Acronis True Image: Backing up an XP / Ubuntu dual boot system

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by welshmike, May 12, 2009.

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  1. welshmike

    welshmike Registered Member

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    I'm a newbie to this forum and have successfully used Acronis True Image 11 in the past to backup and restore my XP system.
    Today I completed installing Ubuntu 9.04 and am keeping XP for a while.
    What advice do forum members have please about backing up my dual boot system?
    I would like to back up XP and Ubuntu separately so that if I need to I can restore them separately.

    Thanks in advance

    Mike
    P.S. I played with Ubuntu 8.04 WUBI then moved to dual boot. I've found Ubuntu 9.04 an impressive improvement on 8.04. Congratulations to the people who write and support Ubuntu. So now I'm planning to minimise my use of XP.
     
  2. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    I would have done this by making a Backup of XP before installing Ubuntu, then nuke XP and instal Ubuntu on its own. This way you can re-install each one seperately.

    Supposedly True Image will let you instal only the partition you want in a dual boot situation, but I've never tried this. Kolo will be able to set you straight on this.
     
  3. welshmike

    welshmike Registered Member

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    DwnNdrty

    Thanks for your prompt reply.
    There a some things I haven't yet been able to do on Ubuntu so I need to be able to run XP using a reboot rather than wait while a restore takes place.
    I'll await Kolo's advice re backing up individual systems although I'm going to run ATI on XP to back up My Computer" Disk 1 (the whole of my laptop's hard drive) until then.

    When I've eventually dumped XP I'll need to find a way of backing up and being able to restore Ubuntu, maybe by booting ATI from its CD?

    Cheers, Mike.
     
  4. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Mike:

    Make at least one whole-disk backup and put it aside for safe keeping. Restoring the entire disk all at once will replicate the current partition layout.

    You can make separate backups of just XP or just the Ubuntu partitions if you like. When you restore, just direct the restore wizard to the correct partition.

    Be aware that Ubuntu 9.04 by default uses an inode size of 256 bytes instead of the older 128-byte standard. TI 11 will see it as an unknown format and will back up in sector-by-sector mode. It will work correctly but the backups will be larger.

    If you want to work around that then use partitioning software to set up your Linux partitions first. Then use the Alternate Install CD from Ubuntu to install. Don't let the installer format the partitions; just direct it to use the existing partitions. You'll end up with the older ext3 format on your disk and TI 11 will be happy.
     
  5. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello Mike,

    Thank you for using Acronis True Image 11 Home

    Acronis True Image 11 Home (any build) doesn’t support 256 i-node and will backup using sector-by-sector approach as k0lo said. I may recommend you download free trial version of Acronis True Image Home 2009 and test it. The latest build (9709) of Acronis True Image Home 2009 supports 256 i-node. If it works correctly you can upgrade Acronis True Image 11 Home to Acronis True Image Home 2009 using the following link

    Best regards,
    --
    Dmitry Nikolaev
     
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