New User question(s)

Hi,
I am a firsttime user of True 10 running WIndows XP (SP2). My HD is old and dying so I am trying to protect myself before the inevitable. I have an external 300G Maxtor drive connected by firewire I did a full "backup" and I see on the maxtor the same usage of Gs as on my harddrive. However, I am confused on a couple of points

1. I assume that the programs that were on my HD can be "restored" from the Maxtor if my HD crashes (which may happen)? I have a lot of downloaded programs (no disks) that I was trying to protect.

2. I am unclear whether the full backup makes a bootable drive such that if HD dies I can at least get up and running until I replace with another HD or new computer. I have over 150G still left on the maxtor and was wondering if there is another backup I need to do (I am confused with the copy disk vs making a bootable disk). If I need to do something, so I need to partition the maxtor and erase the full copy I already made? Thanks

 

1. It's a very bad idea to make that assumption. Considering that you suspect your drive is failing, buy a replacement drive ASAP, install it into your PC and then try to restore the image you have on your external drive to your new internal hard drive. Until you do that and can then bootup your new hard drive you are not out of the woods!

2. The image you have on your external drive is not bootable. You should create an Emergency Boot CD for that purpose (look for the life-preserver on the TI's main GUI screen)!

 

You can't restore applications from the backup archive. You can restore individual files, e.g. the install files for your apps.

The backup archive you created is not bootable. However you can restore it to a replacement drive using the bootable rescue CD. Look at this link for some beginner's guides https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=168165. Also look at the many links contained here for more information https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=29880.
You will want to test what you have by doing a restore to another drive to be sure the process work properly.

 

Hello brn2rnjk1,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that as it was stated above it is not recommended to back up/restore applications only (without backing up/restoring the operating system). Check
this previous post of mine for more details.

Please also note that the image archive created with Acronis True Image is a file and you can not boot the system from it. As pvsurfer said you could use Acronis True Image Bootable CD (or start Acronis True Image under Windows, if it is possible) and restore the data from the image. This way you will get your system back to the moment of image creation.

In addition, I would recommend that you find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image 10.0 Home in the respective User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

But I am now confused. IF I did a full backup of "My Computer" onto an external harddrive, will I be at least able to reload all of the programs and docs onto a new internal HD? I thought that was the purpose of the full backup, to be able to "recreate" programs (and docs of course) in case of a crash. What does the full backup do?

I understand making a bootable cd is different, but I am wondering what the full backup will be used for in emergency crash of my internal HD?

Thanks

 

The Full Backup is now called the My Computer backup.

 

If you suspect your drive is going bad, go buy a new drive. If it is a Seagate/Maxtor or Western Digital, it will come with a free utility to transfer your old drive to the new drive complete with all data, programs, and OP system. The Seagate/Maxtor version is an Acronis utility !

In fact, I just cannibalized an old, but good, large drive from a win98 computer I was decommissioning and put in on a Win XP Pro computer that had a small, questionable drive. I downloaded the free utility from the Western Digital website and it worked perfectly. I have always found western Digital to be a bit more technically savvy that seagate, so I chose their disk-transfer utility. No need to worry about backup subtleties until after the new HD is in place.

Good luck.

 

Hello brn2rnjk,

I'm sorry for not being accurate enough in my explanation.

I meant to say that in order to be sure that the applications (programs) will functional correctly it should be restored along with the operation system it was installed. In other words, if you created image archive of a system partition (or image of the entire drive) using Acronis True Image (Backup -> My computer) you can use this image archive to restore the system in case of disaster happen. Upon restoration you will get you system (includes the operating system, registry, drivers, software applications, data files etc) back to the moment of image archive creation.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please to post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov