Can I use Operating System Selector as part of a novel backup strategy?

Hello John,

Thank you for the interesting request.

Actually, we haven't tested our software in this environment, and I am unable to answer you about the possibility to backup a partition with a WUBI folder. I checked our database, we do not have any requests regarding the backup failure caused by this environment.

Could you please try to backup your hard drive and in the case of backup failure attach the log file of the failed operation to your next post?

The same thing with Acronis OS Selector. We should analyze the hard disk partition structure. Could you please do the following? Please download Acronis Report utility available here and run it, create a report and attach to your post.

This would provide us with detailed information on the hard disk partition structure.

Thank you.

Thankyou, Oleg for your help and interest. I have been finding that the OS Selector behaves oddly when I have cloned disks, maybe because one ends up with cloned copies interfering with each other? Anyway, I have found that OSS does NOT find operating systems on all three cloned disks, but gives me achoice of booting from a floppy of from ONE of the disks only (though it does recognise all the disks).

I have also managed to destroy System Restore, again, IS IT POSSIBLE THAT HAVING THREE COPIES OF SYSTEM RESTORE ON ONE COMPUTER IS FATAL - AFTER ALL, IN NORMAL USAGE, THE ONE COPY ON (NORMALLY) THE C DRIVE MONITORS ALL THE DISKS ON THE COMPUTER?!

What I have been doing is to abandon OSS and to go into the BIOS at setup, and re-order the hard disks such that the one I want to boot from is No. 1 in the list. That way the computer tries to boot from a floppy (none available) then from CDrom (none normally available) and then from the hard disk at the top of the list. This is working well.

I have held back from reinstalling Ubuntu via WUBI until I have time to do it properly: I will firstly have to remove and archive a lot of data (older photos) to CDrom.

When I have done this, I intend NOT to attempt to use OSS. If it isn't working for 3 x XP installations, it isn't going to cope with 3 x XP + 3 x Ubuntu!!!

What I will do is (hopefully) to use WUBI, which installs Ubuntu into a FOLDER on the C drive, and then adds to or piggybacks onto the Windows boot loader to offer a choice of Windows or Linux at bootup. It is my understanding that WUBI requires a working Windows installation. This is NOT, of course, because Linux needs any Microsoft files - it doesn't - but the whole point of WUBI is to give an easy, accessible, and safe way for Windows users to try out Ubuntu Linux. It can be reoved, is desired, either from within Linux or from Windows Add/Remove programs!!!

I shall be using Acronis True Image to clone my disks, and have no need for Disk Director Suite for this purpose either (though I'm pleased to retain it for other operations).

I am HOPING that the three pairs of XP/Ubuntu disks will be handled by the BIOS in the same way as they were before installing Linux.

I AM WORKING BEYOND MY DEPTH AND EXPERTISE HERE, AND WOULD BE MOST GRATEFUL IF OLEG OR ANYONE ELSE CAN COMMENT ON WHAT I AM TRYING TO DO. IN PARTICULAR, AM I RIGHT THAT THE BIOS AND THE WUBI BOOT LOADER WILL WORK TOGETHER AS I HOPE?

I should add that I have gone well beyond the point that I can retrieve any useful logs for Oleg, and that anyway what I have done so far - abandoning OSS for now - means that there may not be any forthcoming, unless and until I pluck up courage to try OSS again. But my inclination will be to stay with ATI + BIOS when I've installed WUBI. If it works, I won't fix it - and if it doesn't, I suspect it'll be back to the drawing board! - John

... I forgot to add that, intuitively, I feel confident that ATI will handle the WUBI installation OK. After all, a clone is an exact copy, and data is data! To create an analogy, one does not need to read Chinese to photocopy a Chinese document! Likewise, I am also backing up to a removable USB drive, using ATI to generate the proprietary tib files. Likewise, this must surely work, as the bootable clone can be regenerated from them! J. K.

Sorry! Duplicate post which I've removed - there seems to be no way to remove it entirely! J.K.

Hello John,

Thank you for taking time to contact us.

If you wish to use the Clone tool to transfer the hard drive content, you should select the hard drive you want to boot the system from in BIOS. The Clone tool doesn't change the disk signature (Acronis True Image allows you to change  the disk signature during the backup/restore procedures).

Frankly speaking, I didn't understand why you want to have three hard drives simultaneously. Do you want to manage a kind of non-stop clone? Are you able to clone the hard drives, unplug two hard drives and use the first one? 

I AM WORKING BEYOND MY DEPTH AND EXPERTISE HERE, AND WOULD BE MOST GRATEFUL IF OLEG OR ANYONE ELSE CAN COMMENT ON WHAT I AM TRYING TO DO. IN PARTICULAR, AM I RIGHT THAT THE BIOS AND THE WUBI BOOT LOADER WILL WORK TOGETHER AS I HOPE?

John, I am sorry, but I can't help you with it. We do not use WUBI environment.

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT HAVING THREE COPIES OF SYSTEM RESTORE ON ONE COMPUTER IS FATAL - AFTER ALL, IN NORMAL USAGE, THE ONE COPY ON (NORMALLY) THE C DRIVE MONITORS ALL THE DISKS ON THE COMPUTER?!

System restore points should be taken into the consideration on the running operating system only. Since you are unable to launch several Microsoft operating systems simultaneously, other system restore points will not influence the system functionality. 

Are you able to share the results of your backup operations? How does the program handle the WUBI folder? Does any error message appear? If yes, could you please attach the log file to your next post? 

We are looking forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.

Thank you. 

Thankyou, Oleg, for your interest and help. Sorry for the delayed reply - I have been preoccupied with other matters. My philosophy is this: I do not trust any proprietary backup. This is no criticism of Acronis, which I recognise as a market leader. It is just that (1) one CANNOT know for certain that it will work, until it used used in earnest! With a bootable clone, one can test it. (2) If a proprietary backup format is corrupted, such that the program that made it cannot open it or get data from it, then it is VERY difficult to see how else one can retrieve the data. (3) With a bootable cloned disk in the box, one can be up and running in the event of failure of the C drive, within about 2 minutes!

I use THREE hard disks because if my C drive fails whilst I am replacing a clone, I lose everything. Maybe this is over-the-top, especially now that I'm also doing a standard tib file backup to an external USB expansion drive. But it also means that I have a second clone to work from, if I have inadvertantly backed up my C drive with undetected malware.

I intend to use a competitor product (because there is no Acronis equivalent) to update the data component of the clones. I have very recently ascertained from Argentum that I can do this with Argentum Backup, to synchronise my clones daily, such that I don't have to make a full clone more than once a week. I have not got this set up yet - just too busy with other matters.

Likewise, UBUNTU and WUBI will have to wait.

I hope to have the Argentum and UBUNTU features in place within a few weeks, and will keep this forum thread updated with my results.

Re System Restore: I don't think one can regard it as working independently on each of the clones, UNLESS one limits it to the active drive only! This is because the default is to monitor all the drives, and dump System Volume Information files on each, such that - if one doesn't limit it to the active drive, one gets THREE sets of SVI files on each disk! No wonder it wasn't working properly! I think the problems I have had earlier with SR are due to this obscure complication, which was obviously not envisaged by Microsoft! If I make sure that each cloned SR is monitoring only its own disk, I ought to be ok. In fact just now it's only working properly on my C drive, but I don't think that is because of what I am doing. But SR is much less important in my new backup environment, and I'm seriously thinking of doing without it.