Do I need to make a new bootable rescue CD?

I just thought of something:

Before I purchased Acronis TI10, I downloaded and used the free demo version for a few days, to see what it was like. Among the things I did with the demo version was make a bootable rescue CD, which I also tried (seeing that it booted, not doing a full restore).

I purchased and downloaded the paid version of Acronis TI10 a couple of weeks ago, and it's working fine. But it just occurred to me: will the rescue CD that I made with the demo version still work, or does it run out after 15 days as well. In other words, should I make a new rescue CD?

 

Yes, you need to make a new Rescue CD. The one you made with the Trial version will only do Restores.
And if you're keeping your Backup Images on an external drive, make sure that in a simulated restore the Rescue CD sees the external drive.

 

DwnNdrty, thanks. I made a new bootable rescue disk, then checked to see if it saw the external hard disk.

At first, it didn't see it, apparently because I was using the "safe" version (whatever that is). Then I tried it using the full version, and it saw the external hard disk, and I validated my backup files (over an hour), so I hope every thing is OK.

 

Safe mode doesn't have usb drivers, but Full mode does. Even so depending on the external drive, sometimes even Full mode will not detect it. But yours is detected, so you're good to go .... almost .....
Many users here report that even with a successful validation, a restore is not successful so if you can, give it the acid test by restoring to a spare drive. Do not try it on your present system drive in case things go awry.

 

DwnNdrty, thanks. But I have my regular drive, and the external HD where I keep the backup image, and there's no other drive to try it on. It seems to me that if I have to worry about about a successfor restore after I have validated the backup, then I've made a very poor investment.

 

As DwnNDrty said, restoring is the acid test.

We have all heard about rare cases where even a validated image failed for some reason when an actual restore was attempted. It's rare, but it can happen, therefore only a restore is full proof of success.

Would I worry about this if I had validated my image of my current system from the Recovery CD? No. If my life's work of great value were only on that one hard drive would I insist on trying a restore? Yes. Would I also have my backups in this case on more than one external drive? Yes. And one drive would be stored off-site.

Somewhere in between you decide that the cost of an extra drive and the time to do the restore is more insurance than you need to pay for. Life is like that. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Only one thing can be guaranteed. There are no guarantees, only probabilities. It makes life more interesting and difficult.

 

It doesn't matter what backup program you invest in; until you actually perform a restore you can't be sure that it will work on your hardware. It would be nice if computers were simple enough that folks knew how they worked and programmers could write software that worked all the time on all machines. Unfortunately, personal computers are so complicated these days that no one knows how they work (each person only knows parts of them).

 

Yes, but wouldn't you be better finding out whether you have made a poor investment on a proactive basis ?

This is page 1 disaster recovery stuff.

F.