Restore Image from DVD - Recommendations please

Hi,

I am trying to decide whether to buy Acronis True Image home or Acronis True Image workstation.

I want to save a disk image directly to DVD+RW or DVD-RW (with the capability for one image to span multiple DVD's).

In the event of a hard drive failure, I want to be able to replace the hard drive and restore from my image as easily as possible.

Ideally, I would like to boot off the first of my image DVD's, automatically launching the restoration process that will ask me to insert the next DVD as necessary until the image has been fully restored to the new hard drive. Can anyone tell me if this possible with either the home or workstation edititon?

If my first choice is not possible, I was wondering if anyone could suggest the next easiest way for me to restore this image to the new drive. My main issue is that the system I want to restore will not usually be connected to a network.

Thank you,
Paul

 

You can make it so you plop in a disc and the machine will boot up and start the imaging process.

In all reality its going to be you making a bootable DVD that uses a script to execute your restoring procedure. Just some AUTOEXEC.BAT trickery using TrueImageCMDDOS.exe

I've tested this with the trial version of TICWS, but I've never tested it when the image spans across multiple discs. By all means I would think it would work...just prompting you when it needed the next file. I can't personally say for certain though.

I'd say it could be worth posting your DVD drive specs (model and manufacturer) just to see if anybody has input. On this board you will notice issues here and there with people's hardware and Acronis not getting along too easily when trying to write/burn DVDs.

 

Hello Paul,

The latest build of TI 9.0 Home (currently 3633) still has some serious problems imaging direct to DVDs. If you haven't already done so, check out these two previous threads:

<TI 9.0 Home Build 3633 - Imaging Direct to DVD>
<TI 9 - Build 3633 - Can't span DVD disks>

If you wished to create a bootable rescue DVD plus image prior to TI 9.0 Build 3625 then you would have needed to use one of the procedures that I provided links to in this recent thread titled <Bootable Recovery DVD>. However, I'm currently testing whether TI 9.0 Home Build 3633's can successfully include the Acronis Rescue Media when imaging direct to DVD+/-RW disks and will report the results back here.

Regards

 

I'm not sure, but I thought I just read in the user's guide (or maybe on this forum somewhere) that in order to mount an image, all of the images had to be on the same partition? Therefore, the full system image I had created and copied from the hard drive to 3 DVDs will have to be either left on a partition on the hard drive or transferred to an external hard drive. In other words, it sounded to me like I would not be able to use these DVDs for restoring by "mounting an image", unless I have them all in the hard drive or on an external hard drive, so that everything will be on one partition. Which, if correct, sort of makes imaging to DVDs considerably less useful than it could have been. Have I understood this correctly? Or is there another way of restoring a disk image rather than "mounting an image"? Admittedly, I'm not very knowledgeable about this subject, just learning. But that's the impression I have at the moment. Am I totally incorrect (I hope so!)?
Bill

 

Hi again Paul,

Further to my reply above, you don't in fact need to jump through the hoops detailed in the link that I provided.

The latest builds of True Image 9.0 and 9.1 now include the capability to image direct to DVD without use of third party UDF packet writing software. When imaging in Windows mode, they also have the capability to include the Acronis Media Components with the image being recorded to DVD (Tools>Default Backup Options>Media Components).

I have just finished testing these new features by successfuly creating full disk/partition images to both DVD+RW and DVD-RW disks that included the full bootable rescue media plus the One-Click Restore. Just bear in mind the current problems and limitations that TI has with imaging direct to DVD+RW, DVD-R and DVD+R media.

Regards

 

Yes, to mount an image, all the files comprising that image must be stored in (or copied to) the same folder (not just the same partition).

But mounting is a way to restore just a few files or folders from a disk/partition image. To restore the whole disk or partition, you can do that directly from the DVDs, by starting the process with the last DVD and proceeding to the subsequent DVDs in reversed order, as prompted.

Addendum: The reason for this difference of behaviour is, that when you want to copy a file from a mounted image, TI must generally combine it from bits stored in several sectors, due to fragmentation of the original. That's why all the files comprising the image must be available at the same time. (You should be aware that imaging is done sectorwise, not filewise!)

On the other hand, a disk/partition restore is performed one sector after the other, regardless of the data recorded in them.

 

Have you thought about an external USB drive ? 300 - 400 gig drives are not all that expensive today. If I had a hard drive fail I would boot from an Acronis CD and restore from a USB - much faster than from DVD and less of a risk I would have thought.

 

Thanks, that's good news.

 

That sounds good. Now I just have to decide if i want to buy the home or the workstation edition. I looked at the .pdf's on both. The home edition seems to have all of the features that I need. The only feature that I only see listed for Workstation that I might want is "Create CDs with bootable images, PXE packages, and bootable recovery media ISO's". To me, this sounds like the feature you just tested, Menorcaman. Which edition (or both?) did you do your testing with?

Thanks again,
Paul

 

Hi Paul,

True Image 9.0 Home - Build 3633.

A bit of advice - stick to DVD-RW for the moment as I'm having problems validating images created on DVD+RW media (and of course there is the problem of images on DVD+R and DVD-R being invisible from within the boot rescue environment).

Regards

 

I do have an external USB drive that I will use for this purpose. The reason I want the ability to image to DVD's is for PC's I set up for customers. In the event of a hard drive failure, I want them to be able to restore their PC to the way it was when I originally turned it over. In the past, I have provided them with a second cloned drive (using Norton Ghost). This works great, but believe it or not, I have had customers who have lost this drive.

When this happens, I think it would be nice to be able to go into my own usb drive (or wherever else I decide to back up their drive image), copy their .tib files to DVD's, and mail them the DVD's. They can buy a new hard drive, and as far as I can tell, they will have three options for restoring their PC:

1. Restore directly from the DVD's
2. Copy the .tib files fromt the DVD's to a usb hard drive. Then restore from the usb hard drive.
3. Copy the .tib files from the DVD's to any kind of network accessible storage, and restore from there.

To me, this sounds like a pretty flexible and secure disaster recovery solution. If anyone can help me come up with a better solution, I would appreciate it.

Thanks again,
Paul