Several questions from a novice.

Hi,

I would like to apologize first for my substandard English.

I have a license for ATI 2009 Home, however, I wasn't using it because I had a feeling that I am not using it properly.
Then I decided to try to make the best use out of it.

When I used this product, I simply placed the full backup image in a external drive, and restored whenever I wanted to.

Then I realized that my method won't save me from disasters. For example, when I can't boot properly due to a virus. So I decided to make a Boot media.

Here are my questions.

1. When I buy a blank CD, how much storage space does it have to have? (Is it too big that I need a DVD?)
2. Is ATI approved for saving users from a real disaster? Like from virus dominated PC? (I'm not sure if this sentence makes sense)
3. Why is ATI so undevalued in the reviews?

4. Can you understand what I'm saying?

Thanks in advance.

 

1. Just a standard writable CD. It does not hold any of your data. Just has the acronis program in a stand alone version.

2. Yes that is what it does .

3. True image was the most highly rated backup program for years.
It is unfortunate that the latest version was released with a lot of un fixed flaws. However basic backup and restore functions seem to work OK. I have stuck with an earlier version because it works fine for me and I have no need for the new features of V2009.

4. No problem at all .

Xpilot

 

To add to what Xpilot said. The most serious problem that people have with TI is not being able to restore when they really need to. Most of these cases would have been known and hopefully corrected if a test of the recovery environment had been done before it was really needed.

The recovery environment, loaded from the CD you asked about, is Linux, not Windows and it is essential that you know it will work on your hardware before you need it.

A test restore to a spare HD is absolutely the best test but if you don't want to do that then:

Boot up the rescue CD and create an image to your external HD or a second internal HD or other location where you plan to store your archives. This will demonstrate that TI can see your devices, read your source drive and write the archive using the Linux environment.

Now, validate the archive using the TI Validate tool. This will demonstrate that TI can accurately read your archive from the backup media into RAM and reconstruct the 4000 checksums/GB of archive accurately. They are compared to ones stored in the archive when it was created and if only one checksum is bad the archive will be declared corrupt. Note that the archive itself may not be bad but you can have a problem such as bad RAM, bad disk sector on the drive holding the archive, bad cable, bad whatever. TI actually is a pretty good hardware tester but it is not intended to be one.

Now run through the Restore Wizard as if you are going to restore the archive by making the selections needed. This will give you insight into the restore process. Cancel out on the last screen where you have to tell TI to Proceed so you don't start the actual restore.

If you can do the above 3 steps, you can have a degree of confidence that it will work as intended when you need it. However, the best test is a restore to a spare HD. Test with a spare HD, in case it fails and leaves you with unallocated space - TI deletes the partition being restored as one of its first steps so if it fails your partition is gone.

After you have demonstrated to your satisfaction that your PC is happy with the Linux environment then you can have a good degree of confidence that it will work when you need it.

Some other hints:
Do not only keep one archive of your system. HD space is cheap these days, let them accummulate. I had some stored on a notebook HD and had to go back 2 archives because the HD developed bad sectors.

It is not a good idea to only use one backup device since it is a common point of failure. If you can afford it, get 2 USB devices or better still put in a second internal HD. Make the backups to these 2 devices. I usually make all my backups to the internal HD and then copy selected ones to an external HD. I don't bother with DVDs since they are slow and if you have more than a couple to hold your archive you likely will be swapping them in and out at a horrendous rate.

A Windows validate is nice but until you know that the Linux environment works it is not that helpful other than to indicate that the archive itself is not likely your problem. You aren't running Windows when you restore an image to the C drive.

 

@ Xpilot, seekforever

Thanks for your reply.
I guess I have to try it myself after all.

 

seekforever's advice above is as good as you can get on this topic. I've had people come up to me and argue after a harddisk failure and no backups that there must be some way to get their data back because it's so important. Unfortunately, when the harddisk head comes crashing down, the importance of the data has absolutely no impact on the physics.

 

Thanks for the information.

I got one more question... How do I update when the new ATI version comes out? When I update/upgrade the version and do a restore, it seems to go back to the old version.

Thanks in advance.

 

When you do a restore your system will be taken back to how it was when the image was made.
If the image was prior to an update the update will not be in the image and so it will be ignored.

Xpilot

 

HJO,
It's very important to understand what Xpilot said - when you perform a system restore from a backup archive, you will get exactly the same state of the system as it was in at the moment of creating that archive.
Therefore, when you're about any system change, the most safest way would be:
1. before the change make a backup (for the case of any fault, so that you could easily roll back the changes)
2. after ensuring the successful change, make full system backup (so that your current backup includes recent changes).
Hope this will help.

 

Thanks.
So I have to make a new backup after I update to a newer version?

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.