Restoring an image backup to a brand new HD?

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:57:26 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:59:32 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Let's suppose you have a disk with 4 partitions on it. AFAIK, you can
either clone the disk (the entire disk), or choose which partitions to
image, but not image the whole disk in one image, and one simple
operation,
unless I'm missing something.

Yes, you're missing something. When you choose to create an image, you
can select one partition, multiple partitions, all partitions, or the
entire disk.

OK, I looked again at Acronis True Image, and the only way I see to do
that
is by individually selecting each partition in its own separate checkbox.
There was no "entire disk" image selection, per se (unlike for cloning),
but
selecting ALL the partitions would presumably be doing that (i.e imaging
the entire disk stucture). (MBR and Track0 are not listed as selections,
so
I guess that's automatically taken care of when you backup C

Look closer when you open ATI. The Backup section defaults to
"partition mode", which is what you described above, but you can also
switch to "disk mode".

I'm using ATI Home version 11, and don't see that. Maybe it's in the newer
ones.

In my experience, using anything from the partition mode will result
in a restored system that needs to be repaired before it'll boot.

Well, I've been regularly making images of C:, and then later restoring
them (for a clean system, after testing various software), and haven't run
into this problem. Interesting. BUT I've been doing this with a still
good and bootable hard drive. Only on some very rare occasions where I've
really screwed up something have I had to resort to using the ATI Boot CD.

Using disk mode (on the system drive) will result in a restored system
that's essentially a clone of the backed up drive, bootable as
expected.

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:43:42 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:57:26 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:59:32 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Let's suppose you have a disk with 4 partitions on it. AFAIK, you can
either clone the disk (the entire disk), or choose which partitions to
image, but not image the whole disk in one image, and one simple
operation,
unless I'm missing something.

Yes, you're missing something. When you choose to create an image, you
can select one partition, multiple partitions, all partitions, or the
entire disk.

OK, I looked again at Acronis True Image, and the only way I see to do
that
is by individually selecting each partition in its own separate checkbox.
There was no "entire disk" image selection, per se (unlike for cloning),
but
selecting ALL the partitions would presumably be doing that (i.e imaging
the entire disk stucture). (MBR and Track0 are not listed as selections,
so
I guess that's automatically taken care of when you backup C

Look closer when you open ATI. The Backup section defaults to
"partition mode", which is what you described above, but you can also
switch to "disk mode".

I'm using ATI Home version 11, and don't see that. Maybe it's in the newer
ones.

I think it's in every version going back to at least 2009. Try this:
Launch ATI and let it settle at the screen where "Disk and Partition
Backup" is the first choice. ("Disk and partition" is the first clue,
BTW.)

Click on Disk and Partition Backup and allow the next screen to open.
Toward the top, above the partitions, it says "What to back up", with
a thin line stretching to the right, ending where it says "Switch to
disk mode." There you go, click that text and it switches to disk
mode. In disk mode, that text changes to "Switch to partition mode",
allowing you to toggle back and forth between the two modes.

Ask for screenshots if you still don't see it.

On 3/21/2012 2:17 AM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:43:42 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:57:26 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:59:32 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Let's suppose you have a disk with 4 partitions on it. AFAIK, you can
either clone the disk (the entire disk), or choose which partitions to
image, but not image the whole disk in one image, and one simple
operation,
unless I'm missing something.

Yes, you're missing something. When you choose to create an image, you
can select one partition, multiple partitions, all partitions, or the
entire disk.

OK, I looked again at Acronis True Image, and the only way I see to do
that
is by individually selecting each partition in its own separate checkbox.
There was no "entire disk" image selection, per se (unlike for cloning),
but
selecting ALL the partitions would presumably be doing that (i.e imaging
the entire disk stucture). (MBR and Track0 are not listed as selections,
so
I guess that's automatically taken care of when you backup C

Look closer when you open ATI. The Backup section defaults to
"partition mode", which is what you described above, but you can also
switch to "disk mode".

I'm using ATI Home version 11, and don't see that. Maybe it's in the newer
ones.

I think it's in every version going back to at least 2009. Try this:
Launch ATI and let it settle at the screen where "Disk and Partition
Backup" is the first choice. ("Disk and partition" is the first clue,
BTW.)

Click on Disk and Partition Backup and allow the next screen to open.
Toward the top, above the partitions, it says "What to back up", with
a thin line stretching to the right, ending where it says "Switch to
disk mode." There you go, click that text and it switches to disk
mode. In disk mode, that text changes to "Switch to partition mode",
allowing you to toggle back and forth between the two modes.

Ask for screenshots if you still don't see it.


It doesn't work that way with ATIv11. I think the sequence you want is:
1.Click on Disk Utilities
2.Click on Clone Disk (to get to a Wizard)
3.Click on Next (to make ATI grope the partitions)
4.Click on Auto or Manual, and read the Description to decide; Auto
clones the entire HD and creates a bootable clone; Manual lets you
pick the parts and their sizes on the target HD.
--
Cheers, Bob

Bill in Co wrote:
I'm a little confused about this seemingly basic issue, in this case
involving the use of Acronis True Image and its backup images, but it
could be more general, too.

Is it possible to restore an image backup of your system to a
*completely brand new hard drive* that has never been used or
initialized? Let me explain further:

Suppose your main hard drive dies, and that you also have another HD
that only contains some Acronis True Image backups of your system
stored on it, AND that you also have an Acronis True Image Boot CD
handy.
So you replace the bad drive with a brand new drive (which naturally
is unbootable if you just tried to boot up on it).

However, using your Acronis boot CD, you can use that to boot up into
the boot CD, and then presumably select a backup image you'd like to
restore from the other HD.

BUT will the restore operation work for a brand new virgin hard drive
that has never been used before (i.e. make the brand new hard drive
bootable into windows, etc)? I'm guessing it will, but that's only
an assumption on my part. I know the operation works well on a
normal HD, but have never tried it out on a brand new hard drive, and
am wondering if there is some limitation there I'm not aware of (like
you can't restore an image to a virgin hard drive that has never been
initialized or whatever).

Suppose you didn't have an image, what would you do? You'd use the new
drive manufacturer's program to clone the existing drive. So yes, you can
restore an image you have to the new drive.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

| I'm a little confused about this seemingly basic issue, in this case
| involving the use of Acronis True Image and its backup images, but it
could
| be more general, too.
|
| Is it possible to restore an image backup of your system to a *completely
| brand new hard drive* that has never been used or initialized?

There's really no such thing as "initialized". A new
disk doesn't get broken in. The only difference is that
it doesn't yet have partitions.

I use BootIt. I can copy an image from CD or disk
to any empty space that will fit it, on any disk. The
only difference is that I always partition the new drive
before installing OSs. (I leave room for 3 primaries in
front and then apportion the rest for logical data
partitions in an extended partition.)

This isn't an Acronis issue. It's about how disks work.
But the software you use could have limitations in what
it can do. Also, there seem to be different definitions used,
which can make things confusing. (In this thread, one
person defines an image as a partition backup while
another defines it as a section-of-disk backup.)

On 3/20/2012 8:58 PM, David H. Lipman wrote:
From: "BillW50"

On 3/20/2012 8:06 PM, David H. Lipman wrote:
From: "Bill in Co"

David H. Lipman wrote:
From: "Bill in Co"

I'm a little confused about this seemingly basic issue, in this case
involving the use of Acronis True Image and its backup images, but it
could be more general, too.

Is it possible to restore an image backup of your system to a
*completely
brand new hard drive* that has never been used or initialized? Let me
explain further:

Suppose your main hard drive dies, and that you also have another HD
that
only contains some Acronis True Image backups of your system stored
on it,
AND that you also have an Acronis True Image Boot CD handy.

So you replace the bad drive with a brand new drive (which
naturally is
unbootable if you just tried to boot up on it).

However, using your Acronis boot CD, you can use that to boot up
into the
boot CD, and then presumably select a backup image you'd like to
restore
from the other HD.

BUT will the restore operation work for a brand new virgin hard
drive that
has never been used before (i.e. make the brand new hard drive
bootable
into windows, etc)? I'm guessing it will, but that's only an
assumption
on my part. I know the operation works well on a normal HD, but have
never tried it out on a brand new hard drive, and am wondering if
there is
some limitation there I'm not aware of (like you can't restore an
image to
a virgin hard drive that has never been initialized or whatever).

Yes. That's the whole idea of an "image".

In fact you can have a 80GB hard disk with 10GB free and image it.

The install a 250GB bare hard disk and restore the image and now have
the
same OS on that 250GB hard disk with 180GB free.

I knew it worked well on a functional hard drive, but I didn't know if
it would work ok on a brand new, unformatted and unitialized, hard
drive. From what you're saying it does, and it takes care of all of
that automatically. Which is good to know.

So from that point of view, you don't really ever need a disk CLONE,
assuming you have some image backups, a bootable CD with ATI on it,
AND a brand new hard drive handy.

I guess the only disadvantage of this emergency backup method (i.e.,
for a completely ruined defective main hard drive) is that it relies
on having a bootable ATI restore CD handy, and a good reliable image
backup on another drive, AND on having a brand new hard drive handy -
instead of just replacing the drive with a CLONE.

A clone is disk to disk.

An image is the disk made to a disk file.

I can clone a drive goingf from disk to disk but I can also clone a
drive going from disk to image and then from image to disk.

True, but the latter takes twice as long. Plus in the time you can do
a backup image, you could be testing the clone to see if everything is
ok.


Yes, it takes longer but there are advantages.

For example you can't clone an 80GB drive with 40GB free to a 60GB drive
but you can image that 80GB drive with 40GB free and then restore that
image to a 60GB drive.

I don't know what clone utilities you have been using? But you *can*
indeed clone to a smaller drive as long as the used space will still fit
on the smaller drive with most modern cloning utilities. ATI, Paragon,
and XXClone to name a few for example that doesn't care if you clone to
a smaller drive.

Then there is the concept of image distribution. Software can use
multicast IP to restore one image to multiple computers at the same time.

Then there is the concept of a failing drive. It is better to get an
iumage than a clone because you want to get that image down and onece
you have it you can use it over and over. You might get one cahnce from
the failing drive. Make a mistake that causes you to repeat the process
and if that drive fails, you are too late.

Same is true for a cloned drive.

Then there is the concept of disater recovery. You have that image for
the recovery.

Also true for cloning drives. Better yet, your original drive gets
toasted for some reason... pop in one of your clones and you are off and
running once again. ;-)

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v3.0
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 1.5GB - Windows 8 CP

"Char Jackson" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:43:42 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:57:26 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:59:32 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Let's suppose you have a disk with 4 partitions on it. AFAIK, you
can
either clone the disk (the entire disk), or choose which partitions
to
image, but not image the whole disk in one image, and one simple
operation,
unless I'm missing something.

Yes, you're missing something. When you choose to create an image, you
can select one partition, multiple partitions, all partitions, or the
entire disk.

OK, I looked again at Acronis True Image, and the only way I see to do
that
is by individually selecting each partition in its own separate
checkbox.
There was no "entire disk" image selection, per se (unlike for
cloning),
but
selecting ALL the partitions would presumably be doing that (i.e
imaging
the entire disk stucture). (MBR and Track0 are not listed as
selections,
so
I guess that's automatically taken care of when you backup C

Look closer when you open ATI. The Backup section defaults to
"partition mode", which is what you described above, but you can also
switch to "disk mode".

I'm using ATI Home version 11, and don't see that. Maybe it's in the
newer
ones.

I think it's in every version going back to at least 2009. Try this:
Launch ATI and let it settle at the screen where "Disk and Partition
Backup" is the first choice. ("Disk and partition" is the first clue,
BTW.)

Click on Disk and Partition Backup and allow the next screen to open.
Toward the top, above the partitions, it says "What to back up", with
a thin line stretching to the right, ending where it says "Switch to
disk mode." There you go, click that text and it switches to disk
mode. In disk mode, that text changes to "Switch to partition mode",
allowing you to toggle back and forth between the two modes.

Ask for screenshots if you still don't see it.


I use ATI 11 Home, and it works differently. You can back up either "Disks
and partitions" or "System state." If you choose "Disks and partitions," the
next screen is "Partitions Selection," and you can select either individual
partitions or the entire hard drive.

I think the interface is confusing at this point. My disk, labeled Disk 1 by
Acronis, has only two partitions--C: and FAT16. The screen shows a large
green dot in the box at the left of Disk 1 and a green checkmark in the box
at the left of C:--but nothing in the box at the left of FAT16 (which I
believe is a Restore partition created by the computer manufacturer).

If you just look at the large dot at Disk 1, you might think you're backing
up everything--but to back up all partititons you have to left click on that
dot. I assume that if you don't either click on each partitition to get the
checkmark to appear or click on the Disk 1 dot to checkmark all the
partitions, then the partitions other than C: won't get backed up.

Jo-Anne

"Mayayana" wrote in message
...
| I'm a little confused about this seemingly basic issue, in this case
| involving the use of Acronis True Image and its backup images, but it
could
| be more general, too.
|
| Is it possible to restore an image backup of your system to a
*completely
| brand new hard drive* that has never been used or initialized?

There's really no such thing as "initialized". A new
disk doesn't get broken in. The only difference is that
it doesn't yet have partitions.

I use BootIt. I can copy an image from CD or disk
to any empty space that will fit it, on any disk. The
only difference is that I always partition the new drive
before installing OSs. (I leave room for 3 primaries in
front and then apportion the rest for logical data
partitions in an extended partition.)

This isn't an Acronis issue. It's about how disks work.
But the software you use could have limitations in what
it can do. Also, there seem to be different definitions used,
which can make things confusing. (In this thread, one
person defines an image as a partition backup while
another defines it as a section-of-disk backup.)



The discussion til now has been about restoring to a brand new hard drive.
No mention has been made of the possibility that the new drive is in a new
computer. What if you want to restore the image to a new computer that has
come with, say, Windows 7? Would you be able to do a full restore, including
your old Windows XP operating system, on the new drive in the new computer?
And if you could, would Microsoft consider it valid and allow it to be used?

Jo-Anne

On 3/21/2012 11:16 AM, Jo-Anne wrote:
wrote in message
...
| I'm a little confused about this seemingly basic issue, in this case
| involving the use of Acronis True Image and its backup images, but it
could
| be more general, too.
|
| Is it possible to restore an image backup of your system to a
*completely
| brand new hard drive* that has never been used or initialized?

There's really no such thing as "initialized". A new
disk doesn't get broken in. The only difference is that
it doesn't yet have partitions.

I use BootIt. I can copy an image from CD or disk
to any empty space that will fit it, on any disk. The
only difference is that I always partition the new drive
before installing OSs. (I leave room for 3 primaries in
front and then apportion the rest for logical data
partitions in an extended partition.)

This isn't an Acronis issue. It's about how disks work.
But the software you use could have limitations in what
it can do. Also, there seem to be different definitions used,
which can make things confusing. (In this thread, one
person defines an image as a partition backup while
another defines it as a section-of-disk backup.)



The discussion til now has been about restoring to a brand new hard drive.
No mention has been made of the possibility that the new drive is in a new
computer. What if you want to restore the image to a new computer that has
come with, say, Windows 7? Would you be able to do a full restore, including
your old Windows XP operating system, on the new drive in the new computer?
And if you could, would Microsoft consider it valid and allow it to be used?

Jo-Anne

Yes it is possible to transfer your old Windows, installed applications,
data, etc. over to a new computer. Two of which a

- Paragon "Adaptive Restore" (free with some of their products)

- Acronis "Restore to dissimilar hardware" (available on the Plus pack only)

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v3.0
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 1.5GB - Windows 8 CP

"BillW50" wrote in message
...
On 3/21/2012 11:16 AM, Jo-Anne wrote:
wrote in message
...
| I'm a little confused about this seemingly basic issue, in this case
| involving the use of Acronis True Image and its backup images, but it
could
| be more general, too.
|
| Is it possible to restore an image backup of your system to a
*completely
| brand new hard drive* that has never been used or initialized?

There's really no such thing as "initialized". A new
disk doesn't get broken in. The only difference is that
it doesn't yet have partitions.

I use BootIt. I can copy an image from CD or disk
to any empty space that will fit it, on any disk. The
only difference is that I always partition the new drive
before installing OSs. (I leave room for 3 primaries in
front and then apportion the rest for logical data
partitions in an extended partition.)

This isn't an Acronis issue. It's about how disks work.
But the software you use could have limitations in what
it can do. Also, there seem to be different definitions used,
which can make things confusing. (In this thread, one
person defines an image as a partition backup while
another defines it as a section-of-disk backup.)



The discussion til now has been about restoring to a brand new hard
drive.
No mention has been made of the possibility that the new drive is in a
new
computer. What if you want to restore the image to a new computer that
has
come with, say, Windows 7? Would you be able to do a full restore,
including
your old Windows XP operating system, on the new drive in the new
computer?
And if you could, would Microsoft consider it valid and allow it to be
used?

Jo-Anne

Yes it is possible to transfer your old Windows, installed applications,
data, etc. over to a new computer. Two of which a

- Paragon "Adaptive Restore" (free with some of their products)

- Acronis "Restore to dissimilar hardware" (available on the Plus pack
only)

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v3.0
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 1.5GB - Windows 8 CP


Thank you, Bill! A few more questions:

(1) Does "dissimilar hardware" mean a different motherboard? If so, does
that mean that even if you buy a new computer that has the Windows XP
operating system, you would still need to use the Acronis "Restore to
dissimilar hardware"? Same thing if your motherboard on your old computer
fails and you replace it?

(2) Does Microsoft have an issue with putting Windows XP on a new computer
that came with a different OS? What if you were still running the original
drive with WinXP on an old computer?

Jo-Anne

On 20/03/2012 5:20 PM, Bill in Co wrote:
I'm a little confused about this seemingly basic issue, in this case
involving the use of Acronis True Image and its backup images, but it could
be more general, too.

Is it possible to restore an image backup of your system to a *completely
brand new hard drive* that has never been used or initialized? Let me
explain further:

Suppose your main hard drive dies, and that you also have another HD that
only contains some Acronis True Image backups of your system stored on it,
AND that you also have an Acronis True Image Boot CD handy.
...

Yes, and I've done it. This is the fundamental situation
if your hard drive completely dies. It points up the
necessity of having at least one (I routinely create two)
rescue CD. If your drive died after a respectable life
of service, you're quite likely to find that drives of the
same size are no longer manufactured, so you will definitely
want to restore from an image and then gleefully put the
remaining space on the new drive into use. The other hard
drive in my case has usually been a USB-connected removable
drive, which your rescue CD will be quite capable of dealing
with.

On 3/21/2012 11:46 AM, Jo-Anne wrote:
wrote in message
...
On 3/21/2012 11:16 AM, Jo-Anne wrote:
wrote in message
...
| I'm a little confused about this seemingly basic issue, in this case
| involving the use of Acronis True Image and its backup images, but it
could
| be more general, too.
|
| Is it possible to restore an image backup of your system to a
*completely
| brand new hard drive* that has never been used or initialized?

There's really no such thing as "initialized". A new
disk doesn't get broken in. The only difference is that
it doesn't yet have partitions.

I use BootIt. I can copy an image from CD or disk
to any empty space that will fit it, on any disk. The
only difference is that I always partition the new drive
before installing OSs. (I leave room for 3 primaries in
front and then apportion the rest for logical data
partitions in an extended partition.)

This isn't an Acronis issue. It's about how disks work.
But the software you use could have limitations in what
it can do. Also, there seem to be different definitions used,
which can make things confusing. (In this thread, one
person defines an image as a partition backup while
another defines it as a section-of-disk backup.)

The discussion til now has been about restoring to a brand new hard
drive.
No mention has been made of the possibility that the new drive is in a
new
computer. What if you want to restore the image to a new computer that
has
come with, say, Windows 7? Would you be able to do a full restore,
including
your old Windows XP operating system, on the new drive in the new
computer?
And if you could, would Microsoft consider it valid and allow it to be
used?

Jo-Anne

Yes it is possible to transfer your old Windows, installed applications,
data, etc. over to a new computer. Two of which a

- Paragon "Adaptive Restore" (free with some of their products)

- Acronis "Restore to dissimilar hardware" (available on the Plus pack
only)

Thank you, Bill! A few more questions:

(1) Does "dissimilar hardware" mean a different motherboard? If so, does
that mean that even if you buy a new computer that has the Windows XP
operating system, you would still need to use the Acronis "Restore to
dissimilar hardware"? Same thing if your motherboard on your old computer
fails and you replace it?

(2) Does Microsoft have an issue with putting Windows XP on a new computer
that came with a different OS? What if you were still running the original
drive with WinXP on an old computer?

Jo-Anne

Both Acronis Plus (cost about 70 bucks extra) and Paragon doesn't care
even if it is a totally different computer with nothing in common with
the old one. How they work is when you install Windows for the first
time, the Windows install uses generic drivers that work with anything.
Once Windows gets fully installed, it tosses those generic drivers away
and replaces them with better drivers.

And what Paragon and Acronis does is to replace those drivers with the
generic drivers once again. So it will run on virtually anything. And
once restored, Windows will be replacing those generic drivers once
again just like a fresh install. The difference though is that you don't
have to reinstall all of your apps and all. Nor do you have to
reconfigure Windows back to the way you like it either, since it will be
already be that way anyway.

Does Microsoft have a problem with it if you have an OEM license?
Microsoft never makes this clear. All that is clear is at least one
piece of the hardware is still being used, then it is legal.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v3.0
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 1.5GB - Windows 8 CP

"BillW50" wrote in message
...
On 3/21/2012 11:46 AM, Jo-Anne wrote:
wrote in message
...
On 3/21/2012 11:16 AM, Jo-Anne wrote:
wrote in message
...
| I'm a little confused about this seemingly basic issue, in this case
| involving the use of Acronis True Image and its backup images, but
it
could
| be more general, too.
|
| Is it possible to restore an image backup of your system to a
*completely
| brand new hard drive* that has never been used or initialized?

There's really no such thing as "initialized". A new
disk doesn't get broken in. The only difference is that
it doesn't yet have partitions.

I use BootIt. I can copy an image from CD or disk
to any empty space that will fit it, on any disk. The
only difference is that I always partition the new drive
before installing OSs. (I leave room for 3 primaries in
front and then apportion the rest for logical data
partitions in an extended partition.)

This isn't an Acronis issue. It's about how disks work.
But the software you use could have limitations in what
it can do. Also, there seem to be different definitions used,
which can make things confusing. (In this thread, one
person defines an image as a partition backup while
another defines it as a section-of-disk backup.)

The discussion til now has been about restoring to a brand new hard
drive.
No mention has been made of the possibility that the new drive is in a
new
computer. What if you want to restore the image to a new computer that
has
come with, say, Windows 7? Would you be able to do a full restore,
including
your old Windows XP operating system, on the new drive in the new
computer?
And if you could, would Microsoft consider it valid and allow it to be
used?

