Secure Zone Necessary?

I am a new TI user and would like to know if there is a reason for me to create a SZ on my C-drive.
The only backups I will be doing are full backups to an external HD, which has plenty of space. I have also created a rescue boot CD.
Will a SZ buy me anything?

 

Short answer ...
I would not bother with the ASZ. It’s mostly for those with only 1 HD and adds a certain protection since Windows can’t get to it.

 

Not only will it NOT buy you anything, but could cause serious grief, since TI is the only software than can access it and if you put it on your C drive and that drive goes kaput, you've lost the backups. And you have the external. As the judges of American Inventor say, "It's a NO".

 

It will buy you grief.

Forget about the secure zone and related ilk.

 

Hello Richie,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Acronis Secure Zone is a special hidden protected partition on the hard disk drive. Since this partition is inaccessible by the operating system and applications other than Acronis True Image, you can be sure that the disk images stored there are secure and cannot be altered. Please note that Acronis Secure Zone was designed for those users who does not have a dedicated backup storage. If you have external hard drive you can store images created with Acronis True Image 9.0 Home there. The “farther” you store the image archive from the original data, the safer it will be in case of data damage. For example, saving the archive to another hard disk will protect your data if your primary disk is damaged. Data saved to a network disk or removable media will survive even if all your local hard disks are down. Additional information about Acronis Secure Zone can be found in Chapter 3.3 "Acronis Secure Zone" in the Acronis True Image 9.0 Home User Guide

I would also recommend you to take a look at this FAQ article explaining the reason why we do not recommend creating Acronis Secure Zone on a detachable drive.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

On the one hand support says one should store images as far as possible from the original data and on the other hand says creating secure zone in external hds is not recommended. These statements appear to me to be contradictory.
Detachable hard disks in that respect ARE THE SAFEST PLACES to my mind . One need not activate the startup recovery manager in such a situation, the bootable media created would serve the purpose in case restoration is required.
I would request support to correct or clarify my opinion if I am wrong.

 

Hello scaa,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

I'm sorry for not being accurate enough in my explanation. The reason why we do not recommend to create Acronis Secure Zone on the external hard drive is Acronis Startup Recovery Manager, which change MBR when activated, therefore, your computer may boot with a long delay or not boot at all, if this external drive not pugged in. You can still create Acronis Secure Zone on external hard drive and do not activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. Please note that in the case with external drive there is no need to create Acronis Secure Zone on this drive, since you can unplug this drive and keep it in a safety place.

I would agree with you. In this case you will be able to use Acronis True Image 9.0 Home Bootable Media to boot your computer and restore the images stored on this detachable hard drive.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov