Testing Restore of Acronis Backup Image

I have been using TI for over a year now with full image backups done nightly to a USB 2.0 external hard drive.
So far, I have not had a need to use TI to restore my main "C" drive, but have used the Explorer to retrieve deleted files.
My question is; other than booting from the TI CD and restoring the "C" drive to the previous days image, is there a procedure that can be followed that will instill some confidence that when an emergency arises(hard drive crashes, can't boot into xp, etc.), TI will perform as advertised?

Thanks in advance for your reply

BillyDick

 

Performing the actual restore is the only way to be sure it works as expected.

 

I agree with "thomasjk" that the only way to be sure is to do an actual restore.

BUT....!!

NEVER test-restore a System partition back to the original source location. When you restore a partition the first thing that ATI does is "prepare" the partition for the restore, which in layman's terms means that it wipes the partition. Therefore, if the restore fails you will be left with an unbootable system. The data will still be there but it will require the services (very expensive) of a specialist data recovery company to retrieve the data.

ALWAYS test-restore a System partition to another disk - preferably a spare disk. You can then replace the System disk with the spare disk and test if your system will boot.

(Apologies for the big red letters, but you only have to browse through previous postings on this Forum to see how many users make this very elemental mistake with sometimes tragic consequences)

 

I've wondered the same thing about safe testing. Suppose your machine is a laptop and/or one does not have another disk to play with? What is the next best procedure?

 

The next best procedure is to boot up the TI recovery CD and use it to validate the archive. When you have successfully validated, go through the restore wizard and do all the steps right up to the last screen on which you are supposed to click on Proceed. Read the summary of requested operations and make sure they look correct. Don't click the Proceed button, just cancel the wizard.

You must do the validate etc by booting the recovery CD since it provides the environment you will be using if you have a HD failure.

 

In addition to the suggestions by "seekforever"....

For a System partition. You will always have created this backup using the Partition Image method. You could therefore use the "Mount Image" option in ATI to browse the image. If you can browse the image and you can perform the steps as outlined by "seekforever" then your chances of restoring are very good. It still does not mean that you will have a bootable disk - that requires a real test with a real disk - but it does give you the best assurance possible that your archive is OK.

For data files. You may have created this backup using the Files and Folders method, in which case you can test by restoring to a new folder. For example test-restore to a folder called "MyDocsTest". If you use the Image method for your data files then simply mount the image as previously described.

BOTTOM LINE : If you have a Laptop or a PC but no spare disk then NEVER do a test-restore to the source location. If your system goes to Microsoft Blue Heaven then you will have to do a restore because your system is already deceased. If the restore fails you are no worse off.

 

Thanks for those procedures. The last thing I'd want to do is destroy a functioning drive.