FOR THOSE THAT USE: Acronis TrueImage

When restoring an image does ATI completely erase the existing data?

My only concern is that when i restore an image within windows, ATI will not have rights to delete or modify OS files.....

And if it cant do that then how can it restore the image? Surely some files/data would remain.....
 
If you initiate a restore in windows, it will reboot and do it from a temporary boot sequence I believe, or if you don't have that bit of it installed, it will advise you to boot from the livecd and restore that way.

Quit winding yourself up, it works, I use it to do downright stupid things all the time and always get away with it.
 
photoshop said:
And if it cant do that then how can it restore the image? Surely some files/data would remain.....
Click to expand...
True Image or any other program for that matter can NOT restore data onto a OS or even pagefile partition while in Windows. For that, use the Bootable Rescue media & note that it will erase the partition you choose to restore onto, overwriting it with what's in the image i.e. backed up.

Something you have to watch out is if you have any e-mail, mobile phone back-up (SMS, numbers, etc), etc program you might have to copy their respective storage folders because those will be lost if you do a restore from an old backup archive.

Makes sense also, if you can, to keep the backup images separate onto another HD (external even better) :)
 
just try it out on a test pc, will save you asking questions here

if you restore an image, no files will be 'left over' as you put it, the whole partition will be restore to how it was in the image file 1:1
 
hp7909 said:
True Image or any other program for that matter can NOT restore data onto a OS or even pagefile partition while in Windows. For that, use the Bootable Rescue media & note that it will erase the partition you choose to restore onto, overwriting it with what's in the image i.e. backed up.

Something you have to watch out is if you have any e-mail, mobile phone back-up (SMS, numbers, etc), etc program you might have to copy their respective storage folders because those will be lost if you do a restore from an old backup archive.

Makes sense also, if you can, to keep the backup images separate onto another HD (external even better) :)
Click to expand...

You don't need to use a BootCD, anything it can't do in Windows it will do before Windows fully loads. It doesn't "erase the partition" it replaces files and you can change its settings so it won't overwrite what you want to keep.
 
I would suggest doing what bledd has suggested, i've used ATI since v9.0 and the best way to backup and restore your system is to use the recovery CD, as bledd has pointed out, it's best to use high or even normal compression and don't use the sector by sector backup option as this will result in a massive file which is not needed.

When you come to restore the bockup image you will have the option to delete the existing partition before the restoration, you can also restore to a new larger or smaller HDD, you can also restore files and folders if you don't deed to restore the full partition or HDD.
 
Thanks guys for all your help. I was new to all this but i think i've got the hang of it.

The image was for my Home Theatre PC which is use to watch DivX, XviD and H.264 HD movies.
The PC doesnt have a lot of software installed on it as i do all my main PC stuff on my other PC.

I formatted it last week and eventually found some drivers that finally worked to allow me to send audio/video through HDMI. Now the HTPC is in full working state and i can happily watch all the movie formats i mentioned above. Thus, i wanted to create a backup image of it so in future if it ever messes up (due to driver upgrades or software failure etc) i can just restore the image.

I've created an image of C Drive using ATI. I didnt bother with "sector-by-sector" method and i didnt use compression (because the image file is less than 5Gb).

I've stored the .tlb image file on to my External 750Gb USB HDD which is connected to my main PC but shared wirelessly with the HTPC.

I suppose if i ever do need to restore the image i will just open up ATI and choose the "Restore" function and then follow the steps and let it get on with it.

I will be updating the image every other week.


Cheers for all your help.
 
if it's a media centre.

set say 20gb for the windows partition, get codecs installed, put all media on 2nd partition and create an image of partition 1 (using compression does a faster backup) and uses tons less space, win/win

you'll only ever need 1 backup image of the c drive (not much else will change on there)

store the image on partition 2 (for faster backup/restore & copy it to another location for safe keeping)
 
bledd. said:
if it's a media centre.

set say 20gb for the windows partition, get codecs installed, put all media on 2nd partition and create an image of partition 1 (using compression does a faster backup) and uses tons less space, win/win

you'll only ever need 1 backup image of the c drive (not much else will change on there)

store the image on partition 2 (for faster backup/restore & copy it to another location for safe keeping)
Click to expand...

You've pretty much described what i've done. Yes its a Media centre type PC.

Its a 500gb HDD so i've split it as "C" Drive having 30Gb and the "D" drive (which is where i store all my backups of software, temp files etc) as having the rest.

All my media files are stored on the shared 750Gb external HDD which is connected to my main PC and then the files are streamed wirelessly from there to the HTPC.

I'll store the image on "D" drive (for faster restore) and the external USB drive just incase the HDD fails.

Cheers
 
coolio

i tend to make two images, one with no drivers installed (besides say network), and one with all drivers installed and codecs etc

so one is a very fresh install, the 2nd would be an up'n'running image :)
 
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