Important questions on using TI8 first time

Hi to all.
I have TI 8 build 800
OS XP
I'm new to TI 8. I've read the users manual ( some sections multiple times) and been reading from this forum for days. The differances between what the owners manual says and what the forum members recommend is enough to confuse anyone. So here are some questions I need answering and/or verified before I get in to deep. Hope someone can help?

1) It looks like Startup Recovery Manager and safe zone go hand in hand. To activate SRM you get stuck with safe zone also. Correct?

2) User manual states "We recommend that you restore disks using windows, only using other methods if windows doesn't load."
Then Ilya from Acronis support states at this forum in another thread https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=69392&highlight=MBR
"Currently you will not be able to restore the system partition without rebooting into Acronis True Image standalone mode"
Going by the later statement you can not restore a full image through windows?

3) Read in another thread that you can restore a full image when using a Acronis rescue boot disk and it will not screw with your MBR. Is this true and can you do all your restoring from the Acronis rescue dick? Is this method the safest way to do a full restore or any restore without all the possable problems that may accure using the dredded Startup Recovery Manager?

4) I know my why around a computer pretty good, but have never done a partition. This is probably a very stupid question so try not to laugh to hard. Does 1 partition splt your drive in two, or 2 partition split it in two? Sorry

5) My primary drive will not be partitioned at all. I want to partition my sepperate backup drive into 2 sections. One will be used for cloning the primary drive for using for full restores. The second section for storing and backing up movies. music and such. Are there any expected issues doing a full restore of primary drive from the clone that is on a partitioned drive?

6) When doing a full restore, will the restore also overwrite and/or free up any information that has been added since the clone backup was made? That's what I'm hoping. I want nothing but the restore remaning on the primary.

7) When adding a new hard drive the user manual states that after setting up your hard drive in your bios you need to set the boot sequence in bios to were your "TI is located" so that TI will auto start after reboot to set up new drive. What?? Will it detect the program on my system or do I need some acronis boot disk in the rom drive for the TI to auto start? I normally have boot sequence as CD ROM, floppy then C:.

I know I'm looking for alot of info, but I've tried to find these answers on my own and still confused. I submitted basicly these same questions to Acronis Tech. Support days ago and have had no responce yet.

Thanks much for the help,
2budbeer

 

Hello 2budbeer,

Thank you for choosing Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

Please find below the answers to your questions:

1) Right, to Acronis Startup Recovery Manager can be activated only in Acronis Secure Zone (if you haven't got it it will be created).

2) If you start restoring under Windows you will be prompted to reboot the computer anyway. It will happen because Acronis True Image needs to get exclusive hard disk access and Windows cannot allow any software manage system partition.

3) There is no difference between booting from Acronis Secure Zone (pressing F11) and from Acronis Bootable CD. Once you boot the computer Acronis True Image will reside in memory and you may do any operations with your hard disk even if you booted using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. It is possible to restore the image in Acronis True Image stand alone mode.

4) Each partition is a part of your disk. Each one has its own file system and its own letter in Windows. Please read several articles from our FAQ section starting from http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/faq.html#14 This FAQ is for Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.0 but it will answer your questions.

5) You will not be able to clone the whole disk to the part of the other one. It would be better just to create images of the first drive and store them on the second one.

6) When you restore the image to a hard disk all the data that had been on this disk (or only those partitions where you want to restore to) will be deleted. To be exact, it will be replaced with the data from the image.

7) Could you please clarify what you are trying to do so I could give you advice on how to do that?

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Hello 2budbeer,

A lengthy post but that's o.k. I will try to answer all your questions.

Correct. On the other hand, you can create and use a Secure Zone without activating the Startup Recovery Manager if that's what you wish.

You can restore non-system partitions in Windows mode but system partitions can only be restored after booting into TI rescue mode.

Yes. In any case, I don't recommend activating the Startup Recovery Manager unless you have a special requirement to use it. My reasons are stated in various other threads.

In order to be readable all HDs require at least 1 formatted partition. Therefore creating a 2nd partition effectively splits the drive in two.

No problem in this particular scenario (I note you use the word "cloning" when in fact I assume you meant "imaging"). However, if you ever decide to add extra partitions to your primary drive then I recommend that you image the whole drive rather than individual partitions. This should ensure that, in the event of restoring to a replacement drive, the new drive is bootable.

Yes. TI carries out in-use sector based imaging. When an image is restored it overwrites all existing in-use sector information and pays no attention to file names etc.

This is referred to in Appendix B1.1 "Installing a hard disk, general scheme". It's meant to remind you to set the first boot device to floppy disk or CD-ROM (depending on whether you've created the bootable rescue media on diskette or CD) so that TI can boot into rescue mode when needed.

Hope the above helps.

Regards

 

Ilya
Thanks for the replies.
You want more info on the seventh question. I intend on adding a second hard drive to my system. I'm am going off the "Installing new disk,general scheme" in the TI 8 user guide. Page 68 AppendixB B.1.1 The questions I have are in steps 5-9. It wants my to "step 7 Set the boot sequence to A:, C:, CD-ROM or some other, depending where your copy of Acronis True Image is located. If you have a boot diskette, set the diskette to be first, if it is on a CD, make the boot sequence start with CD-ROM". This is done so Acronis True Image will auto start after leaving the BIOS configering step for a new drive. Well since my TI is installed/located on C: (one of the choices mentioned above "Set the boot sequence to A:, C:, CD-ROM ") will TI auto start so I can "step 9 Use TI to configure hard disks by answering the wizard's questions."? In a nut shell. Will TI auto start from C: after leaving BIOS and rebooting or do I need to boot from a Acronis rescue boot disk to have this happen. You can find what I'm getting at in the User guide pages I mentioned.

I do not understand your answer to question 5
"You will not be able to clone the whole disk to the part of the other one. It would be better just to create images of the first drive and store them on the second one."
Maybe I did not explain it right or I'm not using the right terms. My primary drive (120GB) I want to make an exact clone/image or whatever the term is of what's on this drive. The size of what's on this drive being roughly 22 GB (OS, files, data). My second drive is a 160GB that I want to partition into two sections. Section/paritition 1 size will be made 30GB the second will be the other 130GB that remains of the 160GB drive. Since the size of the data on the primary drive is only 22GB and the partition I want to clone it to on the second drive is 30GB why can't I clone it there. Isn't there an option in on the TI programs opening screen that allows me to do something like copy/clone entire drive. I can't look at the program while I'm writing this because Acronis's stinkin' Startup Recovery Manager setup crashed my system yesterday. If I'm still not making sence can you tell me the exact steps I need to do in order to make the 22GB of data on the primary drive be identicle in the 39GB partition of the second drive so I can restore from it if I have to?
I hope I'm not confusing you, because I think my brain is going to cave in?
Thanks again

 

Menorcaman,
Thanks for your help on my problems. Between you and Ilya answering my questions I think I should have a good start on using this program. We'll see

 

Hello 2budbeer,

As for the 7th question. If I got you right you want to add one more disk to the existing system (that has already operating system on it and is bootable). In this case please plug in the new hard disk, turn on the computer, launch Acronis True Image and start "Add New Disk" wizard. Please indicate your new disk and create partitions you need.

As for the 5th questions, I got your idea. It is impossible to clone the whole disk to the part of the second as I stated before. You may create the image of the whole disk and restore it to the desired partition however.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman