noob cant image

I'm really new at this stuff,but used ghost a long long time ago to create a disc image.
I bought TI 10 thinking that i could create an image of my main PC onto an external harddrive, and then image my other two identical PC's from the USB external harddrive.
I'm finding the instructions and all the posts confusing.It appears that the only way to do this is get into TI 10 via the bootable CD at startup then clone my 'C' drive onto the external harddrive.Thats all well and good ,but then it appears it wants to delete my existing 'C' drive.I dont want to do that,am i not reading it all correctly?

 

Could anybody just tell me if i can clone a copy of my 'C' drive to another drive without TI 10 wiping my original 'C' drive please? I would much appreciate it.Thanks.

 

Sure ... this can be done and is the way it should be done. The option to wipe the original is really a stupid one and Acronis should remove it.
But you need to make the bootable Rescue CD media in order to transfer the Cloned external drive to the other systems. Be aware though that the other systems have to be identical in ALL hardware respects for this to work. Otherwise you have to use a different bootable Rescue CD - True Image Workstation with Universal Restore.
Instead of doing a Clone to the external, you can also make a Backup Image of the original drive to the external. Then again with the correct bootable CD media you have to use the Recover feature to restore the image to the other systems.

 

Thanks DwnDrty for your reply.I cant remember if i saw an option NOT to wipe the 'C' drive when i attempted the clone process.I was sure looking for one.Is it there in some obscure place?.Can you also just explain your last sentence in a bit more detail for me ,i'm not quite sure i understand that part of the process.I
know this is probably a 'walk in the park' for you guys experienced with the program,but from a first time users point of view, the User guide is not well written.

 

OK i found the option Not to wipe the old C drive.
It lists 3 options 1)Create a new partition layout. 2)Keep Data. 3)Destroy Data. The problem is that if i elect the first option i dont get the choice of keeping the old C drive intact.Is that correct?
The user guide says in relation to the first option "All existing partitions and their data will be deleted but they will be cloned to the new disk,so you wont lose them"
I read that to mean it will wipe my old C driveIs that right??

 

Hi Avid,

Are you sure you want the clone option? The clone terminology, as used by Acronis, is the duplication of an entire disk on a direct disk-to-disk basis. It is not an image in the sense that an image is a file that not only has to be created but also has to be stored somewhere and later restored to some disk. The clone is not a compressed file. The cloning process produces an entire duplicate drive that is bootable in a single procedural step. If your external disk is not intended for easy removal from its' enclosure, to be relocated in your computer case where your present master disk lives, you may want the imaging (Acronis now calls this a "backup") process instead of a clone. The imaging process permits you to create and store a compressed image file of your entire drive or individual partitions for later restoration to another disk at some point in the future. The image (backup) file but must be restored, using TI, to some disk to make that disk functional and bootable.

If you want to actually clone your master disk and not affect it in the process, then you definitely want to select the "keep data" option on the screen you mention. That's the option I use all the time because I use cloning as backup process to maintain a duplicate, bootable, standby disk. I do not want my source disk affected in any way. Either of the other options on that screen are going to delete everything on your source (master) disk. It sounds like the same screen I get in TI-7. The "keep data" option is the default in TI-7. I don't know if it is in other versions. If it isn't, it sure should be. Select the wrong option and you kill everything on your only known workable disk! Here's what the TI-7 screen looks like:

 

Thanks for clarifying the disc options for me Rodnh.Yes TI 10 has exactly the same window for that process.
If i can explain exactly what i want to do mabye you can tell me what the best option is:
First... i have 3 'bare metal' 'hardware identical' computers.All waiting for an identical OS , programs etc.
I then want to load up one of those PC's with my OS,drivers,software etc,dividing the 160Gb drive into two partitions, one the 'C partition, and the remaining one the 'D' partition.
Then i want to somehow copy that entire "C" drive partition on to the other 2 PC's via an external USB/Firewire harddrive.
I want to do this because i dont want to have to go through loading the OS and programs on the other two computers. Also ,if as my kids ocassionally do,they stuff up their PC's beyond the 'TI 10 Restore' capability,i want to be able to just reload their entire original 'C partition' from the one copied onto the external harddrive.

 

3 PC's...

3 Windows and 3 ATI 10.

Each machine has a unique motherboard and is a specific entity.

In other words, you don't buy 1 ATI 10 Home and install it on 3 different machines... at least without knowledge that this is not they way it should be.

 

Oookay,i suppose i could go out and buy 2 more copies of ATI ,but that would seem a bit of a waste.I only want to create a copy of C drive onto an external harddrive.
I dont want to install ATI onto all 3 machines because i dont want to use the ATI Restore option.
I just want to copy that image onto the other boot drives much the same way i did with Ghost a long time ago.
You dont buy 3 copies of Ghost so you can reimage three drives? Mabye i've got the wrong program here??

 

Avid,

I think you could physically do it using either cloning or imaging. Assuming you can readily swap hard disks in your external enclosure, I think the best option for you is to clone at least two identical disks from the one machine you have installed TI on and set up the way you want. Since you have purchased the software, my preference would be to do the cloning completely from the TI boot CD and avoid windows altogether for that. You should first make the TI boot CD and verify that it can in fact, see your external drive. Then clone away. I do not use anything "automatic". I select "manual", "keep data" and "as is" when the appropriate screens (in TI-7) ask for such decisions. Just make sure you select the correct source and destination disks. Since your three machines have all identical hardware, and your three hard disks are all identical, I believe that should work - at least as far as the actual transfer.

The other issues are licensing and product activation/reactivation, depending on what OS you are using. If you do the clone process for this, the TI software does not have to be physically installed on any other machine and the TI boot CD does not have to be physically used on any other machine. While such an operation might constitute a technical violation of the TI license, that is between you and your conscience. You probably will have a problem with OS product activation however, since the same OS is now on three machines that, while basically identical, will still have different hardware signatures that are used for product activation. It would seem to me that you would need three OS software licenses for everything to finally function properly using this scenario. Course if you are talking win 98 or something, this wouldn't be a problem.

Rod