What if the Motherboard Crashes?
I can understand and appreciate the many failure modes that ATIHome can recover one's system from, but this one is not clear to me. What if one has system image(s) and/or clone(s) that were created by ATIHome, but then the motherboard crashes? If the motherboard cannot be repaired, and must be replaced, won't this essentially render one's backups useless?
Thank you very much for your thoughts...
Thank you for your reply, James. Regarding your recommendation for Plus Pack, the reason for my following question is not that I am trying to avoid the costs of Plus Pack; but that, if possible, I would like to avoid the greater complexity if I can. (In my misfortunate experience, my troubles seem to increase exponentially with complexity.)
My question then is, if I already have already made full disk backups, (images and/or clones) with ATIHome; is it possible to postpone the upgrade to Plus Pack until I really need it in the relatively unlikely case of catastrophic hardware failure? (My intuition is that it is NOT possible, but if there is any way that this can be done, I would like to at least be aware of it and its implications before taking the plunge, into Plus Pack.)
Thank you very much for your thoughts,
>is it possible to postpone the upgrade to Plus Pack until I really need it in the relatively unlikely case of catastrophic hardware failure?
The answer I believe is a qualified YES, qualified in that we don't know what VERSION you currently have, and whether a Plus Pack upgrade is available for that version. But normally what you would do on a mobo failure that requires PP--you'd buy the upgrade and download a complete .iso of the PP version from your account, make a CD or USB stick with it, and restore one of your old backups to the new motherboard.
IMO you should test this theory right now, i.e. see what you have to do to upgrade your version and thus make sure it's available.
Or, you just buy outright the latest version with PP after making sure your backups are not too old for it (unlikely).
Normally the Plus Pack option is not available for older versions of the software through Acronis. In the case of failure of your system, it would be better to be prepared than wait until it happens. In addition, even if you can buy the Plus Pack for your older version, the bootable media (CD/DVD/USB) from the older version may not support the new hardware you obtain as a replacement for your failed system.
@zapatero,
In addition to what James and Tom have already said, Acronis also allows you to mount, browse & copy to and from disk images. While this doesn't provide a way for you to restore an OS, it does give you the ability and access to your data in the event that a complete image cannot be restored, migrated, etc.
Thank you all for your much appreciated insights. I am concluding that attempting to apply a Plus Pack to an earlier version of ATI could be risky, and in my case it would be impossible anyway, as will become apparent. My version is ATI Home 10, (not 2010), which I fully intend to upgrade to the latest version anyway. My dilemma though is whether to Plus Pack or not to Plus Pack. And, based on your thoughts, it appears to be prudent to do it now rather than wait until I have no choice, when the whole process will be even more complicated.
Can you please give me some idea of what I am getting into? Despite considerable searching, I am unable to find much description of PP. Is it transparent operationally, or does it add another layer of complexity onto the implementation and use of ATI 2013? And when I download, can I expect one product with the two combined, or will I need to install two products sequentially?
And finally, for how long can I expect a PP to be usable? I am having difficulty understanding how it can accommodate future hardware components, without a-priori knowledge of their designs?
Thank you very much for your thoughts, (and patience).
The True Image Plus Pack is a separate piece of software that you install after installing the main program. It is then part of the main program and is transparent during normal backup and restore operations. It does not change how you use the main program, only adds features. When you have the main program and the Plus Pack, the version and build numbers have to match. At this point 2013 has only one build (5551). When an update for it comes out, there will also be an update for the Plus Pack to match the new build. Both would have to be updated separately and in order. (Main first, then Plus Pack).
The reason the Plus Pack can support new future hardware is that additional drivers can be downloaded from the manufacturers websites and used duing Universal Restore to support the new hardware. Also with the Plus Pack, you will have the ability to create an additional Rescue Media based on Windows (WinPE) that can also have drivers added to the image and use additional drivers during Universal Restore to be able to use new/different hardware.
Thank you, James. That helps a lot.
When you say,
additional drivers can be downloaded from the manufacturers websites and used duing Universal Restore to support the new hardware.
does this mean that PP goes out and finds the appropriate drivers during the restore, or is it up to the user to figure out which ones are required?
Thank you very much,
You would need to supply the drivers for the Universal Restore feature of Plus Pack to use. You could determine which drivers need to be downloaded from the documentation of your new hardware. For example, If your new hardware contained an Intel RAID/AHCI controller and your older system used a standard IDE controller, you would need to download the Intel RAID/AHCI controller drivers from Intel and make them available to Plus Pack during restore. Normally chipset and controller drivers are all that are necessary for the Universal Restore feature of Plus Pack to work.
Thanks a lot, folks; especially James. I learned a lot from your responses!