What if questions re: restoring.

Greetings,

i am working on getting set up with Acronis TI. Planning ahead! I am reading docs for TI Home, TI Workstation and TI Windoes Serve. Lots of stuff!

1. Restore scenarios - assuming proper backup with one of TI versions , to exterior, networked HD I want to cover all possibilites of restore situations - NOTE: I assume that I need Workstation edition with Universal restore for this:
a. Restore to something in the operation of the system gone bad (not HD) - same machine. Any pointers, fatal pitfalls?
b. Restore to new - probably larger drive - same machine. Same.
c. Restore to brand new machine - already installed OS most likely different from my current one since. I currently use Win 2000Pro on my network. And I would just prefer to restore and still use Win 2000Pro. That's where things get a bit more involving I guess. Basic essential things to watch out for?

2. I want to experiment with restoring. I have a spare Winxp machine, and i just want to image one of my current workstations and restore - just for practice - to the spare machine and see if any difficulties arise. Seems to me that the Forums contain a fair number of questions about restore operations gone not quite right! Not being anal here, just want to make sure the "spare tire has air in it" type of thing!
QUESTION then: does doing a backup and a practice restore to another machine in any way change the data in the source machine?

Thanks for any comments - RT

 

It shouldn't hurt the original disk so long as you don't check any box or leave checked any box that says delete partition on the original drive. I think that kind of box only comes up when you clone and when you set up a restoration.

 

As you said, assuming that TI works properly on your computer...

1a & 1b would not require UR. You could do these types of restores with the Home or Workstation or Sever versions, etc.

1c would most likely require UR because the computer would be different, though some users get away with doing a Windows Repair Install and bypass using UR.

2 - Restoring an image onto another computer will not change the data on the source machine. The only way the source machine would be affected would be if you restored to it. Note that the two machines will have the same SSID and the same network address (if static) so take that into consideration.

Also, note that doing a test restore to another computer does not mean it will work on the other computer. You'd have to do an actual test on the other computer to know for sure if it would work on it. However, doing test restores is good practice and it's always better to test on a spare machine (or a spare hard drive) if possible to avoid "problems" if things go wrong. Once you're familiar with the program and have tested it, you'll be more comfortable using it for real.

 

Once you do a restore, and the new hard drive doesn't bootup or hangs at the log-in screen.
Before you start doing any major troubleshooting repairs. Check your drive letters.

With windows xp/server2003 and windows 2000 pro, the drive letters are known to change following restoration.
The demo of "paragon justboot corrector" is very good for troubleshooting a non-booting hard drive by reading the drive letters in the registry/boot.ini file.
My advice is to always have a program that can change drive letters handy, it'll save you many hours of troubleshooting. With true image and my copy of justboot corrector I can restore any hard drive everytime. Without having a program that can change drive letters quickly , true image would not be reliable in an emergency.

Drive letter changes occur when 1.) you startup a computer with 2 c: partitions 2.) you have a computer with multiple hard drives 3.) You try to restore a larger partition into a smaller partition.

With the basic true image 9.0 I have restored an image (windows xp pro) from one computer into an entirely different computer with no problem. As long as you have a similar video card on the other computer (all my computers have ATI cards) it should work most of the time. You must have the motherboard/lan/audio drivers to manually install following the restoration. This information is from my expirements that I have run and also from actual hard drive failures that I have had to restore. I have a 100 percent success rate only encountering the occasional drive letter change problem which takes all of 5 minutes to fix.

 

Thanks, MudCrab. Man, seems that backing up is easy (especially the file by file variety - I have been pleased with it) but the Imaging business is quite full of possible surprizes... on the Restore side.

That's sort of what i expected, once I went past the glowing "restore the whole machine w/o reinstalling anything" propaganda!

Thanks again!

- rt

 

Thanks, jonyjoe.
i appreciate your letting me know about those additional possible pitfalls. I am however surprized to hear about video card compatibility. Seems to me that with any new computer purchase, a new video card has appeared on the market!
Also, you use which flavor of TI, the Home or WkStation, in order to restore to an entirely different machine? And do you use the Universal restore option if you are using TI WkStation?
Also, Also, if one has a network with a MSSQL machine driving some other workstation(s) all under Windows 2000Pro Sp4, I understand that special precautions have to be taken to backup SQL databases. I am just back from some websites indcating just that. You thought? Besides apparently wait to image backup daily until activity downtime occurs (say, in my commercial installation, after hours) to make sure that no MSSQL database transaction occur during imaging?

Thanks!

 

The video card problem work-around is just one of the ways to try and avoid having problems when booting into the Windows restored to a different computer having a different video card.

For example, if you have nVidia or ATI video card drivers installed in the original computer and then restore to a computer that has onboard Intel video, the old drivers will still try and load and possibly cause a BSOD, crash or lockup since the hardware does not exist. By uninstalling the "custom" video driver in the original computer and installing the "Standard VGA" Windows driver, creating a new image and then restoring that image to the new computer, the new computer will boot with Standard VGA drivers which will work on any video card. Then the appropriate video drivers can be installed.

In some cases Windows is smart enough to notice the video card changes and default back to the Standard VGA driver, but there are other cases where it won't.

If you can't fix a problem like this beforehand, you can usually fix it afterwards by doing a Repair Install of Windows or using Window Safe Mode to change to the Standard VGA driver.

 

Ah, yes, Mudcrab, now I see this thing about the video card/drivers. yes, another thing to certainly think about while attempting to cover all bases in terms of doing image backups that can be restored in a number of different ways... depending upon the disaster at hand!
And yes indeed, using such presumably wonderful products as Acronis TI does come with some serious thinking about how to truly make productive use of them...Something that even the mostly emphatic Acronis documentation does not always provide instructions for. After, I back up mostly to eventually restore; otherwise, I do keep separate exact data copies of certain items I need to absolutely depend upon (clients lists, databases, email and address books, etc...)
- rt

 

March 10th, 2007, 01:33 PM
GroverH
Frequent Poster Join Date: May 2006
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Posts: 896

Need Help? These Beginner's Guides May Fill That Need!

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Many people come to the forum seeking help with the basics of True Image Home. With that in mind, I felt there was a need for these two guides:
Beginner's Guide to creating a basic full disk archive
Beginner's Guide to restoring a basic full disk archive
Many simply use True Image Home as a system backup and recovery program. Therefore the above two pdf's cover the basic "how to" steps in creating and restoring a full disk archive, plus a bit more. Whilst the instructions have been written around TI 9.0 Home Build 3666, they apply equally as well to TI 10.0 Home."

The guides are directed toward those with basic needs and who, at this point in time, are unable to fully digest 81 pages of the official Acronis TI9 user manual. Plus, Acronis offers the 124 page fully illustrated tutorial which offers help to those with more exacting requirements.

I hope you will find my guides useful and will recommend them to others!
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Special thanks goes to Menorcaman for his willingness to help me properly present these Beginner's Guides. His help involved a lot of his time and was invaluable. My guides are much improved due to his diligence.

-------------------------Additional Useful Links -------------------------

L1: Please Read Before You Post
L2: Product Links, FAQs & Interesting Forum Threads
L3: Online FAQ's - Acronis True Image 10.0 Home
L4: User Manual—Acronis True Image 9 Home (81 pages)
L5: User Manual—Acronis True Image 10 Home (95 pages)
L6: TI9 Home Illustrated instructions. describing installation and usage (4 part html)
L6a Downloadable pdf rather than 4 part html (Same content at L6 except a downloadable pdf file.)

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Last edited by Menorcaman : March 12th, 2007 at 01:06 PM. Reason: Changed link reference in L6a to L6 rather than L7


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#2 March 10th, 2007, 01:37 PM
GroverH
Frequent Poster Join Date: May 2006
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Posts: 896

Re: Need Help? These Beginner's Guides May Fill That Need!

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If you are new user of True Image Home, perhaps these additional tips may be of assistance.

1. Do create a full disk image backup as soon as possible. Before you do, however, download my beginners guides referenced above. The guides can help explain your procedures.

2. Do Not install the ."Manage Acronis Secure Zone" or "Activate Acronis Startup Recovery" functions until you have done research on how these functions work. Many people refuse to use these functions while others find them helpful

3. In addition to the normal searching of other links for specific topics, check into link "L2" above. Each time the thread is updated, additional information is provided.

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