warning on backup to external drive
When I backed up my hard disk to an external drive, I got a warning that said I could not use the backup with the emergency recovery disk. Why not? What am I supposed to back up to if not an external drive?
I've never heard of such a message either but one thing that comes to mind is what is the format and size of the external drive?
I've never read about anyone else having a warning like that even in the old forum. What version and build number of True Image are you using?
It's Acronis True Home Image 2009. I don't see an About box with an exact version. Where is the version number?
Is this "emergency recovery disk" the same as the True Image Rescue CD?
Yes - I may have called it by the wrong name.
Try using the True Image Rescue disk to make the backup to the external drive and see if you get the same message. You should make this Rescue disk anyway since you will need to use it to restore a Backup in case of a hard drive failure or some such problem with the system drive.
I'm sure I made one of these the first time I used Acronis, but I don't know where it is.
I've never heard of such a message either but one thing that comes to mind is what is the format and size of the external drive?
It's a 140 gig Lacie drive. It has a 40 gig partition for Mac backups (not visible under Windows). The 100 gig Windows partition is where I put the backup. It's NTFS.
Thanks for your help.
Hit the alt button and the help option will appear on the menu bar, from there standard \about etc.
Thanks. It's Acronis True Image Home 2009 build 9,709.
Here is the exact text of the warning message:
"The backup archive file will be created on the volume of GUID partition table (GPT) disk. Please note that you will not be able to restore this backup archive when booting from the rescue media. Are you sure you want to continue with this procedure?"
The title of the dialog is "Confirmation". Below the message there are buttons for Yes and No.
I don't know what "volume of GUID partition table (GPT) disk" means. It's an NTFS partition with the label "Backup-PC".
I'm attaching screenshots of the warning dialog and also the properties of the external drive I'm using for the backups.
It seems the drive is using a newer system of disk structure than the Acronis Linux rescue drive and drivers is able to read. Good it gave a warning.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table
YOu may have to reconvert it to a older MBR (PC BIOS) structure for the Rescue Disk to use. Another good reason to use a PE type of rescue media such as BartPE or VistaPE.
It may be what Tatou suggests, but I believe it's because you are using disk compression. Disk compression needs Windows to uncompress files before they can be read, and the Acronis rescue environment uses Linux.
EDIT - Sheryl, do take special note of what DwnNDrty said in #1. Without your rescue CD you would not be able to restore your system in the event it fails to boot.
It must be something to do with the fact that the LaCie has been configured for both Mac and Windows. Do you have another drive formatted only for Windows that you can use for trying a backup?
The drive isn't actually compressed - I must have clicked the box inadvertantly when I was taking the screenshot (and then cancelled out). I plugged in the drive again and replaced the screenshot with a new one.
I think Tatou and DwnNDrty are probably both right - it's probably related the GPT partitioning, and this is probably related to the fact that it has both a Mac and a PC partition. I did the initial partitioning on the Mac.
I guess I'm going to have to wipe the drive (with my Mac and PC backups) and start again. I don't have a second external drive (or anyplace to put a second external drive), but I have less data on the Mac than on the PC, and I have a DVD writer capable of multiple layers. Maybe I can use that as the target for the Mac backup.
Thanks for your help.
Is it possible to copy your backups that you want to keep back to the MAC?
I'm not a MAC person but I believe if you format the drive FAT32 on the PC both the PC and the MAC will be able to use it. Easily tested by copying the MAC archives back to the external after formatting it FAT32.
You mean don't make two partitions? It's worth a try. But I'm sort of generally running out of space everywhere - not sure I have the room the put the backup on the Mac while I experiment. I was in Staples today and meant to buy those very high capacity DVDs, but forgot. Blah - I'll go back tomorrow. I should have bought a bigger external hard disk. I thought it was enormous when I bought it, but it seems so small now...