Problem Finding Hard Drive Involving Cloning

[Jethro]

This sure seems strange to me.

I have two 120GB hard drives as Primary Master & Slave. I use the
latter to clone back-up the former. I found it worked fine as long as
I remembered to follow the cloning IMMEDIATELY with a boot-up from
the slave drive so it could initialize. I did this by changing the
boot sequence in the AMI BIOS V8.00.09 that I have so that I would
boot from the slave drive. Then I would reverse the booting back to
normal and both drives would be recognized properly by WXP PRO. If I
failed to do this extra step, I found that WXP would not recognize the
slave drive at all.

That has been fine, until now. I added a third 160GB hard drive as
Secondary Slave (my DVDRW drive is on Secondary Master).
It worked just fine. I decided to start cloning back-ups on that
third drive, and it went fine. Until I tried booting-up from it, as I
was doing before, that is. I am finding that I can boot-up fine from
that drive, but when I look at My Computer, the former boot-drive
(still on Primary Master) is not recognized at all! However, if I
revert back to the normal setup, and boot-up from Primary Master, all
is fine, and all three drives are recognized by My Computer. And in
fact, the clone target-drive looks okay content-wise as I guess it
should since it does boot-up okay.

So I am wondering why this is happening. I'm not sure it is hurting
me, but I think something might be wrong.

Help anyone?

Jethro

 

[Anna]

This sure seems strange to me.

I have two 120GB hard drives as Primary Master & Slave. I use the
latter to clone back-up the former. I found it worked fine as long as
I remembered to follow the cloning IMMEDIATELY with a boot-up from
the slave drive so it could initialize. I did this by changing the
boot sequence in the AMI BIOS V8.00.09 that I have so that I would
boot from the slave drive. Then I would reverse the booting back to
normal and both drives would be recognized properly by WXP PRO. If I
failed to do this extra step, I found that WXP would not recognize the
slave drive at all.

That has been fine, until now. I added a third 160GB hard drive as
Secondary Slave (my DVDRW drive is on Secondary Master).
It worked just fine. I decided to start cloning back-ups on that
third drive, and it went fine. Until I tried booting-up from it, as I
was doing before, that is. I am finding that I can boot-up fine from
that drive, but when I look at My Computer, the former boot-drive
(still on Primary Master) is not recognized at all! However, if I
revert back to the normal setup, and boot-up from Primary Master, all
is fine, and all three drives are recognized by My Computer. And in
fact, the clone target-drive looks okay content-wise as I guess it
should since it does boot-up okay.

So I am wondering why this is happening. I'm not sure it is hurting
me, but I think something might be wrong.

Help anyone?

Jethro

Jethro:
Let me first address the information contained in your first paragraph re
the process you followed concerning the disk cloning of your two HDDs. You
were luckier than you thought in that you had no subsequent problems booting
from either HDD following the disk cloning operation. You indicated that
immediately following the disk cloning operation from your source to your
destination HDD, you made the initial boot to the newly-cloned HDD by
changing the boot order of your BIOS so that the system would boot to the
cloned HDD.

While we always emphasize that the initial boot to the newly-cloned HDD
should be undertaken immediately following the disk cloning operation, we
stress that the source HDD be *disconnected* from the system, i.e., no other
storage devices should be physically connected to the PC at the time that
initial boot to the newly-cloned HDD is undertaken. In our opinion, merely
changing the boot priority order in the BIOS (while the source HDD is
connected) is insufficient to prevent potentially future boot problems that
could affect either the source or destination HDD. (That is so even if the
system initially boots to the newly-cloned HDD without any problem). Note I
said "potentially". These problems don't always arise; they obviously didn't
in your case as you related it. But we have seen too many cases where boot
problems *did* occur in the future because the source HDD was connected at
the time the initial boot to the newly-cloned HDD was undertaken immediately
following the disk-cloning operation.

Now as to why your PM HDD is not being recognized in the system when you
boot to your third newly-cloned HDD - I don't know (unless it's related to
the above scenario in some way). I assume that no drive letter has been
assigned to the PM under those circumstances. Have you tried Disk Management
to see if you can manipulate things there? Assuming the PM is also not
detected in Device Manager, have you highlighted the Disk drives entry and
invoked the "Scan for hardware changes" command?

Assuming when you boot to the third HDD you have no interest in accessing
data on the PM HDD, I suppose you could live with the present situation
assuming there's no problem booting to either the PM or the PS and all three
HDDs are accessible under those circumstances. Is that right?
Anna

 

[Jethro]

Jethro:
Let me first address the information contained in your first paragraph re
the process you followed concerning the disk cloning of your two HDDs. You
were luckier than you thought in that you had no subsequent problems booting
from either HDD following the disk cloning operation. You indicated that
immediately following the disk cloning operation from your source to your
destination HDD, you made the initial boot to the newly-cloned HDD by
changing the boot order of your BIOS so that the system would boot to the
cloned HDD.

While we always emphasize that the initial boot to the newly-cloned HDD
should be undertaken immediately following the disk cloning operation, we
stress that the source HDD be *disconnected* from the system, i.e., no other
storage devices should be physically connected to the PC at the time that
initial boot to the newly-cloned HDD is undertaken. In our opinion, merely
changing the boot priority order in the BIOS (while the source HDD is
connected) is insufficient to prevent potentially future boot problems that
could affect either the source or destination HDD.

This surprises me because it would mean that I would have to open up
my tower every time I do a backup in order to be sure that the clone
backup is valid. After all, a backup is only good if it 'works'. In
the past I have experienced cases where a clone backup made the clone
copy just fine, and it looked fine. But when I went to use it as a
new boot drive because the copied drive failed - it would not boot.
Ergo not much good. Further I don't think the IDE cabling and/or the
power connectors are intended for constant separation and
re-connecting. I find them to be very fragile.

Thanks for your response though. I fear I am working in a chancy
situation here.

Just how would you verify that a clone copy is a valid one?

Jethro


(That is so even if the

 

[Anna]

(That is so even if the

This surprises me because it would mean that I would have to open up
my tower every time I do a backup in order to be sure that the clone
backup is valid. After all, a backup is only good if it 'works'. In
the past I have experienced cases where a clone backup made the clone
copy just fine, and it looked fine. But when I went to use it as a
new boot drive because the copied drive failed - it would not boot.
Ergo not much good. Further I don't think the IDE cabling and/or the
power connectors are intended for constant separation and
re-connecting. I find them to be very fragile.

Thanks for your response though. I fear I am working in a chancy
situation here.

Just how would you verify that a clone copy is a valid one?

Jethro

Jethro:
Well, the obvious way to determine that the cloned HDD is a true clone,
i.e., it will boot straightaway if it is the sole bootable HDD present in
the system and then functions without problems following that boot is to
simply try it. If there *is* a problem along the lines I've described above
it will usually manifest itself when the cloned HDD will not boot *unless*
the source (bootable) HDD is present (connected) in the system. What happens
in that situation is that the system will boot to the cloned HDD but that
drive will be assigned a drive letter other than C: (assuming that was the
source HDD's drive letter assignment). Thus you will not be able to boot
directly to the cloned HDD unless the original source HDD is connected in
the system.

Yes, you're right. It's usually an onerous situation where one would be
required in every case following the disk cloning operation to physically
disconnect the source HDD before undertaking that initial boot to the cloned
HDD to ensure no future boot problems. But as I previously inferred, the
problem does not *always* occur. (That is why I referred to this as a
"potential" problem). In many (perhaps even most) instances it simply
doesn't matter if the source HDD is connected at the time of the initial
boot to the cloned HDD. There will be no future problems. But in a
significant number of instances the problem we've discussed will occur. And
we've found that when there is no original boot problem along the lines
we've described and where there are no basic hardware changes made to the
system in the future, there should be no problems in subsequent disk cloning
operations.

BTW, we generally work with removable HDDs in our desktop systems and
encourage our customers and others to install that type of hardware
configuration. So it's no problem for the user whatsoever disconnecting one
or the other HDDs when the need arises (for any reason).

I might also mention that the boot problem we've been discussing seems to
affect PATA and not SATA HDDs, i.e., as long as the BIOS will allow you to
select one or the other bootable SATA drives to boot to, it's unnecessary to
disconnect the source SATA HDD before undertaking the initial boot to the
destination SATA HDD.

It will be interesting to learn if you've been able to overcome the
non-recognition problem with your PM HDD when you boot to your third HDD,
and if so, just what caused that problem. So keep us informed.
Anna

 

[Jethro]

Jethro:
Well, the obvious way to determine that the cloned HDD is a true clone,
i.e., it will boot straightaway if it is the sole bootable HDD present in
the system and then functions without problems following that boot is to
simply try it. If there *is* a problem along the lines I've described above
it will usually manifest itself when the cloned HDD will not boot *unless*
the source (bootable) HDD is present (connected) in the system. What happens
in that situation is that the system will boot to the cloned HDD but that
drive will be assigned a drive letter other than C: (assuming that was the
source HDD's drive letter assignment). Thus you will not be able to boot
directly to the cloned HDD unless the original source HDD is connected in
the system.

Yes, you're right. It's usually an onerous situation where one would be
required in every case following the disk cloning operation to physically
disconnect the source HDD before undertaking that initial boot to the cloned
HDD to ensure no future boot problems. But as I previously inferred, the
problem does not *always* occur. (That is why I referred to this as a
"potential" problem). In many (perhaps even most) instances it simply
doesn't matter if the source HDD is connected at the time of the initial
boot to the cloned HDD. There will be no future problems. But in a
significant number of instances the problem we've discussed will occur. And
we've found that when there is no original boot problem along the lines
we've described and where there are no basic hardware changes made to the
system in the future, there should be no problems in subsequent disk cloning
operations.

BTW, we generally work with removable HDDs in our desktop systems and
encourage our customers and others to install that type of hardware
configuration. So it's no problem for the user whatsoever disconnecting one
or the other HDDs when the need arises (for any reason).

I might also mention that the boot problem we've been discussing seems to
affect PATA and not SATA HDDs, i.e., as long as the BIOS will allow you to
select one or the other bootable SATA drives to boot to, it's unnecessary to
disconnect the source SATA HDD before undertaking the initial boot to the
destination SATA HDD.

It will be interesting to learn if you've been able to overcome the
non-recognition problem with your PM HDD when you boot to your third HDD,
and if so, just what caused that problem. So keep us informed.
Anna

Thanks again Anna.

A couple of things hit me real quick. First - you must be reading my
mind - I was thinking of replacing my two PATAs with SATAs. If this
problem does not exist with the SATAs, then that is even more
motivation for me to buy the SATAs. I am hoping Geo Wash will have
his usual sales.

