Puzzled

Hello there!

I know this is going to sound dumb but I have just purchased Acronis True Image work station and I have a question..
I need to perform a complete wipe out aka clean windows Xp install on a Sony VAIO, what option should I choose?, I also want everything backed up before I do this, how do I do it?
Thanks!!

 

If you create an image of your current setup, do a clean install of XP and then restore your image, you are back to square one. The backup image contains all the problems that you might be trying to get rid of by a clean install of XP.

The purpose of creating an image is to get back to a point where your OS was not corrupted.

If you are going to do a clean install of XP then the only things that you can back up is data and you do not need Acronis to do that. All the third party programs have to be reinstalled individually. You cannot use Acronis True Image work station to selectively replace the programs back into your newly installed XP.

If you feel that your XP is not functioning correctly then you would be better off running a repair as outlined on the following site -

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Another program that might improve your current performance of XP is -

http://iobit.com/

As for your current purchase of True Image, use it for what it is supposed to do. Then you will be assured that you can backup and restore and be up and running in a fraction of the time compared to manually reinstalling all that you had before your computer crashed.

 

Create an image of my current setup will be "clone disk" right?
I don't have a windows XP CD, will that be a problem??
Thanks for your help!

 

Clone disk makes a bootable copy of your current system on another disk. This is probably not what you want. You more likely want to backup your existing system so you can restore data files later. As previously noted, you can't restore programs onto a fresh XP install.

If you don't have an XP CD you can't do a clean install, so yes it will be a problem. However, if you have recovery CDs supplied with your PC then you can use them to put your XP back to how it was originally supplied; this isn't a clean install, but probably close enough for your purposes.

Graham.

 

Are you referring to a Vaio Desktop or Laptop?

 

Hello hypertweeky,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Workstation Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Please note that depending on what you want to achive there might be several solutions.

If you would like to transfer your system from one computer to another computer (with different hardware) then we recommend that you use Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation in conjunction with Acronis Universal Restore. Acronis Universal Restore is a special plug-in that allows you to restore the system to a different hardware. Please find more information about Acronis Universal Restore in Chapter 3.7 "Acronis Universal Restore" of Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation User's Guide.

Basically, you will need to create the image archive of your system using Backup Wizard of Acronis True Image first. It is preferred that image contains entire disk (check Chapter 6. "Creating backup archives"). And then using Acronis True Image Bootable CD with Acronis Universal Restore plug-in (Chapter 10. "Creating bootable media") boot the target computer and restore this image to the new system providing the needed drivers for the new hardware.

If you would like to back up your hard drive for the disaster recovery purposes, you could create the image of your system, store this image to any kind of supported storage device and then if your system fails you will be able to use this image to restore your system back quick ans easy (Chapter 7. "Restoring the backup data").

I would also recommend that you take a look at this FAQ article explaining the difference between Clone Disk and Backup approaches in more detail.

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov