Help before first restore
Hello Everyone
I am replacing my 300gb laptop hard drive with a 750gb hard drive. My computer is fine and the current hard drive is healthy. I already made a dvd disc of the win7 recovery. Can anyone give me a quick rundown of what to do when attempting to replace this hard drive and restore my latest acronis image. This is my first restore and I dont wanna curse out the product if Im making an error some where.
Quick note on my recovery disc= The laptop originally came with Vista. I did a free upgrade to Win7 and either I never got the discs or I lost them. So with that being said the dvd recovery disc is one that I made with "Control Panel---System and Security---Backup and Restore" I clicked create system repair disk and it would only work with a dvd-r. So that is what I have. Im afraid it wont work since its not the original. I put the disc in another cpu and it does say win7 recovery. Also my hard drive has 13gb blocked off for recovery and 1.7gb is used. Could that be of help if my disc is useless.
MAYBE I AM GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF WITH THE IDEA OF A BAD DISC BUT I JUST NEED INSTRUCTIONS TO RESTORE AN IMAGE TO A NEW HARDDRIVE ON SAME CPU. IS THERE ANYTHING I NEED TO DO WITH ACRONIS BEFORE SWAPPING HARD DRIVES?
Stats:
HP Pavilion dv6t-1200
Win7 Ultimate 64bit service pack 1
Hey thanks 4 the reply. I am new to true image and a lot of what you are saying is like German to me.
How does a true image cd differ from a regular win7 recover disc? I dont know how to check to see if it will boot my system.
Is item "cc" the correct plan to follow?
how do you get to the recovery mode "one of the F buttons?"
correction only 1.71GB IS AVAILABLE out of 13gb on the recovery part of the drive
You would check the CD boots your system by either burning to CD the downloaded ISO from your Acronis account, or by using the Media Builder utility available from a shortcut on your program files entry or from the utilities tab from within True Image. Once burnt you would then attempt to boot your PC from it., making sure of course that your PC BIOS is setup to boot from CD first before a hard drive.
True Image is a disk contents recovery program and the W7 Recovery Disk attempts to repair Windows installations , it does allow you to restore backups made by Windows Backup or restore points. However, as you have purchased or are using True Image that is what you need to concentrate on at first.
Recovery is performed for drives containing the OS from the True Image recovery CD. I wouldn't advise activating the Acronis Startup Manager which allows you to recover an image via the F11 key, until you know the recovery CD works. If the recovery CD can't boot your system or see any of your drives the ASRM won't be able to boot your PC either.
I don't understand your last sentence.
Yes point CC is the one to look at, though it might also be useful to look at making and restoring images generally as well.
In the original post i said 1.7 gb is used for recovery but it is 1.7 gb REMAINING.
Again a little lost: Are you saying that I need to make a separate disc labeled true image recovery? I do see that available under the "create bootable media tab" Then boot the cpu from that true image cd INSTEAD of the win7 recovery disk that i made.
how do i set my bios to boot from cd to test the true image cd?
I dont know what ISO is.
joeboxer:
It would be a good idea for you to spend some time reading and learning, to understand how True Image works. Check out the many user guides and tutorials in the left margin of this forum, particularly Getting Started and Grover's True Image Guides which are illustrated with step-by-step screenshots.
dude its like 20 of them and u can tell i am a noob. if i can get some basic vocab down and more guidance to make sure im reading the right one is why im here. you told me the same the as colin (read some guides) but without any additional helpful info. if you want to build on the help that colin actually gave me then again i ask:
how do i set my bios to boot from cd to test the true image cd?
not being a d--k but just overwhelmed
Your PC might already boot from CD by default, if your Window 7 install DVD autoboots, there is nothing else you need to do from that perspective. To enter your BIOS depends on your actual PC, just after either your motherboard/PC manufacturer splash screen or after the memory good count press either the DEL, F1,F2 or F11,12 key. If you are lucky th eBIOS will tell you which key to press at the bottom of the POST screen at switch on.
Yes, you need a separate True Image boot CD for recovering disk images.
Before we go any further, I've just reread your first post, do you have any external drives where you can make an image to? Not your new drive (it could be used, but it requires further fiddling, and it is not something you might want to attempt at this stage) or your old drive at this point.
If you don't, we will have to give Tuttle :) (and me) a sedative, and we will need to look at cloning at this point instead of making an image.
Im up right now. I have the true image cd made and i followed your instructions to make a backup with all partitions (in my case the c drive and the recovery drive). The disk image is being backed up right now to an external hard drive. I have a few hours to go.
Im guessing this is the plan:
Finish the image backup to ext hard drive
Put in new hard drive
turn on cpu with new hard drive
hit appropriate key to do BIOS
Then what??
update:
i left the true image cd and shutdown/powered on the cpu.
as colin predicted, all i had to do was hit escape and the tru image cd ran
currently im using this and im on pg 3 http://forum.acronis.com/system/files/mvp/user285/guides/tih2012-restor…
im doing a test restore as my first restore before i swap hard drives. if this works well i will go and and try swapping the hard drives.
not sure how long this restore will take but ill update soon
whoa the small print on pg 7 is bothering me. im still not sure if these are the right instructions to follow.
in my case their is the main drive with all my files, the recovery, and the mbr box. can i just select all three?
so im going to make an image backup using the one program i have successfully recovered from in case i mess this up (win7's own image program) BEFORE I ATTEMPT THE ACRONIS RECOVERY
two questions:
- my wife has the same acronis program on her vista laptop. can we share the same true image recovery disc (im running win7)
- is there a more appropriate instruction guide
still reading the manual while i do the older windows image backup http://forum.acronis.com/system/files/mvp/user285/guides/tih2012-restor…
it seems like i should def not click both partitions at the same time and do it the long way one partition at a time. also this manual seems to be a good fit for the job i need 2 do. correct me if i am wrong.
It would probably be better to read the actual 2013 User Guide for TI 2013, though there are many similarities with 2012.
I think you are making this far more complicated than it really is or reading too much into the manual, easy sometimes to do. To make a complete disk image, just click on 'Switch to Disk mode' as the source - it will just show actual disks, no partitions, and then select your destination.
Yes, so long as the CD will boot the other PC and see any drives attached to it, the one CD is fine.
cool i have time on my hand right now. i will follow and update. btw a few min into the 2013 manual i said "wtf im joining the forum" its late im much more mello and will check it out again
colin i read over the main manual and nothing seemed more helpful than the guide we have been referring to in this thread.
you said " To make a complete disk image, just click on 'Switch to Disk mode' as the source - it will just show actual disks, no partitions, and then select your destination."
i already have a true image backup on my ext hard drive. i am attempting to restore it. with that being said, i dont see a "switch to disc mode" option from the true image cd. all i see if the same set up to restore as shown in the guide linked below starting from fig2 on pg three
http://forum.acronis.com/system/files/mvp/user285/guides/tih2012-restor…
with that being said, i dont see a "switch to disc mode" option from the true image cd.
Colin was taking about creating an image, during which setup you should click a link to enter the mode to select entire disks (not partitions). For this, switch to disk mode (upper right blue link) until you see disks and not partitions to select. Select the disk.
You're talking about restoring from the bootable Rescue Media, which is a different interface. In that case, select the checkbox for the disk rather than checking just individual partitions.
i see what you are saying. i DO see "switch 2 disk mode" in the actual program NOT from the true image disk. all of my backups are in partition mode should i do another full backup in disk mode as maybe this will affect my options available from the true image cd.
im asking this because when i put in the new hard drive i will be recovering using the true image cd. it would be nice to have a "disk mode" option instead of going one partition at a time like the manual says.
Please stay focused. You keep confusion the situation by forgetting what you asked. We recommend solutions based on what you request and need. Other situations may be solved by more appropriate solutions.
The reason the one partition at a time method was suggested is because you're restoring to a larger HD. That method allows you to choose your desired size for each partition on the new HD. That method is not required when restoring to the same drive or to a replacement drive of the same size.
IMO, it's always best to create a full disk mode backup. It allows the most flexibility in restoring, and is the safest backup.
ok. im following you. for my test restore use full disk mode and for when i get the bigger drive use partition mode? i will make the disk mode backup right now.
now can i do my practice restore from the true image cd to simulate the environment i will see when i get the new hard drive. if so will my options change now that i will have a full disk back up?