Can backup be MADE from bootable CD?

Greetings and thank you for your help. I have read many of the posts and the user guide several times and one question remains. I am using Acronis True Image 10.0 Build 4942 Home on Win XP SP2, all updated, on HP Pavillion dv8000 laptop with dual 120GB SATA HDs, 2GB RAM.

I am curious how one is able to make an backup image of my C:\drive which will be active during the backup creation with virus scan running etc. It seems to me that the backup will therefore be incompete for a seemless one step reinstallation in case of disaster. I have tried to figure from reading the user guide and the forum if the bootable cd feature has the ability to MAKE a backup as well as restore one, thus being able to make the backup of the c:\ drive while it is inactive and thus getting a true image of everything on the drive.

Thanks in advance for helping me clear up this confusion before I start my backup process!

 

Yes you can make a backup from the bootable CD. If you backup under windows TI takes a snapshot of the drive, so some information that changes between the beginning and the end of the backup will not be captured. This has never been an issue with me. You can set a scheduled task to run at shutdown while in windows. You can't do scheduled tasks from the CD. Check out these guides https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=168165.

 

Thanks for pointing me to that resource. Do I take it then that it really doesn't matter if the disc is active and the restore, if needed, will be just fine

I do see the benefits you pointed out for using the win interface.

My intention would be to do a full reinstall in case of hardware failure (like I just had last week) and thus avoid reinstalling everything again by hand and reestablishing all my settings.

 

You can make and restore images with just the CD.

Imagine that you have done something dumb and when you boot you get the dreaded message XYZ is missing and your machine will not load.

You just pop the CD into your CD player - and reboot. Assuming that your CD player is set as first device in your BIOS the CD version of Acronis will load and you can then follow instructions to restore your C: drive or partition.

 

I create my backups under windows all the time and I've always been able to restore what I had before. In some cases I may have to use BartPE Begginer's Guide to Creating a BartPE CD to copy off files that were updated during the backup, usually email. Its your choice. Either method will work and there is no way to guarantee that you won't have something missing no matter which way you go.

 

Thank you for all your clear answers. This board is proving absolutely invaluable to a noob like me for this product. Very appreciated; what a service!

 

Hello labromaniac,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that as thomasjk said Acronis True Image uses unique technology that allows creation of a disk\partition images on the live system without the need to reboot the computer. Have a look at this thread <Which way to backup?> for more information.

The Acronis True Image Bootable CD comes in handy when you need to restore the image and can not load the operating system. Using Bootable CD you can load the standalone version of Acronis True Image and restore the image archive, thus restoring the system to the moment of image creating.

Thank you.
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Aleksandr Isakov