Difference between a volume and disk recovery?
Hello,
I have 3 disks with 1-3 partitions each depending on the operating system in use (Windows, Linux, B&R Automation). I have no issues performing a backup, the problem comes when I try to restore the images. If I restore a backup image that is a single partition to a single partition disk, then the recovery is successful. The result is successful if the destination disk contains the same number of partitions as the backup image. The problem comes when the number of partitions in the image does not match what is on the destination disk in any combination. When the recovery is set to Volume, the destination partitions are grayed out and not selectable. I usually have to go in Disk Management and delete the volume in order to have a selection, but this doesn't work in all cases. In the old ECHO series, the partitions were deleted as part of the recovery and this configuration was not necessary. I see I can change the recovery from Volumes to Disks. Can someone explain what exactly the difference is between the two? The images I made are all bootable, so I would need the MBR and partitions recovered. I just can't seem to figure out how to do this and I read no information on what the difference is from Acronis.
Hi Anton,
I totally understand your reply and kind of figured this out on my own. But, there is one case I found where selecting a DISK recovery does not work. I have a 128MB standard image with 3 FAT16 partitions and try to recover to a 256MB flash card with a single partition. In this case, I must unallocate the space in order to write the disk. If I use the same 128MB standard image with 3 FAT16 partitions and recover to a 128MB flash card with a single partition, this works fine. I never had any issues performing this exact scenario with the ECHO series, so I don't know why this should not have worked with ABR10 according to your DISK recovery explanation. In all other cases I tried, it appears your explanation is correct. In our application, we use Industrial PCs with flash cards ranging from 128MB to 4GB depending on the OS (Windows, Linux, etc.). I'm sure this type of media and PC is not your typical buyer.
Hello JBswift,
Thank you for replying. If I can clarify something please.
When restoring a 128 MB standard image with 3 FAT 16 partitions to an unallocated 256 MB flash card, the recovery works. If, on the 256 MB flash card there is 1 or any number of partitions, the recovery fails - that is the button is grayed out?
This can be an issue in the product, although after checking our Quality Assurance database I could not find any relevant information. We may need to create a task so that this problem can be reproduced in our lab.
I would really appreciate if you can get back to me with the clarification so that I can forward this information to our Quality Assurance team.
Let me know if you have additional questions please.
Thank you.
Hi Anton,
Yes, if the 256MB destination disk contains 1 partition and is larger in size than the original 128MB disk image (128MB > 256MB), you are unable to write the image and must delete the partitions to sucessfully perform a disk recovery. The option to select the disk is grayed out until all existing partitions are deleted or unallocated. When writing to the same size disk (128MB > 128MB) with 1 partition or unallocated space, the disk recovery is fine.