Vista backup on external drive..

Hi,
I bought a Seagate Free Agent Pro 500GB with USB and ESata connection..

I would like to use Acronis to clone my PC after Vista and SP1 install + driver for graphic card, sound card, no problem so far.

If at a certain time I need to reinstall this image from the recovery disc, to have a new fresh install from the external Seagate, how can Acronis recovery disc find the Seagate drive booting up with it?

I mean if you restore an image to a new formatted internal drive, how can the external drive be recognized in the recovery CD?
Which way is better to use, in the case the restore from the external is possible, USB2 or ESata (much faster than USB)?

Regards

 

Let's keep the terminology correct as far as Acronis is concerned. Clone and Image are two different animals. In your situation I think you mean Image, which is also called Backup.

You need to make the bootable True Image Rescue cd to restore the Image from the external to a new system drive. But don't wait till you need it, create it now, boot with it and make sure it will see the external drive. In fact go through the motions of Recovery to make sure you can choose the Image from the external. If you are able to select the Image you good to go. Now cancel the process, otherwise you will do a restore.

 

Thanks for the explanation...

Right now where the external drive is installed and Vista knows it, would not be difficult.

My concern is about how the drive can be seen on a "blank" PC.

If the OS is not installed and the external drive is connected by USB or ESata... how can I be sure that it is recognized by Acronis?

Regards

 

If you make the BartPE cd that has the True Image Plug-In incorporated in it, when you boot from this cd, and then launch True Image, the external drive will be seen, regardless of whether there is a drive in the computer or not. Of course you have to change the boot order in the Bios so in future if you want to boot from the cd, even if there's a good working drive in the system, the system will boot from the cd first.

You might be lucky and find that the regular True Image Rescue cd can see your external (if Acronis has the right drivers in the Rescue cd). But for sure the BartPE one will do it.

 

You'd have to boot from the TI CD (or Flashdrive/USB hard drive/eSATA drive) and make sure it can see all your drives correctly. If it can see your drives, at least Validate the backup image and make sure it is successful.

Another option is to create a BartPE or VistaPE TI CD that contains any needed drivers.

 

Hello bimbobo,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

Please notice that Acronis Bootable Rescue Media uses Linux to access the hardware, and can be used to boot a computer without operating system installed as well. You can find more information about Acronis Bootable Rescue Media in this article.

You can find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image in the respective User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Scenario is..
I installed fresh Vista + all windows update + drivers for NIC, Graphic card and sound card... nothing else..

I wanna take an image of this.... so I can use it when I need a full fresh copy of Vista, instead of reinstall everything.
The image must be stored to an external drive... How do I do it?
How can the restore CD see the "fresh" copy if the external drive's driver is not present yet?

Please.. I need an idiot-proof explanation..
Regards

 

1. Make the bootable True Image Rescue Media cd.
2. Boot with the CD you made in #1.
3. Go through the motions of creating a Backup Image of your Source drive to your External drive.
4. If you are able to choose the External Drive as the Destination for your Image, then it means that the CD "sees" your External Drive.
5. Since the bootable CD, which you made in step 1, is able to see the External Drive, you will be able to Restore the Image you have on it to a new drive in the computer.

 

I don't know how many times you need this answered. The answers already given are pretty clear. The ATI Rescue CD, which you will burn, uses Linux and includes drivers to recognize many external drives. What is or is not installed on your Vista drive is irrelevant. Boot from the Rescue CD to see if it can recognize your external drive. If not, then create a BartPE or VistaPE CD which will definitely recognize your drive.

Here's a tip: read the manual. It will answer many questions.

 

Sorry, but better ask several times than "destroy" years of pictures and other critical datas.

I am not a specialist, then I ask more than once until I got it.

If I have installed the full version of TI 11, make the restore CD... then I have to reformat all my PC and make a new fresh install, will the recover CD works unlimited times?

What is so the difference between buying or use the trial version to make the recovery disc?

Anyway I have my licence... but I'm just curious.
Regards

 

Your turn Mudcrab.

 

It is good to be careful with your important data. My suggestion would be that if you are unsure or uncomfortable about using TI and are afraid of losing your data, a good idea would be to copy your important files to your external drive (or another external drive) before you create the backup. In any case, it's always good to have multiple backups.

In addition to reading the TI manual, I would also suggest that you read Grover's guides which can be found linked in his signature.

TI can restore to a new unformatted hard drive. You can also restore to a formatted hard drive which will replaced some or all of the existing partitions with the ones in the image file depending on the options you select.

There is no limit on the number of restores you can do.

The trial version of the TI CD is limited to doing restores.

 

How about better not waste the time of the good people here who freely offer help. You've had your answers, several times.

Have you yet read the manual as I suggested? Have you read Grover's guides, as MudCrab suggested? If you won't help yourself, why should we?

 

Go ahead waste my time!!
tuttle some people have a hard time believing that TI can do what it does and until they have done their first backup and recovery it can be very unerving.

bimbobo Mudcrab is giving you very good advice ( as he usually does) as he stated make a backup of your data to another drive using windows explorer, ( copy and paste if you wish) just to be on the safe side. Good luck and good imaging. Keep asking until you feel confident.