How to restore
Clear I am not going to find this in the instructions or help files. I used Acronis about 10 years ago and Paragon for years and never a problem.
To do a restore it was as simple as opening software pointing to the backup and telling it were to restore to.
Seems with the newer acronis 2018 you have to somehow get the backup installed in the software. I have the full backup of my C drive on a portable drive.
But the instructions say it has to be listed on Acronis under backups, then has to be in the left pane. But after 1/2 hour can still not figure out how to get it there. The only way to add anything to that pane is to click on add a backup.
So I can make a new backup and restore it. But not from a backup from a month ago that is not still in the backup list.
Also I would have expect to do a recover from a restore tab instead of a backup tab.
There is a Acronis universal restore. But that is no help.
Is acronis just not that easy to use as others? Always been able to figure out how to do a simple restore with anyother program.
Thanks for any help

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Ray,
To add an existing backup, click on the down carat to the right of the + Add Backup. You can then reconfigure the backup, or restore the entire backup, or restore individual files.
If you just want to recover files, you can double click on the .tib file using Windows explorer, navigate to the file, then perform a copy & paste.
If you are going to restore (recover) an entire disk backup, you need to create rescue media...located under 'Tools'. You would boot from rescue media then perform the restore.
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In reply to Ray,… by truwrikodrorow…

I did finally figure out restore. Thanks, I was seeing and understanding that down arrow.
Early Acronis and every other program I have seen makes it simple. There is a clear restore button. With this you have restore on your mind but you have to look at backup, which was the last thing that made sense when you are looking at doing a restore.
I was missing that little down arrow to add existing backup. Just had to use that and then click on the actual backup on my portable drive. Then that added it back on the backup list. And then I could go to recovery. And restore the entire disk backup.
This is different than what you said, but it seemed to work, without any rescue media.
Would have been easy for them to add just one sentence in the instructions about how to restore, with the little down arrow button. Better to have another large button like the add a backup one. But even better to have a restore button. Works for everyone else.
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Quote: 'This is different than what you said, but it seemed to work, without any rescue media.'
ray...if you are restoring a non-system disk, then there is no problem restoring while booted under windows. If you are restoring the system disk, then it is strongly recommended to use rescue media.
If you restore a system disk under windows, True Image will overwrite the boot record, and reboot using a Linux kernel. If your system disk is formatted MBR, then this will probably succeed. If your system disk is formatted GPT/UEFI, then this almost always results in a corrupt system disk that won't boot. For this reason, Acronis, the MVPs, and other users, recommend using rescue media to restore a system disk.
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I am in the middle of the (long) process of restoring my C: Drive after having to install a new motherboard and I have two questions, one of which results from my just reading this thread:-
What is this 'Rescue Media' that is supposed to be used when restoring a system disk?
i am finding that the restoration of my C: Drive is taking a very long time and that the announced time to completion is constantly changing - and not always decreasing! For instance, it has gone from '1 day 11 hours' to '3 days' this afternoon. Is this normal? Could this be in part because I chose the Sector-by-Sector option? The last time I used the restore process (also for my C: Drive) it took a mere few hours. I don't remember whether or not I chose the Sector-by-Sector option on that occasion - probably not.
I'd be grateful if someone would explain these issues!
Mark
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Mark...when restoring to different hardware, you should use Acronis Universal Restore. When using Universal Restore, hardware drivers are replaced by generic drivers. After the computer boots, Windows should then update the drivers to the correct version.
I don't know why your current restore would take as long as it is. Sector by sector could be the cause, but I can't say for sure. I do know that you should be using Universal Restore.
Regards,
FtrPilot
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Hi FtrPilot,
Thanks for your reply. I haven't come across Universal Restore - where would I find it? I assumed that since the new MB is identical to the failed one, all would be well. Is this not correct?
The present restore I am running still has '2 days' to run. If I cancelled it to run it again in UR, would this cause chaos?
Regards,
Mark
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Mark,
Universal Restore is located under 'Tools'.
Click on it and it will step you through creating boot media with Universal Restore. I have never had the need to use it, so I can't really advise regarding a new, but identical motherboard.
