Using Acronis Imaging Software with XP advice required.`

[Sam]

Hi,

I have been reading the forums and I have noticed a few guys here are using
Acronis software to backup their windows XP systems.

I have a question concerning this.

If I make an Acronis backup copy of my freshly installed XP, and after this
at some point in the future get a virus.

How reliable is this kind of "image" with regard to using it to replace and
save doing a manual installation of windows XP.

I am basically installing a copy of the original version, does this in
anyway "increase the chances of errrors" .

Assume that I had my Acronis image verified by the Acronis software.

So is this as good as the real thing? Or is it to be used only as a
temporary emergency.

How do other people use this "images of installations" and how much can you
trust them to be accurate. Then what happens if you make a backup of that
backup, then essentially you are making copies of copies of copies each time
you back it up.

Is this allways as good as the original method of manually doing an
installation from the Windows XP CD? This method seems almost to good to be
true, so I am fishing around to see how others use this Acronis imaging
system?

It would save me absolutely hours of work reinstalling everything if it
truly can be relied upon to be as good as the original installation.

All advice greatly appreciated and all experiences welcomed.

Thankyou for reading my queries
Samantha

 

[Al Dykes]

Hi,

I have been reading the forums and I have noticed a few guys here are using
Acronis software to backup their windows XP systems.

I have a question concerning this.

If I make an Acronis backup copy of my freshly installed XP, and after this
at some point in the future get a virus.

How reliable is this kind of "image" with regard to using it to replace and
save doing a manual installation of windows XP.

If you do a full restore you're booting a CD that was created when you
installed TI and which contians only Acronics software and runs Linux
which means that it is imposible for the boot CD to have or catch a
virus.

If you restore from an image that doesn't have a virus, you're OK.

I am basically installing a copy of the original version, does this in
anyway "increase the chances of errrors" .

Assume that I had my Acronis image verified by the Acronis software.

So is this as good as the real thing? Or is it to be used only as a
temporary emergency.

How do other people use this "images of installations" and how much can you
trust them to be accurate. Then what happens if you make a backup of that
backup, then essentially you are making copies of copies of copies each time
you back it up.

Is this allways as good as the original method of manually doing an
installation from the Windows XP CD? This method seems almost to good to be
true, so I am fishing around to see how others use this Acronis imaging
system?

I don't you mean by copies of copies...

Always do a verify/readback aif an image fter a backup to make sure
it's readable.

If possible, test the recovery preceedure in as realistic a way as
possible. The best case is on a new system. Install the OS, install
the backup software, make an image backup and attempt to to do a bare
iron recovery. Unless you've tested a bare iron recovery you never
know for sure if your plan will work.

I like and use TI. I've revered a couple systems after disk crashes
with it.

 

[Sam]

If you do a full restore you're booting a CD that was created when you
installed TI and which contians only Acronics software and runs Linux
which means that it is imposible for the boot CD to have or catch a
virus.

If you restore from an image that doesn't have a virus, you're OK.



I don't you mean by copies of copies...

Ok let me explain. When you do an "Acronis" backing and create an image you
are therefore creating an Image eg. "copy" of your original
installation. So when you "restore that image" then proceed and perhaps
update something or do an update then "back that up again" you are
essentially
making a copy of a copy. I hope that explains it more clearly.

Always do a verify/readback aif an image fter a backup to make sure
it's readable.

Yes that was what I was meaning, I was asking if after having done this
and it is a positive "non error" result, then can this image allways be
relied upon to be as good as the original version/installation?

If possible, test the recovery preceedure in as realistic a way as
possible. The best case is on a new system. Install the OS, install
the backup software, make an image backup and attempt to to do a bare
iron recovery. Unless you've tested a bare iron recovery you never
know for sure if your plan will work.

What do you mean by "new system" Do you mean brand knew computer or fresh
installation on a reformatted partition?

I like and use TI. I've revered a couple systems after disk crashes
with it.

What does TI mean? Do you use it as a temporary medium or do you use it as
you would have used the original windows installation.

Many Thanks for your help.

 

[Rod Williams]

The first thing you need to understand is the only correct way to save
an image is to another drive. What good is it going to be if your drive
crashes and the image was on that drive. Drives are cheap compared to
the time it takes to reinstall Windows and all software.

Second you have to make an image of the entire drive (all partitions) to
guarantee it will boot. It seems True Image only saves the MBR (Master
boot record) when imaging the entire drive. If you restored the image to
the same drive the operating system is on (because of something like a
virus) you could probably get away with just an image of the Windows
partition.

I have tested True Image twice. I made an image to a second drive and
restored the image to a totally different drive and it was perfect.
Everything exactly like the original.

 

[Sam]

The first thing you need to understand is the only correct way to save an
image is to another drive.

Hi Rod, I was asking the question with concerns about the "accuracy and
quality of the backup",
I am storing it on a separate partition on one drive, however, this can be
stored away from the computer if you get my point.
I am only concerned with how accurate the backup copy is and how complete
this is compared to a proper installation of
Windows.

Eg. can this be used as a complete windows installation or is it lacking in
some way? This is the essence of the question I am trying to find an answer
to.

What good is it going to be if your drive crashes and the image was on
that drive. Drives are cheap compared to

the time it takes to reinstall Windows and all software.

Point taken!

Second you have to make an image of the entire drive (all partitions) to
guarantee it will boot

Is this needed? I have one disc, but I have four partitions and an operating
system on one drive only. It is that drive I am concerned with.

 

[Al Dykes]

Hi Rod, I was asking the question with concerns about the "accuracy and
quality of the backup",
I am storing it on a separate partition on one drive, however, this can be
stored away from the computer if you get my point.
I am only concerned with how accurate the backup copy is and how complete
this is compared to a proper installation of
Windows.

The backup is an exact copy of your disk.

You need to test your recovery proceedure if you are to have
confidence in it working when you need it. For starters, do a
readback of the backup image often enough to know that everything is
working. With disk-to-disk backups this is less of an issue. If you
ever switch to CDR/DVDR media it is a BIG issue. IMO.

At the very least, do an image backup then boot the recovery CD and
browse to the backup image and do a readback to make sure it's OK.
That test lots of hardware compatibility stuff.

I recommend printing ut the manual. Put the PDF on a CDR aand take it
to Kinkos. They print and bind at a fair price. It might be too late
when your system is dead.

 

[Sam]

The backup is an exact copy of your disk.

You need to test your recovery proceedure if you are to have
confidence in it working when you need it. For starters, do a
readback of the backup image often enough to know that everything is
working. With disk-to-disk backups this is less of an issue. If you
ever switch to CDR/DVDR media it is a BIG issue. IMO.

Hi Rob, this is exactly what I plan to do. I was allways under the
impression that when you transfer digital
media it is allways perfect. I plan to back it up on DVDR media or CDR media
whichever has the biggest storage
capacity.

I have sometimes copied things to my CDR's only to find that somehow
something went wrong. So I guess my question is how can I be certain
that the image is 100% accuarate. Is there any danger that sometimes an
image can "verify ok" but then suddenly turn out to be not good.

Eg. for example a few times in the past I backed up email onto a CDR and
thought it was OK, then later when I formatted my drive and went to
"reinstall" the digital media backed up on the CDR only to find that there
was something wrong with it.

At the very least, do an image backup then boot the recovery CD and
browse to the backup image and do a readback to make sure it's OK.
That test lots of hardware compatibility stuff.

I recommend printing ut the manual. Put the PDF on a CDR aand take it
to Kinkos. They print and bind at a fair price. It might be too late
when your system is dead.

Thanks for valuable input. It builds confidence just talking to other users.
I have actually heard many good things about this software.

 

[Al Dykes]

Hi Rob, this is exactly what I plan to do. I was allways under the
impression that when you transfer digital
media it is allways perfect. I plan to back it up on DVDR media or CDR media
whichever has the biggest storage
capacity.

I have sometimes copied things to my CDR's only to find that somehow
something went wrong. So I guess my question is how can I be certain
that the image is 100% accuarate. Is there any danger that sometimes an
image can "verify ok" but then suddenly turn out to be not good.

Eg. for example a few times in the past I backed up email onto a CDR and
thought it was OK, then later when I formatted my drive and went to
"reinstall" the digital media backed up on the CDR only to find that there
was something wrong with it.

Thanks for valuable input. It builds confidence just talking to other users.
I have actually heard many good things about this software.

You need to d/l the eval version and play with it to see how it works.

There is a readback/verify function that test the image and media. If
you boot the TI recovery CD and do a readback you are in pretty good
shape. If you have a hard disk that required extra drivers when you
set up XP, such as a raid array, you'd have other issues.

 

[Anna]

Hi,

I have been reading the forums and I have noticed a few guys here are
using Acronis software to backup their windows XP systems.

I have a question concerning this.

If I make an Acronis backup copy of my freshly installed XP, and after
this at some point in the future get a virus.

How reliable is this kind of "image" with regard to using it to replace
and save doing a manual installation of windows XP.

I am basically installing a copy of the original version, does this in
anyway "increase the chances of errrors" .

Assume that I had my Acronis image verified by the Acronis software.

So is this as good as the real thing? Or is it to be used only as a
temporary emergency.

How do other people use this "images of installations" and how much can
you trust them to be accurate. Then what happens if you make a backup of
that backup, then essentially you are making copies of copies of copies
each time you back it up.

Is this allways as good as the original method of manually doing an
installation from the Windows XP CD? This method seems almost to good to
be true, so I am fishing around to see how others use this Acronis imaging
system?

It would save me absolutely hours of work reinstalling everything if it
truly can be relied upon to be as good as the original installation.

All advice greatly appreciated and all experiences welcomed.

Thankyou for reading my queries
Samantha

Samantha later adds...
I was asking the question with concerns about the "accuracy and
quality of the backup",
I am storing it on a separate partition on one drive, however, this can be
stored away from the computer if you get my point.
I am only concerned with how accurate the backup copy is and how complete
this is compared to a proper installation of
Windows.

Eg. can this be used as a complete windows installation or is it lacking in
some way? This is the essence of the question I am trying to find an answer
to.

Is (an image of the entire drive) needed? I have one disc, but I have four
partitions and an operating
system on one drive only. It is that drive I am concerned with.

Hi Rob, this is exactly what I plan to do. I was allways under the
impression that when you transfer digital media it is allways perfect. I
plan to back it up on DVDR media or CDR media
whichever has the biggest storage capacity.

I have sometimes copied things to my CDR's only to find that somehow
something went wrong. So I guess my question is how can I be certain
that the image is 100% accuarate. Is there any danger that sometimes an
image can "verify ok" but then suddenly turn out to be not good.

Eg. for example a few times in the past I backed up email onto a CDR and
thought it was OK, then later when I formatted my drive and went to
"reinstall" the digital media backed up on the CDR only to find that there
was something wrong with it.

Samantha:
For what it's worth, let me give you my recommendations based upon the
experience I've had with various disk imaging programs, including Acronis
True Image...

1. For all practical purposes, a disk imaging program such as ATI can
"clone" the contents of one drive to another drive. So that the "cloned"
drive is, in effect, a bit-for-bit copy of the source drive.
2. If you clone your day-to-day working HD to another *internal* HD, that
destination drive will be an exact copy (for all practical purposes) of your
working drive. As such, it is bootable just like the source drive.
3. In my view you should use the Acronis program (or other disk imaging
program such as Symantec's Norton Ghost) to make a disk-to-disk clone to
either another internal drive or a USB/Firewire external HD. It's about as
ideal a backup system the average user can use. There's really no need to
create disk images on removable media such as CD/DVDs where your exclusive
interest is creating a near failsafe backup system. The advice you received
from Rod Williams about using another drive to make a disk image, i.e.,
clone, of your working drive is sound in my view.
4. The advantage of cloning your working drive to a external HD is that the
external drive is detached from your machine which naturally affords another
layer of security. The disadvantage is that the external HD with the cloned
copy of your working drive is *not* bootable. However, you can clone the
contents of the external HD *back* to your internal drive for restoration
purposes.
5. Even where you have multiple partitions on your working drive, it's a
comparatively simple matter to make a disk-to-disk copy (clone) of that
drive, rather than cloning individual partitions.

I've probably cloned drives more than a thousand times over the years. In so
doing I've found this process a ideal system for backing up one's HD. The
process is simple, straightforward, and effective. Up to recently I've used
the Norton Ghost program, however, I've recently been using the Acronis
program which by & large performs just about the same. Its advantage,
however, over the Ghost program is its speed of cloning. It's considerably
faster.

If you need further details, please so indicate.
Anna

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I have been reading the forums and I have noticed a few guys
here are
using Acronis software to backup their windows XP systems.

I have a question concerning this.

If I make an Acronis backup copy of my freshly installed XP,
and
after this at some point in the future get a virus.

How reliable is this kind of "image" with regard to using it to
replace and save doing a manual installation of windows XP.

I am basically installing a copy of the original version, does
this in
anyway "increase the chances of errrors" .

Assume that I had my Acronis image verified by the Acronis
software.

So is this as good as the real thing? Or is it to be used only
as a
temporary emergency.

I have four comments for you:

1. Practice safe computing, use a good anti-virus program, use a
firewall, install and use several good anti-spyware programs,
keep all of these programs current, don't open executable
attachments, and your chances of getting a virus or other malware
will be small.

2. If you get a virus, you should use a virus removal tool to get
rid of it. Reinstalling Windows or restoring a backup is almost
always severe overkill.

3. That said, the Acronis backup should be fine.

4. If the backup is made immediately after installing Windows,
you will save very little by restoring the backup instead of
reinstalling Windows. Installing Windows doesn't take much time
or effort to do. What takes the time and effort is installing all
the applications, installing all their updates, setting their
customization options the way you like them, restoring your data
backups, etc.

It doesn't sound like a good plan to me.

 

[Guest]

:

..

Samantha:
For what it's worth, let me give you my recommendations based upon the
experience I've had with various disk imaging programs, including Acronis
True Image...

1. For all practical purposes, a disk imaging program such as ATI can
"clone" the contents of one drive to another drive. So that the "cloned"
drive is, in effect, a bit-for-bit copy of the source drive.
2. If you clone your day-to-day working HD to another *internal* HD, that
destination drive will be an exact copy (for all practical purposes) of your
working drive. As such, it is bootable just like the source drive.
3. In my view you should use the Acronis program (or other disk imaging
program such as Symantec's Norton Ghost) to make a disk-to-disk clone to
either another internal drive or a USB/Firewire external HD. It's about as
ideal a backup system the average user can use. There's really no need to
create disk images on removable media such as CD/DVDs where your exclusive
interest is creating a near failsafe backup system. The advice you received
from Rod Williams about using another drive to make a disk image, i.e.,
clone, of your working drive is sound in my view.
4. The advantage of cloning your working drive to a external HD is that the
external drive is detached from your machine which naturally affords another
layer of security. The disadvantage is that the external HD with the cloned
copy of your working drive is *not* bootable. However, you can clone the
contents of the external HD *back* to your internal drive for restoration
purposes.
5. Even where you have multiple partitions on your working drive, it's a
comparatively simple matter to make a disk-to-disk copy (clone) of that
drive, rather than cloning individual partitions.

I've probably cloned drives more than a thousand times over the years. In so
doing I've found this process a ideal system for backing up one's HD. The
process is simple, straightforward, and effective. Up to recently I've used
the Norton Ghost program, however, I've recently been using the Acronis
program which by & large performs just about the same. Its advantage,
however, over the Ghost program is its speed of cloning. It's considerably
faster.

If you need further details, please so indicate.
Anna

Hello, Thank You for your post.
Need some information concerning Acronis True Image v8.0 "cloning".
Have a external firewire drive single partition 40gb fat32. Would like to
clone my single partition 120gb ntfs drive (17gb used space) to the external
drive. Wiil the external drive need fat32 changed to ntfs?
What method of transfer do you reccommend? Automatic or Manual.
Partition transfer method? As Is, Proportional, or Manual.
Will use the external drive only for the clone image.
Thank You again for the information already supplied.
beamish.

 

[David Wilkinson]

Hello, Thank You for your post.
Need some information concerning Acronis True Image v8.0 "cloning".
Have a external firewire drive single partition 40gb fat32. Would like
to clone my single partition 120gb ntfs drive (17gb used space) to the
external drive.

Wiil the external drive need fat32 changed to ntfs?

That depends on what you end up doing. TI can make a backup image file of
a partition or it can clone a partition. There's a difference. An image
file will need to be restored before it can be used. The newly cloned
disk is ready to use as is. If you make an image file then it doesn't
matter how the target partition is formatted, the file is written to the
disk the same as any other file is.

On the other hand, if you clone the source partition then TI will
"format" the target partition to be the same as the source partition,
after all that's what cloning is.

One other thing to be aware of. If you create an image file of say, a
FAT32 partition, and then later restore it. I believe TI will only
restore it as a FAT32 partition. In other words if you try restore this
file to an NTFS partion TI will either change the NTFS to FAT32 or carve
out a new FAT32 partition from space in the NTFS partition.( You'll have
a restored FAT32 partition and smaller NTFS partition.) Vice Versa
applies.

This is based on my experience - YMMV.

What method of transfer do you reccommend? Automatic or Manual.

I do a complete manual backup once a month and an automatic incremental
backup every night. I'm sure others will tell you something different.

Partition transfer method? As Is, Proportional, or Manual.
Will use the external drive only for the clone image.
Thank You again for the information already supplied.
beamish.

I currently use TI to backup all 5 of my FAT32 partitions to a USB drive
formatted in NTFS. Have also done a number of restores. So far everything
works as advertised.

David

 

[Sam]

Samantha later adds...
I was asking the question with concerns about the "accuracy and
quality of the backup",
I am storing it on a separate partition on one drive, however, this can be
stored away from the computer if you get my point.
I am only concerned with how accurate the backup copy is and how complete
this is compared to a proper installation of
Windows.

Eg. can this be used as a complete windows installation or is it lacking
in
some way? This is the essence of the question I am trying to find an
answer to.

Is (an image of the entire drive) needed? I have one disc, but I have four
partitions and an operating
system on one drive only. It is that drive I am concerned with.

Hi Rob, this is exactly what I plan to do. I was allways under the
impression that when you transfer digital media it is allways perfect. I
plan to back it up on DVDR media or CDR media
whichever has the biggest storage capacity.

I have sometimes copied things to my CDR's only to find that somehow
something went wrong. So I guess my question is how can I be certain
that the image is 100% accuarate. Is there any danger that sometimes an
image can "verify ok" but then suddenly turn out to be not good.

Eg. for example a few times in the past I backed up email onto a CDR and
thought it was OK, then later when I formatted my drive and went to
"reinstall" the digital media backed up on the CDR only to find that there
was something wrong with it.

Samantha:
For what it's worth, let me give you my recommendations based upon the
experience I've had with various disk imaging programs, including Acronis
True Image...

1. For all practical purposes, a disk imaging program such as ATI can
"clone" the contents of one drive to another drive. So that the "cloned"
drive is, in effect, a bit-for-bit copy of the source drive.
2. If you clone your day-to-day working HD to another *internal* HD, that
destination drive will be an exact copy (for all practical purposes) of
your working drive. As such, it is bootable just like the source drive.
3. In my view you should use the Acronis program (or other disk imaging
program such as Symantec's Norton Ghost) to make a disk-to-disk clone to
either another internal drive or a USB/Firewire external HD. It's about as
ideal a backup system the average user can use. There's really no need to
create disk images on removable media such as CD/DVDs where your exclusive
interest is creating a near failsafe backup system. The advice you
received from Rod Williams about using another drive to make a disk image,
i.e., clone, of your working drive is sound in my view.
4. The advantage of cloning your working drive to a external HD is that
the external drive is detached from your machine which naturally affords
another layer of security. The disadvantage is that the external HD with
the cloned copy of your working drive is *not* bootable. However, you can
clone the contents of the external HD *back* to your internal drive for
restoration purposes.
5. Even where you have multiple partitions on your working drive, it's a
comparatively simple matter to make a disk-to-disk copy (clone) of that
drive, rather than cloning individual partitions.

I've probably cloned drives more than a thousand times over the years. In
so doing I've found this process a ideal system for backing up one's HD.
The process is simple, straightforward, and effective. Up to recently I've
used the Norton Ghost program, however, I've recently been using the
Acronis program which by & large performs just about the same. Its
advantage, however, over the Ghost program is its speed of cloning. It's
considerably faster.

If you need further details, please so indicate.
Anna

Just to say thanks very much Anna, for that info, really I was trying to get
a feel for how others used this media,
it seems to be very very safe to use and very reliable. As you say, it is
the most reliable way that single users can backup their data.

 

[Curmudgeon]

3. That said, the Acronis backup should be fine.

It should be MORE THAN FINE.

I've used GHOST for years, and more recently I paid for a registered
version and used IMAGE FOR WINDOWS.

NEITHER of these can compare to Acronis True Image in flexibility and
ease of use.

PERIOD.

I regularly use Acronis True Image to clone my boot drive to an
internal slave drive and to create images of my boot drive to an
external USB drive.

I have my Acronis Boot CD at the ready to take care of whatever might
happen in the event of a catastrophe.

 

[Al Dykes]

Just to say thanks very much Anna, for that info, really I was trying to get
a feel for how others used this media,
it seems to be very very safe to use and very reliable. As you say, it is
the most reliable way that single users can backup their data.

No backup is reliable unless care is taken and proceedures are tested
periodically.

 

[Rod Williams]

Ok Sam.

Let's say you have four partitions on one drive. (C:,D:,E:,F
F: contains the image of the entire drive.
If your operating system is on C: partition and had a problem you could
restore the c: partition and would have exactly the same sector to
sector C: partition you had when the image was made. One problem, like I
mentioned before, is if your entire hard drive crashes you lost the
partition that contained the image. Acronis however, will not guarantee
that it will boot because the MBR does not get replaced when only
restoring one partition. The only way you can be guaranteed it will boot
is to restore the entire drive. I don't see anyway that can happen since
the drive is wiped clean before the complete drive restore happens
and your image would be wiped out too.
Bottom line is you need a second hard drive, either internal or external
to store the image on. I wouldn't do it any other way.

Here is what I do:
I make a full backup image of my entire drive to a second hard drive.
Then every so often I backup the information that has changed by doing
an "append" to the full backup. That way it only adds what has changed
since I did the first full backup. The image is never recopied. The
changed information just gets added to the full backup as an additional
file. After a month or so I then do another full backup and keep at
least one other full backup in case there is a problem. I can tell you
this method works because I restored to a third hard drive and I had an
exact working copy of my original drive. I did the test twice over a
couple months.

I know this sounds confusing when you try to read it but it really
isn't. The time you spend learning how to use TI and the time to make
the backup images will never equal what it will take to reinstall an
operating system and all of it's software. Not to mention what valuable
files you might lose forever.

Hope this helps.

 

[Alias]

Here is what I do:
I make a full backup image of my entire drive to a second hard drive.

I assume both the hard drives are the same size, yes? You couldn't do it
with a 40 gig and an 80 gig, for example?

I really need to get Acronis.

Thanks,

Alias

 

[Al Dykes]

I assume both the hard drives are the same size, yes? You couldn't do it
with a 40 gig and an 80 gig, for example?

I really need to get Acronis.

Thanks,

Alias

It isn't the size of your disk, it's how much data you have
and how compressible it is.

Depending on what kind of files you keep, the image file created by TI
is half to a third the size, counting only the space used. An XP
system with 7+GB used in C backs up to a 4GB image (max compression)

OTOH, a machine with 53GB of MP3 and JPG files created a 43GB image.

Both on TI maximum compression.


You must keep at least two backup images. If you only have one backup
image and overwrite each time if your C drive dies while it is being
backed up you are f**ked.

I have a machine with a C drive and two other two 200GB disks that I
use for backup. I flipflop between the big disks so and I'm protected
if one dies. I also backup other machines on my LAN to those disk. TI
is great.

 

[Anna]

Hello, Thank You for your post.
Need some information concerning Acronis True Image v8.0 "cloning".
Have a external firewire drive single partition 40gb fat32. Would like to
clone my single partition 120gb ntfs drive (17gb used space) to the
external
drive. Wiil the external drive need fat32 changed to ntfs?
What method of transfer do you reccommend? Automatic or Manual.
Partition transfer method? As Is, Proportional, or Manual.
Will use the external drive only for the clone image.
Thank You again for the information already supplied.
beamish.

beamish:
You can use the ATI program to clone the 17 GB contents of your 120 GB
internal drive to your 40 GB Firewire external drive. The cloning process
will overwrite the present contents of the external drive so that the
external drive will contain the contents of your source disk including its
NTFS file system following the cloning operation.

With your external HD connected, simply double-click the Disk Clone icon on
the ATI opening screen and the Disk Clone Wizard will open. Choose the
Automatic option and proceed through the Wizard ensuring that your source
and destination disks are correctly selected. Choose the "Delete partitions
on the destination hard disk" option and finish up with the Wizard. Only a
few simple steps and the cloning process will proceed.

Bear in mind as I mentioned to Samantha that your external drive will *not*
be bootable, however, you can re:clone the contents of that drive back to
your internal HD should the need later arise for restoration purposes.
Anna

 

[Sam]

Ok Sam.

Let's say you have four partitions on one drive. (C:,D:,E:,F
F: contains the image of the entire drive.

Thats pretty much how things are set up Rod.

If your operating system is on C: partition and had a problem you could
restore the c: partition and would have exactly the same sector to sector
C: partition you had when the image was made.

Sounds good so far, thats what I had been led to understand that it creates
a complete clone.


One problem, like I mentioned before, is if your entire hard drive crashes
you lost the

partition that contained the image.

Thats true, but thats not what I am worried about nor asking about, because
as you mentioned before
a person should and can make "external backups" when required.

Acronis however, will not guarantee> that it will boot because the MBR does
not get replaced when only

restoring one partition.

Now this is getting to an area I was not aware of. I understood that the
"entire C partition" would get cloned
thereby making an identical replication. Meaning that it should be able to
be rebooted again as per normal, otherwise what is it actually copying or
cloning.

The only way you can be guaranteed it will boot

is to restore the entire drive.

This is not what I had planned to do nor can do as I don't have an external
drive! So now it seems from this new info that I can't
do exactly what I had planned.


I don't see anyway that can happen since the drive is wiped clean
before the complete drive restore happens

and your image would be wiped out too.

So you mean I can't restore the entire "disc image" from my partitioned
drive when I only have one "main drive" as you mentioned above.

Bottom line is you need a second hard drive, either internal or external
to store the image on. I wouldn't do it any other way.

Are you absolutely sure about this? Somewhere in this conversation lays some
contradictions, or most likely its my lack of understanding,
I specifically asked the live help at Acronis and they didn't mention this
point. Then it seems this can't do what I require it to do unless I have two
separate drives in my computer which I do not or an external drive which I
do not. Is this correct?

Here is what I do: I make a full backup image of my entire drive to a
second hard drive.

Ok, so my understanding is correct at least of what your saying, but I do
not have a second hard drive.

Then every so often I backup the information that has changed by doing an
"append" to the full backup.

Yah, I have managed to figure that part out.

That way it only adds what has changed

since I did the first full backup. The image is never recopied. The
changed information just gets added to the full backup as an additional
file. After a month or so I then do another full backup and keep at least
one other full backup in case there is a problem. I can tell you this
method works because I restored to a third hard drive and I had an exact
working copy of my original drive. I did the test twice over a couple
months.

I know this sounds confusing when you try to read it but it really isn't.
The time you spend learning how to use TI and the time to make the backup
images will never equal what it will take to reinstall an operating system
and all of it's software. Not to mention what valuable files you might
lose forever.

That really really helps alot, and its not at all difficult to understand.
Basically the only confusing bit for me or the bit I do not understand
is the fact that it does not "copy the boot thingy" that you mentioned on
the C partiion. This is exactly what is the condratictory understanding, I
understood
that Anacronis copied everything, so why not the boot records?

Thanks very much.