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#1
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
I've got Acronis True Image 9.
I want to backup my standalone's o/s to a diferent physical harddrive on the machine, with the priority being on simplicty and actually being able to re-install when the o/s goes bad, or won't boot, a year or two from now. The o/s is only about 7 gigs, and I've got lots of space, so that's not an issue. I have looked over the Acronis material, and even used their online chat to ask about a straightforward way of doing it, without really coming away with anything I want to operate on. Can anybody give me a few streps and some overview info on this? Clone versus image? How to for a boot disk.. what to do when a failure happens, etc. Thnx |
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#2
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
Here is the Official Acronis Support Forum:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65 --- Leonard Grey Errare humanum est John D99 wrote: I've got Acronis True Image 9. I want to backup my standalone's o/s to a diferent physical harddrive on the machine, with the priority being on simplicty and actually being able to re-install when the o/s goes bad, or won't boot, a year or two from now. The o/s is only about 7 gigs, and I've got lots of space, so that's not an issue. I have looked over the Acronis material, and even used their online chat to ask about a straightforward way of doing it, without really coming away with anything I want to operate on. Can anybody give me a few streps and some overview info on this? Clone versus image? How to for a boot disk.. what to do when a failure happens, etc. Thnx |
#3
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
"John D99" wrote:
I've got Acronis True Image 9. I want to backup my standalone's o/s to a diferent physical harddrive on the machine, with the priority being on simplicty and actually being able to re-install when the o/s goes bad, or won't boot, a year or two from now. The o/s is only about 7 gigs, and I've got lots of space, so that's not an issue. I have looked over the Acronis material, and even used their online chat to ask about a straightforward way of doing it, without really coming away with anything I want to operate on. Can anybody give me a few streps and some overview info on this? Clone versus image? How to for a boot disk.. what to do when a failure happens, etc. You gotta be kidding. If you can't figure out how to use Acronis True Image, you don't belong at that keyboard. Image, don't clone. Create the image on a different hard drive, not a different partition - preferably an external drive. Boot disk: Acronis does it for you. If it fails, your burner needs replacing. Backup won't fail unless you don't have enough space for the image. |
#4
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
"John D99" wrote in message
m... I've got Acronis True Image 9. I want to backup my standalone's o/s to a diferent physical harddrive on the machine, with the priority being on simplicty and actually being able to re-install when the o/s goes bad, or won't boot, a year or two from now. The o/s is only about 7 gigs, and I've got lots of space, so that's not an issue. I have looked over the Acronis material, and even used their online chat to ask about a straightforward way of doing it, without really coming away with anything I want to operate on. Can anybody give me a few streps and some overview info on this? It's all spelled out in Chapter 4 of the manual. Section 4.2 on p.22 covers how to perform an image backup. Clone versus image? Cloning is an option, but IMO it's not that practical. Just make an image of the drive. Store the image on an external hard drive. This way, you'll be able to store *other* things on the external hard drive, too. In addition to the image of the pristine state, you should get into the habit of making regular images because you will be installing new programs and creating and storing new data over time. Suppose it's two years down the road and your system is still stable. You have tons of different kinds of data on it, all sorts of programs, security updates, settings to any number of things configured just the way you like it. Imagine you have an image of the entire hard drive. Now imagine something bad happens (could be anything that results in your not being able to boot up). As long as you have the image on an external hard drive, all you need to do is boot off the Acronis CD and you can restore the image to your hard drive and everything will be as it was right before the disaster. How to for a boot disk.. That's in Section 10.2 on pp. 55-56. what to do when a failure happens, etc. No offense, but RTFM. After reading it, then ask your questions (if you still have any). Once you roll up your sleeves and use the product, you will start to feel very comforable with it. The only thing I would add is later on down the road, you may find you don't like the boot CD. In my case, restoration takes quite a while when using their Linux-based emergrency CD. That's why I burned my own custom-made Bart PE CD with an Acronis True Image plugin. The restoration process is much quicker when using that particular boot CD. Some tweaks were necessary, though. I needed the latest build of Version 9 (at the time, it was 3854). After registering, Acronis gave me a link to download it. I also needed to obtain two DLLs that Acronis didn't include for their plugin (!) -- MSVCP71.DLL and MSVCR71.DLL and made the following additions to the acronis.inf file: files\Drivers\msvcr71.dll=2,,1 files\Drivers\msvcp71.dll=2,,1 Keep in mind, that the above is only for "later on down the road!" (Building a BART PE emergency boot CD is a different matter. I just brought it up so you know there are workarounds to the CD that Acronis provides.) For now, just familiarize yourself with the program and use it. Schedule incremental imaging backups, too. And as Leonard stated, the Acronis forum would be the best place to ask questions: http://www.wilderssecurity.com:80/forumdisplay.php?f=65 |
