Errors, and a question

I received True Image 8 as a gift yesterday. I've wasted all day today to try to create a backup on external USB drives. I'm trying to back up a laptop with a 20GB hard drive, of which only 7.8GB is currently used. The computer (a Dell Latitude L400) is running WindowsXP Pro, with service pack 2 and all updates installed. I first tried to back up to a 20GB Iomega Peerless USB drive. After two hours, I was told I needed to insert additional media. (20GB is not large enough for a 7.8GB file?) I did so, and was told that the backup could not continue because the media was corrupt (it isn't). I tried every level of compression from zero to maximum, with the same result. I next tried an external RW-DVD, and was again told the media was corrupt (several brand new DVD-Rs). I actually want to create a "backup laptop" and have a second laptop identically configured and I want to image the drive on the second PC to be identical to that of the first PC. That way, regardless of the problem (virus, spyware, hardware, physical damage, or loss), I have an immediate backup. Can I "restore" the image to a different hard drive, overwriting and replacing any data that is on that second laptop's drive?

 

If you want to put the image of laptop1 onto the disk of laptop2 and then start using laptop2 you had better make sure they have identical hardware. There are a lot of hardware specific drivers etc contained in an installed operating system. Sorry, can't help you with your USB device grief.

 

The laptops ARE identical, BIOS, memory, hardware, etc. I know Norton Ghost would work, but I was wondering if I could use True Image 8 to accomplish the same thing. I also just discovered that if I IGNORE the prompt to label the media disk 1 and insert a new media, the backup continues on the original media, with a second file on the same 20 GB Peerless Drive. Now, I don't understand if BOTH those files are to be restored and if True Image will do it automatically.

 

Hello aapriest,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please make sure that you use the latest build (937) of Acronis True Image 8.0 which is available at: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/updates/

You can find the full version name and build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window.

To get access to updates you should create an account at:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/
then log in and use your serial number to register your software.

Please note that you should create new new Bootable Rescue CD after installing the update.

If the problem still persists with the latest build (937) of Acronis True Image 8.0 then please collect the following information:

- Create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

Please keep your Iomega Peerless USB drive connected while creating Acronis Report and Windows System Information;

- Make a screen shot of the error message you have received;

- When exactly have you received this error message?

- Describe actions taken before the problem appears step-by-step.

Please also download and install the free trial version of Acronis True Image 9.0, try to create an image saving it to Iomega Peerless USB drive once more and see if the problem still persists. Let us know the result.

Please submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Please be aware that neither Acronis True Image 8.0 nor the current version of Acronis True Image 9.0 write to DVD directly, instead they utilize third party UDF packet DVD writing software.

You can find more information on how to write your images to DVD in this FAQ article.

Please also note that the ability to write images to DVD directly will certainly be implemented in the future builds\versions of a particular software, but exact time frame for this is not decided yet.

In case you have the appropriate UDF packet DVD writing software installed and all of your DVDs are properly formatted according to the above mentioned FAQ article, but you still can not write your images to DVD, please collect the following information:

- Create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

- Reproduce the problem and collect Acronis True Image 9.0 log which can be saved from Tools -> Show Log -> Diskette icon;

- Have you received any error messages? What exact error messages? When exactly have you received them?

- Describe actions taken before the problem appears step-by-step.

Please submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the information about your purchase of Acronis software (order number, e-mail, where did you purchase our product, etc.) and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Yes, both Acronis True Image 8.0 and Acronis True Image 9.0 allow you to perform these actions. You will just need to boot your second laptop from Acronis True Image Bootable Rescue CD and restore the image.

However, as seekforever has already mentioned above, we can not guarantee that the restored operating system will boot in case your second laptop has hardware configuration that differs from that of the first one.

Please also note that according to Acronis software licensing policy, you should purchase one copy of Acronis program per every computer where it will be used, which means that you should purchase 2 licenses in order to be able to perform actions you have described.

You can find more information on how to use Acronis True Image 8.0 in the respective User's Guide.

If you plan to upgrade to version 9.0 then please please visit Acronis online store to purchase the upgrade.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

I named my backup "12-26-2005" My Peerless Drive now has two files: "12-26-20051.tib" (4,194,304 KB) and "12-26-20052.tib" (662,882 KB). The second file was created after I ignored the message to label my first backup media, and insert a second one (VERY CONFUSING - FIXED IN VERSION 9, I HOPE?). If I were to "restore" what I have now, I assume I select the first file. If so, would the second file automatically load after the first? Can I just purchase the version 9 update to use on one laptop and continue to use version 8 on the other? At no time would both laptops ever both be on, or have more than one user. I just want a complete hardware/software backup, ready for immediate use in the event of any problem.

 

From the file sizes of your images, what TI did was assume that you would want to transfer the images on to DVD media so it divided the image accordingly. Next time you create an image backup check whether there is a screen that allows you to choose the file size.

 

I did not have a DVD attached at the time, and I saw NO prompts re size of file. The computer recognized my 20GB Peerless drive as such.

If I were to attempt a "restore," would I be able to do so from the two files on my Peerless drive by selecting the first file?

 

As a test, I just completed an image backup for my laptop - 80 gig drive with 21 gig used. Normally, about once a month, I would just copy the files and documents I want to save, to an external usb 160gb hard drive. True Image is just too unreliable to use for the "small" amount of data I need to save.

I used the bootable TI CD from ver 9, build 2323.

What I found was that the images were split into 4.194Gb pieces in spite of specifying that the image be split at the 30Gb size. I figured that with normal compression the image would easily be less than 15Gb so I should end up with just one image file. Instead I got four of the 4.194Gb files plus a fifth one at 120kb.

So it seems that no matter what file size is specified, TI does it own thing. Still those image files sizes would be useful for saving to DVD media. BTW, TI took 30 minutes to do the backup.

If you are using the same version, there is NO PROMPT for the file size ... it is part of a menu that comes up in the procedure ... I forget exactly where.

 

Hi Chutsman,

Sounds as if your external USB drive is FAT32 formatted (4GB max file size limitation). In which case TI will split your image into 4GB chunks, irrespective of what you set the manual split size to. Same goes for aapriest I bet .

Regards

 

My question remains, I have two files on my Peerless Drive. If I want to "restore" do I select the first, then the second?

 

Hello aapriest,

Please be aware that it does not matter which volume of the multivolume image archive you have selected for the restoration, since if all the volumes reside in the same folder then Acronis True Image 9.0 will automatically recognize and therefore restore them as the entire image archive.

Please also note that if you already own Acronis True Image 8.0 and purchase Acronis True Image 9.0 Upgrade then you still own only one license of Acronis True Image. In case you want to use Acronis True Image 9.0 on several computers, you will need to purchase one license of Acronis True Image 9.0 for each computer where it will be used.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov