Restoring my C: drive

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by DarkStar, Jul 30, 2005.

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  1. DarkStar

    DarkStar Registered Member

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    Probably a silly question, but it has just occurred to me:

    If I start up my PC as normal, can I use TI8 to recover my C:\ partition?
    Or even my whole hard disk (4 partitions)?

    Or do I need to boot from the Bootable Rescue Media and restore from there?

    The TI8 images are on an external FireWire disk.

    This is a theory question at the moment, I don't need to do it (yet!), but it would be good to know how to proceed.

    TIA
     
  2. pjb024

    pjb024 Registered Member

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    Hi DarkStar

    You can run TI from Windows to restore your C: drive but when it detects that the drive to be restored is in use you will be given a number of options; one of these is to allow TI to re-boot the machine so it can do the restore. Alternatively you can also restore from the Bootable Rescue CD. Just remember that you will want to have the restored disk bootable and so you have to restore the whole disk and not just the C: partition.

    Regards
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2005
  3. mareke

    mareke Registered Member

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    I'm not absolutely certain, and someone else will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this is entirely true. I've restored just the C partition on a drive with 2 partitions and then booted into Windows. When doing an image restore I think you are given a choice if you want the partition you are restoring to be an active partition (I've forgotten the other choice) and if you choose yes then the drive is bootable after the image is restored. Of course it's better to save an image to a separate drive rather than another partition on the same drive in case the drive fails but at least you can restore Windows if it becomes corrupted if you do it this way.
     
  4. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Mareke is correct.
     
  5. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Well I guess both pjb024 and mareke are correct in their own way. It just depends on whether an image is being restored to the original (serviceable) hard drive or a new replacement.

    If restoring to a serviceable original drive then you can get away with imaging and restoring individual partitions of a multi partition disk. However, if restoring to a replacement drive (or one whose MBR has become corrupted) then you will need to have imaged and restored the whole disk i.e. ticked the checkbox next to the disk number. This ensures the Master Boot Record is included in the image so that, after restoring, the new drive is bootable.

    Regards
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2005
  6. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Hi Menorcaman,

    I'll have to disagree about always copying the MBR to a replacement disk. My comments refer to using Ghost 9 but I think that I've done this with Acronis TI once in the past.

    With a replacement HD, I partition it the same as the original HD. Then I restore each image (no MBR included) to the relevant partition. (Individual images of each partition). It boots. Copying the MBR makes sense, but it doesn't have to be done if you have the same partition structure.

    However if you are doing a Copy Drive (clone) with Ghost 9 then you must clone into Unallocated Space and certainly include the MBR (as well as a few other steps).

    Are we talking about the same thing in different ways?
     
  7. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello DarkStar,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    1. Acronis True Image 8.0 allows you to restore an image of a partition(s) or hard drive(s) from under Windows. You will be asked to reboot your PC in order to proceed with the restoration of a system partition.

    Please be aware that this point works only if you are able to boot into Windows.

    Now imagine that your operating system crashed ang you can not boot into Windows, then you will be able to restore your images in the following ways:

    2. In case you store your images in Acronis Secure Zone, you can restore them using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager by pressing the F11 button during the PC startup.

    3. If you store your images on any type of the supported removable media (e.g. CD, DVD, ZIP drive, etc.) and your system crashed then you can boot your PC from special Bootable Rescue CD and restore the image.

    Please read more information on how to use Acronis True Image 8.0 in the respective User's Guide which is available at: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/docs/

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexey Popov
     
  8. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hi Brian,

    I'm not sure :doubt:!!

    One of the big advantages of TI is that you can restore a "whole" disk image to a brand new hard drive without first having to partition and format it. As the whole disk image contains the original MBR, the new drive should boot normally.

    However, even if you only imaged some of the partitions of the old drive, all is not lost. You can make the new drive bootable by booting from the Win XP Installation CD into Recover Console and typing fixmbr. In the case of Win 9x/Me one needs to boot from a Windows startup floppy and type fdisk /mbr.

    Regards
     
  9. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello pjb024, mareke, Brian K and Menorcaman,

    Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Please be aware that MBR is included in the image archive only if you have created an image of the entire hard drive.

    In case you have created an image of a single system partition, MBR is not included in the image.

    However, if you will restore an image of a system partition to the same hard drive with the same partition layout and MBR is not corrupted then your operating system will be bootable.

    In case you are restoring an image of a system partition to another hard drive or to the same hard drive with the different partition layout (it has been changed since the image was created) or MBR is corrupted on this drive for some reasons then you should do the following (depending on the type of the operating system) in order to make your restored operating system bootable:

    - Boot the computer from Windows 95/98/ME Startup Disk and run "fdisk /mbr" command;

    - Boot the computer from Windows 2000/XP Installation CD and run "fixmbr" command in Recovery Console.

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexey Popov
     
  10. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hi Alexey,

    Hmm, isn't that what I said (albeit differently) in my posts #5 and #8 above?

    Kind regards
    Tom
     
  11. DarkStar

    DarkStar Registered Member

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    Thanks guys, I think I am going to read through all these replies S L O W L Y.
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2005
  12. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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  13. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hi Brian,

    Indeed I have :). See this much earlier Thread titled <XP not booting after restoring image>. For those inclined, it's also worth reading the <full Dan Goodell article> that I refer to in Post #19 of that thread.

    Regards
     
  14. beenthereb4

    beenthereb4 Registered Member

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    Hey Brian, you and I and Menorcaman all appear in the thread he refers to ---- LOL ---- and of course, I in particular learned a lot from his reference to that article! One thing that interests me is the variety of ways that the MBR problem manifests itself in XP and 2000.
     
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