#5
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
"Daave" wrote:
No offense, but RTFM. After reading it, then ask your questions (if you still have any). Once you roll up your sleeves and use the product, you will start to feel very comforable with it. The only thing I would add is later on down the road, you may find you don't like the boot CD. In my case, restoration takes quite a while when using their Linux-based emergrency CD. That's why I burned my own custom-made Bart PE CD with an Acronis True Image plugin. They guy didn't even RTFM and is here begging for help. What chance do you think he'll have setting up a BartPE CD!??? Slim and NONE. |
#6
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
Maybe he wants a "Start" button on the screen to sense and do whatever he
wants in a single click (in a "straightforward" way)? Engin "Max Goldman" wrote in message ... "Daave" wrote: No offense, but RTFM. After reading it, then ask your questions (if you still have any). Once you roll up your sleeves and use the product, you will start to feel very comforable with it. The only thing I would add is later on down the road, you may find you don't like the boot CD. In my case, restoration takes quite a while when using their Linux-based emergrency CD. That's why I burned my own custom-made Bart PE CD with an Acronis True Image plugin. They guy didn't even RTFM and is here begging for help. What chance do you think he'll have setting up a BartPE CD!??? Slim and NONE. |
#7
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
Engin Tarhan said this on 1/17/2009 3:54 AM:
Maybe he wants a "Start" button on the screen to sense and do whatever he wants in a single click (in a "straightforward" way)? Engin "Max Goldman" wrote in message ... "Daave" wrote: No offense, but RTFM. After reading it, then ask your questions (if you still have any). Once you roll up your sleeves and use the product, you will start to feel very comforable with it. The only thing I would add is later on down the road, you may find you don't like the boot CD. In my case, restoration takes quite a while when using their Linux-based emergrency CD. That's why I burned my own custom-made Bart PE CD with an Acronis True Image plugin. They guy didn't even RTFM and is here begging for help. What chance do you think he'll have setting up a BartPE CD!??? Slim and NONE. This is the person that needs a Wizard! Wait!..... there is one! |
#8
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
"John D99" wrote in message m... I've got Acronis True Image 9. I want to backup my standalone's o/s to a diferent physical harddrive on the machine, with the priority being on simplicty and actually being able to re-install when the o/s goes bad, or won't boot, a year or two from now. The o/s is only about 7 gigs, and I've got lots of space, so that's not an issue. I have looked over the Acronis material, and even used their online chat to ask about a straightforward way of doing it, without really coming away with anything I want to operate on. Can anybody give me a few streps and some overview info on this? Clone versus image? How to for a boot disk.. what to do when a failure happens, etc. Thnx John D99: Although I know you've received responses to your query that probably have resolved your problem, allow me to submit one more... I prepared the below step-by-step instructions for using the ATI program (versions 9 or 10) some time ago for a group of users. Step-by-Step Instructions for Using the Acronis True Image Program to Backup & Restore One's Hard Drive... Using the Acronis True Image program there are two different approaches one can take to back up the entire contents of one's day-to-day working HDD, i.e., the operating system, all programs & applications, and user-created data - in short, *everything* that's on one's HDD... 1. Direct disk-to-disk cloning, or, 2. Creating disk images By using either of these strategies the user can restore his or her system should their day-to-day working HDD become inoperable because of mechanical/electronic failure of the disk or corruption of the system resulting in a dysfunctional operating system. In undertaking either of these two backup & recovery processes you're dealing with two hard drives - the so-called source & destination disks - the source disk being the HDD you're backing up and the destination disk being the HDD that will be the recipient of the cloned contents of the source disk or the recipient of the disk image you will be creating. When using either process it's usually best for most users to use an external HDD as the destination drive, i.e., the recipient of the cloned contents of the source disk or the recipient of the created disk image. This can be either a USB or Firewire or SATA external HDD. While another internal HDD can also serve as the destination disk there's an additional element of safety in using an external HDD since that drive will be ordinarily disconnected from the system except during the disk cloning or recovery process. One other suggestion. After you install the Acronis program on your computer it's a good idea to create what Acronis calls their "Bootable Rescue Media" (CD). In most cases the recovery process (described below) will utilize that Acronis bootable CD to restore your system. This "rescue" CD is easily created from the program by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media" icon on the opening Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to create the bootable CD. The following are step-by-step instructions for using the Acronis True Image 9 program to clone the contents of one HDD to an external HDD. (The steps are essentially the same using the newer ATI 10 version): 1. With both hard drives (source & destination disks) connected, boot up. Ensure that no other storage devices, e.g., flash drives, ZIP drives, etc., are connected. It's also probably a good idea to shut down any programs you may have working in the background - including any anti-virus anti-spyware programs - before undertaking this disk-to-disk cloning operation. 2. Access the Acronis True Image 9 program and under "Pick a Task", click on "Clone Disk". (In the ATI 10 version click on "Manage Hard Disks" in the "Pick a Tool" area and on the next screen click on "Clone Disk"). 3. On the next "Welcome to the Disk Clone Wizard!" window, click Next. 4. On the next "Clone Mode" window select the Automatic option (it should be the default option selected) and click Next. 5. On the next "Source Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct source HDD (the disk you're cloning from) has been selected (click to highlight). Click Next. 6. On the next "Destination Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct destination HDD (the disk you're cloning to) has been selected (again, click to highlight). Click Next. 7. On the next window, select the option "Delete partitions on the destination hard disk". Understand that all data presently on the disk that will be the recipient of the clone will be deleted prior to the disk cloning operation. Click Next. 8. The next window will reflect the source and destination disks. Again, confirm that the correct drives have been selected. Click Next. 9. On the next window click on the Proceed button. A message box will display indicating that a reboot will be required to undertake the disk cloning operation. Click Reboot. 10. The cloning operation will proceed during the reboot. With modern components and a medium to high-powered processor, data transfer rate will be somewhere in the range of about 450 MB/min to 800 MB/min when cloning to a USB external HDD; considerably faster when cloning to another internal HDD. 11. When the cloning operation has been completed, a message will appear indicating the disk cloning process has been successful and instructs you to shut down the computer by pressing any key. Do so and disconnect your USB external HDD. If, however, the destination drive has been another *internal* HDD, see the NOTE below. 12. Note that the cloned contents now residing on the USB external HDD take on the file system of the source drive. For example, if prior to the disk-cloning operation your USB external HDD had been FAT32-formatted and your XP OS was NTFS-formatted, the cloned contents will be NTFS-formatted. There is no need to format the USB external HDD prior to the disk-cloning operation. Similarly, there is no need prior to the disk-cloning operation to format an internal HDD should you be using an internal HDD as the destination drive . 13. Restoration of the system can be achieved by cloning the contents of the data residing on the external HDD to an internal HDD through the normal disk-cloning process as described above. NOTE: Just one other point that should be emphasized with respect to the disk cloning operation should the recipient of the clone be another *internal* HDD and not a USB or Firewire external HDD. Immediately following the disk cloning operation the machine should be shutdown and the source HDD should be disconnected. Boot ONLY to the newly-cloned drive. DO NOT BOOT IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE CLONING OPERATION WITH BOTH DRIVES CONNECTED. While this problem doesn't always arise there is a strong possibility that by doing so it is likely to cause future boot problems with the cloned drive. Obviously there is no problem in this area should a USB or Firewire EHD be the recipient of the clone since that device is not ordinarily bootable in an XP environment. John99... I've not included the instructions for the Acronis disk-imaging process since I assume from your query that you would be interested only in the disk-cloning process. But if you want step-by-step instructions for the disk-imaging (and restoration) process, I'll post them. Anna |
#9
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
I've not included the instructions for the Acronis disk-imaging process
since I assume from your query that you would be interested only in the disk-cloning process. But if you want step-by-step instructions for the disk-imaging (and restoration) process, I'll post them. Anna Hi Anna I have ATI 9 installed and I would appreciate it if you would post the step by step instructions for the disc imaging/restoration process. Regards Bill |
#10
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
Thanks Anna, your post is what I was looking for.
