New user question

Hi everyone.

I apologise for asking this question as I'm sure there are posts that will answer my question. My problem is that I'm having trouble understanding the jargon on the disc instructions.

I have just re-formatted my laptop from my recovery discs and I have my laptop as I want it, e.g. all the software installed and settings as I like them etc.. Is it possible for me to create a copy of my current settings and OS so that when I have to format the computer in future I can revert back to my current state?

Also, can I make a copy of my current OS on my external HD so that I do not have to use recovery discs in future?

Thanks

Dan

 

Buy a portable hard drive 160 gig ($50-$60). Do a full backup to the portable drive and anytime you want to restore your laptop to today's condition, just run the restore. You can backup your laptop once a month or so after cleaning the drive of junk and defragmenting it.
You can back it up to the same drive, but that kinda defeats the purpose of a backup that will be used to restore a bad drive. If it's bad, how do you access the backup? And when you attempt to restore it to the same drive, it erases the entire disk first. You would have to copy the backup to another drive and then restore to the original drive. Doesn't sound like a good idea.

 

And, you might prefer my way, using the bootable Rescue CD. That is, use the Clone Disk utility and create a duplicate HDD for your laptop.
That is what I do and have always done. Then I rotate my laptop drives and always have a ready-to-go HDD with no RESTORE necessary. I much prefer hardware fixes to software. They are faster and more reliable.

 

CorkyG,

That's a lot a manual activity if you want to backup your HD twice daily so the backup HD remains current. You certainly don't want a backup that is "old".

 

bpbp00- I kind of get what you mean. As for the other suggestions guys it sounds like another langauge.

If I want to create a restore point of my current settings and os etc, should I just backup the c/drive?

Thanks

Dan

 

Thought I should mention. I'm not really interested in using Acronis for regular backups. I just want to have a backup of my current OS, software installs and settings. Anything else like music, photos etc I will back up at my own leisure.

I'm also using True image version 10 home.

Thanks

 

If you make a full image of your C drive then you will be able to restore your C drive to that state at anytime in the future. I keep my data files in a different partition or HD than the C drive. This way you can blow it away and revert to an earlier image at anytime without losing any data files. Also, this keeps the C drive smaller so images are much faster to make and restore.

Like we tell everybody, you must have confidence that you can restore your system when required. The best test by far is to restore it to a spare HD. The next best test is to boot up the TI rescue CD and validate an archive with it. If successful, then go through the restore wizard as if you are going to do a restore but then cancel out of the wizard at the last screen where you are asked to Proceed. Test restores should be done for any backup program. TI uses a Linux recovery environment so successful archive creation and validation in Windows is no guarantee that the recovery will work in Linux until you demonstrate that it works. Even if you start a restore of C in Windows, TI will request a reboot and load the Linux recovery environment.

 

Ok I followed Grovers beginners guide. When I select proceed it comes up ERROR, failed to make scheduled task.

Anyone know why this may be happening?

Thanks

Dan

 

Saving a "backup" by doing a clone has the advantage that restoration can be faster -- however long it takes to swap disks. Otoh, you only get one "backup" per hdisk so you need a lot of hdisks if you want to follow a backup protocol calling for maintaining a history of backups. Some folks like to have omore than one backup on hand in case one doesn't work and some folks also like to have the ability to choos diff points in time from which to restore.

Also image backups tend to run faster than cloning so there is time savings while backing up, which usually occurs frequently while restores occur infrequently.

For myself, I can restore of an image file in less time than it takes to swap hdisks. Your situation and goals will determine what's best for you.

 

Ok I followed Grovers beginners guide. When I select proceed it comes up ERROR, failed to make scheduled task.

Anyone know why this may be happening?

Thanks

Dan

 

I have no need for frequent "backup". Thats is handled in real time by RAID 1. My objective is system reliability with a rapid turn around. Changing HDDs on my Lenovo T60 is one screw out - remove the drive, insert the reserve drive, replace the screw. Duck soup! Less than 2 minutes.

As for manual operatiojns - always! I only care to rely on auto functions when there is nio manual option available. Always stay in control!

 

I'm not sure that's true. RAID 1 helps if one HD fails but it's not really a backup solution. If you get a virus, both HDs are affected. If you install bad software, both HDs are affected. If you accidentally delete files, both HDs are affected. Then you have to be concerned about the recency of your real backup.

 

Anyone got any suggestions to my problem with the error above?

 

Hello Daan,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

Please follow the instructions in this post.

If the issue persists, please collect some information to let us investigate it thoroughly:

Please create Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

- Copy schedmgr.exe file to the root of your c: drive
- Click Start – Run, type in cmd, press OK and issue the following command:

C:\schedmgr get report > schedreport.txt

- Collect the schedreport.txt file in the root of your c:drive
- Please run the schedmgr.exe program by double-clicking it from Windows Explorer
- Enable logging by using the following command:

set logflags support

- Reproduce the issue and collect the schedul2.log file which is placed to the same folder as the service file (program files\common files\acronis\schedule2)

It is recommended to turn off logging after troubleshooting by using the following command (from the schedmgr.exe command prompt):

set logflags 0
set lf_registry on

Then submit a request for technical support or use our Live Chat service. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will do our best to investigate the problem and provide you with a solution.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov