Acronis 2011 backup image instructions

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Well I might as well start a thread with instructions for Acronis True Image Home 2011. These will hopefully help those thinking of imaging to jump in. Images are easy to create and take about 15 minutes to restore a hosed OS to where it was before the hosing. (This assumes you keep your Images up to date.) I will assume that once you create your first Image, you will see how easy it is and continue to image whenever changes take place in your PC.

First, I clean up all the temporary fluff that has accumulated on my PC. I use CCleaner to help with this. I get rid of all temp files I can find, all temp internet stuff, all this stuff that I do not want in my image. I also defrag and optimize my HD with Auslogics Disk Defragmenter.

Next open Acronis 2011. You will see:

Several items of interest. Under Tools and Utilities see where to create StartUp Recovery Media: this is a bootable Rescue Media

You can readily see the number of different tools available from this excellent product. Because of these features, I like this paid app over the built in Win 7 Backup and Restore. If you don’t need this extensive feature set then the included app may be just what you need.

Always do this early in the process. You only need one Rescue Media. This will work for all images you create. Always place your Rescue Media on media you can access during complete failure such as CD or DVD. It will easily fit on a CD.

On attachment one you also see the Disk and partition backup. Click this to create your Image.

Here you choose what partitions to Image, what to name your Image, where to place the Image (I use an Ext USB HD), and any Advanced Options such as Validation:

When you have set all the info, select Proceed. That’s it, now wait for your Image to be created and Validated. Acronis will let you know when it is done. Do not stop in the middle.

You can also back up your email messages and contacts:

Very simple.

You can use Try and Decide to set up a virtual environment to try new software:

Obviously there is a lot more to this excellent app than what you see here. The point is, no matter what app you use, just make Images. These will save you so much time you will not believe it, especially if you like to “play” with your system as I do. It’s easy and quick. Start to finish to create a full HD Image is less than 1/2 hour including cleanup, defrag and validation.

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This is VERY nice, thank you.
1 “Thumbs Up”.

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This is VERY nice, thank you.
1 “Thumbs Up”.

Russ,

Thanks for the confidence and the Thumbs Up. I do appreciate it. Have a wonderful day. cheers, Ted (This is actually coffee this time of the morning)

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Well done and thanks Ted (Even though I am a Norton “Ghost guy”!)

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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Thank you also Peter, I do appreciate it. Have a great evening.

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Acronis True Image Home 2011, build 5519 has been released. Seems to have fixed the timing bug in Validation.

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Greetings Ted.

>>> Under Tools and Utilities see where to create StartUp Recovery Media: this is a bootable Rescue Media.

If you go to download page on the Acronis site, the second tab called Bootable Media is only of 34.45 MBs and will fit on a small 3.5″ CD, shirt-pocket size. These small CDs have flat sides, in case you have not seen any, here, they are $1.00/ea. This is all that I need and use. Quick to run too as they are small at 34 MBs. Once you try one, you need not try anything else. FWIW.

A nice evening to you. Jean.

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Good day to you Ted.

You say TI 5519 has just been released ? I have TI 7046. What came first ? The egg ? The hen ?

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Good day to you Ted.

You say TI 5519 has just been released ? I have TI 7046. What came first ? The egg ? The hen ?

This is Acronis True Image 2011, You are using Acronis True Image 2010, which you have the latest build.

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Greetings Ted.

>>> You are using Acronis True Image 2010

OOoopps ! I should pay more attention to the different versions. Thanks Nevertheless, TI is a great app.

Sleep thight. Jean.

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Thanks Ted:
Good job as always. Here’s 1 “thumby.”
Dick

edit:
thumbs-up, on the side, didn’t work for me — so I gave it up
above at end of your posting Ted.

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Thanks Ted:
Good job as always. Here’s 1 “thumby.”
Dick

edit:
thumbs-up, on the side, didn’t work for me — so I gave it up
above at end of your posting Ted.

Thanks Dick, always appreciate the votes of confinence.

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Caution: (Thanks to ClintRosmere for this post): Note that Solid State Drives (SSDs) may present problems when it comes to restoring backups. Particularly the new PCI-E versions. See the post by Clint for more details at this Thread:

http://lounge.windowssecrets.com/index.php?showtopic=778389&st=0&gopid=860339&#entry860339

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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Acronis does show 41 entries in their knowledgebase when searching SSD HD, but no entries when searching SSD PCI-e. I suspect this will change as time goes on.

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Detail information, get further information.

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@Hanmei: Your post is not undestood?

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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I’m considering several disk image backup software programs and was wondering if you could post the Acronis 2011 screen images (or at text instructions) for the following scenario (I would have expected it to be listed in their instructions)?

I have a
– 500GB IDE hard drive having WinXP sp3
– 2000GB external USB hard drive

Back up the 500GB as an exact image to the 2000GB drive so that if the 500GB drive crashed, I’d be able to restore the image to a new 500GB hard drive or larger? The exact image restoration would mean that I would not have to install WinXP and its 240+ hotfixes, applications, or data. I’d be up and running other than the loss of what was changed since the last backup.
– approximately how long would it take, assuming USB 2.0 ?
– would I also be able to store several 500GB images on the 2000GB drive?
– would the images be compressed to save space on the 2000GB drive?
– I assume Acronis would be booting to standalone media so that it would have total control of the 500GB hard drive?
– Is there a verify step (to make sure what was just written can be read back and match what is on the 500GB drive)?

Many thanks,
~ Rick

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I’m considering several disk image backup software programs and was wondering if you could post the Acronis 2011 screen images (or at text instructions) for the following scenario (I would have expected it to be listed in their instructions)?

I have a
– 500GB IDE hard drive having WinXP sp3
– 2000GB external USB hard drive

Back up the 500GB as an exact image to the 2000GB drive so that if the 500GB drive crashed, I’d be able to restore the image to a new 500GB hard drive or larger? The exact image restoration would mean that I would not have to install WinXP and its 240+ hotfixes, applications, or data. I’d be up and running other than the loss of what was changed since the last backup.
– approximately how long would it take, assuming USB 2.0 ?
– would I also be able to store several 500GB images on the 2000GB drive?
– would the images be compressed to save space on the 2000GB drive?
– I assume Acronis would be booting to standalone media so that it would have total control of the 500GB hard drive?
– Is there a verify step (to make sure what was just written can be read back and match what is on the 500GB drive)?

Many thanks,
~ Rick

You do not say but I have to assume the entire 500 GB is not full. Acronis makes an Image of just the used space. That’s why, before I create an image I delete all the temp stuff using whatever tools are available to me, then defrag my HD to get everything lined up properly. The time frame to create an image and validate (validate is an option in the set-up. If you forget then you can simply validate after the image is created.) that image for me is less than 1/2 hour. (my used space on my 320 GB HD is around 35 GB). To restore takes about 15 minutes or so. I re-create my image whenever I make a change (add an app, or some other major change) so that my image is up to date. I use Win 7 so I do not know the equivalent time frames for XP.

