Using External Hard-drive With True Image

Is you intent to use the manufacturer supplied backup software in conjunction with ATI, or are you just wanting to use ATI with an external drive that was supplied with backup software?

thanks for the reply Philip ; I want to use ATI instead of the back-up software that comes with the external drive and was just wondering if there would be a technical conflict .

Definitely no conflict issues. You can also recover some space for the USB HDD by deleting the backup program. I have been doing this for many years with WD and Seagate USB 3 HDDs (and Hitachi drive).

Ian

Ubermax, you could use multiple different types of backup software, i.e. ATI plus other software provided by WD or Seagate etc, which shouldn't conflict provided that they both do not use the same application, i.e. Seagate Diskwizard is an OEM version of ATI and therefore you cannot have this installed at the same time as ATI.  Otherwise, if both applications create different types of backup files there should be no problem.

I recently purchased a backup drive that came with software and there is no requirement to install the software in order to use the drive - so definitely no issues there. 

Another question , is True Image designed so that after a backup you can view the files/folders in a Microsoft

"file explorer" format so that I could easily copy/paste a file to a different storage device , e,g. memory stick ? and also are the original names of the files/folders retained in the backup ?

Yes provided ATI is installed correctly to give the Windows shell integration needed for this. 

Steve , I'm a newbie with all of this, my current backup "system" consists of me copying and pasting files and /or folders from C: to my Seagate external , not very sophisticated and very labor intensive at times .

Just purchased a new laptop and thought this would be a good time to begin a different approach , I have no idea what you were talking about in your last response .

Right now all my files and folders appear on my backup drive the same as they do on my C: , I like that ; I'm just wondering how TI works , in other words if I backup my system using TI , can I then easily locate the file on the backup and move or copy it , just like in Microsoft file explorer ?

Again I'm not a computer guru , I just want to start backing up my computer in a more efficient way .

Ubermax, ATI 2018 is a whole lot more comprehensive than your current copy & paste method of backing up your files / folders to your backup drive.

One of the key functions of ATI is to protect the whole computer, including the Windows OS, all your programs / applications and of course all your data (files, folders, documents, pictures, music, whatever you have that should be protected against the threats that exist in our world today).

The key difference in how ATI protects your computer is that it creates a special backup file with a .TIB file extension, the nearest file type to this would be a .ZIP file, as both are container files where the structure of the original source data is preserved within the file, and where you can open the file and use normal copy & paste commands to recover individual files or whole folders when needed.

I would suggest taking a look at forum topic: Great Acronis "How-To" videos and other Acronis Resources which will give you a better idea of how the software works - the videos are from earlier versions of the software where the look & feel has changed in the latest 2018 version, but the core functionality has not changed in terms of Backup & Recovery.

thanks Steve , if I partition an external drive into say D: , E: can I direct a TI backup to just one or the other  assuming of course that each partition is sized to accommodate the backup ?

Yes, no problem at all in partitioning your external drive and directing the backup to either of the partitions.  When selecting the destination, don't just choose the one showing the drive, use the Browse button instead then you can select a partition or a folder as you wish.

thanks again Steve , I think I'm all set now to get TI 2018 .