Backup complete PC with Acronis Home

[CdLSRN]

a.. I want to Backup on to external hard drive (1 TB Seagate eSATA
Barracuda loaded into a CoolGear 3 1/2" enclosure) with Acronis True Image
11 Home. (If the SATA doesn't work well for this, the case also has firewire
800, and USB 2 , and an internal fan).

b.. I have a Dell XPS 420, desktop, with a 750 GB serial ATA 2 hard
drive at 7200 rpm, and an added 1 TB partitioned hd,Quad6600 (2.40 GHZ), dct
8mb, 256 mb ati hd 2600 xt video card; 4GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800 MHZ-( 4x1gb),
Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (Logitech for Dell), Windows Vista Ultimate
sp1, 32 OS, media card reader with int. bluetooth, ...Avast virus scanner,
Windows Ultimate firewall, Linksys WRT600 N ,gigabit router with firewall,
22" flat panel monitor with built in monitor and mike.
And a 1 TB external backup with e-SATA.

c.. I HAVE a simple and probably stupid question. Where would I
Install this Acronis Program ?- on C: drive? Or reallocate space on second
1TB internal HD and download it there with my data?

d.. Also if anyone is familiar with Acronis 11 Home...could/should
it be set to add changes as they occur? Do I need a second external HD to
take out of the home? It seems to me that if I am just going to make an
image once a week there is no need for a second External drive. I just carry
it back in when I am ready to make another copy.

e.. If virus hits would it affect the hard drive with the OS (DRIVE
C), or both of the hard drives (internal) OS and all my data?

f.. With my previous computer I got away with never making a backup
for 10 years, so this is not a familiar process to me.

g.. Acronis® True Image 11 Home system requirements:
a.. Acronis True Image 11 Home is the easiest, the most convenient
and intuitive disk imaging, backup and system restore software you've ever
seen. Its automated, wizard-driven operations make backup and restoration
simple even for a novice.

System Requirements:
Windows® Vista;
Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition;
Windows® XP SP 2;
Windows® 2000 Professional SP 4;
CPU: 300MHz or higher;
RAM: 256MB or higher;
Disk space: 300 MB;
Extra space for installation: 150 MB.
Supported File Systems:
b.. FAT16/32, NTFS, Linux Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, and Linux SWAP;
Special sector-by-sector support for unknown and corrupted file
systems.
For server operating systems backup see Acronis True Image Server
for Windows

c.. For working on Windows Vista, must meet minimum Vista
requirements.

d.. REQUIREMENTS-Windows Vista recommended system requirements FOR
Ultimate

e.. 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

f.. 1 GB of system memory

g.. 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space

h.. Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:

a.. WDDM Driver

b.. 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)

c.. Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware

d.. 32 bits per pixel

i.. DVD-ROM drive

j.. Audio Output

k.. Internet access (fees may apply)

 

[Malke]

CdLSRN wrote:

(much snippage)

a.. I want to Backup on to external hard drive (1 TB Seagate eSATA
Barracuda loaded into a CoolGear 3 1/2" enclosure) with Acronis True Image
11 Home. (If the SATA doesn't work well for this, the case also has
firewire 800, and USB 2 , and an internal fan).

c.. I HAVE a simple and probably stupid question. Where would I
Install this Acronis Program ?- on C: drive? Or reallocate space on second
1TB internal HD and download it there with my data?

d.. Also if anyone is familiar with Acronis 11 Home...could/should
it be set to add changes as they occur? Do I need a second external HD to
take out of the home? It seems to me that if I am just going to make an
image once a week there is no need for a second External drive. I just
carry it back in when I am ready to make another copy.

1. You install True Image on whichever internal hard drive you like. Once
you've installed the program, create the True Image Bootable media disk
from within the program.

2. Boot the computer with the Bootable disk you created and go into True
Image Full. Back up your data by imaging it and store the image on an
external hard drive. If you need to restore your computer, you will boot
with the Bootable disk and go into True Image Full and choose "Restore".

3. Yes, you can do incremental backups with True Image.

All of this is covered on Acronis's website and in the program's help. It is
not a Windows issue.

Malke

 

[CdLSRN]

Thank you.

CdLSRN wrote:

(much snippage)




1. You install True Image on whichever internal hard drive you like. Once
you've installed the program, create the True Image Bootable media disk
from within the program.

2. Boot the computer with the Bootable disk you created and go into True
Image Full. Back up your data by imaging it and store the image on an
external hard drive. If you need to restore your computer, you will boot
with the Bootable disk and go into True Image Full and choose "Restore".

3. Yes, you can do incremental backups with True Image.

All of this is covered on Acronis's website and in the program's help. It
is
not a Windows issue.

Malke

 

[DL]

Apart from Malke's advice, if your system is damaged in any way, virus,
damaged sectors, corrupt files etc then the image will also be likewise
damaged, but since Acronis does incremental Images, if set that way, you
will at least have an Image of the last 'good' system. And in the image
schedual you can select the 'verify' option

 

[Phillips]

I'd rather go for separate system snapshots - or "images" - rather than
incremental ones since the chances of getting a bad image get higher with
the incremental approach.

You should image your system only after major upgrades - say, SP1 or other
big program install such as Office, Adobe Photoshop.

The huge advantage of an image is that you can extract from it whatever
documents you need - sometimes minor ones such as a fav background.

However, you should not use Acronis as your sole backup solution. Paste or
save a copy of your important files in at least two other locations one on
another internal HDD for ease of access and, another on some portable
device - external hard drive, flash etc - that you can easily take with you.

Word for the wise: you do not know what's important to you till you miss it


Michael

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

It totally depends on how important the data is to you and how many hours,
days or weeks of data you're willing to lose.

If you're dealing with important business or legal documents, I just read
one guy describe his backup schedule as being an incremental backup every
fours hours, and, I believe, a new set started every week, also alternating
storage drives. IOW, every week, whenever you go to wherever it is that you
store your off-site drive and retrieve the other one, when you plug the
other one back in, start an Incremental with a new name (like the date as
yymmdd + "a" [you want a letter to separate the root of the filename from
the digits of increment that get added automatically], plus the extension,
of course.) If there is no file that already has that name root then a new
Full backup is created according to your choices and exclusions (disk,
folders, etc.) After that the Incremental backups get added and the names'
last digit will increase as 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. get added automatically. In
this scenario, the most you lose is a week's work. The least you can lose is
four hours of work.

Unfortunately, I don't see that Acronis Home Edition really has the ability
to do this job decently, unlike the corporate Workstation Edition, which can
be scripted in a very detailed manner. However, I have purchased Home
Edition in order to have knowledge of its mechanisms, so that I have time to
test the true abilities of its Backup Locations' management functions, which
at this moment I don't understand (or trust) completely. Or, from what I've
already learned using the 15-day demo, the user can manually edit the
Scheduled Backup script every week when reconnecting the backup drive that
has been in storage, simply to change the name root. Then leave it connected
and get very frequent backups. With only a little more imagination, Malke's
Full Backup made using a bootable CD could be the root of the rest of the
week's incremental backups. It's going to be an interesting month or two of
testing (unless I want to play with the clock, and I don't feel like doing
that on this machine.)

I know you use partitions to help keep your files sorted. Another option is
to back up each partition separately, lessening the overall risk. You might
only need frequent backups of "Documents" and only daily backups of other
work product (images, videos, etc.) and the System partition. I just means a
little bit more work when setting up for the week's backups.

 

[CdLSRN]

Thank you Gary. I could not find that other post about screensavers on my
computer. There seems to be a chunk of time missing.

It totally depends on how important the data is to you and how many hours,
days or weeks of data you're willing to lose.

If you're dealing with important business or legal documents, I just read
one guy describe his backup schedule as being an incremental backup every
fours hours, and, I believe, a new set started every week, also
alternating storage drives. IOW, every week, whenever you go to wherever
it is that you store your off-site drive and retrieve the other one, when
you plug the other one back in, start an Incremental with a new name (like
the date as yymmdd + "a" [you want a letter to separate the root of the
filename from the digits of increment that get added automatically], plus
the extension, of course.) If there is no file that already has that name
root then a new Full backup is created according to your choices and
exclusions (disk, folders, etc.) After that the Incremental backups get
added and the names' last digit will increase as 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. get
added automatically. In this scenario, the most you lose is a week's work.
The least you can lose is four hours of work.

Unfortunately, I don't see that Acronis Home Edition really has the
ability to do this job decently, unlike the corporate Workstation Edition,
which can be scripted in a very detailed manner. However, I have purchased
Home Edition in order to have knowledge of its mechanisms, so that I have
time to test the true abilities of its Backup Locations' management
functions, which at this moment I don't understand (or trust) completely.
Or, from what I've already learned using the 15-day demo, the user can
manually edit the Scheduled Backup script every week when reconnecting the
backup drive that has been in storage, simply to change the name root.
Then leave it connected and get very frequent backups. With only a little
more imagination, Malke's Full Backup made using a bootable CD could be
the root of the rest of the week's incremental backups. It's going to be
an interesting month or two of testing (unless I want to play with the
clock, and I don't feel like doing that on this machine.)

I know you use partitions to help keep your files sorted. Another option
is to back up each partition separately, lessening the overall risk. You
might only need frequent backups of "Documents" and only daily backups of
other work product (images, videos, etc.) and the System partition. I just
means a little bit more work when setting up for the week's backups.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
http://grystmill.com

a.. I want to Backup on to external hard drive (1 TB Seagate eSATA
Barracuda loaded into a CoolGear 3 1/2" enclosure) with Acronis True
Image
11 Home. (If the SATA doesn't work well for this, the case also has
firewire
800, and USB 2 , and an internal fan).

b.. I have a Dell XPS 420, desktop, with a 750 GB serial ATA 2
hard
drive at 7200 rpm, and an added 1 TB partitioned hd,Quad6600 (2.40 GHZ),
dct
8mb, 256 mb ati hd 2600 xt video card; 4GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800 MHZ-(
4x1gb),
Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (Logitech for Dell), Windows Vista Ultimate
sp1, 32 OS, media card reader with int. bluetooth, ...Avast virus
scanner,
Windows Ultimate firewall, Linksys WRT600 N ,gigabit router with
firewall,
22" flat panel monitor with built in monitor and mike.
And a 1 TB external backup with e-SATA.

c.. I HAVE a simple and probably stupid question. Where would I
Install this Acronis Program ?- on C: drive? Or reallocate space on
second
1TB internal HD and download it there with my data?

d.. Also if anyone is familiar with Acronis 11 Home...could/should
it be set to add changes as they occur? Do I need a second external HD to
take out of the home? It seems to me that if I am just going to make an
image once a week there is no need for a second External drive. I just
carry
it back in when I am ready to make another copy.

e.. If virus hits would it affect the hard drive with the OS
(DRIVE
C), or both of the hard drives (internal) OS and all my data?

f.. With my previous computer I got away with never making a
backup
for 10 years, so this is not a familiar process to me.

g.. Acronis® True Image 11 Home system requirements:
a.. Acronis True Image 11 Home is the easiest, the most convenient
and intuitive disk imaging, backup and system restore software you've
ever
seen. Its automated, wizard-driven operations make backup and restoration
simple even for a novice.

System Requirements:
Windows® Vista;
Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition;
Windows® XP SP 2;
Windows® 2000 Professional SP 4;
CPU: 300MHz or higher;
RAM: 256MB or higher;
Disk space: 300 MB;
Extra space for installation: 150 MB.
Supported File Systems:
b.. FAT16/32, NTFS, Linux Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, and Linux SWAP;
Special sector-by-sector support for unknown and corrupted file
systems.
For server operating systems backup see Acronis True Image Server
for Windows

c.. For working on Windows Vista, must meet minimum Vista
requirements.

d.. REQUIREMENTS-Windows Vista recommended system requirements FOR
Ultimate

e.. 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

f.. 1 GB of system memory

g.. 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space

h.. Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:

a.. WDDM Driver

b.. 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)

c.. Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware

d.. 32 bits per pixel

i.. DVD-ROM drive

j.. Audio Output

k.. Internet access (fees may apply)

 

[Carl]

RE: 1. You install True Image on whichever internal hard drive you
like. Once
you've installed the program, create the True Image Bootable media disk
from within the program.

2. Boot the computer with the Bootable disk you created and go into True
Image Full. Back up your data by imaging it and store the image on an
external hard drive. If you need to restore your computer, you will boot
with the Bootable disk and go into True Image Full and choose "Restore".

3. Yes, you can do incremental backups with True Image.

All of this is covered on Acronis's website and in the program's help. It is
not a Windows issue.

Thanks very much, Acronis True Image is due to arrive for me today, you just
saved me a lot of reading!

 

[Paul Montgomery]

CdLSRN wrote:

(much snippage)



1. You install True Image on whichever internal hard drive you like. Once
you've installed the program, create the True Image Bootable media disk
from within the program.

2. Boot the computer with the Bootable disk you created

Not necessary. Run True Image from within Windows. There is no need
to use the bootable disk unless you need to use it to restore a
damaged system and you can't load Windows.

If you only want to restore one file, several files, full directories,
etc.from a full backup you can also do that from within Windows. If
you want to do a complete restore, you can start that from within
Windows as well.

It's not a difficult program to use.

 

[Paul Montgomery]

RE:         1. You install True Image on whichever internal hard drive you
like. Once
you've installed the program, create the True Image Bootable media disk
from within the program.

2. Boot the computer with the Bootable disk you created and go into True
Image Full. Back up your data by imaging it and store the image on an
external hard drive. If you need to restore your computer, you will boot
with the Bootable disk and go into True Image Full and choose "Restore".

3. Yes, you can do incremental backups with True Image.

All of this is covered on Acronis's website and in the program's help. Itis
not a Windows issue.

Thanks very much, Acronis True Image is due to arrive for me today, you just
saved me a lot of reading!

Carl: you don't have to use the bootable disc... and if you bought the
boxed version, you don't even have to make a disk. The one you get in
the box is bootable.

Use that disc only if you have to. Otherwise run all of TI's stuff
right from within Windows. If it needs to do a reboot, it will let
you know.

 

[prettyinpink]

BACKUP
*********
Install to your root drive 'C' and backup through windows onto a separate
USB drive or internal SATA drive.

RESTORE
**********
Acronis 10 was notorious for not booting from the CD with certain
configurations of hardware. If you get a working GUI on boot then fine,
restore from that but it does take its time. With my Acronis 10 booting into
its linux like shell it normally takes 5 times longer to restore than to
back-up although the result is perfect. A much better solution I have found
is to use the BartPe option. The plugin was on the 10 version of the Acronis
disc and may be included on the version 11. You really do need to do some
home work to get it working but the restore difference is astounding
compared to the original product. Just over 100GB per hour restore speed
from a USB 2.0 external drive. If you want to have a try then go for "The
Ultimate BootDisc for Windows" and search the forums for advice and plugins.
Note: You will need a retail copy of WinXp Pro SP1 to create the working
disc but I'm sure that you will be able to find one.............. Once a
disc is created, boot into the shell and restore from there.....

RE: 1. You install True Image on whichever internal hard drive you
like. Once
you've installed the program, create the True Image Bootable media disk
from within the program.

2. Boot the computer with the Bootable disk you created and go into True
Image Full. Back up your data by imaging it and store the image on an
external hard drive. If you need to restore your computer, you will boot
with the Bootable disk and go into True Image Full and choose "Restore".

3. Yes, you can do incremental backups with True Image.

All of this is covered on Acronis's website and in the program's help. It is
not a Windows issue.

Thanks very much, Acronis True Image is due to arrive for me today, you just
saved me a lot of reading!

Carl: you don't have to use the bootable disc... and if you bought the
boxed version, you don't even have to make a disk. The one you get in
the box is bootable.

Use that disc only if you have to. Otherwise run all of TI's stuff
right from within Windows. If it needs to do a reboot, it will let
you know.

 

[Paul Montgomery]

BACKUP
********* [snip]

RESTORE
**********

[snip]

I don't know why you posted that. And I'm even more confused why you
posted it in reply to me.