TI Saga is "Closed" . . .

Well . . . my Acronis TI saga has come to an end (can I hear a collective sigh of relief?)

I've given up on making an image. Originally, I had thought that since my HDD was coming to its TTF soon, I would try to image it. To that end, I bought TI. I also bought a 120 GB HDD. But the bugs in TI9, PLUS MY OWN SELF-IMPOSED LIMITATION OF TRYING TO DO AN IMAGE TO CD'S, finally stopped me. Plus, swapping old and new HDD's several times with all the aborted TI sessions, kind of wore out the spacing connector for the HDD in my laptop. In fact, when the little brass contacts inside the spacer started to come out, plus the prongs on the HDD's were starting to get bent, I figured I had maybe one last try before I had myself an expensive boat anchor on my hands. Since I didn't want to hang my hat on that last try being an image failure again, I decided to do a "clean install".

One of the reasons I wanted to make an image was because I didn't want to go through the hassle of reinstalling XP, settings, and all my apps on my new HDD. But the greatest reason was because I didn't want to suffer through all those Microsoft security updates that I knew I'd have to download and install if I did a "clean" install of XP.

As it turned out, I DID do a clean install of XP and it WASN'T as much of a hassle as I thought it would be - even the drivers were not an issue (and I expected a lot of hassle there). It went pretty smooth. And the settings and app installs went pretty smooth too. And I even had an SP2 CD on hand, so that went fine too. BTW, there was no reauthorization required.

And the advantage to doing a "clean" install is that now I have a "lean" registry, which I wouldn't have had if I had done an image and restored it. The start up and shutdown is pretty fast now, whereas those sequences were getting longer and longer as my old registry got "clogged" up (I guess I could have used a "Registry Cleaner", but I've not been impressed with those things).

Now I'm sure my "new" registry will eventually get bound up again, but now I have a three-ring binder with "Renstall stuff" (screen shots of serial numbers of apps downloaded over the years, e.g. SnagIt), reinstall files on CD and pen drives, and apps on CD (e.g. Roxio, Office, Lotus, etc.). But right now, the clean install is running fine. I think when the time comes to do this again, I'll just get out my app CD's, my Driver CD's, etc. and do it!!

Of course, the disadvantage to doing a clean install, as I said, is all those miserable Microsoft Security updates. There've been 73 since 2004 - that's a little over 2 a month!!

Now I'm in the middle of those 73 updates, with my primitive dial-up no less, and that's about as much of a hassle as I thought it would be. But that's NOT an Acronis TI issue, so I've posted those problems on other forums (TechSupport Guy, HP - any other suggestions for forums??).

Sorry Acronis, it was probably more my fault than it was yours. But I think my saga will have a happy ending . . .

Oh, almost forgot . . . thanks GroverH, Xpilot, K0lo, DwnNdrty, foghorne, seekforever . . . . and all the other posters here for the info and effort.

 

Bob, if it is any help, on my systems, I do not do any Microsoft updates. The only updates I have are those that came with the SP2 CD. And my systems - laptop and desktop - run as slick as they did on day one. I just make sure I keep my antivirus (AVG) up to date and the Firewall (Zone Alarm) active. I also run CCleaner, Ad-Aware, Spybot (all kept updated) about once every week or two.

You should really use TI to make a whole disk backup, but not on any optical media - that is an exercise in frustration. External drives are so relatively cheap nowadays. Use one of those instead.

Oh, here's a good computer forum .... www.computing.net

 

On the other hand, I do all the critical updates and don't have any problems.

 

Me too. I find myself between the devil and the..... well, 'the other devil', on this one. Update and you may be damned, don't update and you may be damned.

I just leave automatic updates on and cross my fingers.

F.

 

I realize I'm the only one in my camp but this has worked splendidly for me - turning off Automatic Updates. And to make matters more precarious I'm still using IE 6 with all the supposed "holes" in its structure . But, I have to say, it works for me. Maybe one day I'll step on a big booby trap but until that day I'll "keep on truckin'" like this.

And I can't keep my fingers crossed - need them to type, among other things.

 

For those not familiar with the "Saga", the links below are part of Bob's tale of woes.

• TI Boot CD NOT detecting my CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=177722
  
• Trouble again with TI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=174864
  
• Partitions screwed up after making Acronis Secure Zone
  https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=174359

​

Bob,
Your need for an image recovery backup system is just as strong now as before.
I certainly hope you will "re-open" that door because you still have the need and TrueImage Home is a quality product--IMHO. I have used version 8-9-10 and the backup & recovery function has never failed me.

Your installing your OS from scratch should have re-affirmed your need to make TI work. Having a new hard drive does not eliminate the possibility it too, can become an expensive paperweight. As you have read, even new drives fail!

Acronis support should be able to solve your problem--if provided with all the necessary information.
Your need for external drive has not dimished--perhaps the need is even enhanced.

Your old hard drive (if still working) is recoverable for imaging. At least, keep it as a spare--or attach it to a usb adapter and recover your files, etc.
One such adapter is this link but are generally available all over:
http://206.128.27.142/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/9/t/000143.html

But, something new has arrived. Thanks to MudCrab, he has provided us with guides showing us how to make an external usb drive act in place of the TI Rescue CD. An external drive can be made bootable with the TI Rescue program so that it boots directly into the TI Rescue program and can also contain your backup archives for easy backup or recovery.

How to Create an Acronis Bootable USB Hard Disk
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=176958 ​

Now is not the time to throw in the towel!

 

Epilog

Those 73 Microsoft Security updates DID download without incident. On my Dial-Up, though, it took over three hours.

But that stupid Security Center yellow shield kept popping up in my systray. I like to download the updates from the Windows Update web site, NOT through the Security Center yellow shield, because Windows Update site gives you a check box preference on which updates to choose to download (and so does the yellow shield, but I still like to use the Windows Update site - a matter of personal preference I guess).

But I didn't use that yellow shield because I have my Automatic Updates setting just to "Notify" and NOT to automagically update. It just kept popping up and "notifying" me. Bothersome, but not a deal breaker.

If there's a buggy update, and there have been a few, you can choose NOT to download it in the Windows Update site. Nevertheless, I couldn't remember which ones over the past three years were buggy, so I went ahead and downloaded them all.

I got a buggy update one time and it messed up my machine. Recovered (can't remember how, but it probably was a System Restore) though.

I made a Restore point before I downloaded those updates, just in case. Fortunately, I didn't have to use it.

The installation was where I thought there may be problems because of those buggy updates, plus I thought maybe a few would "step on" the others and mess my machine up. But apparently Microsoft "fixed" those buggy updates, because the installation of all them went fine (phewww . . . dodged a bullet there), and now I'm a happy camper with an updated XP OS, a 120GB HDD, back on line, all my apps reinstalled, the settings the way I want them, a backup bootable 20GB HDD "ready to go" if I need it, and . . . life is good again.

But the moral of the story for images is this: If you want to do an image, FORGET CD's (as DwnNdrty warned me), and have an external USB HDD for the purpose. I think this should be something Acronis clearly states when you buy TI - something like "Acronis STRONGLY recommends you make an image to an external HDD and NOT CD's" (Actually, maybe that's in the "small" print). If it had been, maybe it would have saved me a lot of headaches. Then again, I might have still tried CD's.

I'll probably get an external USB HDD sooner or later, and store an image on it. So, GroverH, I've not thrown in the towel just yet.

But for now I'm OK. Even if the new 120GB HDD fails now, I'll still have the backup bootable 20GB HDD ready to go.

Hey, DwnNdrty, you're really taking a risk. But I guess if everything keeps working, AND you have an image stored, you're OK.

And, GroverH, I don't think I will need to consult Acronis support if I make an image to a USB HDD. They may be able to help me out with making an image to CD's, but I'm not going to try that route again.

 

Bob, glad to hear you're back up with the system as you want it.

BTW, if the info in your signature is correct you should update your True Image to the latest build number or at least build 3677. And as for getting an external drive, you will save a few dollars if you buy the drive seperate and the enclosure seperate. It's very easy to put them together - just two cables.

 

Grover

 

Assuming that your new Drive C has sufficient free space:

...another option open is to do a new complete ATI disk backup (disk 1 checkmarked) and Acronis will allow you to store this backup on Drive C--if backup done within Windows. Create this backup using "Archive Splitting" to control file sizes.

You could then copy this backup (using your own existing burn software) onto CD or DVD's. While this is not the preferred method of storage, it does provide you with one additional source for your data if your ailing drive should not respond when needed. After copying, delete the .tib files from Drive C.

With your new increased free space, another option now open to you for backups is to create partition size backups and store them on your least used partition. For example, you could checkmark to backup only Drive C and store the backup on Drive E. Then, should you have a virus or need to replace the content only on Drive C, you could do a Drive C partition restore/recovery using the backup file stored on Drive E. This option could also apply to backing up your Drive D, etc. Again, utilizing same disk for backups not a preferred method, but better than no backups.

Of course, all this predicated on the backups being error free and validated.....

My point in all this discussion is to encourage you to have sufficient & current backup so that you do not have to do another fresh install of your operating system.