Confusing on screen restore instructions

Using Windows XP Home and ATI 9.0 Home (3633)

After making quite a few image backups of my drive C, I finally worked up the courage to try a restore. Here's what I did:

(1) Under Windows, I loaded ATI9 and did an image backup of drive C to a folder on drive D (a second internal hard drive).

(2) I then used Windows "Disk Management" to format an external hard drive in a USB box.

(3) Still under Windows, I attempted to do a restore from the folder on drive D to the external drive (G) as target.

(4) ATI complained that there was a second partition (only about 7 megabytes) in the target drive. I have no idea where this came from as I am sure I never created it and it did not show up under Windows "Disk Management".

(5) I approved the deletion of this partition as there was definitely no valuable information on the disk.

(6) After about 17 minutes, I got a message "C000B03EB A reboot is required for completing this operation... the operation will be cancelled if you choose not to reboot now" with the choice of "Reboot" or "Cancel". The content of this message seems inconsistent with the title which said "Operation complete".

(7) I was unsure whether it was talking about booting off the current running system or booting the newly created system on the external disk. Since I recall seeing messages on this forum warning against rebooting with 2 potentially bootable drives available, I clicked "Cancel"

( The next window to appear said "The operation was completed successfuly [OK]" which also seems to contradict the warning in the previous window.

(9) I was still not sure whether I had created a bootable system or not so I decided to browse the external drive using Windows Explorer, only to find that it was not even listed (which I am sure it was before I started the restore). When I clicked on the "remove hardware" tray icon, USB mass storage device was still listed so I removed it and shut the system down.

(10) On rebooting and re-attaching the external drive, it does indeed appear to be a copy of drive C. Even the volume label has been changed so that it is now the same as my original drive C.

Hopefully, I have achieved my objective of recreating a bootable system, but why do the messages seem so confusing and contradictory?

Is it possible to safely test the new disk by booting off it while it is atached to the USB port and my "real" C is still connected? Or do I have to physically swap it with my "real" C drive?

Supplementary question...
During backup and restore operations, is it a worthwhile precaution to shut down my broadband modem just in case some program decides to update itself in the middle of the operation?

 

Physically swapping the drives is the way to go in complete safety.
As to the messages I have no idea as I have never restored an OS to a USB drive. My method of testing is to replace the OS drive with a spare one and then do the restore to it. This is after all what would need to be done if there was a real OS drive failure.
I have never bothered to shut down anything when testing and have never had any problems or conflicts. The same would apply in a real breakdown as I would be restoring to a replacement drive and the process could be re-performed if necessary. Following the same logic I do not waste time verifying images before restoring and I have never had to backtrack.

Xpilot

 

Thanks Xpilot for your advice which encouraged me to swap the disk over. The good news is that it booted successfully, though Windows did announce that it had found new hardware. I assumed that this was due to the disk size having changed from that previously autodetected by the BIOS.
Curiously, there was no similar announcement after I swapped the original disk back.

Actually I realise now that it would have been a more realistic test to do the restore from the recovery disk and this will be my next experiment.

If I do this, should I expect the same message about a reboot being necessary? If I say yes to to the reboot, will it reboot the recovery disk or my new restored system?

 

I am fairly certain that this extra re-boot is requested following the first boot of the newly created "C" drive. I have never asked why I just do it ! As they say, size does not matter, it is I think that Windows sees the new C drive as a new arrival and needs to register it. The old C drive goes back as an old friend.
I am not completely sure what you mean by the "recovery disk" but carry on with your trials and you will come to no harm provided you have one of your C drives unconnected and safe on a shelf. It is possible to dual boot two versions of the same operating system but unless you have a very good reason for doing this do not go there! It is all too easy to fetch up with an unbootable system. This can be recovered but it is a PITA!

Xpilot

 

Hello Hiawatha,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are very sorry for the delay with the response.

Please be aware that Acronis True Image should ask for reboot only in case restoration of a system partition is initialized from under Windows. The point is that this partition needs to be overwritten in this case which apparently can not be done while Windows is running. There is no need to reboot the computer if a non-system partition is being restored. This means that Acronis True Image should not ask you for a reboot if the backup restoration process does not involve system partition Windows is currently running from. It seems that what you have found out is some kind of an incorrect Acronis True Image behavior and therefore needs to be clarified. I've forwarded this information to our Testing Team and will inform you about the results of their investigation as soon as I'll receive a reply. As this can take a few days we apologize in advance for any delay with the response.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Hello Hiawatha,

I've consulted with the respective person from our Testing Team and he assured me that this is not a problem but normal behavior of the current Acronis True Image version. The point is that when you restored the image of your entire system disk to the third hard drive connected via USB, two identical hard drives having the same "digital signatures" appeared in your system. Such situation is "unpleasant" for Windows and might cause problems. That's why Acronis True Image asked you for a reboot upon the image restoration competition. By the way, for the same reason we ask users to unplug one of the hard drives prior to booting into Windows for the first time after they do the disk cloning. In fact, you did the disk cloning, but in a slighly different way. When you rebooted the computer and re-connected your external USB hard drive Windows assigned different "signature" to this disk and that's why it became "visible".

The only real problem here is that the warning message you received is hardly understandable and therefore might confuse user. I've forwarded this information to our Development Team and they will most likely correct this warning message in the future Acronis True Image builds\versions. Moreover, this warning message will most likely suggest you to turn off the computer and unplug one of the hard drives rather than simply reboot the machine.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov