Dynamic disks-you have got to be kidding

I am a network admin so am quite knowledgable when it comes to stoarge etc.

I, without examining chart of supported systems, purchased Acronis TI9. I had heard good thinge about it and was interested in trying something other than Ghost.

Note that Ghost worked find backing up my local dynamic disk.

Only to find out that Acronis does not support dynamic disks!! In this day and age of multiple HDs etc!!!!

AND, worse yet, you are suggesting that non-professionals use dskprobe to modify the low level structure of the HDs?!!!?

You have GOT TO BE KIDDING.

I would like to suggest that you enable (notice the word enable, as it already exists in the server level products) dynamic disk support.

Bob

 

Hello Osm3um,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please be aware that Acronis True Image 9.0 doesn't support Dynamic Disks. Only server versions of Acronis True Image (Acronis True Image 8.0 Server and Acronis True Image 8.0 Enterprise Server) support Dynamic Disks.

Thank you.
--
Irina Shirokova

 

I realize that dynamic disks are not supported, however, you may want to rethink that as a competing product does support them. Maybe only support single spindle dynamic disks. If you do a search on the internet for optimizing XP and the word "dynamic", you will find that it is recommended to use dynamic disks.

I would like to restate that handing out instructions to edit the raw data of their disks to people who may not be very computer savy is not very responsible.

Bob

 

I agrree. Dynamic disks are so common why disable a feature already available? I still haven't found out for sure if Ti9 supports SCSI devices as I have the demo version for testing. I'd buy the product if I can determine if my SDLT will be supported, but the demo version is either hiding or has that function disabled.

~Stve

 

I was pissed when I discovered this a year ago! Thought I would be cute and try spanning. *&%^&#$%@#$@#!!!! Please Acronis Gods! Get the program working with dynamic disks!!! Tech

 

Well, I MUST say that this is not quite true. I use ATI Enterprise Server 8 build 1201 and I have a CPQ Proliant server (I do regret for ever purchasing CPQ equipment) with CPQ Smart Array 5300 controller and few SCSI discs in a single array where I have 2 dynamic disc volumes C and D. No matter what, these CAN NOT be seen from ATI restore mode nor from create image mode, so I guess you have to do some more work on development becuase as Boob mentioned in these days not being able to backup/restore dynamic disks is not good at all.

 

Using sector-backup for servers.....with dynamic-disks....come on...this is suicide.

 

Hello klasika,

You are right, Acronis Bootable CD doesn't support Dynamic volumes. You may create images of Dynamic disks only in Windows. Please note that after you restore this image the disk will be set as Basic and you will need to convert it to Dynamic with the help of operating system (it is possible to do that in Windows without data loss).

Thank you.
--
Irina Shirokova

 

I am interested how to convert basic-disk back to striped-volume, its just really interesting.

 

This is interesting. Why not?
I am actually creating Raid5 volume images with Boot CD - After TI completely crashed the server, while attempting to create image in Windows.

So, are you saying that I am dreaming or somehow doing impossible?
Or, those images are not valid? I haven't tried restoring, as I do not have spare server to play with, but those images can be verified as good.
I am using TI7 Boot CD, but do not remember the build number.

 

Since the Acronis Boot CD is Linux-based, it cannot see Dynamic Disks since they work at the Windows OS level. Acronis TI Enterprise WILL see dynamic disk and will image them when doing a live image, but not an offline image from the CD. If the boot CD was Windows PE-based, then perhaps you could see Dynamic Disks via the CD.

 

This is good point - why at all to uses this fu*ing Linux? Restoring Windows
system with Linux.....bulshit.

Professional suggest for Acronis: Microsoft have such product as "Windows XP Embedded". You can buy it, learn it and make exactly such kind of bootable recovery CD with TI support as you like, it can even fit into USB.

The Dynamic-Disk volumes arent the only problem that Linux misses - I dont think that Linux also understands
NTFS hard-links. How about hard-links? And also mount-points? As you see restoring some OS with other OS
resources is in principle wrong idea.

 

One reason they may use Linux over Windows PE for the Recovery CD is speed. Have you ever booted from the Symantec Recovery CD, which is Windows PE-based? It takes upwards to 15 minutes in some cases, whereas the Linux version from Acronis takes seconds.

 

And this is exactly why there is a BartPE plugin that You can install
It took me 5 minutes to create a "BartPE" CD based on W2003 SP1 with
Acronis True Image 8.0 Enterprise Server on it.

This is obviously a licensing issue, as it would cost quite a few dollars to distribute a WinPE license from MS with the product. The Linux based CD is free for Acronis, and most people that use WinXP/2K/2K3 have a valid CD they can use as a base for a "BartPE" CD with Acronis on it.

That way You get support for Dynamic disks when booting from a CD.

 

Speed is not question. I wasnt talked about PE. Windows XP Embedded is
completely different thing - its development environment and you can make
it as fast as you want. Fewer components means faster, this dont depends from OS but rather from software that you want to integrate with it.
Also PE is developed with XP Embedded.