On the other hand, I am thinking now that I should NOT be using
cloning for back-ups. I maybe should use imaging instead - that is
maybe I should back up to images of my source HDD. At least I would
not have to worry about booting the target. Of course, the main
reason I chose cloning was because I thought I then could always
validate the correctness of a backup on the spot, and the backup would
be complete, including the OS, all applications, and all data as of
the backup date, minimizing what I would have to do to get going again
on a current basis. All I would have to is 'plug in the drive'. It's
like having a second car in the garage, all gassed up, ready to go in
an emergency. With an image, all I could do is hope that if I ever
have to restore, the result will work (boot that is). Consecutive,
round-robin image-backups would help in that area. Say, weekly backups
- restarting every month.

Jethro

 

[Anna]

Thanks again Anna.

A couple of things hit me real quick. First - you must be reading my
mind - I was thinking of replacing my two PATAs with SATAs. If this
problem does not exist with the SATAs, then that is even more
motivation for me to buy the SATAs. I am hoping Geo Wash will have
his usual sales.

On the other hand, I am thinking now that I should NOT be using
cloning for back-ups. I maybe should use imaging instead - that is
maybe I should back up to images of my source HDD. At least I would
not have to worry about booting the target. Of course, the main
reason I chose cloning was because I thought I then could always
validate the correctness of a backup on the spot, and the backup would
be complete, including the OS, all applications, and all data as of
the backup date, minimizing what I would have to do to get going again
on a current basis. All I would have to is 'plug in the drive'. It's
like having a second car in the garage, all gassed up, ready to go in
an emergency. With an image, all I could do is hope that if I ever
have to restore, the result will work (boot that is). Consecutive,
round-robin image-backups would help in that area. Say, weekly backups
- restarting every month.

Jethro

Jethro:
There may be any number of reasons for going to SATA HDDs but I honestly
don't think one of them should be to combat the potential problem we've been
discussing. I want to emphasize that not only for your benefit but for
others coming upon this thread.

What I *would* want to emphasize is that disk-to-disk cloning of HDDs is a
tried-and-true exercise for establishing & maintaining a comprehensive
backup system. For most users, undertaking a systematic & routine process of
cloning one's day-to-day working HDD is an ideal way to my mind of insuring
against the disasters that affect virtually all of us who use PCs. All one
has to do is to peruse this newsgroup and similar ones and consider how many
of the posters' pleas for help would evaporate had the user employed a disk
cloning program in the first place.

But having extolled the virtues of disk-to-disk cloning, let me also
indicate that I think disk imaging is a most viable solution for backing up
and restoring one's PC. Insofar as I'm concerned the most considerable
advantage to using disk imaging (in lieu of disk-to-disk cloning) is the
ability to create incremental backups in a fraction of the time it takes to
undertake the disk-to-disk cloning process. And because of this fact we find
that users are more inclined to backup their systems on a much more regular
basis than they otherwise would with disk cloning.

While it is true that a cloned HDD is immediately bootable and its data is
instantly accessible (not inconsiderable advantages), the
recovery/restoration process involving a disk image is not a particularly
onerous or time-consuming task.

And let me add that one type of backup system does not necessarily negate
the other. You can still undertake disk-to-disk cloning as well as create
disk images. With the cost of HDDs relatively modest these days, one can
undertake both types of backup/recovery systems using the same disk imaging
program.

I might mention that we've been using the Acronis True Image program for
both disk-to-disk cloning and disk imaging. We've found the program
relatively simple to use and most effective. I recently posted step-by-step
instructions for using that program (for both disk-to-disk cloning and disk
imaging) to one or another of the MS XP newsgroups. If you, or others, would
be interested in seeing these instructions, so indicate and I'll reost
them.
Anna

 

[Jethro]

Jethro:
There may be any number of reasons for going to SATA HDDs but I honestly
don't think one of them should be to combat the potential problem we've been
discussing. I want to emphasize that not only for your benefit but for
others coming upon this thread.

Oh I agree with that. SATA has other advantages I want to try. I
just thought that since you said the potential problem does not occur
with SATA, that it was just another reason. Only one of my machines
is set up for SATA however. Sometimes I have to find motivation to
spend money.

What I *would* want to emphasize is that disk-to-disk cloning of HDDs is a
tried-and-true exercise for establishing & maintaining a comprehensive
backup system. For most users, undertaking a systematic & routine process of
cloning one's day-to-day working HDD is an ideal way to my mind of insuring
against the disasters that affect virtually all of us who use PCs. All one
has to do is to peruse this newsgroup and similar ones and consider how many
of the posters' pleas for help would evaporate had the user employed a disk
cloning program in the first place.

But having extolled the virtues of disk-to-disk cloning, let me also
indicate that I think disk imaging is a most viable solution for backing up
and restoring one's PC. Insofar as I'm concerned the most considerable
advantage to using disk imaging (in lieu of disk-to-disk cloning) is the
ability to create incremental backups in a fraction of the time it takes to
undertake the disk-to-disk cloning process. And because of this fact we find
that users are more inclined to backup their systems on a much more regular
basis than they otherwise would with disk cloning.

This I believe.

While it is true that a cloned HDD is immediately bootable and its data is
instantly accessible (not inconsiderable advantages), the
recovery/restoration process involving a disk image is not a particularly
onerous or time-consuming task.

And let me add that one type of backup system does not necessarily negate
the other. You can still undertake disk-to-disk cloning as well as create
disk images. With the cost of HDDs relatively modest these days, one can
undertake both types of backup/recovery systems using the same disk imaging
program.

I noticed that,

I might mention that we've been using the Acronis True Image program for
both disk-to-disk cloning and disk imaging. We've found the program
relatively simple to use and most effective. I recently posted step-by-step
instructions for using that program (for both disk-to-disk cloning and disk
imaging) to one or another of the MS XP newsgroups. If you, or others, would
be interested in seeing these instructions, so indicate and I'll reost
them.
Anna

I don't recall reading that - Maybe I can prevail on you to re-post
it? What group? I'll watch for it.

Thanks

Jethro

 

[Anna]

I don't recall reading that - Maybe I can prevail on you to re-post
it? What group? I'll watch for it.

Thanks

Jethro

Here it is...

Step-by-Step Instructions for Using the Acronis True Image Program to Backup
& Restore One's Hard Drive...

Using the Acronis True Image program there are two different approaches one
can take to back up the entire contents of one's day-to-day working HDD,
i.e., the operating system, all programs & applications, and user-created
data - in short, *everything* that's on one's HDD...

1. Direct disk-to-disk cloning, or,
2. Creating disk images

By using either of these strategies the user can restore his or her system
should their day-to-day working HDD become inoperable because of
mechanical/electronic failure of the disk or corruption of the system
resulting in a dysfunctional operating system.

In undertaking either of these two backup & recovery processes you're
dealing with two hard drives - the so-called source & destination disks -
the source disk being the HDD you're backing up and the destination disk
being the HDD that will be the recipient of the cloned contents of the
source disk or the recipient of the disk image you will be creating.

When using either process it's usually best for most users to use an
external HDD as the destination drive, i.e., the recipient of the cloned
contents of the source disk or the recipient of the created disk image. This
can be either a USB or Firewire or SATA external HDD. While another internal
HDD can also serve as the destination disk there's an additional element of
safety in using an external HDD since that drive will be ordinarily
disconnected from the system except during the disk cloning or recovery
process.

One other suggestion. After you install the Acronis program on your computer
it's a good idea to create what Acronis calls their "Bootable Rescue Media"
(CD). In most cases the recovery process (described below) will utilize that
Acronis bootable CD to restore your system. This "rescue" CD is easily
created from the program by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media"
icon on the opening Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to
create the bootable CD. The following are step-by-step instructions for
using the Acronis True Image 9 program to clone the contents of one HDD to
an external HDD. (The steps are essentially the same using the newer ATI 10
version):

1. With both hard drives (source & destination disks) connected, boot up.
Ensure that no other storage devices, e.g., flash drives, ZIP drives, etc.,
are connected. It's also probably a good idea to shut down any programs you
may have working in the background - including any anti-virus anti-spyware
programs - before undertaking this disk-to-disk cloning operation.

2. Access the Acronis True Image 9 program and under "Pick a Task", click
on "Clone Disk". (In the ATI 10 version click on "Manage Hard Disks" in the
"Pick a Tool" area and on the next screen click on "Clone Disk").

3. On the next "Welcome to the Disk Clone Wizard!" window, click Next.

4. On the next "Clone Mode" window select the Automatic option (it should
be the default option selected) and click Next.

5. On the next "Source Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct source
HDD (the disk you're cloning from) has been selected (click to highlight).
Click Next.

6. On the next "Destination Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct
destination HDD (the disk you're cloning to) has been selected (again, click
to highlight). Click Next.

7. On the next window, select the option "Delete partitions on the
destination hard disk". Understand that all data presently on the disk that
will be the recipient of the clone will be deleted prior to the disk cloning
operation. Click Next.

8. The next window will reflect the source and destination disks. Again,
confirm that the correct drives have been selected. Click Next. 9. On the
next window click on the Proceed button. A message box will display
indicating that a reboot will be required to undertake the disk cloning
operation. Click Reboot.

10. The cloning operation will proceed during the reboot. With modern
components and a medium to high-powered processor, data transfer rate will
be somewhere in the range of about 450 MB/min to 800 MB/min when cloning to
a USB external HDD; considerably faster when cloning to another internal
HDD.

11. When the disk cloning operation has been completed, a message will
(usually)
appear indicating the disk cloning process has been successful and instructs
you to shut down the computer by pressing any key. Do so and disconnect your
USB external HDD. If, however, the destination drive (the recipient of the
clone) has been another *internal* HDD, see the NOTE below.

12. Note that the cloned contents now residing on the USB external HDD take
on the file system of the source drive. For example, if prior to the
disk-cloning operation your USB external HDD had been FAT32-formatted and
your XP OS was NTFS-formatted, the cloned contents will be NTFS-formatted.
There is no need to format the USB external HDD prior to the disk-cloning
operation. Similarly, there is no need prior to the disk-cloning operation
to format an internal HDD should you be using an internal HDD as the
destination drive .

13. Restoration of the system can be achieved by cloning the contents of the
data residing on the external HDD to an internal HDD through the normal
disk-cloning process as described above.

NOTE: Just one other point that should be emphasized with respect to the
disk cloning operation should the recipient of the clone be another internal
HDD and not a USB or Firewire external HDD. Immediately following the disk
cloning operation the machine should be shutdown and the source HDD should
be disconnected. Boot ONLY to the newly-cloned drive. DO NOT BOOT
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE CLONING OPERATION WITH BOTH DRIVES CONNECTED.
There's a strong possibility that by doing so it is likely to cause future
boot problems with the cloned drive. Obviously there is no problem in this
area should a USB or Firewire EHD be the recipient of the clone since that
device is not ordinarily bootable in an XP environment.


Disk Imaging:
The following are step-by-step instructions for using the Acronis True Image
9 Program to create disk images for backup purposes and using those disk
images for recovery of the system. (The steps are essentially the same using
the newer ATI 10 version):

Note: The recipient of the disk image, presumably a USB external HDD or an
internal HDD, ordinarily must be a formatted drive and have a drive letter
assigned to it. Recall that in the case of a disk-to-disk cloning operation
as previously described, an unformatted or "virgin" HDD can be used as the
destination disk.

Before undertaking this disk imaging process it's probably best to close all
programs running in the background including your anti-virus and other
anti-malware programs.

1. With both your source and destination hard drives connected, access the
Acronis program and click "Backup" on main menu.

2. The "Create Backup Wizard" screen opens. Click Next.

3. The "Select Backup Type" screen opens with two options:
a. The entire disk contents or individual partitions.
b. Files and folders.
Select a. and click Next.

(In the ATI 10 version four options will be listed: My Computer, My Data, My
Application Settings, and My E-mail. Select the My Computer option and click
Next.)

4. The "Partitions Selection" screen opens. Disk 1 and Disk 2 are listed
with their drive letter designations. Check the disk to be backed up -
presumably Disk 1 - and click Next.

5. An informational message appears recommending an incremental or
differential backup if an original full backup had previously been
created.Since this will be the first backup we will be selecting, just click
OK to close the message box. (You can check the box not to show that
informational message in the future).

6. Next screen is the "Backup Archive Location". In the "File name:" text
box, (in ATI 10 version it's the "Folder:" text box) enter your backup drive
letter and enter a file name for the backup file, e.g., "F:\Backup 1-25".
The Acronis program will automatically append the ".tib" file extension to
the filename. Click Next.

7. "Select Backup Mode" screen opens. Select "Create a new full backup
archive" option and click Next.

8. "Choose Backup Options" screen opens with two options:
a. Use default options
b. Set the options manually

If you select the b. option, you can select various options listed on the
next screen. Two of them are of interest to us:

Compression level - Four options - None, Normal (the default), High,
Maximum.
There's a "Description" area that shows the estimated size of the backup
archive depending upon the option chosen, and the estimated "creation time"
for each option.

Backup priority - Three options - Low, Normal, or High
Low - "backup processed more slowly, but it will not influence other
processes running on computer."
(Default) Normal - "normal speed but backup process will influence other
processes running on computer."
High - "normal speed but backup process will strongly influence other
processes running on computer."

With respect to the compression levels, we've found that when using the
Normal option the original data is compressed by about 20% - 25% and that
the High and Maximum options will result in a compressed backup file only
slightly higher than that. However, the amount of time to create the backup
files when using the High or Maximum compression level is substantially
greater than when using the Normal compression level. So unless disk space
is very tight on the destination drive, i.e., the drive where the backup
file will be saved, we recommend using the Normal compression level (at
least initially).

NOTE: You can set the Compression level and Backup priority defaults from
the Acronis Tools > Options > Default backup options menu items.

9. "Archive comments" screen opens allowing you to add comments to the
backup archive which you can review during the Recovery process. Click Next.

10. The next screen summarizes the backup operation to be performed. Review
the information for correctness and click the Proceed button.

11. The next screen will display status bars reflecting the progress of the
backup operation. After the backup operation finishes, an informational
message will appear indicting the operation was successfully completed.


Incremental Backups (Disk Images)
1. After the initial backup archive has been created you can create
incremental backups reflecting any data changes since the previous backup
operation. This incremental backup process proceeds considerably faster than
the initial backup operation. This, of course, is a major advantage of
creating disk images rather than undertaking the disk-to-disk cloning
process. Then too, since these created disk images are compressed files they
are reasonable in size. And because the incremental disk images can usually
be created very quickly (as compared with the direct disk-to-disk cloning
process), there's an incentive for the user to keep his/her system
up-to-date backup-wise by using this disk imaging process on a more frequent
basis than the disk-cloning process.

Note that you must create the incremental backup files on the same HDD where
you stored the original backup archive and any subsequent incremental backup
files.

2. Access the Acronis program as detailed above and move through the
screens. When you arrive at the "Backup Archive Location" screen, click on
the original backup archive file, or if one or more incremental backup files
were previously created, click on the last incremental backup file and
verify that the correct drive letter and file name are shown in the "File
name:" text box. After clicking Next, the program will automatically create
a file name for the incremental backup archive file, using the original file
name and appending a consecutive number - starting at 2 - at the end of the
file name. For example, say you named the original backup archive file
"Backup 1-25". The first incremental backup file will be automatically named
"Backup 1-252" and the next incremental file "Backup 1-253", etc.

NOTE THAT ALL YOUR INCREMENTAL BACKUP FILES MUST BE PRESENT FOR RECOVERY
PURPOSES. DO NOT DELETE ANY OF YOUR PREVIOUSLY-CREATED INCREMENTAL BACKUP
FILES FOLLOWING THE CREATION OF A CURRENT INCREMENTAL BACKUP FILE. YOU CAN
DELETE THE INCREMENTAL FILES ONLY AFTER CREATING A FULL BACKUP ARCHIVE AS
DESCRIBED IN THE PREVIOUS SECTION.

3. On the following "Select Backup Mode" screen, select the "Create
incremental Backup" option, click Next, and proceed through the screens as
you did in creating the initial backup archive.


Recovery Process (Disk images):
We'll assume the recovery will be to either a non-defective HDD that has
become unbootable for one reason or another, or to a new HDD. The HDD to be
restored need not be partitioned/formatted since the recovery process will
take care of that function.

Note that in most cases you will be using the Acronis "bootable rescue
media" (CD) that you created when you originally installed the Acronis
program. If you didn't create that bootable CD at that time, you can create
it now from the Acronis program (assuming You can access the program at this
time) by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media" icon on the opening
Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to create the bootable
CD.

Note: If the recovery will be made to a HDD that is still bootable and
you're able to access the Acronis program on that drive, then you can
undertake the recovery process without the need for using the "bootable
rescue" CD.

1. With both the drive containing the backup disk images and the drive you
want to restore connected and with the bootable rescue CD inserted, boot up.

2. At the opening screen, click on "Acronis True Image Home (Full Version)".

3. The program will open after some moments. On the "Pick a Task" screen
that opens, click on "Recovery".

4. The "Welcome to the Restore Data Wizard!" screen opens. Click on Next.

5. The "Archive Selection" screen opens. Navigate to the drive containing
the backup archive file(s) and select the last incremental backup file or
the original full backup file if no incremental backup files were
subsequently created. Ensure that the correct drive letter and filename are
entered in the "File name:" text box. Click Next.

6. In the Acronis version 9 program, the "Archive Date Selection" screen
opens. Select (highlight) the last incremental backup file from the listing
and click Next. This screen does not appear in version 10.

7. The "Restoration Type Selection" screen opens. Select the option,
"Restore disks or partitions" and click Next.

8. The "Partition or Disk to Restore" will open. Click on "Disk 1" and click
Next.

9. After some moments the "Restored Hard Disk Drive Location" screen opens.
Select (highlight) the HDD to be restored and click Next.

10. On the next screen select the "Yes" option to delete all current
partitions on the destination HDD. Click Next.

11. On the next screen select the "No" option and click Next.

12. On the next screen you have the option to validate the backup archive
before restoration. Click Next.

13. The final screen before the restoration operation begins will open.
Confirm that the information as shown is correct. Click Proceed.

14. Click OK when following completion of the recovery operation a message
appears indicating a successful recovery operation.

15. Remove the Acronis bootable rescue CD and close the Acronis program. The
system will reboot. A Windows "Found New Hardware" message followed by the
"System Settings Change" message box may appear on the Desktop. If they do,
click Yes for a reboot.

Note: While the Acronis program is not designed to clone individual
partitions - it can clone only the entire contents of one HDD to another
HDD - you can backup & recover individual partitions through the disk
imaging process as described above.
Anna

 

[Jethro]

Here it is...

Step-by-Step Instructions for Using the Acronis True Image Program to Backup
& Restore One's Hard Drive...

Using the Acronis True Image program there are two different approaches one
can take to back up the entire contents of one's day-to-day working HDD,
i.e., the operating system, all programs & applications, and user-created
data - in short, *everything* that's on one's HDD...

1. Direct disk-to-disk cloning, or,
2. Creating disk images

By using either of these strategies the user can restore his or her system
should their day-to-day working HDD become inoperable because of
mechanical/electronic failure of the disk or corruption of the system
resulting in a dysfunctional operating system.

In undertaking either of these two backup & recovery processes you're
dealing with two hard drives - the so-called source & destination disks -
the source disk being the HDD you're backing up and the destination disk
being the HDD that will be the recipient of the cloned contents of the
source disk or the recipient of the disk image you will be creating.

When using either process it's usually best for most users to use an
external HDD as the destination drive, i.e., the recipient of the cloned
contents of the source disk or the recipient of the created disk image. This
can be either a USB or Firewire or SATA external HDD. While another internal
HDD can also serve as the destination disk there's an additional element of
safety in using an external HDD since that drive will be ordinarily
disconnected from the system except during the disk cloning or recovery
process.

One other suggestion. After you install the Acronis program on your computer
it's a good idea to create what Acronis calls their "Bootable Rescue Media"
(CD). In most cases the recovery process (described below) will utilize that
Acronis bootable CD to restore your system. This "rescue" CD is easily
created from the program by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media"
icon on the opening Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to
create the bootable CD. The following are step-by-step instructions for
using the Acronis True Image 9 program to clone the contents of one HDD to
an external HDD. (The steps are essentially the same using the newer ATI 10
version):

1. With both hard drives (source & destination disks) connected, boot up.
Ensure that no other storage devices, e.g., flash drives, ZIP drives, etc.,
are connected. It's also probably a good idea to shut down any programs you
may have working in the background - including any anti-virus anti-spyware
programs - before undertaking this disk-to-disk cloning operation.

2. Access the Acronis True Image 9 program and under "Pick a Task", click
on "Clone Disk". (In the ATI 10 version click on "Manage Hard Disks" in the
"Pick a Tool" area and on the next screen click on "Clone Disk").

3. On the next "Welcome to the Disk Clone Wizard!" window, click Next.

4. On the next "Clone Mode" window select the Automatic option (it should
be the default option selected) and click Next.

5. On the next "Source Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct source
HDD (the disk you're cloning from) has been selected (click to highlight).
Click Next.

6. On the next "Destination Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct
destination HDD (the disk you're cloning to) has been selected (again, click
to highlight). Click Next.

7. On the next window, select the option "Delete partitions on the
destination hard disk". Understand that all data presently on the disk that
will be the recipient of the clone will be deleted prior to the disk cloning
operation. Click Next.

8. The next window will reflect the source and destination disks. Again,
confirm that the correct drives have been selected. Click Next. 9. On the
next window click on the Proceed button. A message box will display
indicating that a reboot will be required to undertake the disk cloning
operation. Click Reboot.

