Step-by-step instruct for Images: Acronis 2010

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My apologies, I screwed up and deleted all attachments in my attachments page. I am recreating those I can, but since I now use Acronis 2011, I cannot re-create these attachments. Sorry again! Perhaps an administrator can get them back, but I think not.

My hope in starting this thread is that others will post similar instructions for other 3rd party Imaging apps. <any others would create images if they had some easy to follow steps, thus avoiding re-installation problems.

To create an image with Acronis True Image Home 2010 I follow these steps:

1) First I clean up my OS. I delete all temp files, including prefetch data. I delete all temp internet files and history. Basically I get rid of all the junk taking up space I can use for something else. I normally use CCleaner to do this cleaning. (I have never had any problems using CCleaner). If I have an unused apps, I also consider uninstalling them before the cleanup. Once evrything is cleaned, I do a defrag with Auslogics defragmenter.I also run manual scans with MalWareBytes Antimalware and Spybot Search and Destroy, and a full scan with MSE.

2) I have Acronis True Image Home 2010 with Plus Pack. Open Acronis to the main screen. Under What would you like to do? choose Back Up My Disks.

Select Next

3) Select the disk to Image, in my example "C" (Please don't look at or judge the single partition containing OS and data. I have not decided to create a partition for data.) note: The Ext3 partition is used for Linux Mint. I am dabbling in Linux. I actually used Clonezilla to create an image of my Linux Mint partition, but could not begin to list the steps for this. I have found that Clonezilla is quite techy, and not so user friendly, but very effective. The Linux Swap partition was created by the Linux installer. I would assume it works similarly to the Windows Page file? Sorry to digress from the main topic.

Select Next

4) Under Target Selection, select Create new backup archive, then Select the Back up Location, I use an Ext. HD ("H" Drive on my PC), but you could easily use a different partition or removable optical media or NAS Storage. ( I do not recommend using only another partition because if the HD fails, your image may be gone as well. I advocate a removable storage location)

Select Next

5) Choose Proceed (Since I am not actually creating an image right now, I can't show the Execute screen because my Ext HD is not attached.)

Once the Image is created, be sure to create a System Rescue Media. (This only has to be done the first time you create an image. This Rescuee Media will work for all subsequent Images created using Acronis True Image Home 2010) On the Main Screen, select Tools and Utilities, select Create a Bootable Rescue Media, and follow the prompts. I use a CD-R for this rescue disk because of it's size and ease of use.

If you wish to restore from your image, insert the Acronis Rescue Media disk, reboot to the disk, in my case I would have my Ext. HD connected through a USB port. The Rescue Media would see the image on the Ext. HD and run it. Be sure to test the image by actually running the recovery media and restoring from your image. This is an important step.
If the OS is not hosed badly I suppose you could restore from within Acronis (See the first graphic) I do not do this, I always go the Rescue Media route. Using this route you could also format the partition in case let's say you have a bad infection to be rid of.

I hope this post is not too long with the images. Ted

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To create an image with Acronis True Image Home 2010 I follow these steps:

can i create a rescue pendrive instead of a rescue disk? thank you

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If you mean by “pendrive” a USB flash drive, I believe you can. In going down through the windows for Acronis, I get to this:

The H: drive is my USB port. In this case I have a Flash Drive installed in a USB port and Acronis sees this as a valid place to install the Repair Disk info. I hope this helps.

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Newegghas Acronis True Image Home 2010 for $9.99 after a mail in rebate. Includes Free Shipping! You can’t hardly beat that with a stick!

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Just a note about the above Newegg rebate: “Purchase Acronis True Image Home 2010 through Newegg.com between 07/08/10 and 07/21/10. Rebate request must be postmarked no later than 08/21/10.”

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Just a note about the above Newegg rebate: “Purchase Acronis True Image Home 2010 through Newegg.com between 07/08/10 and 07/21/10. Rebate request must be postmarked no later than 08/21/10.”

Jeff, Thanks for checking further on the rebate. Since I already own Acronis TI Home 2010 and the Plus Pack I did not follow through on the rebate details.

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Just a note about the above Newegg rebate: “Purchase Acronis True Image Home 2010 through Newegg.com between 07/08/10 and 07/21/10. Rebate request must be postmarked no later than 08/21/10.”

Where did you find the $9.99 after rebate price? The best price I can find is $19.99 after rebate.

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Where did you find the $9.99 after rebate price? The best price I can find is $19.99 after rebate.

Previously the “You Save” line was $20 (see image in [post=’848883′]Post #848883[/post]). The rebate hasn’t changed, but they raised the purchase price.

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Where did you find the $9.99 after rebate price? The best price I can find is $19.99 after rebate.

Frys.com has it from 7/16 – 7/22/2010: TI 2010 product page.

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The Macrium instructions have been moved to this thread.

http://lounge.windowssecrets.com/index.php?showtopic=776749

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Mercyh,

Very useful, thank you. This is the kind of response I was hoping for. Very often an individual new to imaging will be overwhelmed by what appears at first glance to be a very complicated process (I know I was at first). I think instructions such as these may alleviate fears they have and they will jump in and start creating images to solve even bigger problems when they arise. Although, if everyone created up to date images, many of the problems we discuss in these forums would be alleviated. That would mean less time here and more time to bike! Ted

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Ted Myers,
What is the “Plus Pack” you referred to?
I have been using Acronis TrueImage for a long time, from version 6 to Acronis True Image Home 2010, but sad to say with my Windows 7 64-bit Dell Computer, when I try to run it,all I get is a message saying “Acronis True Image has stopped working. A problem has caused it to stop working..blah blah blah. Up to this point their Tech Support has not come up with a solution. Any input from anyone would be appreciated.

Jack

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Ted Myers,
What is the “Plus Pack” you referred to?
I have been using Acronis TrueImage for a long time, from version 6 to Acronis True Image Home 2010, but sad to say with my Windows 7 64-bit Dell Computer, when I try to run it,all I get is a message saying “Acronis True Image has stopped working. A problem has caused it to stop working..blah blah blah. Up to this point their Tech Support has not come up with a solution. Any input from anyone would be appreciated.

Jack

Jack – I am running Acronis TrueImage 9 on a Win7 x64 system after upgrading from Vista X64 and the program seems to run fine. It certainly makes images perfectly well, although I have not needed it to restore yet (thank goodness).
Have you tried a complete uninstall and reinstall?

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Ted Myers,
What is the “Plus Pack” you referred to?
I have been using Acronis TrueImage for a long time, from version 6 to Acronis True Image Home 2010, but sad to say with my Windows 7 64-bit Dell Computer, when I try to run it,all I get is a message saying “Acronis True Image has stopped working. A problem has caused it to stop working..blah blah blah. Up to this point their Tech Support has not come up with a solution. Any input from anyone would be appreciated.

Jack

The Plus Pack is an optional add on to ATI that allows you to place your image on a differentt PCrather the the original PC.

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The Plus Pack is an optional add on to ATI that allows you to place your image on a bare bones (New) hd rather the the original hd. This is helpful if the original hd fails rather than the OS fails.

Ted ..Et Al,
There seems to be some confusion about Acronis “Plus Pack” (v2010) and what it does vs installing a new “Hard Drive”
1. You do not need “Plus Pack for Acronis to install a new HD( on your original PC)… Have done this several times .. Install the HD into an available port.
2.Select from the “Tools & utilities” “Add new disk… Let Acronis find it and click through various screens and let TI do its thing.
3.When finished you can place whatever you want on the new HD. Blank Hd ready to “rock and roll”
4. Cloning … Just copies the Original HD to the “New Target HD” ( no “Plus Pack” Needed)

Here’s where the confusion comes in If you want to Place your “OS”on a new PC or new Motherboard (with new hardware) HD’s etc. Then you need “Plus Pack” to find and transfer to the new “Hardware”… Hope this helps clear things somewhat… as this can be all very confusing.. Regards Fred

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Ted Myers,
What is the “Plus Pack” you referred to?
I have been using Acronis TrueImage for a long time, from version 6 to Acronis True Image Home 2010, but sad to say with my Windows 7 64-bit Dell Computer, when I try to run it,all I get is a message saying “Acronis True Image has stopped working. A problem has caused it to stop working..blah blah blah. Up to this point their Tech Support has not come up with a solution. Any input from anyone would be appreciated.

Jack

A comment on Jack’s message above: After hearing so many good comments on Acronis, I bought Acronis TI 2010 last Fall for a new PC. While other versions apparently enjoyed good success, Acronis TI 2010 had serious problems with Win 7 64-bit from its beginning (check the Acronis forum to read the frustrations). It frequently froze Win 7 64-bit OS, caused stop errors (BSOD), and the TrueImage.exe process would continue running after closing TI 2010 and would not respond if you tried to open TI 2010 again. You had to use Task Manager to kill it and reboot to get it TI 2010 to restart (either that or just let it run continuously in the back ground and not be able to reopen TI 2010 at all). And like Jack mentioned support was of no help. Oddly though, TI 9 would work flawlessly with Win 7 64-bit, but those like myself whose first version was the TI 2010 could not get a version 9 download and the 2010 license would not work with TI 9. I suffered through two rebuilds of 2010 including a special workaround procedure to modify a SnapAPI module (whatever that is) with no significant improvement before finally uninstalling it. The latest build is #7046, and they claim to have the problems fixed (as they also claimed with #6053). I may eventually try this version sometime (since I still have a paid up license) but for now I cannot comment on whether it has solved the problems or not.

But if you are running Win 7 64-bit, my advice is that you download a trial version from Acronis first and try it before you buy. If it works to your satisfaction, you can buy a rebate or discounted license from Newegg or someone. But do not be surprised at how slow the Acronis servers are (0 to 152 KB/s, with about 138 KB/s avg when it is not stopped cold, so plan on 15 – 20 min for a 115 MB file). That too is a chronic point of contention with Acronis customers.

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Hi all

Acronis True Image

It is good to see someone laying out the steps to backing up using (among others) Acronis. Wish I’d had this before I began using it some time ago, and I do genuinely hate to provide negative feedback on any software, but I hope this will be also be constructive information for others.

Until recently I used to use Acronis (True Image Home 2010), fully paid up (so doubly uncomfortable with this feedback!) , but the advice is Be Careful using it! I have now been let down twice at the point where I needed to restore a backup image, and twice, in my view, is two times too many. Of course it’s always at the critical “I need to restore” point that any problems arise. All backups were to a second virtual drive in my PC and to another external USB Hard Drive, and consisted of both full stand-alone images and incemental backups.

The first time I had a problem was because I didn’t appreciate how critical the verify function was, and the application doesn’t make this clear, nor does it make it very easy to carry out the verify operation, and on my attempt to recover it stated all my backups were unreadable. All of them? “Why?” was the question but I found no answer to that, and the tech support from Acronis could only emphasize that I needed to verify each backup – ok, fair enough in principle, but I do feel they should both make that crystal clear on the application interface and make it easier to set up as an automatic operation. It is possible to set it up to do this automatically, but it isn’t obvious, you have to burrow to find the settings.

That done, I thought all was plain sailing, but then ran into another problem recently, where I did get a restored image, but it wasn’t identical to what I’d had before (and I don’t understand how that is possible). After the restore I had to reinstall the whole of Microsoft Office 2007 because it no longer recognised me as a user, presumably because the activation key had disappeared. Not a fatal problem, just annoying – and slightly worrying for a bit-by-bit image. The rest of my system seemed ok.

You could argue that the first problem was my doing, by not verifying each backup. I accept that, up to a point, though as I’ve said I do feel it should be clearer how critical this obviously is – there is an argument that it should be a default setting, to be switched off by the user – Acronis, take note for future releases. The second issue however still baffles me. I did not have any Office apps running during either backup or (obviously) restore (or anything else, apart from what normally loads on startup). Acronis tech support suggested the cause was that Outlook was in memory, but I can be certain it wasn’t, as the backups are carried out every Saturday morning as the first task after booting up, and without anything else running at all.

Rather than spend a lot of time and anguish trying to find out and fix what went wrong I have moved now to Easeus (for the time being) and am looking at Paragon – any comments on either of those from other users?

However the message on Acronis is be careful. My guess is they will fix whatever went wrong in a future release and make verification easier, but that is little comfort to me. Caveat Emptor! Hopefully with the knowledge of my problems others who use Acronis will be able make sure it doesn’t happen to them, though the second (non-fatal) issue is tricky as I can’t identify the problem there.

rdl

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….The first time I had a problem was because I didn’t appreciate how critical the verify function was, and the application doesn’t make this clear, nor does it make it very easy to carry out the verify operation, and on my attempt to recover it stated all my backups were unreadable…..

I myself have never had this problem with TrueImage 9, the previous version. I have used it on an XP system and a Vista 32 and 64 systems without any problems. The few times I have done a verify, the images verified just fine. I sympathize with your problems, but it does not appear to be a general issue (at least on the TrueImage 9 version).

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Excellent post, Ted. Was a user of Acronis for some years but recently switched to Macrium Reflect. Both are excellent programs but I found Macrium more to my liking. I have found the scheduling feature in Macrium to be a plus as I do frequent imaging on two computers (both full and incremental). The program allows for automatic deleting of “old” backups by age which is great because I don’t have to remember to check disk space and manually delete. And, the Linux version of the Rescue disk has never let me down!

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Hello All, specially Ted M.

I have used TI from V.8 to 2010 and swear by it, never at it.

Doing a backup is wise and needless to say, neccessary for peace of mind. But doing this BU will not let you replace a bad HD with a new one in reversing the BU to the new device. One needs to do a clone, this is offered in all versions of TI. You can also go back to a clone and singly copy back a lost file/folder.

Ted, are you sure that your way of doing the BU, is also copying all the OS and the booting folders/data ??? Do a test for me, BU to another compatible HDD, insert it in the C: position and see if it will boot your prefered OS. I got to do clones when I wanted to increase the size of my HDD in a Thinkpad, from 20 to 80 GBs and have done nothing but clones since that day on TI v.8. I would not mind being proven wrong ! To my mind, a clone is total protection.

Thanks for your expert opinions here. JP.

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Hello All, specially Ted M.

I have used TI from V.8 to 2010 and swear by it, never at it.

Doing a backup is wise and needless to say, neccessary for peace of mind. But doing this BU will not let you replace a bad HD with a new one in reversing the BU to the new device. One needs to do a clone, this is offered in all versions of TI. You can also go back to a clone and singly copy back a lost file/folder.

Ted, are you sure that your way of doing the BU, is also copying all the OS and the booting folders/data ??? Do a test for me, BU to another compatible HDD, insert it in the C: position and see if it will boot your prefered OS. I got to do clones when I wanted to increase the size of my HDD in a Thinkpad, from 20 to 80 GBs and have done nothing but clones since that day on TI v.8. I would not mind being proven wrong ! To my mind, a clone is total protection.

Thanks for your expert opinions here. JP.

it is absolutely untrue that you cannot restore a TrueImage backup to a new HDD – I have done that three times when the original HDD failed and they all worked perfectly fine.

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Hello All, specially Ted M.

I have used TI from V.8 to 2010 and swear by it, never at it.

Doing a backup is wise and needless to say, neccessary for peace of mind. But doing this BU will not let you replace a bad HD with a new one in reversing the BU to the new device. One needs to do a clone, this is offered in all versions of TI. You can also go back to a clone and singly copy back a lost file/folder.

Ted, are you sure that your way of doing the BU, is also copying all the OS and the booting folders/data ??? Do a test for me, BU to another compatible HDD, insert it in the C: position and see if it will boot your prefered OS. I got to do clones when I wanted to increase the size of my HDD in a Thinkpad, from 20 to 80 GBs and have done nothing but clones since that day on TI v.8. I would not mind being proven wrong ! To my mind, a clone is total protection.

Thanks for your expert opinions here. JP.

Since I use laptops and do not have other hds for them I can’t do this for you. My images include everything on the partition I’m doing the image on. You have to select the option I showed in my original post to do an image. What I do to verify my image is I actually go through and reinstall my image to my Hd after I have created it. If the image is screwed up, then my HD would be screwed up and I would have to resort to one of my earlier images. I suppose this is taking a chance on really hosing my HD by verifying my image in this manner, but I trust my image app to do a good job for me. I always make sure I do the clean up steps I specified in my original post, and I always keep my systems lean and mean, and have never had a problem. I have never used earlier versions of Acronis so I can not speak to their use.

With Acronis True Image, the plus pack is necessary to place the image onto a new PC. As I mention in my original post I use ATI Home 2010 with Plus Pack, so I indeed can place my image onto a bare bones HD if I wish to.

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I bought a Western Digital External Drive to make an image with Acronis True Image – a version specifically for WD. This was for a new laptop I have running Win7.

I plowed through all the directions available before I started and was finally ready to run it. It started fine and showed a progress bar on the monitor for a few moments, then the screen went black and who knows what was happening. A light was flashing on the ext. drive and on the laptop as if it was reading and writing. I left it running for 8 hrs+ constantly moving the mouse in case it was a laptop power management control that had shut down the computer. Finally I did an emergency shut down on the laptop.

I really want to make an image but my first experience was painful and time-consuming, so I need some input to this situation before I try again.
Janie

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I bought a Western Digital External Drive to make an image with Acronis True Image – a version specifically for WD. This was for a new laptop I have running Win7.

I plowed through all the directions available before I started and was finally ready to run it. It started fine and showed a progress bar on the monitor for a few moments, then the screen went black and who knows what was happening. A light was flashing on the ext. drive and on the laptop as if it was reading and writing. I left it running for 8 hrs+ constantly moving the mouse in case it was a laptop power management control that had shut down the computer. Finally I did an emergency shut down on the laptop.

I really want to make an image but my first experience was painful and time-consuming, so I need some input to this situation before I try again.
Janie

I also had a problem with a Western Digital Ext HD. I now own a Seagate 1 TB portable and it’s fantastic. I also am a little leary of the WD branded copy of Acronis. I am unsure how close to authentic it is. I could never see the image on the WD when booting to the rescue media to verify the image. I finally returned the WD and purchased the Seagate as a replacement. have never looked back. The authentic Acronis worked first time and each time since. I now have my original image and 6 subsequent images (reimage about once per month).

I hope I have answered all questions I saw. If I missed any please let me know. I want to thank all for their excellent input. This has been a great topic to discuss. Ted

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I also am a little leary of the WD branded copy of Acronis. I am unsure how close to authentic it is. I could never see the image on the WD when booting to the rescue media to verify the image.

I’m quite sure the software is authentic. It may NOT be fully featured. Often when software is bundled in that manner it is crippled in some way.

Joe

--Joe

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Hello Mike.

>>it is absolutely untrue that you cannot restore a TrueImage backup to a new HDD – I have done that three times when the original HDD failed and they all worked perfectly fine.

Hey, good on you. You might have missed the point here, doing a BU to the same HDD is not the same as replacing one for one. I would be thrilled to know that this is what you were doing ie: you HDD died, you replaced it with a blank new one, reversed the BU from USB to C: and got going ???

If so, please do tell me the difference between a clone and your procedure and why would TI offer a clone ? Remember, a clone is a bit for bit copy of your source, there can not be better BU. Maybe when you select BU the whole HDD, TI does a clone ??? I wonder what Ted will say !

I am really enjoying this site. JP.

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Hello Mike.

>>it is absolutely untrue that you cannot restore a TrueImage backup to a new HDD – I have done that three times when the original HDD failed and they all worked perfectly fine.

Hey, good on you. You might have missed the point here, doing a BU to the same HDD is not the same as replacing one for one. I would be thrilled to know that this is what you were doing ie: you HDD died, you replaced it with a blank new one, reversed the BU from USB to C: and got going ???

If so, please do tell me the difference between a clone and your procedure and why would TI offer a clone ? Remember, a clone is a bit for bit copy of your source, there can not be better BU. Maybe when you select BU the whole HDD, TI does a clone ??? I wonder what Ted will say !

I am really enjoying this site. JP.

