Restore Image - Test First

I'm pretty basic at this so bear with me ...

I may have to do a restore of an image I have on an external USB drive. I have a boot CD from a previous version (8.0) but not from 9.0. Two questions ... How do I create a boot CD from the current version and will it work if it is created after the image was created? AND Since I don't have a spare hard drive to test the image, what is the best way to ensure that when I do the restore, it will work? Is there another way to test the image before I do the restore? Also my assumption is that I leave the OS as is (Windows XP SP2), boot from the CD, and then restore image from the USB external drive. That simple?

Thanks in advance ...

 

What is it that you have to restore?
If it's just certain files, then just "mount" the image and copy your files back.

If your computer won't boot, then you need a boot cd. I'm a little confused by your last statement.
As far as the OS is concerned, it doesn't matter.
When you restore the image, it replaces everything on the hard drive and puts it back the way it was when the image was created.

If your image was created with version 9, then you probably should use a version 9 boot disk.
As far as I know, there is no absolute way to know if the restore will work without actually doing it.
A spare drive would help. You have to ask yourself, how much is your time/data worth?

 

You can see if the files are readable by using one, or more, of the following programs.

http://www.standards.com/index.html?ReadFile
http://www.standards.com./index.html?GetFileTypeDistribution
http://www.standards.com./index.html?CompareDrives

 

I have the boot CD when I was backing up onto DVDs. Subsequently, I upgraded to 9.0 and bought an external USB drive. So, can I create a boot CD in Acronis and use it for the USB drive? It's not a "boot" drive.

 

Yes, but make sure you can validate the archive on the USB drive and mount the archive located on the USB drive. Some USB drive chipsets can be a problem but the odds are with in your favor.

A restore to a drive is the really the only sure way of verifying it works as intended.

You should always create and use the boot CD from the version you are using but older versions usually work unless they don't have some needed fix included in that version.

The one thing you do have to watch for is:

In V9, build 3567, the TI "engine" changed and this caused a change in the tib file format. Versions prior to V9, 3567 cannot read an archive created with 3567 and later. Build 3567 and later can read the earlier version's archives OK. (Backwards compatible.)

 

Let me pull together some of the comments already provided by others.

You can create a boot CD at any time, but if the image was made with version 9, you will have to use a version 9 boot CD. The version 8 CD will not be able to read the image file created under version 9.

Creating a Recovery CD is one of the options on the TI screen when you start the program.

You can Verify the archive. It's another option on the TI screen when you start it.

In addition, you can Mount the image and look at some of your documents or pictures to confirm that the image is readable.

You can either start in Windows and let TI reboot into the Linux environment or boot from the Recovery CD into the Linux environment. You then select Restore and choose the image on the external drive.

Everything on your hard drive (or the partition you choose to restore) will be deleted and replaced with the image. If you have data that you do not want to lose, make a backup before restoring the TI image. Once the image has been restored, there is no way to recover any data that was on that partition before the image was made unless you have separately backed it up.