But of course question is about money (for Windows). TI server costs about 1000 $, compared with others enterprise-class products those costs about 5000-10000$. This simple means that if you are specialized for home products, then yes, Windows costs money and you must eat trash and all customers are also happy. But if you want to go into enterprise-class market, and continue to eat trash, then ......sorry, its not serious checkpoint to read
such little money.

 

Dag,

Can you send me or email me how you made that boot disk? That is exactly what I need. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

I'll Help You with this.

First You need a couple of things:

1) a Windows XP CD (Preferably with the latest SP integrated) or similar
Windows Server 2003 with SP1.

2) BartPE Builder (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/)

3) When You installed Acronis True Image Enterprise Server 8 or Acronis True
Image Server 8, make sure You ticked the "Install BartPE Plugin".

4) From the BarPE site You will find additional plugins (NICs, SCSI, RAID etc).


Then on to the Building itself:


1) Install BartPE Builder to a disk with at least 1.5 GB free space.

2) Create a folder in D:\PeBuilder\plugin catalog.
I called mine D:\PeBuilder\plugin\acronis

3) Copy all the files from C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageEnterprise\BartPE
to the D:\PeBuilder\plugin\acronis folder.

4) Insert the CD/DVD wit XP/w2k/w2k3 into Your CD/DVD.

5) Start PE Builder from Your desktop or from the Start-menu (depending on
Your choices during installation of PE Builder)

6) in PE Builder do the following:

Set the source field to the root of Your CD/DVD

Leave the Custom field alone

Leave the Default value in the Output field

Chose a path for Your .ISO file (build ISO first, burn to CD later).

Click the <Plugins> button in the lower left corner

Make sure You enable the "Acronis True Image" plugin

Enable any other plugin You would like. Some of them require you to
download additional Software. You will get a warning if You enable an
incomplete plugin.

Close the Plugin-list window when done.

7) Click the <Build> button when You want to create the .ISO file

If You have VMware or VirtualPC, you can try out booting on the .ISO file
in a virtual machine before burning it to a CD.


I usually add driver and nic plugins for IBM and HP HardWare as I use it for Servers (ServeRAID 2/3/4/5/6/7/8i, LSI + BMC/Intel ++ nics).
Many drivers are "in the box" if You use Windows Server 2003 w/SP1 as the base.

Good luck

 

Thanks for taking the time to write that out. I appreciate it!

 

This is unbelievable that Acronis makes collaboration with such "no name"
3rd party product like "Barts...***". What it is? Its cracked/hacked version
of official Microsoft product named Microsoft Windows Embedded.
The original site is here :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/windowsxpembedded/default.aspx

 

Bart PE is not a hacked/cracked windows PE.

If you read Bart's explanations, first version was something like that, but he had to rebuild new from scratch, because MS didn't like to see Bart PE using Windows PE elements.

So as it is now, it is legal, at least it is said so very officially for months now, everywhere on the planet. I very much doubt Microsoft would let him develop and distribute it if this were not the case.

As for the "speed" of Acronis : when I boot from CD it takes almost 5 minutes to com eto the start screen. Same for windows PE ( MS has released a security check CD in Germany inmany magazines, and it is PE powered : slow !). Same for Bart PE.

Probably all have some "problem" with my configuration, although it is terribly standard for our times

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe + PIV 3Ghz FSB 800
1GB DDR-I
HD WD Raptor S-ATA as master boot drive 30GB NTFS
RAID 0+1 using 4 Maxtor DiamondMax 8 S-ATA HD 120 GB each on
a Promise controller Fasttrak TX400/S150
Maxtor 350 GB S-ATA DiamondMax 8 ( for internal backups and sync)
external Firewire drive Lacie BigDisk 320Gb ( usually disconnected to avoid virus)
GeForce 6800 graphics card

 

What f** PE, I wasnt talked nothing about PE, I was talked about
Windows Embedded Development Environment. I was put link to it in previous post and there is nothing about Windows PE.

No, those elements are not "PE elements" but instead elements of "Windows XP Embedded"

Thats because you use PE or Barts. They bot are not for this work at all,
they are both crap. With "Windows XP Embedded" you can build OS that is
exactly what you want, with it you can include or exclude absolutely every single object that ever exist in Windows OS, even in kernel level.

 

Geto,

I've just read through your 24 posts. Seems you have a knack for making contentious statements!!

Regards

 

I agree Menorcaman. It's the first time I notice a troll who calls himself a pro yet fails to understand that Linux, as a flavour of Unix, predates every other OS, and it is of substantial help to learn Unix particularly when CLI is desireable to use. The Windows CLI is pretty anemic by comparison. Also, if you (Geto) are unable to post here without using such an infantile language, I suggest you switch your nick to ghetto, and go post somewhere else.

 

You simple havent enough programming skills. First learn more MS Windows
and then start to use or talk about it. Now you can proceed to use that infantile and archaic Unix/Linux - thats is just exactly for freaks.

 

It looks to me as if we need to calm down and refrain from the personal comments here. Since this thread has gone off on some strange allegations of cracking/etc I think it's best to close it for now pending admin review.