I have been looking at sites to try and figure out how imaging works. I understand that it takes a copy of your drive so if something went wrong, it would restore it back to its original state. But my question is how does it work? Lets say I have one 40GB drive that holds my OS and a second 500GB drive for data. Does it copy both drives? If one drive dies and I replace it, will all the data be recovered or is imaging more for registry and spyware problems?
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will disk imaging software restore everything?
- Thread starter dunkindan
- Start date
ServerKing
[H]ard|Gawd
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- Mar 11, 2005
- Messages
- 1,730
If you have vista there backup tool is great imo. You can backup to a DVD or do a FULL system backup to another HD. Basically, I use it instead of system restore. I backup my system every 2/3 weeks just incase something happens. One good thing about vista I found since I had it. You could use something like Norton Ghost as well, most people do a fresh install with all there apps and image the drive. Then if something goes wrong they pop in the disc they made and it restores it to that point.
I prefer vistas because its built in and easy to use.
I prefer vistas because its built in and easy to use.
alphanumeric
Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2003
- Messages
- 861
You would need to make an image of each drive separately. With Trueimage you can create an image of a partition, a drive with single or multiple partitions, but I don't believe you can image the two drives into one file.
alphanumeric
Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2003
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- 861
Yes, once you restore the image things should be the way they were just before you made the image.
Ok so I have made an image of my computer with acronis. It is a .tib file for there software. Would I know want to put this onto a dvd? Lets say my hard disk failed. Would my new hard drive need windows to be installed first then run the cd? I still don't know how this would work....
alphanumeric
Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2003
- Messages
- 861
There is a utility in the Acronus program to make an Acronus True Image boot media. What you can do is boot from that CD or DVD and run True Image from there, windows doesn't have to be installed or running. I believe the Acronus boot media runs a version of live Linux. You will get all the same menus and functions you got running True Image from windows. You will be able to restore the image file from a DVD. I believe Acronus will let you span the image across multiple DVDs if it won't fit on one too.
Got a couple questions to revive this thread with.
I have Acronis 11 and was under the impression it can do two things I haven't been able to find yet. The first is the ability to create an exact mirror image of a drive onto DVD's and have those DVD's be bootable without having to load Acronis first (the old dos version of ghost can do this). The second is the ability to schedule backups of files or folders to run automatically when you shutdown the pc (I see the option after startup/logon).
I would really appreciate it if anyone could enlighten me as to whether or not either is possible.
I have Acronis 11 and was under the impression it can do two things I haven't been able to find yet. The first is the ability to create an exact mirror image of a drive onto DVD's and have those DVD's be bootable without having to load Acronis first (the old dos version of ghost can do this). The second is the ability to schedule backups of files or folders to run automatically when you shutdown the pc (I see the option after startup/logon).
I would really appreciate it if anyone could enlighten me as to whether or not either is possible.
<cracks knuckles for a mini-mega-post...>
Yes, both functions are possible with True Image as long as you're using the Windows client software. By that I mean the software that runs while Windows is in operation because you can (and it's HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU DO) make "Recovery Media" meaning a bootable CD that has True Image on it. You boot off that in case your system is hosed/pooched/<insert euphemism of your choice here> and then you'll be staring at an almost exact duplicate of what the True Image Windows client software looks like.
It'll give you the same options for backing up, recovery, setting up and maintaining the recovery zone (a special hidden section of hard drive space, usually at the end of a drive, for storing the images you make), and other useful features.
True Image can back up data to any current media: internal and external hard drives, CD and DVD optical media, network servers, even FTP sites if that's what you really wish to do.
Scheduling backups is part of the True Image scheduling service, and you can get more info about that feature in the help file/manual.
The purpose of imaging software is to make an "image" aka a perfect bit-for-bit clone of a partition on a hard drive. Let's face it: that's the predominant usage for drive imaging software, not just folder or file backup on a folder or file level. It's actually designed to back up the entire partition or the entire drive itself. It's only recently that these types of applications have added folder and file level backup capabilities.
Personally I just image my entire system drive a few times a week and never look back.
The one "feature" you're looking for - will True Image make a bootable DVD to start the recovery process - unfortunately is a negative. It will not do that, and I still can't figure out why. That's the purpose of making the recovery media as I mentioned above. That's just a single bootable CD with the True Image application files on it. You'd boot off that, then you'd start the recovery process and insert the first DVD of the backup set (if there's more than one, of course) and the recovery process will read the data off that media and then ask you to insert the next as required in sequence.
During the actual backup creation, the same process is used, more or less. You'd start the backup, choose the destination - DVD media - and insert the first blank, etc. As they fill up, True Image will ask you to put in the next, etc.
Two tips:
1) Use DVD+RW media if you can since it's rewritable and reusable. If you must use regular blank media, that's fine too, just more permanent. DVD+RW typically burns slower also (like 4 or 8x if you're lucky) compared to 16 to 20x for regular DVD write-once media.
2) Use Normal compression. It gives roughly 2 to 1 compression for most materials, but realize if you have tons of audio files, tons of videos, etc - that stuff is already compressed and isn't going to get much smaller. Normal compression in True Image offers the best compression ratio vs the time involved. High compression can sometimes make the images smaller, but it can take 5 to 10x longer - seriously.
In my own testing of using Normal vs High compression, I imaged my system drive with 11GB of relatively easily compressible data on it (I don't keep audio/video files on the hard drive unless they're in process for burning to DVD+R media). The resulting image (I always image to a separate drive then burn the data later if necessary using Nero or ImgBurn, that's just me so don't take it as gospel) was 7.9GB using Normal compression and took ~14 mins to create. The High compression image was 6.2GB and took an hour and 25 minutes to create. So you can plainly see that the 1.7GB I saved in space didn't matter in the long run and took nearly 7x longer to create - didn't matter since it still required 2 single layer DVDs either way.
Needless to say I've been using True Image since that project started many years ago at Acronis, and have used every single version since it first appeared as a commercial product and as a beta tester since day 1.
It's software I would definitely always recommend without even having to think about it, especially in today's world of super-huge hard drives and people that just want to store everything on them. My strongest recommendation always has been and always will be:
Make a small(ish) system partition just for your operating system and leave the rest for data and file storage, applications, etc. It's easier to start over when you have a small image just for your OS and some very important stuff than it is trying to back up or restore multi-hundred gig situations, or even multi-terabyte nowadays.
Hope this helps...
ps
It is possible to use the Windows client software to boot the computer directly into True Image, also. Anytime you do a recovery or restore operation it's going to force a reboot anyway. While True Image can do live images - make an image of your Windows machine while Windows is running, and do it perfectly - to restore an image will always require a reboot of the PC, then the True Image "DOS" version will kick in and load upon the reboot and take over the PC. From that point you can do a restore of any image stored anywhere True Image can access it: the aforementioned internal/external hard drives, CD/DVD optical drives/media, network/FTP. The "full" version will have drivers for most USB/Firewire and basic network access. Good luck...
Yes, both functions are possible with True Image as long as you're using the Windows client software. By that I mean the software that runs while Windows is in operation because you can (and it's HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU DO) make "Recovery Media" meaning a bootable CD that has True Image on it. You boot off that in case your system is hosed/pooched/<insert euphemism of your choice here> and then you'll be staring at an almost exact duplicate of what the True Image Windows client software looks like.
It'll give you the same options for backing up, recovery, setting up and maintaining the recovery zone (a special hidden section of hard drive space, usually at the end of a drive, for storing the images you make), and other useful features.
True Image can back up data to any current media: internal and external hard drives, CD and DVD optical media, network servers, even FTP sites if that's what you really wish to do.
Scheduling backups is part of the True Image scheduling service, and you can get more info about that feature in the help file/manual.
The purpose of imaging software is to make an "image" aka a perfect bit-for-bit clone of a partition on a hard drive. Let's face it: that's the predominant usage for drive imaging software, not just folder or file backup on a folder or file level. It's actually designed to back up the entire partition or the entire drive itself. It's only recently that these types of applications have added folder and file level backup capabilities.
Personally I just image my entire system drive a few times a week and never look back.
The one "feature" you're looking for - will True Image make a bootable DVD to start the recovery process - unfortunately is a negative. It will not do that, and I still can't figure out why. That's the purpose of making the recovery media as I mentioned above. That's just a single bootable CD with the True Image application files on it. You'd boot off that, then you'd start the recovery process and insert the first DVD of the backup set (if there's more than one, of course) and the recovery process will read the data off that media and then ask you to insert the next as required in sequence.
During the actual backup creation, the same process is used, more or less. You'd start the backup, choose the destination - DVD media - and insert the first blank, etc. As they fill up, True Image will ask you to put in the next, etc.
Two tips:
1) Use DVD+RW media if you can since it's rewritable and reusable. If you must use regular blank media, that's fine too, just more permanent. DVD+RW typically burns slower also (like 4 or 8x if you're lucky) compared to 16 to 20x for regular DVD write-once media.
2) Use Normal compression. It gives roughly 2 to 1 compression for most materials, but realize if you have tons of audio files, tons of videos, etc - that stuff is already compressed and isn't going to get much smaller. Normal compression in True Image offers the best compression ratio vs the time involved. High compression can sometimes make the images smaller, but it can take 5 to 10x longer - seriously.
In my own testing of using Normal vs High compression, I imaged my system drive with 11GB of relatively easily compressible data on it (I don't keep audio/video files on the hard drive unless they're in process for burning to DVD+R media). The resulting image (I always image to a separate drive then burn the data later if necessary using Nero or ImgBurn, that's just me so don't take it as gospel) was 7.9GB using Normal compression and took ~14 mins to create. The High compression image was 6.2GB and took an hour and 25 minutes to create. So you can plainly see that the 1.7GB I saved in space didn't matter in the long run and took nearly 7x longer to create - didn't matter since it still required 2 single layer DVDs either way.
Needless to say I've been using True Image since that project started many years ago at Acronis, and have used every single version since it first appeared as a commercial product and as a beta tester since day 1.
It's software I would definitely always recommend without even having to think about it, especially in today's world of super-huge hard drives and people that just want to store everything on them. My strongest recommendation always has been and always will be:
Make a small(ish) system partition just for your operating system and leave the rest for data and file storage, applications, etc. It's easier to start over when you have a small image just for your OS and some very important stuff than it is trying to back up or restore multi-hundred gig situations, or even multi-terabyte nowadays.
Hope this helps...
ps
It is possible to use the Windows client software to boot the computer directly into True Image, also. Anytime you do a recovery or restore operation it's going to force a reboot anyway. While True Image can do live images - make an image of your Windows machine while Windows is running, and do it perfectly - to restore an image will always require a reboot of the PC, then the True Image "DOS" version will kick in and load upon the reboot and take over the PC. From that point you can do a restore of any image stored anywhere True Image can access it: the aforementioned internal/external hard drives, CD/DVD optical drives/media, network/FTP. The "full" version will have drivers for most USB/Firewire and basic network access. Good luck...
Thanks for that in depth response!
I was afraid the answer about self bootable backup dvd's was going to be a no. I'm kind of spoiled at work with ghost having that ability, I suppose I could just copy the floppy we use but It's obviously not exactly legal and I would be fired in a heartbeat if they found out. Im not even sure you can still buy that version of ghost anymore?
I thought I had read somewhere before I bought Acronis 11 that it would do on shutdown backups but it doesn't seem to be obvious. I will peruse the help files a bit more to see what I'm missing. Am I the only one that thinks having a backup scheduled to run when you click shut down to be the most useful? *shrugs*
I was afraid the answer about self bootable backup dvd's was going to be a no. I'm kind of spoiled at work with ghost having that ability, I suppose I could just copy the floppy we use but It's obviously not exactly legal and I would be fired in a heartbeat if they found out. Im not even sure you can still buy that version of ghost anymore?
I thought I had read somewhere before I bought Acronis 11 that it would do on shutdown backups but it doesn't seem to be obvious. I will peruse the help files a bit more to see what I'm missing. Am I the only one that thinks having a backup scheduled to run when you click shut down to be the most useful? *shrugs*