Two HD

Hello Guys,

I am still not sure-

I want to create exact copy of my laptop HD onto external USB HD. Idea is that if HD of my laptop blows I can use the external USB HD to get everything back (including OS, registery, data ..everything same). Will True image 9 do this for me

Another issue is-

I have got a laptop and and a PC. If I install True Image 9.0 on both then

1. can I take the backup for both the machines onto one external HD?
2. IF 1 is yes then will I be able to recover either machine using this single
external HD?

I will buy True image 9 based on response to above.

Thanks in advance

 

Hi

It sometimes seems that users of this system miss the simplicity of it. An image backup is a single file, which can be stored anywhere.

An installation of the program on any computer can create a recovery boot disk (cd,usb,floppy).
The full version boot systems have the drivers to access networks, cds and usbs.

When you boot from rescue media, all that is needed is to locate the backup image, and restore it where you want. (you can even use the restore process to partition your new drive).

It is not necessary to have the installed program on the target computer, when using a boot medium.
The boot medium can also create a complete image file of the target and store it to any other medium you have access to.

Image files can be mounted (explored) without having to overwrite your drive. The images are assigned a Drv: for read only access, and then you can choose to transfer individual files.

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tips & opinions
* If you are storing your image on the network, make sure the folder where it is stored is 'shared'

* Storing files on usb drives is convenient, as you can just plug it in where needed. This may be faster then network, but a little less convenient.

* DVD-rw storage is slow to restore, but there should be one good copy of your system stored away, to cover emergencies. DVD images used for resotring, where resizing is extremely slow.

* keep your programs and docs on seperate drives (partitions), so you program drv images are smaller, and if you have to do a restore, it won't overwrite your docs.

* I keep 2 images of almost empty drives, in Fat32 and NT, for utility. So when setting up a new Disk, I can just create the partitions on the fly. Location and size can be adjusted while "restoring". The basic filesystem can not be changed. (you can't create an NT partition, with a fat32 image). This is faster (to me) then fdisking and formatting a new drive.

If you use dynamic disk structures with Windows, these drives cannot be imaged, at least not with version 8. (It would have been nice if Acronis had mentioned that in their manuals, as it wouldn't have made some of disks that way, and now can't back them up ).
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I don't use version 9, as I have 8 but I believe that using TI as a backup-disaster recovery system for your setup would be a good investment.

 

Yes. Choosing a USB 2.0 External is the right choice.

Yes. Just be sure to name the Backup fiels appropriately, so you'll know which file if for the Laptop, and which file is for the Desktop PC.

Yes. Acronis makes just ONE (.tib) file each time a Backup is made. You can "Save" as many Backup files as your External will hold of different computers onto the same External HD. I do it all the time.

In case you're wondering if you can save the Backup files on the same HD... along with different files & folders (Program files, Mp3's, Pics, Docs, and etc),....Yes you can.

 

One caveat here jabar. External drives are usually formatted Fat32. If your image size is greater that 4GB TI will break it into 4GB chunks to match the file system. If you want a single backup *.TIB file than you may want to format the drive to NTFS first. I would also recommend that build the Rescue disk and make sure you can actually see your external drive. The Rescue CD is a Linux environment and there are numerous posts here about the lack of drivers and/or poor performance of the drivers in this environment. Search the forum for this issue. An alternate to consider is BartPE http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
with either the plugin from TI or Mustang's TI plugins http://www.mechrest.com/plugins/
for Windows based solution for the Rescue environment.

 

Hello jabar,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Please be aware that there are two approaches available:

Clone Disk - copies/moves the entire contents of one disk drive to another;

Backup - creates a special archive file for backup and disaster recovery purposes;

Please take a look at this FAQ article explaining the difference between Clone Disk and Backup approaches in more detail.

Actually, Clone Disk approach is usually used to upgrade the hard drive (e.g. install a larger disk), while Backup approach is basically dedicated for the complete data backup and disaster recovery purposes. Since you are interested in backing up your hard drive for the disaster recovery purposes, I would recommend you to follow Backup approach.

Moreover, there are several advantages of creating an image over the disk cloning procedure such as: you can create an image without rebooting your PC, image creation can be scheduled for the particular point in time, Acronis True Image allows you to create incremental and differential images, image archive contains only the actual data and so it has a smaller size, images are ordinary files and so they can be stored on any type of the supported media, etc. However, the final choice is always up to your needs.

Please note that using Backup tool Acronis True Image 9.0 Home creates an image archive file while after using Clone Disk tool no image archive files are created, both hard drives will be identical.

You can find more information on how to use Acronis True Image 9.0 Home in the respective User's Guide. We also recommend that you take a look at Acronis True Image 9.0 Home FAQ page, Acronis Public Knowledge Base and this article providing the illustrated instructions on Acronis True Image 9.0 Home installation and usage.

1. Yes, as Clearline said the Acronis True Image image archive is a regular file (it has *.tib extension) and therefore you can store several image archives on your external hard drives.

2. Yes, you will be able to connect the external hard drive with the image archive to the needed computer and restore the appropriate image archive using Acronis True Image either in Windows or when booted from Acronis True Image Bootable CD if your system fails.

Please also be aware that according to Acronis software licensing policy, you should purchase one copy of Acronis program per every computer where it will be used.

We recommend you to download and install the free trial version of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home to see how the software works on your computer

If you would like to order your software before the trial period ends, please visit the Acronis online store.

Thank you.
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Aleksandr Isakov