New user, quick couple of questions...

Downloaded TI11 yesterday and am very pleased so far.

Would be gratefull if I could just check a couple of things.

I'm backing up my data to a QNAP TS209 Pro NAS and have done a drive image from my main desktop and a couple of selective file backups from my laptop and my wifes.

I can backup files from a remote PC via a different PC but can only do a my computer/drive image backup from the actual PC which means installing TI on that PC. Since both create .tib files, is there actually any difference from selecting all files on a drive and creating a backup, to a drive image backup? I.e. if I selected say the OS directory and the root hidden OS files as a backup rather than a drive image, could I then boot from the recovery disk and use this backup to restore a system?

I ask this because my laptop has just a single, large partition and I have many applications installed. If I just do a selective backup of the OS directory etc. and root boot files could I restore the laptop from that (albeit without all the other apps etc.) - a full drive backup is over 130GB and looks like it will take a good while to complete - so that it would be effectively the same as if I'd done a drive image backup of a fresh install of the OS alone...?

Finally, as said, I'm backing up my data to a NAS drive without issue. I'm assuming I can likewise restore from this without issue in the event I need to using the TI bootable CD I've created...?

Thanks all...

 

There is a big difference when the time comes to restore.

If you back up the whole drive you can restore per partition, per disk on a completely new Hard Drive without worrying if your system will boot and start up properly; it should. This is because it also backup the partition structure and MBR.

If you backup everything by selecting files and folders (even the windows files) your basically just doing an advanced copy & paste with compression. You can only restore this data in an already partitioned and formatted drive; and by just restoring windows files will not make the system workable.

PLUS; with drive image backup you have the leisure to restore just files too. This wont work the other way around.

 

Numlock covered your other questions well, but this is a big one. If you boot from the recovery CD and can see the NAS drive as well as the boot drive on your computer, there's a very good chance that you will be able to restore. If you can validate the backup image from the boot CD, the probability increases.

However, you won't know for sure until you actually do a restore. If you have a spare drive that you can restore to, you can test this without any risk.

 

Thanks for the excellent replies.

I bought TI11 via download so have created the recovery disk manually - I assume it's exactly the same and no different if created from a different PC?? i.e. it doesn't copy specific hardware drivers etc. from the host machine to the disc?

I'm assuming that booting the TI recovery disc provides generic network drivers etc. so that I should be able to see network drives as well as any connected USB drives? If not then I have a USB enclosure so could get a blank drive and in the event of requiring the restore, copy the image across to the USB drive from my NAS via one of the other clients and then connect this USB drive to the PC requiring the restore. I'll try the boot disc later to see what I can see with it - assuming I can see the NAS okay can I verify the image without going down the path of restoring anything?

As for my laptop (and it's projected 130GB image) I'll just have to set the time aside.

Also, I'm using this for both XP and Vista systems, any issues with Vista?

 

TI Home only makes images of the computer disk on which it is running - you cannot make an image of a different computer on your network. An exception to this is remote disks that are data only.

Don't treat the TI rescue CD lightly. You must ensure that it will work properly and can validate and restore your image. Even if you setup a restore in Windows that contains the active partition, the PC will reboot and start the TI recovery environment which is the same as the CD. This is Linux and uses different drivers than the Windows program and is where a lot of people come unstuck. They make an archive in Windows and Validate it in Windows with no problem then when they have to restore a different environment is run and sometimes it doesn't work.

Do a test restore to a spare drive!