restoring whole drive back up - scaring

Had a real scare today.

I always back up images of partitions and today did a back up of whole first drive (present situation, before moving to a dual boot situation). This contains partition C (w XP) and D (data). I then wanted to test this and told Acronis to restore the whole drive. It wanted to reboot, of course.

Windows shut down, computer booted aaah no: hard disk boot failure, insert drive and press enter... and no Acronis starting...

I waited a while, not knowing if this is "normal" procedure and I should leave things alone, but it didn't feel right. Eventually I booted with Acronis rescue CD. Couldn't do anything with it: drive 1 was removed and not seen, only drive 2 (with back ups) was visible. Sighing, I took the CD out, thinking to reinstall Windows first and then restore the images of the separate partitions.

However, after I took the CD out, Acronis loader started again and this time it was performing it's task: restoring! Phew. All fine now, after all, but this isn't good for the heart.

Okay, lesson today: restore with the rescue CD. But why, why does the manual tell to always try and restore from under Windows first, and it doesn't mention behavior like this.

Well anyhow, I now know for sure my whole disk image is correct... if you manage to get it restored

 

FWIW, I use on the Rescue CD to do both Backups and Restores. I just don't trust True Image to always "play nicely" with some other piece of software that may update itself in future (think Windows). To be fair, it may be the fault of a Windows update that upends True Image.

The Rescue CD route may take a little longer, but for me, it is a much safer option. Glad to hear you came out on top.

 

DwnNdrty, you are abolutely right: restoring with cd is much safer.

I find it really strange Acronis advises otherwise in its manual. Furthermore, this is the first time I was confronted with the option to restore the drives signature. I didn't know what this would do and left the box unchecked. Couldn't find anything about this in the manual either.

Edit: mmm, it seems the dutch version isn't only backward with its buildnumbers but also with its manuals: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=241099
The "real" Acronis manual seems to offer a lot more detail. This is seriously frustrating. Not only does Easy Computing (dutch version supplier) corrupt the standard delivered )CD to be onbootble (by putting their logo first on the cd it doesn't boot up the computer!) but they deliver an uncomplete manual that also states untruthes (with cd you can boot: nope. On cd you'll find BartPE plungin: nope).

Maybe I should switch to the english version and download the english manual.

 

I've used ATI since version 7 and on a number of diff machiens and I' comfortable doing backups from within win -- never had aprob in that regard. for restores, since if you start them win, the computers reboots into linux, you might as well jsut do the restore form the CD, which boots linux -- it doesnt take any longer an is less liek to present problems becasue it doesn't affect the win boot up of your hard disk.

 

Great advice here from the Massive Posters.

I always keep things simple on a restore and use the Acronis Boot disk not windows.