Questions about using this product

I've been using PowerQuest V2i Protector 2.0 Desktop Edition to create a back-up image so I can boot my PC into V2i Protector's recovery console so I can restore my entire system in minutes (IF I ever needed to do this sort of thing)

Since Norton has bought out PowerQuest, and I'm not able to get any support due to this product being dumped, I'm looking for a similar program.

I need to know if I can use the Acronis product the same way, where I create a boot disk that takes me into a recovery console so I can access the back-up image file to restore my hard drive.

Is this possible with this product?
Any feedback on exactly what this program can do would be appreciated...

 

Sure thing - TI can exactly do this....

You can boot TI from a CD and access the image (I especially like the Secure Zone = hidden non-OS partition to keep the image) and restore your system.

Regards, Ralfi

 

Can I store the image on an external Hard drive and still access it to recovery my system?

My external drives are kept off at all times and have no O/S on them so I shouldn't ever have any virus problems there.

This would be ideal for me. But, if that's not doable, I can always create a partition on my C drive to store the image in.

 

I dont know about the external drive - but I recommend, that you check out the Secure Zone. As it aint any OS-partition, a virus that isnt directly targeting TrueImage shouldnt be able to find it. If you then store it on a different physical drive than your Systemdrive (to be safe in case of HD-crash), you should be pretty fine.

Regards, Ralfi

 

I recommend that you *don't* touch the Secure Zone feature unless you only have one hard disk - However, if it crashes your so called 'Secure Zone' crashes with it.

You should either fit a second internal drive or an external one, which is dedicated to holding images. Storing images on DVDs, whilst arguably more attractive than using SZ is hardly convenient or reliable. Especially when you consider that you may need to span a number of them, they can be physically damaged and require care to store and manage them.

I use a cheap USB external drive, and organise backups by subdirectory name - this works for me and I never touch it. I just allow TI scheduled backups to create daily incrementals which roll over a one month period.


Secure Zone is a great gimmick for storing data, but the whole story requires that you can reliably restore it too. If you are serious about recoving data, I recommend that you leave it well alone.

 

Download and install the trial version of TI 8. Create an image of your system drive/partition to your external HD. Create a bootable rescue CD then boot from it and ensure that TI detects your external HD/image. Use the Check Image Wizard to verify the image. You won't be able to restore this image using the trial software but if everything else works o.k. then there shouldn't be a problem.

Regards