Sarting TI Home under Vista

OK. I bought TI Home and immediately downloaded the latest build before installing on my VISTA computer. Reading all the problems with Vista, and disk imaging software in general, really has me spooked. I have successfully used Powerquest in the past, on a WIN98 machine....but they are now Symantek....no Vista support !

1. How can I ever really be confident that a Disk Image is valid and will restore ? I don't want to risk corrupting my existing system, so it seems like a Catch-22. If I try an Image-Restore Image Cycle and it doesn't work, then what ?

2. The ONLY thing I really want TI to do is create full disk images, and be confident they can be restored in case of a system crash/damage. I will use other programs, or simply manually, back up other files. Does this simplify things any ?

 

You will have to invest in a second hard drive on which you can test a Restore or Clone.

 

I am actually willing to do that, for other reasons also.

I should be able to image my existing drive onto a new drive: disconnect my original drive: then reboot from the new drive, and have there be no operation difference between the two drives; correct ?

 

Not quite correct. The word you used, "Image", means a compressed backup of the original, and an Image has to go through a Recovery process before it will be bootable like the original.
However if you use the Clone feature, that produces instantly - if it works as it should - a bootable drive just like the original.
So if you change the word "image" to "clone" then you would be correct.
Since you need to get a second drive, definitely get it to test True Image.

 

My brain cramp:
What I meant to describe was a testing of the IMAGING features of TI.

What I would like to do is IMAGE the Original Drive to DVDs;
then RECOVER THE IMAGE to a New Drive (perhaps smaller, but definitely large enough to hold all the information the original drive contained).
The New Drive would then be a bootable "clone" of the origninal Drive ? Correct ? (Assuming it works)

Thanks, Sorry for my lack of precision.

The Cloning feature seems valuable too, and would have the same end-result, but without the intermediate imaging to DVD, right ?

I want to have a stored image on DVD and be confident that it will work, before using the new drive for storage of other info.

 

Hello RAD,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Acronis True Image 10.0 Home can write directly to DVD media.

Yes, if the drive has similar interface. Please also notice that Windows operating system requires a certain amount of free space on the hard drive to function properly.
You can find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image 10.0 Home in the respective User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov