How to actually restore a failed system drive ???

I have a few very basic questions of Acronis 9. I do not understand the following. I have downloaded Acronis True Image 9. I have alreadey created an image of the system drive of my computer.

Let's say if the system drive fails for some reason, how do ago about restoring that drive if Acronis True Image 9 software is lost in the failed drive? That means I have to purchase a bootage CD from Acronis in addition to the one I already downloaded?

So this is what I assume I have to do to restore my computer with the image:

1. Reformat the system drive and re-install Windows XP (I dont have the original restore disc which came with my computer) Just a version I purchased of Windows XP

2. Somehow get a copy of Acronis True Image 9

3. Attach the external drive where the image resides and start the Acronis software from the main drive and perform a restore of the image.


Thanks for letting me confirm this.

 

What? You didn't burn a bootable CD of ATI? You are prompted at installation to do so. In your case (and if you did create the boot CD) you'd simply toss the CD in your CD-ROM drive and boot from it. Then navigate to where you stored your image and proceed to restore it onto the drive. Couldn't get any easier than that. It is all in the manual, BTW, which I suggest you read ASAP.

 

Yes, I made a mistake, I guess, and did not create a bootable CD of ATI. I am very new at this. Is there any way to create a bootable CD at this point?

 

You should be able to download TI again once you get the system running.
You did regisiter, right?

 

Start TI. Select "bootable rescue media" (it's either in the start-programs-acronis-trueimage, OR else in version 9, may be in the actual program menu)

create a bootable CD (make two or three, and lock two of tehm in your safe)

back up your hard drives; make images of them, to external or separate hard drives.

OK, the day comes, your hard drive blows up; get a new hard drive, insert it into your machine; boot up withe the acronis TI recovery media; have the external drive that has your backups on it.

recover, to the NEW drive, from the backup

MAKE SURE that when you first backed up (I prefer every time) to CHECK the actual backed up data

It should work flawlessly (couple glitches); I rely on this program to allow me to test drives, recover them if they blow up, etc.

See my thread on encrypted drives; I've recovered that test drive about 4 times today.

I could NOT do this without acronis TI.

Nick

 

Hello backupguy,

In order for the replacement hard drive to be bootable, you should ensure that your image contains the Master Boot Record (MBR) from the original drive. Please see my reply and screenshots in this previous thread titled <Does TI9 copy the MBR>.

Regards

 

Hi Nick:

How do you actually check the backuped data?

It only shows the icon. Is there anyway to find out if the backuped data is completely fine without having to actually restore a disk?

Thanks for your complete explanation on how to actually restore a failed system drive.

 

ok. Thanks for pointing that out. I think that it was automatically checked when I did the first backup but I will make sure about that.

 

Backupguy,

to CHECK the backup -

when you DO the backup , (version 9), there is an option to check the backup after creation.
It does the backup, THEN does a verification of that backup.

Also, if you don't check it at that point, there is an option to check it later, but it is actually better (my opinion) to check it immediately after you make the backup; If you wait till later, when you actually NEED it, and find that it is corrupted, you're out of luck.

ALSO, re: CHECKING -
I do not think this actually reads the backup, and compares it to the original files; I think it just checks the integrity of the backup.

In my opinion, I'd like a full verification against the original files. . To Acronis, can you provide info on what is verified?

 

Thanks, AOZ. Your replies are quite useful and informative.

Best,

Gus.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Yes, you are right. This image checking procedure does not compare the original data with the backup. It verifies the integrity of the image file only. This procedure allows you to identify whether you are able to restore the created image file or not.

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko

 

Hi Backupguy,

So many little things come into play in disk imageing, that I make a rule to always verify an image in the same environment the restore will be performed from.

Therefore I always check a system disk image from Rescue CD and when an image is copied to DVDs, I check the copy too.

 

Re: How to actually restore, TO KIRILL

to Kirill

thanks for reply on the clarification of the check-image function.

I realize that IF you verified the actual files, the operation would take longer, BUT is there any way, for future releases, to have

1. option for CURRENT method of Check-Image (verify its integrity)
2. NEW option , to actually compare imaged files against the originals?

there are cases where I feel that would be beneficial, to insure full integrity of the archived files, for removal from hard drive, etc.

thanks
Nick

 

Re: How to actually restore, TO KIRILL

Hi Nick,

Other than for static data files I'm not sure how you can readily achieve that because many application and system files dynamically change both their content and location. Therefore comparing them with either the original snapshot of the in-use sectors or their content would be meaningless.

Regards

 

Re: How to actually restore, TO KIRILL

Hello aoz,

I'm afraid that if you create a system disk image from Windows, there is so much traffic going on in the background, that by the time you start the image check, the true original is nowhere to be had anymore.

On the other hand, what Peter2150 suggested above, may well be an additional step in the right direction. And fast too, if I remember well.


PS: Oops... I'm afraid I didn' refresh the window after coming back from lunch. Didn't mean Menorcaman to need any corroborating, LOL.

 

Menorcaman, and bvolk,
thanks for replies.

that is true; in-use files might not be able to be verified.
BUT, they aren't actually the most critical -
the static data files of all my programs; program configuuration files (ini, etc), are critical, for archives. If THESE compare, I can be pretty sure that the rest are ok;
and if the actual in-use files weren't ok, by chance, I'd probably have at least one backup that was restorable, to get the whole system running, and then I could restore the VERIFIED data files (business files, medical files, etc) to their original locations.

re: pulling an individual file; that is true, I could do that, but I want to check ALL the data files, in order to archive them.

ONE way to do this, is if I do an IMAGE backup, I could use my synchronizer/comparer programm, to mount the images and actually do a full compare, but that involves several more steps; I'd like to be able to do it at time of backup.

Again, I realize there are pro's and con's, but my goal with the compare would be able to
1. do an archival backup, for storage of files (actually, a couple copies)
2. compare actual files
3. delete source files

again, thanks to all, further feedback appreciated

Nick

 

Since we are on the topic of verification, when I verify the last differential file, does it perform a verification also on the original backup file which was created the first time? I never verified the original file and I am just backing up differentially for the first time and would like to perform a verification.

Thanks.

 

Hi aoz,

As far as I know TI won't let you do a file-to-file compare.

For files, I use the classical approach: manual copy and separate hash check or bit-by-bit compare, when really needed. But, well, I'm not that productive any more.

In my opinion the best use and purpose of TI is for system disk backup. And I'm quite satisfied with that.

 

Hello Backupguy,

I'm fairly certain that the full image will be checked too when you select the differential file in the Check Archive wizard.

But you can easily verify that: create a full image, check it and note the time it takes. Soon after that create a differential (it will be small) and check that one. If the time taken is same or longer than in the first instance, the second check included the full image too.

 

Yes, but the problem is that I have already created the original full image and I did not verified it.

 

Hi backupguy,

When you carry out an Archive Check, TI will verify the integrity of the complete image not just some part of it. Hence, verifying a differential will check the original full image plus the selected differential, whilst verifying an incremental checks the full image plus all incrementals up to, and including, the latest one.

Regards

 

thank you very much for clarifying this.

Best,

Gus