Acronis Truie Image froze my machine

[Sam]

I am planning to purchase a new Dell computer in the next month or two with
Vista Business edition. I did some research concerning the Vista complete
backup program and felt I needed a better backup program. The ShadowProtect
Desktop program appeared to have the features I am looking for.

Glad to read that you are using this backup program with Vista and not
having any problems. Any thoughts, cautions, and/or suggestions that you
might have for a new user of ShadowProtect Desktop program, would be very
much appreciated. Thanks, Sam

 

[Richard Herb]

How about this: You continue usingAcronis. I'll continue using
Carbonite. We'll both be happy.

funny stuff

 

[dwn]

I want to make an Acronis true image of my Laptop, 40GB HD O/S XP PRO. My
questions:

1. Will the 40GB HD image to an external (USB) 140HD change it to a 40GB drive?

2. Will the 140GB Hard drive, with two bad clusters affect the Acronis image
(ie, should the image copies on the bad sectors will it affect the 40GB image)?

3. What happen if I use a bigger or smaller HD when imaging a 40GB HD?

Thanks

 

[John Inzer]

I want to make an Acronis true image of my Laptop, 40GB HD O/S XP
PRO. My questions:

1. Will the 40GB HD image to an external (USB) 140HD change it to a
40GB drive?

2. Will the 140GB Hard drive, with two bad clusters affect the
Acronis image (ie, should the image copies on the bad sectors will it
affect the 40GB image)?

3. What happen if I use a bigger or smaller HD when imaging a 40GB HD?

Thanks

========================================
No...the Acronis backup image won't change the size
of your external hard drive.

Have you tried running Error Checking (chkdsk) on
your external hard drive to repair the bad sectors?

(315265) How to Perform Disk Error Checking
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=315265

Personally...when I run Error Checking...if errors are
found...I run it again and again until no errors are
reported.

In Windows XP to find the Error-checking log file...
go to...Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer /
Application / [Source] Wininit or Winlogon

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[dwn]

No...the Acronis backup image won't change the size
of your external hard drive.

Let me explain; I have a few old HD of various capacity. I intend to use IBM
Deskstar either a 40GB (no bad sector) or a 140GB (with bad secters) to image a
40GB laptop. Norton's Utilities found two bad sectors, not sure if they were
marked.

Have you tried running Error Checking (chkdsk) on
your external hard drive to repair the bad sectors?

No, I will do it. I assume if repair, no problem with Acronis imaging?

(315265) How to Perform Disk Error Checking
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=315265

Personally...when I run Error Checking...if errors are
found...I run it again and again until no errors are
reported.

OK, understand.

In Windows XP to find the Error-checking log file...
go to...Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer /
Application / [Source] Wininit or Winlogon

What do I do after that?

Thanks
PS: I just migrate from a Win09SE desktop to a Dell XP Pro and Thinkpad T20.

 

[John Inzer]

No...the Acronis backup image won't change the size
of your external hard drive.

Let me explain; I have a few old HD of various capacity. I intend to
use IBM Deskstar either a 40GB (no bad sector) or a 140GB (with bad
secters) to image a 40GB laptop. Norton's Utilities found two bad
sectors, not sure if they were marked.

Have you tried running Error Checking (chkdsk) on
your external hard drive to repair the bad sectors?

No, I will do it. I assume if repair, no problem with Acronis imaging?

(315265) How to Perform Disk Error Checking
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=315265

Personally...when I run Error Checking...if errors are
found...I run it again and again until no errors are
reported.

OK, understand.

In Windows XP to find the Error-checking log file...
go to...Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer /
Application / [Source] Wininit or Winlogon

What do I do after that?

Thanks
PS: I just migrate from a Win09SE desktop to a Dell XP Pro and
Thinkpad T20.

=================================
Beware I'm just a dweeb and you probably
should wait on an expert opinion.

The idea is to run Error Checking...and then
check Event Viewer to see if problems were
found and corrected.

When the drive is clean...run Defrag.

Then...run Acronis and create your image.

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Anteaus]

If the objective is backup, select the option to image the disk to a file.
This will create a file on the USB disk from which the internal disk can be
reloaded at a later date.

When doing a direct disk-copy Acronis will (if you ask it) resize the
partition to fit the available space. Or, you can tell it to simply transfer
the partition as-is. So, you either end-up with a 140GB partition, or a 40GB
partition and 100GB available for other partitions. Your call.

Existing bad sectors will not result in corruption of a backup to file, but
may prevent a disk-image being made.

In any event I'd be wary that once a disk starts to show bad sectors this
may be a sign of impending mechanical trouble.

 

[David Webb]

You must use either Windows' chkdsk utility or the drive manufacturer's utility
to resolve the bad sector issue in the target drive before making your backup to
it.

You need to give a quick read of the Acronis TI User Guide in order to
understand the different backup procedures available.

Acronis TI can backup a drive, partition or selected data.

When it backs up a drive or partition, it can make an image of the data sectors
only (default), a complete sector-by-sector backup, or clone the complete drive.

The regular backup will not change the size of the target drive.

If you make a regular backup of your main drive, the backup file created by
Acronis will be smaller, in total, than the original data. Note that you can
select the backup file size to fit on CD or DVD media. Multiples would then be
made if necessary.

As to target drive space usage, my C drive partition is 50 GB, space used is
23.7 GB, and the backup file for it is only 15.4 GB (using normal compression).

If you select a sector-by-sector backup, both data sectors and empty sectors
will be backed up, but the total size will depend upon the amount compression
you select.

If you clone a drive the backup will be the same size as the original.
Readjustment of the target drive size is an option. Read the User Guide for more
details on this procedure.

Be sure that your target drive is formatted in NTFS in order to support file
sizes greater than 4.5 GB.

Hope this helps.

 

[dwn]

You must use either Windows' chkdsk utility or the drive manufacturer's utility
to resolve the bad sector issue in the target drive before making your backup to
it.

These are 6 to 15 yrs oldies IDE internal HD. I kept two newer ones, 40 and
140GB and the rest will be trash as I am moving.

I am learning, config one laptop at a time and in the process makes lot of
mistakes. I like to mirror the basic setup/config with drivers and software's.
If I screwed up, I just clone back to the basic and save endless hours starting
all over again.

I've an external "D" drive (USB 400GB HD) where I kept my emails, bookmarks,
Newsgroups, essential drivers and word processor for both laptops separately and
will always be safe regardless what I did. I unplug and connect it on whichever
laptops I am using. I "copy" NOT clone. Emails regular to a 16GB (Toshiba flash
memory USB) again to whichever Laptop I am using, and don't violate any
software's agreement. If I lost my laptop or whatever, no sweat, my emails and
essential stuffs are safe!

Question. I really don't know where the bad sectors located and that was a few
years I last used it. If the 140GB external HD bad sectors are within the 40GB
mirror sectors and repaired, will it affect the mirror drive? I am doubtful, if
I should use the 140GB and I agree, it's about time I trash it. But, I still
like to know the answer and your advice below noted.

Thanks for the time. I appreciate it.

 

[dwn]

Correction below: The external 140GB is an internal IDE, install to a USB
external enclosure.

Question. I really don't know where the bad sectors located and that was a few
years I last used it. If the 140GB external HD bad sectors are within the 40GB
mirror sectors and repaired, will it affect the mirror drive? I am doubtful, if
I should use the 140GB and I agree, it's about time I trash it. But, I still
like to know the answer and your advice below noted.

 

[David Webb]

Correction below: The external 140GB is an internal IDE, install to a USB
external enclosure.

Question. I really don't know where the bad sectors located and that was a few
years I last used it. If the 140GB external HD bad sectors are within the 40GB
mirror sectors and repaired, will it affect the mirror drive? I am doubtful,
if
I should use the 140GB and I agree, it's about time I trash it. But, I still
like to know the answer and your advice below noted.

I addressed this question in the first sentence of my previous reply. Here's a
quote from the Acronis True Image 2010 User Guide:

"Because system disk backups are the most important for disaster recovery, it is
advisable to check both the system disk and the hard disk to be used as the
backup storage for errors with the help of Microsoft's Chkdsk utility, which is
part of Windows. The utility can repair errors and locate bad sectors."

Keep in mind that your backup image will be something less than 40 GB in size.

HTH

 

[Anthony Buckland]

I want to make an Acronis true image of my Laptop, 40GB HD O/S XP PRO. My
questions:

1. Will the 40GB HD image to an external (USB) 140HD change it to a 40GB
drive?

2. Will the 140GB Hard drive, with two bad clusters affect the Acronis
image
(ie, should the image copies on the bad sectors will it affect the 40GB
image)?

3. What happen if I use a bigger or smaller HD when imaging a 40GB HD?

Thanks

An image is just a big file or a set of a few big files
(depending on your file system). Like any other
file, it can be written on any medium with enough
room. It won't change the medium's size. You
can fit as many separate images as you want on
the same medium -- for instance, the removable
(USB 2.0) drive I wrote an image to this morning
now has nine images (from more than one machine)
on it, plus a few miscellaneous files with no connection
to imaging. If you use a smaller drive to image on,
you may overflow it, depending on how much
compression you use -- this is bad. If you use a
drive with bad sectors to save images on, rethink,
and get a new drive. Your image drive should be
_more_ dependable than the original drive -- you
make images for, among other purposes, being
able to recover if something goes wrong with the
original drive, and if the image drive is _less_
dependable you're putting your eggs in a basket
that may drop and break them.