Image of C-drive: via F11 or not?

Hello people,

First of all I would like to say that I am an absolute newbee on this forum, so please excuse me if I write something silly or irrelevant. I only hope to learn something from you.
Now, my question is the following:
Since quite a while now I am using Acronis True Image for making my images, and -- I have to say -- I like it very much.
However I was wondering what the best strategy is for making images of the C-drive (with Windows XP on it). So far I have been using Acronis "under Windows", but I am not convinced that this is really the most secure option. I mean, you are imaging the C-drive while Windows is up!
So, as a test case, I just imaged my C-drive via the F11-key (Windows is not started!), but it took a lot longer!
My C-drive is NTFS and 10 GB large, of which approx. 2 GB is occupied by Windows. Could it be that by imaging via F11 the whole 10 GB is imaged in stead of the 2 GB?
Could you guys please tell me what is the best strategy here and why?

Many thanks in advance!
Lucas, from Belgium.

 

Hello Lucas,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

The difference in time is resulted from the fact that when you boot using F11 key you get to the Linux environment (so-called Acronis True Image stand-alone mode). This environment uses Linux drivers that may be not optimized for your hardware. That is why the image creation in Windows takes less time. However, in both cases you get the image of the used space only (providing the file system is not corrupted or unknown).

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Thanks for explaining the difference in speed between Windows mode and stand-alone mode, Ilya!
But is there also a difference in safety and security, regarding the C-drive?
I mean, is it better using F11 or not?

 

Hello Lucas,

Sorry, forgot to answer your question in the previous post. There is no difference in security between image creation under Windows and in Acronis True Image stand-alone mode. You may find useful our article concerning Acronis exclusive technology of image creation while the operating system is running.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Hello Ilya,

Thank you for the quick reply!
I was already convinced of the quality of Acronis True Image, but the support seems to meet the same high standards.
Keep up the good work!
Lucas.