Acronis True Image 2011

Merlin5

Merlin5

Merlin5

Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
18,364
Location
Finchley, London
I need to reinstall windows as I think there's some corruption (DVD drive not showing in windows but shows in bios, system restore fails, and general slowness of everything) and the last time I did an install was 2009 when I installed W7. So the whole process of backup, restore and reinstalling programs is always a daunting thing for me.

I've not used acronis before but have it installed. Once I've backed everything up, then formatted and installed windows, I believe I can actually look at individual files on the backup, eg, a particular program, picture, video, game, etc and manually choose which ones I want to put back over the new OS, is that right?

What about my email? I use windows live mail and have emails going back years. Will a default full backup of everything include windows live mail and all the emails? Will the emails and windows live mail be easily restorable so I don't lose any and will I have to reinstall live mail?

As far as doing the backup, my C drive has 399GB of files to backup. I have 2 other hard drives but neither have enough space, so I'm going to try and backup to my laptop. I think there's about 350GB or so free space on that. Do you have an idea of how much compression backup will give my files so that they fit on the laptop?
 
Dear god no!

1. Acronis will let you look at files and extract single files by you will not be able to restore a whole program.

2. 400Gb of data on your C drive!! OMFG do you not tidy at all??

3. Fresh install of win 7 on a smaller partition around 100gb is plenty, put all your documents and music/photos on a different partition. Install games to another partition. And keep your system tidy!!

4. Windows live mail will redownload all the mail that is stored in the account just re enter your account details, job done!
 
Is there any possibility of buying a cheap external HDD? Not only would it make this task much easier, but it would give you the ability to keep backups of your data in the future!

chaparral said:
400GB of data on your C:/ drive :eek:
Click to expand...

Is that so bad? Sure, there's a lot to be said for partitioning, but lots of people don't do it and it works out just fine.
 
BigBoy said:
Dear god no!

1. Acronis will let you look at files and extract single files by you will not be able to restore a whole program.

2. 400Gb of data on your C drive!! OMFG do you not tidy at all??

3. Fresh install of win 7 on a smaller partition around 100gb is plenty, put all your documents and music/photos on a different partition. Install games to another partition. And keep your system tidy!!

4. Windows live mail will redownload all the mail that is stored in the account just re enter your account details, job done!
Click to expand...


Well, yeah, I do need to organise my pc better. :p

Maybe I should put my OS on my E or F drive then? Those are old IDE drives, while my 1TB is sata.

harddrives.jpg


I've got an archive of emails going back to 1999 believe it or not. I saved my emails from 1999 to 2009 in outlook express when I was on XP and imported them into windows live mail when I installed windows 7. So in windows live mail I have an imported folder of inbox and sent items from those years, plus I have my other current folder of inbox and sent items. Will windows live mail redownload both my imported and current emails, ie, from 1999 to now?
 
Mattus said:
Is there any possibility of buying a cheap external HDD? Not only would it make this task much easier, but it would give you the ability to keep backups of your data in the future!
Click to expand...

I would seriously consider buying an external if someone can recommend me a good one that is cheap with decent capacity.
 
hmm not sure about the older emails, can you export them from WLM? if you can back them up to one of your old drives.

Do you really need all the data that's on your C drive? I don't mean your music/documents/pictures and the like, can you not safely store the most important things on one of your old drives and wipe the C and start again? I regularly do a clean install (well partition restore from and image) on my 100Gb C drive as I'm always testing out software for other people (I go about 6months to a year then do a restore). My disk Image contains a fully working install with all the usual apps including office and AV 30 min and its done! Docs and stuff are all on separate partitions and the image point to the right places for the corresponding folders.
 
BigBoy said:
hmm not sure about the older emails, can you export them from WLM? if you can back them up to one of your old drives.

Do you really need all the data that's on your C drive? I don't mean your music/documents/pictures and the like, can you not safely store the most important things on one of your old drives and wipe the C and start again? I regularly do a clean install (well partition restore from and image) on my 100Gb C drive as I'm always testing out software for other people (I go about 6months to a year then do a restore). My disk Image contains a fully working install with all the usual apps including office and AV 30 min and its done! Docs and stuff are all on separate partitions and the image point to the right places for the corresponding folders.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm sure I can locate the email inbox and sent items, I think they're psx files. I'll find then and back them up separately. I also need to do some serious spring cleaning keep games, pictures etc off my OS drive.

I totally agree with what you say, less on the OS drive would make for easier backups. My mate phil2008 who also posts here has been saying the same to me.

So anyway, there's obviously no point in using my 1TB C drive for the OS since it's too big as the OS drive. So shall I just leave that for now, transfer everything from my F drive to C, then format F and install windows to F? That would certainly mean backup would be quicker as there's only 70GB to backup and I wouldn't even need to backup to my laptop.
 
I have used Macrium Reflect - same sort of software as Acronis, but I felt in safer hands!

I did an image of all my drives and partitions, nothing excluded and no compression. After that, I installed Windows and copied what I needed back to where it was. But that same backup exists, so if I do need anything that I've missed, then it's easy to get to.

Myself I made a CD and created the backup to an external HD. If I were you, do the backup over night and make sure verify is enabled. By the morning, your backup will have completed and you know you have a safe backup!
 
put the windows 7 disk in the drive boot from it reinstall the OS copy and fiels you want back from the windows.old filder it moves everything to

wait a month then delete windows.old

You are overcomplicating your life...

I do several machines a week and never re-format unless I want to sort out oem builds with loads of silly partitions...
 
Merlin5 said:
Yes, I'm sure I can locate the email inbox and sent items, I think they're psx files. I'll find then and back them up separately. I also need to do some serious spring cleaning keep games, pictures etc off my OS drive.
.
Click to expand...

the files are in hidden folders, open WML and look in options some where there is a maintenance tab that will show you where the files are stored
 
True image has never let me down and Ive been using it for years, but yeah I agree its becoming a tad bloated now, and cos of this, I backup and restore from the dos version, plus it gets rid of a few background processes in windows. But its still very reliable bit of software.
 
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