Acronis True Image question

Draeger · 28 Jan 2008 at 14:12

Got a friends laptop coming to me to fix.

Fixed it a few weeks ago using chkdsk and it had been running fine but it appears to be borked again.

So what I'm wondering is can Acronis True Image make an exact backup of his hard drive and O/S if I remove the hard drive itself and hook it up to my PC via an external caddy?. Is that possible?.

The plan is do the above, fit and format a brand new drive them replace the backed up image.

Never really used this type of software before so a few pointers from those who have would be very useful.

Thanks.

rpstewart · 28 Jan 2008 at 14:34

Yep, that's basically what True Image is for. If the drive is borked then TI may not be able to read the whole thing but it can skip over unreadable sectors - obviously this means data is missing when it restores so you might end up with problems if a critical file is damaged but it's better than nothing.

In terms of using it then it's pretty intuitive, all GUI driven, just pick the drive to be backed up and the drive to restore to. Hit the go button and you're done bar the waiting.

Draeger · 30 Jan 2008 at 10:33

Thanks for the reply.

Just to clarify, is it possible to work in the way I described?.

I hear of lots of folk installing ATI and using it to make a perfect backup of their current hard drive and installed OS etc, in case of reformats, but again, just to clarify, can I do this by installing ATI on my system, then hooking up the drive I need to back up via an external USB enclosure and back that drive up from there onto say.....my second "Archive" hard drive in my system and then restore that image from there back onto a fresh hard drive for the laptop?.

Sorry for being so confuzzling!!!.

rpstewart · 30 Jan 2008 at 10:38

Draeger said:
is it possible to work in the way I described?.

Yes

Draeger · 30 Jan 2008 at 10:42

Perfect!!!

Thanks for the prompt reply m8, appreciate it.

C4EVA · 30 Jan 2008 at 12:48

Personally I would image the hd before removing it from the laptop that way you reduce the chance of it failing more from handling as it sounds like it's on it's last legs tbh. Just hook up a USB/Firewire hd too the lappy and image, then remove.

P.S) Ghost > Acronis

Mercutio · 30 Jan 2008 at 12:50

Dead slugs>Ghost

Bout to do some moving of drives etc myself. Ghost really is the worst of the bunch.

Draeger · 30 Jan 2008 at 12:56

C4EVA said:
Personally I would image the hd before removing it from the laptop that way you reduce the chance of it failing more from handling as it sounds like it's on it's last legs tbh. Just hook up a USB/Firewire hd too the lappy and image, then remove.

P.S) Ghost > Acronis

Yeah, I'll do that, only trouble is, not sure if I will get the lappy to boot up.

I suppose if I can, then great, if not though, will need to remove the drive.