10. The cloning operation will proceed during the reboot. With modern
components and a medium to high-powered processor, data transfer rate will
be somewhere in the range of about 450 MB/min to 800 MB/min when cloning to
a USB external HDD; considerably faster when cloning to another internal
HDD.

11. When the disk cloning operation has been completed, a message will
(usually)
appear indicating the disk cloning process has been successful and instructs
you to shut down the computer by pressing any key. Do so and disconnect your
USB external HDD. If, however, the destination drive (the recipient of the
clone) has been another *internal* HDD, see the NOTE below.

12. Note that the cloned contents now residing on the USB external HDD take
on the file system of the source drive. For example, if prior to the
disk-cloning operation your USB external HDD had been FAT32-formatted and
your XP OS was NTFS-formatted, the cloned contents will be NTFS-formatted.
There is no need to format the USB external HDD prior to the disk-cloning
operation. Similarly, there is no need prior to the disk-cloning operation
to format an internal HDD should you be using an internal HDD as the
destination drive .

13. Restoration of the system can be achieved by cloning the contents of the
data residing on the external HDD to an internal HDD through the normal
disk-cloning process as described above.

NOTE: Just one other point that should be emphasized with respect to the
disk cloning operation should the recipient of the clone be another internal
HDD and not a USB or Firewire external HDD. Immediately following the disk
cloning operation the machine should be shutdown and the source HDD should
be disconnected. Boot ONLY to the newly-cloned drive. DO NOT BOOT
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE CLONING OPERATION WITH BOTH DRIVES CONNECTED.
There's a strong possibility that by doing so it is likely to cause future
boot problems with the cloned drive. Obviously there is no problem in this
area should a USB or Firewire EHD be the recipient of the clone since that
device is not ordinarily bootable in an XP environment.


Disk Imaging:
The following are step-by-step instructions for using the Acronis True Image
9 Program to create disk images for backup purposes and using those disk
images for recovery of the system. (The steps are essentially the same using
the newer ATI 10 version):

Note: The recipient of the disk image, presumably a USB external HDD or an
internal HDD, ordinarily must be a formatted drive and have a drive letter
assigned to it. Recall that in the case of a disk-to-disk cloning operation
as previously described, an unformatted or "virgin" HDD can be used as the
destination disk.

Before undertaking this disk imaging process it's probably best to close all
programs running in the background including your anti-virus and other
anti-malware programs.

1. With both your source and destination hard drives connected, access the
Acronis program and click "Backup" on main menu.

2. The "Create Backup Wizard" screen opens. Click Next.

3. The "Select Backup Type" screen opens with two options:
a. The entire disk contents or individual partitions.
b. Files and folders.
Select a. and click Next.

(In the ATI 10 version four options will be listed: My Computer, My Data, My
Application Settings, and My E-mail. Select the My Computer option and click
Next.)

4. The "Partitions Selection" screen opens. Disk 1 and Disk 2 are listed
with their drive letter designations. Check the disk to be backed up -
presumably Disk 1 - and click Next.

5. An informational message appears recommending an incremental or
differential backup if an original full backup had previously been
created.Since this will be the first backup we will be selecting, just click
OK to close the message box. (You can check the box not to show that
informational message in the future).

6. Next screen is the "Backup Archive Location". In the "File name:" text
box, (in ATI 10 version it's the "Folder:" text box) enter your backup drive
letter and enter a file name for the backup file, e.g., "F:\Backup 1-25".
The Acronis program will automatically append the ".tib" file extension to
the filename. Click Next.

7. "Select Backup Mode" screen opens. Select "Create a new full backup
archive" option and click Next.

8. "Choose Backup Options" screen opens with two options:
a. Use default options
b. Set the options manually

If you select the b. option, you can select various options listed on the
next screen. Two of them are of interest to us:

Compression level - Four options - None, Normal (the default), High,
Maximum.
There's a "Description" area that shows the estimated size of the backup
archive depending upon the option chosen, and the estimated "creation time"
for each option.

Backup priority - Three options - Low, Normal, or High
Low - "backup processed more slowly, but it will not influence other
processes running on computer."
(Default) Normal - "normal speed but backup process will influence other
processes running on computer."
High - "normal speed but backup process will strongly influence other
processes running on computer."

With respect to the compression levels, we've found that when using the
Normal option the original data is compressed by about 20% - 25% and that
the High and Maximum options will result in a compressed backup file only
slightly higher than that. However, the amount of time to create the backup
files when using the High or Maximum compression level is substantially
greater than when using the Normal compression level. So unless disk space
is very tight on the destination drive, i.e., the drive where the backup
file will be saved, we recommend using the Normal compression level (at
least initially).

NOTE: You can set the Compression level and Backup priority defaults from
the Acronis Tools > Options > Default backup options menu items.

9. "Archive comments" screen opens allowing you to add comments to the
backup archive which you can review during the Recovery process. Click Next.

10. The next screen summarizes the backup operation to be performed. Review
the information for correctness and click the Proceed button.

11. The next screen will display status bars reflecting the progress of the
backup operation. After the backup operation finishes, an informational
message will appear indicting the operation was successfully completed.


Incremental Backups (Disk Images)
1. After the initial backup archive has been created you can create
incremental backups reflecting any data changes since the previous backup
operation. This incremental backup process proceeds considerably faster than
the initial backup operation. This, of course, is a major advantage of
creating disk images rather than undertaking the disk-to-disk cloning
process. Then too, since these created disk images are compressed files they
are reasonable in size. And because the incremental disk images can usually
be created very quickly (as compared with the direct disk-to-disk cloning
process), there's an incentive for the user to keep his/her system
up-to-date backup-wise by using this disk imaging process on a more frequent
basis than the disk-cloning process.

Note that you must create the incremental backup files on the same HDD where
you stored the original backup archive and any subsequent incremental backup
files.

2. Access the Acronis program as detailed above and move through the
screens. When you arrive at the "Backup Archive Location" screen, click on
the original backup archive file, or if one or more incremental backup files
were previously created, click on the last incremental backup file and
verify that the correct drive letter and file name are shown in the "File
name:" text box. After clicking Next, the program will automatically create
a file name for the incremental backup archive file, using the original file
name and appending a consecutive number - starting at 2 - at the end of the
file name. For example, say you named the original backup archive file
"Backup 1-25". The first incremental backup file will be automatically named
"Backup 1-252" and the next incremental file "Backup 1-253", etc.

NOTE THAT ALL YOUR INCREMENTAL BACKUP FILES MUST BE PRESENT FOR RECOVERY
PURPOSES. DO NOT DELETE ANY OF YOUR PREVIOUSLY-CREATED INCREMENTAL BACKUP
FILES FOLLOWING THE CREATION OF A CURRENT INCREMENTAL BACKUP FILE. YOU CAN
DELETE THE INCREMENTAL FILES ONLY AFTER CREATING A FULL BACKUP ARCHIVE AS
DESCRIBED IN THE PREVIOUS SECTION.

3. On the following "Select Backup Mode" screen, select the "Create
incremental Backup" option, click Next, and proceed through the screens as
you did in creating the initial backup archive.


Recovery Process (Disk images):
We'll assume the recovery will be to either a non-defective HDD that has
become unbootable for one reason or another, or to a new HDD. The HDD to be
restored need not be partitioned/formatted since the recovery process will
take care of that function.

Note that in most cases you will be using the Acronis "bootable rescue
media" (CD) that you created when you originally installed the Acronis
program. If you didn't create that bootable CD at that time, you can create
it now from the Acronis program (assuming You can access the program at this
time) by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media" icon on the opening
Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to create the bootable
CD.

Note: If the recovery will be made to a HDD that is still bootable and
you're able to access the Acronis program on that drive, then you can
undertake the recovery process without the need for using the "bootable
rescue" CD.

1. With both the drive containing the backup disk images and the drive you
want to restore connected and with the bootable rescue CD inserted, boot up.

2. At the opening screen, click on "Acronis True Image Home (Full Version)".

3. The program will open after some moments. On the "Pick a Task" screen
that opens, click on "Recovery".

4. The "Welcome to the Restore Data Wizard!" screen opens. Click on Next.

5. The "Archive Selection" screen opens. Navigate to the drive containing
the backup archive file(s) and select the last incremental backup file or
the original full backup file if no incremental backup files were
subsequently created. Ensure that the correct drive letter and filename are
entered in the "File name:" text box. Click Next.

6. In the Acronis version 9 program, the "Archive Date Selection" screen
opens. Select (highlight) the last incremental backup file from the listing
and click Next. This screen does not appear in version 10.

7. The "Restoration Type Selection" screen opens. Select the option,
"Restore disks or partitions" and click Next.

8. The "Partition or Disk to Restore" will open. Click on "Disk 1" and click
Next.

9. After some moments the "Restored Hard Disk Drive Location" screen opens.
Select (highlight) the HDD to be restored and click Next.

10. On the next screen select the "Yes" option to delete all current
partitions on the destination HDD. Click Next.

11. On the next screen select the "No" option and click Next.

12. On the next screen you have the option to validate the backup archive
before restoration. Click Next.

13. The final screen before the restoration operation begins will open.
Confirm that the information as shown is correct. Click Proceed.

14. Click OK when following completion of the recovery operation a message
appears indicating a successful recovery operation.

15. Remove the Acronis bootable rescue CD and close the Acronis program. The
system will reboot. A Windows "Found New Hardware" message followed by the
"System Settings Change" message box may appear on the Desktop. If they do,
click Yes for a reboot.

Note: While the Acronis program is not designed to clone individual
partitions - it can clone only the entire contents of one HDD to another
HDD - you can backup & recover individual partitions through the disk
imaging process as described above.
Anna

Thanks

I'll print it and study it.

Jethro

 

[Jethro]

Here it is...

Step-by-Step Instructions for Using the Acronis True Image Program to Backup
& Restore One's Hard Drive...

Using the Acronis True Image program there are two different approaches one
can take to back up the entire contents of one's day-to-day working HDD,
i.e., the operating system, all programs & applications, and user-created
data - in short, *everything* that's on one's HDD...

1. Direct disk-to-disk cloning, or,
2. Creating disk images

By using either of these strategies the user can restore his or her system
should their day-to-day working HDD become inoperable because of
mechanical/electronic failure of the disk or corruption of the system
resulting in a dysfunctional operating system.

In undertaking either of these two backup & recovery processes you're
dealing with two hard drives - the so-called source & destination disks -
the source disk being the HDD you're backing up and the destination disk
being the HDD that will be the recipient of the cloned contents of the
source disk or the recipient of the disk image you will be creating.

When using either process it's usually best for most users to use an
external HDD as the destination drive, i.e., the recipient of the cloned
contents of the source disk or the recipient of the created disk image. This
can be either a USB or Firewire or SATA external HDD. While another internal
HDD can also serve as the destination disk there's an additional element of
safety in using an external HDD since that drive will be ordinarily
disconnected from the system except during the disk cloning or recovery
process.