To restore to a new HD, simply insert the Acronis rescue media you created (I believe I mention this in my original instructions), boot to the media, connect your image media (ext HD through USB, this is also what I do), find the correct image in the list of images (I assume you will also re-create your images to keep an up to date image) then press Proceed. A new HD is not considered enough of a change in your PC to not be able to use the image.

To move to an entirely new PC (you would have to elliminate the OS from the old PC to satisfy MS Eula) you would connect both and use the clone feature.

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I have been using TI since 2004 and like it. Kinda buggy till you get the kinks worked out.
It has saved me on several occasions.

The only problems seem to be they never fix the bugs while telling you they are working on them and then you buy a new version and their are a host of new bugs to contend with.

But, all in all, it’s reliable and easy to use..

I image to a second hard drive and always bur the image to DVD to be extra safe and then burn my incremental to DVD.
After about a week or two I start all over again…

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i have a old version of trueimage like version 9. anyway it will not see a external hard drive in a encloser connected via a USB port while using the rescue boot media. . does the new 2011 version see a drive on a USB port when using the bootable cd media which is in a linux OS i belive.
thanks
richard

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i have a old version of trueimage like version 9. anyway it will not see a external hard drive in a encloser connected via a USB port while using the rescue boot media. . does the new 2011 version see a drive on a USB port when using the bootable cd media which is in a linux OS i belive.
thanks
richard

I use Acronis 2011 and I do Image to an Ext USB HD (Seagate FreeAgent Go 1 TB) I use Acronis 2010 for my wife’s PC to the same Ext USB HD with no problems.

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I use Acronis 2011 and I do Image to an Ext USB HD (Seagate FreeAgent Go 1 TB) I use Acronis 2010 for my wife’s PC to the same Ext USB HD with no problems.

but do you do that after booting from the rescue disk?
thanks
richard

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Side Bar Question…
Does Acronis True Image require an annual fee?
Or is the purchase price a “one-time”, “good for life” fee?

Thanks,
Mike

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Yes, I can either start from windows or from the rescue disk to create my images.

No annual subscription fee.

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I use Acronis 2010 and I would suggest going to the Acronis forum and posting there the problem you have.

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Maybe this is off topic, but I’m not sure where to ask it. Windows 7 has an image utility. Is there any reason why I would want to use Acronis on Windows 7? Thanks for any comments, and sorry if this should be a new topic.

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Well, from what I have seen. Windows image doesn’t have the features and options that Acronis has.

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On the other hand, I am currently having a problem with both TI2010 and TI2011, that is posted in this Security section.
It’s being actively worked by TI tech support – but I still cant recover using a rescue CD and my TI system image.

Boy am I glad that I have always been a “belt and suspenders’ kind of guy. I use both Microsoft’s and TI’s software to
do my backups.

In my current situation, the fact that I had taken a Microsoft image saved my bacon; because I was able to use Microsoft’s rescue
CD to fully recover from my most recent “adventure.”

Dick

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Since some of the posters have asked whether they should buy Acronis TI, I’d like to recommend Terabyte’s Image for DOS and Image for Linux. They are cheaper than Acronis TI, more dependable in my experience and the technical support is much better.

Good luck, Dan S

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I have a couple of questions and since you have a thread going I might as well ask here for the benefit of all instead of looking them up for myself alone.

1. Is there a means of controlling, as in past versions, the degree of compression? I used the default, or so I thought, and the thing was mammoth – it appeared that there was no compression at all.

2. There is a Plus Pack available for this version as for the past. Exactly what is the benefit?

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I have a couple of questions and since you have a thread going I might as well ask here for the benefit of all instead of looking them up for myself alone.

1. Is there a means of controlling, as in past versions, the degree of compression? I used the default, or so I thought, and the thing was mammoth – it appeared that there was no compression at all.

2. There is a Plus Pack available for this version as for the past. Exactly what is the benefit?

There are at least three levels of compression in Acronis True Image Home. By default, it uses a moderate or “Normal” mode. More compression means more chances of a failure during restoration or validation, but less disk space used on the backup drive or media. Highly compressed images have to first be decompressed before being mounted for restoration, and this takes more time and can introduce an additional point of failure.

Personally, due to the low price per gigabyte of external drives, I stick with Normal Compression, and end up with full Image Backups on each of my laptops ranging from 8 to 15GB per full Image Backup archive. (That’s for 40GB on the Win 7 laptop and 12 to 16 GB on the Win XP Pro laptop — OS plus programs only.) To me, that means monthly or bimonthly backups can be stored for about a year before space limitations require deleting older backup archives. That’s plenty of peace of mind for me.

-- rc primak

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Not sure about question one as I use default. My Images are approx 20 GB (I’m imaging about 34 GB so a little over 2 to 1)

Question 2, the plus pack allows you to restore your image to a new PC, or a bare bones restore, without using cloning. Cloning allows you to connect both HDs then transfer the entire OS to the new HD. This works well when you are just changing the HD. The plus pack allows this transfer to a different PC. Be advised though that this transfer requires the eventual removal of the OS from the original PC to satisfy the EULA. It may also require a call to MS to activate the new PC OS.

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If your computer has Seagate or Maxtor hard drives, you can download and use Seagate DiscWizard for free. It’s a basic version of the regular Acronis True Image, but under the Seagate brand. Probably not as sophisticated as the regular Acronis that has to be purchased, but it’s been fine for my simple needs. My computer has Windows XP Pro and two 160GB Seagate internal hard drives. Once a week I create an image backup from one drive to the other and find it easy to do. I can’t vouch for its ability to restore a backup, since I never had to do that.

http://www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=DiscWizard&vgnextoid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

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If your computer has Seagate or Maxtor hard drives, you can download and use Seagate DiscWizard for free. It’s a basic version of the regular Acronis True Image, but under the Seagate brand. Probably not as sophisticated as the regular Acronis that has to be purchased, but it’s been fine for my simple needs. My computer has Windows XP Pro and two 160GB Seagate internal hard drives. Once a week I create an image backup from one drive to the other and find it easy to do. I can’t vouch for its ability to restore a backup, since I never had to do that.

http://www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=DiscWizard&vgnextoid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

I firstly purchased a Seagate External drive and was then able to download and use Seagate DiscWizard. Then on purchasing Acronis True Image Home 2009 i received a %50 discount on Acronis True Image Home…which was sweet…

I have Toshiba Laptop with hidden partition named “0” and found Acronis True Image Home Recovery Manager DID NOT work at all…the hidden partition stops it from booting…em

Just this last week my External Seagate FreeAgent Pro disk disappeared after running Auslogics, eventually i downloaded later Classic version of FreeAgent and that seems to have sorted that ok…

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I firstly purchased a Seagate External drive and was then able to download and use Seagate DiscWizard. Then on purchasing Acronis True Image Home 2009 i received a %50 discount on Acronis True Image Home…which was sweet…

I have Toshiba Laptop with hidden partition named “0” and found Acronis True Image Home Recovery Manager DID NOT work at all…the hidden partition stops it from booting…em

Just this last week my External Seagate FreeAgent Pro disk disappeared after running Auslogics, eventually i downloaded later Classic version of FreeAgent and that seems to have sorted that ok…

I have a Toshiba Satellite with the Hidden Recovery Partition, and the Acronis Recovery Manager works just fine. You may need to change one BIOS setting, so that if need be, you could boot from a CD first, then the internal hard drive. Boot Order could be a problem in the original hardware configuration of a Toshiba Satellite. I have made the BIOS change on my Satellite, and the Rescue Media boot normally. Recovery should also be able to boot if needed.

