Newby question about TI

Hi all.... sorry for this post but I can't find out what to do, so asking for help.

I have True Image 9 with latest updates, all I want to do is make a full back up of my drive C:

The reason I want a full back up is incase the drive mucks up or decides not to work again or gets corrupted, or whatever.

I have two hard drives in the pc, both are the same size 80gig C: drive and E: drive

I have aleady done a full True image backup of C: drive and the 21gig file is on the E: drive, I have done a "bootable rescue media CD"

Now come the bit I don't know what to do.

Lets say my C: drive fails and I have to buy a new 80 gig hard drive to replace it, what do I do to put my pc back to as it was before it failed?

Do I install new drive, put my TI bootable disc in CD rom drive, boot up pc and does it then give me options to recover my drive back to what was on the failed hard drive.

Is it really that easy, I have never done any type of back up before so learning here, thanks for any replies....regards Mick.

 

Yes, that is what you do with your image backup.

I would suggest that you boot up the bootable CD and ensure that you can at least validate the image you created on your E drive. This will give some confidence that you will be able to restore. The best way, though, is to put in a spare HD and do a restore and see that it works.

 

“Do I install new drive, put my TI bootable disc in CD rom drive, boot up pc and does it then give me options to recover my drive back to what was on the failed hard drive.”

Yep.

“Is it really that easy”

Yep again.
I did that exact thing myself. You might want to boot from the CD now just to make sure that it can see your second drive and the backup images. You don’t need to do a restore, just step through the process up till the end and then cancel.

P.S. - LOL, guess I came in a close second ...

 

Yes it really is that easy. The only slightly diffent thing I do is that I have bought my replacement drive before the breakdown event happens.

So while everthing is still working you can remove the existing main drive and pop in the replacement. Then run a restore. After that you could leave the new drive in place or swap them back again. Either way you will have your backup images and you will know they work and for a time you will have two duplicate hard drives.

Xpilot

Oh dear late again

 

Well folks, bottom of the ninth, two out, and well, if you weren't here, you might not believe it...an upper-deck home run, a double, and a game-winning single to deep-left, and all within four, yes, four minutes! These Acronis boys are simply unbeatable!

 

Seekforever, great idea, I thought I would give it a try as I do have a 60gig spare drive, (ps does it matter what is on this hard drive?)

Took side off pc my motherboard and the C: drive is sata drive and configured like a normal eide drive and not mirrored or anthing like that, my other E: drive is plugged into the eide socket, so lets recap. my c: drive is plugged into sata socket and my E: drive (one with TI back up) is plugged into eide,

So does this mean that I cant try this test? and if I want all this to work, I should buy a sata drive to replace the C: drive sata if it fails in any way?

can't believe the quick response

 

I had the opposite configuration – Data on IDE and backups on SATA.
Worked fine that way.

 

This strted of simple, now seems to be gettin complicated...:-(

 

I ended up buying another sata harddrive, running as standard HD done a full restore and it worked perfectly, no running a 260gig drive, and removed cables from original drive, to be stored as a back up.

 

Yes I agree, why does it have to get so complicated. What the "GURU`S" don`t understand is that there are newbies out here and when they start making a simple question complicated we loose interest and look for easier solutions.
Question: Is this product for "GURU`s" or beginners that maybe just want to back up there data/discs the easiest possible way they know how?

Now I know I will get bombarded with negative posts by you "GURU`" so go ahead let it out, All I am trying to say is there are guys still out here like myself that don`t know as much as you do. You where not born with this product in your cradle so please if you post an answer to a newbie please reply like you are a newbie or I really don`t think it is worth posting if they don`t understand right?
Oh BTW this is what Acronis Homepage says and I quote.

"Acronis Home and Home Office Products
Our philosophy is to make system utilities for every user: from beginner to expert"

 

Please see post #3. Can’t get any simpler than that.
As with a lot of things, TI is rather easy to understand on the outer most level, but the deeper you dig, the more complicated it gets. Same with any program.
Ask a simple question (Will TI do this …) and you’ll usually get a simple answer.
Ask a complicated question (How does TI know what sectors …) and the answer will, and must, be more complex.
The way of the world; the real world.

 

That is a question I have pondered for some time. So far I have come to the following:

1. The disk imaging portion is not for users who have zero understanding of disk structure - i.e. they don't know what a logical drive, a partition, or MBR is.

2. If the person knows what a folder and sub-folder are then they should be able to do a files and folders backup.

3. If any user has some technical help to get the program setup then they should be able to run it given some instruction. If it blows up then they will unlikely be able to find and correct the cause.

Technical people tend to fall into the trap of thinking because they know it, everyone does or should. This isn't restricted to computers it happens in every field.

 

Anyway, this is certainly not a program that one learns by trial and error.

Download the User's Giude from the Acronis site and if you understand most of what is said there and feel able to follow the instructions, then you qualify by seekforever's criteria.

 

So funny..If only you where in our (beginners) shoes you would see how those to last replies sounded but not to worry..
Now let me ask a question if I may...

Keeping in mind I am a beginner I cannot even back make a copy ,when I say copy I mean everything including the kitchen sink (I am afraid of saying partitions because you may think I know what I am talking about) of my hard drive to a external drive. I have two hard drives one drive c with win xp home that I use rarely and second drive with win xp pro that I use all the time and am using now...I wish there was a step by step on how to do this because i cannot get through any of the wizards without some kind of error,
Oh when I spoke with support before buying I was told it was possible to back up onto an external drive...
OK now goes for the "submit reply" button...
You ever seen that Dodge ad where the little guy says "It frightens the !*#@ out of me"? well that is me anticipating my post.

 

You may want to have a look at these Illustarted instructions

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/company/inpress/2006/06-15-1ati.html

 

Here’s my last post on this issue:

“So funny..If only you where in our (beginners) shoes you would see how those to last replies sounded but not to worry..”

I WAS in your shoes, as I assume was everyone else here. But I didn’t whine about not being spoon-fed everything. I read, I listened, I learned. I put forth the effort.

Bye