Trying to create a partition for backup image using True Image

torrenter

Posts: 165   +0
Dear Sirs, if you can help...

I want to format an external HDD, creating two partitions. One small, one large. The smaller to store a System Backup Image on. Using TrueImage 2011. I want the Image to include all Windows files, with updates as well as the Program Files. In their current state. Basically, an exact image.

Later, if I have problems and want to restore my PC, I want to do this by plugging in the external HDD and restoring the C:\ drive (SSD) from the small partition on the external HDD. How do I do this?

I've read the help files and am confused between Clone Disk and One Click Backup. Clone Disk sounds nearly right and on One Click Backup it doesn't seem to give the option to include all Program Files.

Lastly, in trying to format the External HDD using TrueImage will I have to mark the small partition on it as Primary, Primary Active or Logical and/or does Acronis make a bootable CD to use? What is the actual difference between Primary and Primary Active?

Your help is much appreciated.
 
How to make an image ready to recreate and reboot your system in minutes using Acronis TIH

I have used TIH (True Image Home) in versions 8, 9, 10, 11. I also bought version 2011 but never used it. I totally stopped using TIH a few years ago, and have no PC at hand where it would be installed. So I speak only from memory.

That said, what you should do IMO is an Image, not a Clone Disk, neither a One Click Backup. And images are just files, not disks. So, here's how you sould do IMO:
  • Better format your external HD in just one single partition. Let's call it "BACR" (for "Backup using Acronis")
  • In TIH, make an image; source being your main HD (the SSD with the active OS), target being a to-be-created file on BACR
  • TIH will ask you what to include in the image: select the MBR and the "C:\" main partition (both in your SSD). Also include all the tools required for booting
  • TIH will ask you the target: you select the (single) partition in BACR.
This will create (very quickly) a very complete image file in BACR.

To restore your system, on the same SDD or on any other SSD or HD, you simply double-click on the image file, and reply to questions if some are asked. Thanks to the tools you have included, this will recreate, in minutes, the MBR and the "C:\" partition in that new SSD, as ready to boot as if you had just shut down your PC normally.

Versailles, Fri 18 May 2012 07:30:00 +0200, edited (auto-link in title) 07:46:50
 
I used TIH in versions 8 (2004), 9 (2005), 10 (2006), 11 (2007), and bought 2011 (2010)

More precisely:
I have used TIH (Acronis True Image Home) in versions 8 (2004), 9 (2005), 10 (2006), 11 (2007). I also bought version 2011 (2010)...
I add that the problems, that have always been present, only became worrying with v10 (it created File System errors on most of my numerous HDs in racks on my server, not only the one to be written in and the main one with the active OS, but also the ones TIH had only to read, and even the other ones, where TIH had absolutely nothing to do). To try cure them I bought Acronis Disk Director 10.0, but it proved even worse. So from that day, I was so afraid of losing all my HDs and all my stuff, even before starting to try a task as simple as cloning a disk, that I only used my old v9, in its latest build, only for simple cloning, and only twice; after this, I never used anything Acronis at all.

I add that Acronis "support", when I asked for help, replied to my very precise report with... a request for a long list of data. I performed all the scans they requested, using the tools on their site; this made a number of MB, in half a dozen files; I structured the whole and added a few short description files of my own, to make the whole clearer and easier to use; with that they had more than what an army of hackers would want or collect from my PC. I never got a reply, not even a "thanks"... but on their own forum, they tried to argue that the errors were due to my VIA chipset, despite this was a very frequently used chipset (KT400), that never caused any problem on any other of my numerous programs in years. I didn't even reply (I could have: I had been earlier a finally happy user of the Abit KT7A-RAID motherboard, known for being the last and biggest flavor of the worse of all VIA victims, and a contributor and heavy user of Paul Howland's excellent "Paul's Unofficial ABIT KT7 FAQ", formerly here then here then disappeared; so when buying my Gigabyte GA-7VA KT400 mobo in 2003 I was quite aware that this one was good).

Versailles, Mon 21 May 2012 18:44:20 +0200
 
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