Restoring Backup to a New PC - any tips?

Unfortunately the hard disk in my Dell Dimension system has now failed (and it's 3 months out of warranty - typical!)

However I have a full image saved on an external Iomega drive taken on May 7 and then daily incremental backups since then so in all there are about 30+ *.tib files.

My new Dell Optiplex box arrives in a couple of days and I'd be grateful if someone can point to the right place to show me how I can restore the various back ups onto the new Dell box.

I think the new box will have Windows XP professional installed whereas my old box had Windows XP home installed - will this make a difference?

Is it is as simple as installing Acronis True image 10 onto the new box, connecting up the Iomega drive and then restoring?

I can't imagine this is the first time the question has been asked, and apologies for not being able to find a relevant thread.

Many thanks for any advice / tips

 

Yes, if you didn't make the bootable Rescue CD from the True Image software, then you will have to install it on the new system before you can use their Recovery feature.

But .... you may not want to recover the entire Image because you will be putting the XPHome in place of the XPPro that is on the new system.

Another consideration is that over time the Registry gets bloated with a lot of junk .... you will be carrying that over to the new system if you do the whole Disk recovery.

If it were me, I would reinstall all my applications on the new system, and just Recover your data files from the backup Image.

You said that the old drive failed ... is it not booting? Have you tried booting with a BartPE cd to see if you can still read and copy the files, such as your documents, on the drive?

 

I agree with DwnNdrty. It would be silly to replace Pro with Home and you may also have missing driver issues with the new hardware.

The important things are your personal data files that are available nowhere else but on your old HD and your backups. Reloading apps is just a bit of a PITA. Look upon it as a refresher exercise and an opportunity to clean up by not putting back all of the useless garbage you don't use anymore.

 

Sorry, for delay in replying.

The new box arrives later today. I agree that to import all the "rubbish" and not have the benefit of XP Pro would be daft. However my concern is how to "find" the correct data files within the last incremental *.tib file.

If I've understood you correctly I should:

- install TI 10 from the CD

- connect up the Iomega hard drive to the new box

- go into the restore option

Given that I was doing incremental backups, since early May, will it be obvious which is the latest data file? For example will I be able to see the folder "My Documents" and restore this and all sub folders automatically?

I'm using Microsoft Outlook 2007, to recover the various contacts, e-mails etc. is it just as simple as selecting the *.pst file from the backup?


Also a couple of my key applications were obtained via download, so I don't have a disk. Is there any way to restore these, or will I have to go back to the vendor and request a new download?


I should maybe have mentioned that the old box is in the "read error" cycle whereby it continually prompts you to reboot and you can't access anything. I've been going through the Windows recover option and using the FIXMBR / FIXBOOT / BOOTCFG commands to no avail. CHKDSK can't run either as it returns the "unrecoverable" error. As such I don't think i can actually access the disk - I'm totally reliant on my *.tib files on the external Iomega drive.

Thanks as always, and apologies if the questions are somewhat naive