ATI - Key Observations and great suggestions....!!!!!

ATI - Key Observations and great suggestions....!!!!!

Respected Backup/cloning gurus and dear forum members...!!!

Few days back i was introduced accidently to the world of Disk Cloning and Acronis. After discovering the concept i was just thinking what i missed and how henceforth my life will be simplified.

From last 10 days I have been experimenting and trying out cloning and present my observations and seek suggestions of you people as well.

1. What i have found in my trial of Acronis True Image 9 is that making an image is not helpful as most of the times the image that is created is corrupt. Furthermore even if assuming that the image is not corrupt always; the restore from such image is impossible.So keeping in mind the above interim conclusion drwan by me (and correct me if i am wrong anhwhere); from a more practical viewpoint it makes much much more sense to rather directly
clone to another hard disk rather than routing through image. This way image corruption problem is avoided.

2. However, if i follow what i myself concluded above the problem arises in following situations for which i request more knowledgeable people here to suggest a way out...(without going through images procedure as specified above)

Sitaution One:

Original Hard Disk One 80 GB
Two partitions: C 30 GB; D 50 GB

Target Hard Disk 80 GB
Blank

situation: what if i wish to clone only say C partition on to target hard disk...?

Sitaution Two:

Original Hard Disk One 80 GB
Two partitions: C 30 GB; D 50 GB

situation I want to clone partition C into partition D (i.e. not any other separate hard disk)...?

Please take your time to go through my post. Your time patience and effort is certainly appreciated.

I would request everyone to put forward his valuable opinion and advices / suggestions / comments or anything related to this whole issue of cloning...!!!!!!!!

Thanks once again for taking time go through a long post and possibly suggesting.........

regards

sunando

sunandoghosh (at) rediffmail (dot) com

p.s. plz plz feel free to add anything and everything and alternatives / options / choices

 

hi again....!!!!

i know its a bit early and premature for me to post again so soon after my first post...just unable to hold back myself....hope i am excused....

please offer ur valuable comments / advices / suggestions / opinions and share ur rich knowledge and invaluable experiences on the above post....

I am plz plz urging everyone most sincerely earnestly and humbly to be a bit more forthcoming........and share whatever they feel....

best of regards to all of u

urs

Most Sincerely

sunando

 

You need to use the Backup task, not the cloning task, in order to copy items to the same physical disk (i.e. you are copying to another partition, but it is still on the same physical disk). If you were to clone an entire disk to another physical disk, then the cloning option would be the way to go.

 

Next time, you may want to wait more than 3 hours before getting impatient. Especially with folks in different time zones, it may take a day or so to get a response.

In any case, I read your post again, and if you are wanting to clone C to D for backup purposes, then use the backup option. If your intentions are to make D a bootable copy of C, then you may out of luck. The only way that that I can think of that you would be able to boot from D if C crapped out is maybe to use a Linux LiveCD, or something similar. But I won't go into that...

Disk cloning, for the purpose of a bare-metal reinstallation is a bad idea. It will only protect you in the case of hardware failure, which is rare for a home user (relative to server farms and such). It does no good to clone a disk in hopes of being able to swap it in and use it if your Windows install goes awry. Think about it... If you have a virus/spyware/borked configuration, and you swap your backup in and try to use your clone, you are using the same borked system as you were using before, since you backed up/imaged a virus/spyware/borkly configured system.

Imaging for purposes of barel-metal reinstall=bad, unless it is because of hardware failure.

But to use it for backups so that you can restore files and such after install is of course, a good idea. That is, if your backup software even works (hint, hint).

 

I would recommend either:

1) Wait until TI 9 is fixed and actually works the way it is intended and advertised to and THEN download the latest build of TI 9, install it, and reasses the potential for simplification of your life, or

2) Try a different backup solution altogether in the interim and THEN, if and ONLY if, TI 9 actually works the way it is intended and advertised to, download the latest build of TI 9, install it, and reasses the potential for simplification of your life.

Furthermore,I would recommend that, after you have chosen and implemented either 1) or 2) above, you do as vwgitturbo suggests.

 

i think that with backuptask u cannot make D bootable if say C were bootable when u backup C onto D...I was asking how to make D a

of C on same pyhsical disk....??

 

agreed...apologies again...

the term "clone"means exact copy and if i wannna say that D is a clone of C the D should also be bootable....??

Otherwise for merely backingup data files i think we have ample choices in terms of software availability....

yes i intended to make D bootable...

anything other than linux....any more options.......?

"Disk cloning, for the purpose of a bare-metal reinstallation is a bad idea."

While i appreciate what u say i beg to differ a bit...In my humble opinion it saves time, helps to always take back system to a starting date (restore) and serves as easy deployment tool over several machines...(one of many significant advantages which disk cloning offers)...

"Think about it... If you have a virus/spyware/borked configuration, and you swap your backup in and try to use your clone, you are using the same borked system as you were using before, since you backed up/imaged a virus/spyware/borkly configured system"

why to make a clone of such infected system...why not clone the ver first time...?

"But to use it for backups so that you can restore files and such after install is of course, a good idea. That is, if your backup software even works (hint, hint)."

that any simple backu utility would do and then no reason stands why acronis should enjoy any superior preference....

Again I may appear to be a bit less enthusiastic about acronis but then i want a fact based honest constructive discussion where we focus on all facets including limitations as well....

I thank u for offering ur thoughts and certainly appreciate ur inputs....

Also since this discussion is more about disk cloning and using acronis as a medium to achieve it...do we have better alternatives....??

thanks again

 

Hi i agree if acronis works exactly as advertised and is able to fully deliver what is promised...i.e. even images created of partitions actually are functional and not corrupt instead...i would be most happy and certainly secure...

although it would be not very desirable on this forum but still as we r discussing at a more generalized level, can u plz email me/ pm me/ post here (if not offending) what other comparable alternatives i have apart from acronis true image at this stage...?

 

I would like to individually thank u everyone who spared their valuable time and shared their experiences and opinions as it helped to form a more complete picture of use of acronis as an effective backup solution....

I would again request and urge to please reply back and invite more people to come forward and be explicit in their opinions...

looking forward to more comments / suggestions / opinions / discussions.......
regards

sunando

 

Well, I could recommend other commercial solutions as I have had success with another one myself but I won't do that because, although I didn't make it clear, I meant some other generic solution such as the backup tool already included with Windows, for instance, with only rudimentary capabilities.

I meant a temporary solution, and not really a comparable solution. Switching to another product is a whole can of worms and, you're correct, inappropriate in a forum intended for Acronis products support.

Also, I almost forgot ! -- you could contact Acrnois support and get access to TI version 8 as an interim measure.

 

I would like to know more...u can email me or Pm me at sunandoghosh (at) rediffmail (dot) com....

I guess i need to buy first TI 9 then they provide 8 whereas i would like myself first to try 8...then buy....??

I would urge everyone to please be a bit more forthcoming and kindly share their experiences thoughts as well....

regards

sunando

 

DONE

My apologies -- I had forgotten, or was otherwise was missing, that you were trialling TI 9 at this point.

 

This thread has turned far off-topic and so seems to have outlived its usefulness here in the ATI forum. The comparative posts at the end have been moved to here as they are good posts; just not posts about Acronis support.

 

Hello sunandoghosh,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please be aware that there are two approaches available:

Clone Disk - moves the entire contents of one disk drive to another;

Backup - creates a special archive file for backup and disaster recovery purposes;

Please read more in this FAQ article.

Actually, Clone Disk approach is usually used to upgrade the hard drive (e.g. install a larger disk), while Backup approach is basically dedicated for the complete data backup and disaster recovery purposes.

Since you are interested in backing up your hard drive for the disaster recovery purposes, I would recommend you to follow Backup approach.

You can find more information on how to use Acronis True Image 9.0 in the respective User's Guide.

As for the problem with "corrupted" images, please provide me with the following details:

- Find the build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window and let me know it;

- Where do you store your images?

- Whether your images verify as corrupted both from under Windows and when booted from Bootable Rescue CD?

- Describe actions taken before the problem appears step-by-step.

Please be aware that Clone Disk wizard allows you to transfer the entire hard drive contents only, but not the content of some separate partition(s) (take a look at Chapter 7 of the above mentioned User's Guide). Thus both of the above goals can not be achieved by means of the disk cloning procedure. One should follow Backup approach in order to be able to perform these actions.

If you want to temporarily replace your copy of Acronis True Image 9.0 with version 8.0 then please do as I have suggested in this previous post of mine.

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov