Chebi said:
Anna: I am in the process of gearing up for an external USB drive
principally to image my HDD in case of a catastrphic incident. I have been
following up with great interest your posts on the subject especially your
stetp by step instructions for imaging and restoring the main drive. I
have a
few questions, however:
1- My computer XP SP2 came with two partitions and was wondering how to
handle this imaging process with Acronis . Do I need to image the two
paritions consecutively or would Acronis do that automatically? and would
the
imaged destination movable drive be bootable on the source drive in either
case? regardless of the imaging sequence?
2- Can you image two separate computers' drives (each with 2 partitions)
on
the same movable drive, and how would you manage retoring the two (twin)
images to their repective source drives? If so do you need to partition
the
destination drive for each of the two source drives? and how would that
affect your answer to your step 7 of your instructions regarding partition
deletion on the destination drive?
3- Could you treat the removable destination drive as a regular storage
for
various data files from two computers in addition to the images?
4-After imaging and/or cloning how could you verify you actually did clone
or image on the movable drive? and could you safely restore to, say, your
still working drive as a dry run to veryfy the process before you really
need
and have to?
Thanks for your help in the matter
Paul:
1. Yes, the Acronis program has the capability of imaging all the partitions
on one's HDD "in one fell swoop" as it were. In effect, you would be
creating a disk image of the entire disk which would include, of course, all
the partitions present on the disk. Incidentally, the program does have the
capability of creating disk images of *individual* partitions of a
multi-partitioned HDD.
2. Yes, you could use the same HDD to store the images of different
computers. I assume your reference to a "movable drive" refers to an
external HDD (USB or Firewire) but no matter; an internal HDD (presumably
secondary to one's primary boot drive) could also be used as the recipient,
i.e., the destination drive, of the disk images.
You need not partition the destination drive in that situation. Merely
designating different file names for the backup archives (files) would be
sufficient. (Obviously you would name them in such a way as to identify from
whence they came, right?)
With respect to your question re step 7 of the instructions - please note
that the information contained in that step referred to the disk-to-disk
cloning process - not the disk imaging process described in the second
section of the instructions. Recall that there are two basic backup methods
employed by the ATI program - disk-to-disk cloning and disk imaging.
Up to this point I've interpreted your questions as they relate to the disk
imaging process - *not* the disk cloning process. When you use the Acronis
program to clone the entire contents of one HDD to another HDD only then is
it necessary for the disk cloning process to delete all partitions on the
destination HDD. The Acronis program does not have the capability of
*cloning* individual partitions to another HDD. In that situation it's an
"all or nothing" proposition. As we've indicated, you *can* create disk
images of individual partitions.
3. Absolutely
4. If you used the disk cloning process and the recipient of the clone was a
USB or Firewire external HDD, the only way to definitively determine that a
clone was created would be to re:clone the contents of that external HDD to
an internal HDD - either the original source drive or another internal HDD.
Then, of course, you would boot to that drive to ensure all is well.
While you could, of course, peruse the cloned contents on the external HDD
following the disk cloning operation, this would not ensure that a viable
clone had been created.
If the HDD in its USB or Firewire external enclosure is removable (it's not
a commercial one-piece device nor are warranty issues involved), one could
remove the HDD from its enclosure and install it (temporarily) as an
internal HDD in the PC (I'm assuming we're talking desktop PCs here) and
boot to it. Admittedly that would be an awkward methodology for most users
but it is an option.
If, however, one had used another internal HDD as the recipient of the
clone, then it would be simply a matter of booting to that newly-cloned
drive to determine that all went well. Please note the cautionary note re
disconnecting the source HDD *before* booting to the destination HDD in that
situation.
Insofar as disk images are concerned, you would need to undertake the normal
recovery process to determine with assurance that a viable clone had been
created.
Our experience with the Acronis True Image program over nearly two years has
been quite positive. It has proven very reliable with respect to both the
disk cloning & disk imaging backup & recovery processes. But it (nearly)
goes without saying that using either process you must begin with a bootable
operating system that's completely functional and without significant
problems. If you clone garbage, garbage is what you'll get. I point that out
because it's amazing how many users we come across that somehow have the
idea that disk cloning (or disk imaging) will somehow remedy whatever
problems they were having with their system.
Anna
