partition backup failing

Hi,

I was hoping someone could help me with my partition backup issue. I have been trying to backup my whole OS winXP partition on drive C: and have encountered a number of problems. I started with trying to use true image home (TIH) version 11 from within the OS itself, and it keeps failing when I have to insert my second DVD. The error message said that failure was possibly due to something wrong with my DVD. But I tried doing this several times, so it cant be due to a faulty DVD. I also tried with TIH 2009 and in this case it fails on the first DVD. I cant remember what the error was, but it was very early on in the process. I reverted back to using the recovery disk in TIH v11 and booted into that and I was able to burn my whole partition onto the 2 DVD's.

So is it generally not advised to backup the OS from within the OS itself? Why is it failing when I do this? I can only think that files are being modified in the OS (i.e. virus definitions being updated and other system activity etc) whilst the backup is being performed, causing errors. ?

Also, what advantages does upgrading to v2009 have in terms of partition backups?

Many thanks
V

 

Hello voirin,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

We are unable to find the reason for the encountered issue without the exact error message that appeared. Please reproduce the issue and let us know the error. Also, what kind of media do you use?


Thank you.

--

Oleg Lee

 

Dear Oleg, thanks for the reply.

In reference to my original post I did ask the question:

So is it generally not advised to backup the OS from within the OS itself?

Is it recommended practice to boot from the recovery disks and perform a backup?

I will have to retry backing up from within the OS next week when i have more time.

Cheers,
V

 

Backing up from within Windows is the preferred way to make backups because it is fast and easy for most people. There are a small number of systems where this doesn't work, but they are in the minority.

The problem is more likely that you are trying to backup directly to DVD disks. This often doesn't work. It also isn't practical if more than one DVD is required.

Backups go much faster and better to a hard drive, either an external drive (USB or Firewire) or a second internal hard drive.

If you must put the backup on DVDs, you can split the backup at 4.7GB and then burn the pieces of the backup to DVDs with your burning software (Roxio or Nero, etc.).

 

You can backup from within windows, I always do it, and it works everytime. I have never backedup from the bootcd. I also always multitask listening to mp3's and using the internet while windows is backing up, it's very reliable.

More than likely you have bad dvd media. Have you done a disc quality check on it? you need to get at least a 90 percent quality to rely on them for restoration purposes.

Sometimes it's best to backup into a folder, then use a different burner program to burn those TIB files. The majority of people just save an image backup on an external drive, than just restore from there. That's the most reliable and quickest way.

When storing my backups on DVD's, I always backup and save it on a folder in my hard drive, then from there burn it with nero to a write-once dvd. I only use verbatim or sony blank dvd's. I never use the rewritable dvd's they aren't reliable for longterm storage. Using low quality media will take much longer to restore because the dvdrom will have to make multiple passes to try and read the data, if the data is unreadable you will get errors or failure to restore.

 

I agree with Jonyjoe81 a 2 step approach is best if you want to use DVDs.

Step 1 create backups in DVD sized chunks on a hard disk.
Step 2 burn the chunks to DVD.

I had exactly your problem before I used this approach regardless of the quality of the DVD.

Now I backup to disk caddies, external drives and network harddisks. Hard disks are cheap now and more reliable than DVDs. So do DVDs now while you save up for an external drive.