scheduled backup password.

I;m being asked for a password when I try to schedule a backup.

I understand it wants my computer name aka tony/home etc but I never put in a password to get into windows XP when I installed it few yrs ago.
I don't use any password for windows so how am I to schedule backups?

now my manual backups are password protected because when I do a simulated recovery it says password protected and asks for a password which I use when I installed TI.
The scheduling user name /password it wants is not that one.
how can I schedule a backup if my PC t never had a "open windows password from the beginning?

 

TonyR,

You do need a password for scheduled tasks to be reliable. Do it from Control Panel, User Accounts. Make it as simple as "t" if you like. Then use TweakUI so you auto-logon without having to type your password.

 

When speaking of scheduled tasks there are two different schedulers. Windows has a “Scheduled Tasks” and does require a password. This can be defeated, see this link.
I have used this with WinXP Home. Have not tried it for XP Pro:
http://www.yabfog.com/wp/2005/10/06/scheduled_tasks_running_tasks_without_a_

In scheduling a task in True Image 10 I find that a password is not necessary. When creating a task simply leave the password box blank. There is a statement that the task might not run if a password is not entered but I find that indeed it does run reliably. I only make daily full backups. True Image 11 is a different matter. Using the same approach a task may or may not run. It may run only once. Sometimes it might skip a few days and then run. Many folks have reported this. To get around this problem I set up the Windows Task scheduler to run the TI-11 script using the following procedure:

· Create a task in TI-11 and set it to run Manually later.
· Exit out of TI-11.
· Start Notepad (Start > Run, type in notepad, press Enter) and minimize it.
· Copy the following expression then maximize Notepad and paste this expression to it:

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageHomeService.exe" /script: "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts\[Enter Script Name.tib.tis]"

· Minimize Notepad.

· Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts and open the Scripts folder. Here you will see your script file. Highlight it and right-click. Select Properties. Highlight the white box. With the curser in the box right click and choose Select All. With the expression highlighted right click and select Copy.

· Open the Notepad file that you had minimized. Look for the entry [Enter Script Name.tib.tis] and delete all of this. This will now in part look like this - \TrueImageHome\Scripts\". Put the curser between the back slash and the quotation mark. Right-click and do a paste. Save the Notepad file somewhere. Name it anything that you like (it will have a .txt extension by default). As an example (this is mine, your script file name will be different) but it will have this form:

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageHomeService.exe" /script: "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts\7F647791-4185-4DB8-BD29-BB15D4D8EED2.tib.tis"

· Open the Notepad file and find the expression (it will be very long). Go to Edit then Select All. Right-click and do a Copy. Minimize the Notepad screen.
· Open Windows Scheduled Tasks and select Add Scheduled Task.
· Start the wizard and at the screen where you are to select a program click on Acronis True Image Home to highlight it and press Next. Change the name if you wish and select the update frequency that you want. Press Next. When you get to the screen that has a white box (Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish) check the box and press Finish.
· This will take you to a screen that has a box named Run and a path will be highlighted. Delete that entry which leaves only a flashing curser. When there, right-click and select paste. Click Apply then OK.

For automatic logon in WinXP see this link from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315231

 

I only make daily full backups.

Does that fill up your hard drive sooner or do you
over write your full .tib file?

 

I make frequent manual backups depending on the nature of the changes to the PC. All of my backups are full. The manuals have a naming convention of mmdd.tib where 1209.tib would represent December 9. For the scheduled task (I only have one) I give it the name 9999.tib and let it over-write the previous one. This task runs during the night. The PC is on 24/7.

The only downside that I see in using the Windows task scheduler is that if the script name changes in TI, perhaps by creating a new task, you need to modify the path in the Windows scheduler. A bit of a pain.

Bruce

 

Understand. thanks..

Left turn here:

well. I just bought a new 200 gig hard drive to replace my 80 gig C[main drive].
I have been told it is better to use the full backup recovery method to install a new drive as opposed to the clone method.
But I'm confused about partitions.
I don't think I have any partitions on my 80 gig main drive now as I keep all my video/picture files on a slave 2nd drive.
my 80 gig has been around a while and I;m replacing because it's starting to make some wierd noises.
there are only 14 gigs used on this drive so do I need to partition the new one or not?

