My first Acronis image....

Hi... I think I was trying too hard to explain my question. I'll try once more and will keep it short.

I want to go to town and buy enough dvd disks to image my c:drive.

In WinExplorer the properties for C: show that the drive has ,,
16GB GB used
89.1 GB free
105 GB capacity.

The FAQ suggests setting the image splitting to 2GB for burning so dividing the above figures by two would be

8 DVDs to image the data on the drive. (The used soace.)
53 DVDs to image the entire capacity of the drive.

I would like to know if Acronis images just the data on the drive. (on 8 DVDs)

Or the entire drive, free space and all. (on 53 DVDs)!!!

Cheers P.

Thanks for being so patient.

 

Pollyanna,

Your used space is 16 GB. This is imaged and compressed to your current image of around 8 GB. 8 divided by 2 is 4 files each of 2 GB. You can get 2 files on each DVD so 2 DVD's needed.

Keep asking questions if it's confusing. Those 2 DVD's contain your whole C: drive.

 

Hello Brian,

You can create an image of the C: drive to the C: drive without using a Secure Zone. Prior to creating the image, TI will take a "snapshot" of the in-use sectors at that moment in time and only include those sectors in the image. Therefore it doesn't create an image of itself creating an image, if you know what I mean!!

However, you cannot restore an image that resides on the C: drive back to the same drive. The reason for this being that, prior to commencing the actual restore, TI will delete the existing partition including the image TI needs to carry out the restore.

Regards

 

Hi Pollyanna,

Better still, maximize the available space on a DVD by setting the image split to 1492 MB and burning up to three .tib files per disk (i.e. 4.37 GB instead of just 4 GB).

Regards

 

Thanks Menorcaman for confirming my thoughts on restoring the image on the C: drive.

I'm impressed that TI can create an image of the C: drive to the C: drive. It's a handy feature for somone with a new computer that hasn't yet been partitioned.

I'll try this with Ghost 9 sometime.

 

Menorcaman, imaging the C:drive to the C: drive and then burning the image to DVD has potential for those with a single partition and no other hard drives, who don't want to buy packet writing software. Nobody seems to be promoting this approach. Does it sound OK to you?

 

Very helpful info, Menorcaman. THanks!

 

Hello again Brian,

Some people prefer to create an Acronis Secure Zone (special hidden partition) on their one and only drive and image to that. However, if the hard drive fails (and believe me they do!!) then their precious backup will have gone with it.

As a two-step process, imaging the C: drive to the C: drive and then burning the resultant .tib files to DVD will be somewhat slower than using a UDF packet writer and imaging direct. Nevertheless, in my view, it's a much more secure backup strategy than storing an image in the SZ on the same hard drive.

Obviously, saving one's centimos (pence, cents?!) and buying an external hard drive would be even more reliable and a darn sight faster too .

Regards

 

**********************************************************
Pollyanna,

Your used space is 16 GB. This is imaged and compressed to your current image of around 8 GB. 8 divided by 2 is 4 files each of 2 GB. You can get 2 files on each DVD so 2 DVD's needed.

Keep asking questions if it's confusing. Those 2 DVD's contain your whole C: drive.
***********************************************************

Hello Brian...Just what I needed tp know. One more thing...compression. The manual suggests using "Normal". Is your example above based on "Normal" compression or one of the other options available in the compression level options? Is your choice of level the one that is considered the most reliable by you experienced people?
************************************************************
Hi Pollyanna,
Better still, maximize the available space on a DVD by setting the image split to 1492 MB and burning up to three .tib files per disk (i.e. 4.37 GB instead of just 4 GB).

Hello Menorcaman,
Much thanks for this addition to Brian's suggestion. I'll use the round 2GB figure for starters but certainly try your suggestion later.

Off now to format some disks...Cheers P.

 

I just use Normal Compression. It doesn't really matter but maximum compression may let you use 2 DVD's instead of 3 in the future. So what. I'd still use normal compression, it's faster.

Why are you formatting the DVD's? What prog do you intend to use for burning?
Discs only need to be formatted if you write direct to DVD from TI with packet software. I thought you were going to image to the C: drive in 2 GB splits. Packet writing isn't needed to burn the images and is best avoided.

