Question:
Acronis True Image Question
In True Image, I chose Backup > Select what you want to back up: My Computer, selected all drive partitions, and saved the backup file to an external hard drive. Does it actually save your entire OS in a drive image like Norton Ghost does?
If so, why doesn't it need to exit the operating system and reboot in DOS in order to back up the operating system, like Ghost does?
Answer:
Re: Acronis True Image Question
Saves everything - inc MBR (seperately). A brilliant program, the first I install. Can't answer why no re-boot though. I'd be interested to know too.
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Re: Acronis True Image Question
Let's say I backup my computer. After that is finished, I click the restore button. Does it return my computer to the exact same state? Will there be a decrease in performance each time I have to restore the computer?
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Re: Acronis True Image Question
Yes, and no. Yes to the same exact state, and no to the performance hit. And it doesn't need to reboot into DOS to back up your drive because it's a better program than Ghost.
Something you might want to try is dividing your HD into two partitions - one for your data, and one for your OS. That way, if you mess up your OS, you can re-install/re-image it without touching your data partition.
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Re: Acronis True Image Question
Interesting. Included in the OS, though, is all the installed programs and settings, so I would have to restore them if I reinstalled my OS on a separate partition.
Is there a guide for dividing your HD into a data and OS partition?
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Re: Acronis True Image Question
Once you've got the OS on a separate partition, you could just image that partition, and whenever you restored the image, you'd have all your programs and settings of the OS restored (as well as the OS itself, of course) to the date you made the image.
To cleave your HD, you just need a program to create a new partition. It would do it by using the free space from your current partition, and shrinking it by an amount you determine. From there, you could start transfering your music, movies, data, etc from your old partition to the new one. Finally, you'd ideally have nothing but your OS on partition A, which you'd resize down appropriately, and all your data/fun stuff on partition B, which you'd have made much larger.
I use Partition Magic, but there are free programs out there, like the Gnu Parted Live CD. XP also has a built-in partition manager, but it can only make partitions larger, which is rather useless for this task.
Answer:
Re: Acronis True Image Question
I see. Thanks for the tip -- I'll give it a shot.
I've been using Ghost for the past 5 years. It just seems so weird that True Image can create the exact same type of drive image as Ghost but not have to exit the OS it is backing up.
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Re: Acronis True Image Question
I have a problem with splitting the hd into multiple partitions. First the registry is in the OS partition. Second most software reads and writes to the registry. I think it's very possible to get corruption when imaging just the OS.
Let's assume you you backup your OS on monday and delete a program on tuesday. If you have to restore your OS on Tuesday you will have invalid registry entries for a program you uninstalled.
Vista sets the start sector for a disk differently than other versions of Windows. If you Don't image the entire disk and restore there are instances where you won't be able to boot. The fix is a repair with a Vista OS disk, but is the trouble worth it?
Be safe. Image the entire drive, especially on a laptop. If you had more than one drive this would be a different story, but your data is more important than anything else!
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Re: Acronis True Image Question
I thought Acronis added a few services to Vista (three I think). Even when it wasnt running. Am I mistaken?
Answer:
Re: Acronis True Image Question
I have a problem with splitting the hd into multiple partitions. First the registry is in the OS partition. Second most software reads and writes to the registry. I think it's very possible to get corruption when imaging just the OS.
This isn't true. I speak from experience of having imaged both XP and Vista on multi-partitioned hard drives.
Let's assume you you backup your OS on monday and delete a program on tuesday. If you have to restore your OS on Tuesday you will have invalid registry entries for a program you uninstalled.
This isn't true either. If you restore your OS, it restores *everything* in the OS back to the Monday state. The program will still be there, because it was *not* uninstalled on Monday, which is the date you made the snapshot. The registry is *always* contained on the same partition as the operating system, because the registry is *part* of the operating system.
Vista sets the start sector for a disk differently than other versions of Windows. If you Don't image the entire disk and restore there are instances where you won't be able to boot. The fix is a repair with a Vista OS disk, but is the trouble worth it?
Again, false. You don't have to image the entire disk. You simply have to image the boot partition. This does not vary on any edition of Windows. The boot partition is the partition your computer boots from. It contains your OS. If this is imaged, your computer will boot from it upon recovery.
Be safe. Image the entire drive, especially on a laptop. If you had more than one drive this would be a different story, but your data is more important than anything else!
Please stop spreading FUD if you don't know what you're talking about. I've done this dozens of times. Imaging the entire drive is unnecessary if your drive is already split into partitions, and you wish to image the partition containing your OS.