FOR THOSE THAT USE: Acronis TrueImage

photoshop · 8 Jul 2008 at 22:20

What settings do you guys use to create 1:1 images?

I've tried to create a 1:1 image of my C Drive but upon comparing the image with the actual drive there is a difference in size. My C Drive is showing as having used 5.46Gb but the image is only 4.8Gb (and thats with NO compression selected)

Also, if my system did ever screw up and i wanted to restore the backed up image, how do i do it?

Cheers

Im usng WinXP SP3

Dano · 8 Jul 2008 at 22:33

Swap file? virtual mem? hibernation space?

eXor · 8 Jul 2008 at 22:55

photoshop said:
What settings do you guys use to create 1:1 images?

This?

What is a sector-by-sector backup (raw image)?

The sector-by-sector backup allows you to create an image of all sectors of the selected partition. This image will contain not only sectors with data but also sectors that are free. As a result, this image will be equal in size to the disk being imaged, as there will be no data compression. This method is useful if a partition being backed up is not supported by Acronis True Image 11 Home or is corrupted. In this case, all sectors of this partition are included in this image and will be restored.

I've tried to create a 1:1 image of my C Drive but upon comparing the image with the actual drive there is a difference in size. My C Drive is showing as having used 5.46Gb but the image is only 4.8Gb (and thats with NO compression selected)

You can't verify image integrity just by looking at an OS directory listing. You would have to get a checksum of the raw partition and compare that with the image.

Under Linux you would do:

md5sum /dev/hda1

and then

md5sum the-name-of-your-image

photoshop · 9 Jul 2008 at 02:05

So to do a proper 1:1 backup of the (c) drive i should tick the "sector-by-sector" box?

photoshop · 9 Jul 2008 at 02:05

Dano said:
Swap file? virtual mem? hibernation space?

?

Dirk · 9 Jul 2008 at 06:18

What he's saying is that Acronis doesn't back-up your pagefile.sys as it isn't necessary. It'll be re-created if you ever use the image file.

As long as you selected the option to do an image back-up and you've now got a .tib file, you're good to go.

eXor · 9 Jul 2008 at 08:04

photoshop said:
So to do a proper 1:1 backup of the (c) drive i should tick the "sector-by-sector" box?

Yes. It will be slow and you will get a huge image, though. If you fill the free space with zeros, before imaging, then you can get very good compression. I recently achieved 85% compression on a partition, 20 gig down to 3 gig. ( dd + gzip )

Test the image as soon as you make it!

bledd · 9 Jul 2008 at 10:19

it's pointless to not use compression

ATI doesn't backup the pagefile.sys or hiberfil.sys, so that's where the data is going (seriously, you don't want it to back them up)

use high compression, it's faster than a uncompressed backup and uses tons less space, win/win situation

you're asking for solutions to problems that don't exist tbh

best way to backup...
use ATI to create the bootable rescue disc
uninstall ATI
disable system restore
run ccleaner slim to remove temp files etc
boot from the rescue disc (it's just ATI on a cd)
create backup file.

to restore, you just use the disc again

photoshop · 9 Jul 2008 at 10:43

So in summary:

- Use sector-by-sector method
- use some type of compression (normal is default) as it is pointless not to use it.

Is it best to burn the image on to disk (will be a few DVDR's when using the sector-by-sector method) or can i just save it to a different partition?
At the moment im saving it to a different partition as it is quicker.

How do i test the image that has been created?

If my PC does go bonkers how would i go about using the image to restore it to the saved state?
Do i just use the "Restore" function in Acronis TrueImage?

bledd · 9 Jul 2008 at 10:50

don't use sector by sector, it's a waste of space

don't burn the image onto disc, read what i posted

use 'verify image'

yes, from the live cd

AbsenceJam · 9 Jul 2008 at 11:17

The verify image option takes forever compared to the actual backup, I don't bother personally.
If you create an Acronis Secure Zone then you can also install the Startup Recovery Manager (F11 on boot) so you don't even need to burn a boot disk (but you should anyway).

photoshop · 9 Jul 2008 at 12:30

Im getting confused now. Some peeps are sayinga lways use sector-by-sector and others are saying its a waste of space....

Is the Acronis Secure Zone really needed? And should i install the Recovery manager?

Upon reading the manual, Acronis recommend that it is best to "recover image" within windows because it gives greater functionality and setting. Thats all fine but what if the OS fails to load?

My heads battered. This is really confusing.

AbsenceJam · 9 Jul 2008 at 12:41

Ignore them. Sector-by-sector backs up every little bit of the partition/disk whether it's in use or not so you'll end up with an enormous backup. It's only useful if you want to use a hard drive recovery tool on something that was already gone at the time you backed up..
The Secure Zone is really good because you're not backing up to a specific file, it'll keep all your backups and when it needs more space it will just delete the older ones. I schedule weekly full backups and daily differential ones (difference since last full backup).

You can backup and restore inside or outside of Windows. It's entirely up to you, having the recovery manager and bootcd are just other options. If you can't boot into Windows you have alternatives.

bledd · 9 Jul 2008 at 13:02

imo, just follow what i said..

only use the live boot cd to backup / restore, the F11 thing works, but if the hd dies, it's gone too

photoshop · 9 Jul 2008 at 13:05

What if i added a new bigger drive to the system. How would i install the image onto it and set it as C drive and then remove the existing drive?

AbsenceJam · 9 Jul 2008 at 13:09

bledd. said:
imo, just follow what i said..

only use the live boot cd to backup / restore, the F11 thing works, but if the hd dies, it's gone too

You can backup within Windows without issue, that's part of the usefulness of ATI. Might as well just use any old free tool otherwise. Same goes with restoring but with that it takes you to a pre-windows stage anyway.

photoshop said:
What if i added a new bigger drive to the system. How would i install the image onto it and set it as C drive and then remove the existing drive?

If you do that you can simply use the clone disk tool it has, or just restore an image to the new disk.

bluetech · 9 Jul 2008 at 14:30

I have used Acronis since v10. Very good peice of kit. Just use the default options and you will be fine. When it comes to replacing the drive, point the image at the new drive it by default it will work to merge the remaining space into c:\.

I have used this software within windows and outside of windows both work great. Compress / uncompressed. Image to new HDD, image to existing HDD but different partition and more. I have really put the software through its paces.

If you are new to all this... ignore all the jargon. Fire up Acronis, use the default options for the more advaned settings as you go thorugh. It's designed for "home users" so the default stuff just works.

As for the file size of your image, thats fine. Comprossion / unnessesary file removal is normal. To check your image, just double click it. You can then just browse through it.

Acronis is meant to be easy and "just work", and it does.

photoshop · 9 Jul 2008 at 18:07

When ATI restores an image, does it erase the existing data and then replaces all the files with the ones in the image?

Im just wondering how it would restore an image within windows.
Wouldnt it have to delete the existing data first (including windows directory) and then restore the image?

Basically theres two things im trying to understand:

1. Applying an image of "C drive" to a New bigger HDD and then removing the smaller existing drive from the PC.

2. Formatting the existing C drive and then restoring the image onto it. This way you would format and delete all the existing data on the drive and then do a clean install of the image. Kind of like a fresh install if you know what i mean.

AbsenceJam · 9 Jul 2008 at 18:38

photoshop said:
When ATI restores an image, does it erase the existing data and then replaces all the files with the ones in the image?

Im just wondering how it would restore an image within windows.
Wouldnt it have to delete the existing data first (including windows directory) and then restore the image?

Basically theres two things im trying to understand:

1. Applying an image of "C drive" to a New bigger HDD and then removing the smaller existing drive from the PC.

2. Formatting the existing C drive and then restoring the image onto it. This way you would format and delete all the existing data on the drive and then do a clean install of the image. Kind of like a fresh install if you know what i mean.

There are various restore options to govern that such as keeping newer files, overwriting, not overwriting, exceptions etc.

1. You can do that or you can just do "Clone Disk" which is more straightforward and lets you change partition sizes and things at the same time.

2. That would be pointless, you'd have exactly the same thing. But what some people do is install Windows and essentials then create an image before they add every single driver and application they use. That way if they want a fresh start they just restore the image and save the time of installing Windows.

photoshop · 9 Jul 2008 at 20:28

AbsenceJam said:
2. That would be pointless, you'd have exactly the same thing. But what some people do is install Windows and essentials then create an image before they add every single driver and application they use. That way if they want a fresh start they just restore the image and save the time of installing Windows.

What I want to do is create an image of the PC as it is now. I only formatted it a week ago and installed all the drivers and software that i use and have set it up to the way i want it. Its in a fully working state as i like to call it.

Then in future when the PC gets slower and full of rubbish, i can simply format it and restore the saved image.

The reason i wnat to do this is because its for my HTPC. I've had a lot of trouble with it to be honest with you and the drivers. But now its fully working so i want to create an image of it so i dont need to mess about with it. In future i can just update drivers as it doesnt have much software on it (as its used mainly to play HD mmovies).

In future when my HDD gets full up, i can simply put the image on the bigger drive and be off with no messing around.