Will TI 9.0 work after reformat HDD ?

Hi ... It just came to me and I was wondering if you use TI 9 latest build ok ? Make a backup of windows which is install on the master HDD onto either a slave HDD or even a external HDD , Then reformat the master HDD where its wipe the drive clean , Could you reinstall Windows again from the backup copy of TI 9 ? Does that make any sense ? More or less can you reformat the driove and afterward use a backup copy of True Image to reinstall the OS ? Thanks

 

What you are describing is exactly the primary intent of imaging. Although you are talking about wiping the disk with a format and then restoring your OS from the image, it is little different from having to recover to a new HD if your old one goes bad.

The recovery is done from the TI Recovery CD which has a memory-resident version Linux and the TI program so nothing needs be on the HD in order to run the restore of the OS.

 

Hi ... So then one would need to burn a copy of TI Recovery cd if he/she were to purchase TI online / download , correct ? Also could you as well reformat the drive with the recovery cd ? Or does it format the drive once you go and load the image backup from the recovery ? Is it something like those preinstall version of windows you get from the brand name companies , Does it basically do the samething as those types of comps ? Thanks for your response

 

Yes, you need to burn a copy of the Recovery CD for a disaster recovery. If you want to restore your C drive to the state provided by a previous image it will start the standalone TI program automatically when it reboots the computer. In the case of replacing your drive with a new one you must have the CD or else you can't run TI to restore an image. There is no "format the disk" option on the recovery CD.

When a drive is formatted with FAT32 or NTFS it is really setting up the file system. So when you restore an image the file system and other data is brought over to the drive and so it is formatted based on the image contents.

I assume your statement, "Is it something like those preinstalled...", is referring to the environment on the CD. The CD provides a memory-resident Linux operating system with just the functionality included for TI to do its tasks. This makes sense because the more you add the more you have to load and pretty soon some systems couldn't handle it and TI's function is to do its disk operations, not to provide a full-featured OS environment.

If you want a bootable CD with more functionality and with the features of TI search this forum and the net for BartPE. BartPE is a small OS that mimics the functions of the Windows PE (Prepartation Environment) software available only to Microsoft's corporate customers. There is a TI plugin available in the B3567 installation softare that permits you to include TI within BartPE. A nice thing about BartPE is that it uses the Windows drivers so if you have for example a USB HD and it doesn't have a good linux driver it may well work much better under BartPE. You can also install other drivers such as RAID drivers in BartPE as well. However, if the TI recovery CD does all you need then why bother with something else.

 

So what does one do when hit by a virus and causes serious problems to the computer ? Do you try your best to clean the infection and then afterward just load a backup image from a previous state ? Also let say the computer never gets clean from this so call virus , What does one do afterward ? Do you just reformat the drive and then reload previous state image ?

TIA

 

No, you just smile, curse the virus-writer and then get out your TI recovery CD. Boot it up, select your image and restore it. No need to reformat. That process puts the disk back to where it was prior to the virus infection so the virus is gone. You might want to restore the MBR as well in case it was hiding in the MBR.

 

How would do just that ? Do you use the windows xp disk and do a recovery console and select fixmbr ? Or is there another way to do such ?

Thanks

 

You can do that which gives you the standard XP MBR. You can even use a Windows 95/98 recovery diskette and use the FDISK /MBR command as well. However, if you are using some software that modifies the MBR then you lose the modifications with either of those methods.

True Image B3567 stores the MBR with a partition image and it can be restored from the archive along with the disk information. Builds prior to 3567 required that a whole disk image be made in order to capture the MBR. IMO, this is a good reason to upgrade to B3567 if you haven't.

 

After reading your post I just updated to 3567 , Though I had the previous build prior to this latest one, Wasn't that build similar to the latest where it would also capture the MBR , IMO ? Or is it just from the latest build ? BTW when you say partition image , What exactly are you referring to ? Selecting the backup feature or the clone disk feature ?

TIA

 

Builds prior to 3567 would only capture the MBR if you made an image of the whole disk not just a single partition. You had to image every partition by selecting the entire disk box and then restore the entire disk image to get the MBR restored. Now when you make an image of only the C partition it will backup the MBR such that you can restore it if desired when restoring just the C partition.

I am referring to making an image archive of the partition not cloning. If you clone the drive to another one you will get all the partitions and data created on the new drive and the MBR will be included as well.

 

Thanks Seekforever for all your input