 

There are some very knowledgeable people answering postings on this forum and I have to believe that you will get a variety of opinions on these issues. My thoughts:

1. Sounds like a replacement is wise.
2. Would be good to run the check disk utility with the r switch (chkdsk c: /r) to check for bad sectors. This will require a re-boot. If you need help with this we can help. My understanding is that if there are bad sectors and you do a clone they will be marked out on the new drive also. My preference would be to install an image rather than a clone.
3. If your video/picture files only reside on a slave 2nd drive, you could be in trouble if that drive fails. Apparantly not an issue at this time but one has to believe that it will fail at some point.
4. The issue of partitions should bring many different opinions. I don’t create them as I see no need. I have three internal 160 GB PATA drives on a four year old PC. Each of them have a single partition. The C-drive has about 10 GB on it and takes about seven minutes to create an image. The other two drives are heavily loaded with 40% – 50% available and partitioning them wouldn’t make sense in them. One of them is strictly for backups (both Norton Ghost 2003 and TI). It would be good to think about opinions that you get. Ultimately you will need to decide how to best organize your data such that it meets your needs. Partitions can be helpful if they make sense to do so.
5. As a form of redundancy I have also installed a 320 GB Seagate FreeAgent USB drive (not the Pro version) where I keep copies of the TI .tib images and with a batch file that I created I also manually transfer the My documents folder and a few others to it as appropriate.

I feel that I have been kind of rambling on here. I’ve had numerous interruptions so hopefully my thoughts make some sense.

A free utility (Belarc Advisor) is available that will present a lot of information about your PC. In your situation after running it I would look for SMART errors which will identify potential mechanical hard drive failures. This was developed by IBM and is available here:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Bruce

 

Bruce,
thanks 4 a wealth of info...

I also use an external drive which I keep my .tib and all my important Document files. [500 gig Western Digital].

I have copied my slave drive of pixs/video files to that drive also.

btw: I have TI 9.0
any advantage to upgrading to version 10.0?

 

Sounds like you have the bases covered. If version 9 is meeting your needs I see no advantage in upgrading at this time. Version 10 had some rough edges when first released but build 4942 is solid on my system. True Image 11 needs some work before I will recommend it.

Bruce

 

Bruce,
getting back to partitions..

when do you feel it is necessary to have partitions..
I always get confused by this..

When reading posts, it seems like everyone and there mama partitions..

I don't partition but I don't really know why...

 

I don’t use multiple partitions on a given hard drive, never have. If you were installing multiple operating systems on a single drive I would expect that this would be necessary but I have never done that either. Perhaps someone else that does partitioning can give their rationale for setting this up that way.

When we spoke recently you mentioned that you also copy files from your C-drive to a USB drive. Did I mention using a batch file to perform the transfer automatically? I don’t recall. If that might be of interest I could send you the procedure to set it up. It’s real easy to do.

Bruce

 

Sure..
thanks,,

 

Lets see if this makes sense. I wrote the for a person that has little or no computer skills and as such I got a bit detailed.

In addition to creating TrueImage full backups in WinXP SP2 Home I have created a simple batch file that copies folders on my C-drive to in my case a D-drive. I run it manually because I want that type of control. This is only an example in that I actually have many more entries. I thought perhaps this would be something that you might benefit from.

If interested copy and paste the following to Notepad. Change the drive letters to what is appropriate for your system. Change the folder names where necessary. Add your User Name. Use the quotation marks where there are spaces in a name. When your entries are complete do a save and then a save as. Enter a file name and change the extension to .bat (something.bat). This file, something.bat, can be stored in a folder on the C-drive with a short-cut to it placed wherever you want. Now when you double-click on the .bat file or the shortcut the transfer will occur. What will happen is that if the directories exist on the destination drive they will be removed (RMDIR). These will be replaced by the current folder on the source drive (XCOPY). Very simple but effective. Copy the following lines to Notepad:

@ECHO Off
echo Starting Personal Transfer to drive D:, please wait...

RMDIR /S /Q "D:\Personal Batch Files (Copy)"
RMDIR /S /Q "D:\My Documents (Copy)"
XCOPY "C:\Personal Batch Files" "D:\Personal Batch Files (Copy)" /E /I /H
XCOPY "C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\My Documents" "D:\My Documents (Copy)" /E /I /H
EXIT