Successful recovery ;)

Further to my 'Moment of Truth' post (that I put on this forum a few days ago), I'm happy to report that True Image-8 successfully restored the systems in both cases (both to new hard drives), and the PCs are now working fine.

One question if I may. Lets say I backed up an image of my Dell laptop, and the hard drive and motherboard later went kapoot due to a power surge? It's obvious that I'd be forced to buy a new laptop. But I'd still have the T.I backup with Windows-XP and all my data on. Is there any way the backup would be of use other than having the data on it? Would the saved Windows-XP O.S. still work on the new laptop?

Once again, thanks for the invaluable help and support on this forum,

Tinn

 

The answer would be possibly maybe probably.

The problem with some brand name systems, is that they either have a hidden partition with utilities on, or require certain drivers for hardware that only are available for that system. It has been known for the OEM version of Windows to have been played with so that it only runs/installs with a certain machine --- a bit like locking sim cards to a particular mobile phone carrier.

So even if you bought another Dell, you will be able to restore; but whether some hardware features will suddenly cease to work is hard to say, and whether the machine boots properly is also hard to say.

May be worth an email to Dell, though whether they will give an assurance this would work is remote.

Colin

PS. This also applies to HP, IBM, Sony -- Don't know about Benq or Evo (makers of many branded systems) or Medion.

 

I would have to say no. Your backup image contains all of the Windows registry entries and drivers specific to the model of notebook you backed up. It will most probably NOT work on anything other than a new notebook of the same model.

 

I would have to agree with both replies above. I've performed several "copyovers" of images to new systems. Sometimes you can get it to work, sometimes not. Just depends on WHICH drivers are different. In some cases, using the XP Recovery feature (boot from XP CD and choose recovery) will get you up and running.

At the very least, you can expect to have to call Microsoft to get a new XP and/or Office Key. There'll most likely be a lot of hadware changes so XP will bark about that.

There's no "set" of rules to follow but, I'd strongly recommend removing (at the very least) your video card drivers PRIOR to making the image if you are going to another system. Especially if one system has Nvidia and the other has ATI. That seems to be the main issue I have run into. Incompatible video drivers and ... PHRAAAP .. XP locks up at boot.

 

Thanks for those useful responses. Very handy to keep in mind should the
worst happen.

Regarding creating an image on the fly. Is it true that I can still use my computer, go on the internet, install programes, etc - all while True Image is backing up to an external USB drive? Or are there some things I shouldnt do during the operation?

Ta,

Tinn

--

 

Yes, but I haven't tried this. I prefer to 'lose' 15-20mins of computer time and let TI do its thing, but then I still have reservations when I do CD burns, tend to leave them to do their thing as well.

Interesting thought just came to me - OS's work by loading portions of their system in to RAM (and then with modern CPU's lock the address) and excess is page/swap filed. This gives the ability to do things on the fly. I wonder what happens in a system where page/swap file had been deliberately disabled?

Colin

 

Tinni

Glad this all worked out for u.

Storage_man

 

Thanks to you and Q/Draw etc for all the useful input.

Any further thoughts on whether I could safely work on my PC during
image creation (on the fly) would be helpful.

Bodgy. Thanks. You say you 'prefer to 'lose' 15-20mins of computer time and let TI do its thing'. It takes me about 2 hours to create an image!
Running a Dell laptop with 40gb hard drive, and writing to a 120gb usb drive.

Thoughts on either topic welcome.

T.

 

Are your Dell USB ports v1.0, 1.1 or 2.0?

Check what other programs run in the background; both those that show up in the systray and those that run silent.

services.msc will show what is running.

A certain software anti viral company (? theorum on current calculations ), is notorious for using the COM (not communication) access and often hogs much CPU time.

If you are not on a network then the indexing service run automatically by XP can be disabled, other things to look for in are the settings for background program time versus, foreground processes, possibly if you have compressed any part of your drive this may cause a slowing down.

BIOS/USB driver upgrades for your Dell model might be required.

All the above assuming you are using a true Dell provided version of XP or whatever OS and the service packs as provided by Dell.

Colin

 

Hi Colin,

Funnily enough, Windows Xp does complain that my Del is running on
USB 1.0 ...which I thought odd as its a fairly new laptop. I have been meaning to upgrade the drivers. So thanks for prompting me.

I'm on a network,
runing AVG.

Thanks again. Some useful tips there -

T.

--

 

Hello Tinni,

In theory, you should be able to continue working normally whilst TI creates an image. However, like many other "Home Users", I prefer to let TI do its business without too many interruptions from other Windows applications (some users even resort to imaging after booting into the Linux based rescue environment!!). I can understand and accept though that this may not be practicable for enterprise systems.

If you are interested in finding out a little more about how TI carries out "live" imaging, check out this <Technical Article> by Max Lyadvinsky (Acronis Technical Director).

Regards