Getting Started

I have spent sometime reading Help and trying to understand my new CD-Rom programme of Acronis True Image and have got nowhere. I have successfully installed it on my PC and have proceeded no further. I have only had experience with Microsoft SyncToy which is so easy, but I have been convinced that this is not a good enough backup to use. Thus, my puirchase of Acronis True Image 9.

I need EASY to understand guidance on how to get started. What I want to do is backup my whole internal HDD to an external HDD in case of a PC crash. I can't find a way of copying my internal data to the external HDD. I am supposed to be doing a backup, cloning the HDD or which of the options. Also I am getting asked will I be booting from the new hard drive. Well yes, if I had a crash maybe I would?

I am afraid to go ahead any further as I do not want to lose my existing data on my master HDD.

Any advice will be appreciated.

 

First thing, make sure you have downloaded the latest version of ATI. You will first have to register your CD ROM copy of TI and then download the latest updates.

You should then create a Bootable Rescue Media. This Disaster Recovery disk will let you access your Image Backup in case your Windows OS is unusable. See Tools in the left pane in this screenshot:

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5535/screenshot020wx2.jpg

Using Windows, create a Backup of your system. See Pick A Task in the right pane of the screenshot. You could choose to verify the image you created. If you have any questions about which options to choose in creating your Backup, post back before proceeding and get help here. Nothing will happen until you click Proceed:

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/2603/screenshot022copyjs7.jpg

Really that's all there is to it. In case of a disaster, or even if you've picked up a virus or installed a program which is giving you problems, you boot from the Disaster Recovery disk and restore your system from the Image Backup you've created.

 

Thanks very much for your help dld.

Using Windows, create a Backup of your system. See Pick A Task in the right pane of the screenshot. You could choose to verify the image you created. If you have any questions about which options to choose in creating your Backup, post back before proceeding and get help here. Nothing will happen until you click Proceed

I am not clear what you mean by "using Windows, create a Backup". Am I not opening TI9 to do this?

I would like some advice on which options to choose in creating my Backup. The purpose for it would be a complete backup of my system, onto the external drive, so that I can boot from it should my system go down. I have already created the bootable Disc (that bit I understood).

I usually get the drift of new programmes, but am finding TI9 wording rather hard to understand. I hope it's worth it in the long run.

Can I partition my external drive (it has 250GB) so that I can back up my son's PC as well on the separate partition?

Much appreciated.

 

All that means is that while you are in Windows, load your TI, select Backup, and then follow the prompts. Some like to backup the whole disk while others only backup C Drive (if there is more than one partition on the first disk).

The other way of doing it is to boot off the Rescue disk and go through the same procedure. Most prefer to backup while in Windows. With the Windows procedure you can pass the time playing games or carry on with other tasks. You cannot do that if you backup using the Rescue disk.

You do not need to partition the external drive, however, it would be easier to identify where you placed your image files.

If you do not partition the drive, giving a name to the image files that you are about to create will separate your's and your son's image files.

If you do partition your external drive, name one of the partitions as say son, another one as dad and install the images to the relevant partitions. When you are in TI you will easily see those unique named partitions.

The images do not take up much room, consequently you could also have a third partition called data. Rather then using TI to backup your data, it is quicker to use Windows or third party software to backup your data.

 

Most helpful Mark3 - this has helped me considerably. I imagined that a full backup would have taken up a large volume on the external HDD. Would you recommend a differential or incremental backup to refresh the backup? By what a read it seems like a differential, but would like a user's opinion of this.

I have also got installed SyncToy from Microsoft and I schedule that daily to backup my data. I had thought that I could have done this all with one programme, but after reading your reply it sounds like I should keep hold of that programme as well.

By the way I am Mum and not Dad! Dad in our household knows nothing at all about computers.

Thanks again, any other tips really appreciated.

 

Personally I don't bother with differentials\incrementals. I'd rather keep multiple images of my system, spaced approximately a week apart. I had problems just this weekend with a computer help forum which got hacked. My computer was infected with 4 Exploit viruses and various other malware. Enwido removed 2 viruses but left the other junk. It was only by restoring an Acronis image that I was able to get a clean computer. The advantage of keeping multiple images is that you never know if a particular image is infected or not. An image is just that, a photo of your system including any existing malware. Hopefully you can fall back on one image which is not infected.

I also use SyncToy and find it useful to synchronize computers on a network. I presume you're using the Echo feature of Synctoy to backup your data. Keep doing so if you find it useful. On the other hand, you can mount your images as virtual drives and copy any data from these drives. Just go to Pick a Tool and choose Mount Image. You'll find that in the first screenshot I posted if you scroll down a bit.

 

Hi dld,

I can see your point at keeping various backups through TI - I will take your advice on this one. Thanks

I also use SyncToy and find it useful to synchronize computers on a network. I presume you're using the Echo feature of Synctoy to backup your data. Keep doing so if you find it useful. On the other hand, you can mount your images as virtual drives and copy any data from these drives. Just go to Pick a Tool and choose Mount Image. You'll find that in the first screenshot I posted if you scroll down a bit.[/QUOTE]

I am using SyncToy with the Echo feature for pictures/my documents/etc. it is so easy to use that I shall continue to do this.

Again, thanks to you all for such a lot of help and advice.

 

By the way, once you have mastered creating images, you will need to see if the image can be restored.

Don't be too alarmed but verifying or mounting an image does not guaratee that you will have a successful restore.

Buy yourself a cheap hard disk off eBay (it can be of smaller size to your main one just as long as the used space on your main one can fit into it) and when you are ready to restore, replace your main with the new one. Then restore your image from the external to your new one. If it works then you know that your images can be restored and also you have a disk (the new one) with the OS and all the information on it. The latter can sit in the draw for the occasion when you have a problem and need to launch your computer quickly. Now and then you can restore a new image to it thus ensuring that it is up to date.

This advice might sound like going over the top but there have been threads on this forum where TI users have reported that when they had restored their verified image back onto their main disk they had lost all their information because the image was corrupt.

 

Wow, I thought I was doing well buying an external drive, but the thoughts of getting another HDD and installing it into my PC to verify the restore sounds complicated. I can appreciate your reasoning behind this.

I have most of my pictures on backup CD's, so will continuing to update these onto this media. I have still got Sync Toy installed on my machine and have decided to keep using this programme to back up all important pictures and data again onto my external hard disk.

I will, however, keep your suggestions in mind, they are very sensible. Thanks