Bare Metal restore?

Hi again!

Admitedly, posting the serial number was not the smartest thing to do, I sincerely apologize. I realized that after I posted. I was only trying to prove that I own a legitimate, purchased copy of Acronis DiskDirector. Also, I was under the impression that this forum is "pre-moderated", so the message would be seen by an Acronis moderator before publicly posted and the SN would be "cut", which I think is what exactly happened. Never-the-less, I apologize again, I am very sorry for any inconvenience I may have cause you.

Back to business, I have made some tremendous progress. Thanks to your advice I was able to start the "new" PC with the TI bootable CD, adjust the network settings (as advised by Tatyana) and retrieve the image backup over the network. After the restoration process was over, the PC booted up with no problem. Of course I got (just as you pointed out) some yellow question/exclamation marks because of the "newer" hardware that is naturally not supported by the older system's drivers, etc. But this was only a minor setback; with the drivers available on the setup CD (DELL) I had basically cloned the "old" PC to the "new" one in under 45 mins.

Therefore, indeed this is "Bare Metal Restore" and I am so grateful to Acronis for both the product (TI) and the excellent online support in this forum.

I will follow the rest of your advice regarding the incompatible DiskDirector 10.0 package and I am sure we'll come up with a mutually satisfatory resolution. Just out of curiosity, Acronis DiskDirector 9.0 was not separated into "Server" and "Non-Server" versions, or am I wrong?!?

Thank you all again for your courteous and thorough support! What a great job you do!!!

Best regards,

Dimitri P. @ PsfM

 

Your original posting, along with the serial number, was automatically sent to those subscribing to the thread, BEFORE the moderator removed the serial number.

 

Well, I guess we will just have to hope that subscribers to this forum are upstanding and honest citizens!!

 

Unfortunately, my impression is that there are folkes who would NOT steal a candy bar but have no inhibitions about stealing software. Tis a sad world in which we live.

 

I have a question whether an image can be restored to a slave hard disk through a booted Windows system.

To explain in detail of my situation:

Our servers are hosted at offshore data centers where the ISP provides minimal hardware and network support.
If a HDD goes bad, they simply replace the bad HDD with a fresh one with OS pre installed on it.

In such a situation, I would not be in a position to have them boot from a rescue CD and follow the restore steps.

Hence I am wondering if there is any Acronis restore utility that I can then load on the fresh OS installation remotely, and have it restore the image to a slave HDD connected to my server. The backup image would obviously be available on the LAN.

After restore to the Slave HDD, I can then have the ISP swap this as a primary drive and I can be back online with the restored image.

Thanks,
Ninad
iPole

 

I modified this post, as Virtual PC from Microsoft is now a FREE product, and no longer needs the 45 day trial patch.

 

Do you still need a separate license for each version of the SAME OS installed on the SAME PC via Virtual PC?

 

Howard,

I read your post tonight, and looked into this, since having two instances of XP on my single computer would be welcome for testing new software, etc.

I found no clear answers on the Virtual PC site, nor in the White paper I read and searched. I found a relevent discussion in the Microsoft WGA forums that seems to say, yes, the official position is still that Microsoft demands a separate product key for each instance of XP, even on a single machine, but, no, if you call Microsoft product activation and explain that you are running the second OS on the same machine, in a virtual PC, they will provide you with a new product key, allowing you to do just that.

http://forums.microsoft.com/genuine/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=546429&SiteID=25

Microsoft did not step in with an answer. So, it sounds like there is no clear official answer. My interpretation is that Microsoft has acknowledged that people such as yourself are legitimately interested in using XP in dual instances on a single machine for legitimate testing purposes, and while unwilling to alter their formal stance, are, in fact, allowing it to occur. WGA is aimed at preventing piracy, and I doubt aimed at least at restricting legitimate users from running Windows programs on a single machine with legitimate MS software.

Even the fact that Virtual PC is now free may support this theory. Plus, with Vista coming out, Microsoft may be all too aware of how many of us will need to dual boot, and is relaxing their hard stance on the matter, at least in practice. So, let's keep the Supreme Court out of it, and, if you do try it, please let us know how you fare. We'll chip in on bail if all else fails.

Regards

 

The "official" position is what it states in the license.
Butt, there's my big butt again, MSFT realizes that it is oft necessary to test stuff on the same PC, or better yet, increase their sales of, say, Office, by not preventing multiple copies of the OS on a single PC so folkes can properly install one version of Office per OS. Otherwise, folkes might not buy Office updates.

Indeed, one could view an OS as the razor, and the apps the blades. In most cases, each copy of an app, requires a separate install on each OS.

 

jimmytop, I just had to tell you that I found your help in this context useful and appreciate your patient persistence with the OP. You know, I'm always puzzled by those who toss out a perfunctory disclaimer and expect it to conceal an obviously contentious spirit. Anyway, thanks again for your help.