restore - select partition or hard disk

Hi,

I'm just about to restore and have got to the the page (one from the last I believe) that says 'select a partition or the whole hard disk to restore'.

How do I select 'the whole hard disk ?

When I click on a 2nd partition it grays out the first one.

thanks

Mike

P.S I only have one hard disk and two partitions to choose - a third partition has the back ups on it.

 

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe if you choose "Whole Hard Disk" then all the partitions on that disk is marked for you. However if you purposely choose one of the partitions on the HD, then it is supposed to grey out the other option of "Whole Hard Disk".

You should also remember that if you don't pick "Whole Hard Disk" then your restored image will NOT be bootable. This is because the only time the MBR is addressed is with the "Whole Hard Disk" option.

I hope this helps.

QD

 

thanks - but how do I choose 'whole hard disk" - I don't see anyway of selecting it ?

I can put a check mark against a partition but when I put a check mark against the 2nd partition it grays out the first one.

regards,

Mike

 

I don't know for sure but is sounds like maybe you didn't do a backup of the whole disk. When I first started out using TI 8 I had a similar problem, and it turned out that I made mistakes in performing the image. Just make sure that when you make your image, that you are including the Whole Disk, and not just an incremental image.

QD

 

I have the full back up and have even used it once. When I last did the restore I restored one partition and then the next one but I feel sure that it's possible to do both at the same time.

When you have both the time and the inclination perhaps have a look at the page (booting from the acronis startup disk) and see if you can see how to select the whole hard disk in one go.

thanks

Mike

 

Above the partitions there is a small box for the complete disk. Of course if you restore the complete disk it will also restore your third partition which you say has backups on it.

 

Ok - just to make sure that I'm not going crazy I just checked ..

1st retore page is - Image Archive selection - I choose which file is my bu
2nd page - Image data selection - I choose date
3rd page - verify yes or no
4th page - partition or restore whole hard disk ..

So where is the small box ?

thanks

Mike

 

Ok on that 4th page area you speak about up there, it will say in actuality Partition or Disk to Restore (with version 8 build 937 anyway). Now down below there are tabs listed as "Partition" "Flags" ....etc.....etc...
Now just under the Patition tab there should be a Hard Disk listing, I have more than one Hard Disk .. so mine says Disk 1 and just to the left of that is a checkbox..there is where you click for Whole Disk. Just under that is a listing of all your partitions I've got C, G, H, and I. If you don't have the box next to a disk listing, rather it's 1 or 2 disks, then I don't know what's going on and somone else will have to help you, I'll just mess you up more I'm not totally up to speed with this software yet myself.

I hope this helps.

QD

 

Ok, I just went through the screens again on my laptop which only has one hard drive and I still got Disk 1. So when you go to restore you will see Disk 1 listed as well. There should be a checkbox just to the left of that. That is the one you click for restoring your whole hard drive. Everything else underneath of that is pertaining to the partitions which are just portions of your hard drive rather than the whole HD.

QD

 

Maybe this .jpg will help you. Have a look. Now right next to disk 1 you should check the box.

 

Isn't the MBR just left alone when you restore by Partition? The image will be bootable as long as the restored image is of the same type as what was there when you backed it up.

I routinely back up my C partition on my hard drive (contains XP) which also contains another partition which I don't usually backup because it has re-creatable stuff on it. I've done restores of my C partition many times and could always boot.

 

Not according to the manual/docs. The MBR is not restored unless you've done an image of the entire disk and then restored that same image. I had a lot of trouble with that when I first started using this software. I learned the hard way in fact I messed up so bad, I had to get a dos 6.22 boot disk to restore my MBR before it would restore properly and then boot. Believe me, from that point on, I did everything by the book and havn't had anymore problems since.

QD

 

I'm not talking about restoring the whole disk, just one partition on a disk which is the Active Partition (XP in my case).

It's OK if the MBR isn't being restored as long as the MBR that is already present is left alone and the restored image is the same one that the MBR was created for.

When I restore my C partition, TI does not touch the MBR at all. Just leaves what is there which is fine.

 

I guess I'm just stuck on thinking in terms of disaster recovery. This is the scenario where you MUST have the entire image with MBR in tact or you're sunk. This is basically the only reason I bought the software in the first place, disaster recovery. Lord knows windows don't do a very good job on it's own in that respect. System restore just don't cut it

QD

 

You do have other options when your MBR gets wiped out or corrupted. The MS utility FIXMBR is one way. I'm sure Linux has it's counterpart.

 

I don't have that so I guess I need to update my version.

Haven't wanted to as it works well

I will just update one partition and then the next I guess.

thanks

Michael

 

What your saying is true, *if*, and only *if* your restoring the active partition to your original hard drive that you made the image from. If your present hard drive which you imaged "C" partition (which contains the MBR) crashes, and you restore just the active partition "C" image you have to a *new* unformatted and unpartitioned hard drive, then you will have no MBR. That's the point of imaging the complete hard drive.

Personally I don't know why Acronis doesn't give us the option of imaging the MBR along with the active partition and not make us image the complete hard drive to retain the MBR. I have the same situation as another poster...I have partitions that have a lot of 'junk' files that I don't delete but save, but don't really, really need, such as edited movies, and etc. that take loads of space to backup. It would be very easy for Acronis to allow the MBR to be backed up along with just the C Active partition.

...Allen