ASRM & F11 Conflict

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to Wilders but not new to the world of Tech Help & Security Forums.
I administrate 3 online Tech Help & Security forums , moderate 2 others, and genarally post help at 10 or so online forums. I know many members here thru my other forums, many here are also members there too, and vice-versa.

I do have something I would like some clarification on concerning ASRM and the F11 hotkey function to use it. I've been reading posts concerning aspects of this for the last 2 hours and have come to a couple of conclusions that I would like confirmed, or shown different if that's the case.

First, by activating the ASRM feature, it overwrites the MBR and makes the "F8 to Safe Mode" unavailable....is that correct? Safe Mode would be unavailable? That's not something any Power User would want or allow IMHO.

Second, this machine is my first OEM (I know...I had to due to time constraints.. ) and the access key during startup to impliment their proprietary Recovery Console is also F11. What would be the implications of activating the ASRM feature in TI10, and what would that do to this OEM Recovery Console?
Would it eliminate it or will TI10 create a mini boot option screen? (that would be nice if it did!!) I dare not test this, I would HATE to lose one of my recovery options this way and I don't see them sharing the F11 hotkey, so another question would be..is there a way to remap ASRM to another key combo?

If the OEM System Recovery on F11 was simply an OS Recovery Manager, I wouldn't mind losing it too badly since I would have TI10 still, but it's much more. It also has access to the Recovery Console function, reinstallation of some fairly important pre-loaded s'ware (and a pile of Crapware also..heheh), and a Driver Recovery option as well, so losing that would be a real kick in the....you know

Any info here will be very much Appreciated!

Thx!

.

 

I never use the ASRM. I just don't like having anything mess with the standard MBR. OK, some OEMs mess with the MBR and you are stuck with that if you like the product and buy it, but I don't want to make matters worse.

I see no need for the ASRM. I can always pop in the Recovery CD and boot to the Linux environment. The few extra seconds it takes to boot from the CD seems trivial for the number of times I restore systems. Even if I restored one system every single day, the time saved using the ASRM wouln't let me get an extra cup of coffee even once a week.

So, skip the ASRM. Forget the SecueZone unless you are desperate to have the backup on the same drive. Use the Recovery CD when you want to boot to Linux and use a second internal drive or partition or an external drive or a network drive to store images.

Keep it simple and it just works. At lest, that's been my approach.

 

Thx JMK

I'm not in any big rush to use the ASRM either, I have my Acronis Image on my 3rd HDD and Vista on the 1st so it's no big deal. Plus I have an Acronis DVD recovery disk set and still the HP Recovery Console and partition, plus the HP Recovery disk set I made, so I have tons of backup options available without ASRM activated too.

I was just looking for clarification for my own knowledge purposes in case there ever is a need for me to activate the ASRM feature in the future. I can't see it playing nicely with the OEM System Recovery Manager already using the F11 key on power-up and was wondering what would happen in the case of ASRM activation also.

Surely I can't be the ONLY person to have ever asked this am I? (LOL)
I know HP is one OEM that uses F11 and there are many HP users out there who must also use Acronis I would believe, so I thought this would've been covered here somewhere already, but not that I can find, and I can't find anything on remapping the HP Sys Recovery manager to another F-key anywhere. Asking HP would be shear agony.... trying to get a semi-difficult technical question answered by them, they probably don't even know an F11 key exists! I've had dealings with HP Email Support staff over one question I had already, and I'll NEVER make that mistake again!!

Besides, if ASRM it mucks with my primary boot disk MBR, and also makes Safe Mode unreachable, I'll probably never activate it, but with these restrictions on it I have to wonder why it's even a "Feature" Acronis has? The MBR can be repaired and tweaked to do what I would want it to, even the Vista's BCD, but to eliminate the Safe Mode option? I can't see why Acronis has not done something about that over time, thats something too important to be fudging up and I can't see any real Power Users or even Intermediate users wanting such a result.

So, more or less, this is just to satisfy a curious mind and maybe get something done by Acronis staff to eliminate the F11 key conflict, possibly by allowing the key to be remapped in a future build.

Thx again for any responses!

 

Never used it five years of using ATI. My basic philosophy is simply that I am trying to guard against data loss on a hard disk. Why oh why would I rely on that same hard disk to provide the recovery mechanism for itself.

F.

 

Totally agree. I also do not indulge in lots of the TI Fluff that has been added over the years.

Xpilot

 

Actually, you are the very first person to ever ask this.

The OEM messed with the F11 key to make it point at their recovery software. TI will muck with it some more to change the pointing to the TI software. That will make it impossible to use F11 for an OEM recovery until you uninstall TI. After uninstalling TI, F11 should once more point back to the OEM software. At least, that's the theory. Seems like an excellent reason not to use ASRM.

I wasn't aware of any F8 problem after using TI. At least now with WiXP or earlier. Did I miss something?

 

Another vote here against the use of the SRM. No need for it nowadays. It is a feature that has outlived its usefulness. Likewise for the SZ.