Yes Jean, I make weekly full backups (image of Disk C:), and three times my Disk C: has died and I replaced it with an entirely new one. Once was a laptop drive, two others were from a tower. Each time the new drive was of a different make and twice of a different size than the one it replaced. They all were restored perfectly.

i will say, that in my recent experience, you cannot use this technique to restore your image to an entirely different computer (different MB, CPU, etc.) I just tried that and it did not work for me.

As for the “Clone” feature, I am pretty sure that is if you want to make an actual replica of your HDD, still keeping the original. I do not know why you might want to do this, but burrowing through the manual may give an answer.

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Yes Jean, I make weekly full backups (image of Disk C:), and three times my Disk C: has died and I replaced it with an entirely new one. Once was a laptop drive, two others were from a tower. Each time the new drive was of a different make and twice of a different size than the one it replaced. They all were restored perfectly.

i will say, that in my recent experience, you cannot use this technique to restore your image to an entirely different computer (different MB, CPU, etc.) I just tried that and it did not work for me.

As for the “Clone” feature, I am pretty sure that is if you want to make an actual replica of your HDD, still keeping the original. I do not know why you might want to do this, but burrowing through the manual may give an answer.

Mike,

See my last post about the plus pack for imaging to a different PC.

Ted

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Mike,

See my last post about the plus pack for imaging to a bare bones (New ) HD.

Ted

I don’t know about the latest version of TI, but I do know TI 9 does not need a “plus pack” to put an image onto a totally new HDD – I have done it three times as I said above, using just the retail (actually the downloaded from Acronis Site) version of TI 9.

MIke

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I recently bought a new laptop with Windows 7. I then bought and installed Acronis 2010.

I THINK I backed up correctly. Can I assume the the first full backup is actually an IMAGE backup?

Another question: Someone mentioned something about VERIFYING the backup.
How do I do that?

Can I now verify the backup I made 2 weeks ago (does it just check the integrity of the backup file or does it compare the backup to my current drive)?

Mel

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I recently bought a new laptop with Windows 7. I then bought and installed Acronis 2010.

I THINK I backed up correctly. Can I assume the the first full backup is actually an IMAGE backup?

Another question: Someone mentioned something about VERIFYING the backup.
How do I do that?

Can I now verify the backup I made 2 weeks ago (does it just check the integrity of the backup file or does it compare the backup to my current drive)?

Mel

It is am image backup if you followed the instructions correctly and backed up a disk or disks, not files. Make sure you included all hidden and system files (they are included by default, unless you unchecked something).

As for verify, at least on my release (Acronis TrueImage 9), you can do that separately anytime after you make the image, or there is a checkbox to do it as part of the imaging process. Be aware that the verification takes at least as long as the imaging itself.

Verifying just checks the integrity of the backup, it does not compare it with the current drive.

Mike

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Excellent thread thanks for creating it. In the past when I have assisted people needing guides I have referred the following tutorials.
http://www.whatsabyte.com/P1/Acronis_image.htm
at the bottom of that tutorial it also has a link on a guide for how to restore the image and also how to create the bootable cd.

Another very good tutorial I have used for some time including earlier versions of ATI is this one from a users group.
http://www.ugr.com/nl1106.html
That site also offers a much reduced price compared to regular price for those who are user group members.

for other options in imaging programs I found this article helpful
http://dottech.org/featured/6194

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Just one thing troubles me in the Original Post in this thread. You aren’t creating a new bootable Media Disk each time you run an Acronis Backup, are you? This will not make your Image a part of the Rescue Media. The Bootable Rescue Media is only a stand-alone CD of the True Image Program, and will not contain your backup image. Creating the Bootable Media is meant to be a one-time task.

With Linux partitions, don’t bother with making an Acronis Backup of those partitions. Linux has Clonezilla or PartImage, and both do an excellent job. Only back up the Windows Partition(s) with Acronis. Everything else you may need to do to restore a munged hard drive will require the tools of either Acronis True Image, or of Disk Director (to repair the disk structure prior to restoring partitions). Then, restore the Windows partition(s) with Acronis, and the Linux partition(s) using Clonezilla or PartImage. The Linux GRUB boot manager may also have to be reset after all is restored. That’s it.

The Acronis Plus Pack only comes into play when your hardware is changed, or you want to migrate to a new computer. There, the “cloning” features of the Plus Pack are needed.

-- rc primak

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Just one thing troubles me in the Original Post in this thread. You aren’t creating a new bootable Media Disk each time you run an Acronis Backup, are you? This will not make your Image a part of the Rescue Media. The Bootable Rescue Media is only a stand-alone CD of the True Image Program, and will not contain your backup image. Creating the Bootable Media is meant to be a one-time task.

With Linux partitions, don’t bother with making an Acronis Backup of those partitions. Linux has Clonezilla or PartImage, and both do an excellent job. Only back up the Windows Partition(s) with Acronis. Everything else you may need to do to restore a munged hard drive will require the tools of either Acronis True Image, or of Disk Director (to repair the disk structure prior to restoring partitions). Then, restore the Windows partition(s) with Acronis, and the Linux partition(s) using Clonezilla or PartImage. The Linux GRUB boot manager may also have to be reset after all is restored. That’s it.

The Acronis Plus Pack only comes into play when your hardware is changed, or you want to migrate to a new computer. There, the “cloning” features of the Plus Pack are needed.

I only created the bootable Media Disk one time. If I did not mention that then I should have. Just as the Win 7 rescue disk only needs to be created once I suspect all bootable media needs only be created once. That should be all that is necessary. I usually re-image about once per month so I can keep my images as close to real time as possible. I hate to have to reinstall a bunch of stuff after loading my image.

I also used Clonezilla on my Linux Mint partition. it is very effective, but somewhat less user friendly so I chose to use Acronis which is much more user firendly. I have never had to utilize the plus pack capabilities because I have never had to replace hardware to date. Someday I suppose I will have to, but hopefully not for a long time. Ted

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One other thing I may have forgotten to mention, I advocate creating images onto removable media, Ext HD, DVDs, NAS storage, etc. The images can be placed onto a seperate partition on your HD, but what happens to that image if the HD fails? I do not wish to chance it. I personally use an Ext HD, although I could just as easily use DVD. Either way, I can store the removable media seperately from our PCs.

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cAN someone please tell me where is the verify option in ATI 2010

Mel

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cAN someone please tell me where is the verify option in ATI 2010

Mel

Tasks and Log tab, Create Validation Task. This will validate your image.

Select Browse to select which image to verify.

Choose the image and click Proceed.

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Everything I have read suggests the plus pack is necessary for bare bones, but I have never tried either. Perhaps this is for 2010 only, or perhaps ATI Home edition. I found a special some time ago that gave the plus pack for free. I do not believe it is available any more, but it seems prices fluctuate almost hourly on some of this S/W.

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What great information. Thank you, Mr. Myers, for starting it. There is so much useful information here, and based on what I’ve read and the tutorial given, I’m pretty much ready to install Macrium Reflect Free.

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What great information. Thank you, Mr. Myers, for starting it. There is so much useful information here, and based on what I’ve read and the tutorial given, I’m pretty much ready to install Macrium Reflect Free.

Macrium Reflect free has several limitations over the full version.

1> it will not automatically verify the image
2> it will not manage multiple image backup storage and deletion.

plus several other things that I don’t use.

for #1 you will need to mount and verify the image manually from within reflect….
I consider this a good practice with backups anyway. A person’s eye on the process is a good thing AS LONG AS IT DOESN’T KEEP IT FROM GETTING DONE

If you are imaging manually on a weekly or monthly basis, and manually delete old images you no longer need, #2 is not a problem.

The advantage is that it is lightweight, works well and the price is right….

This is a great program for a tech that wants to get their customers started with imaging or create their own “recovery” image before or after working on a clients computer. It is also a great way to get started with imaging in a very simple and inexpensive way.

After using it you may decide to plunk down the change for the full version to get all the capabilities that it offers (Macrium obviously hopes you do…)

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Macrium instructions moved here:

http://lounge.windowssecrets.com/index.php?showtopic=776749&st=0&gopid=850158&amp;

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Macrium instructions moved here:

http://lounge.windowssecrets.com/index.php?showtopic=776749&st=0&gopid=850158&amp;

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mercyh, thank you so much for this great tutorial. I know it will come in handy for me and many others who may avail themselves of Macrium because of the great help you’ve given us here. Have a great weekend.

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Thanks Fred, I was one of the confused ones. I guess I did not remember correctly. I knew there was something about new hardware with the Plus Pack. Thanks for clearing that up! Have a great weekend. Ted

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Hi All,

Here’s how you set Acronis True Image Home (version 11) to automatically verify the backup.
See the two screens below:

When making my image backups or doing restores I always work from the Acronis Boot Disk.

To create a boot disk:
From the main True Image screen, select “Disk Utilities”.
Then select “Create Bootable Rescue Media” from the Tools section (at the top).
Follow the prompts.

By using the Boot {Rescue} Disk Windows can’t get in the way of the True Image software. I only keep a copy of True Image on the computer in case I have to mount an image to recover single files or directories. Also by using the Boot Disk you can use it on any system that uses the NTFS file system 32 or 64 bit. TI only cares about the File System not the Operating System.

I’ve used this method & same version on XP, Vista (both 32 bit) and Win 7 both 32 & 64 bit with no problem. I back up to Western Digital My Passport Essential drives. I have one drive for each machine and always keep 3 generations. Yeah! it’s a bit anal retentive but better safe than sorry, even though I’ve only ever need the latest one for for full disk restores, even to new drives, the older ones have come in handy to retrieve old files I’d erased and then realized I shouldn’t have.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Great info Retired Geek. ATI Home 2010 is ever so slightly different as follows:

Check the Validate backup archive when it is created.

Then Proceed.

That’s all there is to it.

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Ted , hello.

>> See my last post about the plus pack for imaging to a bare bones (New ) HD.

this is where we differ, in my case, ( not egocentric at all ) I wanted to replace a small HD with a larger one. The clone option seemed the way to go, as described in the RTFM to Acronis, yes, I read them . With a clone, no plus pack needed, it does all for you, no need to click and select all the folders in turn, maybe Mike will pipe up and say that the option is there for a whole HD selcetion, I do not know, I never used anything but clones. I run 7 machines here and 2 at friends’ places and I have used cloning as a saviour many times to get back on a crunged machine when a restore was out of the question.

