TI Restore Confusion

This is a followup to a previous posting, True Image 11 Help and Understanding. I had made two image, one on an external HDD and the other on a DVD.

I have had time now to try restoring the images. I will give you the step by step way I did it using the image on the external HDD. Then I tell the difference I saw restoring from the DVD.

Opened TI, and Selected "Backup and Restore". Then selected "Restore". There I got the Welcome Screen and clicked Next.

The "Backup Archieve Selection" Screen comes up to allow selection of the archieve that contains data to be restored. I browsed to where I had the image stored and highlighted the .tib file. The screen showed Disk 1 and all the partitions for that disk. Clicked Next.

The Restoration Type Selection Screen comes up with 3 options. I selected "Restore disks or partitions". Clicked Next.

The Partiton or Disk to Restore screen came up and I selected Disk 1, which selected all the partitions. Clicked Next. Started analyzing the partitons.

Next Screen was Restored Hard Disk Drive Location. I selected Disk 1 and clicked Next.

The Non-empty Destination Hard Disk Drive screen came up with two options:
1. Yes, I want to delete all the partitions on the destination hard drive before restoring. This option allows the activation of the Next button.

2. No, I do not want to delete the partitions. This option when selection does NOT give the Next button option. If this is selected I am stuck and go no further.

So I selected the Option 1. Then the Next button. Again does some processing.

The next screen is called "Next Selection" which says "Would you like to restore another partition or hard disk drive from the backup achieve?, with two options,:
1. Yes, I want to restore another partiton or hard disk drive.

2. No, I do not.

I selected option 2 and clicked Next.

The next screen is "Chose Restore Options with two options:
1. Use default options.
2. Set options manually.

I chose Option 1, and clicked Next.

The Restore Data Wizard screen comes up and shows the options selected, with the option to "Proceeded". Clicked Proceed button.

Here you are required to reboot.

Acronis screen came up and seemed to be restoring, but in less than 2 minutes, Windows rebooted and the image was NOT restored. I had put a file on C-drive that should have disappeared if image was restored.

Next I decided to test the image on the DVD. I disconnected the external drive and put in the image DVD and started TI.

The screens that came up with the DVD, were slightly different. After the "Disk to Restore" screen, I got a "Restored Partition Resizing" screen with two options:

1. Yes, I want to resize partitions
2. No, I do not want to resize partitions

I chose Option 2

I was never asked about deleting any partitions.

From here on, the screens were the same as when restoring from the external drive.

When Acronis rebooted, the Acronis Loader started and the progress bars showed 12 minutes. Actually it only took about 7 minutes. When Windows rebooted, the image had been restored.

Now for the confusion part:

1. How could I have done the restore any different with the external drive?
2. Why did the image with external drive fail (which is supposed to be the most reliable)?

 

Obviously, it should have worked the same way for both if you made the same type of backup in both cases and everything else was fine.

It's tempting to think that operator error is somehow involved here since you are new to this software. However, the DVD writer and the USB drive have different interfaces with the motherboard. It is possible for the DVD to operate correctly in the Linux environment that you reboot into to restore the C: partition and for the USB drive not to work properly in that environment. Here's how to test that.

I'd delete the backup image on the hard drive and create another one. Validate the image in Windows and also boot from the TI Rescue CD and validate the image from there. If you can validate successfully from the Rescue CD, try to restore that image and see if it proceeds normally.

Let us know what you find out.

 

For follow up on the suggestions from jmk94903:

I took what you said to try and took it a few steps further. I connected a secondary drive, then from Windows I made an image on the external drive and an image on the secondary ide drive.

From Windows I tried to run Verification for both images. It did veryify the image on the secondary drive, but NOT on the external drive drive.

I then ran from the rescue disk. First let me say that from the rescue disk TI does NOT see the drive letters as they actually are, but I was able sort out which was which. I tried to verify both images. It did verify the image on the external drive, but NOT the one seconard drive.

As You can see from Windows and Rescue disk they worked right the opposite. Don't even ask me why.

I then did a restore from Windows and the restore worked for the image on the seconard drive but NOT the one on the external drive.

Now I booted up the rescue disk and tried to restore both images. It did restore from the external drive, but NOT the seconard drive.

Again right the opposite when using Windows or Rescue disk.

Just for the heck of it I disconnected the external drive and booted from the rescue disk and tried to restore. It still would NOT let me see the image on the secondary drive. I don't have clue why this happens.

As you can see the image can be restored from the external drive if you use the rescue disk, but NOT from Windows.

Another thought came to mind. Has anyone tried to image to a finger drive? I can NOT see why that would NOT work. I just don't have a finger drive big enough at this time to test it

Any comments or suggestion would be appreciated.

 

"Another thought came to mind. Has anyone tried to image to a finger drive? "

If you mean a flash drive-yes , you can use THAT also. I have a backup on EHD AND Flashdrive too ; works equally on both(8G flash drive)! Slightly faster (20 min vs.22 min ) on EHD though.