 

Pollyanna,
I'd say two DVD's. When you image next time choose 2 GB for the split size. What software will you be using to burn the image files?
Reply With Quote
*************************************************************

Hello again Brian...Just came across this when browsing back through this thread. Yes software. I been using B's Clip...came with my burner and has a 100% track record with me. It's a packet writer but hardly anyone seems to have heard of it. I had looked into this forum and realised I would need some help and noted that Nero is the popular app here. So I dug out an OEM of Nero and installed it but only after uninstalling B's Clip as requested by Nero. It has a totally different look to B's Clip so I'll probably be floundering for a while. INCID does not seem to have a front of it's own but I'm pretty sure it's the page in Nero headed DATA with options Make Data Disk & Format/Prepare Data Disk.
So that's the software situation....I'ii let you know what happens when I press the GO button.

Cheers....P.

 

Why are you formatting the DVD's? What prog do you intend to use for burning?
Discs only need to be formatted if you write direct to DVD from TI with packet software. I thought you were going to image to the C: drive in 2 GB splits. Packet writing isn't needed to burn the images and is best avoided.

*********************************************************

Hello Brian,again again, I think you have just caught me again in the nick of time....Well the manual seems to go straight into the business of writing direct to DVD from TI with formatted disks...and the hard drive option was not much more than a little footnote which I tried because I didn't have a formatted DVD-RW disk at the time.

So when I have the 2GB splits on the hard drive I can just transfer them to a DVD-R disk (not a DVD-RW) without using packet software?

Time for sleep....P.

 

Yes, you can burn your images to DVD-R discs. I guess you have Nero, Sonic etc.

Did you buy packet writing software? Which one?

 

Hi again Pollyanna,

You are right, InCD doesn't have a front end of its own but it can't be accessed directly through Nero either. It should start automatically and will just sit in your taskbar whilst running in the background. It's used to UDF format rewritable CDs/DVDs in order to enable UDF packet writing (direct file copy to disk). Your description of Nero leads me to believe that you are in fact using Nero's StartSmart front end, which ties various Nero applications together, including InCD.

To format a rewritable disk you can either use StartSmart's "Format/Prepare Rewritable DVD (or CD)" option or the Windows Explorer. If using Explorer, right click on the burner and select "InCD Format".

In both cases, if the disk hasn't been InCD formatted before you will need to do the full "Format". However, if the disk is already InCD formatted and you just want to re-use the disk for more InCD packet writing then you can use the "Quick format (erase file system)" option.

In order to remove the InCD format so that it can be used by Nero to burn normal CD/DVD compilations you will need to select "InCD Erase". Choose "Quick erase" unless you want to wipe the disk clean for data security reasons.

As Brian said, you don't need (in fact you mustn't) preformat the DVDs if you are using the two-step method of burning a split image from your hard drive as a Nero compilation (choose StartSmart's "Make Data DVD" option to start Nero). Either use a blank DVD+/-R (although Acronis doesn't guarantee that TI will always work with DVD-R media) or DVD+/-RW. If need be, erase a previous compilation from a RW disk via Nero by selecting "Recorder" > "Erase Rewritable Disc" from the menu bar.

You don't say which versions of Nero and InCD you're running but I would recommend you visit nero.com and, if necessary, update them both to the latest build allowable for your version.

Regards

 

I missed seeing post #36.

 

Hello Brian and Menorcaman, Thanks for your amazing patience. It's time that I
actually made a start. I'll make an image with normal compression and send it to the hard drive. Then burn it to DVD-R disks. Then let you know what happens.

I'd better start a new thread after this.

Cheers....P.

 

Don't forget to delete your current image prior to making the new image. Otherwise the new image will be a whopper.

 

Hello Brian...I sent a note last night but it seemed to vanish. I'll try to repeat it quickly.

I made another image last night, after deleting the earlier one. Sent it to the hard drive without naking a folder for it and when finishe I found it right at the bottom of the C: tree and it was as follows.

Image_test_1908051.tib 2,097,152 KB
Image_test_1908052.tib 2,097,152 KB
Image_test_1908053.tib 2,097,152 KB
Image_test_1908054.tib 1,135,626 KB

They seem to fit the the approach you laid out below.

They checked ok and are now sitting on 2 DVD disks

********************************************************

Your used space is 16 GB. This is imaged and compressed to your current image of around 8 GB. 8 divided by 2 is 4 files each of 2 GB. You can get 2 files on each DVD so 2 DVD's needed.

*******************************************************
Thanks again for all the help...P.

 

Good work Pollyanna. You obviously understand it now.