This clone is so simple, click on it and voilà. USB HD of sufficient size to only clone the space on the source, I have cloned 400 G source HDs holding 59 G of used space to 80 G destination blank, it does not matter, the destination gets flushed in the doing. Mike maintains that he could boot from an interchanged HD, I can not comment as I only did clones as he did full backups. Makes me think that TI does a clone when a full HD backup is done. Just guesssing ! One needs all the stuff on a to be replaced HD to make it bootable, MBR included mainly and foremost. Seems to me that this MBR is not accessible by anything but the BIOS. ??? A clone is a bit for bit copy of the source, a real image, a mirror.

Are we having fun yet ?

I need simple procedures for my simple mind.

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I need simple procedures for my simple mind.

Jean,
Hello.. As well as i… I will try to explain how and why i “clone” and then sometimes “image” (both are boot-able if the original is)
OK … I clone my “Data” Disk” Because it contains all (most) of my “Backup Images” as well as all my stuff .. Over 500GB. If i were to Image i would then be Imaging Images. So in this case it does not have to be “boot-able” and isn’t, and i don’t. (i clone)
If i want a “boot-able” copy of my C: “OS” i then can “clone” or “image” Difference being i can Image just one partition, Cloning does the whole HD,… both will do the job. … However if my “OS” was to crash “HD” failure, my image then could not be used on the “toasted HD” . If i “cloned” the HD ,i could then just swap out the failed and i would be “good to go” Its an exact copy of the original..as long as the size is the same (Acronis would re-size as per you instructions when doing the clone)… piece of cake….
If on the other hand i was to have a hard drive failure on my C:and didn’t have a clone i would have to use the “boot-able recovery disk (that you previously have made…. you made one didn’t you?) Use Acronis to go through the procedure to install a new HD and recover an image from my “Data Disk”to the new HD …. not so piece of cake.. Well….after re- reading my simple explanation… it looks like it’s not so simple after all. Regards fred

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Jean,
Hello.. As well as i… I will try to explain how and why i “clone” and then sometimes “image” (both are boot-able if the original is)
OK … I clone my “Data” Disk” Because it contains all (most) of my “Backup Images” as well as all my stuff .. Over 500GB. If i were to Image i would then be Imaging Images. So in this case it does not have to be “boot-able” and isn’t, and i don’t. (i clone)
If i want a “boot-able” copy of my C: “OS” i then can “clone” or “image” Difference being i can Image just one partition, Cloning does the whole HD,… both will do the job. … However if my “OS” was to crash “HD” failure, my image then could not be used on the “toasted HD” . If i “cloned” the HD ,i could then just swap out the failed and i would be “good to go” Its an exact copy of the original..as long as the size is the same (Acronis would re-size as per you instructions when doing the clone)… piece of cake….
If on the other hand i was to have a hard drive failure on my C:and didn’t have a clone i would have to use the “boot-able recovery disk (that you previously have made…. you made one didn’t you?) Use Acronis to go through the procedure to install a new HD and recover an image from my “Data Disk”to the new HD …. not so piece of cake.. Well….after re- reading my simple explanation… it looks like it’s not so simple after all. Regards fred

Good Morning Fred,

Next question then, let’s say I wish to clone my entire HD. I understand that an Image is a “exact picture” of a partition whereas a clone is an “exact picture” of a HD (all partitions included), I think I have that straight. What happens if the HD contains, lets say a large partition for Win 7 (265GB – NTFS), a smaller partition for Windows page file (7 GB – NTFS), a partition for Linux Mint (25 GB – ExtFS), and a Linux swap partition created by the Linux installer (1.12 GB – ExtFS).

Would the clone that Acronis creates be able to write all 4 partitions to a new HD or new PC or would I have to write whatever Acronis can, then use my Clonezilla image to write the Linux partition. As you can see, Windows cannot even reconize the 2 extra partitions as having any data or having a file system (ExtFS). I suspect I would have to use something other than Acronis to clone this entire HD, perhaps Clonezilla using the Clonezilla DVD I created from the ISO file. There are 2 choices given by Clonezilla, Create an image for a partition or create an image of a disk????

This is really getting interesting, although somewhat long. I had no idea the differences between Imaging and Cloning when I started this, and perhaps still do not grasp all the concepts, but feel as though I am learning a lot.

Too early for beer this morning, coffee please! Ted

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Would the clone that Acronis creates be able to write all 4 partitions to a new HD or new PC or would I have to write whatever Acronis can, then use my Clonezilla image to write the Linux partition.

Ted ,
Yes good question.. I posted it on the Acronis forum If i get a definitive answer I’ll post back with their answer. I have done both ..but not at the same time (one disk) I think what would happen is that TI would do the image of the “Windows Partitions” as normal and then do the .ext3 partition sector by sector (no compression) Copying all empty sectors as if they contained “data” results then would be a much larger “image”…. I Think. Regards Fred
PS : you wouldn’t need to do the image from the “boot-able recovery disk” (although you could) I have run the Linux image from Windows.

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The whole idea here was to get those who are afraid of imaging to jump in, whether doing an image or a clone. My understanding is that an image may be placed onto anothe HD (new) as long as the other components are unchanged, whereas the Plus Pack is needed to transfer to an entirely new PC. Since I have not done this, perhaps this is considered a clone. I believe both an image and a clone contain the entire contents of the original partition (disk). perhaps the only difference is that an image is used to reinstall onto the same PC even if a new HD is installed where as a clone is used to put the OS on a new PC. I think this is all a matter of terminology.

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Ted, a bit slow tonight. You were a good 7 seconds after my post.

>>> a clone is used to put the OS on a new PC. I think this is all a matter of terminology.

This has a lot to do, you see I am French educated and not full induced in Shakespearian prose. The mian point is that you do what you need to do and I likewise.

Thanks a mega for your succour. JP.

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Ted , hello.

>> See my last post about the plus pack for imaging to a bare bones (New ) HD.

this is where we differ, in my case, ( not egocentric at all ) I wanted to replace a small HD with a larger one. The clone option seemed the way to go, as described in the RTFM to Acronis, yes, I read them . With a clone, no plus pack needed, it does all for you, no need to click and select all the folders in turn, maybe Mike will pipe up and say that the option is there for a whole HD selcetion, I do not know, I never used anything but clones. I run 7 machines here and 2 at friends’ places and I have used cloning as a saviour many times to get back on a crunged machine when a restore was out of the question.

This clone is so simple, click on it and voilà. USB HD of sufficient size to only clone the space on the source, I have cloned 400 G source HDs holding 59 G of used space to 80 G destination blank, it does not matter, the destination gets flushed in the doing. Mike maintains that he could boot from an interchanged HD, I can not comment as I only did clones as he did full backups. Makes me think that TI does a clone when a full HD backup is done. Just guesssing ! One needs all the stuff on a to be replaced HD to make it bootable, MBR included mainly and foremost. Seems to me that this MBR is not accessible by anything but the BIOS. ??? A clone is a bit for bit copy of the source, a real image, a mirror.

Are we having fun yet ?

I need simple procedures for my simple mind.

The whole idea here was to get those who are afraid of imaging to jump in, whether doing an image or a clone. My understanding is that an image may be placed onto anothe HD (new) as long as the other components are unchanged, whereas the Plus Pack is needed to transfer to an entirely new PC. Since I have not done this, perhaps this is considered a clone. I believe both an image and a clone contain the entire contents of the original partition (disk). perhaps the only difference is that an image is used to reinstall onto the same PC even if a new HD is installed where as a clone is used to put the OS on a new PC. I think this is all a matter of terminology.

Ted – you are right, it takes the plus pack for ATI 2010 to move an OS from one computer to a completely different one with different components. I just did that this afternoon, with pretty good success (after some tinkering with drivers and graphics settings). You cannot do that without the plus pack, although you could do it with the older versions of Acronis Server True Image.

Jean – When I talk about restoring to a new hard drive, I mean one that is installed in the same computer that you made the disk image from. If the original HDD goes bad, you can pop in a new one, restore, and go. Plus pack is not necessary. I am sure that clone will work also, but that is not it’s intended use.

Mike

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Ted,

I’ve used Acronis to Image my HP machine with XP SP3 & Ubuntu and it works fine. Here’s where the Acronis Boot {Rescue} disk (as I mentioned in my eariler post) comes in handy. Since it boots into Linux it sees all the partitions and Images them just fine.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Ted,

I’ve used Acronis to Image my HP machine with XP SP3 & Ubuntu and it works fine. Here’s where the Acronis Boot {Rescue} disk (as I mentioned in my eariler post) comes in handy. Since it boots into Linux it sees all the partitions and Images them just fine.

Thanks for this info. I guess my next image will actually be a clone of the entire disk, not just the Win 7 partition.

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I’ll go to the back of the class and ask this question:

With Windows 7, and booting from the C: drive, how do you add another drive (such as D:) so that you can boot from the Acronis Boot (Rescue) CD?

Sorry to add such a basic question to such a learn-ned discussion,
Dick

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I’ll go to the back of the class and ask this question:

With Windows 7, and booting from the C: drive, how do you add another drive (such as D:) so that you can boot from the Acronis Boot (Rescue) CD?

Sorry to add such a basic question to such a learn-ned discussion,
Dick

Do you already have cd drive on this machine and are just asking how to boot from it, or do you need to physically add another drive?

If you are asking how to boot from your cd drive, which buttons you push are different on different machines due to bios using different commands. The basic procedure is the same on all machines though.

On a Dell machine with bios from the last two or three years you have two options.

As the machine is booting and before you see the “windows” screen press either F3 or F12. F12 will bring up a Boot Menu that allows you to select your CD-rom drive for THIS BOOT ONLY. Be sure you have your boot disk in the CDrom drive when you select this option. F2 will take you into the Bios setup menu, here you can select the device that will be checked FIRST for boot media EACH time the machine boots.

Other manufacturers of bios have different keys and different options. Most show the options for a very small amount of time as the bios screen flashes up during a machine bootup.