One other suggestion. After you install the Acronis program on your computer
it's a good idea to create what Acronis calls their "Bootable Rescue Media"
(CD). In most cases the recovery process (described below) will utilize that
Acronis bootable CD to restore your system. This "rescue" CD is easily
created from the program by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media"
icon on the opening Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to
create the bootable CD. The following are step-by-step instructions for
using the Acronis True Image 9 program to clone the contents of one HDD to
an external HDD. (The steps are essentially the same using the newer ATI 10
version):

1. With both hard drives (source & destination disks) connected, boot up.
Ensure that no other storage devices, e.g., flash drives, ZIP drives, etc.,
are connected. It's also probably a good idea to shut down any programs you
may have working in the background - including any anti-virus anti-spyware
programs - before undertaking this disk-to-disk cloning operation.

2. Access the Acronis True Image 9 program and under "Pick a Task", click
on "Clone Disk". (In the ATI 10 version click on "Manage Hard Disks" in the
"Pick a Tool" area and on the next screen click on "Clone Disk").

3. On the next "Welcome to the Disk Clone Wizard!" window, click Next.

4. On the next "Clone Mode" window select the Automatic option (it should
be the default option selected) and click Next.

5. On the next "Source Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct source
HDD (the disk you're cloning from) has been selected (click to highlight).
Click Next.

6. On the next "Destination Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct
destination HDD (the disk you're cloning to) has been selected (again, click
to highlight). Click Next.

7. On the next window, select the option "Delete partitions on the
destination hard disk". Understand that all data presently on the disk that
will be the recipient of the clone will be deleted prior to the disk cloning
operation. Click Next.

8. The next window will reflect the source and destination disks. Again,
confirm that the correct drives have been selected. Click Next. 9. On the
next window click on the Proceed button. A message box will display
indicating that a reboot will be required to undertake the disk cloning
operation. Click Reboot.

10. The cloning operation will proceed during the reboot. With modern
components and a medium to high-powered processor, data transfer rate will
be somewhere in the range of about 450 MB/min to 800 MB/min when cloning to
a USB external HDD; considerably faster when cloning to another internal
HDD.

11. When the disk cloning operation has been completed, a message will
(usually)
appear indicating the disk cloning process has been successful and instructs
you to shut down the computer by pressing any key. Do so and disconnect your
USB external HDD. If, however, the destination drive (the recipient of the
clone) has been another *internal* HDD, see the NOTE below.

12. Note that the cloned contents now residing on the USB external HDD take
on the file system of the source drive. For example, if prior to the
disk-cloning operation your USB external HDD had been FAT32-formatted and
your XP OS was NTFS-formatted, the cloned contents will be NTFS-formatted.
There is no need to format the USB external HDD prior to the disk-cloning
operation. Similarly, there is no need prior to the disk-cloning operation
to format an internal HDD should you be using an internal HDD as the
destination drive .

13. Restoration of the system can be achieved by cloning the contents of the
data residing on the external HDD to an internal HDD through the normal
disk-cloning process as described above.

NOTE: Just one other point that should be emphasized with respect to the
disk cloning operation should the recipient of the clone be another internal
HDD and not a USB or Firewire external HDD. Immediately following the disk
cloning operation the machine should be shutdown and the source HDD should
be disconnected. Boot ONLY to the newly-cloned drive. DO NOT BOOT
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE CLONING OPERATION WITH BOTH DRIVES CONNECTED.
There's a strong possibility that by doing so it is likely to cause future
boot problems with the cloned drive. Obviously there is no problem in this
area should a USB or Firewire EHD be the recipient of the clone since that
device is not ordinarily bootable in an XP environment.


Disk Imaging:
The following are step-by-step instructions for using the Acronis True Image
9 Program to create disk images for backup purposes and using those disk
images for recovery of the system. (The steps are essentially the same using
the newer ATI 10 version):

Note: The recipient of the disk image, presumably a USB external HDD or an
internal HDD, ordinarily must be a formatted drive and have a drive letter
assigned to it. Recall that in the case of a disk-to-disk cloning operation
as previously described, an unformatted or "virgin" HDD can be used as the
destination disk.

Before undertaking this disk imaging process it's probably best to close all
programs running in the background including your anti-virus and other
anti-malware programs.

1. With both your source and destination hard drives connected, access the
Acronis program and click "Backup" on main menu.

2. The "Create Backup Wizard" screen opens. Click Next.

3. The "Select Backup Type" screen opens with two options:
a. The entire disk contents or individual partitions.
b. Files and folders.
Select a. and click Next.

(In the ATI 10 version four options will be listed: My Computer, My Data, My
Application Settings, and My E-mail. Select the My Computer option and click
Next.)

4. The "Partitions Selection" screen opens. Disk 1 and Disk 2 are listed
with their drive letter designations. Check the disk to be backed up -
presumably Disk 1 - and click Next.

5. An informational message appears recommending an incremental or
differential backup if an original full backup had previously been
created.Since this will be the first backup we will be selecting, just click
OK to close the message box. (You can check the box not to show that
informational message in the future).

6. Next screen is the "Backup Archive Location". In the "File name:" text
box, (in ATI 10 version it's the "Folder:" text box) enter your backup drive
letter and enter a file name for the backup file, e.g., "F:\Backup 1-25".
The Acronis program will automatically append the ".tib" file extension to
the filename. Click Next.

7. "Select Backup Mode" screen opens. Select "Create a new full backup
archive" option and click Next.

8. "Choose Backup Options" screen opens with two options:
a. Use default options
b. Set the options manually

If you select the b. option, you can select various options listed on the
next screen. Two of them are of interest to us:

Compression level - Four options - None, Normal (the default), High,
Maximum.
There's a "Description" area that shows the estimated size of the backup
archive depending upon the option chosen, and the estimated "creation time"
for each option.

Backup priority - Three options - Low, Normal, or High
Low - "backup processed more slowly, but it will not influence other
processes running on computer."
(Default) Normal - "normal speed but backup process will influence other
processes running on computer."
High - "normal speed but backup process will strongly influence other
processes running on computer."

With respect to the compression levels, we've found that when using the
Normal option the original data is compressed by about 20% - 25% and that
the High and Maximum options will result in a compressed backup file only
slightly higher than that. However, the amount of time to create the backup
files when using the High or Maximum compression level is substantially
greater than when using the Normal compression level. So unless disk space
is very tight on the destination drive, i.e., the drive where the backup
file will be saved, we recommend using the Normal compression level (at
least initially).

NOTE: You can set the Compression level and Backup priority defaults from
the Acronis Tools > Options > Default backup options menu items.

9. "Archive comments" screen opens allowing you to add comments to the
backup archive which you can review during the Recovery process. Click Next.

10. The next screen summarizes the backup operation to be performed. Review
the information for correctness and click the Proceed button.

11. The next screen will display status bars reflecting the progress of the
backup operation. After the backup operation finishes, an informational
message will appear indicting the operation was successfully completed.


Incremental Backups (Disk Images)
1. After the initial backup archive has been created you can create
incremental backups reflecting any data changes since the previous backup
operation. This incremental backup process proceeds considerably faster than
the initial backup operation. This, of course, is a major advantage of
creating disk images rather than undertaking the disk-to-disk cloning
process. Then too, since these created disk images are compressed files they
are reasonable in size. And because the incremental disk images can usually
be created very quickly (as compared with the direct disk-to-disk cloning
process), there's an incentive for the user to keep his/her system
up-to-date backup-wise by using this disk imaging process on a more frequent
basis than the disk-cloning process.

Note that you must create the incremental backup files on the same HDD where
you stored the original backup archive and any subsequent incremental backup
files.

2. Access the Acronis program as detailed above and move through the
screens. When you arrive at the "Backup Archive Location" screen, click on
the original backup archive file, or if one or more incremental backup files
were previously created, click on the last incremental backup file and
verify that the correct drive letter and file name are shown in the "File
name:" text box. After clicking Next, the program will automatically create
a file name for the incremental backup archive file, using the original file
name and appending a consecutive number - starting at 2 - at the end of the
file name. For example, say you named the original backup archive file
"Backup 1-25". The first incremental backup file will be automatically named
"Backup 1-252" and the next incremental file "Backup 1-253", etc.

NOTE THAT ALL YOUR INCREMENTAL BACKUP FILES MUST BE PRESENT FOR RECOVERY
PURPOSES. DO NOT DELETE ANY OF YOUR PREVIOUSLY-CREATED INCREMENTAL BACKUP
FILES FOLLOWING THE CREATION OF A CURRENT INCREMENTAL BACKUP FILE. YOU CAN
DELETE THE INCREMENTAL FILES ONLY AFTER CREATING A FULL BACKUP ARCHIVE AS
DESCRIBED IN THE PREVIOUS SECTION.

3. On the following "Select Backup Mode" screen, select the "Create
incremental Backup" option, click Next, and proceed through the screens as
you did in creating the initial backup archive.


Recovery Process (Disk images):
We'll assume the recovery will be to either a non-defective HDD that has
become unbootable for one reason or another, or to a new HDD. The HDD to be
restored need not be partitioned/formatted since the recovery process will
take care of that function.

Note that in most cases you will be using the Acronis "bootable rescue
media" (CD) that you created when you originally installed the Acronis
program. If you didn't create that bootable CD at that time, you can create
it now from the Acronis program (assuming You can access the program at this
time) by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media" icon on the opening
Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to create the bootable
CD.

Note: If the recovery will be made to a HDD that is still bootable and
you're able to access the Acronis program on that drive, then you can
undertake the recovery process without the need for using the "bootable
rescue" CD.

1. With both the drive containing the backup disk images and the drive you
want to restore connected and with the bootable rescue CD inserted, boot up.

2. At the opening screen, click on "Acronis True Image Home (Full Version)".

3. The program will open after some moments. On the "Pick a Task" screen
that opens, click on "Recovery".

4. The "Welcome to the Restore Data Wizard!" screen opens. Click on Next.

5. The "Archive Selection" screen opens. Navigate to the drive containing
the backup archive file(s) and select the last incremental backup file or
the original full backup file if no incremental backup files were
subsequently created. Ensure that the correct drive letter and filename are
entered in the "File name:" text box. Click Next.

6. In the Acronis version 9 program, the "Archive Date Selection" screen
opens. Select (highlight) the last incremental backup file from the listing
and click Next. This screen does not appear in version 10.

7. The "Restoration Type Selection" screen opens. Select the option,
"Restore disks or partitions" and click Next.

8. The "Partition or Disk to Restore" will open. Click on "Disk 1" and click
Next.

9. After some moments the "Restored Hard Disk Drive Location" screen opens.
Select (highlight) the HDD to be restored and click Next.

10. On the next screen select the "Yes" option to delete all current
partitions on the destination HDD. Click Next.

11. On the next screen select the "No" option and click Next.

12. On the next screen you have the option to validate the backup archive
before restoration. Click Next.

13. The final screen before the restoration operation begins will open.
Confirm that the information as shown is correct. Click Proceed.

14. Click OK when following completion of the recovery operation a message
appears indicating a successful recovery operation.

15. Remove the Acronis bootable rescue CD and close the Acronis program. The
system will reboot. A Windows "Found New Hardware" message followed by the
"System Settings Change" message box may appear on the Desktop. If they do,
click Yes for a reboot.

Note: While the Acronis program is not designed to clone individual
partitions - it can clone only the entire contents of one HDD to another
HDD - you can backup & recover individual partitions through the disk
imaging process as described above.
Anna

I have another question -

If you make 'image' backups, does Acronis provide a way to look at and
recall individual files from the image fine? So as to recover an
individual file?

I still would like to know exactly what WXP does to a hard drive that
seemingly locks it to a drive. I always assumed that hard drives were
somewhat independent - they were in W98. That is - it appears that
once you have created a WXP system on a c boot drive, it has to stay
there. It can never become a data drive somewhere else. True?
That would mean that if you have a boot drive that will no longer boot
or boot correctly, and you want to look at it from another boot drive,
maybe even on another machine, that you can not. True? That sure
would make recovery of lost files difficult. True?

Thanks

Jethro

 

[Bill Blanton]

[snip]

I still would like to know exactly what WXP does to a hard drive that
seemingly locks it to a drive. I always assumed that hard drives were
somewhat independent - they were in W98.

XP is different than 9x in that XP is designed to "remember" drive
letter assignments, whereas 9x enumerates drives anew on every boot.

That is - it appears that
once you have created a WXP system on a c boot drive, it has to stay
there. It can never become a data drive somewhere else. True?

Not really. There are a couple of points;

XP assigns a signature to every disk it initializes. This sig is written
to the MBR (sector 0)

XP uses the disk signature and volume LBA start sector to "remember"
drive letter assignments. The values are kept in the registry in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

XP will enumerate disks similar to 9x rules, however that does not override
previous assignments. (usually)

There can be confusion if the same sig is seen on two separate disks.
(though one will get reassigned)

When you clone a "disk", unless you clone the whole disk including the
MBR (and so, sig), you are not really getting a true clone. Doing partition
copying is an example of that, and it may also be true of Windows based
disk cloning software. YMMV there, but I'd suspect that most NT-aware
Windows based apps would not copy the sig, as that would create an
"illegal" situation.

If you do a "true" clone, from outside the OS, and then boot with both
drives connected then you have the problem of two disks having the
same disk signature. This is why you always see the advice not to
let XP see the new drive before the clone, and not see the old drive
afterwards, (until after the first boot). Even the latter situation can cause
problem with remnants from the cloned registry. However even with that
situation, (the new drive, now probably physical primary), XP *should* give
more weight to the sig from that drive. And so reassign the secondary
(previously original) drive.
Confusing? ;-)

What I do is clone the drive, and then copy the sig to the new drive,
and finally delete the sig from the original. This has worked for me
for even very complicated drive letter/partition layouts.

That would mean that if you have a boot drive that will no longer boot
or boot correctly, and you want to look at it from another boot drive,
maybe even on another machine, that you can not. True? That sure
would make recovery of lost files difficult. True?

Actually, there is less of a problem on another machine, because that
unique sig will never have been previously enumerated.

 

[Jethro]

[snip]

I still would like to know exactly what WXP does to a hard drive that
seemingly locks it to a drive. I always assumed that hard drives were
somewhat independent - they were in W98.

XP is different than 9x in that XP is designed to "remember" drive
letter assignments, whereas 9x enumerates drives anew on every boot.

That is - it appears that
once you have created a WXP system on a c boot drive, it has to stay
there. It can never become a data drive somewhere else. True?

Not really. There are a couple of points;

XP assigns a signature to every disk it initializes. This sig is written
to the MBR (sector 0)

XP uses the disk signature and volume LBA start sector to "remember"
drive letter assignments. The values are kept in the registry in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

XP will enumerate disks similar to 9x rules, however that does not override
previous assignments. (usually)

There can be confusion if the same sig is seen on two separate disks.
(though one will get reassigned)

When you clone a "disk", unless you clone the whole disk including the
MBR (and so, sig), you are not really getting a true clone. Doing partition
copying is an example of that, and it may also be true of Windows based
disk cloning software. YMMV there, but I'd suspect that most NT-aware
Windows based apps would not copy the sig, as that would create an
"illegal" situation.

If you do a "true" clone, from outside the OS, and then boot with both
drives connected then you have the problem of two disks having the
same disk signature. This is why you always see the advice not to
let XP see the new drive before the clone, and not see the old drive
afterwards, (until after the first boot). Even the latter situation can cause
problem with remnants from the cloned registry. However even with that
situation, (the new drive, now probably physical primary), XP *should* give
more weight to the sig from that drive. And so reassign the secondary
(previously original) drive.
Confusing? ;-)

What I do is clone the drive, and then copy the sig to the new drive,
and finally delete the sig from the original. This has worked for me
for even very complicated drive letter/partition layouts.

That would mean that if you have a boot drive that will no longer boot
or boot correctly, and you want to look at it from another boot drive,
maybe even on another machine, that you can not. True? That sure
would make recovery of lost files difficult. True?

Actually, there is less of a problem on another machine, because that
unique sig will never have been previously enumerated.

Thank you very much. I am sure your reply took some time,
I definitely will retain your information.

I googled the subject of changing a signature, and found info at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243195

Seems terrible complicated and time-consuming. To me this is a major
deterrent to full clone backups. I may try the 'imaging' technique.

Jethro

 

[Bill Blanton]

[snip]

I still would like to know exactly what WXP does to a hard drive that
seemingly locks it to a drive. I always assumed that hard drives were
somewhat independent - they were in W98.

XP is different than 9x in that XP is designed to "remember" drive
letter assignments, whereas 9x enumerates drives anew on every boot.

That is - it appears that
once you have created a WXP system on a c boot drive, it has to stay
there. It can never become a data drive somewhere else. True?

Not really. There are a couple of points;

XP assigns a signature to every disk it initializes. This sig is written
to the MBR (sector 0)

XP uses the disk signature and volume LBA start sector to "remember"
drive letter assignments. The values are kept in the registry in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

XP will enumerate disks similar to 9x rules, however that does not override
previous assignments. (usually)

There can be confusion if the same sig is seen on two separate disks.
(though one will get reassigned)

When you clone a "disk", unless you clone the whole disk including the
MBR (and so, sig), you are not really getting a true clone. Doing partition
copying is an example of that, and it may also be true of Windows based
disk cloning software. YMMV there, but I'd suspect that most NT-aware
Windows based apps would not copy the sig, as that would create an
"illegal" situation.

If you do a "true" clone, from outside the OS, and then boot with both
drives connected then you have the problem of two disks having the
same disk signature. This is why you always see the advice not to
let XP see the new drive before the clone, and not see the old drive
afterwards, (until after the first boot). Even the latter situation can cause
problem with remnants from the cloned registry. However even with that
situation, (the new drive, now probably physical primary), XP *should* give
more weight to the sig from that drive. And so reassign the secondary
(previously original) drive.
Confusing? ;-)

What I do is clone the drive, and then copy the sig to the new drive,
and finally delete the sig from the original. This has worked for me
for even very complicated drive letter/partition layouts.

That would mean that if you have a boot drive that will no longer boot
or boot correctly, and you want to look at it from another boot drive,
maybe even on another machine, that you can not. True? That sure
would make recovery of lost files difficult. True?

Actually, there is less of a problem on another machine, because that
unique sig will never have been previously enumerated.

Thank you very much. I am sure your reply took some time,
I definitely will retain your information.

You're welcome.

I googled the subject of changing a signature, and found info at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243195

That solution doesn't really apply to XP. This is more applicable. Though
it doesn't mention cloning directly, the method can be used if you are
careful.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188

Seems terrible complicated and time-consuming. To me this is a major
deterrent to full clone backups. I may try the 'imaging' technique.

If you want an exact clone (including the MBR/sig) this works well.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php#download
You still need to be aware that booting the clone with the source
disk connected could cause issues.

 

[Jethro]

[snip]

I still would like to know exactly what WXP does to a hard drive that
seemingly locks it to a drive. I always assumed that hard drives were
somewhat independent - they were in W98.

XP is different than 9x in that XP is designed to "remember" drive
letter assignments, whereas 9x enumerates drives anew on every boot.


That is - it appears that
once you have created a WXP system on a c boot drive, it has to stay
there. It can never become a data drive somewhere else. True?

Not really. There are a couple of points;

XP assigns a signature to every disk it initializes. This sig is written
to the MBR (sector 0)

XP uses the disk signature and volume LBA start sector to "remember"
drive letter assignments. The values are kept in the registry in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

XP will enumerate disks similar to 9x rules, however that does not override
previous assignments. (usually)

There can be confusion if the same sig is seen on two separate disks.
(though one will get reassigned)

When you clone a "disk", unless you clone the whole disk including the
MBR (and so, sig), you are not really getting a true clone. Doing partition
copying is an example of that, and it may also be true of Windows based
disk cloning software. YMMV there, but I'd suspect that most NT-aware
Windows based apps would not copy the sig, as that would create an
"illegal" situation.

If you do a "true" clone, from outside the OS, and then boot with both
drives connected then you have the problem of two disks having the
same disk signature. This is why you always see the advice not to
let XP see the new drive before the clone, and not see the old drive
afterwards, (until after the first boot). Even the latter situation can cause
problem with remnants from the cloned registry. However even with that
situation, (the new drive, now probably physical primary), XP *should* give
more weight to the sig from that drive. And so reassign the secondary
(previously original) drive.
Confusing? ;-)

What I do is clone the drive, and then copy the sig to the new drive,
and finally delete the sig from the original. This has worked for me
for even very complicated drive letter/partition layouts.


That would mean that if you have a boot drive that will no longer boot
or boot correctly, and you want to look at it from another boot drive,
maybe even on another machine, that you can not. True? That sure
would make recovery of lost files difficult. True?

Actually, there is less of a problem on another machine, because that
unique sig will never have been previously enumerated.

Thank you very much. I am sure your reply took some time,
I definitely will retain your information.

You're welcome.

I googled the subject of changing a signature, and found info at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243195

That solution doesn't really apply to XP. This is more applicable. Though
it doesn't mention cloning directly, the method can be used if you are
careful.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188

Seems terrible complicated and time-consuming. To me this is a major
deterrent to full clone backups. I may try the 'imaging' technique.

If you want an exact clone (including the MBR/sig) this works well.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php#download
You still need to be aware that booting the clone with the source
disk connected could cause issues.

Thanks again

Jethro

 

[Jethro]

Here it is...

Step-by-Step Instructions for Using the Acronis True Image Program to Backup
& Restore One's Hard Drive...

Using the Acronis True Image program there are two different approaches one
can take to back up the entire contents of one's day-to-day working HDD,
i.e., the operating system, all programs & applications, and user-created
data - in short, *everything* that's on one's HDD...

1. Direct disk-to-disk cloning, or,
2. Creating disk images

By using either of these strategies the user can restore his or her system
should their day-to-day working HDD become inoperable because of
mechanical/electronic failure of the disk or corruption of the system
resulting in a dysfunctional operating system.

In undertaking either of these two backup & recovery processes you're
dealing with two hard drives - the so-called source & destination disks -
the source disk being the HDD you're backing up and the destination disk
being the HDD that will be the recipient of the cloned contents of the
source disk or the recipient of the disk image you will be creating.

When using either process it's usually best for most users to use an
external HDD as the destination drive, i.e., the recipient of the cloned
contents of the source disk or the recipient of the created disk image. This
can be either a USB or Firewire or SATA external HDD. While another internal
HDD can also serve as the destination disk there's an additional element of
safety in using an external HDD since that drive will be ordinarily
disconnected from the system except during the disk cloning or recovery
process.

One other suggestion. After you install the Acronis program on your computer
it's a good idea to create what Acronis calls their "Bootable Rescue Media"
(CD). In most cases the recovery process (described below) will utilize that
Acronis bootable CD to restore your system. This "rescue" CD is easily
created from the program by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media"
icon on the opening Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to
create the bootable CD. The following are step-by-step instructions for
using the Acronis True Image 9 program to clone the contents of one HDD to
an external HDD. (The steps are essentially the same using the newer ATI 10
version):

1. With both hard drives (source & destination disks) connected, boot up.
Ensure that no other storage devices, e.g., flash drives, ZIP drives, etc.,
are connected. It's also probably a good idea to shut down any programs you
may have working in the background - including any anti-virus anti-spyware
programs - before undertaking this disk-to-disk cloning operation.

2. Access the Acronis True Image 9 program and under "Pick a Task", click
on "Clone Disk". (In the ATI 10 version click on "Manage Hard Disks" in the
"Pick a Tool" area and on the next screen click on "Clone Disk").

3. On the next "Welcome to the Disk Clone Wizard!" window, click Next.

4. On the next "Clone Mode" window select the Automatic option (it should
be the default option selected) and click Next.

5. On the next "Source Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct source
HDD (the disk you're cloning from) has been selected (click to highlight).
Click Next.

6. On the next "Destination Hard Disk" window, ensure that the correct
destination HDD (the disk you're cloning to) has been selected (again, click
to highlight). Click Next.

7. On the next window, select the option "Delete partitions on the
destination hard disk". Understand that all data presently on the disk that
will be the recipient of the clone will be deleted prior to the disk cloning
operation. Click Next.

8. The next window will reflect the source and destination disks. Again,
confirm that the correct drives have been selected. Click Next. 9. On the
next window click on the Proceed button. A message box will display
indicating that a reboot will be required to undertake the disk cloning
operation. Click Reboot.

10. The cloning operation will proceed during the reboot. With modern
components and a medium to high-powered processor, data transfer rate will
be somewhere in the range of about 450 MB/min to 800 MB/min when cloning to
a USB external HDD; considerably faster when cloning to another internal
HDD.

11. When the disk cloning operation has been completed, a message will
(usually)
appear indicating the disk cloning process has been successful and instructs
you to shut down the computer by pressing any key. Do so and disconnect your
USB external HDD. If, however, the destination drive (the recipient of the
clone) has been another *internal* HDD, see the NOTE below.

12. Note that the cloned contents now residing on the USB external HDD take
on the file system of the source drive. For example, if prior to the
disk-cloning operation your USB external HDD had been FAT32-formatted and
your XP OS was NTFS-formatted, the cloned contents will be NTFS-formatted.
There is no need to format the USB external HDD prior to the disk-cloning
operation. Similarly, there is no need prior to the disk-cloning operation
to format an internal HDD should you be using an internal HDD as the
destination drive .

13. Restoration of the system can be achieved by cloning the contents of the
data residing on the external HDD to an internal HDD through the normal
disk-cloning process as described above.

NOTE: Just one other point that should be emphasized with respect to the
disk cloning operation should the recipient of the clone be another internal
HDD and not a USB or Firewire external HDD. Immediately following the disk
cloning operation the machine should be shutdown and the source HDD should
be disconnected. Boot ONLY to the newly-cloned drive. DO NOT BOOT
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE CLONING OPERATION WITH BOTH DRIVES CONNECTED.
There's a strong possibility that by doing so it is likely to cause future
boot problems with the cloned drive. Obviously there is no problem in this
area should a USB or Firewire EHD be the recipient of the clone since that
device is not ordinarily bootable in an XP environment.


Disk Imaging:
The following are step-by-step instructions for using the Acronis True Image
9 Program to create disk images for backup purposes and using those disk
images for recovery of the system. (The steps are essentially the same using
the newer ATI 10 version):

Note: The recipient of the disk image, presumably a USB external HDD or an
internal HDD, ordinarily must be a formatted drive and have a drive letter
assigned to it. Recall that in the case of a disk-to-disk cloning operation
as previously described, an unformatted or "virgin" HDD can be used as the
destination disk.

Before undertaking this disk imaging process it's probably best to close all
programs running in the background including your anti-virus and other
anti-malware programs.

1. With both your source and destination hard drives connected, access the
Acronis program and click "Backup" on main menu.

2. The "Create Backup Wizard" screen opens. Click Next.

3. The "Select Backup Type" screen opens with two options:
a. The entire disk contents or individual partitions.
b. Files and folders.
Select a. and click Next.

(In the ATI 10 version four options will be listed: My Computer, My Data, My
Application Settings, and My E-mail. Select the My Computer option and click
Next.)

4. The "Partitions Selection" screen opens. Disk 1 and Disk 2 are listed
with their drive letter designations. Check the disk to be backed up -
presumably Disk 1 - and click Next.

5. An informational message appears recommending an incremental or
differential backup if an original full backup had previously been
created.Since this will be the first backup we will be selecting, just click
OK to close the message box. (You can check the box not to show that
informational message in the future).

6. Next screen is the "Backup Archive Location". In the "File name:" text
box, (in ATI 10 version it's the "Folder:" text box) enter your backup drive
letter and enter a file name for the backup file, e.g., "F:\Backup 1-25".
The Acronis program will automatically append the ".tib" file extension to
the filename. Click Next.

7. "Select Backup Mode" screen opens. Select "Create a new full backup
archive" option and click Next.

8. "Choose Backup Options" screen opens with two options:
a. Use default options
b. Set the options manually

If you select the b. option, you can select various options listed on the
next screen. Two of them are of interest to us:

Compression level - Four options - None, Normal (the default), High,
Maximum.
There's a "Description" area that shows the estimated size of the backup
archive depending upon the option chosen, and the estimated "creation time"
for each option.

Backup priority - Three options - Low, Normal, or High
Low - "backup processed more slowly, but it will not influence other
processes running on computer."
(Default) Normal - "normal speed but backup process will influence other
processes running on computer."
High - "normal speed but backup process will strongly influence other
processes running on computer."

With respect to the compression levels, we've found that when using the
Normal option the original data is compressed by about 20% - 25% and that
the High and Maximum options will result in a compressed backup file only
slightly higher than that. However, the amount of time to create the backup
files when using the High or Maximum compression level is substantially
greater than when using the Normal compression level. So unless disk space
is very tight on the destination drive, i.e., the drive where the backup
file will be saved, we recommend using the Normal compression level (at
least initially).

NOTE: You can set the Compression level and Backup priority defaults from
the Acronis Tools > Options > Default backup options menu items.

9. "Archive comments" screen opens allowing you to add comments to the
backup archive which you can review during the Recovery process. Click Next.

10. The next screen summarizes the backup operation to be performed. Review
the information for correctness and click the Proceed button.

11. The next screen will display status bars reflecting the progress of the
backup operation. After the backup operation finishes, an informational
message will appear indicting the operation was successfully completed.


Incremental Backups (Disk Images)
1. After the initial backup archive has been created you can create
incremental backups reflecting any data changes since the previous backup
operation. This incremental backup process proceeds considerably faster than
the initial backup operation. This, of course, is a major advantage of
creating disk images rather than undertaking the disk-to-disk cloning
process. Then too, since these created disk images are compressed files they
are reasonable in size. And because the incremental disk images can usually
be created very quickly (as compared with the direct disk-to-disk cloning
process), there's an incentive for the user to keep his/her system
up-to-date backup-wise by using this disk imaging process on a more frequent
basis than the disk-cloning process.

Note that you must create the incremental backup files on the same HDD where
you stored the original backup archive and any subsequent incremental backup
files.

2. Access the Acronis program as detailed above and move through the
screens. When you arrive at the "Backup Archive Location" screen, click on
the original backup archive file, or if one or more incremental backup files
were previously created, click on the last incremental backup file and
verify that the correct drive letter and file name are shown in the "File
name:" text box. After clicking Next, the program will automatically create
a file name for the incremental backup archive file, using the original file
name and appending a consecutive number - starting at 2 - at the end of the
file name. For example, say you named the original backup archive file
"Backup 1-25". The first incremental backup file will be automatically named
"Backup 1-252" and the next incremental file "Backup 1-253", etc.

NOTE THAT ALL YOUR INCREMENTAL BACKUP FILES MUST BE PRESENT FOR RECOVERY
PURPOSES. DO NOT DELETE ANY OF YOUR PREVIOUSLY-CREATED INCREMENTAL BACKUP
FILES FOLLOWING THE CREATION OF A CURRENT INCREMENTAL BACKUP FILE. YOU CAN
DELETE THE INCREMENTAL FILES ONLY AFTER CREATING A FULL BACKUP ARCHIVE AS
DESCRIBED IN THE PREVIOUS SECTION.

3. On the following "Select Backup Mode" screen, select the "Create
incremental Backup" option, click Next, and proceed through the screens as
you did in creating the initial backup archive.


Recovery Process (Disk images):
We'll assume the recovery will be to either a non-defective HDD that has
become unbootable for one reason or another, or to a new HDD. The HDD to be
restored need not be partitioned/formatted since the recovery process will
take care of that function.

Note that in most cases you will be using the Acronis "bootable rescue
media" (CD) that you created when you originally installed the Acronis
program. If you didn't create that bootable CD at that time, you can create
it now from the Acronis program (assuming You can access the program at this
time) by clicking on the "Create Bootable Rescue Media" icon on the opening
Acronis screen and simply going through the screens to create the bootable
CD.

Note: If the recovery will be made to a HDD that is still bootable and
you're able to access the Acronis program on that drive, then you can
undertake the recovery process without the need for using the "bootable
rescue" CD.

1. With both the drive containing the backup disk images and the drive you
want to restore connected and with the bootable rescue CD inserted, boot up.

2. At the opening screen, click on "Acronis True Image Home (Full Version)".

3. The program will open after some moments. On the "Pick a Task" screen
that opens, click on "Recovery".

4. The "Welcome to the Restore Data Wizard!" screen opens. Click on Next.

5. The "Archive Selection" screen opens. Navigate to the drive containing
the backup archive file(s) and select the last incremental backup file or
the original full backup file if no incremental backup files were
subsequently created. Ensure that the correct drive letter and filename are
entered in the "File name:" text box. Click Next.

6. In the Acronis version 9 program, the "Archive Date Selection" screen
opens. Select (highlight) the last incremental backup file from the listing
and click Next. This screen does not appear in version 10.

7. The "Restoration Type Selection" screen opens. Select the option,
"Restore disks or partitions" and click Next.

8. The "Partition or Disk to Restore" will open. Click on "Disk 1" and click
Next.

9. After some moments the "Restored Hard Disk Drive Location" screen opens.
Select (highlight) the HDD to be restored and click Next.

10. On the next screen select the "Yes" option to delete all current
partitions on the destination HDD. Click Next.

11. On the next screen select the "No" option and click Next.

12. On the next screen you have the option to validate the backup archive
before restoration. Click Next.

13. The final screen before the restoration operation begins will open.
Confirm that the information as shown is correct. Click Proceed.

14. Click OK when following completion of the recovery operation a message
appears indicating a successful recovery operation.

15. Remove the Acronis bootable rescue CD and close the Acronis program. The
system will reboot. A Windows "Found New Hardware" message followed by the
"System Settings Change" message box may appear on the Desktop. If they do,
click Yes for a reboot.

Note: While the Acronis program is not designed to clone individual
partitions - it can clone only the entire contents of one HDD to another
HDD - you can backup & recover individual partitions through the disk
imaging process as described above.
Anna

Hey Anna -

Can you extract files/folders of your choosing from an Acronis 'image'
backup like you can with a clone backup? I am probably wrong, but I
thought I remember reading that you could.

Thanks

Jethro

 

[Jethro]

[snip]

I still would like to know exactly what WXP does to a hard drive that
seemingly locks it to a drive. I always assumed that hard drives were
somewhat independent - they were in W98.

XP is different than 9x in that XP is designed to "remember" drive
letter assignments, whereas 9x enumerates drives anew on every boot.

That is - it appears that
once you have created a WXP system on a c boot drive, it has to stay
there. It can never become a data drive somewhere else. True?

Not really. There are a couple of points;

XP assigns a signature to every disk it initializes. This sig is written
to the MBR (sector 0)

XP uses the disk signature and volume LBA start sector to "remember"
drive letter assignments. The values are kept in the registry in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

XP will enumerate disks similar to 9x rules, however that does not override
previous assignments. (usually)

There can be confusion if the same sig is seen on two separate disks.
(though one will get reassigned)

When you clone a "disk", unless you clone the whole disk including the
MBR (and so, sig), you are not really getting a true clone. Doing partition
copying is an example of that, and it may also be true of Windows based
disk cloning software. YMMV there, but I'd suspect that most NT-aware
Windows based apps would not copy the sig, as that would create an
"illegal" situation.

If you do a "true" clone, from outside the OS, and then boot with both
drives connected then you have the problem of two disks having the
same disk signature. This is why you always see the advice not to
let XP see the new drive before the clone, and not see the old drive
afterwards, (until after the first boot). Even the latter situation can cause
problem with remnants from the cloned registry. However even with that
situation, (the new drive, now probably physical primary), XP *should* give
more weight to the sig from that drive. And so reassign the secondary
(previously original) drive.
Confusing? ;-)

What I do is clone the drive, and then copy the sig to the new drive,
and finally delete the sig from the original. This has worked for me
for even very complicated drive letter/partition layouts.

That would mean that if you have a boot drive that will no longer boot
or boot correctly, and you want to look at it from another boot drive,
maybe even on another machine, that you can not. True? That sure
would make recovery of lost files difficult. True?

Actually, there is less of a problem on another machine, because that
unique sig will never have been previously enumerated.

In your opinion, why does WXP do this? To identify the drive to
prevent piracy? To tie a validated XP to one drive?
Just wondering.

Jethro

 

[Jaymon]

Think you may have answered your own question..

Look over the Faq section, might try the 15 day trialware version to see for
yourself..
My ATI 8 still works like a charm, for me..

http://www.acronis.com/

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/kb/?aid=475


Yes, you can recover your complete system or individual files & folders from
an ATI image (*.tib) file..
All from the Windows GUI too..
Cheers
j;-j

[snip]

I still would like to know exactly what WXP does to a hard drive that
seemingly locks it to a drive. I always assumed that hard drives were
somewhat independent - they were in W98.

XP is different than 9x in that XP is designed to "remember" drive
letter assignments, whereas 9x enumerates drives anew on every boot.

That is - it appears that
once you have created a WXP system on a c boot drive, it has to stay
there. It can never become a data drive somewhere else. True?

Not really. There are a couple of points;

XP assigns a signature to every disk it initializes. This sig is written
to the MBR (sector 0)

XP uses the disk signature and volume LBA start sector to "remember"
drive letter assignments. The values are kept in the registry in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

XP will enumerate disks similar to 9x rules, however that does not
override
previous assignments. (usually)

There can be confusion if the same sig is seen on two separate disks.
(though one will get reassigned)

When you clone a "disk", unless you clone the whole disk including the
MBR (and so, sig), you are not really getting a true clone. Doing
partition
copying is an example of that, and it may also be true of Windows based
disk cloning software. YMMV there, but I'd suspect that most NT-aware
Windows based apps would not copy the sig, as that would create an
"illegal" situation.

If you do a "true" clone, from outside the OS, and then boot with both
drives connected then you have the problem of two disks having the
same disk signature. This is why you always see the advice not to
let XP see the new drive before the clone, and not see the old drive
afterwards, (until after the first boot). Even the latter situation can
cause
problem with remnants from the cloned registry. However even with that
situation, (the new drive, now probably physical primary), XP *should*
give
more weight to the sig from that drive. And so reassign the secondary
(previously original) drive.
Confusing? ;-)

What I do is clone the drive, and then copy the sig to the new drive,
and finally delete the sig from the original. This has worked for me
for even very complicated drive letter/partition layouts.

That would mean that if you have a boot drive that will no longer boot
or boot correctly, and you want to look at it from another boot drive,
maybe even on another machine, that you can not. True? That sure
would make recovery of lost files difficult. True?

Actually, there is less of a problem on another machine, because that
unique sig will never have been previously enumerated.

In your opinion, why does WXP do this? To identify the drive to
prevent piracy? To tie a validated XP to one drive?
Just wondering.

Jethro

 

[Jethro]

Think you may have answered your own question..

Look over the Faq section, might try the 15 day trialware version to see for
yourself..
My ATI 8 still works like a charm, for me..

http://www.acronis.com/

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/kb/?aid=475


Yes, you can recover your complete system or individual files & folders from
an ATI image (*.tib) file..
All from the Windows GUI too..
Cheers
j;-j

[snip]

I still would like to know exactly what WXP does to a hard drive that
seemingly locks it to a drive. I always assumed that hard drives were
somewhat independent - they were in W98.

XP is different than 9x in that XP is designed to "remember" drive
letter assignments, whereas 9x enumerates drives anew on every boot.


That is - it appears that
once you have created a WXP system on a c boot drive, it has to stay
there. It can never become a data drive somewhere else. True?

Not really. There are a couple of points;

XP assigns a signature to every disk it initializes. This sig is written
to the MBR (sector 0)

XP uses the disk signature and volume LBA start sector to "remember"
drive letter assignments. The values are kept in the registry in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

XP will enumerate disks similar to 9x rules, however that does not
override
previous assignments. (usually)

There can be confusion if the same sig is seen on two separate disks.
(though one will get reassigned)

When you clone a "disk", unless you clone the whole disk including the
MBR (and so, sig), you are not really getting a true clone. Doing
partition
copying is an example of that, and it may also be true of Windows based
disk cloning software. YMMV there, but I'd suspect that most NT-aware
Windows based apps would not copy the sig, as that would create an
"illegal" situation.

If you do a "true" clone, from outside the OS, and then boot with both
drives connected then you have the problem of two disks having the
same disk signature. This is why you always see the advice not to
let XP see the new drive before the clone, and not see the old drive
afterwards, (until after the first boot). Even the latter situation can
cause
problem with remnants from the cloned registry. However even with that
situation, (the new drive, now probably physical primary), XP *should*
give
more weight to the sig from that drive. And so reassign the secondary
(previously original) drive.
Confusing? ;-)

What I do is clone the drive, and then copy the sig to the new drive,
and finally delete the sig from the original. This has worked for me
for even very complicated drive letter/partition layouts.


That would mean that if you have a boot drive that will no longer boot
or boot correctly, and you want to look at it from another boot drive,
maybe even on another machine, that you can not. True? That sure
would make recovery of lost files difficult. True?

Actually, there is less of a problem on another machine, because that
unique sig will never have been previously enumerated.

In your opinion, why does WXP do this? To identify the drive to
prevent piracy? To tie a validated XP to one drive?
Just wondering.

Jethro

Okay & Thanks

Jethro

 

[Bill Blanton]

[snip]

I still would like to know exactly what WXP does to a hard drive that
seemingly locks it to a drive. I always assumed that hard drives were
somewhat independent - they were in W98.

XP assigns a signature to every disk it initializes. This sig is written
to the MBR (sector 0)

XP uses the disk signature and volume LBA start sector to "remember"
drive letter assignments. The values are kept in the registry in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

In your opinion, why does WXP do this? To identify the drive to
prevent piracy? To tie a validated XP to one drive?
Just wondering.

I don't think it's anything sinister ;-). Though the method itself is
questionable, it's just a way to identify a drive.

IINM, all in the NT line sign all hard drives. (though I'm not certain of older
NT versions) This includes all non boot or system HDDs. You can delete
the sig and a new one will be assigned without any effect on the
system's activated status.

 

[Jethro]

[snip]

I still would like to know exactly what WXP does to a hard drive that
seemingly locks it to a drive. I always assumed that hard drives were
somewhat independent - they were in W98.

XP assigns a signature to every disk it initializes. This sig is written
to the MBR (sector 0)

XP uses the disk signature and volume LBA start sector to "remember"
drive letter assignments. The values are kept in the registry in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key.

In your opinion, why does WXP do this? To identify the drive to
prevent piracy? To tie a validated XP to one drive?
Just wondering.

I don't think it's anything sinister ;-). Though the method itself is
questionable, it's just a way to identify a drive.

And this is necessary because ???

Jethro