"Worried" acronis won't work if i buy it

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by crowley, Jul 23, 2009.

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  1. crowley

    crowley Registered Member

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    Hello

    I have windows vista home premium

    My other post Quite a few months ago, i was asking for advice on using this product.
    But what did put me of a little bit was will this actually work.
    As i have no way of testing it, i do not know or have any knowlege of testing it out on spare hard drives.

    There was one reply i got some months ago, telling me of another way you can test it here is a quote.

    Before i actually buy the product, can this be tested using the trial version.
    you can see my reluctance to pay £39.00, if there is a slight chance of it not working.
     
  2. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    The trial version boot CD will not let you make a Backup, only Restore one. You must make the Backup from the installed software. In your situation here's what I would do:
    1. Make a Windows Restore point, then download and instal the Trial. But do not opt to make the Secure Zone nor activate the Startup Recovery Manager.
    2. After you install the software, de-activate the three items that will be put into your StartUp - go to Start>Run and type msconfig. Look in the StartUp tab. These items are only necessary if you want to to automatic scheduled backups.
    3. Make the bootable Rescue CD.
    4. Make a backup from the installed software.
    5. Boot with the Rescue CD and follow the instructions you quoted above (except for creating the archive - you will already have one from #4)
     
  3. seekforever

    seekforever Registered Member

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    I wrote your quote. No, you can't test imaging exactly that way because the trial CD version won't create an archive like the licensed version will. But you can install TI and create the archive with the time-limited Windows portion. Then do the validation with the CD version. As a further test, you can also go through the Restore Wizard on the CD version pretending you are going to do a restore and answer all the questions but Cancel out of the last screen where you have to click on Proceed to actually do the restore. This is an alternative to using the CD to create the archive and will demonstrate that the archive can be found and the disk you wish to restore to can be seen by the CD version of TI.
     
  4. CAOgdin

    CAOgdin Registered Member

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    Acronis TrueImage (in its various editions) are buggy, to be sure (as any look at my past posts will show), but usually at the most advanced levels of features.

    That having been said, I can conclusively state that over five years, and dozens of installed Acronis TrueImage products across a wide variety of clients, I have Never lost data. Because backup is a "passive" process (that is, it doesn't change anything significant on the disk(s) being backed up), it can't hurt your system to try. And, when you restore, you can always restore to a different disk drive and test.

    Frankly, hard drives are so cheap these days, it makes it economical to backup direct to a separate partition or drive in the same system.

    Furthermore, if you have, say, a 40GB C: drive partition, where Windows resides, adding a second 40GB drive (internal or external) is a $30 option. So, plug in a second drive, restore to it. boot from it, and satisfy yourself that it's reliable.

    Finally, if you want product in English, you can pay $25 for TrueImage Home at http://www.ugr.com/TrueImage.html. It's true, and they are a legitimate partner with Acronis. You'll get a license key, then you download and install the product. (You might be able to use the same license key for other-language versions of the product, but I don't know that, because I've never tried.)
     
  5. crowley

    crowley Registered Member

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    OK guys thankyou for the replys..DwnNdrty, seekforever, and CAOgdin.

    What i had done this morning, which was before i had recieved the replys
    Was to download acronis (trial version) (Typical install).

    And clicked on One click protection and scheduled a backup every seven days.

    So i now have a folder that has been created on my E:\drive
    (E:\My computer backups\backup.tib)

    I now have just de-activated the three items in MSconfig
    That is all i have done so far.

    Is it still ok to do a restore point at this stage. then i can go on to finding out how you do Make a bootable rescue cd.

    Thankyou for taking the time to help me on this




     
  6. Faust

    Faust Registered Member

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    If there's one software product you can buy with some confidence it's Acronis TI - I have been using it for years and it never lets me down. Forget all the whistles and bells and just do full image backups and restores, you can't go wrong with these and you'll wish you'd spent the money years ago.
     
  7. CAOgdin

    CAOgdin Registered Member

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    Why would you de-activate the "three items in MSconfig?" If you're talking about the three services that Acronis installs, why would you specifically and intentionally disable the product you just installed?

    Am I confused about what you've done?
     
  8. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    To give the OP confidence in using True Image without the possibility of those startup items interferring when least expected. Too often an update of other software (notably antivirus or even a Windows update) will not "play nice" with a startup item. And as long as the OP makes manual Backups (or Clones) those items are not needed.
     
  9. crowley

    crowley Registered Member

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    Thanks for explaining that , i wondered about why i had to do that

    So is it now ok to carry on .
    I have printed out quite a few of the help pages, so i am just going over them at the moment...


    Just looking at the "Creating bootable Media"
    Do i select both the "acronis true home" and the "acronis true home (full version)
    Not sure on this one ?
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2009
  10. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    In creating the bootable media select all the options given.
    If you wish to try some of the automatic scheduled backups, you can always go back and re-enable those three startup items. But until you get a feel for what the software does, keep doing manual backups either with the bootable Media cd (my preference) or from the installed software.

    Is your E drive an internal or external drive?
     
  11. crowley

    crowley Registered Member

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    Hello DwnNdrty

    Its an internal one, though i would have liked this on my external hard drive.
    But did not think to plug it in at the time..
    I was trying to take to much in

    OK i am ready to make a bootable rescue cd

    so i take it i have already made the backup from the installed software already..


    P.S
    The only discs i have at the moment are DVD-R 4.7gb and CD-R 700MB



     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2009
  12. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    The bootable media CD requires one standard CDR.

    It doesn't hurt to make another backup using the bootable Rescue CD and this time direct it to the external drive. You want to get comfortable with the process. You want to feel that you are in control of the software and its features.
     
  13. LowWaterMark

    LowWaterMark Administrator

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  14. crowley

    crowley Registered Member

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    Thanks DwnNdrty

    OK.. i have finally made a Bootable rescue cd
    this may sound stupid, but what is the correct way to boot from this.:doubt:
    Do i have to go into safe mode.







     
  15. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    If the BIOS is already set to boot from the CD/DVD drive before hard drive, you just need to put the TI CD into the drive and restart the computer.

    Otherwise, you'll need to either use a BIOS Boot Menu (F8 or F11, for example) or enter the BIOS (Del, F2, F10, etc.) when you start the computer and change the booting order so the CD/DVD drive is listed before the hard drive. (The BIOS keys vary from one computer to another. Usually they're displayed on the booting screen or in the user's manual.)
     
  16. Flatiron

    Flatiron Registered Member

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    On my Dell it's F12, then use the down arrow to select CD-ROM.
    When I see Boot from CD I press Enter and Acronis will load.
    Edit: F2 for Setup and F12 for Boot Menu on my Dell Inspiron.

    How to access/enter Motherboard BIOS
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2009
  17. charly129

    charly129 Registered Member

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  18. crowley

    crowley Registered Member

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    Thankyou charly129
    I have been over that, doe's not look very promising at the moment, i will hold of a bit.
    I need some advice now on whether to proceed on the next step.

    I need to go into the BIOS and change the booting order so i can try the TIH rescue cd, to validate an archive, so if this rescue cd doesn't work will i be able to get back to the operating system., simple by changing the boot order again

    Its my first time at using acronis, and after reading all the posts in the link above, is it safe to try this rescue cd out...i am afraid i will get stuck and cannot get back
    I am using the trial version for now, and really ready to buy the boxed version

    For people like me, its hard reading these stories of problems with acronis.
    As for beginners like me, i am now confused a little





     
  19. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    Normally, the CD/DVD drive will be set to boot before the hard drive. You won't get "stuck" by changing it. If a bootable CD/DVD is not in the drive, the computer will proceed to try and boot from the next device in the list (usually the hard drive).
     
  20. crowley

    crowley Registered Member

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    Great Mudcrap.....thanks

    I was wondering and worried about charly129 quote
    I would not know if i have this problem till i try it out, but if the boot rescue cd doe's not work, can i just take it out and restart the computer.
    so that it will boot from the hard drive, as i was a bit worried that i might not be able to boot at all, until i buy the full version, as i think i read somewhere

     
  21. seekforever

    seekforever Registered Member

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    Surprised that hasn't happened before - now that I see it in print!:D :D :D

    The only crap is what chrly129 wrote about not being able to reboot etc.
     
  22. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    It has happened before. Probably in the 5-7 range along with several others (not that I'm keeping count :) )
     
  23. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    Just take the CD out and reboot.

    The problem being referred to was if a restore was needed or went wrong and the computer would no longer boot into Windows and the TI CD didn't work on the computer. This is a good reason to test that it does work and does see the computer's hardware correctly before you have problems.
     
  24. crowley

    crowley Registered Member

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    Hello guys

    Well all this went well in the end here's what i did.

    I inserted the boot rescue cd and got to the acronis TI program

    I selected the validation wizard and selected the archive to validate
    E:\My computer backups\backup.tib

    I then clicked on next and then proceed and then i got this message
    Acronis true image cannot detect volume1 of "Backup" Archive.

    So i then clicked on the browse button and found it on the D: drive.
    (which i don't have a d: drive) but i did read about acronis May have different drive letters.

    So i selected D:\My computer Backups\backup.tib and clicked on ok

    Waited about 10 minutes and got "The archive was successfully checked"







     
  25. CAOgdin

    CAOgdin Registered Member

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    Good Job!

    The reason that drive letters aren't consistent, is that the Rescue CD is running in Linux, trying to work with a Windows-based system. Its method of identifying ("enumerating") drives is rather simplistic.

    For example, my customary drives (on over 100 XP Pro systems) are C:, D:, E: and X:. C: is where Windows and applications go; D: is where I put data (e.g., suites of utilities not yet installed, \Quarantine, for downloads, etc.), E: is my CD/DVD drive, and X: is where I make all my TrueImage (and now ABR) backups. However, when I use the Rescue CD, it will name them C:, D:, E: and F:...and, sometimes, the equivalent of X: is E;, and sometimes F:, depending on the version and edition of the TrueImage (or ABR) product).

    It's an inconvenience, but if you know about how drives are enumerated differently, it can sometimes make your finding what you're looking easier.
     
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