Can TrueImage11 Image and Restore a Flash Drive ?

Are you using TI 11 or TI 2011? I've used both to backup and restore flash drives in Windows (no reboot required).

Is Windows using the flash drive for anything? Is Windows locking the flash drive for some reason? In some cases, a "reboot" isn't really necessary but TI thinks it is. Sometimes rebooting Windows will fix this. You could also try removing the drive and reconnecting it.

Have you tried using the TI CD to see if it restores successfully?

I'm using TI 11.
In TI "About" it says, "Acronis True Image Home® version 11.0 (build 8,053)"

So you say it should work basically ? - from reading online I kind of thought it was going to turn out that "Restore" couldn't be counted on to work.

I was not using Windows to do anything with the drive - at least not intentionally and not to my knowledge - just looking at it's representation in Explorer.

How would I tell if it was locked ?

I'll try your other suggestions. I haven't tried using the TI CD yet because I have too many things open that I'm working on right now, but it might be instructive.

But in general it you think it should be possible, eh ? I really need an imaging solution for flash drives.

Thanks for the advice though.

It is possible. However, imaging flash drives is not always as easy as standard hard drives.

Will Windows let you run a chkdsk /f on the flash drive or does it want to reboot for that too? Forcing a dismount for chkdsk may allow TI to access the drive without needing to reboot.

Ok, I got it working - thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Apparently Windows had some kind of lock on the drive, even though I wasn't in the process of accessing it. It wasn't obvious.
But I rebooted and started Acronis without anything else launched. After I got to the "Destination" page (or wherever it is that Acronis locks all the drives) I tried to access it from Windows Explorer, and this time I got a Windows alert that the drive was locked (by Acronis) - a good sign. Restore worked this time with no reboot necessary.
Kind of a relief - I really needed some kind of imaging app for this.

In the future I think your idea of removing the drive and reconnecting it might get Windows out of the picture.

Interestingly enough, on two diff. computers I tried the Restore process by booting into Acronis off the CD, and it couldn't even see the flash drive during either Backup or Restore. It could see it in its own "Explorer", when you search for your .tib file - as drive A: - just not during the choosing of a source or destination drive.

Thanks again for your help !

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Jeese, I'm really back there in my version of Acronis. Off topic, but is there any major feature that's been added or changed since T.I. 11 ?

Edit :  ok, more of less found the answer to that on Wikipedia :

• Acronis True Image Home 2010 provides . . . . Nonstop Backup . . . Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) and Microsoft Windows 7 support.
• Acronis True Image Home 2011.  . . . . includes . . .  full Windows 7 Integration; USB 3.0 support; Predefined Backup Schemes and Check Points for Acronis Backup Explorer.

The older versions of TI didn't work that well with flash drives from the standard TI CD. I think part of it was that it just wasn't supported in Linux (or maybe Acronis just "ignored" them). The Safe Mode version of TI would usually work if the BIOS supported the flash drive since it would show up as a normal drive. You could create a CD that includes the Safe Mode version and see if it works with the flash drive (download it from your account if you don't have it).

The GUI is also completely different in the newer versions, especially TI 2011. TI 11 was the last version with the old style GUI.