How is your Recovery set up? Is it set up in the computer with the new motherboard, booted from USB rescue media? A recovery should not take that long.
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Hi again,
Thanks for that. I really should have checked through Tools before starting.
My present recovery is from the computer booting from a fresh Win 7 install. I assumed I could just restore from an Acronis backup made before disaster struck. That backup was made with Acronis 2017 and worked perfectly - and speedily - when I used it before discovering that the problem was with the MB.
i am tempted to cancel this restore, as it's already taken several days. . . But am concerned doing that will really screw everything up! Would it?
Regards,
Mark
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No restore should take several days. Stopping the restore should not screw everything up. You may have to reformat the hard drive that was being restored.
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OK, I'll just let it run if that's a normal time for a restore. Shall just grit my teeth and be patient!
Thanks again for your helpful suggestions.
Regards,
Mark
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Mark, I have never known a restore to take several days - a few hours perhaps! What size of backup are you restoring here and how are you doing the restore?
From what I have read, it seems that you have done a minimal install of Windows 7, then have installed ATI 2018 and started the Restore using that but running now on a new motherboard, so in essence on new / different hardware.
This type of restore should always be performed by creating and booting from the ATI 2018 Rescue Media, followed (after the restore has completed) by booting from the Universal Restore media and letting this do any conversion needed for the restored OS to work with the new hardware found.
The above has other dependencies here:
How did your old Windows 7 computer boot - was this using Legacy BIOS with MBR partitioning; or was it using UEFI and GPT?
How does your new Windows 7 computer boot - is this using exactly the same method and partitioning as the old one?
What was the disk controller mode used for the old computer - is this the same for the new one?
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Hi Steve,
The good news is that the restore finished in the wee small hours last night. And the computer booted up successfully, with a few hiccups. It had taken several days, perhaps because I had chosen 'Sector-by-Sector'?
There were a couple of error messages at the beginning of the restore and one at the end, for all of which I chose 'Ignore All'. But Win 7 was able to install all the necessary drivers.
I shall certainly now make a 'Restore Media' and a 'Universal Restore' media for when it next need it.
My computer boots via the ASUS motherboard but whether this is MBR or UEFI and GPT, I have no idea (I am not a computer professional!).
Yes, it boots in the same way it always has done.
Again, I have no idea what disk controller mode is being used. I assume it's the same as before.
Thanks for your much appreciated help. Now all I have to do is discover why some of my HDDs are missing from Windows. . . Probably unplugged by someone.
Regards,
Mark
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Mark, thanks for the update / feedback - that was one long restore operation for sure, and using sector-by-sector could have contributed to the length of time taken. In my experience, many of my restores have also defaulted to using sector-by-sector mode regardless of that mode not being used when the backup was created.
If you did use sector-by-sector mode when you made the backup image file, then this would be of a similar size to the disk drive size the backup was taken from, as by definition of this mode, it includes all sectors and therefore ignores all exclusions that may be configured otherwise.
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Hi Steve,
i made the backups without choosing sector-by-sector. Mainly, I must confess, because I was unaware it *was* an option and what effect it would have on the accuracy of the backup, if I had used it.
On the other hand, I deliberately chose the s-by-s option when restoring the disk, thinking it wouldn't be offered if it didn't have advantages. Little knowing there might be a penalty timewise if I did.
Regards,
Mark
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I want to install a new system hard drive. First I will replace the old drive with the new one. I have two ATI backups on another hard drive. When I ran the backups, I first deleted all the old backups and then ran the first backup, which occupies about 440 Gb. Then a couple of weeks later I ran another backup which shows only about 51 Gb. I thought I was running full backups each time since I didn't change any settings, and did it all manually. How do I restore these backups -- do I have to restore both in order to get all the information on my new drive, or do I just restore the first one, and it will call the second one?
Thanks for your help, as you can tell, I'm a real novice at this.
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Bob, welcome to these User Forums.
Assuming that your 2 backups are directly related, i.e. the first is a Full backup and the second is probably an Incremental (as shown by the presence of _full_ and _inc_ in their file names), then you only need to select the newest of these files and ATI will recover all the data from both files.
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