New (Naive) User on XP Pro

hi-

i have a new laptop coming with a single hard drive with a single partition. i have never used true image so that i do not know what to expect. figuring that i am a newbie to computers (windoze o.k.), where are there some simple tutorials or examples so that i have a good idea that i can back up the hard drive?!

in other words, after browsing the acronis website, this forum, reading the user's manual, etc., i am still not confident that i can install true image and back up a partition directly to a (supported) cd/rw. if you figure i have one hour to backup this disk (partition) before my wife clicks on anything that moves on the screen ... with wild abandon ... can i install true image right away, burn an image to a cd (or cds) and relax?

i am comparing true image to ghost and note that the 'radified' website was quite helpful to me per ghost 2003. darn if i can find the same for true image.

thanks.
/gene

 

Your wife can still use the computer while the image creation is in progress. However, I would not recommend using CD's as your back-up media, it's just not practical.

 

So if I understand correctly, I should be able to install TI and it will recognize my CDRW (it's the Dell freebie on the Inspiron right now... or one 'em). The first backup to CDRW should be easy enough--just slow. Repartition so that I can make images more quickly in the future and I am good to go?

It's hard to know whether I should repartition first (and cross my finger that it goes well) and then image, or install TI first, image and repartition. I figure the first image would be smallish... after all, how much stuff can Dell put on to a new machine? (I hate myself for asking that question.)

Is TI easy enough to use after installed? I still don't have a warm fuzzy after reading the FAQs and manual, and even this board.

ThanQ.

 

I'm a newbie True Image convert. (I do know a little about Win PCs.)

I installed True Image onto a buddie's PC last Sunday morn and it went very well. The program's install procedure went very smooth and the image we made also was easy to do. The built-in wizard walked me through step by step and I had no issues at all. The key is to make sure that you choose your CD-R/RW drive as the drive you are backing the image up to. (Don't understand the comment about CD's not being practical. If you don't have a DVD burner, CD are the only option if you want an image separate from the HD. We burned an image that spanned 4 CD's using High compression and it ran as fast as I could have asked for.)

Be sure to make a boot CD so that you can restore your image in case Windows is not working. We tested our boot disk and made sure the True Image boot interface would come up (it did!)

I use an older version of Ghost here at home. But after the setup last Sunday with True Image, and with the knowledge of new Ghost's "issues", True Image is an easy recommendation from now on!

 

Don't store your images on the same hard drive. They need to go on another drive. ie, a backup drive. If all you have is CD's then so be it - it will be cumbersome but it's better than storing the images on the same hard drive.

For a laptop, you should consider a USB drive for back-ups. The problem with backing up to the same hard drive as your system partition, even if you put the images on a different partition, is that if the drive fails then you lose everything. Better to leave the images on a separate drive (or disks).

Good luck with it!

 

Ahhh... I understand now. Yes, if the drive has enough info on it, the number of CD's and the need to swap CD's would be a pain. But as you note, it is a safer alternative than keeping an image in a different partition on the same drive.

I completely agree that the USB option would be very simple. Plug and go! But if one is trying to pinch pennies, (re: me!) using the included CD burner is more affordable. Most of us have the CD's we need lying around for other stuff...

 

O.K. I think TI wil be the way to go. A new system w/o so much software should not take so long to image -- even if across several or more CDs. Seems straightforward enough.

Thanks.

 

Hi
Does True Image allow one the option of creating a boot cd? Is it a default-propostion by the software when trying to save onto a cd?

Thanks

 

When you first install TI, it will ask you if you want to create a boot disk at that time. If you say no at that moment, you can still go back and run the create boot disk wizard later on. (The boot disk can be a floppy or optical disk.) You only need make the boot disk once. Then keep it in a safe place in case you need it later.

In this regard, TI is different from older versions of Ghost where each image included the ability to boot on the first disk. Actually, with those older Ghost versions, if one restored an image, the first disk really needed to boot since Ghost ran under DOS. Since TI runs restores in Windows, you would not normally need a boot disk...unless Windows won't run.

 

Hello HAN,

Not quite. TI cannot restore the system partition without booting into the Linux based rescue mode. You can do that from Windows when prompted by TI or, as you said, the boot rescue CD.

Regards

 

Is this the case even if there is only one partition (C drive?)

 

Yes, because that single partition would be set as the primary, active one i.e. system partition.

Regards