Jo-Anne

Yes it is possible to transfer your old Windows, installed applications,
data, etc. over to a new computer. Two of which a

- Paragon "Adaptive Restore" (free with some of their products)

- Acronis "Restore to dissimilar hardware" (available on the Plus pack
only)

Thank you, Bill! A few more questions:

(1) Does "dissimilar hardware" mean a different motherboard? If so, does
that mean that even if you buy a new computer that has the Windows XP
operating system, you would still need to use the Acronis "Restore to
dissimilar hardware"? Same thing if your motherboard on your old computer
fails and you replace it?

(2) Does Microsoft have an issue with putting Windows XP on a new
computer
that came with a different OS? What if you were still running the
original
drive with WinXP on an old computer?

Jo-Anne

Both Acronis Plus (cost about 70 bucks extra) and Paragon doesn't care
even if it is a totally different computer with nothing in common with the
old one. How they work is when you install Windows for the first time, the
Windows install uses generic drivers that work with anything. Once Windows
gets fully installed, it tosses those generic drivers away and replaces
them with better drivers.

And what Paragon and Acronis does is to replace those drivers with the
generic drivers once again. So it will run on virtually anything. And once
restored, Windows will be replacing those generic drivers once again just
like a fresh install. The difference though is that you don't have to
reinstall all of your apps and all. Nor do you have to reconfigure Windows
back to the way you like it either, since it will be already be that way
anyway.

Does Microsoft have a problem with it if you have an OEM license?
Microsoft never makes this clear. All that is clear is at least one piece
of the hardware is still being used, then it is legal.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v3.0
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 1.5GB - Windows 8 CP


Thank you, Bill!

Jo-Anne

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 06:22:03 -0400, Bob Willard
wrote:

On 3/21/2012 2:17 AM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:43:42 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:57:26 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

OK, I looked again at Acronis True Image, and the only way I see to do
that
is by individually selecting each partition in its own separate checkbox.
There was no "entire disk" image selection, per se (unlike for cloning),
but
selecting ALL the partitions would presumably be doing that (i.e imaging
the entire disk stucture). (MBR and Track0 are not listed as selections,
so
I guess that's automatically taken care of when you backup C

Look closer when you open ATI. The Backup section defaults to
"partition mode", which is what you described above, but you can also
switch to "disk mode".

I'm using ATI Home version 11, and don't see that. Maybe it's in the newer
ones.

I think it's in every version going back to at least 2009. Try this:
Launch ATI and let it settle at the screen where "Disk and Partition
Backup" is the first choice. ("Disk and partition" is the first clue,
BTW.)

Click on Disk and Partition Backup and allow the next screen to open.
Toward the top, above the partitions, it says "What to back up", with
a thin line stretching to the right, ending where it says "Switch to
disk mode." There you go, click that text and it switches to disk
mode. In disk mode, that text changes to "Switch to partition mode",
allowing you to toggle back and forth between the two modes.

Ask for screenshots if you still don't see it.


It doesn't work that way with ATIv11. I think the sequence you want is:
1.Click on Disk Utilities
2.Click on Clone Disk (to get to a Wizard)
3.Click on Next (to make ATI grope the partitions)
4.Click on Auto or Manual, and read the Description to decide; Auto
clones the entire HD and creates a bootable clone; Manual lets you
pick the parts and their sizes on the target HD.

No, when you click on Disk Utilities you're entering a completely
different area of the program. You're talking about cloning a disk
while I'm talking about creating an image of a disk (versus creating
an image of one or more partitions). Stick to the steps I outlined
above.

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:59:52 -0500, BillW50 wrote:

On 3/20/2012 8:58 PM, David H. Lipman wrote:

For example you can't clone an 80GB drive with 40GB free to a 60GB drive
but you can image that 80GB drive with 40GB free and then restore that
image to a 60GB drive.

I don't know what clone utilities you have been using? But you *can*
indeed clone to a smaller drive as long as the used space will still fit
on the smaller drive with most modern cloning utilities. ATI, Paragon,
and XXClone to name a few for example that doesn't care if you clone to
a smaller drive.

What David said would be true if you used the sector-by-sector option
to create the image, which is not selected by default in ATI.