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Bootable media and operating systems

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I've long wondered if the bootable media version has anything to do with the operating system from which a disk backup is created or the existing operating system on a machine to which  a disk backup is restored.

I'm pretty sure that the existing operating system on a machine to which  a disk backup is restored doesn't matter, since existing partitions are deleted before those from the backup are restored.

I'm also somewhat sure that the operating system from which a disk backup is created doesn't matter, since the bootable media seems to work at the file system level and can do sector-to-sectore restoration.

Could anyone confirm my assumptions? If my assumptions are right, we can use, say a very old version like 2010 of bootable media to back up a very new operation system like Windows 10 and restore any backup to a computer currently running Windows 10, although Acronis True Image 2010 doesn't run on Windows 10.

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Rekees Z wrote:

I've long wondered if the bootable media version has anything to do with the operating system from which a disk backup is created or the existing operating system on a machine to which  a disk backup is restored.

This is correct

 

I'm pretty sure that the existing operating system on a machine to which  a disk backup is restored doesn't matter, since existing partitions are deleted before those from the backup are restored.

The OS, not, but the disk/BIOS set up matters (MBR/Bios, vs GPT/UEFI, and 32bit CPU vs 64bit CPU)

 

I'm also somewhat sure that the operating system from which a disk backup is created doesn't matter, since the bootable media seems to work at the file system level and can do sector-to-sectore restoration.

It actually does matter, because the backup software needs to interpret the file system information to determine which sectors  contain useful information. As long as the OS is supported by ATI, you are fine.

Could anyone confirm my assumptions? If my assumptions are right, we can use, say a very old version like 2010 of bootable media to back up a very new operation system like Windows 10 and restore any backup to a computer currently running Windows 10, although Acronis True Image 2010 doesn't run on Windows 10.

You need to use software that supports your OS, and more. For example, the 2010 version was bad at ensuring disk alignment with SSD disks. Support of dynamic disks and GPT changes also.

At the end, hardware generations and disk/BIOS setup are what makes success vary, assuming your OS is supported by the ATI version.