I don’t want to discourage users from upgrading Acronis products, but both Disk Director and True Image need to be removed (True Image first, then Disk Director) before upgrading either program. Have all your Serials, back to the last Full Version you installed, ready before removing old Acronis versions. Upgrades will need two Serials each — one for the Upgrade, and one for the original Full Version on that computer (sometimes up to two versions ago). Could Acronis have made the upgrade process more difficult??

And no, interim upgrades are not posted to the Acronis download site, so newly installed downloads will often need immediate upgrades, which involve further downloads. Again, no reason to avoid Acronis products, but this is very inconvenient. (grumble grumble)

As for validation and listing of phantom backups, those problems were resolved for the most part in the two interim upgrades for ATIH 2011. I still do not like the interface, as many useful features are buried or unavailable at all.

-- rc primak

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Gary:
I recommend you test your ability to restore your backup while you dont really have to have it working.

Per my comments above, and in another thread, when I tested my ability to do so using Acronis – after having a
second hard drive installed – I found my Acronis “rescue” CD couldn’t rescue me. Acronis is still working with me
trying to resolve this issue.

Meanwhile I’ve also tested my ability to recover using a Microsoft image, and found that I can do so.
So I have some peace of mind until Acronis works again for me.

Better to find you can recover before you need to in the heat of battle.

Just my opinion,
Dick

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A fine demonstration of the backup, but I now have a restore problem. I have daily backups on a weekly cycle, and for this problem i would love something as simple as a restore point, but all of those went south in whatever went wrong. I do have error logs, but even Microsoft’s online help with them isn’t quite sure what is going on. (I suspect that I installed Office 2010×86 and Visio 2010×64.) I can pin the date fairly closely (from the date I posted a troubleshooting question in the Lounge, but it looks like more trouble than can be shot and I’ll have to resort to the backup.)

Can you suggest a procedure that might be suitable? As nearly as I can see all of the trouble is in Office (including Visio and Project, which are considered part of Office). I can certainly back up or save all data that I can think of, to ensure I don’t lose that,but I am wondering about comparing the backup with the present state to see if there are any glaring discrepancies. Even the sizes of the increments might be of interest, although there have been numerous updates. The time of the event would be about a week ago or less, I think.

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I’ve been a long-time user of Acronis’s True Image programs, but I had a couple of real problems with True Image Home 2011. I’m running XP Pro SP3 on a system with four partitions on the primary hard drive which I back up individually, either to a second internal hard drive or to an external USB drive.

First, I found TI 2011’s interface to be much less user friendly than TI 2010’s, but this probably is a matter of personal preference rather than an actual problem.

Second, and much more important, even though each backup was validated when created, the next time TI 2011 was opened it reported several backups as corrupt, something that never[/i] happened with TI 2010. This happened repeatedly.

Last, I found that TI 2011 listed backups that didn’t exist, and never had. Again, something that never happened with TI 2010.

The bottom line? I uninstalled TI 2011 and reinstalled TI 2010. As far as I’m concerned, newer does not necessarily mean better.

Jim

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I’ve been a long-time user of Acronis’s True Image programs, but I had a couple of real problems with True Image Home 2011. I’m running XP Pro SP3 on a system with four partitions on the primary hard drive which I back up individually, either to a second internal hard drive or to an external USB drive.

First, I found TI 2011’s interface to be much less user friendly than TI 2010’s, but this probably is a matter of personal preference rather than an actual problem.

Second, and much more important, even though each backup was validated when created, the next time TI 2011 was opened it reported several backups as corrupt, something that never[/i] happened with TI 2010. This happened repeatedly.

Last, I found that TI 2011 listed backups that didn’t exist, and never had. Again, something that never happened with TI 2010.

The bottom line? I uninstalled TI 2011 and reinstalled TI 2010. As far as I’m concerned, newer does not necessarily mean better.

Jim

Jim, I also am a long time Acronis user, and I also returned 2011 (with latest upgrade) for refund. I’m back to 2010. In earlier OSs, XP SP3, etc, I got around the “validated but wouldn’t install” problems after several ulcer agitating events by first running defrag, chkdsk and emptying all thumbnail caches before imaging, I have had no restore problems since installing Win7 Pro 64 bit on two machines and 32 bit on a laptop. I backup complete harddisks over my network to a NAS once a month. Images range from 198 to 230 GB per disk. They also will restore down to the file level if desired.

I use the Acronis Plus Pack 2010 to build an Acronis restore disk/USB thumb drive based on WinPE3 from the WAIK free from Microsoft. This way it images with no HD image files in use and will restore all completely when required. Drawback is that the Plus Pack winpe_iso.exe will ony build 32 bit disks. This is OK if you only want to image or restore either 32 or 64 bit OS files or partitions which is the whole purpose afterall, right?

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As I think I previously stated I use both ATI 2010 and 2011, one each on our 2 laptops. I had 2010 on both but subsequently upgraded to 2011 on mine. I also was a little irritated with the UI on 2011 but have grown accustomed to it. I have not seen the problems you describe. Did you attempt to reinstall 2011 before uninstalling? Did you uninstall 2010 first before installing 2011? You are not supposed to have to do this, but I found that sometimes things do not update correctly.

The other difference is that my PC’s are Win 7. It is entirely possible 2011 does not play well with XP, who knows. Glad 2010 works for you.

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I use Acronis and agree that it works very well.

Is defragging helpful? There’s an option to backup with Acronis sector by sector, which the interface says is slower. So if it’s not going sector by sector, is it going file by file? If so, does it save files in a fragmented state?

I guess I could test this the next time I have to do an image restore, but maybe you know.

Cheers,

Will

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Acronis, and I believe all Imaging or Cloning apps, save your HD exactly as it is presented to them. Therefore any fragmentation on the original will also be on the Image. As a matter of course I always defragment just before I create an Image. I also clean out as many temporary files, temp internet files, log files etc before creating an Image. This ensures a pristene Image to restore with. As stated I also create new, up to date Images when I change something in my OS, such as updates, new apps, etc. This allows the most timely restorations with out any loss of anything.

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Updated version released today.

Update on update: BOTH TrueImage 2011 Home AND Plus Pack have updates, Don’t catch one and miss the other if you have both.

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Updated version released today.

Update on update: BOTH TrueImage 2011 Home AND Plus Pack have updates, Don’t catch one and miss the other if you have both.

I received the following question from another member via email, and posed this answer. Upon further reflection this seemed like a good post to add to this thread:

“Hi Ted,
You helped me a few months ago with some Acronis info. I am hoping that you can help me again. I purchased Acronis and external WD 1TB hard drive. I made a couple of disk images and run regular backups.

Last week my system (2004 Dell 8400) started on a downward spiral, that started with corrupted video driver, followed by a corrupted user profile. I thought that an easy fix would be to load a disk image from the previous month. The restore seems to succeed, however, when I try to reboot, I get that terrible blue screen with a message about not being able to find/load the hive (some kind of registry problem). On the rare occasion when I can boot and log-on none of my applications work (IE, Word, etc.). They all result in a strange error message that says it is not a valid windows image?? (weird).

Have you ever been able to successfully recover using a whole disk image? Do any of these symptoms sound familiar to you?

Thanks for
your time,
Mike Evans”

I have been able to recover successfully any number of times using both Acronis 2010 and 2011, but have never tried to a new HD. I assume you are storing your Images on the Ext HD. Did you make an Acronis bootable media (rescue disk as some call it) for the version of Acronis you are using.

I found I had to make separate bootable media for 2010 and 2011 as the 2011 could not use the 2010 disk, and vice versa.

I kind of suspect your internal HD on the Dell 8400 may be going bad. I hope you were able to make an up to date Image just prior to the problems. This is why I make a new Image whenever I change something. In fact it’s that time again as I just received an update notice for ATI 2011 which I am downloading and installing as we speak.

You should be able to restore your latest Image to a new hard drive without any problem. Just insert the Acronis bootable media, connect the Ext hd, boot to the Acronis disk and point to the Image you want to restore, then
point to the new HD to place the Image. You may have to format the new HD to allow the Image to be placed there. I’m not sure the HD will be automatically formatted during the restore process. If this process causes a
hiccup, install the OS from your installation disk, then restore the Image as stated above, but I do not think this should be necessary.

If you did not make a bootable media using Acronis, you may have to install the OS on the new HD, Install Acronis, create your bootable media, then restore the Image.

Good luck with your recovery.

Ted

p.s. peterg, the update you mention is the update I mentioned in this reply. Thanks for posting this info.

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I received the following question from another member via email, and posed this answer. Upon further reflection this seemed like a good post to add to this thread: …

p.s. peterg, the update you mention is the update I mentioned in this reply. Thanks for posting this info.

Good grief (Charley Brown), I first installed the Plus software literally yesterday, the standard ‘check for updates’ yielded nothing, and today I was notified of the updates when I tried to use it (after my having made a recovery CD with the obsolete version, not to mention a full backup with the conventional Image Home a few days ago).

Is Acronis really selling months-out-of-date software mumble mumble grumble grumble…?

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Good grief (Charley Brown), I first installed the Plus software literally yesterday, the standard ‘check for updates’ yielded nothing, and today I was notified of the updates when I tried to use it (after my having made a recovery CD with the obsolete version, not to mention a full backup with the conventional Image Home a few days ago).

Is Acronis really selling months-out-of-date software mumble mumble grumble grumble…?

So far I have received 2 updates to Acronis 2011. Each seemed to be about 2 months apart. I suppose it depends on where you bought your copy whether they are selling out of date s/w. Many resellers most likely have a supply of disks they wish to sell out before starting on the new stuff. This makes perfect sence from their perspective. Fortunately the previous version worked fine as well, so you should be safe to use it. Plus Acronis does offer free updates to legitimate copies so you should be all set. Most of my Images were before the update, I also made an Image after the update because I do like to keep my Images up to date.

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I suppose it depends on where you bought your copy

Mine came online directly from Acronis. I have (I think) realized one thing, however, and that is that there are at least two different places where you check for an updated version. The first is when you are installing the software and it offers to check online to see if there is a more recent version, and another is when you actually bring the software up to use it (or look at it), and there is a third when you look in the Acronis folder from the Start menu and there is a broken circular symbol with the option to check for updates. This last, I think, appeared after I had installed the Plus Pack so whether it applies to all installations or not I am not sure.

As for missing features, one thing I found with 2011 is that the Plus Pack appears to add a ton of features. I recall no such drastic change in the case of 2010, at least to appearances.

The full thing at full price is an expensive proposition. It is now more expensive than ShadowProtect, if I’m not mistaken.

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Is anyone using the Online Backup option? I’d like to know if it can be used in file mode for only specific files, backing them up online to a second hard drive so they are always available for immediate recovery if necessary. I have a particular application I’d like to do this with.

But, still, perform the Image backups on a regular basis.

Al

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Is anyone using the Online Backup option? I’d like to know if it can be used in file mode for only specific files, backing them up online to a second hard drive so they are always available for immediate recovery if necessary. I have a particular application I’d like to do this with.

But, still, perform the Image backups on a regular basis.

Al

I have the full 250 GB available and I haven’t given it one bit, much less taken a bite out of it. I can, however, think of certain uses for it, such as preparing a compact installation of Windows, Office, and Security Essentials, keeping my serial numbers to myself, and sending it to the clouds to be (one hopes) conveniently downloadable in the event that you get a new computer in a distant location and want your full, and very expensive, software available as an image. As for uploading and downloading, it is a matter of bandwidth as much as anything, and it’s going to take time to send to send a significant amount of data for many of us. I calculated that it makes more sense for me to go to a local internet cafe which has more bandwidth than I have at home to send anything to the clouds. I’m not aware of any restriction at all on what you send, but file compression in one form or another is the order of the day. This is one place where you might prefer to take the risk associated with higher compression. You also want to get as much information as you can about peak periods for your area. Your ISP can provide information on the best time for the least traffic.

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Hi. I’ve been following both Acronis threads (2010 and 2011). I hope it’s okay to ask my questions here. I’m fairly overwhelmed and confused.

I got Acronis 2010 in May. At that time I created a bootable rescue cd and did a full back-up of my hard drive onto an external Western Digital Hard drive. Over the summer, I added an incremental backup. My bad – I hadn’t done anything since.

Starting yesterday, my hard drive seems to be failing. I have a Dell Inspiron 530 – Windows XP (sp3) – 500GB hard drive (about 360GB is full). I got the error message that said a parameter has exceeded its normal operating range. I’m still under warranty so Dell will be sending a technician to install a replacement 500GB hard drive – with Windows XP and all Dell Drivers pre-installed. After that, I’m on my own to put any of my programs or data files back on it. So far, I can still reboot and use my computer.

Yesterday, I backed up my data files (quicken,pictures,music, word files, etc) to my second internal hard drive (which is 1.5 TB). Today, I’m trying to create a full hard drive back up image on to a separate external hard drive (a Buffalo 500GB). Can’t use my Western Digital hard drive bc. there’s not enough space left for another full backup.

So here are some of my questions:

1 – I looked through these threads and wasn’t sure if I should do a backup – or clone. I decided to do the clone. It is working (I think) and showing that the current operation progress is 18% – after approximately an hour. Is cloning what I want to do? What’s the difference between that and the instructions to create a Full BackUp Image? Am I okay with having done a clone?

2 – I decided to do the clone on an external hard drive bc. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to access my second internal hard drive if my original hard drive fails. That’s probably just my fear and ignorance about how these things work. Should I have backed up to my second internal hard drive? Would I then have been able to make that my primary (master?) drive?

3 – I never tested my rescue cd before. And now that my pc is busy cloning, I didn’t want to disturb it. So I took my rescue cd to boot up in my daughter’s XP computer. I did get the Acronis True Image screen (there was some error message that flashed – but it disappeared quickly and I could not tell what it said). Could the problem have been related to the fact that I was using the CD on a computer that was different than the one that created it? Also it’s a computer without Acronis on it? Or does thisindicate that my rescue CD is no good. in which case, should i make another rescue cd once the cloning is done (provided my hard drive doesn’t crash?). The rescue cd was created when my computer had XP service pack 2 (and the computer I tried to boot on now has service pack 3 – could that have been a problem). The rescue cd did show the Acronis screen and an option to either run Acronis (which I didn’t choose bc. there would have been nothing to do on her computer) -or start Windows. I chose Windows and open windows and run fine. Does this mean my rescue cd is fine?

4 – is the clone I make sufficient? or should I do another kind of backup as well? I did select validate the archive upon completion (or is it verify the archive). Will that be sufficient to know if the clone is a good one and will work to get all my data back on a new hard drive?

5 – Dell will only install a hard drive with pre-installed Windows XP and dell drivers? Can I run restore from the clone on to this hard drive? Will it basically wipe out the XP and drivers that are on it? Or will it just add to it?

6 – if restoring onto this replacement drive from Dell is a problem, I have another idea. Should I buy my own internal hard drive – leave it empty as suggested somewhere in these threads. Then restore to this empty hard drive? I can keep the Dell supplied replacement as a back up in case the restore doesn’t work – at least I’ll have an operating system and drivers.

7 – someone suggested backing up this new replacement drive from Dell – using acronis. Could I do that from the rescue bootable cd – have Acronis make a backup of that new Dell replacement drive? Then remove it – and put a blank,empty new hard drive in – and let the clone be restored to it?

Thank you.
Lynn.

PS – I was given the link to these threads from the computer forum. They recommended I come here. not sure if you’d want me to link that thread – but here it is in case:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/comphelp/msg120834472170.html?14

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PS – I was given the link to these threads from the computer forum. They recommended I come here. not sure if you’d want me to link that thread – but here it is in case:
http://ths.gardenweb…4472170.html?14

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Hi Lynn

You are in the right place, but for some of your questions please don’t overlook the Hardware forum here in The Lounge, where you can find or start threads involving hard drive problems (including the mechanical side of it). You might take a look at 10 ways to keep hard drives from failing which might end up as part of a thread there if it isn’t already.

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The image Acronis first made should put your whole computer back to the state it was at the time you made that image, the whole computer.

When you tried out the recovery disk on your daughters computer, Acronis would have looked for the recovery partition Acronis likely put on your computers hard drive.

Your option six sounds ok, if you can afford a new Hard Drive and can boot it with networks then you might be able to install from the external hard drive the first image you made.

However from what you have said Acronis made a image when you first purchased the program, and you stored that image on a external Western Digital Hard drive. Connecting the external Western Digital Hard drive to your computer, then open Acronis program, locate the first image made and have Acronis install it on your hard drive.

Other files like photos and documents you may wish to recover, can later be recovered from the later images you have made (hopefully).
Not much point in trying to save an image of the corrupt hard drive now as any image you make will put the corruption right on the computer. So first try installing the first image you made, then later i think you should be able to locate files that were not saved at the time the first image.

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I would suggest you also sign up on the Acronis forum.
I find it a great help when I have a question or problem.

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Lynn,

This goes back to the preposition that your Image is only as good as when you created it. For the time it takes to create an image, my policy is that I will create a new Image EVERY time I make a change to my system. I’m not talking about data changes (such as in Quicken home finance apps) Those are incrementally backed up to 2 other PC’s. I’m talking about updates to apps or new apps installed. By recreating Images when these changes take place, it is easy to get my PC back to where it was say if my OS HD fails as your appears to be doing.

Imaging allows the entire contents of your HD to be restored at any given time. Normally Images are compressed into a single file at whatever compression rate you use. A Clone on the other hand is a one to one transfer from one HD to Another HD when both are connected at the same time. A clone is a bootable copy, but takes up as much space as the original. If you don’t have a space limitation then either Image or Clone will work. I believe the original intention of clones was to transfer all data on a HD to a new HD, whereas Images are used to restore a HD to the state the image was in at the time the Image was created. The Image is not bootable, but simply a compressed file the Imaging app can use to restore the HD.

It is a good policy to test your Rescue CD and Image when created to ensure they actually work. The restoration takes very little time with Acronis. For example my total used space is approx. 35 GB with an Image size of 21 GB lets say. It takes less than 10 minutes to restore from the Image.

In your case, either cloning or Imaging to the ext drive should work. Then once a new HD is in place of the failing drive, you can reverse the process. My only concern is that will the clone you are presently creating have an errors related to the failing drive’s inability to acurately put data into the clone? You may find you have to resort to the old Image. Good luck. I hope the clone works.

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Ummm! Very useful – but still daunting. Ted – I agree with you (and this may be a lesson learned the hard way) that I should have been doing incremental backups all along. I know a ton has changed – from apps, to updates, to a new program or two, to organizing 7 years of digital pictures, cutomizing firefox extensively, installing service pack 3 for XP – and all subsequent updates. If I restore from May/Summer backups, I will have lost a ton of program changes and additions.

Robert – you have it right that my first back up and incremental were on the Western Digital.

I could use clarification of what could go wrong with a hard drive. I have done so much since July – and my hard drive seems fine – I can access files, open and run my programs, locate any file/document I want. So it sure seems to me that restoring from the clone I made last night on the Buffalo external hard drive would be the easiest way to go. What are the possible problems I could have using this? I don’t really understand what a corrupt hard drive is and how I could recreate that in a clone? I thought this hard drive was having a mechanical/hardware failure – but that any data saved is saved just fine. I did make the clone and check the option to ignore bad sectors. Will this have avoided duplicating anything that was wrong with the original hard drive? Is it that the copies may not have been made correctly (I did use explorer to check the size of the clone and the files it contains – all looked fine). I did not try to boot and run from this Buffalo drive. Should I do that to see if the clone was good? If so, how do I get my computer to boot from the clone?

I think my pictures,documents, quicken data, turbo tax data, music, videos are safely backed up on my second internal hard drive. So it’s not my data that concerns me – but as Ted said, the many changes that occur in our computers through use, and updates, etc.

Is the wisdom here that I should use the earlier May/July back up image? Or is there a way to use the clone that won’t damage the new internal hard drive? If I carried over the corruption (whatever that means) to the new hard drive, would I know? or would I be setting myself up for this new hard drive to show the same impending failure? One pertinent note may be that I ran chkdsk on this computer – and all seemed to be fine (I’m sure XP’s chkdsk program isn’t the best checker out there). I sure would prefer to use the more recent clone if that’s not a problem.

If I get the same message about the hard drive threshold exceeding normal operating range – then should I conclude that I’ve carried over the same problem to the clone? is there a way to test this clone? I don’t want to restore over my now failing hard drive.

Ted – agreed – another lesson learned is to test the rescue cd and image when created. But I have 350GB of data. Two questions: how do I test the rescue cd and image? and since my data is so much larger we’re talking about a lot more time to test – and more significantly, aren’t we talking about the test taking up a lot of disk space? Am I just restoring the image on my hard drive – consuming another 350gb space?

I will look for the Acronis forum and sing up there. Once I have a new drive in, I’m sure I’ll have lots more questions about how to restore. And in the future I want to do backups – full and incremental – in a wise, consistent manner.

(It’s ironic that I am getting my father-in-law Acronis for Christmas – just got him an ex. hd for his birthday last week – bc. I think it’s is important to back up data and be protected – and then my own lapse are coming to haunt me – and highlight the need for these gifts for him. I’ll be ready to teach him from my mistakes.)

Thank you.
Lynn.

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I would say that the greatest risk you’d be running if you chose to use the latest image would be to have to resort to the initial image if things go wrong. If I were you, I would probably try that, see how things would go, run a chkdsk after the image restore and see how the computer would behave. if you had issues, then resort to the older image. You would lose not much, other than time, by doing so.

I have used Acronis True Image since version 8. I found Acronis True Image 2011 an awful release, taking about the double of the time Acronis 2010 took to backup my laptop (about 65 GB disk space taken). It had other bugs, so after a polite exchange with Acronis support, decided to go back to the reliable 2010 version. I don’t see myself going back to 2011 anytime soon.

I also find the Plus Packs a ripoff. According to my own experience, the restore to different hardware option does not work, or it did not work when I tried. Actually, without the Plus Pack, I had done a previous restore to different hardware without big issues. I don’t see myself buying any Plus Pack in the future, it’s just a way to Acronis to make some more money. I am actually quite disgusted with Acronis, given the very poor quality control shown with their 2011 versions. It’s a real shame, as I have used True Image for so many years and it has saved me quite a few times.

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Rui. Thanks. I feel better knowing that I can try the clone – and if somehow it’s not a great copy, I can resort to the older backup (without having damaged the new drive). This won’t damage the new drive, right? I can just wipe the drive (reformat it – erase it? not sure what procedure would be?) – and restore from the older May/July backup.

Also glad to hear your feedback about 2010 version vs. 2011. My father-in-law has XP – and it seems that not only do some folks not like 2011 – but that it may not work as well with XP. So I’ll get him 2010.

When I get my new internal hard drive, and hook up the buffalo external hard drive that has the clone, will it automatically clone? Are there links to where instructions are for restoring from a clone?

Thanks.
Lynn.

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Hi Lynn,

I don’t think restoring from an image that may have errors will damage your disk. The data written to the new disk may have errors, but it won’t harm your disk from a physical point of view, so if you do have errors with the latest image, restoring a good image will sort any issues.

As to the procedure for recovery, whenever I needed to apply an image, I just booted with the Acronis boot CD and choose the recovery option, choosing the image file from which to recover and Acronis takes care of it all.

I have never done a clone operation as such. I just backup my disks, that creates a .tib file and I use that file by choosing it during the Recovery operation. My advice would be to boot from the Acronis boot CD, which you should have created by now, with the external USB disk containing your image connected and powered and then choose Recover, when acronis boots. Acronis will ask you which image file you want to use and you will need to pick the .tib file you want to use. Acronis will then ask to where you want that image recovered into and you will choose the new disk with your XP3 new installation. Acronis will replace that with the contents of your .tib file.

Hope this helps and all goes well.

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Happily just dld & installed Update 1 (build 6597) tp Acronis TIH 2011. Don’t know whatit’s all about yet.
Cheers

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Hello Lynn.

>>> When I get my new internal hard drive, and hook up the buffalo external hard drive that has the clone, will it automatically clone? Are there links to where instructions are for restoring from a clone?

A clone is a full-way option, either Source to Destination or vice-versa. Just be cautious when clicking on your drives so as not to format the wrong one. A clone will flush all on the Destination. Way to go ! A clone is so much better than a backup, in my biased opinion. Consider that if your machine is to your liking, every clone will hold it ALL, no need to do incremental whatevers. Not a shared opinion here but valid in my opus-operandi.

No, it will not automatically clone, you need to set up TI for it. I use a small 2.5″ CD of 50 MBs and I down-loaded from the Acronis site, the required BRM, ( Bootable Recovery Media ) look for it on their site, it is of 32 MBs and you do not need to use the Acronis CD. This BRM will show on your screen the same screen as the big CD would.

Let us know. …………..Jean.

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Thanks Rui and Jean. My new internal hard drive is coming tomorrow. But first the Dell technician is bringing a 500GB replacement from Dell (under warranty). It just has XP and Dell drivers on it. I want to make back up image of this disk as my first move – before I destroy anything. So here is where I’m not clear. Do I put in my rescue cd (which I did make – and think works). Then have it point to the new hard drive – and have it place a back up image on the second internal hard drive?

Then – sounds convoluted but I think it makes sense. I’m going to take out the replacement 500GB drive – save it for a rainy day – or if my clone doesn’t work. Then I bought a 2TB internal hard drive (which I’d prefer for editing my many Tivo HD recordings) – if I’m going to clone and get a new hard drive, I might as well get one that’s bigger to hold my videos. So let me see if I have the steps right:

– put the bootable cd into the drive. Then turn off machine so it’s there when I restart it?
– plug the external hard drive (which has the clone) into the computer (while the computer is off?)
– when the computer restarts, on my Dell I think I choose F3 or F12 – to get it to boot from the cd? or will it automatically boot from the cd?
– or since I have a clone – I think Ted said that was bootable – can’t I just select F3 or F12 – then point it to the external hard drive with clone to boot from?
– then once I’m in True Image – select recover – very carefully select the external drive to recover from – and the new empty internal hard drive as the destination to recover to?

Sorry this is probably redundant to some of the advice above. But I want to make sure I have it straight before I attempt it tomorrow.

Thanks.
Lynn.

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Then – sounds convoluted but I think it makes sense. I’m going to take out the replacement 500GB drive – save it for a rainy day – or if my clone doesn’t work. Then I bought a 2TB internal hard drive (which I’d prefer for editing my many Tivo HD recordings) – if I’m going to clone and get a new hard drive, I might as well get one that’s bigger to hold my videos. So let me see if I have the steps right:

Welcome Lynn

This is a new drive with an operating system that makes it the data equivalent of a new computer, right? New computers come with either an installation disk or disks in case you have to reinstall, or instructions on how to create a set using nothing more than what is already on the computer. Typically you will require nothing more than several DVDs at most. Burn them and put them in a safe place, along with the Product Key (which is probably already on a label on the case but which is the most important part of the deal). Now you can reinstall what is on that drive any time you want to do so. (You may want to if you decide to sell the computer, for example.)

You certainly do not need any third-party software in order to do that, and I think it would be a dreadful waste to leave the drive unused, especially if you plan to physically remove it from the computer, although that is pretty easy with a Dell. You could use it as is if you wanted a dual boot setup, or just format it and use that lovely 500 GB for something useful. Physically separate drives, say for systems and data, are particularly useful and safer than a single do-it-all drive. You could save backups to it, for example.

Good luck with it.

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If your PC Bios is not already set to boot from CD/DVD then you will have to go into the Bios to set the boot order. F3 or F12 are common ways. The PC should say which to use to get into Bios as it begins to boot.

If you have an Acronis installation disk either that or the Bootable media you created will work to get into the Acronis screen. Choose to restore, then as Jean states choose the ext disk which contains your Clone or Image (I believe you said you created a clone) as the disk which holds the Clone. Select the new HD as the destination. (You may have to format it ahead of time so the software can see ot as a media ready to use.) Acronis should do the rest. As long as you DO NOT format the Ext HD, even if things do not work quite right the first time, you can always start again.

Since I use Images rather than Clones I am not exactly sure how long this may take. Once the restore has finished, you may have to use a partitioning tool to set partition sizes. I’m not sure if the Clone will only use the size it presently occupies on the new disk, or use the whole HD because the new HD is so much bigger than the original. You may want to explore using separate partitions to hold you data anyway. This way your Clone or Image when you recreate it as things change on your PC will be faster and will contain the OS and apps, but not the data which should be put in a separate drive.

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Today I returned a hard drive that was under warranty and that I found impossible to properly format due to drive errors, or so I assume. This thread was on my mind at the time, given that I am trying to migrate from a 60 GB drive to a new 320 GB hard drive. I asked the service guy about the problem (on top of the replacement), he asked me what my operating system was, I said Win 7, and he started in and I knew at once what he was talking about.

Sometimes we get so close to problems that we miss the answer that we knew all along but that we overlooked. If you are starting with Windows 7, you already have the solution built in. When I get the drive back, repaired or replaced, I will restore my known good Acronis image (from the original 60 GB drive which, incidentally, is at present in the computer and which has today’s ‘Update Tuesday’ updates and has yet to be imaged, as many times as I like with as many schemes as I like, and which is running perfectly. That will give me, when restored (using the restore disk), a system that is identical to what I already have. The only difference is that my 60 GB partition will be on a drive that has a vastly greater amount of unallocated space on the drive beyond the first 60.

So long as I am using Windows 7 I can then go to Control panel | Administrative Tools | Create and format hard drive partitions (by one route or another) and drag the partition divider all the way to the end of the drive, which will give me my setup in 320 GB instead of 60. The drive is a Western Digital and one of the last installations I placed on my 60 GB drive was the WD utility for Windows, which is the first application that I will run after that just to be on the safe side. Seagate has a similar utility (which will do for any drive.) Everything on that drive is still in the first 60 GB – the rest is free space – so this is the time to create any additional partitions I want, and in what sizes, before things have a chance to wander.

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So long as I am using Windows 7 I can then go to Control panel | Administrative Tools | Create and format hard drive partitions (by one route or another) and drag the partition divider all the way to the end of the drive, which will give me my setup in 320 GB instead of 60. The drive is a Western Digital and one of the last installations I placed on my 60 GB drive was the WD utility for Windows, which is the first application that I will run after that just to be on the safe side. Seagate has a similar utility (which will do for any drive.) Everything on that drive is still in the first 60 GB – the rest is free space – so this is the time to create any additional partitions I want, and in what sizes, before things have a chance to wander.

Why not leave the 60 GB partition with the OS and apps, then createa separate partition dor data with the remaining space. This seems to be one of the schemes that is most popular in these forums.

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Why not leave the 60 GB partition with the OS and apps, then createa separate partition dor data with the remaining space. This seems to be one of the schemes that is most popular in these forums.

Call me greedy or call me cautious: I want more than 60 GB on that partition and I want to be sure that if I have additional partitions I am not inviting a bad block at that 60 GB partition location. If I can see the whole drive as a single partition (and check it with a scan) then I feel more secure in locating partitions where I want them.

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Call me greedy or call me cautious: I want more than 60 GB on that partition and I want to be sure that if I have additional partitions I am not inviting a bad block at that 60 GB partition location. If I can see the whole drive as a single partition (and check it with a scan) then I feel more secure in locating partitions where I want them.

Hey greedy… no seriously, peterg, I understand. Initially I had one partition encompassing the entire 320 GB HD. Since I do not have huge amounts of data, this would have continued to work well for a long time. I just decided on a change (If you’ve kept up on my posts you know I like to “play” with my PC, thus the importance of up to date images) so I decided to partition an area for my small amount of data. I kept 75 GB in my main OS/app partition (I have roughly 50 GB free at this moment, with more apps than I have ever had installed at one time) I install all apps here as well as the OS. I do apply ALL patches for Win 7 and all apps without any problems to date. I do update my Image regularly.

When I create an Image, I include both the C drive and the D drive in the Image (remember with only about 35 GB total space used it takes less than 1/2 hour). If I have to restore, having a separate data drive allows me to restore only the C drive if I choose. When I “play”, it’s only the C drive I mess up. Acronis allows any or all partitions to be restored, you choose when you start the restore process. If I had huge amounts of data like Lynn, I would only created new Images on the C drive. After creating the first Image (which I think she mentioned took 8 hours), I would back up the data through different means, and only create new Images when a change occurs on the C drive, then only Image the C drive. This will drastically cut down the time it takes to create the Image. In her case I would Clone the D Drive once then use incremental back up as changes occur on the D Drive. 8 hours is too long for Image creation on a regular basis.

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Why not leave the 60 GB partition with the OS and apps, then createa separate partition dor data with the remaining space. This seems to be one of the schemes that is most popular in these forums.

I am happy to report that I received a replacement drive Christmas eve, and the outcome is an unqualified success.

I eventually hit myself on the head with the realization that my O/S is Win 7 Ultimate, and the Win 7 backup gives me a bare metal restore where Acronis 2010 (on the machine in question) does not. That may or may not have helped, but I’m not likely to forget it next time, and in the blink of an eye (at the tap of a button) Microsoft’s own utility extended the 60 GB restored drive to the full 320 available.

Seasons Greetings to all.

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Peterg and Ted. thank you for all that information. As it happens, things have changed. The technician Dell sent came with the replacement hard drive (with pre-installed XP and drivers) – no disks. He installed it – booted – and the same hard drive warning occurred. Turns out it was my second internal hard drive (that I use for data) that was going bad. It was a good thing I already had the 2TB replacement. So he put the 2TB drive in – returned my original hard drive – and all it good.

Now I do have work ahead of me – but this changes the nature of it.

There are probably just a few video files on the second internal hard drive that I don’t have copies of. I think they’re still accessible – so I will be an enclosure (since I will need one anyway – as I’ll describe later) to put it in – and see if I can transfer those video files to my new 2TB internal drive. I think it makes sense to test that drive to see what’s wrong with it – if it’s repairable by Windows XP (I think if I run chkdsk there are possibilities to repair some damage?). Should I do this? Or are there other methods to safely test out the health of my hard drive?

Next step is call Dell – I bought that second hard drive from them 1 1/2 yrs ago. It has a 3 yr warrantee. I’m not sure if the warrantee will be honored by Dell or Western Digital (the brand of drive). So I figure I’ll be getting a replacement 1/5 TB hard drive – which I can either install internally – use it as program drive or data drive. I can use the original 500GB drive externally. Or maybe I should keep it the way it is now. Original 500GB internal hard drive, second 2 TB internal hard drive – and put the replacement 1.5 TB hard drive in an enclosure and use for back-ups. One reason I’d like to use the 2TB drive as a program/boot drive (or master drive – I’m not sure of the language) is bc. it’s supposed to be a faster drive – Western Digital Black Caviar 2TB drive – 7200rpm and 64MB Cache that was a bit pricier, but I thought it was worth it for quality and speed.

It’s this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002MD05SA/ref=oss_product (although I paid less than the price listed online)

I’m new enough at all this that I don’t understand everything about hard drive speed. I think that a larger drive can potentially slow things down a bit – but that the 7200rpm and 64MB cache will offer more speed – and the reviews suggest this thing is fast. I’d love any guidance in weighing these factors as I decide which to make the primary drive.

I also want to clarify what to do with this drive. I don’t know how to partition. And if I did, how large a partition should I create on this 2TB drive – if it were to hold the operating systems and programs? I don’t know how much room that takes – and how to be sure to take the appropriate sections of my original drive to place into this partition. I can figure out what size each portion of my original hard drive is? I just don’t know which folders go into the partition for programs/software? I don’t want to leave any out – and I’m concerned I will miss some folders bc. I do not recognize what they are.

If I partition the drive, I gather I don’t clone it – but do it in sections. I also don’t know if I should format it first. Or partition first. Disk management is fairly new to me although I did format a couple of drives. I didn’t get into partitions and copying from one drive to another.

If this is no longer an appropriate place for my questions, please let me know. I may be getting far afield here (although I know Acronis will come back into the picture at some point).

Ted – this may be a moot point now – but when I cloned my original drive to an external hard drive this weekend, it took around 6 hours to clone the 350GB.

Thanks everyone.
Lynn.

PS – I did learn a couple of important things from this technician. First, he updated the bios in my computer (which was several versions old). And he told me where to go to update the bios on my daughter’s computer. That was useful. It’s a question I’ve had for a while when I see people on forms ask whether someone has updated their bios.

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It has a 3 yr warrantee.

I doubt that data recovery is covered by the warranty but if you are going to try to recover data, it might be advisable to let them know that you are having trouble. They might find it cheaper to give you suggestions than to have to replace the drive.

It is astonishing how much can be recovered (and it can be expensive to have done professionally), but there is no shortage of available tools, some of which may already be on your computer. If you have Nero software, for example, you may have Nero Rescue Agent, which I have found useful. Above all, try not to do anything that might make matters worse. If you have a ‘known bad’ disk that really is garbage, it might be interesting to practice on that so you can get the hang of things.

For third-party partitioning software, the free MiniTool Partition Wizard is superb, with features many professional programs lack. (A surface scan will show you where your bad blocks are, and how many of them you have.) If you download it, be sure to get the version that can be burned to a CD, and boot from the CD. The same people have the free MiniTool Partition Recovery tool, which you may find useful. They also have the free Power Data Recovery, which may be what you most need at present. (Note that the ‘free’ condition applies to non-commercial use only.)

If it is a WD drive, go to WD online, look it up, and download their standard Windows utility to test the drive.

Get an informed opinion on how many drives your case will hold. These things are deceptive, and you may not need an enclosure.

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Thanks again.

Peterg – I only have 2 hard drive bays in my computer. Right now it’s holding the original c drive – and a blank, unformatted, new WD 2 TB hard drive (not the 1.5TB drive that went bad). So I think I do need an enclosure or dock to hook up the drive and try to recover data. What is the minitool partition wizard for? partitioning the drive? checking which portions are bad?

Can you tell me what Power Data REcovery would do for me that Acronis won’t? I realize I’m pretty fuzzy about all these functions.

I’m probably not going to get a dock or enclosure for the bad drive until after Xmas – which means no attempt to check it – or recover data. (Maybe I will get an enclosure before – since it will take a few days to get to me I guess I should get the ball rolling on that). Once I have a way to check the drive, I’ll download the WD utility.

Thank you.
Lynn.

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Thanks again.

Peterg – I only have 2 hard drive bays in my computer. Right now it’s holding the original c drive – and a blank, unformatted, new WD 2 TB hard drive (not the 1.5TB drive that went bad). So I think I do need an enclosure or dock to hook up the drive and try to recover data. What is the minitool partition wizard for? partitioning the drive? checking which portions are bad?

Can you tell me what Power Data REcovery would do for me that Acronis won’t? I realize I’m pretty fuzzy about all these functions.

I’m probably not going to get a dock or enclosure for the bad drive until after Xmas – which means no attempt to check it – or recover data. (Maybe I will get an enclosure before – since it will take a few days to get to me I guess I should get the ball rolling on that). Once I have a way to check the drive, I’ll download the WD utility.

Thank you.
Lynn.

Quick answers to two easy questions:

You can download Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics from Western Digital. It will tell you tons of things about the drive and can help keep it healthy.

Your computer has larger bays for such things as DVD drives, and if you have an empty one, then for the cost of a bracket and screws and cable and wiring (plus a bit of help from someone who knows how to do it), you may be able to mount one or more hard drives internally. If your alternative is an external USB-connected enclosure, then an external drive will be slow as molasses in (next month) January. There is a world of difference and you may have any number of cubbyholes in the computer where a knowledgeable hardware guy can securely fit another hard drive.

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The mini tool Partition Wizard is a very good disk partitioning app that rivals the most expensive 3rd party partitioning apps out there. I have used it to change partitioning schemes several times. I also have Easeus Pro because I got it for free, but have not had the opportunity to check it out yet.

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