Restoring XP From A Backup

[Abby Brown]

Hi,

We need to do an XP restore. Is is possible to just restore the
Windows directory or are there additional directories or files?
There is only a C: partition (sigh). I haven't had to do this
since NT4 (I now keep my OSes in their own partitions).

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Hi,

We need to do an XP restore. Is is possible to just restore the Windows
directory or are there additional directories or files? There is only a C:
partition (sigh). I haven't had to do this since NT4 (I now keep my OSes
in their own partitions).

Thanks,
Gary

It depends entirely on what type of backup you performed. Did you back up
the whole disk? Or just your data files? Or are you perhaps relying the
automatic System Restore process?

 

[Abby Brown]

It depends entirely on what type of backup you performed. Did
you back up the whole disk? Or just your data files? Or are
you perhaps relying the automatic System Restore process?

Sorry, I should have been clearer. The entire disk/partition is
backed up by Acronis.

I will first do a full backup of the current state. I can then
either restore just the OS or do a full restore then recover
data from the current state's backup. I'm trying to reduce
risk/effort. Its not certain what needs to be restored in the
latter case. The PC's user does not know how to use Acronis
which makes that choice iffy if I'm not around when she needs
something restored.

Gary

 

[Bert Hyman]

In "Abby Brown"

I will first do a full backup of the current state. I can then
either restore just the OS or do a full restore then recover
data from the current state's backup. I'm trying to reduce
risk/effort.

If you have a full backup, the least risk and least effort is to do a
full restore.

Its not certain what needs to be restored in the latter case.

Especially if you don't know what needs to be restored.

The PC's user does not know how to use Acronis which makes that choice
iffy if I'm not around when she needs something restored.

Next, teach the user how to use the software.

 

[Bert Hyman]

In "Bill in Co"

How can you do that in Acronis True Image? At least as I recall,
your choices are limited to restoring *partitions* (like C:, or
whatever), unless you've chosen only to backup and restore specific
files. ????

Don't know about earlier, but at least as "far back" as Acronis True
Image 2009, you can do selective (file by file) restores from "image
backups," and can even do incremental image backups.

I do a full backup once a week and an incremental backup otherwise.

The images can even be "mounted," browsed and copied from through an
Explorer extension.

 

[Bert Hyman]

In "pjp"

Wondering if you've also tried the "Try before Decide" option as it
sounds almost too good to be true so wonder if indeed it does work as
stated.

Never tried it. Acronis has a bunch of user forums and I've seen it
discussed.

I'm pretty sure you can read the forums without registering.

http://forum.acronis.com/

 

[BillW50]

In Bert Hyman typed on 24 Aug 2010 12:45:03 GMT:

In "pjp"


Never tried it. Acronis has a bunch of user forums and I've seen it
discussed.

I'm pretty sure you can read the forums without registering.

http://forum.acronis.com/

I have documented pages and pages of problems with Acronis True Image.
Here is the ones from the top of my head that bugs me the most.

1) Eats up 185MB of RAM when it isn't even running

2) Can't restore from some USB external HDD

3) May not restore if you change the build number

Acronis True Image has let me down way too often. In fact, this computer
I had to rebuild from the Recovery DVD just last week since all of my
Acronis True Image backups were totally useless. I have no idea why
anybody would recommend such a terrible program for?

 

[Bert Hyman]

In "BillW50"

I have no idea why anybody would recommend such a terrible program
for?

Probably because it works well for most people.

Judging solely by the comments in this newsgroup, I can't see why
anybody would ever use Windows.

 

[BillW50]

In Bert Hyman typed on 24 Aug 2010 13:05:37 GMT:

In "BillW50"


Probably because it works well for most people.

Judging solely by the comments in this newsgroup, I can't see why
anybody would ever use Windows.

If it worked well for most people, most people would be using Acronis
True Image. But that isn't true, now is it? And the ones that are using
it happily, I bet most never tested it to see if it actually restores
correctly or not.

And about Windows, most computer users actually uses Windows. So it
isn't the same thing at all.

 

[Ben Dover]

In Bert Hyman typed on 24 Aug 2010 13:05:37 GMT:

If it worked well for most people, most people would be using Acronis True
Image. But that isn't true, now is it? And the ones that are using it
happily, I bet most never tested it to see if it actually restores
correctly or not.

And about Windows, most computer users actually uses Windows. So it isn't
the same thing at all.

-- You're a true HoopleHead.

 

[BillW50]

In Ben Dover typed on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:46:58 -0500:

You're a true HoopleHead.

And what's a HoopleHead? A person who is pissed that Acronis True Image
has failed them dozens of times? And support says to backup to an
internal drive instead to avoid this not restoring from an USB drive?
Well that is just a stupid idea since most laptops only has one internal
drive and if that drive fails, so does your backup.

You see Ben, I believe in being honest. As it saves newbies lots of
problems down the line. And I don't believe in BSing them like you do.

 

[Unknown]

You'll have to ignore Ben Dover. He is just a college student prankster in
London.
He changes his name very often.

 

[Bert Hyman]

In "Bill in Co"

Now THAT sounds really excessive, but I'm using an older version
(Home, ver 11), and doubt if it is anywhere close to that. At least
under Task Manager it shows it isn't; in fact, that largest memory
item shown there is explorer.exe, at 50 MB. True Image is logging in
there at about 10 MB total).

The only piece of True Image Home 2009 that I can find running now is
"TrueImageMonitor", clocking in at a staggering 7,708K (VM Size 5,292K)
on the process monitor.

 

[Bert Hyman]

In "Bill in Co"

"staggering" being said with tongue in cheek. 8 MB ain't nothin!

Quite true; it's hard to write a Windows program that actually does
anything in that space.

 

[pjp]

In Bert Hyman typed on 24 Aug 2010 13:05:37 GMT:

If it worked well for most people, most people would be using Acronis True
Image. But that isn't true, now is it? And the ones that are using it
happily, I bet most never tested it to see if it actually restores
correctly or not.

I have used it a number of times for a restore. Last time specifically I was
unsure of some hardware add-on drivers during a clean install and did a
restore to basic first boot image twice. Each worked as expected.

I've also used it a number of times when a hard disk was going bad. It took
a failing 250 gig and cloned it onto a 120 gig (disk was using < 60 gig)
then after that took a 500 gig and cloned it onto a 250 gig (disk was using
< 100 gigs), went as expected. Then cloned a 40 gig onto the 500 went as
expected.

Note - a lot of the swapping was using an external enclosure and swapping a
drive into it rather than the master/slave ide method.

So, for me, the two essentials went just fine.

Regarding memory, footprint usage etc. I uninstalled the program after I
made the special boot disk as it does seem to want to intrude too much. The
boot disk seems to allow you to do everything so it's not a hassle.

 

[Daave]

And what's a HoopleHead? A person who is pissed that Acronis True
Image has failed them dozens of times? And support says to backup to
an internal drive instead to avoid this not restoring from an USB
drive? Well that is just a stupid idea since most laptops only has
one internal drive and if that drive fails, so does your backup.

Huh??!!??

How many dozens of times have you experienced failure? What kind of
failures? Was there a pattern? That just doesn't sound right...

It's hard for me to believe that "support" says this. Acronis is
intended to do such things as create images directly to and restore them
directly from USB hard drives. I've done that many times. Never had any
failures at all.

 

[BillW50]

In Bill in Co typed on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:58:00 -0600:

"staggering" being said with tongue in cheek. 8 MB ain't nothin!

Acronis True Image v12 uses:

Acronis Scheduler 2 (scedul2.exe) 30MB
Acronis True Image Monitor (TrueImageMonitor.exe) 70MB
Monitor for Acronis True Image Backup Archive Explorer
(TimounterMonitor.exe) 50MB
Acronis Scheduler Helper (schedhlp.exe) 34MB

Total 184MB

 

[BillW50]

In Daave typed on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:12:47 -0400:

Huh??!!??

How many dozens of times have you experienced failure? What kind of
failures? Was there a pattern? That just doesn't sound right...

It's hard for me to believe that "support" says this. Acronis is
intended to do such things as create images directly to and restore
them directly from USB hard drives. I've done that many times. Never
had any failures at all.

"It backed up fine to my USB external hard drive (Maxtor 4 Plus). But it
was unable to mount the file it had made, nor to recover with it. Their
tech support said to copy the backup file to an internal drive."
http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2009/03/acronis-true-image-2009-home-and.html

This is the last comment on that web page. I also have the same problem
with my Samsung Story 1.5GB USB HDDs. As you can backup to them all day
long and no problems there. But when it comes to restoring, it can't
even see the drive. That makes Acronis True Image totally useless. I
tried to restore an image just last week with Acronis True Image. Even
copied the backup from the USB to the internal drive. That was a bad
idea. As Acronis True Image put it all into a folder called Drive C on
restore.

Got so sick and tired of Acronis True Image that I switched to something
that actually works, called Paragon Drive Backup. Although PDB CD
doesn't work with my four EeePC netbooks with 7 inch screens. And no an
external monitor won't show anything with this CD either. So there I use
Norton Ghost.

 

[Daave]

I also have the same
problem with my Samsung Story 1.5GB USB HDDs. As you can backup to
them all day long and no problems there. But when it comes to
restoring, it can't even see the drive.

*What* can't even see the drive?

FWIW, I have an older version of Acronis (9) and in order for me to get
the option to boot off a bootable CD to work without issues, I do
remember now that I needed to download the latest Bart PE Acronis Plugin
and create my own Bart PE rescue CD. Yes, I do recall that I had issues
with the factory-issued Acronis rescue CD. It was so long ago, so
unfortunately I can't remember details. But ever since I created the
Bart PE CD, I have never had an issue restoring image archives.

That makes Acronis True Image
totally useless. I tried to restore an image just last week with
Acronis True Image. Even copied the backup from the USB to the
internal drive. That was a bad idea. As Acronis True Image put it all
into a folder called Drive C on restore.

I don't follow. You don't need Acronis to copy image archive files. My
archive files have the .tib extension. I store them wherever I want. I
can copy them, too, if I want. I can place them in any folder I want. I
do it (with Windows Explorer), not Acronis.

What internal drive? A second internal hard drive in a desktop PC? That
would work. But I thought you were talking about a laptop hard drive.
Storing it in the laptop's only hard drive doesn't make any sense to me.

Got so sick and tired of Acronis True Image that I switched to
something that actually works, called Paragon Drive Backup. Although
PDB CD doesn't work with my four EeePC netbooks with 7 inch screens.
And no an external monitor won't show anything with this CD either.
So there I use Norton Ghost.

At least you're covering yourself; that is what's really important.