How to be sure in advance that the backup will work

Hello,

I have been backing up with TI version 8.0 build 937 for a long time and have only had to use it once. It worked fine, but that was with a different laptop. Now I am sending my current laptop for repair and want to make sure I can restore my image when I get the laptop back.

I have an Acer TravelMate 290 running Windows XP 160 GB hardrive 2 GB DDR2 and an Intel Core Duo 2 processor.

I used the "explore image" wizard to check my backup image and got an error saying it could not assign a logical drive to one of the partitions - when I unchecked that partition, it assigned the drives fine for the other two.

The partition that caused the problem is noted as follows: PQSERVICE flagged "Pri" it is the first one listed and it has a 5.86 GB capacity with 1.055 GB free space The type is FS: FAT32 Partition: 0x12 (Compaq Setup)

I also ran the "check image function" and that said that the image was fine. So is it safe to assume that I will be able to restore from that image? Why can't it assign a logical drive to that partition?

Thanks very much in advance.
Barbara

 

Did you validate it?

 

Yes, I did validate the image - that is, I used the check image wizard.
Also, I forgot to mention that I am using an external hard drive for a full backup.
Thanks

 

The only close to absolute way of knowing if you can restore is to do a test restore on a spare HD.

The next best way is to validate your image using the TI rescue CD - this is very important. The rescue CD is Linux, not Windows, and just because a validate works in Windows it does not mean that the Linux environment will work well with your hardware. Windows cannot be running when the active partition is restored.

You have another potential issue with TI8 being old and your hardware being new. Validate may be called check-image in TI8, I don't really know. Anyway, run it and then if it works successfully go through the Restore Wizard right up to the point where you have to click on Proceed to do the restore and then cancel out. If all of this is OK then its as good as you can do to know it should work without actually doing a test restore.

If the above fails, download the latest TI demo version and make the rescue CD. It will let you restore a previously created image. I am assuming that TI2009 will read a TI8 archive; should, but I can't be certain.

 

Thank you very much - I will try your suggestion and use the recovery disk to go up to the point of restoring

 

b_in_vt,

Welcome to the forum.

In addition to the advice already provided, my additional suggestions would be to

1. Boot from the Rescue CD and make a new backup and make sure and checkmark the disk option so the backup will include your recovery partition. A backup created within the Rescue CD takes Windows out of the picture.

2. Upon receipt of the repaired laptop, you may want to make another backup imgage (again checkmarking the disk option). This will allow you to have a copy of whatever changes they may have made. This backup would only be a safety precaution in case your real restore should not properly succeed.
3. After the laptop is repaired, then you can again reboot into the Rescue CD and perform a restore and again make sure you checkmark the disk option to include all partitions in the restore. Normally, you might want to restore only the system partition (C) but not knowing about changes made by the repair, I feel you perform a disk restore since you know you had a working system when the original backup was made.

There is no need for you to assign a drive letter to the Compaq partition.

My guides listed in line 2 of my signature below can help. Both the backup and restore guides illustate checkmarking the disk option.

My wife and I visited the Country Store in Weston this past Thursday and make a trip to Waitsfied each spring for our annual supply of maple syrup. A long time ago, we lived in Brattleboro for a short period.

 

With windows xp, you can never be sure you will get a bootable restore drive the first time.

But make sure that your backup of you c: system partition completes with no errors. If it completes but has errors, even it validates good, I would not trust it. Your other data partitions you can backup seperately.

As long as your c: system partition is backed up with no errors, it can be restored on any partition on any hard drive (as long as it's in the same computer) and it should be bootable whether you backup up the MBR or not.

There will be times when the restored drive won't bootup. These will be cause by "partition Id" or boot.ini errors which are easily fixed. On some laptops there is also something called "CHS geometry" that can cause problems, also fixable by making sure the new hard drive is installed in the computer when restoring (reverse clone).

I have a 100 percent success rate restoring with true image and xp only because I use a "boot corrector" to fix the "minor problems" that can prevent the restored drive from booting. That's the only way I know that my backup will work everytime. I never spend more than 5 minutes fixing a drive that won't boot. Thats the strategy that I use and it works for me.

You need to plan for the worst everytime you restore and you won't be surprise. But as long as you have a "good backup" it can always be fixed so that it will boot, I have never encountered a situation that I wasn't able to fix.