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"Entire computer" -- will it restore applications and registry?

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I recently had to undergo a Dell Support Assist OS Recovery process, which left me booted into Windows 10 with some of my data files restored (those I kept in "standard" locations like Documents and Pictures) but without the custom applications I had installed and without my personal data files that I kept in nonstandard locations.

I have a recent "Entire computer" backup on an external hard drive. If I reinstall Acronis True Image 2020 and restore that backup, will all of my applications, files, registry entries, etc., be restored too?

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Claudia, welcome to these public User Forums.

Your 'Entire computer' backup will contain everything that was on your original disk drive at the time the operation was run, so yes, it will contain Windows 10 and all installed applications, user data etc.

Rather than installing ATI 2020 on the current system then trying to restore the backup from within Windows, you really should create the Acronis 'Simple' rescue media and boot the Dell PC from that media for the recovery operation.

The recommendation I would make would be as follows:

  1. Install ATI 2020 and create the 'Simple' rescue media on a USB stick or DVD.
     
  2. Make a further backup of the working Windows 10 on the PC to an external drive so that you can get back to that state if the 'Entire PC' recovery is not successful.
    Note: Store the new backup either in a separate folder or on a different drive to your valuable 'Entire PC' backup so as to avoid accidentally overwriting it!
     
  3. Run the command: msinfo32 in Windows and check the BIOS mode setting for how Windows 10 boots.  For modern systems this should be UEFI but confirm this as this is how the Acronis rescue media needs to be booted too.
     
  4. Test booting your Dell PC from the Acronis rescue media in the correct BIOS mode as found in step 3.
     
  5. If you are successful in booting from rescue media, then you can connect your backup drive with the 'Entire PC' backup and perform a Disk recovery.  See the KB documents below for more information.

See KB 63226: Acronis True Image 2020: how to create bootable media and KB 59877: Acronis True Image: how to distinguish between UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot modes of Acronis Bootable Media

KB 63295: Acronis True Image 2020: How to restore your computer with WinPE-based or WinRE-based media

When doing the restore of your backup, this needs to be done as a Disk & Partition restore and at the top Disk selection level.

Please see forum topic: [How to] recover an entire disk backup - and in particular the attached PDF document which shows a step-by-step tutorial for doing this type of recovery / restore.

Steve, thank you for this wonderfully detailed answer and for the welcome. I will try this process and report back.

Well, the process technically worked, but I ended up on the same Dell "Automatic Repair" screen after the restart, which makes no sense since the backup that I restored from was done before I did the BIOS update that caused my problems in the first place.

So I went through the Dell OS Recovery process again, and now I'm reinstalling my applications one at a time and restoring my personal data files from my Acronis "Files and folders" backup; good thing I also had one of those handy.

Claudia, it is possible that the BIOS update changed the mode used for the disk controller, i.e. from AHCI to using RAID which could give this type of issue when restoring if the backup being used does not have the appropriate device drivers for the new disk controller mode.

See forum topic: Disable RAID setting in BIOS when booting from external media

Hmm... I tried changing the setting away from RAID, but the reboot went right back to "Automatic Repair." So I changed it back to RAID and things are working now. I got my applications and data back in place, have done fresh backups, and am hoping for the best. Thanks for all your help, Steve.