Biil P's request for a similar plain language guide for recovering, would also be much appreciated. |
#11
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
"John D99" wrote in message m... I've got Acronis True Image 9. I want to backup my standalone's o/s to a diferent physical harddrive on the machine, with the priority being on simplicty and actually being able to re-install when the o/s goes bad, or won't boot, a year or two from now. The o/s is only about 7 gigs, and I've got lots of space, so that's not an issue. I have looked over the Acronis material, and even used their online chat to ask about a straightforward way of doing it, without really coming away with anything I want to operate on. Can anybody give me a few streps and some overview info on this? Clone versus image? Cloning is for duplicating the disk, to another disk you have ready. You want an image, to store for later. -pk How to for a boot disk.. what to do when a failure happens, etc. Thnx |
#12
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
I've not included the instructions for the Acronis disk-imaging process since I assume from your query that you would be interested only in the disk-cloning process. But if you want step-by-step instructions for the disk-imaging (and restoration) process, I'll post them. Anna Hi Anna I have ATI 9 installed and I would appreciate it if you would post the step by step instructions for the disc imaging/restoration process. Regards Bill Bill: Sure, here they are. Again, these apply to versions 9 & 10. I think (but am not sure) that they apply (at least broadly) to version 11 as well, but I haven't worked with the latest version of the ATI program - Home 2009 - so I've no idea if they apply to that version. Please bear in mind that I wrote all this about two years ago (as I remember), so some of this material may be out-of-date depending on possible changes brought about by newer "builds" of these programs that Acronis might have released since then. Disk imaging: The following are step-by-step instructions for using the Acronis True Image 9 Program to create disk images for backup purposes and using those disk images for recovery of the system. (The steps are essentially the same using the newer ATI 10 version): Note: The recipient of the disk image, presumably a USB external HDD or an internal HDD, ordinarily must be a formatted drive and have a drive letter assigned to it. Recall that in the case of a disk-to-disk cloning operation as previously described, an unformatted or "virgin" HD can be used as the destination disk. Before undertaking this disk imaging process it's probably best to close all programs running in the background including your anti-virus and other anti-malware programs. 1. With both your source and destination hard drives connected, access the Acronis program and click "Backup" on main menu. 2. The "Create Backup Wizard" screen opens. Click Next. 3. "Select Backup Type" screen opens with two options: a. The entire disk contents or individual partitions. b. Files and folders. Select a. and click Next. (In the ATI 10 version four options will be listed: My Computer, My Data, My Application Settings, and My E-mail. Select the My Computer option and click Next.) 4. The "Partitions Selection" screen opens. Disk 1 and Disk 2 are listed with their drive letter designations. Check the disk to be backed up - presumably Disk 1 - and click Next. 5. An informational message appears recommending an incremental or differential backup if original full backup had previously been created. Since this will be the first backup we will be selecting, just click OK to close the message box. 6. Next screen is the "Backup Archive Location". In the "File name:" text box, (in ATI 10 version it's the "Folder:" text box) enter your backup drive letter and enter a file name for the backup file, e.g., "F:\Backup 11-19". The Acronis program will automatically append the ".tib" file extension to the filename. Click Next. 7. "Select Backup Mode" screen opens. Select "Create a new full backup archive" option and click Next. 8. "Choose Backup Options" screen opens with two options: a. Use default options b. Set the options manually If you select the b. option, you can select various options listed on the next screen. Two of them are of interest to us: Compression level - Four options - None, Normal (the default), High, Maximum. There's a "Description" area that shows the estimated size of the backup archive depending upon the option chosen, and the estimated "creation time" for each option. (In this example, the actual size of the data to be backed up is 20 GB). None - 20 GB and estimated creation time of 1 hr 40 min Normal - 11.96 GB " " " " 50 min (Default) High - 10.46 GB " " " " 1 hr Maximum - 10.2 GB " " " " 1 hr Backup priority - Three options - Low, Normal, or High Low - "backup processed more slowly, but it will not influence other processes running on computer." (Default) Normal - "normal speed but backup process will influence other processes running on computer." High - "normal speed but backup process will strongly influence other processes running on computer." (As an example, I selected Normal (default) compression level and High backup priority. The backup archive totaled 15.8 GB compressed from 20 GB; took 16 min 15 sec to create. Creating a disk-to-disk clone would probably have taken no longer and possibly a bit faster.) NOTE: You can set the defaults from the Acronis Tools Options Default backup options menu items. 9. "Archive comments" screen opens allowing you to add comments to the backup archive which you can review during the Recovery process. Click Next. 10. The next screen summarizes the backup operation to be performed. Review the information for correctness and click the Proceed button. 11. The next screen will display status bars reflecting the progress of the backup operation. After the backup operation finishes, an informational message will appear indicting the operation was successfully completed. Incremental Backups (Disk Images) 1. After the initial backup archive has been created you can create incremental backups reflecting any data changes since the previous backup operation. This incremental backup process proceeds considerably faster than the initial backup operation. This, of course, is a major advantage of creating disk images rather than undertaking the disk-to-disk cloning process. Then too, since these created disk images are compressed files they are reasonable in size. And because the incremental disk images can usually be created very quickly (as compared with the direct disk-to-disk cloning process), there's an incentive for the user to keep his/her system up-to-date backup-wise by using this disk imaging process on a more frequent basis than the disk-cloning process. Note that you must create the incremental backup files on the same HDD where you stored the original backup archive and any subsequent incremental backup files. 2. Access the Acronis program as detailed above and move through the screens. When you arrive at the "Backup Archive Location" screen, click on the original backup archive file, or if one or more incremental backup files were previously created, click on the last incremental backup file and verify that the correct drive letter and file name are shown in the "File name:" text box. After clicking Next, the program will automatically create a file name for the incremental backup archive file, using the original file name and appending a consecutive number - starting at 2 - at the end of the file name. For example, say you named the original backup archive file "Backup 1-19". The first incremental backup file will be automatically named "Backup 1-192" and the next incremental file "Backup 1-193", etc. 3. On the following "Select Backup Mode" screen, select the "Create incremental backup" option, click Next, and proceed through the screens as you did in creating the initial backup archive. Recovery Process (Disk images) We'll assume the recovery will be to either a non-defective HDD that has become unbootable for one reason or another, or to a new HDD. The HDD to be restored need not be partitioned/formatted since the recovery process will take care of that function. Note that in most cases you will be using the Acronis "bootable rescue media" (CD) that you created when you originally installed the Acronis program. If you didn't create that bootable CD at that time, you can create it now from the Acronis program (assuming you can access the program at this time) by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media" icon on the opening Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to create the bootable CD. Note: If the recovery will be made to a HDD that is still bootable and you're able to access the Acronis program on that drive, then you can undertake the recovery process without the need for using the "bootable rescue" CD. 1. With both the drive containing the backup disk images and the drive you want to restore connected and with the bootable rescue CD inserted, boot up. 2. At the opening screen, click on "Acronis True Image Home (Full Version)". 3. The program will open after some moments. On the "Pick a Task" screen that opens, click on "Recovery". 4. The "Welcome to the Restore Data Wizard!" screen opens. Click on Next. 5. The "Archive Selection" screen opens. Navigate to the drive containing the backup archive file(s) and select the last incremental backup file or the original full backup file if no incremental backup files were subsequently created. Ensure that the correct drive letter and filename are entered in the "File name:" text box. Click Next. 6. In the Acronis version 9 program, the "Archive Date Selection" screen opens. Select (highlight) the last incremental backup file from the listing and click Next. This screen does not appear in version 10. 