Acronise TI 11 and Vista Ultimate x64

Hey guys,

I recently built a new machine and the idea is to actually start using it to the fullest. (doh).
Meaning my old PC will be cleaned after i reinstall all the software on my new rig and recover my software settings on there etc etc.
(I do this step by step because i am switching from XP to Vista and want to maintain the same functionality altogether).

I am now at a certain point that all of my software is tested and will work or that i have an alternative that is just as good.
I am now looking at Acronise TI 11.0 as the final step.

(This is probably the most important one, because just like my old rig my new PC will have a RAID0 and a RAID1 setup. Where the RAID0 Setup is backupped 3 or 5 times a week and the backups are stored on the RAID1 array).

I made a full backup with Acronis which all went well.
Now i entered the Recovery CD and wanted to restore the image and it will give me 2 options. Restore Track0 and the MBR or restore the C drive.
(The C drive being the drive with the OS which i made a full backup from).

I think i can fill in the blanks but i have to be 100% certain because after i switch all my software to the Vista rig the XP machine will get a totally different purpose (Music Producing) so i need something to rely on.

So my questions are.....

-Is the restore MBR and Track 0 option only necessary when i have a new or completely wiped harddrive?

-This would mean that in my current case where i just want to test the recovery option on a healthy and undamaged OS drive, i only need to recover the C Drive image and thats it?

-Was the Restore MBR and Track 0 option made specifically so that when the Harddrive actually damages you can still restore your Vista installation without having to repair it afterwards?

Thanks for any info.

 

Anyone?

 

If you are only using Microsoft operating systems then restoring MBR and Track 0 is almost never required. Then again, it won't hurt either. TI will write a generic MS master boot record on a blank hard drive if none is present.

That's correct.

No, the option is present for two main reasons. First, if the MBR is damaged it can be restored. The second and major reason is for those using third-party boot managers that reside in track 0. For example, a lot of Linux distributions use GRUB, which, when installed to the MBR will install to the first 16 sectors on a hard disk. Restoring MBR/Track 0 will restore GRUB if it has been damaged or, as often occurs, if you later installed any Microsoft operating system and it wiped out GRUB by replacing the MBR with its own.

One area of confusion with a lot of people is thinking that the partition table is also restored when restoring MBR/Track 0. This is incorrect. If TI restored an old partition table from a backup and you had added/changed/removed partitions since the backup then the changes would be lost, and obviously this would be a bad thing. TI does not restore the partition table (which occupies 64 bytes out of the 512 bytes in sector 0) when restoring MBR/Track 0 for this reason. This confusion arises because it is common to refer to sector 0 on a hard disk as the Master Boot Record (MBR), but technically it is not; rather sector 0 contains the master boot record code and the partition table. When you restore the MBR and Track 0 with TI, the partition table is never restored; only the MBR code and anything in the rest of track 0 (sectors 1-62). When you restore a partition, TI updates the partition table.

The Vista repair issue is an entirely different one that has nothing to do with the MBR. It can arise if a restored Vista partition is moved upon restoration, but TI 11 usually handles the changes without requiring a repair. TI 10 and earlier did not. Further details can be found here and here.

 

Thanks a lot for the information!

I was under the impression restoring vista partitions without restoring the MBR was what caused all the issues. (When working with Vista).
So i guess its really just the vista BCD files that require a vista partition to work properly....

As for the partition table not being in the MBR....
Out of safety i have always avoided to try and find that out the hard way.
I have 1 RAID0 array with 2 partitions and both of them are backed up on the same regular basis.

 

Will restoring the MBR restore the orginal the Disk ID?

I understand that restoring a bootable XP or Vista partition to a drive with a Disk ID that is different than the one where the backup was done is all well and fine if the drive letters assigned on boot up are the same as the old drive letters. However there are situations where the drive letter assignments will change resulting in a system that won't let you login and/or startup the normal desktop. Fixing this condition involves safe mode and registery edits. This is essentially the result of the partition signature having changed. Yes, I have some boot partitions with crazy drive letters. Don't know if using RAID0 changes the formula for partitions signatures and drive letter assignments.

As I understand it, so long as the Disk ID does not change and the restored partitions starts on the same sector that it was backed up from everyting works fine. Drive letter assignment (XP and Vista), BCD references (Vista) and virtual shadow copy volume (Vista).

So back to my question. Will TI 11 restore the original Disk ID when the MBR is restored?

Thanks
jb

 

first, when I got TI 11 last tyear I contacted Tech support on the MBR topic, that is, when to use it.
He replied to use it on every restore, select the image first, then OK, then MBR and then select no, I do not (I cannot remember exact wording).
I do it every time. And I select to write the image at about 60% to stop corrupt errors I had got - I don't get them anymore, anf no compression.

I have just installed vista x64. TI 11 is stated to work in x64, but I can't make a Recovery CD from the program, it does not run. It made an image of the OS and it verified it was OK.

Heres the bad bit. It restores the image (I have to use a BartPE CD), but on restarting the OS takes 7 minutes to start and once it has started the next restarts are not so slow, but they are not as fast as they should be.

I have a similar program to TI 11 that I had before I got TI 11, I updated it to the latest that is compatible with Vista x64. It made an image OK.
To restore an image a CD has to be ordered for the version in use, however, I tried a restore with the x32 version CD and it was the same, very slow. I thought that when doing a restore the version would not matter, I hope it does matter because I don't want to have to go through the process of what is causing the slowness.

 

I downloaded the 15 day trial of TI11 and created a workable boot CD with no problem on Vista home Premium 64 bit

 

oldjim,
Some users cannot get the TI 11 recovery media to run in their PC, I'm one of them. This also applies to other programs I have, I have to either make a BartPE CD or get an ISO to burn a CD.

It's mainly the linux CDs that don't work. I have a new ASUS P5K Pro, my previoue ASUS P5AD2 E Premium did not have this problem.

I made a new thread on this, hoping support may have advice on this, I did send a report to Acronis but they can't reply quickly

 

Understood - as the thread is about Windows x64 I posted my experience.
There is a general problem affecting many boot CD's in that they (and Windows XP) don't support the latest motherboards. Acronis 11 is the only one I have found that works on my Gigabyte P35 motherboard.
One thing I did on that was put my SATA DVD drive on the non Intel native SATA port so as to not cause problems with running AHCI on the Intel ports.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Backup software.

Newburybuff here is a very simplified explanation how this works, I hope it'll be helpful.
MBR - Master Boot Record - is the first sector of the hard disk (it's 512-byte in size). Along with different information which is necessary to boot up the Operating System it also contains NT Disk Signature which is used by Windows to identify hard disk drives. So restoring MBR will restore the signature of the disk which was backed up.

The Nodder, could you please tell me the number of your case in Acronis Support Department? I'll try to escalate issue processing. Mentioned number can be found in auto reply letter you've received.

Thank you
--
Nikita Sakharov