Newbie Query - TI8 restore on drive with XP NTFS partition deleted.

I am really new to all this so please bear with me if my questions sound daft!

I have been considering Norton Ghost and read about Acronis True Image 8 in a PC magazine. I have read and have been told that True Image 8 is far better.

I have little experience of the purpose of Acronis and would like to know a little more before buying.

(1) I use Windows XP at present. If I delete the NTFS partition of XP to start totally from fresh, Will I be able to restore an image created with True Image 8 on the same computer, including the operating system and all system files, or will I first have to use my XP CD to create a partition.

(2) If I am able to use True Image 8 for a full restore including a new partition, will there be an option to reformat before the operating system is
restored?

(3) If I am able to use True Image 8 for a full restore, including the operating system, can this be done from a DVD alone containing the operating system,
programs and files, or will this require a boot floppy or CD

In a nutshell, I would like to know what True Image 8 can achieve (having created an earlier drive image) given a 'bare' hard drive where the XP NTFS partition has been deleted.

Thanks in anticipation for your help.

Michael

 

Yes, as long as you create a boot CD before you get rid of your OS you can use that CD to initiate a restore operation. I would download the trial version and test it out. It's free! Make sure in particular that the boot CD works. There have been compatability problems with RAID configurations or SATA drives. Let me know if this is an issue for you. And if you buy the program, don't forget to download the updated version afterwards. The download you purchase is, surprisingly, an older build with reported bugs. The trial version is the latest version.

The most TI offers is to resize a partition that exists and to make it active, logical or primary. It will wipe out whatever was in the partition, so I think that's the equivalent of a "quick format". However, you can use the windows install CD to do a full reformat using the recovery console without installing the OS.

If you back up your system and create a recovery CD, then you will need the recovery CD and the media which you backed up to and a hard drive to install the image to. With Retrospect, another backup program I used before TI, you have to reinstall the OS, then Retrospect, then use Retrospect to do your recovery. Ghost 9 works almost exactly like TrueImage.

 

That's excellent. Thanks for your reply.

I do have SATA so I need to check compatability.

Thanks again for your excellent post

Michael