7. The "Restoration Type Selection" screen opens. Select the option, "Restore disks or partitions" and click Next. 8. The "Partition or Disk to Restore" will open. Click on "Disk 1" and click Next. 9. After some moments the "Restored Hard Disk Drive Location" screen opens. Select (highlight) the HDD to be restored and click Next. 10. On the next screen select the "Yes" option to delete all current partitions on the destination HDD. Click Next. 11. On the next screen select the "No" option and click Next. 12. On the next screen you have the option to validate the backup archive before restoration. Click Next. 13. The final screen before the restoration operation begins will open. Confirm that the information as shown is correct. Click Proceed. 14. Click OK when following completion of the recovery operation a message appears indicating a successful recovery operation. 15. Remove the Acronis bootable rescue CD and close the Acronis program. The system will reboot. A Windows "Found New Hardware" message followed by the "System Settings Change" message box may appear on the Desktop. If they do, click Yes for a reboot. Note: While the Acronis program is not designed to clone individual partitions - it can clone only the entire contents of one HDD to another HDD - you can backup & recover *individual* partitions through the disk imaging process as described above. Anna |
#13
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
"Anna" wrote in message ... John99... I've not included the instructions for the Acronis disk-imaging process since I assume from your query that you would be interested only in the disk-cloning process. But if you want step-by-step instructions for the disk-imaging (and restoration) process, I'll post them. Anna Please post your Acronis 9 disk-imaging process notes also, and everything for recovery for both approaches. Your note about cloning on an internal hard drive, possibly creating a problem on bootup was excellent. I guess that's becasue a "clone" is an operable copy of the o/s, and on bootup, the system won't know which "o/s" it's supposed to bootup from? |
#14
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
"Anna" wrote in message ... John99... I've not included the instructions for the Acronis disk-imaging process since I assume from your query that you would be interested only in the disk-cloning process. But if you want step-by-step instructions for the disk-imaging (and restoration) process, I'll post them. Anna "John D99" wrote in message m... Please post your Acronis 9 disk-imaging process notes also, and everything for recovery for both approaches. Your note about cloning on an internal hard drive, possibly creating a problem on bootup was excellent. I guess that's becasue a "clone" is an operable copy of the o/s, and on bootup, the system won't know which "o/s" it's supposed to bootup from? John99: I did post step-by-step instructions re the Acronis disk-imaging process - at least as it applies to the ATI versions 9, 10, and probably 11. You've probably seen my post by now. Hope it will help. One thing I didn't cover in those instructions was the distinction of creating "incremental" vs. "differential" archives (as Acronis calls them). I purposely left out of those basic disk-imaging instructions an explanation of those processes. I did so because the differences between the two seemed to confuse users and it appeared to me that there was near-universal acceptance of the incremental-archive approach, at least among the users I talked to or who read the instructions. So I focused only on creating incremental files (archives). But there are pros & cons between the two processes and a user such as yourself, as well as others who use the ATI program, might want to investigate the differences since both capabilities are present in the program and the user has the option of using one or the other. The ATI program's Help files contain info on this and as I recall there was also info on the Acronis site as well. As to your question... It's really just a (potential) glitch in virtually every disk-cloning program that I've worked with except for one exception (which I'll get to). Again, this is a *potential* problem that *may* occur when using an *internally-connected* HDD as the recipient of the clone, i.e., the "destination" drive. Keep in mind that if the destination HDD is an *external* HDD, e.g., a USB external HDD, there's ordinarily no problem along the lines that will be described. Following the successful disk-cloning operation should the user boot with *both* of his/her hard drives connected (the so-called "source" & "destination" drives), the system, of course, will ordinarily boot to the source HDD (presumably the C: drive) as would be expected. However, at some later date when the user attempts to subsequently boot with *only* the previously-cloned (destination) HDD connected - let's say for restoration purposes - there's a strong possibility the system will not boot should *only* that HDD be connected. And this, even though the disk-cloning operation had been successful, i.e., the cloned HDD is a precise copy of the source HDD. What has happened (and again, keep in mind this is a *potential* problem in that it does not *always* occur) is that when both HDDs are connected *immediately* following the disk-cloning operation and the user boots the system, a drive letter other than C: is assigned to the destination (newly-cloned) HDD. This other-than-C: drive letter assignment remains permanently assigned to the destination HDD. So that if later the user attempts to boot to that HDD that is solely connected to the system, it will not boot since the XP OS will not "see" it as the boot drive. (A number of commentators have indicated a registry modification can be employed to correct this problem, i.e., assign a C: drive letter to the HDD, but we have not found this to be a reliable, workable solution). So the point here is that it's desirable for the user that *immediately* following the disk-cloning process he or she disconnect the destination HDD from the system and boot only to the source HDD. Alternatively, the user can disconnect the source HDD and boot only to the newly-cloned HDD and then shut down the machine and disconnect that drive and connect the source HDD. The advantage here is that the user checks that the disk-cloning process was successful. Again, I have to emphasize that this problem doesn't always occur and it only affects a situation where the destination HDD is an *internally-connected* HDD. There's no problem affecting a USB external HDD if that device is the recipient of the clone. But the problem has arisen with sufficient frequency that we refer to this cautionary note. Our disk-cloning program of choice is the Casper 5 program - one of the reasons being that we've never encountered the above problem with this program regardless that both the source & destination drives were connected immediately following the disk-cloning operation. And we've been involved in hundreds of disk-cloning operations with this program. It is simply unnecessary that following the successful disk-cloning operation (again, involving internal hard drives), the cloned HDD be disconnected from the system (or, conversely, the source HDD be disconnected from the system and an initial boot be made only to the newly-cloned HDD.) As far as we're concerned the disk-cloning approach (especially using the Casper 5 program) is ideally suited for the vast majority of PC users in terms of creating & maintaining a comprehensive backup program. We greatly prefer it over the Acronis program (for a variety of reasons) and believe that the disk-to-disk (or partition-to-partition) disk-cloning process better meets the needs of average PC users. What better backup system can one have than having at hand a precise copy of his or her day-to-day working HDD? Where all the data on the cloned disk is immediately accessible and should that disk be an internal HDD it's immediately bootable & completely functional without the need for any restoration process. Now I do realize that many users - particularly the more advanced users - for various reasons prefer the disk-imaging process for backup purposes. I always encourage users to experiment with both approaches and decide for themselves what best meets their needs. Anna |
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How to use Acronis to backup o/s ?
"Anna" wrote in message ... I've not included the instructions for the Acronis disk-imaging process since I assume from your query that you would be interested only in the disk-cloning process. But if you want step-by-step instructions for the disk-imaging (and restoration) process, I'll post them. Anna Hi Anna I have ATI 9 installed and I would appreciate it if you would post the step by step instructions for the disc imaging/restoration process. Regards Bill Bill: Sure, here they are. Again, these apply to versions 9 & 10. I think (but am not sure) that they apply (at least broadly) to version 11 as well, but I haven't worked with the latest version of the ATI program - Home 2009 - so I've no idea if they apply to that version. Please bear in mind that I wrote all this about two years ago (as I remember), so some of this material may be out-of-date depending on possible changes brought about by newer "builds" of these programs that Acronis might have released since then. Thanks Anna |
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