Skip to main content

Backup and Restore on Dual Boot Machine

Thread needs solution

I've done this for years with Acronis Backup but I'm new to True Image and struggling with this proven workflow.

One Laptop, Two SSD.  Disk0 and Disk1.  Dual boot with Disk0/C: and Disk1/D: as my bootable partitions.  They are both the same OS, in the past XP..then W7 and today W10 (so this could be W10 issue as I've switched to True Image with the same build).

I use Disk0/C: as my normal everyday standard partition, I use Disk1/D: as my Demo environment installing/wrecking/uninstalling software products.  When it's a mess I use Acronis to put it back to clean OS and start over.  I can also keep various backups of different releases....again using Acronis restore to quickly revert the entire Demo enviornment to some desired state.  Historically I would typically have 6-8 such enviornments saved as backups.

I have always booted to my Standard (Disk0/C:) to create Acronis Backups and Restore to the other Disk1/D:  Without issues.  It appears now that I can't do this with True Image, I must boot to a silly usb stick and proceed from there.  Is this true?  It seems very odd to me that I'm the only one using dual boot machines with Acronis.

Thanks, S.

0 Users found this helpful

Steve, welcome to these public User Forums.

You should be able to use the same process as before with ATI and do the restore of the second OS drive or partition from the first OS instead of needing to boot from the ATI USB rescue media.

One issue that you may encounter is if ATI tells you it needs to restart the computer in order to do the restore because it has found an OS on the target drive but you can get around this by using the Tools > Add new disk to wipe the target drive before doing the restore, or else do this yourself via other tools you have before using ATI.

I have a dual-boot laptop that I have used the same approach on but using a single 1TB drive to host copies of Windows 10 Pro, Win 10 Home, and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on different partitions.  That laptop is currently using a different 500GB SSD with just Win 10 Pro for beta testing ATI 2021 with the 1TB drive safely stored for when it needs to be reinstalled.

Thank you for the response.  My first attempt and preference was multiple boot partitions on a single drive but it did not work and Acronis support was adament they could not be on the same physical disk.  I'm ok with the dual disk method at this point.

So, the Tools/Add Disk only support wiping the complete disk but I only want to wipe the bootable partition on Disk1.  Disk1/D: is my bootable partion and the only target of my backup/restore process.  Disk1/E: is mass storage.

Is there another way to wipe just Disk1/D: partition prior to restore?   Acornis Drive Cleaner seems to have this capability.

Steve, download a copy of the free MiniTool Partition Wizard software and use this to wipe the single partition.  It is much easier to use than drive cleanser.

Man, you're on it.  I just ran a recovery and accepted the restart option.....what I didn't realize is that the "operation in process" screen that follows was Acronis doing the recovery!  I thought that was a windows boot error recovery (new laptop and new to W10 so still getting my legs).  There is no Acronis logo on that screen anywhere, I just happened to click the "?" out of curiosity.

So, the recovered drive seems valid and completely functional.  If I have to reboot with each recovery I'm totally cool with that, it's only a minor annoyance (usb and associated crayola interface was not going to fly) provided there is no negative ramifications.

To recap:  From your experience I will be fine without the extra step of wiping the partition if I can live with the restart?  I'll have solid backup/recover from my Disk0/C: using the full Acronis interface up until I hit "Recover Now" then just let it restart/recover and be done with it.

Steve, I would suggest trying a recovery after wiping the OS from the second drive to see if you can then do the whole business without a restart?

The restart is fine if you don't mind working 'blind' so to say while the 'operation in progress' panel is being shown.  Seems a bit like MS with the blue screen during a major update such as all the #2004 ones I have been doing this week!  The only difference is in seeing a percentage indicator that MS give users.

MiniTool method worked fine!  It did leave the wiped partition with no drive letter designation so after restore I needed to go into Disk Management and assign D:.  No big deal really, there is probably any option in MiniTool somewhere to retain the drive/partition designation.  I'll have to poke around.  Thanks again for all the help.

S.