once.

 

When I try to mount the image it won't let me as it says the archive file has no partitions...whatever that means?

 

Hello tom_cairns,

Please note that Mount Image tool of Acronis True Image can mount the archive only if it contains partition image. File-based backup archive cannot be mounted.

However, since you use Acronis True Image 10.0 Home you can use another tool of Acronis True Image to explore file-based backup archive. Double-click on the backup archive to view the data saved in the backup. You can then copy any file or folder from the backup being explored and paste it to any hard disk folder. Check chapter 12. "Exploring archives and mounting images" in the Acronis True Image 10.0 Home User's Guide.

Please also have a look at this thread <Accessing Outlook Express backups.> to find information about exploring backup of Microsoft Outlook created with "My E-mail backup" option of Acronis True Image.

Could you please be more specific if you used "My E-mail backup" option of Acronis True Image to back up messages, accounts and settings for Microsoft Outlook or you used "My Data backup" option to backup certain files (like Outlook database *.PST)?

Also let us know the version of Outlook you use (Microsoft Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003 or Microsoft Outlook Express).

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Thanks so far; I used the My E-mail backup option and I use Outlook 2003.

 

Hello tom_cairns,

We would need some additional information to investigate this issue thoroughly and to provide you with a possible solution.

- Quantity of user profiles;

- Amount of the accounts for these profiles and their type (POP3, IMAP, etc);

- Please create Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

- What exact error message you have received? When exactly have you received it? Create a screen shot of the error message, if possible.

- Please also collect the user.dmp and drwtsn32.log the way described in this previous post of mine.

Then 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 a solution.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov