Can't select What to Back up when using Disc Image Backup

Is the disk greyed out?

Can you select it from the Acronis recovery CD?

To Pat L:

Yes, the important item in the dialog box is greyed out. The source of my backup (What to back up) is the C: Drive on my computer. It appears in the dialog box along with the external drive I want to put the disc image on (Destination). For some reason the Destination dtive can be selected as the Source but the C: Drive is greyed out and cannot be selected.

The only Acronis disc I have is the installation disc, which, as I understand it, can be used for recovery.

To Pat L:

Yes, the important item in the dialog box is greyed out. The source of my backup (What to back up) is the C: Drive on my computer. It appears in the top part of the dialog box and the external drive I want to put the disc image on (Destination) also appears there for some reason. The Destination drive can be selected as the Source but the C: Drive is greyed out and cannot be selected.

The only Acronis disc I have is the installation disc, which, as I understand it, can be used for recovery.

It sounds like you are using the TrueImage bootable media (Acronis installation disk) to perform the backup. If your new laptop has Windows 7, then you need more than just Drive C. If Windows 7 is the operating system, then checkmark the disk so all partitions will become checked so you will have a disk image backup.

if you do not have the final update for the 2010 version, you may want to consider downloading the latest 2010 iso file and burn the latest release to CD of the 2010 version. Build 7154 was the last update for the 2010 version.

I'm sorry, it's True Image Home 2011 I have, not 2010 as I said before.

My new computer does run on Windows 7. I'll see if I can mark it so all partitions are included and try again. In the What-to-back-up dialog box, where both the computer's C: drive and the external Destination drive are listed, both show the partitioning of the drives but I don't see any way to select the C: drive because it is greyed out.

Harold,

Right click on the computer icon on your desktop, choose manage, storage, disk management. In the top menu bar, choose view, top, list disks. Capture a screenshot of the resulting window and post it here.

To Pat L:

I will make the screenshot and post it.

I made a screeenshot of my computer's file management diagram but can't paste it here. How do I do it?

The latest build for the 2011 version is build 6942.

If running TrueImage 2011 from within Windows, figures 1-5 in this link will show how to get a full disk image (disk mode) backups.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705

The below illustrates (when booted from the CD) how to do a disk image of the entire disk and also restore the backup to a same sized disk.

Compaq

For information about creating and posting screenshots can be found by clicking the top line of my signature below and locating index item 1-I and 1-J.

To Grover H:

My 'Where to back up' dialog box on my version of Acronis True Image Home 2011 looks nothing like the ones shown in your post.

To Grover H:

My 'Where to back up' dialog box on my version of Acronis True Image Home 2011 looks nothing like the ones shown in your post.

Harold,

Once you have saved the screenshot on your computer, create a new new reply to this trhead and choose the attach option at the bottom. You will then browse to the picture, click attach and then save your new post.

To Pat L:

I don't see an 'Attach' button. Do you mean the 'File attachments'?

I tried to attach my disk management diagram to this post but it was rejected because it has a disallowed file extension. I guess I need to save it somewhere where it will have an allowed file extension, though I don't know where that would be.

I'll try to show what my Disk Management diagram looks like:

Disk 0 Basic 698.51 GB Online
(C:)
260 MB 19.12 GB 260 MB 678.88 GB NTFS
Healthy ( Healthy (Recovery) Halthy ( Healthy (Boot, Page Fi

Disk 1 Basic 465.76 GB online

TOSHIBA EXT (D:)
465.76 GB NTFS
Healthy (Primary Partition)

Maybe I was going to the wrong Acronis page to do thiis disk image backup. I was going to the Main Menu Page and choosing Disk and Partition Backup. Maybe I should be going to the Back Up My Critical Data page and choosing Computer on that page. Even though the word Data is misleading in the name of the page, maybe it's the right page to make a disk image. On that page it is possible to select both a backup source named 'computer' and a backup destination of my external drive and give the backup a file name and date. However, very crucially, my destination external drive (500 GB) has the disk image backup of my previous computer already recorded on about a fifth of it, and a very important issue to me is that I don't overwrite that old disk image in creating a new one of my new computer. Does the file name and date I give to my new backup protect against that?

As I wrote in post #9,

If running TrueImage 2011 from within Windows, figures 1-5 in this link will show how to create a full disk image (disk mode) backups.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705

It would be time well spent if you would review the link (backup guide) in its entirety. There are also other help links along the left margin for the 2012 version but these are also applicable for the 2011 version.
-----------------------------------------------------
if you want your backup capable of creating a bootable replacement disk (if need), the backup has to be a "disk and partition" backup and you must have backup of all partitions--my preference being a "disk mode" backup which is a backup of all partitions inside one backup.

Based on your post #15, you indicate to having multiple partitions so you need a backup of all these partitions if you wish to be able to create a bootable replacement disk.

-------------------------------------------------------
For information about creating and posting screenshots can be found by clicking the top line of my signature below and locating index item 1-I and 1-J.

Harold,

When you have this disk management window open, go to the view menu, choose the top submenu and pick list disks.
Is your disk MBR or GPT?

Harold,
Here is a link on how to caputure the screen in Windows 7 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Take-a-screen-capture-print…. Attached is a screen capture of one of my systems. Notice the "Partition Style" column heading. Disk 0 is MBR style and Disk 1 is GPT style. That is the information Pat is asking you for.

Pat,
Never noticed the option in Disk Management to change the view, will be using this more now. Thanks. (Also should be "Disk list" not "list disks")

James F:

Thanks for information. I am able to do a screen capture of my Disk Management diagram but can't post it here because the file extension is disallowed. It starts out as an allowed extension but for some reason gets altered. I don't find a 'Partition Style' column on my diagram so don't know if it is MBR or GPT (or what those designations mean).

To Grover H:

I would like to read Backup Guide and have searched for that title among the guides but no luck so far.

Harold,
When you have Disk Management open, click on the "View" item on the tool bar, then click on "Top", and then click on "Disk list". That will change how the top portion of your layout looks. Then press and hold the "Alt" key while pressing the "Print Screen" or "Prt Scn" on your keyboard. Release the "Alt" key. Open Paint and click on "Paste" then press and hold the "Ctrl" button while pressing the "s" key, release the "Ctrl" button, and give your file a name, like "Disk Layout" , and hit enter. That will create a file named "Disk Layout.png", which can be attached to you message with no problem. If you save this file to your "Desktop" it will be easy for you to find when doing your attachment here on the forum.
Here is the link you are looking for http://kb.acronis.com/content/13450 .

To James F:

Thanks very much for your much neeeded help.

I hope I did this right. If so, my Disk Management diagram should appear here:

(The attachment appeared to work but I don't see the diagram yet)

Now maybe a little light is beginning to dawn. The C: drive on my computer shows on the Disk Management diagram as a 'GPT' type of disk. On the Acronis disk/partition backup page, GPT is shown in red and a note suggests that it requires a special something at a price from Acronis. This may be a difference between my previous laptop, which I was able to back up without difficulty, and my new laptop where l am having this problem. Perhaps I need to purchase something from Acronis to make True Image 2011 work with my new computer. Could this be the answer?

Harold,

This is what I expected. Your main disk is GPT and you will need to upgrade to 2012 to get it to work. In theory, you only need to buy the Acronis 2011 Plus Pack, but it will be hard to find (the 2012 Plus Pack is currently sold and will NOT work with 2011).

Harold,
Please see the Private Message I left for you.
James

Just completed a disk image backup of my new computer using Acronis True Image Home 2012. It was necessary to obtain Acronis 2012 to do this backup of my new computer because the GPT hard disk type contained in it is not supported by the ATIH 2011 version I already owned. For helping me to find this out and thus to resolve the issue I was having trying to use ATIH 2011 to do the backup, I owe thanks to Grover H, Pat L and James F, particularly the latter for explaining in detail what a woeful newbee needed to know in many respects.

I conclude that this is the place to come if you are seeking real help with Acronis issues and can't find the place to start.

Harold,
Glad to hear you are up and running. I too, have had to rely on Grover and Pat's help, as well as their postings, to solve issues I have come across with the many different versions of ATIH and Windows I have used. If it were not for these folks, I still may be looking for solutions.

PS
Did you get the "deal" I sent you?
Be sure to make a new recovery disk and try it out

James F:

Yes I did get the deal on ATIH 2012 that you pointed me to and I thank you for it. I made a recovery disk but haven't tried it out. What should I look for? In fact, I'm not sure how to use a recovery disk. You can't put a disk in my drive until the computer has started up. What if it won't start when you turn power on?

Harold,

When you boot your computer, you should see something like Press F1 (or F2) to enter setup. Do that before Windows kicks in. You will enter the BIOS. Search for the boot list. This lists the order in which the computer will search for items to boot on. Put your CD/DVD on top. Save your settings and shutdown the computer.
Put the Acronis recovery CD in the CD tray and boot the computer. Windows shouldn't start. Instead, you will see "Acronis Loader", then a menu to start ACronis true image. You are now using a linux based version of ATI.
On this version, the drive letters will be different from Windows. Your backup drive might have the letter "F:" in Windows, it might have the letter "D:" now. Not a problem.

CLick on the Home icon in the left Bar. Choose recover files and folders. Browse to your backup. Select a couple of files to recover and try to recover them on C:\ somewhere.
If this works, you are good to go for a real recovery. Check out Grover's guide if you have to do this sometime. http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618

Pat:

Thanks very much for your help heretofore and in this most recent Post.

There must be something a little different in the new Windows 7 laptop I've got. I can't get to the BIOS by pressing any of the usual function keys just before Windows 7 starts and haven't been able to alter the book list in order to try out the recovery disc I made.

What manufacturer and model is your new laptop?

Sony SVS15228FXB. I find that even Sony hs trouble with this model number. It's apparently not in all of their data bases. It's also referred to as VAIO S Series.

When you turn on the laptop, when the Sony screen appears, press F2. If that doesn't work, you can press Esc when the Sony screen appears, and you may possibly see the keys you can press for Bios or Boot Order. It has been reported that pressing F10 when the Sony screen appears brings up the boot order selection screen.

Tried F2 and Esc keys produce the Safe Mode opiton. F10 lprroduces a screen that looks like the right one for choosing the boot sequence if I can figure out how to use it. It looks like this:

Edit Windows boot options for Windows 7

Path: \Windows\system32\winload.efi

Partition { bunch of numbers }

Hard Disk { bunch of numbers}

[ NOEXECUTE=OPTIN (moveable cursor here and can type here) ]

Nope, don't change any of that. Those are Windows boot options, changing them could result in a non-bootable system. You have not found the corect key for entering the BIOS or BOOT device selection yet.
This key must be pressed during power up, but before Windows starts to load. Since I do not have access to a new Sony Vaio Laptop, I can't be of much more help here.
Anyone else have any suggestions.

Try pressing the Pause/Break key when you see the Sony screen at power up.
Also try the F3 key when you see the Sony screen at power up.

I went right across the top row of the keyboard and nothing brings up the boot list option. I'll call Sony support and ask them how to get to it. They are not open today so I'll call tomorrow. I don't have a lot of hope that they will know this for my computer. They seem to have a problem with my model number, saying it doesn't exist (but it's on the bottom of my laptop). Maybe they can look it up in some reference they have.

Another option to try, press and hold down the F2 or F3 key when turning on the system.

These may help to find a workable boot sequence.

The secret to finding these keys occurs within the first 1-2-3 seconds of the beginning bootup, after the 2-3 seconds, you have lost the window of opportunity to interrupt the boot cycle and will have to reboot and try again.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080803205828AAdcYBc

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Windows-XP-3282/2008/4/SONY-VAIO-Windwos-XP…

To Grover H:

Thanks for the links to Answers about the key(s) to press at start-up to get the BIOS menu. I will try them again although I have alreaady tried all the function keys and a few more. I'm beginning to think it requires a two-key combination to do the trick. If I don't find it today, tomorrow I will ask Sony Tech Support what the secret is.

Please let us know what you find out. It might be valuable to others on this forum.

From Sony's website:

Booting Your VAIO Computer from External Devices

You can boot your VAIO computer from external devices, such as an optical disc drive or a USB floppy disk drive, by using the BIOS function.
1. Connect an external device to your VAIO computer and turn on the computer.
2. Press the F11 key repeatedly until the VAIO logo disappears.
The booting process from the external device starts. If your VAIO computer does not boot up, restart the computer and try again.
Note
•
Disconnect all devices from your VAIO computer except for the external device from which you intend to boot up. Some devices cannot be used to boot the computer, or cannot be used with the computer.

•
If an AC adapter is supplied with the external device, be sure to connect it to an AC power source in advance.

Who new?

Also from Sony's website:

1. Turn on your VAIO computer and press the F2 key repeatedly until the VAIO logo disappears.
Enter a password if it has already been set. If you intend to change the current password, enter the password which you want to change. (For example, enter your machine password to change a machine password.)
The BIOS setup screen appears. If the screen does not appear, restart the computer and try again.

Once again, who knew?

Several points:

I also saw the advice from the Sony website. I tried tapping the F2 key repeatedly a number of times at start up while the Sony logo was on the screen and got not the BIOS page but the Safe Mode page. As they say, try again. I tried quite a number of times with the same result.

The connection of an external optical drive to do the booting suggests that no change to the BIOS is needed to boot in this manner. If that would work with an external hard drive, then I am equipped to do it just by connecting the drive and tapping F11.

However, the information on Sony's website is not model number specific or often not even operating system specific. I think I need to get a Sony Tech Support person to remotely control my S Series laptop and demonstrate a successful boot from a recovery disk to be sure it will work in case I really need it. This may not be the same beast their website advice is talking about.

This applies to Sony VAIO 'S' series laptops. I don't know if it applies to other Sony laptops. Specifically, I know it works with model SVS15118FXB.

I called Sony Tech support to find out how to access the Boot List in BIOS in order to change it so that booting will start from the optical drive first if there is a failure to boot normally. The secret is that if you tap the F2 key fairly rapidly immediately after pressing the Power button you will get to a place where you can select the operating system, assuming you have more than one installed. You don't want this place. But if you tap F2 VERY rapidly when the system starts to boot, then you will get a screen that is not marked BIOS but does allow the selection of boot priority. The choices are an external drive, the internal hard drive and the internal optical drive. I changed the selection on my machine to internal optical drive. I asked the Sony tech rep if booting from the optical drive could be demonstrated using my recently created recovery disk so that I knew how to do it in case of a failure. The answer sounded long and complex but the accent of the tech rep was so pronounced that I couldn't understand it. After several tries I decided to let well enough alone. Now all I need to do is find out how to test my recovery disk now that my computer is set up to boot from the optical drive.

In Windows, make a temporary folder on your hard drive, copy (do not move) some items into it. Launch Acronis True Image Home and create a file backup selecting only the the newly created folder. After your backup task is compelete, restart the system to your recovery disk, and choose Recover, My files, and select the file backup set you created, and restore the folder to your hard drive. Be sure to carefully look at the drive letters when booted in the Recovery Disk, as they will be different then in Windows. See this http://kb.acronis.com/content/1519.

To James F:

I put a New Folder on my desktop and copied (not moved) items into it. I then opened Acronis TIH 2012 and made a file backup of that folder on my external hard drive. I am ready to "restart the system to [my} recovery disk." I don't know how to do this, especially if it is to simulate the situation where the computer has failed so it can't be started nomally.