New User with Questions About True Image 9

Hello all.

I have a brand new PC and I am looking at better backup strategies than I have used in the past. Acronis True Image is one part of that, hopefully.

Previously I used Dantz Retrospect and a Maxtor External FW drive. However that drive was only able to cover the equivalent of about 1.5 backups of the hard drive on my HP Pavilion, took about 8 hours to back up, and could not create a "cumulative" backup job. By that I mean that I could either create an entire new backup each time after deleting the current one, or run a script that backed up incrementally. But that incremental backup was almost as large as the original and still took about 6.5 hours. All this to backup a 160 GB drive with ~90 GB on it. So recently I have just been backing up data only using Sonic's BackUpMyPC!

My new PC was custom built by Falcon Northweat and has Windows XP Pro, a WD 80 GB drive with only the OS and Program files on it; and two Seagate 500 GB drives, intended for media and data files on D:, and mostly backups on E:. All are SATA drives via IDE.

With Acronis I understand that I either can or can not create a Secure Partition, yet I see most here seem to advise against it.

I would like to backup a complete image of both C: drive (OS and program files) and D: drive (media and data files - mostly digital images and digital video files - both from video cameras and recorded TV), to the E: drive. I also have all my video editing seesion and scratch files going to D: drive. Finally my MS Office files and other data files will also be in D: drive.

So if I use True Image, can I then image both my C and D drives to E drive? Understand that D drive is nowhere near full and hopefully will be that way for quite a while!

Also, I normally use Diskeeper for defragging my drives. With C: only keeping the OS and program files, hopefully that will not become very fragmented at all. Can I still defrag with Diskeeper and use True Image?

I use a TV tuner card - no conflicts there, I hope?

Finally, what do you recommend I use to complement my disk imaging for backups? Dantz was not great to me. I had a basic version of Retrospect - one upgrade up from the version that came with the Maxtor drive. I was told (by Dantz, of course) that a higher version would have helped, but those versions were $300 - to $400 and up, which was certainly more than I could handle. My data is not for business, but personal. Great personal value, but no "real" money value. What other backup system should I use in conjunction with TI?

These are not "Buy or Not Buy" questions; I am already buying it. But I want to know if I need to greatly alter my backup strategy before starting my True Image installation and first image.

Thank you for any and all help and advice!

Jim

 

Hi J-Mac

Acronis TI9 provides a comprehensive backup and recovery strategy, but like with most complex tools, it requires the user to put in a few hours of study to understand the product.

Before you do ANYTHING with TI9 make sure you read the UG from cover to cover. In particular Chapters 1 through 6 must be read in detail. Chapter 7 onwards deals with more advanced topics, you should read these for information only so that you can plan your future backup strategy.

Click the link below and then look at the extreme right side of the page where you will find a PDF download to the Data Sheet and User Guide.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...cts/trueimage/

 

Prior to V9 it was only possible to backup down the partition or disk level - i.e. Selected file backups were not possible. This meant that a second partition was always needed in order to store the one being backed up. As a common configuration for PCs is to have a single partition i.e. C: drive, with everything on, the secure zone is useful because it allows a user to easily create a distinct partition for storing ATI images of their sole C: drive on.

Having said that, anyone who has every been bitten by data loss and restore failure (there are more than might care to admit it ) will tell you that if your data is really important you should be storing it on a distinct drive. In the above scenario with a secure zone, if you have a disk drive failure your backup has gone too. So IMHO the value of the secure zone is questionable, and some cynics might say it was only there to widen the market to those with single partition systems - regardless of whether or not it really offers true data security.

You appear to have three separate drives and so as long as you backup from any one onto another you should be fine. Obviously, in addition you might consider making periodic snapshots onto optical media.

Good luck with ATI.

F

 

Hey J-,
I don't forsee any problems.
I've been imaging to an external USB HDD once a week for years.
You shouldn't have any issues imaging C & D to your E drive (if I get your intentions correctly).
As far as defragging, it may take longer to do incremental/differential backups since things might not be in the same place when originally imaged, but a full image shouldn't matter.
TI 9 also includes a file/folder backup component if you want that as well, in between full imaging.
Hope things are well.
Take care.

 

Hi Sam!

Didn't know you hung out here - you do get around, don't you? Pleasant surprise.

Thanks.

 

Thanks Tabvla.

I do have the PDF manual and have been reading it - I am a manual reader, believe it or not! However like most of us, I often come across scenarios like this:

You read the entire manual, getting a good overview but still not knowing all the details, because some things are hard to pick up until you actually try or experience them. Then you start using the product and... Arrgghh! You run into something that is most likely in that big manual but you didn't see it coming until it grabs you!

I'm just hoping that I can get some info about most of the bigger "Gotcha's" ahead of time.

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the info foghorne. (Chicken? What chicken? )

I suspected this, but wanted to make sure. Yes, I'll just use my E: drive.

Right now I'm just waiting for my download link from Newegg.com. (Weird how they take the same processing time as a regular shipped purchased, even for downloads!)