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With Windows 7, and booting from the C: drive, how do you add another drive (such as D:) so that you can boot from the Acronis Boot (Rescue) CD?
Dick

Dick-Y,
If your “BIOS” is set to boot from a CD ….You just insert the Acronis Disk or the one that you have made (boot-able Recovery Disk)…and restart Your PC then will boot into Acronis.. At that point you can choose to do whatever you want Recover, Image , Clone , etc. Regards Fred

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Mercyh:
Thanks. The F12 thing works with my Acronis Bootable CD. I do have a CD drive already installed on my machine. When I asked my question I was thinking I had to add that drive (D:) to my boot list, so that I would have the choice to boot either from C: or D: when booting up.
Dick

reason for edit: owe thanks to Mercyh for his answer

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Good morning, Ted. Here is a hot cup for you.

Might I quote you thus : Would the clone that Acronis creates be able to write all 4 partitions to a new HD or new PC or would I have to write whatever Acronis can, then use my Clonezilla image to write the Linux partition. As you can see, Windows cannot even reconize the 2 extra partitions as having any data or having a file system (ExtFS). I suspect I would have to use something other than Acronis to clone this entire HD, perhaps Clonezilla using the Clonezilla DVD I created from the ISO file. There are 2 choices given by Clonezilla, Create an image for a partition or create an image of a disk????

I can see now that you have never done a clone or never looked at one. When I do a clone, I then open the C: and the USB HD side-by-side on my screen ( right-click on the Taskbar, click on it ) and will randomly look at some folders to see that not only they are twins but have the same properties. Let me guarantee you that the clone WILL DO a write of all the partitions to the USB device and in return as you mentioned, to a new PC, let me qualify this….to a new HD on the same PC, to be legal in the MS EULA. This last one was tested here, I have two IBM Thinkpads G41, two XPP licenses, but one had Office 3k on it, the other O2K. I clone the one to a USB HD, then cloned it back to the O2K one and it ran beautifully. Looking at the Disk Management, I could see it all on one as the other. I reverted the O2K to its legal SW after the test. I should have kept/done Prt/Scrn to show but did not and now my brother has the O2K machine, distant.

I have a problem that Mike seems to have licked, I can not do a clone on a duo-booting machine, XPP and Ubuntu. I tested the setup on a sole XPP machine, TI’s ERM ( Emergency Rescue Media ) floppy worked fine with the USB 200 G HD, why it will not work on the twin-booting is still to be searched. I have a feeling that Grub is the stump. Mike ?

Now, my philosophy : why anyone would do a back up and not use a clone is really beyond me. The clone will give you access to all your files/folders in case of a need to recoup one or two AND on top of this, it will give you a bootable replacement, the better of two worlds and much simpler too, suits me fine.

I was trying to do on TI 2010, a small 3″ CD of 50 MBs but the new facility requires 69 MBs. Shoot ! I found on the Acronis site, an .iso of 33 MBs that will make this small pocketable 3″ CD, it is bootable and will present you all you need to do what the full sized TI CD does. I have this small CD made for all TI versions 8 to 2010.

Thanks for starting this topic, many will benefit from your brain-wave. JP. ( NB: Jean is John here. )

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Now, my philosophy : why anyone would do a back up and not use a clone is really beyond me. The clone will give you access to all your files/folders in case of a need to recoup one or two AND on top of this, it will give you a bootable replacement, the better of two worlds and much simpler too, suits me fine.

I was trying to do on TI 2010, a small 3″ CD of 50 MBs but the new facility requires 69 MBs. Shoot ! I found on the Acronis site, an .iso of 33 MBs that will make this small pocketable 3″ CD, it is bootable and will present you all you need to do what the full sized TI CD does. I have this small CD made for all TI versions 8 to 2010.

Thanks for starting this topic, many will benefit from your brain-wave. JP. ( NB: Jean is John here. )

I have a friend who used Acronis for years and ONLY made clones of his hard drive. He was convinced this was the best way to backup his computers. BUT – there is one thing that clones can NOT protect you from.

That is when Windows “goes bad”, the registry gets corrupted, and programs do not work correctly. For recovering from this type of problem, I have found Acronis image files to be much more useful than cloning the entire drive – and I finally convinced my friend of this too.

I maintain a monthly and quarterly history of Acronis images for each computer on my network. I also keep Acronis images of the “Windows Clean install” and “Clean install + programs”. When things start going wrong for any computer, then I restore from an earlier image file.

After about 18 months, it is time to start over again – then I restore from the “Clean install + programs” image file. If I am changing some of the low level software, then I restore from the “Windows Clean install” image file.

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Fred, you get your turn too.

>> Would the clone that Acronis creates be able to write all 4 partitions to a new HD or new PC or would I have to write whatever Acronis can, then use my Clonezilla image to write the Linux partition.

Take my word for it, it does. All partitions ! No need to monkey around with another SW. So simple ! JP.

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Fred, you get your turn too.

>> Would the clone that Acronis creates be able to write all 4 partitions to a new HD or new PC or would I have to write whatever Acronis can, then use my Clonezilla image to write the Linux partition.

Take my word for it, it does. All partitions ! No need to monkey around with another SW. So simple ! JP.

Jean,
Hello, I guess that we are at an impasse here but, once again one final point… Acronis does not image “Linux Partitions” the same way as NTFS Windows partitions They state that ” Maybe in the next release Acronis will be able to do this without doing a “Sector by Sector image” This means that when Acronis does the “backup image” (for Linux ) it will copy all Sectors blank or not, resulting in a very large backup.So if your Linux HD is 1TB and the data on it is (including the OS) 10 GB, your image will be 1TB . Where would you put it?… The bottom line is both Imaging and Cloning have their places for different circumstances . Regards Fred

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.

You just insert the Acronis Disk or the one that you have made (boot-able Recovery Disk)…and restart Your PC then will boot into Acronis.

I have always used the Acronis Disk I purchased. Am I missing something??? Is there any advantages to the boot-able recovery Disk vs the Acronis Disk itself???
Michael

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.
I have always used the Acronis Disk I purchased. Am I missing something??? Is there any advantages to the boot-able recovery Disk vs the Acronis Disk itself???
Michael

I assume this boot-able recovery disk is one that is made from within the Acronis software. If that is a correct assumption, I suppose the advantage to using such as disk is that you can keep your purchased disk tucked away safely because the more the disk is used, the greater the possibility of damage.

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I assume this boot-able recovery disk is one that is made from within the Acronis software. If that is a correct assumption, I suppose the advantage to using such as disk is that you can keep your purchased disk tucked away safely because the more the disk is used, the greater the possibility of damage.

It might also depend on how significant the changes are in updates. Your original disk may be many updates out-of-date, and it might just happen to matter. Vendors should post a warning with updates whether or not making a new recovery disk is advisable.

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.
I have always used the Acronis Disk I purchased. Am I missing something??? Is there any advantages to the boot-able recovery Disk vs the Acronis Disk itself???
Michael

Michael,
Hello…If the “Acronis Disk” that you purchased works, on your “OS” then you don’t need to do anything else… Because of the many hardware software configurations some have to make a custom boot-able recovery disk ..or download a specialty disk (.iso) from Acronis. The only other time is if you have “PlusPack” installed (only for TI 2010 v7046) you then have to “burn” another “recovery disk” to make “PlusPack” run up at boot time. Regards Fred

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.
I have always used the Acronis Disk I purchased. Am I missing something??? Is there any advantages to the boot-able recovery Disk vs the Acronis Disk itself???
Michael

Aside from some of the perfectly good reasons posted above, one of the reasons to make a bootable rescue disk is if you purchased Acronis True Image 2010 as a download from the website, like I did.

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I have Acronis True Image Home 2010 with Plus Pack.

Is that two separate programs, or a combination of the two after installation?

Under What would you like to do? choose Back Up My Disks.

Why not Back Up My System? That is one of the few selections I can’t find an explanation for.

Let’s remind Acronis users that the question mark in the lower left corner of the displays will provide context-sensitive Help, as well as access to a conventional (searchable) Help system. If it doesn’t give you the answer to something that is on the screen, try selecting the option you want information about, and then click the question mark again. (Backup sector-by-sector is a good example of that, and backup unallocated space is related and subordinate, so it gets a full explanation as well. Those are interesting, but watch your backup size skyrocket if you select them.)

Plus Pack: Good Grief.

Please correct me where I am wrong.

Readers may be familiar with *.iso files. In normal circumstances you can open them, see the contents (which is just a bunch of files and folders), and perform normal operations on the contents. Or you can burn them to a CD or DVD, which is what they were designed for. The only odd thing about it, which almost no one notices in this day and age, is that you extract them to an unformatted CD or DVD.

A bare metal install, which is the point of Plus Pack, is exactly the same thing, but to an unformatted hard drive. We’re talking about what is to be a primary system drive, not a new drive on a computer that already has a working O/S. This is not the same as using a rescue disk.

There is no shortage of boot disks and devices that will boot a system with an unformatted hard drive, but unless they are designed to format it (and in this case install an entire saved system on it) they will just ignore the drive. A convenient exception is a disk (or flash drive) for any partitioning program, which will at least give you an opportunity to format and partition the drive while you are at it. The catch there is that improvements are made to the formats themselves as progress is made, and we all want the latest and greatest.

There is plenty of competition for accessing hard drives and performing operations on them, including installations. Bart PE is a well-known XP-era example, and WinPE includes Windows own version for Win 7 (that link actually gives you The Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7, from which you install the PE).

Now this is required for the installation of the Plus Pack, by my reading of the instructions, unless you already have it and know where to find it. (There must be something of the sort on the Windows installation disk, since it will perform a bare metal install, but I can’t find it.)

That file has a download size of more than 1.7 GB, which is a feature that no one, least of all Acronis, seems to have mentioned in any of this. If you visit that Microsoft page they report estimated download times, with dial-up shown by default, and the time given is 69 hours and 21 minutes at 56K. It also leaves me wondering if anyone in this thread has actually gone through this.

I admit defeat. Read the instructions for Plus Pack, complete with Greek on the first page of the second set, and tell us how easy it really is, or more conveniently, where I have gone wrong.

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That file has a download size of more than 1.7 GB, which is a feature that no one, least of all Acronis, seems to have mentioned in any of this. If you visit that Microsoft page they report estimated download times, with dial-up shown by default, and the time given is 69 hours and 21 minutes at 56K. It also leaves me wondering if anyone in this thread has actually gone through this.

Peterg,

I am not sure where the 1.7 GB file size you mention above comes from, but my downloads of Acronis True Image Home 2010 and the plus pack were much smaller than this:

These are the actual downloads for my Acronis installation.

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Peterg,

I am not sure where the 1.7 GB file size you mention above comes from, but my downloads of Acronis True Image Home 2010 and the plus pack were much smaller than this:

These are the actual downloads for my Acronis installation.

I have Windows Ultimate 64-bit, Acronis True Image Home 7046 with Plus Pack 7046 (on more than one computer), and the gigantic amount of cloud storage to go with it (with not a byte of data in it). I realize that all Acronis stuff is 32-bit. I have a clean install with thousands of dollars’ worth of software installed, with very little personal information and no data, for which a standard compression backup is less than 20 GB, with an earlier backup of the most important stuff less than 15 GB. If I am in Timbuktu without a computer, I can theoretically buy one off the shelf, download a single file, and my fortune in fully set up and registered software can be installed with a single file that overwrites whatever was on the drive prior to it, or to a totally unformatted drive. I have left out the details, but you get the idea. Clouds should be another thread, but businesses use them and that’s good enough for me if I can find the bandwidth and get a thread going in this forum.

From All Programs, click Acronis. That will give you two folders: Acronis True Image Home, and Plus Pack for Acronis True Image Home. Click on the second of these and it will give you Acronis WinPE ISO Builder. This is the only application that displays under Plus Pack in my installations. Click that and click the permission, then at the Welcome screen either read the Help or click Next (where the help is the same).

Just to save you a bit of time in getting through it, you must have the WinPE 3.0 ISO for Windows 7, and getting that is what takes the very large download, unless it is already on the silly machine and I don’t know where to find it. I have downloaded it all (from the link given in an earlier post), and installed as much as I can of it (including Windows System Image Manager, which is now an installed program), but I invite you to review the second of the displayed help samples, complete with Greek. I don’t know whether those are mathematical symbols or modern or ancient Greek, but they lost me right about there. I appear to have everything I need, but I can’t put it together.

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Hey, Fred, how are you ?

Allow me to quote you : I guess that we are at an impasse here but, once again one final point… Acronis does not image “Linux Partitions” the same way as NTFS Windows partitions.

The impasse is due to my mentioning the Ubuntu machine that will not allow me to clone the XPP HD, I have never tried to clone/backup a Linux HD. My question was about getting some information on why a machine double-booting using Grub, would not let me clone one HD, the C: holding XPP-SP3. when I try a clone on that machine, I am offered by TI three sources, the C:, I select this one as a source, then as destination the D: holding U’u and the USB port holding a 200 G HD, I pick this one as destination. Nothing pertaining to the D:, the Ubuntu one.

Still, it gets to do it all, C: to USB, and when houskeeping the MBR, it aborts. This is where I put the question here. No problem on a single booting machine with the same Acronis ERM and that same USB HD.

Yes, we are having fun ! JP.

Edited to remove a typo.

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double-booting using Grub

and when houskeeping the MBR

Has anyone been able clone a drive at all that is using Grub as its bootloader? I would suspect that TI does not treat the MBR area of the Disk as a true clone as if it did it would not “housekeep” it.

Grub uses a totally different boot partition than windows. If TI is not Linux aware it will not know how to manage this partition. You should be able to IMAGE the windows partition but adding the Linux boot partition to the image will more then likely cause it to fail.

The thing I don’t understand is why a CLONE has any housekeeping to do. It should simply be a copy of the 1’s and 0’s on that drive at the very lowest level so should be independent of file systems or anything else…..

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Hello mercy.

>>> Has anyone been able clone a drive at all that is using Grub as its bootloader? I would suspect that TI does not treat the MBR area of the Disk as a true clone as if it did it would not “housekeep” it. <<>> Grub uses a totally different boot partition than windows. If TI is not Linux aware it will not know how to manage this partition. You should be able to IMAGE the windows partition but adding the Linux boot partition to the image will more then likely cause it to fail. <<>> The thing I don’t understand is why a CLONE has any housekeeping to do. It should simply be a copy of the 1’s and 0’s on that drive at the very lowest level so should be independent of file systems or anything else…..<<<

You got this right as per the RTFM on Acronis, bit for bit. Why is it copying ( cloning ) the MBR as the last item, is a mystery to me, it ought to be first in the process, but I am no close associate of Acronis. Housekeeping is obviously a bad term for me to use, it just is like it as it shows as the last item to do.

Be good.

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Ted, a little mix-up here.

>> I assume this boot-able recovery disk is one that is made from within the Acronis software. If that is a correct assumption, I suppose the advantage to using such as disk is that you can keep your purchased disk tucked away safely because the more the disk is used, the greater the possibility of damage. < I < have the proper name.

Yeark ! It is called a : Bootable Rescue Media, muchly sorry. No Recovery word.

Edited with an apology. JP.

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Ted, a little mix-up here.

>> I assume this boot-able recovery disk is one that is made from within the Acronis software. If that is a correct assumption, I suppose the advantage to using such as disk is that you can keep your purchased disk tucked away safely because the more the disk is used, the greater the possibility of damage. <<

Jean, You attribute this excellent statement to me whereas Fred actually posted this comment.

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I think this thread boils down to, there is a lot of info out there, some of it contradictory, but excellent none the less. There is imaging, cloning, back ups, etc. Basically just do it. Try to save yourself some grief in the future and Image your partitions or Clone your disk. Reloading your HD (if you hosed your OS) or a new HD (If your HD failed) or a new PC (If you are retiring your old PC) is so much quicker than having to reload from scratch. JUST DO IT!!!! I’m certainly glad I got so many people, obviously more experienced than me on these contraptions we call PCs, to lend so much help to those others on my level in learning how to do create these images/clones. Thank you all!!!

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I think Ted (Acronis) and mercyh (Macrium Reflect Free)
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp
have each done an excellent piece of useful info on these tutorials with very useful pics of the screens involved in performing the procedures.

Way to go !!

PS : Maybe a moderator can link my accolades in this post to mercyh’s thread on the Macrium instructions.

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Thank you Tim. mercyh has already provided this link in one of his posts in this thread. Because the thread was getting very large we jointly decided to split the two products into two different threads. This should make it easier to follow the thought from the 2 threads without mixing up the 2. As can be seen this topic is far more involved than I originally thought. I figured there were people out there who did not do imaging/cloning because they did not know about it or were intimidated by the complexities. I was one of these people for a long time, but finally jumped in and then thought, If I can do this then anyone can! So I then thought, OK how can I help those still holding back, and came up with this. From my perspective, this thread has caused me more questions, than solved more problems, but then that’s the fun of this thread. How do we answer these questions? Isn’t this fun! There have been many questions posed, so if anyone else knows the answers, this is your chance. :cheers: Well it’s definitely late enough for a brewski. Have a great evening everyone.

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To all good citizens here.

I have written about my inability to clone a C: device when it is harnessed to a Grub loader, XPP & U’u.

I now wonder if this is due to the machine being set up with two HDs, C: = XPP and D: = U’u ( Ubuntu ). This setup would not be that easy to clone as single HD holding the same data in two partitions even if Grub is present. I should try and question Acronis techies ( yeark ! ).

I saw here a Prt Scrn of a HD holding 4 partitons and the last one being Linux-something and the user saying that it cloned properly. Would my different hardware be the cause ???

I am at the stage where I will look into disabling Grub on that machine and flushing U’u just to prove that the C: HD is good and will clone. It is so easy to reinstall U’u. Maybe just removing Grub and pulling the 40 wire cable on the D: would do the trick ? Or the 4-wire power cable ?

There was a question here about using the BRM for TI. It saves you the rebooting of the machine, it starts from a clean environment, when using the TI CD as installed on your machine, it will state that a reboot is necessary, it needs this clean environment. BRM = Bootable Rescue Media, not Recovery !

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I did not want to quote Ted B’s whole post here, but I will say that I am running Win 7×64 with Acronis True Image 2010 with plus pack (build 7046) and have so far found no problems. I recommend Ted go get this version and give it a try, since he already paid for it.

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I did not want to quote Ted B’s whole post here, but I will say that I am running Win 7×64 with Acronis True Image 2010 with plus pack (build 7046) and have so far found no problems. I recommend Ted go get this version and give it a try, since he already paid for it.

I do not remember if I mentioned previously, but I have Win 7 64 Bit Ultimate and my wife has Win 7 64 Bit HP. This build of Acronis with the Plus Pack works well for both.

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I did not want to quote Ted B’s whole post here, but I will say that I am running Win 7×64 with Acronis True Image 2010 with plus pack (build 7046) and have so far found no problems. I recommend Ted go get this version and give it a try, since he already paid for it.

Acronis True Image 2010 (build 7047) is the build that I am unable to use.
Jack

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Two additions to the thread:

1) Using Clonezilla, booted from the Clonezilla ISO CD, chose to Clone/Image the entire disk rather than a partition. Clonezilla appears to have cloned/Imaged all partitions on the drive. All partitions were compressed to default. On both NTFS and ExtFS partitions only the used space was cloned, not the free space. I say it appeared to work because I’m a little hesitant to use my normal verification process of restoring from the clone image.

2) Opened Acronis to attempt same. Chose all 4 partitions. See attached for sizing:

As can be seen, the total size is over 59 GB, which is the total of the NTFS partitions (Used space only) and the ExtFS partitions (Entire space, both used and unused space). It appears that this proves Fred is indeed correct in his statement that Acronis treats NTFS and ExtFS differently. Because my Linux partition is not very large, the entire Clone/Image size is only about 9 GB difference. You can see though that a large Linux partition would drastically increase this disparity. I haven’t actually run the Acronis Clone/Image yet as I am running out of time this evening. It may be a couple of days before I can do this.

Does anyone know a good, safe way to check (verify) the Clonezilla Clone/Image? My normal method is simply restore from the Clone/Image. If it works then the Clone/Image was successful. I’m a little hesitant to do this for rather obvious reasons.

Thanks. Ted

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I hope that I have the right Ted, this time. Good morning.

>>> My normal method is simply restore from the Clone/Image. If it works then the Clone/Image was successful. I’m a little hesitant to do this for rather obvious reasons.

Next clone, why not get a compatible HD and slip it in, this is the prime use of a clone, is it not ? I use a 200 G SATA 2.5″ HD with an adapter ATA to SATA, dream setup. Or also, you can get both HDs to open on your screen, side-by-side, and compare the size of different folders. This might not proof the bootability of the destination, the interchange would. Have you opened your tower lately ? A good occasion to remove all the dust too. Be daring. JP.

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Jack, good morn to you.

>>> Acronis True Image 2010 (build 7047) is the build that I am unable to use.

I have 7046.. What problem do you experience with the next version, your 7047 ? 7046 is faultless here, you knew this ! JP.

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Jack, good morn to you.

>>> Acronis True Image 2010 (build 7047) is the build that I am unable to use.

I have 7046.. What problem do you experience with the next version, your 7047 ? 7046 is faultless here, you knew this ! JP.

My error, I meant build #7046
Jack

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Jack, once more over the barrel !

>>> >>> Acronis True Image 2010 (build 7047) is the build that I am unable to use.

What happens ? It is so smooth here that I am curious why you are unable to use TI. Mind you, I also have a problem, cloning through Grub, but any non-Grub machine is fine.

Here’s to you JP.

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Ted, good evening.

Food for thought. You were asking about a way to “proof” a clone. I found one !

I just did a clone on my Acer, cloning from 250 G to 120 G HDs, after it was done, I went to F12 and selected to boot from the HD, it knows more than I and it offered to boot from all the HDs that it could see, thus I clicked on the USB still connected and voilà, full boot as from the C:. What more do you need ? Tee ! hee !

I vouch for the fact that it booted from the USB, my Acer is so capable and there was no LED activity from the tower LED and the USB HD LED was very active.
What my eyes see, I believe.

As an added note, I would rather use the BRM than the full TI application, this one needs a reboot to access the HD without any hook and on rebooting, it gives you a DOS-like screen when the BRM gives you more of a GUI one. To each his own !

This has been a nice initiative on your part. Acronis rules ! JP.

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Ted, good evening.

Food for thought. You were asking about a way to “proof” a clone. I found one !

I just did a clone on my Acer, cloning from 250 G to 120 G HDs, after it was done, I went to F12 and selected to boot from the HD, it knows more than I and it offered to boot from all the HDs that it could see, thus I clicked on the USB still connected and voilà, full boot as from the C:. What more do you need ? Tee ! hee !

I vouch for the fact that it booted from the USB, my Acer is so capable and there was no LED activity from the tower LED and the USB HD LED was very active.
What my eyes see, I believe.

As an added note, I would rather use the BRM than the full TI application, this one needs a reboot to access the HD without any hook and on rebooting, it gives you a DOS-like screen when the BRM gives you more of a GUI one. To each his own !

This has been a nice initiative on your part. Acronis rules ! JP.

Jean, I attempted to boot from the ext HD. I even installed it in my wife’s laptop with Win 7 HP (my image is Ultimate). The Bios is set up to boot from external device first, no go. Booted directly into her Int HD. Not really suree how to get it to boot to the ext HD. I’ll have to play some more.

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Jean, I attempted to boot from the ext HD. I even installed it in my wife’s laptop with Win 7 HP (my image is Ultimate). The Bios is set up to boot from external device first, no go. Booted directly into her Int HD. Not really suree how to get it to boot to the ext HD. I’ll have to play some more.

An external HD shows as just another HD, complete with drive letter. I don’t think you want the BIOS to treat it as an external drive, but you do want to give it a dedicated drive letter and work from that.

Edited to add: Start thinking of it as a dual-boot arrangement. Give it a drive letter like ‘X’ (for external) to make it obvious that it isn’t a machine-assigned letter.

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Hello again All!

I just finished a test to make sure this old brain remembered correctly.

System Setup:
HP PC
OSes: Windows XP SP3 & Ubuntu Linux 10.04 both installed on Drive #1
Windows Swap file & Backup partition on Drive #2
Backup Device: Maxtor 80 GB USB 2.0 external drive
Backup Software: Acronis True Image Home {Version 11}
Disk Tool: Acronis Disk Director {Version 9.0}

Procedure #1:
Boot from True Image Recovery Media {CD}
Select: Acronis True Image Full Version
Select: Backup
Select: My Computer
Select: Disk #1
DeSelect: Disk #2
Select: Maxtor Drive as Image Location
Select: Verify Image
Run the Backup.

Procedure #2:
Remove CD from drive.
Insert Acronis Disk Director CD.
Close Acronis True Image {Causes machine to reboot using DD CD}
Delete all partitions on Disk #1 {Like a new drive}
Remove CD from drive.
Exit Disk Director.
System Fails to Boot – as expected.

Procedure #3:
Insert Acronis True Image Recovery Media.
ReBoot
Run Restore on Disk 1.
Remove CD from Drive.
Reboot System to Windows – Successful
Reboot System to Ubuntu – Successful

So using the Acronis True Image Recovery Media will allow you to successfully backup and restore a Dual Boot PC.

The images below were taken with my camera as booting from the True Image & Disk Director CDs I had no screen capture software available.

Sorry, but the images are in reverse order!

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Good morning RG.

I see in the top photo that Acronis offers to save the MBR and track 0. What dual booter are you using ? My machine using Grub will not offer this option and I have problems doing a clone. Waiting in earnest for your comeback.

Your humble servant, JP.

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JP,

This machine is also using GRUB. Are you booting from the Acronis Rescue Media?

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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RG, thanks for a fast come-back.

>>> This machine is also using GRUB. Are you booting from the Acronis Rescue Media?

There is some evil in these machines, I am on Grub too, I also tried the BRM and the main full option CD. Darn it ! No such offer but I have not given up, more trials are in the offin.

I do not seem to recognize your screen photos, what version of Acronis are you using ? Thanks. JP.

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I do not seem to recognize your screen photos, what version of Acronis are you using ?

I’m using Acronis® True Image Home® version 11.0 (build 8,027)

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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My backup technique is as follows using TIH 2010;

I have 3 hard drives that I use for the image process.

one drive is my installed C drive with Win 7 x64 – 500gb
one drive is a removable (not USB) drive used to hold all backups D drive – 1TB
one drive to restore my backed up image to – F drive – 500gb

Under the running Win 7 I do a full backup of my C to a folder on D.

Immediately after the backup, I do a Restore from D to my F drive.

After the Restore, I immediately boot from my F drive.

If boot is successful, I now have a backup hard drive ready to go if my C drive
fails. I don’t have to try to do a restore in panic mode. Once successful
I turn off the F drive

Backup time = 18 minutes
Restore time = about the same.

I have even done a restore of my C drive (sata 2) to a new SSD and booted successfully.

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Thank God for images! Hose, Hose, Hose. I attempted to remove the Linux partitions by going to Gparted and deleting these partitions. Worked well, EXCEPT the PC would not boot. Could not find the Windows Loader was still looking for the Grub Loader. I used the Clone I created in post 81 to get back to my 4 partition disk, EXCEPT that the win 7 portion was corrupt???? Fortunately I still had my Acronic Image of my Win 7 partition. It was just under a month old, so everything for the last month had to be redone. Late last evening I got everything (almost) back to normal. Went to bed, then this AM installed a couple of apps and updated a couple Apps that were behind the times. Now I’m back to where I was. Needless to say I immediately cleeaned everything to pristine condition then created a new up to date image with Acronis. Later today I will try the complete disk clone using Acronis to see if it works better than the Clonezilla clone worked. Using the 2 images I did get to where I was, it just took longer than expected.

Proves how important imaging/cloning is in our PC experiments!!!!!!!

I still think I want to elliminate the Linux partition. I guess I’m just not impressed with Linux. Don’t like the method to install programs, Don’t like the user interface, etc. Sorry to have gotten off topic. I’ll probably have to use EasyBCD to get rid of the grub Loader (maybe) to get rid of the Linux partitions. If anyone knows a safe way to do this please start a new thread on how. Thanks.

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Thank God for images!

That tale is downright painful to read, but I hope you tested the drive itself for drive errors, and sooner rather than later. We all tend to get shortsighted when frustrated, and the possibility of drive errors should spring instantly to mind when we think of the vague term ‘corrupted’. Running the occasional chkdsk /r or equivalent can avoid big trouble in the long run.

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Ted,

Here’s a couple of posts on the subject although they are a couple of years old the principle is sound.
Post 1
Post 2

Good Luck & Let us know how it goes.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Ted,

Here’s a couple of posts on the subject although they are a couple of years old the principle is sound.
Post 1
Post 2

Good Luck & Let us know how it goes.

Hey retired geek, the second post looks most promising. After I create the whole disk Image mentioned above, I may try that. If you don’t hear from me for a day or two you’ll know why. Ted

Well it worked like a charm. I will put the actual steps into a thread in other OS’s so anyone with Linux that wants to go back can follow the steps to fix their MBR. Thanks again retireddgeek. That gets a big thumbs up.

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To add to a previous post on the differences between Image and Clone PC Worldhas a descent discussion on the subject.

Every thing is back with my PC. I just hosed it in my feeble attempts to see what is next. I will be attempting a complete disk Image with Acronis next. I will post the results.

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Good morn, R.Geek.

I hope that your Post 1 and Post 2 are not copy protected as I dumped both of them to my printer. To the point and easy to follow. I will get back here on this, pro or cons.

Thanks a mega for posting them. JP.

About 1 hour later.

R.Geek, total success ! I have used Post 1 to clear Grub and after a long reboot, it went directly to XPP on this older P4. Totally disregarded U’u even if Disk Management still shows that it is there on IDE1 of 20 G, D:.

Now, I am off to try to clone C: as this was the end of the exercise in the first place. I might even revalidate U’u after the clone, undecided yet, this U’u is nice but more like a toy here as I use Bill’s brain-wave for all my serious use of my machines. This Grub had me stumped, let see now if C: will clone.

2nd edit. It did clone ! I totally ignore why Grub was the problem. It feels funny cloning a 20 g HD to a 200 G 2.5″ USB one but it did. I looked at both side-by-side on my screen and they are twins. The proof would be to boot from that 200 G HD. Maybe later.

What a nice site this is for pertinent information. I had done the Grub removal a few years ago but I had totally forgotten how it was to be done, I now have it on paper. Thanks again. JP.

Thanks for your instructions. JP.

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I am using Acronis True Image Home 2010 on Windows 7 64 running a nightly task to backup my “C” drive. This backup is incremental and excludes “pagefile.sys” and “hiberfil.sys” with the backup going to another internal drive. Yet on a day where I’ve done minimal web browsing, only sent or received half a dozen emails, have not downloaded any files or had any software updates, where my total internet usage was only 33MB (it was a Sunday ), the incremental backup file was nearly 2GB!

Am I missing something? Is Windows hiding more large files apart from the 2 *.sys files that are excluded?

If anyone can please shed some light on this mystery it would be greatly appreciated……….

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Bob:
If you defrag the drive you are backing up, Acronis will back up all the segments – even though you specify “incrementally”.
Dick

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Bob:
If you defrag the drive you are backing up, Acronis will back up all the segments – even though you specify “incrementally”.
Dick

Dick,

Thanks for that info. However I haven’t defraggged the drive, although your comment made me look into that. Windows has a task to defrag at 1AM every Wednesday. The 2GB backup mentioned occurred on a Sunday, so it seems unlikely that defrag is the cause. Looking at the incremental files that have been created at least half of them are 1GB or greater with the largest being 3.1GB.

So – I’m still curious where these sizes are coming from.

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Dick,

Thanks for that info. However I haven’t defraggged the drive, although your comment made me look into that. Windows has a task to defrag at 1AM every Wednesday. The 2GB backup mentioned occurred on a Sunday, so it seems unlikely that defrag is the cause. Looking at the incremental files that have been created at least half of them are 1GB or greater with the largest being 3.1GB.

So – I’m still curious where these sizes are coming from.

I have had similar results (VERY large incremental backups) with Acronis for several years. It does seem to work properly for some people, but never has done so for me.

I simply decided not to use incremental backups – I only do full image backups.

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I wish to thank all those Loungers who contributed to this thread. My original intention was to get the juices flowing and get those who do not image to start doing so when they see how easy it can be. There have been many very well thought out responses, and more information than I thought possible. Everyone contributed to the overall discussions and that is what I wanted. I have learned huge amounts after reading through these posts. I hope you all have learned as much as I have. Thanks again and I hope everyone has a great day and keep imaging! Cheers! Ted

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Good morning Ted M.

It has been a while that no more comment was added here on clone/image/backup.

I just had a look at W-7 BU. My Acer has a 300 G HD, partitioned in C: and D:, how cute ! W-7 BU will only do the work on one partition at the time ??? Am I right in presuming that it will add this image to the destination media ?

All this in comparaison to Acronis. I use TI all the time but wanted to see if W-7 was any better. You might remember that I do clones all the time too, it flushes the destination and does the trick. I can not see a purpose to keeping all previous images/clones as the one that is important is the last one.

The point of my rambling is to find out if W-7 needs two passes to BU both partitions, one after the other when TI does this in one sweep ??? You point in using an external medium is obviously the best approach to this problem which is not really a problem but THE solution.

Have a great day. ( I am the same JP as before, the Lounge lost me for a while, and my 89 previous posts ) JP.

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I also re-image regularly, after any significant change or once per month. I want to keep my images up to date so if I have to restore (It happens a lot) then it does not take very long to get back to where I was. You are right as well that for restore purposes, Images are best. It has been established in other threads that cloning is used to connect an old and a new HD and transferring the old HD to the new HD. This would definitely not work if the HD fries or is hosed so it will not work any more. An image is the best way to go for this.

I now create images to both a partition on my internal HD and my Ext HD so I have a duplicate of each image. Probably overkill but it makes me feel so warm and cuddly.

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I also re-image regularly, after any significant change or once per month. I want to keep my images up to date so if I have to restore (It happens a lot) then it does not take very long to get back to where I was. You are right as well that for restore purposes, Images are best. It has been established in other threads that cloning is used to connect an old and a new HD and transferring the old HD to the new HD. This would definitely not work if the HD fries or is hosed so it will not work any more. An image is the best way to go for this.

I now create images to both a partition on my internal HD and my Ext HD so I have a duplicate of each image. Probably overkill but it makes me feel so warm and cuddly.

Keeping at least one copy of your backup images on at least one drive which is not inside your computer is definitely not overkill! If that hard drive goes bad, or if you whole computer fries itself, this is your only defense. I actually make copies to two external locations. But I am noted for being a bit paranoid .

BTW, for Windows 7 64-bit, you must back up your Windows and System Partitions together. They work together in normal computer operations.

-- rc primak

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Good afternoon rgrosz.

>>> there is one thing that clones can NOT protect you from.

>>> That is when Windows “goes bad”, the registry gets corrupted, and programs do not work correctly.

I just can not follow you thinking here, if W goes bad, a clone will get you back as it redoes the WHOLE hard drive, bit for bit, Registry and all, all, all ! ! !

Sincerely. JP.

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Bob, hello.

>>> BTW, for Windows 7 64-bit, you must back up your Windows and System Partitions together. They work together in normal computer operations.

Might be so, a clone does this for you . . . and me. 17 minutes and I am all cloned back, the whole sheebang. This goes for any OS too, any version on top of it.

A great day to you. JP.

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Bob, hello.

>>> BTW, for Windows 7 64-bit, you must back up your Windows and System Partitions together. They work together in normal computer operations.

Might be so, a clone does this for you . . . and me. 17 minutes and I am all cloned back, the whole sheebang. This goes for any OS too, any version on top of it.

A great day to you. JP.

I think your terminology is different from mine. A clone by definition (as far as I can tell) is a one to one transfer from one HD to another HD when both are simultaneously connected to the PC, as when you are adding a new HD for your OS to replace an older HD. (This can only be done on a desktop PC as it is impossible, I believe, to simultaneously connect 2 HDs to a laptop.) An image is used to restore the HD when something goes seriously wrong, but you are not replacing the HD, just restoring it.

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I think your terminology is different from mine. A clone by definition (as far as I can tell) is a one to one transfer from one HD to another HD when both are simultaneously connected to the PC, as when you are adding a new HD for your OS to replace an older HD. (This can only be done on a desktop PC as it is impossible, I believe, to simultaneously connect 2 HDs to a laptop.) An image is used to restore the HD when something goes seriously wrong, but you are not replacing the HD, just restoring it.

Not true about laptops. If you have an enclosure, it is possible to clone one HD to another using True Image on a laptop. I am assuming this is a fairly modern laptop, but it can be done just as easily as cloning one USB drive to another, which I know from experience can be done on a laptop. As long as you have enough USB or E-SATA ports, you can do it.

And many modern laptops can take on two internal HDs. I wouldn’t go this route because you would have to open the laptop’s case, but it could be faster than using an enclosure.

-- rc primak

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Not true about laptops. If you have an enclosure, it is possible to clone one HD to another using True Image on a laptop. I am assuming this is a fairly modern laptop, but it can be done just as easily as cloning one USB drive to another, which I know from experience can be done on a laptop. As long as you have enough USB or E-SATA ports, you can do it.

And many modern laptops can take on two internal HDs. I wouldn’t go this route because you would have to open the laptop’s case, but it could be faster than using an enclosure.

I stand corrected on this. I had not thought about an enclosure. Thanks for this additional information. It could prove very helpful in the future.

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Good morning to you Ted.

>>> I think your terminology is different from mine.

Is this Shakespear not a fine language ? Your definition is on the button ! In my mind, whatever the terms used, we do the very same operation. I have used a clone to repair an OS, think about it. A machine goes bad, whatever the reason, you have a twin ( clone ) on a USB HDD, you copy it back to the C: HD and you are back in business.

Right you are also when you say that the cloning is good when one wants to go to a new HD. This is how I got to do clones, I had a Thinkpad with a 40 G HD and I wanted to inplant an 80 G one, after the cloning, I swapped the both of them. Success ! This got me thinking, a rare occurence. If I could do this cloning for a good HD, why could I not do it for a sick one ??? TI clone does the WHOLE HD, bit for bit, it is a true image, better defined as a mirror as far as bits are concerned, sectors or partitions can be different if one clones to a different size HD. Becauze it is a mirror, you also have access to any data on the clone if this tickles your fancy.

Do remember that I was French educated and still learning. As you say, terminology is at the root of many evils, the aim of the exercise is to have at hand, all the data somewhere whence it can be extracted and replaced on a machine, I do this in a large lump whereas you do it piecemeal unless you elect to recopy all sectors at one sweep as your last post explained that you might elect to do this.

I mentioned before that I need simple procedures, no need for me to elect this or that partition, I just hit Proceed and TI is my slave.

This is not an argument, Ted. Just an explanation of my mantra, I respect your highly learned knowledge. Jean.

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Hello Bob.

>>> it could be faster than using an enclosure.

This gimick is new to me, what is it ? I have some USB 2.5″ HD cases enclosing a HD for cloning, is this what you mean ?
I searched Google but they only mention parlimentary processes.

Have a great day. JP.

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For me this rig is the ultimate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153112

You can clone 2.5″ to 3.5″ drives independent of the computer it is plugged into and vice versa. This makes your backup drives totally independent of any hardware. (they can be plugged into any enclosure or directly into the Mother Board of any machine that has sata support.

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Hello mercyh.

>>> For me this rig is the ultimate. http://www.newegg.co…N82E16817153112

Thanks for the education. I might have a home-made way of replacing this device, I have some spare SATA and IDE connectors, all USB, and I can do this to any “naked” HD, I mean access them so as to do clones backup or just access to extract a folder/file. I can thus connect two 2.5″, the enclosure will only accept one of each size, Right ?

Going to watch Flushing Meadows. Be good. JP.

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