New to Acronis - please help get me started.
Please help with these questions:
1)Can I validate a backup without actually restoring it, or does it automatically start restoration after validation?
2)I use 2 external HD's and alternate weekly, will the program keep correct track of the backup versions?
3)I pretended to be restoring andafter choosing the ext. HD and the backup filename, the trial version would not allow me to choose "C" as the destination. Is the trial version fully functional?
Thank You.
True image has been imaging for over 14 hours, should I abort?
Thanks for the quick reply. My 2 ext. HD's I have named acronis-1 and -2. I have reassigned the drive letters to Y & Z.
I have 1 backup right now using the "F" designation, how can I reassign that to "Y" or "Z"? Or should I just delete it (not sure how), and then reinstall the program? Would it help if I upgraded to paid mode??
I'm not sure what you mean by backup task. Do you mean assigning a source, destination, and method. I gave that task a name. You mean to make a new task and give it a different name, Yes/No?
I really appreciate the assistance. I'm reading the manual but it's lengthly and not always easy to understand.
OK, I have my 2 drives reassigned and deleted the 1 backup. I also have created a task for each ext drive. I think that brings me up-to-date with my questions. Thanks to everyone here that helps the new people to get started. Now... back to the reading the manual.
I have become a paid user and have one more question. If after making say 5 backups to one ext drive, I hit recover, (in windows), should Acronis show me a list of the backups?
Ron, when you hit recover you will be shown a list of backups but this will be shown in a drop-down listing by date & time, not as a list of your backup files.
Please see the following from the ATIH 2016 User Guide: Recovering partitions and disks or Recovering files and folders which will show you the steps you would need to take along with screen images showing the options.
Steve, I was looking in the wrong place for the list. I also discoverd the menu, (Delete, rename, validate), and the add backup. I hope I never have to use the restore function. A while back I got hit with "something" that took over the browser and I had to reload the "C" drive and install all the programs. Fortunately I have all my programs store their data on the "D" drive and Iback it up weekly.
Thanks again for your help,
Ron
I am new to Acronis as well and have a question. I have Acronis TI 2016 installed on 3 computers. One which is running Windows 7.1 and the other 2 are running Windows XP.
Do I need to create a rescue media device for each computer or will one work on all three?
Thanks for any help.
David, Since the rescue device contains a map of the hardware and machine specific information in your computers, I would say yes, you will need one for each machine.
Ron, thanks for the response. I have another question as I am a real novice at this computer stuff.
One of my computers running XP recently had a hard drive malfunction where the computer would not boot. I had recently done a complete system backup to an external HD. I took the computer to a local repair facility where they replaced the HD with a new one of different size. 250GB to 500GB. They were unable to clone the drive, however, they were able to recover my "files" so lost all of my programs. I had failed to create a rescue media prior to the HD failure as I was unaware of the need.
My question is are there still a way to rescue my programs using the "complete system backup" I had done prior to the failure?
I don't think so. It would depend on what you used to do the backup. If you used drag-n-drop... no. For years i used Norton Ghost and never made a rescue disk and when I crashed a mnth ago, I was our of luck. Most of the programs I have the settings set to save the data on the D drive, or you could use an external drive. Idid not lose any data but had to reinstall the programs. Program information is stored in the registry, and it has to be in a specific place on the disk. Windows boot from track zero.
I did the complete system backup using Acronis TI 2016.
Assuming your computer is back up and running... and I think you said you did not have a rescue disk. I am hoping that someone here that knows more than I can help out but MAYBE... make a rescue media, then follow the instructions in acronis to recover. I think that means shutting down, plug in rescue device, start up and hit F-2. Follow instructions to make your rescue device the boot device. Shut down and restart, do the restore. (That should rewrite the entire hard drive with your backup. Then reset for booting from "C". If it failes, you would have to get windows reloaded and then re-load all your programs.
I would not do this without advice from someone with more knowledge that me, I'm 2 days old with acronis so what do I know. I wish you good luck and let us know if you do it & if it worked.
Hi guys. A single rescue media should work on alll systems. Not always, but the default driver compatibility of the linux bootable recovery media in versions 6559-6571 should cover most hardware just fine. The only stipulation is really during recovery as the bootable media is both Legacy and UEFI bootable (it also supports 32 and 64-bit systems too). So, when recoverying, you want to boot the rescue media in the same mode as the OS was installed. That way, when it restores the image, it keeps the correct formatting of the disk as either legacy (MBR) or UEFI. The easiest way to do this is to use your one time boot menu or boot overridde menu after a restart (Dells are F12, other systems are usually F1, ESC or DEL). From there, you should specifically be able to select legacy USB or UEFI UsB (I prefer USB's over discs since some sytems only boot discs as legacy)
Here's an example one time boot override menu with a Dell for reference:
To get familiar with the bootable media (which is your best friend if your system won't boot and you can't get into Windows), try a full disc backup first. Then you can try the restore to a different drive, swap it in place of the original and see if it boots. If it does, you know you've done it right.
Some good videos to check out:
The unofficial ones have users doing just this so you can exactly how it's done.
You can always use your rescue media to restore an image, as long as you backed up the entire main drive and have the bootable paritions. Personally, I would recommend taking an offline image from time to time using the rescue media anyway - just a good practice for "just in case" scenarios. I like them the best since they rule out issues in Windows causing problems (like AV blocking files, or corrupt Windows services)... none of those come into play when you take an offline image with the bootable recovery media.
David, if you have have a full disk backup, you can use your rescue media to restore it to the new drive. A full disk backup should return your computer to the exact state that backup was taken and can be used to restore to different size and/or types of disks. I have done this on countless occassions.
As a precaution, do a full disk backup of what you have currenlty though (just in case). Then, you can restore your older full disk image to the new drive and it should be bootable and run just like the old disk with all apps, settings, data, etc.
If you want to be on the safe side, and have another spare drive, restore your older image to that disk and not your current one. Then, before you boot into Windows, remove the current OS drive, replace it with the restored one and boot the machine with just that disk. If things don't work, you can just swap in your other drive again like nothing ever happened. Hopefully it will boot as expected though, and should... if you have a good full disk backup to recover from and if you boot your bootable media correctly (if you get a message like MBR missing after recovery, chances are you booted in the wrong methold for Acronis and should use the other one as noted in my post above).
Thanks Bobbo for the information. It sounds like i have a fighting chance to get my computer back up and running like it was before the crash. The computer repair facility where my computer was fixed has offered to restore my computer using my back up. I will be taking it to them on Monday to have them do that as I am not a 100% confident in myself to do it. I plan to take them my external drive that has the back up file as well as my USB drive witht the rescue media. Again thanks for the information today. It made me feel a lot better.
Best of luck! Let us know how it turns out.
Bobbo,
I want to write a simple procedure on recovering from a system crash. So far I have this:
- Shutdown computer.
- Plug in the rescue media & backup disk.
- Start computer and hit F2 for menu.
- Make rescue media the boot media.
- Reboot computer and follow instructions.
I will add more as I read the manual and ask more questions. I was wondering if maybe you know of a procedure already written and available. You seem to be someone that knows Acronis pretty well.
Thank You
Hi Ron, your procedures are pretty much spot on. It will vary from computer to computer though as to how you boot your recovery media (F2 gets you into the bios on most systems; however, I use F12 to go straight to my one-time boot menu and I pick UEFI USB boot instead of Legacy USB boot since my OS is installed in UEFI on a GPT disk).
Check out the unofficial youtube videos of the bootable media located in the 2016 sticky here:
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/117004
A couple of them explain exactly how to backup and restore using the recovery media.
I currently have Acronis 2016 for 3 computers. I am replacing 2 of the 3 computers with new computers. Can I transfer Acronis 2016 from the computers I am replacing to the new computers. If so, how do I do that?
Thanks for the help.
The simple answer is yes. If things work correctly when you have installed ATI 2016 on a new computer, you with then need to sign into your account at which stage you will get a message about insufficient licence and you should be redirected to the licence management. Not sure exactly how it works. But it is more complex than it should be.
David, see KB 56553: Acronis True Image 2016: "You've exceeded the maximum number of activations for this serial number" which will take you through the process for moving activations / licenses.