General

Hi there,

I've had True Image for a while but haven't needed it yet for anything serious but it has helped me save the entire PC and today I tested it out and I must say I'm very impressed. My PC has two internal drives and one external drive and it's the external drive which has the two internal drives totally backed up.

The point of this thread tho is to ask if anything really serious happened like my two internal drives blew up and totally ceased to work...heaven forbid it!!! I would obviously need to replace the internal drives with new ones.

Now, the question is if the new internal drives had the same name as the ones that were broken eg. E: H: would it be just a simple case of restoring what is on the external drive onto the new ones? - despite the fact the new drives were not initially the drives that were backed up? - I hope I've not confused anyone but I wouldn't know the answer to this question unless this worst case scenario actually happened and I tried it out for myself but this is info that I would like to know so thanks in advance on this thread regarding any replies.

Regards

 

Yes, it should be fine.

However, if something is critically important for some reason the only way you can have absolute confidence is to get a spare HD and do a test. Don't wait until you are up the proverbial creek to find out the good, bad and ugly.

 

Just to add to what seekforever said ... the scenario you describe is referred to as a bare metal restore. In other words restoring to a brand new drive, which, unfortunately happens in the real world.

 

OK Chutsman,

A bare metal restore which is obviously the worst case scenario is the principal reason for buying Acronis True Image in the first place. So, would this be successful in your opinion?

Like the other person said it would be a good idea to test it out with a new drive but currently that's not possible but I did do a test with the existing drives which are not damaged where the Image software actually deletes the drives that are to be restored first then Acronis restores them - So would this be a bare metal restore in some respect? - Or does that only applicable to new drives?

 

Thanks for the reply. I feel confident that it will work when it has to but I have got in the habit of backing up more often now just to cover myself. The full drive image is the main concern as it has the OS (XP) in addition to all the software on my system which quite seriously took hours and hours to install and organise so maintaining this way of working is extremely important to me.

 

If you have restored your image to your existing disk you have done a very valid test because to restore the active partiton you have booted into the Linux restore environment assuming you started the process within Windows. I recommended a spare drive since most people don't want to risk blowing away their disk to find out it doesn't restore.

The only difference between what you did and a bare-metal restore is that your method did not require you restore the MBR even though you may have done it. The MBR is not automatically overwritten if you restore an image of C.

There should not be any problem doing a bare-metal restore if you had to based on what you did.

If you haven't booted up the TI rescue disk and done a restore with it rather than starting the environment within Windows I would do that since it is what becomes necessary if Windows won't run.

 

Hi seekforever,

I have imaged the two internal drives with an external USB drive. I do use Windows XP. As far as Linux is concerned please explain, some people use this as an alternative to XP?

The scenario I described for my system is.

Two internal drives, E: and H:. The C: drive (external) backed up the two internal drives with an image / ghost of the two internal drives.

 

Hi there,

I have checked the removable media I have. There are two disks that I have created on CD-R or CD-RW, that have Acronis Resue Media which would enable me to sort things out hopefully. I forget how I came to have this, obviously I've saved it previously... ....I find it hard to work out all of the face icons!!!

Edit,

Please can the more experienced users help me log my memory? - As mentioned above, I have created Acronis Resue Media...which in laymans terms means I can start the Acronis software if anything horrible happens by inserting a CD/DVD - R -RW to correct what might go wrong. Nothing is wrong at the moment and I'm glad but I'm trying to re-trace my steps when I first got the True Image Software. Sure, I have the Acronis True Image Software Disk backed up but the recovery thing, which I have, I'm a little confused on, so please help.

Somehow I created an emergency disk and I forgot how I did this. There has been so many details of backing up my PC....

 

Please forget the previous thread about saving to bootable media just in case the worst happens.

In Acronis it's in the tools menu and you save the recovery disk to CD-R. Sorry... ...but I got confused.

Regards

 

TI can make images while running in XP but it cannot restore the active partition, typically C, while Windows is running. To do such a restore, if the restore was started in Windows, TI will cause the PC to reboot into the rescue environment after the data needed to do the restore is collected. The Full rescue environment is Linux but if nobody told you, you wouldn't know since a graphical interface is all you see. Booting the TI rescue CD and selecting Full gives you the same Linux environment.

You may, from the CD, see the option for Safe as well as Full. Safe is actually some variant of DOS but does not provide USB, Firewire, and perhaps some other drivers. It is intended to be used only when the Full won't run and in most cases you can't use it with an external USB drive. Some motherboards do support USB from BIOS but these are not too common and reports say it is very, very slow.

 

Hi Seekforever,

I remember more clearly now, yes, the rescue CD was used I think. Either way I did restore it and providing that I keep the backups safe and untouched there shouldn't be a problem but it took a few experiments and mistakes to find the best way to use Acronis.

You refer to a TI or T1, what is this? - All I know is I made a recovery CD as I bought the Acronis True Image as a download so I had to do my own which isn't a problem.

 

fraz,
TrueImage=TI Depending upon the font used, sometimes the i looks like a 1 also, a capital I looks like a 1. Either way, you know their referring to True Image.

Perhaps the Beginner's Guides can help. Check my signature for links.

 

I feel really sillly now... ...Sometimes the silliest of things confuses me!!! All in all though there has been a big learning curve with learning software apart from Acronis TI but it's been well worth the effort over time.

I now have peace of mind which I've never had and always seemed to be trouble shooting rather than concentrating on why the computer was turned on in the first place.

Thanks.

 

fraz,
We all were beginners at one time. I am continually learning about TI from this forum. I read as many postings as time permits. The more you read, the more you will be exposed to new information and tidbits of info which will make you want to learn more--at least that's what happens with me. You may not understand the first or second time you read something, but keep reading.

Please do read the guides over and over and more will be clearer everyday. Good luck and hang in there. Use your forum search feature and search for your options of interest.

 

You don't say which version of TI you have but you should make sure that you have the latest build installed. You will need to register on the Acronis web site to enable you to download the latest build, when you install a new build you need to make a new rescue cd. Many users use cd RW for this as they can be used several times

One thing puzzles me, you say that the two internal disks are labelled E: and H: and the external is C: as far as I am aware the internal boot disk should be C: Someone with more knowledge will no doubt correct me if I am wrong, in any case it is recommended to name your disks, as when you boot with the Linux based rescue cd the drives may not have the same letters as when booted from windows and you may be confused as to which drive you are restoring to.

 

Hi there,

I'm not too sure how to explain this but I'll give it a go. I had a hard drive which was originally called C: This HD developed a S.M.A.R.T problem and I was advised to replace it, due to the fact that it had a limited time left in which it would operate normally.

Just how the drive names have become confused I'm not sure but I'm happy with the way things are and have got used to them. The fact is I have a Primary Master drive inside the PC and I also have a slave drive inside the PC. The actual name of the drive is not important to me even if it isn't logical. Just so you know I haven't created these drive names myself!!! and am happy that I have a good, rock solid system that has been backed up with TI software. I suppose if I was fussy I could rename the drives and back everything up again so I could have the conventional C: and D: drive naming which is understandably logical.

Also I do use USB memory sticks and the PC also names them as they see fit. Don't ask me why this happens as I'm not an IT whizz!!

ADD

Even if the worst happened and I had to do a bare metal restore to a different computer it would probably be possible to restore the image...I hope...which is why I bought TI in the first place!

 

You misunderstand me when I said name the drives I meant you to give them with a logical name i.e. System for the boot disk Data for your data disk, I suggest you read GroverH excellent tutorials.

 

TI can make images while running in XP but it cannot restore the active partition, typically C, while Windows is running. To do such a restore, if the restore was started in Windows, TI will cause the PC to reboot into the rescue environment after the data needed to do the restore is collected

Hi,

Yes I remember this now. When I carried out the test the PC rebooted and as I recall TI wipes the drives clean before restoring them and TI won't allow you to proceed unless you permit TI to actually wipe the backed up drives clean first and the proceed button or next button in TI is ghosted but when you let and permit the drives to be erased before restore the ghosted next button becomes un ghosted.

The Full rescue environment is Linux but if nobody told you, you wouldn't know since a graphical interface is all you see. Booting the TI rescue CD and selecting Full gives you the same Linux environment.

OK, I know nothing about Linux apart from what you've just described. Isn't Linux an OS in it's own right? - I think it is but haven't heard much.

Please explain a little about it like who uses it and is it preffered over XP? - Please explain...

 

Are you trying to start a war?

Linux is indeed an OS and it has a significant following because it can be obtained free and some believe it is better than Windows. Some people like it since they don't have to pay Microsoft money and will do anything to avoid it. Like everything else in this world it has its good points and its bad points. There is more than one "flavor" of Linux and a program that works under one may not work under another- not unlike Unix in this regard.

Linux followers tend to be people who don't mind command line interfaces and in fact extoll their virtue over a graphical interface but Linux can run with a graphical interface.

Linux has made in-roads in the server arena where it performs well and probably scales up better than Windows to meet increased demand. Linux has been considerably less-favored on the home desktop because of the difficulty in setting it up compared to Windows but this is a lot better now than it was previously. Also, you can easily find 10 people to help you with a Windows problem compared to <1 for a Linux problem. Other people in the chain for home computing like internet service providers were also slow to embrace linux. Other major weakness was a lack of good apps that the home-user wants but this also is much better now.

Why does Acronis use it? Since it can be obtained free or with minimal licensing fees it can be distributed to provide a stand-alone environment that will boot from a single CD at no or little cost. You will notice that although Acronis does provide a BartPE plug-in that will run in a Windows environment it doesn't provide the whole environment which means some form of Windows. You provide the Windows component so Acronis doesn't have a licensing issue to deal with.

In the Acronis situation the major weakness is that Linux drivers for specialized or new hardware are often slow in coming, if developed at all. This results in less than ideal drivers being used which results in poor performance or other more serious problems.