Different Ways to create your Hard Disc Image

I am a new Acronis Software user, so please don't mind my basic questions.

I understand that you can create a backup image of your complete HDD into an image file in 2 ways:

1) Boot your computer with the Acronis CD and select your HDD and store the image on external USB drive.

2) Install the Acronis software on your system. Start the backup image process while on the system and use the external USB drive to store the image.


My questions is what is the difference in the 2 methods? Is there any advantage of any 1 method over the other? How does Acronis make image of files that might be open while imaging?

 

If both methods work "according to plan" there is no difference in the resulting Image. But ... using the bootable Rescue CD to make the Image eliminates the possibility of something running in the background when Windows starts which might interfere with the backup process even though True Image "shells out" of Windows when it is started in Windows.

My preference is to always use the Rescue CD.

 

I always make my images from within Windows and have not had any problems by doing so. Ralphie is correct saying you are eliminating the possibility of something conflicting but this doesn't seem to be a problem. I run with email polling, network running, AV running and firewall running. Many other users continue working at various apps as well and report no problems.

The real advantage to doing it within Windows is speed. The Windows environment runs faster than the TI Linux recovery environment on the bootable CD. Since I can do it faster I am more likely to make an image before trying some piece of unknown software.

To restore the active partition you cannot be running Windows since the first thing that happens is the partition being restored is deleted. You can enter your restore data in Windows but then TI will reboot the PC and bring up the Linux recovery environment to do the actual task. Knowing this is very important because it means that this environment must be able to run on your PC in order to restore your C drive.

Being a new user you should:
Create an image in WIndows or with the Linux CD.
Validate the image in Windows AND with the TI Linux CD - doing it with the CD is very important because the CD has to work!
Ideally, get a spare HD and restore your image using the TI CD. This is the only way you have 100% confidence you can do a restore. Once you have done a restore in this manner you know your hardware is compatible with TI.

Do not wait until you have a disaster to see if you can succesfully restore.

 

seekforever,
Following all the steps you mention, when testing, if one were to image a non O/S partition and test restore to a non O/S partition, would such a test be adequate to establish that TI should work?

 

Getting closer, alright. I think it would certainly be better than just doing a validate but it is missing the "can I boot from a restored active partition" portion of the exercise. I'm sure you've noticed that there are a number of "can't boot from restored drive" posts on the forum.

 

Yes, I've seen several of those posts, and see your point. Testing on a non O/S partition, if practical, might serve as a good first step if one doesn't have a second HD to test with. If TI fails that, a user would know they've got a problem that needs to be solved. I'm setting aside, for this question, the fact that an image stored on the same HD from which it was created is no protection in the case of a drive failure.

 

Hello yalgaar,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Please notice that in both cases the resulting image will be the same.
When you create an image under Windows, Acronis True Image uses snapshot technology which allows to backup even files being used. For more details please see this post.
Acronis Bootable Rescue Media uses Linux environment and embedded Linux drivers to access the system devices.
You can find more information on how to use Acronis True Image in the respective User's Guide.

Thank you.
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Marat Setdikov