Reload System Software

I'm a new user trying to find my way around. I created a full backup a few months ago and haven't done one since. Is there a way to restore the Systems Software without the documents and settings. The docs and settings have changed considerably and I don't want to over write those.

 

If there isn't a way to do that, try saving just the 'new' Documents And Settings folder (on CD, DVD, whatever) restore your backup, then overwrite the 'old' Documents And Settings folder with the newly saved one.

 

Umm, I might advise another way: Use the "File and Settings Transfer Wizard" to save your files and settings to another location. Then after restoring, use it again to import your files and settings.

 

I need to clarify myself. The backup I made was from Acronis True Image. Can I restore the Applications Software in Acronis True Image without the docs and settings? I have already tried a number of things using XP backup and restore. Something real funky going on there. After I restore some of my files (photos) it says there is no image to preview

 

No, you must restore everything when using TrueImage to restore your TrueImage backup file.

 

I've gone back to your original post to try and suggest a procedure.

You can't restore just part of a partition with TI. If you restore your old image, every file and folder will be from that old image. The Documents and Settings folder will be overwritten.

OK, make a new image with TI now. Restore the old image and then use the Explore function on the new image to restore what you want in Documents and Settings. Of course, you could just copy Documents and Settings to an external hard drive and copy it back from there as well.

Trying to save all of Documents and Settings to a CD or DVD will result in name errors if you try to restore all of it since some of the names are inconsistent with name protocols on CDs and DVDs.

 

Trying to copy Documents and Settings over an existing active installation will result in errors since some of the files are in use. See post #3 in this thread for a way to accomplish this.

 

I'm not sure I trust the reliability of the Docs & Settings transfer Wizard?? I've run into problems where I can't always open files without errors.

 

Yes, that's certainly true. I figured selecting the specific files would be more likely, such as the My Documents folder or e-mail folders, etc.

 

In the future, if you get this sorted out, I suggest you make a second partition to store your data.

This way you can do system restore without too much trouble

 

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I'll proceed with caution.

 

You can mount or explore an image from within Trueimage, and copy out individual files as if the image were a read-only drive. However, this won't work for the OS system files because Windows won't allow it -- it won't allow the file handles for the system files to be closed, which is necessary for the files to be overwritten. To restore those you need to be out of the OS. (Norton Ghost used to run in DOS to restore the system files and TI8 uses Linux, I believe). Thus, you have to do an image restore to get back the system files from the image.

sh

 

Using the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle, I've made my life a little easier by backing up and restoring my important data files via a couple of bat files. The first one backs up the data and then launches TI. The second copies the data back again after I've completed a system restore. Both are started manually via Desktop shortcuts.

If anyone is interested in the details, I posted the contents of the two bat files in this <previous post> which could be easily tailored to suit individual requirements.

Regards

 

Too bad you can't do "before" and "after" snapshot scripts.

For example if you shut exchange down, you'll have to wait after the complete backup is over before exchange restarts.

with the "after snapshot" routine you could restart exchange after a few seconds (time for bitmap snapshot to complete)

If Acronis would implement before & after in their command line BU, it would be very nice, no more scheduling problems

Are you reading this Acronis

Menorcaman, for your application, of course, it's not needed, only for Database BU.

 

Hello Tonio,

Please note that Acronis True Image Enterprise Server and Acronis True Image Corporate Workstation do allow you to launch custom scripts before and after the snapshot is taken. This is implemented to make our products more flexible when used with data bases and alike.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Ilya,

I *am* aware that the two products you describe do this.

However, if you use the command line interface to invoke a backup, the scripts *aren't* run - only if invoked in the GUI or using the Acronis scheduler.

I wanted to use command line to be more flexible in scheduling, but then I saw I had to lose the scripts.

That is what I was pointing to.

So, GUI is fine, command line is not

 

I recently looked again at the Windows XP Backup utility. The Wizard offers to backup Documents and Settings for the logged on user or all users. It states that My Documents, desktop, favorites and cookies will be backed up. The backup has to be to a hard drive unless you have a formatted CD or DVD and everything fits on the one disk.

When I restored the backup to a new location for examination, I found what appeared to be all of Documents and Settings including the Local Settings folder with e-mail, etc., cookies, favorites and so on. That's even easier than writing batch files as long as your data is all in Documents and Settings.

The Windows Backup is installed in WinXP Pro by default and is included in some manufacturer's WinXP Home installations. It is available on the WinXP Home disk if not installed by default.

 

Hi John,

Thanks for that. I've never bothered to install the NTBackup program until just now. I guess I will need to study the associated Command Line options to see if I can achieve a "one click" selective file backup/restore plus True Image startup.

Regards
Tom

 

Hello Tonio,

Now I got what you mean. I have added this option to our Enhancement List and we will implement this feature in future.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Thanks Ilya, sorry if I didn't explain it well the first time around