New Build Question...

I've been told it's a good idea to keep old builds in case there are any bugs in the new build. So, you backup using your new updated TI build... everything seems fine but you can't restore. Do you then try to use the old build to restore an image made with the new build?? Is that even possible.

Or are you saying... and would it be better to have "backups" done with the older build - and keep those just in case. So if there is a problem with the new build you have the "entire show" (backup and restore) which you know work from the previous build. You keep those around until you are sure of the new build Is that what you mean when you say "keep older builds."

One other question... I've heard here it's better not to just "validate" your backup but to actually restore it to make sure it's not corrupted. I really don't want to do that on my computer if it's running well so can you restore it to the same external hard drive that is holding the image? And once it's been restored how do you delete something like that? I have no idea how to delete an entire image thus I've been relying on "validation" thus far.

Thanks for your time...
Sandy

 

I prefer to download every build that comes out even if I don't use it. That way I have the files and can install it or run tests with it if necessary. When you log into your Acronis account you can only download the latest build.

As far as I know, TI 9 build 3,677 (and perhaps one build earlier) can restore images created with TI 10. So, yes, if you have an image created with 10 and 10 won't restore it and 9 will, then use 9.

When you update/upgrade TI, you need to test it on your system to make sure it works. Just because the previous build/version worked does not mean the new one will. Once you've tested the backup, validation and restoring of the new build/version and it works correctly you can just use the new version.

If the image Validates then it is not corrupted. However, you may still have problems restoring if TI has problems with your hardware when booted to the TI CD. If you restore to the same external that the image is saved on you would lose your backup image since TI would delete the partition to start the restore (assuming it would even let you restore to the source in the first place). You have to restore to a separate drive (a spare drive, for example) for a "real world" test.

If you can't do this because you don't have a spare drive, then at least boot to the TI CD and make sure TI can see your internal drives and that you can successfully validate the image that you would restore if you needed to.

 

Once logged into your account you can in fact download some earlier builds. Just open Full History of Changes and some additional builds are listed for download.

For example my screen shows last plus two previous for V8, last plus two for V9 and one before current for V10.

Xpilot

 

Yes, you should be able to download every build of eveery version since you registered. I can download any build from 8.0 through 10.4942

 

Thanks Xpilot and shieber. I had noticed the link before, but I just assumed it detailed the revision changes (if you can call what Acronis writes details). I didn't know it provided download links.

I wonder how they decide what builds you can get that are before your purchased build. The first build I bought was 3,677. TI 9 goes back to 3,633, but I'm pretty sure there were builds before that (the really buggy ones).

 

I think, and hope, they were given a decent burial on a dark night with no witnesses present

Xpilot

 

Thanks again MudCrab... I do have a D Drive on one of my computers with a lot of space (it only has the recovery on it.) I could "test" it there but if I do I need to know how to "delete" something like that. Delete a tested restore image. Is it "complicated" to do that? Once again thanks for your patience in answering all my questions. If this was another type of program I'd just let it go - and figure things out as I go along... but when dealing with "backup" you better get it right.

Thanks everybody...
Sandy

 

You can't just "test" the restore to your D: drive and keep what's on it. When you say it only has "the recovery" on it, do you mean the TIB image file?

To do what you suggest, you'd have to repartition the D: drive so that you had an empty partition large enough for the restored image (the other partition would contain the data currently on the drive). Then you could boot to the TI CD and restore the image to the empty partition and make sure it works. Once you're satisfied, you could just reformat the partition to clear it off again.

If you don't have partitioning software to manage this without data loss (Acronis Disk Director or similar product), then it may not be something you want to try.

Also, doing this only verifies that you can restore the image to another hard drive, it does not mean for sure that it would boot up properly when restored to the "main" drive.

 

The D Drive has my OEM recovery. It has 33GB of space with OEM recovery taking 11GB leaving me enough room to "test" my Acronis image of the C drive there (or so I thought.) But after reading what you wrote no way (sounds like more of a problem than it's worth - with no guarantee it would restore properly on the C drive anyway.) There is a certain element of risk to everything. So far both my XP and my Vista have had problems enough to use Acronis restore once on each of them... it went perfectly. I'm rolling with "Validation" as my test... so far that has worked out great.

Thanks again for all you help and feedback. I'm sure I'm not the only one here that appreciates the time you put in here...

Sandy