With this software, you can back up the entire disk drive or selected partitions. Seagate DiscWizard provides you with all the essential tools to recover your computer system should a disaster occur, such as losing data, accidentally deleting critical files or folders, or suffering a complete hard disk crash. You can store backups on almost any PC storage device. Windows-style interface and wizards will make your work easier. Just perform a few simple steps and let Seagate DiscWizard take care of everything else! When a system problem occurs, the software will get you up and running in no time.

Backup and Recovery

Backup refers to the making copies of data so that these additional copies may be used to recover the original after a data loss event. Backups are useful primarily for two purposes. The first is to restore a state following a disaster (called disaster recovery). The second is to recover small numbers of files after they have been accidentally deleted or corrupted.

Backup versions

Backup versions are the file or files created during each backup operation. The amount of versions created is always equal to the amount of times the backup is executed or to the amount of stored points in time. So, a version represents a point in time to which the system or data can be restored. The backup versions are similar to file versions. The file versions concept is familiar to those who use a Windows Vista and Windows 7 feature called "Previous versions of files". This feature allows you to restore a file as it existed on a particular date and time. A backup version allows you to recover your data in a similar way. This could be useful when trying to find damaged or deleted files. Simply browse through the backup versions in the Acronis Backup Explorer until you find the backup version containing the required files. Additionally, you can recover different saved versions of the found files.

Disk cloning

This operation migrates or copies the entire contents of one disk drive to another disk drive. This may be necessary, for example, when installing a larger capacity disk. The result is two identical drives with the same file structure. The "Disk Clone" tool effectively copies all of the contents of one hard disk drive onto another hard disk drive. The operation allows you to transfer all the information (including the operating system and installed programs) from one hard disk drive to another without having to reinstall and reconfigure all of your software. Seagate DiscWizard does not provide for cloning a single partition. You can only clone the entire drive. You can also transfer all the information from your hard disk drive to another one by backing up the entire old hard disk and then recovering the backup to the new disk.

Backup file format

Seagate DiscWizard usually saves backup data in the proprietary tib format using compression. This reduces the amount of needed storage space. When creating a tib file, the program calculates checksum values for data blocks and adds these values to the data being backed up. These checksum values allow for the verification of data integrity. The data from tib file backups can be recovered only through Seagate products. This may be done in Windows or in the recovery environment.

Backup validation

The backup validation feature allows you to confirm that your data can be recovered. As mentioned above, the program adds checksum values to the data blocks being backed up. During backup validation, Seagate DiscWizard opens the backup file, recalculates the checksum values and compares those values with the stored ones. If all compared values match, the backup file is not corrupted and there is a high probability that the backup can be successfully used for data recovery.

Disaster recovery

Recovering from a disaster usually requires a rescue media and a backup of the system partition. Seagate DiscWizard provides for recovery from a disaster caused by system data corruption, viruses, malware, or other causes. If the operating system fails to boot, Seagate DiscWizard will recover the system partition. You can create a rescue media by using the Media Builder tool.

Scheduling

For your backups to be really helpful, they must be as "up-to-date" as possible. This means that you should run backups on a regular basis. Although creating a backup is quite easy, on occasion, you may forget to do a backup. With the scheduler, you do not have to remember. You can schedule automatic backups ahead of time. Your data will be backed up as long as there is sufficient storage space. Understanding these terms and concepts will be helpful when using the program's features.

What's New:

  • Windows 8 support - Seagate DiscWizard supports the next version of the operating system released by Microsoft, namely Windows 8. You can safely buy and install Windows 8 without worrying whether you will be able to restore your system if need arises.
  • Secure Boot support - Secure Boot is a feature developed by Microsoft for the Windows 8 operating system. This feature blocks unauthorized software from running during a computer boot. Seagate DiscWizard now supports Secure Boot. This means that if your operating system becomes corrupt, you can easily boot your Windows 8 computers using two tools: bootable rescue media and Acronis Startup Recovery Manager.
  • New backup naming rules - The new automatic backup naming is more flexible and convenient. By default, Seagate DiscWizard creates for each backup task a folder with a backup task name and keeps in this folder all related backups. A backup filename always contains a task name, a backup method, a backup number, and a sequential file number (if the backup is split into several files, the suffixes will be v1, v2, etc.). Optionally you may add to the name date, time, etc. by adding the appropriate macros.