Does True Image 8 or True Image 9 "Mark" or "Fingerprint" the hard disk drives?

Does True Image 8 or True Image 9 "Mark" or "Fingerprint" the hard disk drives it Backs Up or Restores To like Ghost does?

Two of the features of Ghost that I really dislike are:

1) When you start Ghost running it wants to "Mark" all the hard disk drives visible to it by writing a hexadecimal code to a sector on the disk drives' boot track (Track Zero). You can tell Ghost not to do it, but you must tell Ghost not to do it each time you run the program. There is no way to say "never do this." If you forget to tell Ghost not to mark the drives, you have to use a disk drive editor that can write directly to "the metal" to get rid of the marking.

2) When you do a restore, Ghost automatically writes an additional file, called a "Fingerprint File," to the newly restored disk drive. There is a command to block this, but the command does not work and is not scheduled to be repaired by the publisher. So, you end up hunting for the Fingerprint File to find it and erase it.

I believe that the whole idea behind image backup and image restore is to create an exact, unadulterated record of a functioning hard disk drive setup so as to be able to restore that exact image in case of an unrecoverable failure. This is why I always run from bootable floppy or bootable CD so that my filesystem is not in use during backup or restore.

Could someone please tell me, does True Image 8 or True Image 9 change the disk contents in anyway whatsoever during backup or during restore? Can I finally achieve my goal of exact backup and exact restore if I switch to True Image?

Thank you for any information and advice you can offer.

 

What version of Ghost does this 'fingerprinting'?

Just curious since I use version 9 and never saw this function.

 

Ghost 2003 for certain "Marks" and "Fingerprints."

I think Ghost 8.x Corporate does both also, but I'm not 100% sure.

Both of the above allow you to create a backup image while running from bootable media (floppy or CD).

I believe Ghost 9 and 10 do not allow creation of a backup image while running from bootable media (floppy or CD) because they are based on Drive Image 7.

Another reason I am thinking of switching to True Image.

Hope this helps.

 

Hello Courtney,

I'm pretty certain True Image doesn't "fingerprint" your drive(s) in the way you have described, either when imaging or cloning.

For a detailed description of how True Image achieves live imaging under Windows I recommend you check out this article by Acronis Technical Director Max Lyadvinsky titled <Disk Imaging in Windows - Increases user productivity and permits broader range of backup devices>.

Regards

 

Thanks for the reply. It does not answer my question, but it is a very interesting article and I thank you for bringing it to my attention and I thank you for taking an interest enough to post a reply.

I've noticed that some people who work for Acronis post replies on this forum from time to time.

Does anyone who works for the company know the answer to my original question?

Can someone track down a programmer, give him or her some junk food snack and soda, and ask them my question?

Even if they don't know the answer, it would be a timely treat for the holidays.

 

Argh...

What I meant to say is the ARTICLE doesn't answer my question.
Sorry, brain and fingers not connect good sometimes, ugh!

I value your experience with the program which is probably what makes you feel certainty that True Image does not do these things, but what I was hoping for was someone who either wrote the source code or someone who has examined the source code to tell me whether there are any parts of the program that perform actions like "Marking" or "Fingerprinting?"

Uh, I hope I've expressed myself better this time.

Thanks.