 

I have done some more experimenting just to understand what I can and cannot do with Acronis TI 11.

I had made an image on a DVD and have verified it.

I tried different ways to restore with DVD image. The image restores perfectly well when restoring from Windows. It will NOT restore with the Rescue Disk. This is true even if you have two DVD drives. It never sees the image on the DVD drive.

This defeats the purpose of being able to restore if the Window is NOT working or the hard drive has failed and is being replaced.

This seems to be a bad situation if a hard drive fails.

Again any suggestions would be helpful. Thank you.

 

Hi fawny,

The solution to your problems will be found by using a VistaPE or BartPE CD. The images will be seen on the DVD because I have added UDFS support. This works and TI will see the images on the DVD. BartPE will need two optical drives to work. VistaPE runs from ram. In theory you may only need one optical drive, but I have never experimented with this to verify.

The TI recue CD is not seeing your second internal drive due to lack of driver support in Linux. You might try booting the CD in Safe mode to see if the DOS version can see your drive. Again, using VistaPE or BartPE will allow you to add the missing driver to see your second internal drive.

 

Thank you mustang

I have been using a pc with the a secondary drive, but the pc I want to use TI 11 on does NOT have a secondard drive. The pc I want to make TI work on is an HP and I want to make sure the restore partition is part of the image, which that should be no problem.

In the past I have tried to make the BartPE disk without any success. I have never heard of VistaPE disk, I will check on that.

NOW for another question about TI. What is the difference in creating an image as I have been doing and making Clone image?

Does Clone do the same thing as as the backup image?

Does Clone restore the same way the backup image does?

Does Clone work better?

I would have thought they would do the same thing, but I am not sure that is true.

Thanks for information and comments.

 

If you Clone a drive, the cloned drive would be immediately bootable just like the original.
If you make a Backup (Image) of a drive, that Image has to go through the restore process to another drive before it will become bootable like the original.
You can only Clone a drive to another and have one clone on that drive. You can have as many Images of a drive on another drive as long as there is enough capacity on the destination drive.
Imaging is usually safer since you normally would have the original out of the system when doing the restore. After a clone process some users report that their original becomes unbootable and the cloned drive doesn't work either. Some of these are definitely user error.

 

Regarding the questions asked in post #7:

First, let's start with terminology. From Acronis's standpoint, cloning means you will end up with two identical disks (disk capacity may vary). Either one can be used to replace the other. Whereas imaging means you will end up with a one (or multiple) backup file which will be about 30-35% smaller in size than your used space. This backup file (image archive) can be stored on another internal or external drive in a normal folder as a normal file.

Cloning puts your original hard drive at risk of either a user error or a program or hardware malfunction. There continues to be postings by users who have wiped their original without a satisfactory clone. To overcome this risk,the user should take the time to perform a full disk image precautionary backup prior to any cloning operation.

If you have then spent whatever time is necessary to perform a safety backup, then why take the risk of cloning when a "Partition Restore with Resize" will produce the same result but with a safer atmosphere. Yes, cloning is quicker but is the risk work taking. It's a decision you must make based on your personal situation.

Whether cloning or performing a "Partition Restore with Resize", your best chances of success will be if you
1. Perform the operation after having booted from the Acronis TrueImage Rescue CD.
2. Prior to the procedure, placed the original drive in another location such as another internal or external location.
3. Install the new blank disk in the same position as the original drive.
4. Perform the operation and shutdown.
5. Remove any duplicate source drives before first bootup so Windows does not see two identical drives.
6. Yes, there are other methods but these steps have a better chance of success with many hardware combinations.

These are the steps I practice. The only time I clone is for testing purposes for my guides.

A help guide for restoring a backup image to a larger drive is listed in line 3 of my signature below.
Should you use this restore guide, be sure and restore each partition in the same physical order as displayed in your Windows Disk Management display which is specific to your own situation. Physical partition order may differ from drive letter sequences. Guide sample image G-5 may not match your specific situation. In those computers which have diagnostic or recovery partitions, this special partition may be listed either first or last. Whichever partition is displayed first in your Disk Management display should be the first restored when restoring to a new/larger disk.

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Should you decide to clone, a (work in progress) help guide on cloning can be found at this link:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/supportfiles/gh_acronis_manual_cloning.pdf

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Don't forget, you can practice or simulate your intended procedure. Begin the procedure and select your options all the way until your reach the screen where you must select either the Cancel or Proceed button. Pressing the Cancel button will prevent the process from proceeding; whereas, pressing the Proceed button will initiate whatever process you have been selecting. Be careful in your selection choice!

 

Thanks GroverH, that was clear and concise. The way it looks to me is that creating a restorable image is the safer and more practical way for the day to day user to use.

Thanks again.