New ATI User Needs Some Help Please!

Hi
I am fairly new to the backup business, ATI and backing up to an external HD, so to limit the pain I may go through, I would really appreciate it if some kind ATI expert could give me some guidance and answers to some questions I have.

What do I want to Do?
I don't want to use all of ATI's features. I simply want to make regular full system backups to the external HD for disaster recovery.

What is the system I have?
1) HP Laptop runnning fully patched XP Home SP2
2) 1 x internal HD partioned in usual HP way with local primary (system) partition (C drive NTFS) and HP Backup Recovery Partition (D Drive FAT32)
3) ATI Home 10.0 build 4942
4) External USB, Western Digital (WD) Portable Passport HD (formatted as FAT32 from WD. It also came with pre-installed WD file synchronising software).

What have I done?
1) Read ATI help manual and Installed ATI 10.
2) Created a bootable rescue CD from ATI 10 with ATI full and safe versions included on the CD.
3) Applied unique names to both C and D drives (so I can recognise them when I need to do a recovery via ATI 10).
4) Connected WD drive and confirmed it is recognised by the laptop and by ATI 10).

What have I not done?
1) On doing some research on this forum I have decided not to install Acronis Secure Zone (ASZ) or Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (ASRM) (seems they can cause headaches). Basically I am not interested in using ASZ, ASRM or Acronis Snap Restore.

Some Questions I Have
1) Have I made a sensible decision not to install ASZ and the Acronis ASRM? I don't see them as essential to making full system backups to my WD drive.

2) Am I right in understanding that the only function of ASRM is that it allows you to boot a crashed PC directly into ATI without the need for the removeable bootable rescue CD, but as long as I have my bootable CD, ultimately I can do without ASRM?

3) Should I delete the WD sync software from the Ext WD drive before I backup to it?

This s/ware is NOT resident on the internal HD of the laptop, only resident on the ext WD drive, so if I do a recovery from the ext WD drive, could ATI be confused by the presence of software on the WD drive that isn't part of the image backup I am trying to restore?

4) I have 2 partitions I want to backup from my laptop, the system partition which is NTFS (Drive C) and the HP Recovery partition which is FAT32 (Drive D).

As Drive D never changes I want to backup both partitions initially and then only regularly backup Drive C to the ext WD drive as this is the only partition that changes (OS and user files) whilst keeping the original backup of Drive D on the ext WD drive? In other words I want to selectively backup drive C to the ext WD drive whilst keeping the original backup of drive D on the ext WD drive. I guess I can do this easily with ATI?

5) One of the partitions I want to backup is NTFS whilst the other for backup is FAT32. Before doing the backup, do I need to create NTFS and FAT32 partitions on the ext WD drive that "match" the partitions on the internal HD to be backed up, or does ATI take care of this automatically?

6) Should I reformat the ext WD drive from FAT32 to NTFS before backing up? I have read about the advantages of NTFS and I don't intend to use the drive on systems that are not Windows NT based. I have read that NTFS is more immune to corruption and glitches.

7) If I reformat the WD drive, should I partition it as a "primary" partition?

Please accept my apologies for the length of this post and for all the questions, but I am keen to get ATI going with minimum of headaches!

Many thanks in advance for everyone's help

The_Flying_Scot

 

Yes. You shouldn't need ASZ or ASRM.

Correct.

I don't think this would cause any problems.

As long as there is enough space on the external drive, this is not a problem. You can have as many full drive/partition backup images as you want.

The partition types don't have to match.

I would recommend reformatting as NTFS so you can have files larger than 4GB. Otherwise you'll end up with TI splitting you backups into many 4GB files.

A primary partition should be fine.

 

MudCrab has given you all the right answers as he usually does. I concurr completely.

It not much fun when you can't corect or improve on an answer. On the other hand, you probably are getting the best information in one shot.

I do my backups exactly as you have described doing yours. Therefore, I'm convinced that it is an excellent plan.

 

Hi MudCrab and John
Thanks very much for getting back to me so quickly. I'll give it a spin and let you know how I get on.

Thanks again!

The_Flying_Scot

 

Hi MudCrab and John
Here is an update - I did a full disk image backup, verified it and everything seemed to go like a dream. I got an "Operation successful" message at the end of the process. I have also mounted the image and searched through it ok.

I looked at the Event log and I have one warning message recorded during the backup. I don't know if this is something to worry about. Can you please confirm if I have a problem?

The message is a yellow triangle with black ! and states:

Type Module Error (Code) Message
Warning 100 11 (0x64000B) Priority changed to high priority

I set the Default backup priority to High before starting the backup and ensured no applications were running during the backup. I am a bit puzzled as to why I would get this message as the priority was set to high at the start of the backup? Can anyone throw any light on this?

Thanks again for all your help

The_Flying_Scot

 

That warning message is shown any time the priority is changed from normal. It's nothing to worry about.

Take a look at this thread: P)ersistent Error Code Question

 

Hi MudCrab
Great thanks for getting back to me. I ahve a question I meant to ask earlier - I re-formatted my WD external HD (60 GB) Using the Windows XP Wizard accessible via Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management Tool. I left the disk cluster size selected at "Default" on the wizard drop-down menu. Will this be ok?

I seem to remember reading that the "Default" setting is 4096 Bytes, but I am not sure - will this be ok for A 60 GB drive?)

Thanks again for all your help

Regards
The_Flying_Scot

 

The default setting is usually fine. For large files like image backups, it really doesn't make any difference.

 

Hi MudCrab
Thanks again for all your help and advice, much appreciated.

Best regards
The_Flying_Scot

 

This brings to mind a question I have: I run McAfee Antivirus 8.0i. It starts up with the machine and has no capability to disable the "Run at startup" option in the program itself. I can however disable it within MSCONFIG or else I can disable the "On-access scan" by right clicking the V shield in the systray (this creates a red "X" over top the VShield icon in the systray).

So here's my question: Should I disable before running TI within Windoze to make an image?? And if so, which method should I use??

Of course, if I use the TI Bootable CD to make an image, I wouldn't have to worry about it at all.

Hmmmm . . . maybe I answered my own question here.

 

BobJ,
This is more personal preference and has been asked many times. Backups done from Windows are supposed to be just as reliable as those done from the rescue cd. If you feel more comfortable making backups from the rescue cd then do it that way. I do most of mine from Windows and have not had any problems. It's a lot faster and I don't have to reboot twice to do it.

As far as I know, the only thing that really needs to be disabled prior to making an image backup from Windows is something like a MySQL database program.

 

Hello The_Flying_Scot and BobJ,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please notice that Mudcrab is correct. Acronis True Image can create an image from within Windows while other programs are also running by using Snapshot technology. Please see this post for detailed information.

Thank you.
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Marat Setdikov