Help ! Is there a tutorial on how to backup in lay person's language??

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by Wills, Jan 21, 2008.

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  1. Wills

    Wills Registered Member

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    I have not been here for awhile and wanted to ask a question, I have had a software tech do my backups with Acronis True Image and I believe the vers is 7.
    I have no plans to upgrade the app and wondered if there is a tutorial on how to do a back up. He has promised for 2 years now to show me how to do this and it has never happened.
    I bought this app as he said Ghost was too hard for me to learn, that is on my toshiba 2410 and I don't know how to operate that either.
    I have Western Digital 160 gig HDD storage drive for the 4 year old toshiba 2410 and a Maxtor for my newer toshiba m50-mx5.

    Both programs I understand basically clone the HDD including the settings etc. however based on my reading many a year back I bought Acronis with the idea that I would be able to do my backups and the techie simply has no time to show me.

    I am frustrated b/c I have to make time to take the notebooks into him and leave them and comeback to pick them up. If there is a tutorial on how to do Acronis that shows a user who has never attempted this to do a back up I'd be pleased to spend the time doing the tutorial.
    Right now I am worried that I don't have a decent backup of recent months and I also don't even know what will occur when I hook up the storage drive. As I know there are back ups in there that are old and I want to rid of many of them.
    Also, please correct me if I am mistaken about being able to clone my notebook drive and settings. I really want to do this myself and feel confident that I am doing it correctly.
    As for Ghost, I am of the opinion that it is simply too hard for me to learn??

    Experienced user comments appreciated, thankyou.>>>>me:oops:
    I have let this go too long and the soft ware techie is always to busy to spend time to show me what to do.
     
  2. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    Look for any message in the forum by GroverH and in his signature lines at the bottom of his message are links to various tutorials.
     
  3. Wills

    Wills Registered Member

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    I checked my version of Acronis and it is vers 9 and so hopefully if I simply do an entire backup it should do all of my settings on the notebook as wello_O

    I am staying away from Ghost as I understand it is more difficult and it is on my other notebook.

    I want to have this version of Acronis on my new Acer, however will that be a problem to load it on thereo_O

    I really want to learn backups and detest my software techie for putting me off on it with his schedule.

    He keeps saying that it is better for him to do it in case I inadvertently miss something.
    I thought the software just did its thingo_O
    I don't get charged for him doing the job as it is part of my work package in spite of the fact that I use the notebook also for personal use which is b/c we buy our own notebooks and management oks us using them for whatever as long as we have the software techie check regularly that we are keeping our security apps uptodate.
    Thankyou for your time.

    I have not had time yet to do a search on the members name that you suggested, however I will as soon as time avails itself.
     
  4. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Check the link below to my guides and also the additional tutorials which are listed at the bottom of the guides link.
     
  5. Wills

    Wills Registered Member

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    Hi, thx for the Link to read and print of re Acronis True Image. I have read some of it now and can understand a bit why the software techie advised me to leave it to him. BTW, I forgot to mention OS xpsp2, toshiba notebook m50-mx5 processor 1.86 gig .99 RAM with 2/3 available. Pentium M.
    I don't have a partitioned HDD on my notebook. All he ever did was a complete copy of my HDD which he said contained everything including my settings. He said it was a virtual clone of my notebook.

    I of course beginning here see dialogue in Mudcrabs post about a "bootable usb", I know that this must have been done however the software office techie is away for several weeks and I don't have a bootable cd or usb flash drive o_O

    The office software techie simply used the Acronis True Image and never dug around for updates and so what is on my notebook is right out of the box version 9, build 2,323.
    I don't want to mess with this as the office tech uses this version.
    Is this going to be an issue?

    The last backup was done December 20/07 when I know that I had an issue with one of my programs and that has since been corrected. I have cleaned up my desktop and defragged.
    Now my choice...Backup files/folders entire hard drive OR
    "Clone Disk"...I am unaware of partitions and not knowledgeable techwise of such.
    When talking with the techie we always referenced Backup and so I still presume the latter was done.
    The Log of the December date shows:
    Info 100 2(ox640002) 8:07:07
    Info 100 6(ox640006) 8:36:55 Operation Successful
    This is my new notebook and there is not a lot on it.

    What I am hazy about now as well is this "bootable usb" "bootable cd" Creation under "Tools".

    I gather that I should do this and read Mudcrap's descriptive process and simply get frightened away as I have no clue what that is all about.

    What size flash drive do I need ? And can't I use the Creation under "Tools", remembering that my version is right out of the box and my other backups done by the software techie were done on that basis and I don't want to mix things up now.

    I thought that I should post this before giving the process a start on my External 160 gig HDD. My software techie never did incrementals as well as I don't like the idea and neither did he.

    I hope that these queries don't sound silly, however having been thrown into the middle of what has been transpiring is rather awkward since the techie is not here to talk to.
    So in many ways for me it is like doing an initial start with Acronis.
    Thankyou for your time.
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2008
  6. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    I don't have time to respond now. I'm sure others will help.

    If you follow mybackup guide and store the backup on your external drive, you should have a good backup which could be used to restore your system to an old or new drive. Be sure and validate.

    The "bootable usb thumbdrive" and "bootable cd" both serve the same purpose. If Windows is not working (or if you want to isolate a backup so no window files are open), you bootup using either devices. Either device boots you into True Image to restore or backup with all your other devices accessible by TI. If you have not done so, be sure and create the bootable CD immediately under "tools". Should you need to restore your system drive, it is the TI Rescue CD (or alternate) that will enable you to access your backup archives.

    An Acronis bootable usb harddrive is one that is both Acronis bootable but you can also store backups on the drive or restore your system from a previous backup. In other words, an Acronis bootable usb harddrive has the advantage of being Acronis bootable plus had storage space. its dis-advantage is that you may have to make a Bios change (each time you boot the usb bootable device) for your computer to be Acronis bootable from a usb device.

    I am writing about imaging your entire drive. I am not referring to cloning. Cloning is when you want two identical drives. Imaging is making a compressed copy of your entire disk so it can be restored to your old or a new drive. An TrueImage backup or image is called an image archive and is a series of files (or one--depending upon whether "archive splitting" is invoked or whether you have a NTFS or FAT32 system or whether your external drive is NTFS or FAT32. These backup archive is a normal file ending with an extension of *.tib and can be stored in a folders on your external drive.

    For me, I never use a "Files & folders" backup. I use Disk or Partition backups only. A "Files & Folders" backup is not bootable and offers little help if you need to fully restore your system. You really should review the user manual to familiarize yourself with the different functions. Please, do not invoke the Secure Zone or Startup recovery manager unless you have reviewed its limitations as well as its advantages. In other words, look before you leap overboard. You may or may not like the landing.
    Others will respond more--I am sure.
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2008
  7. stevewa

    stevewa Registered Member

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    what / where is your techie?

    Hi Wills, it sounds like your techie needs to be fired. :doubt:

    I think I understand that you have a 4 yr old Toshiba 2410 laptop with Acronis True Image Workstation version 9 installed on it. And you have a separate Western Digital 160 gig HDD storage drive. Is that an external storage drive that connects to the laptop thru a USB port?

    Did you read the tutorial and follow the steps to make a backup?

    Where did you get stuck?

    Please keep replies as short and to the point as possible, so we can help you without having too much to read.
     
  8. Wills

    Wills Registered Member

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    No, no...please look at my last post. The last member is talking about something foreigno_O One of my original notebooks, I am inquiring about my current notebook and specific questions re Acronis.
    There is nothing wrong with the software tech. I guess you are alluding to the fact that the program used is straight out of the boxo_O It has been registered, I noticed. No one has an updated version of 9.
    Thankyou.
     
  9. stevewa

    stevewa Registered Member

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    sorry i re-read your last post and I am still confused.

    Where are you saving the backups to? the same hard drive inside your laptop, or to the external hard drive? do you know, or does your tech only know ?

    (I was making a joke about firing the software tech because he hasn't taught you how to run a backup every day, and it has been a while since a backup was done. If you lose your data, then he shoul be fired)
     
  10. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Register your software and then look and see if the copy you have is the latest issued for your version. It may or many not be. If the registration shows a newer version, uninstall the old before installing the new plus make a new Rescue CD if you install a newer build.
     
  11. Wills

    Wills Registered Member

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    My tech has registered the version 9 and simply has felt that there was no need to upgrade to an update. I leave all of that decision making to him.

    If I now uninstall this version and reinstall an updated version and create another Boot CD, what happens to the backups that he did just a few weeks ago and prior ones that sit on my Western Digital External Hard Driveo_O

    In the many years... 6 , no one in our office has ever had to use either Symantec Ghost which we initially started out with on some of our units and then changed over on our newer notebooks to the present Acronis;to do a Restore.
    Call it luck or whatever, but we have been very fortunate I guess, with our notebooks that we are required to buy and use for both personal/work purposes with stringent rules laid out. And we are able to learn how to do our own backups and do them on our own, however since the Tech is usually busy with Security matters the time he has to show us how to do this is somewhat limited. (now I have my overtime holiday time to learn how to do this !)

    I thought that these 6 weeks of accumulated overtime that I am enjoying that I would attempt to understand and use the present app of Acronis that the software tech used, with the most recent instance, December 7th 2007.
    Again for whatever reason he did not go to a new version update to the backup and I don't want to create problems with accessing the Backups previously done if I had to Restore b/c of a choice I make to take it upon myself to uninstall the version he used and then install the latest version of Acronis. Is there that much of a change from the version I am using that makes my version that he uses a "lame duck"o_O?

    BTW, since I just bought another notebook today. I noticed that there is now Version 10 and 11 in the stores of Acronis.
    I was wondering if the Version 10 would be sufficient to do the job that I will need for the backups to this new computer, once I am at that stage. The app is $29 cdn while the version 11 is $49.

    I did some googling and found that version 10 had a lot of positive feedback and some criticisms about vers 11 and I would assume it is so new that I could likely not really get a good idea of the changes or is there someone out there that has the wisdom o_O

    That pretty much summarizes my concerns.
    Thankyou.
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2008
  12. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    What is the operating system of the new notebook? If XP, you may want to use 10. If Vista, you may need to use 11.

    If your latest backup was Dec 7, you are way overdue. My backup guides show how to perform a full backup of your system disk and store the backup on your external drive.

    Your group has been extremely lucky. Hard drives do fail. If yours fails, you're data will be back to Dec 7 when restored.
     
  13. Wills

    Wills Registered Member

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    My OS is back to XPsp2, and was originally Vista. When we bought our notebooks all from the retailer that we use who stocks the notebooks that we get, and is also the authorized manufacturers warranty depot, as well as the extended warranty depot; our tech discussed with him our needs.
    In particular that the OS had to be able to be set back to xpsp2 and then ultimately to Vista when the appropriate time came.
    I will buy the V 10 then, b/c it seems according to the tech that it will be some time before we switch to Vista. We have the original disks for it that came with the model.
    Thankyou for your words of wisdom.
     
  14. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    It's my understanding that the early versions of TI 9 were very buggy. Perhaps the Tech has done extensive testing with this build and is confident in its abilities on this particular computer.

    That being said, I would recommend updating to at least build 3,677. It should not have any problems restoring the images you already have.

    For the new computer, you will want TI 10 (4,942) or TI 11 (8,053). TI 11 still has some serious (and not so serious) bugs to work out, but still works well on some systems. You may want to give it a try before you decide.
     
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