Disk v. Partition Image and Master Boot Record

Folks,

My laptop's hard drive has three partitiions. I routinely do partition images of two of the three partitions - the third partition is simply a read-only copy of data from another PC so I don't want to waste time and space by backing it up. However, my concern is that, because I am doing two partition images rather than a single disk one, I am missing out on backing up the Master Boot record.
- Am I omitting the Master Boot Record? If so, can I explicitly back it up?
- Am I omitting anything else?
- If my disk fails and I do a stand-alone restore of my two backed up partitions to a new drive, will I have to do anything else to boot from the new drive?

I am using TI9 Build 3567, the partitions are NTFS and the operating system is XP Home.

Thanks for any help,
Brian.

 

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/1048/screenshot0144sq.jpg

As long as you have the box marked DISK 1 ticked off, your MBR will be imaged.

Not that I can see.

I would create a Disaster Recovery Disk. In case of a disaster, boot from this disk and restore the image of your system. If the image includes two partitions and the MBR, then that is what will be restored.

 

Isn't the MBR now included with a partition image?

 

Thanks for your input, folks.

dld - Yes, I'm happy with all you're saying. My problem is that I don't want to select the Disk option as that would include the "useless" 30gb on the third partition.

TheWeaz - The manual _seems_ to imply that the MBR is only included in a Disk image...

A partition image includes all files and folders independent of their attributes (including hidden and system files), boot record, FAT (file allocation table) and root.
A disk image includes images of all disk partitions as well as the zero track with master boot record (MBR).​

(Page 8 of TrueImage9.0_ug.en.pdf)​

.. unless "..boot record.." in the partition image refers to the MBR. Is there a partition specific boot record in addition to the MBR?

Regards,
Brian.

 

As far as I can see, it is only in the Restoration that TI Home explicitly shows the MBR as being restored. One still has to check the Disk1 box to image the MBR, where Disk 1 includes the C drive.

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/4427/screenshot0156oy.jpg

Ticking the box NTFS(C) results in the box Disk 1 being automatically ticked off. I guess this is the improvement that has been introduced with TI 9 Home. Maybe Acronis should have added a tick box with MBR and Track 0 to the Partitions Selection window as they did in Partition or Disks to Restore window.

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/5002/screenshot0143px.jpg

 

Brian R,

I've posted on this topic several times. Like you I have several partitions but I only image the system partition. I've restored this image to the same partition and to another HD numerous times and it always works. With a new HD I partition it to look like the original HD before I restore the image. Partitioning creates a MBR.

I agree. Why image a large data partition? There are better ways of backing up data than images.

 

I think that's the old Guide. Try stepping through the Recovery, select a partition image and see if the MBR isn't a choice. The MBR, I still believe, is included in a partition image.

 

From the new guide:

"Including MBR in partition images, an option to restore MBR from a disk or partition image"

 

Is there a reason why you partition so that it look like the original HD?

 

If the operating system was on the second partition of the old HD then I'd make sure that the new HD was partitioned so that the OS was restored into a primary partition (second partition) on the new HD. Just an example of creating a MBR by partitioning on the new HD able to boot the OS once it has been restored.

Otherwise you get the non-boot situation.

 

Folks,

Many thanks for all the good advice. I'm happy that I now understand the situation. (And slightly weak at the knees that I was living dangerously for the last few weeks when I was doing partition backups using TI8.) Now that I'm running TI9 Build 3567, I 've started a restore and I can see what you've been telling me about the option to restore the MBR.

TheWeaz, your suspicions were correct - I was using an old version of the manual. Acronis Support, please note that the current TI9 installation includes an old version of the manual. Not only that, but both the name of the latest version of the manual and the Title Page show "9.0", while the document properties does show "9.1".

Thanks again, everyone, for your help,
Brian.

 

In the User's Guide a section has been overlooked when correcting the text for the new edition. I pointed out the ambiguity as soon as the new Guide was available and Acronis Support assured that with build 3567 the MBR was included in single partition images too.

It's easy to verify, though. If you simulate two backups by stepping through all the screens down to the last one (where Proceed would start the operation), in the final List of operations you will find under Operation 1: "Saving Partition Structure" both for entire disk or one partition imageing.

 

Hello everyone,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

First of all, I would like to confirm that starting from build 3567 the MBR is being included not only into the entire hard drive image but into the partition image as well.

Please also note that after build 3567 was released Acronis True Image 9.0 Home User's Guide was updated. The latest version of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home User's Guide can always be downloaded from the Homecomputing Documentation section of Acronis web site.

As for restoring an image of the two of three partitions to a replacement hard drive (e.g. in case the old hard drive has filed), we recommend that you re-create the same partition layout on the destination (i.e. new) disk as it was on the hard drive this particular image was originally taken from. The sizes of partitions can in fact be different but the quantity should be the same. Otherwise, the restored operating system may no boot. Please take a look at these previous threads for more details: auto logoff problem, Re: Mr.

Concerning the User's Guide that comes with the Acronis True Image 9.0 Home (build 3567) installation, please note that at the moment there is no User's Guide that comes with the installation. Most likely, the "old" User's Guide that you found somewhere on your computer has left from the previous Acronis True Image installation that included it. For example, version 8.0 installation.

As for the difference between version numbers shown in the title of the latest Acronis True Image 9.0 Home User's Guide and in it's properties, please be aware that the latest build (3567) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home is based on the completely new software "engine" which has the number 9.1, i.e. the same "engine" as recently released Acronis True Image 9.1 Corporate Family Products are based on. However, we have decided to keep the 9.0 number for the Home version so that it will not confuse our customers.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

So, it wasn't just me being paranoid when I made an entire system disk image (and copied it to every storage I own) as soon as I created D: partition for disposable files.

Build 3567 notwithstanding.

 

Alexey,

"...there is no User's Guide that comes with the installation..."

Oops, my bad. Apologies for that.

Thanks,
Brian.