Don't laugh too much

I copied everything from my internal hd to an external one. I even went through the steps to recover data from the external and putting it back on the internal short of clicking "Proceed". I was thrilled that it looks so easy. That got me to thinking. Not a good thing for me to do. I read the manual and all, but am still feeling fuzzy.I started wondering what happens if Dell (again) tells me that I need to reinstall my OS (XP Home) because my computer is not working. When I did it last time, I had to put back everything from scratch I had before I wiped the HD clean and put back the OS. So, if I have to do this again, and reinstall Acronis 9, would it read the external HD and let me move from that drive to the internal and put back everything that way? Does that make sense? Can someone explain this to me so even a 55 year old computer wuz understand? Thanks

 

If by copying to an external drive you mean using True Image to make an image file of the internal drive onto the external drive, then yes, you can use that image to restore the internal drive.

However, even if Dell tells you to restore the PC to day-one, why would you want to do that? Instead, you can restore the PC to yesterday, or last week, or whatever the latest image you have on that external drive. That is the beauty of a program like True Image. You never have to go back to day one.

Basically, unless there is a severe hardware problem (e.g., new motherboard), forget Dell support. You are now your own support group, and you will probably do a better job than Dell.

By the way, if you let True Image make a boot CD, then you can use that to do the recovery. You never should have to use the Dell restore, nor should you ever need to re-install True Image, just to do a restore.

 

If by copying to an external drive you mean using True Image to make an image file of the internal drive onto the external drive, then yes, you can use that image to restore the internal drive.

However, even if Dell tells you to restore the PC to day-one, why would you want to do that? Instead, you can restore the PC to yesterday, or last week, or whatever the latest image you have on that external drive. That is the beauty of a program like True Image. You never have to go back to day one.

Basically, unless there is a severe hardware problem (e.g., new motherboard), forget Dell support. You are now your own support group, and you will probably do a better job than Dell.

By the way, if you let True Image make a boot CD, then you can use that to do the recovery. You never should have to use the Dell restore, nor should you ever need to re-install True Image, just to do a restore.
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Yes, I used True Image to make a copy of my internal hd and put it on the external hd. I did it of "My Computer", and did an archive check to make sure it was working. I also did make the reboot cd. What has happened in the past is this; Over the past 3 years, I had to reinstall the OS.The first time was through Dell support, and the next time, a few months ago, I did it using help from the Geek Squad (from Best Buy). That is why I bought the external. I had to try to recreate everything I had on the hard drive. So let me get this straight: If I am having a problem, I can use the reboot CD and it will do excatly what? Sorry to ask, but I am just afraid of messing up more than I have to . Thanks

 

Hi Jensmunk,

You created an image of the entire system disk. The box in front of Disk1 should have been ticked when you selected what you wanted to be included in the image. The image so created is now stored on an external drive as one or more files with a .tib extension. Every so often, you will create a new image.

Now boot from rescue CD and click Full Version (topmost) from the selection screen. When you get to the main TI menu, run Check Archive. Find the image file (xxxx.tib) on the external drive (it may show a different letter name than in Windows), select it and finally Proceed for the verification to execute. When finished, retrieve the CD from drive and exit TI.

When something happens to your system drive (Windows crash, or an infection, or a program that won't uninstall well), you will again boot from rescue CD, run Retrieve, select one of the .tib files at your disposal on the external drive and TI will restore your system disc to the same state it was in when you made that image (xxxx.tib). Windows will be working again, no infection, no traces of the program you don't want to keep.

 

Thanks! That really helps. I feel much more confident if I should have to do use this.