Create bootable DVD?

Hi-

A few questions...
1. How would I make a bootable DVD rescue disk that contains my image as well as the "boot" stuff?

2. Is there a way to delete all partions before restoring my image? (short of using another utility of course!)

3. I'd also like to create a rescue boot CD that has some additional files on it for documentation puposes. How can I add additional files? When you burn a rescue disk from within True Image, is it closed or left open for additional files?

I am looking at this from the perspective of rolling out, fully configured, complexly configured, Windows 2000 based systems.

Thanks,
Bill Querry

 

I would like to do the same on a CD

 

Boy Howdy!

 

Hello Bill --

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and for your interest in Acronis
True Image (http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/)!

1. At the moment Acronis True Image can create only bootable CDs and floppies. The ability to create a bootable DVD will be implemented in one of the future versions.

2. Acronis True Image autodeletes any partitions that previously existed on your drive if you are restoring to the whole drive.

3. You can burn additional files to the CD, even an image if it will be small enough to fit onto 1 CD.

Thank you.

--
Best regards,
Anton Gromov

Acronis, Inc.
395 Oyster Point Blvd. Suite 213
South San Francisco
CA 94080 USA
http://www.acronis.com/

Acronis... Compute with confidence

 

Need to get with the times Anton. Tough to compute with confidence when it seems like you're behind the curve with flexible backup solutions (bootable DVD, direct writing to DVD w/o packet writing software) and lack of common chipset support like the SI 3112.

Given the prevalence of DVD burners, which have been mainstream for more than 12 months and your competitors allow direct burning to a DVD, why isn't Acronis?

Has anyone in Product Management bothered to do competitive benchmarking and a featureset comparison?

 

Hello --

Actually, there are two sommon cases : the image is about 1-2 GB (in this case you will need 2-3-4 CDs which is not much difference from 1 DVD) or it is so large, that you will need lots of DVDs to cover the image. That's why right now the ability of creating a bootable CD only looks ok, though we are working on allowing the creation of bootable DVDs as well and this option might be added in the future versions of the product.

As for the compatibility and supporting different chipsets, etc. - we are working on this as well and exactly regarding Si3112 chipset, the build that will have it supported whould be released in the nearest future.

Thank you for your feedback though.

--
Best regards,
Anton Gromov

Acronis, Inc.
395 Oyster Point Blvd. Suite 213
South San Francisco
CA 94080 USA
http://www.acronis.com/

Acronis... Compute with confidence

 

Thanks for the response. I received an email before I bought the product that hinted at much better chipset support than is apparently in existence. Bit disconcerting since the SI3112 is an extremely popular chipset that has been around for over 6 months.

Creating a bootable DVD and direct writing to DVD (without InCD) are huge though (FYI InCD has never been a solid app, you need to build something directly into the product). Given prices of DVD media and the fact that DVD burners have been offered in OEM computers for over a year it's a viable backup medium. I don't think you have to worry about a lack of installed base. If anything, I think the concern should be that you aren't supporting your installed base and aren't matching the features of your competition.

Best example is that if I go away on business, the less crap I have to take along the better. So if I can span the image between two DVD+RWs... even with the recovery manager on a disc, it's a good thing in my book. Taking along an extra disc just to boot the recovery manager is too much.

Also, 1 DVD = more than 6 CDRs, plenty of space. Set the app to front load the recovery manager on the first disc, put the first part of the image on the remaining space, then keep the image size consistent on subsequent discs,

Anyway, what it boils down to is a featureset analysis and the Product Manager ensuring that True Image is on par with the competition. I do like the product a lot, but would like to see it take that extra step and become a fully featured backupsolution with better chipset support.

If it's a testbed issue when it comes to keeping up with hardware, you can always outsource that function rather than keep it in-house, that way you can save on up-front costs and overhead. The DVD related stuff, you could license. No need to reinvent the wheel.

 

hello,

I have trayed to use the "bootable rescue" function, the cd-r that was created was not bootable.
I have no problem using other software to burn a bootable image. I just need to know how?... copying the files from the "recovery manager" folder to a new cd-r does not work.
I have trayed using nero to create a bootable dvd using the image and the "recovery manager" files....can anyone help me?

 

If you read the thread, Anton from Acronis has indicated you cannot create a bootable DVD.

 

See post #20 in the Forum thread "MBR modification."

 

Yes, it's possible. But you'll need to create the disc yourself.
There's no option to add files to the bootable media that TrueImage
creates, plus it's for a bootable CD, rather than DVD.

1. Create a Bootable Rescue CD using the Acronis software.
2. Install and open WinISO
3. In WinISO, click Actions -> Make ISO from CDROM, and save that ISO somewhere.
4. Open that image file using WinISO
5. Save boot information to a file called "trueimg.wbt"
6. Get CD Shell and extract it to a directory somewhere
7. Get Bootable CD Wizard for CD Shell and extract those files to the
[cdshell]\boot subdirectory that you selected above. Overwrite the
cdshell.ini file if it prompts you


Now you're ready to create the bootable DVD.

8. Open Nero and create a new DVD-ROM (Boot) project.
9. On the Boot tab, select Image file, and select the file
[cdshell]\boot\loader.bin
10. Use the "No Emulation" setting, and the number of loaded sectors
should be 4. (Other values should be left at the default)
11. Create a DVD directory structure like this:

/ (root) (Put your system backup / image (TIB) files here)
|
| + BOOT (The CDShell / BCDW files reside here)
|
| + ACRONIS (put the trueimg.wbt file here)


That's it. Save your Nero project and that way the next time you want
to create a bootable rescue disc, all you will need to do is update your
TIB files. (Or if you overwrite the old TIB files, Nero will pick up
the changes and automatically include the latest version)

Once you're satisfied that it works, you can edit your
\boot\bcds\bcds.ini file to get rid of the extra junk. Mine looks like this:

bcdw \acronis\trueimg.wbt
goto quit

quit:
show console
cd /

Also, in your Acronis backup settings, you're going to want to have 2GB
as the max image size. Files larger than that won't fit on an ISO
filesystem.

There may be easier ways to do it, but this is how I did it on my system, and it works.

 

Update: With ATI 8, you need to specify a max file size of 1.9GB instead of 2GB. This is due to a change in what ATI considers a "GB".