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Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (ATIH 2010)

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The Acronis User's Guide (Para 3.5.2.2, Pg 23) warns that this function overwrites the Master Boot Record with its own boot code. I am running Windows XP and (to my knowledge) I do not have any third-party boot managers installed. What is/are the consequence(s) of overwriting the MBR? I have created a Bootable Rescue Disc, will this "overwriting" preclude proper functioning of this rescue disc (or even my "every day" booting using the existing BIOS settings)? Does the Startup Recovery Manager provide a complete alternative to the Rescue Disk?

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Koosharem wrote:
The Acronis User's Guide (Para 3.5.2.2, Pg 23) warns that this function overwrites the Master Boot Record with its own boot code. I am running Windows XP and (to my knowledge) I do not have any third-party boot managers installed. What is/are the consequence(s) of overwriting the MBR?

None. Your MBR will be updated so that you boot into Acronis instead of Windows.

Koosharem wrote:
I have created a Bootable Rescue Disc, will this "overwriting" preclude proper functioning of this rescue disc (or even my "every day" booting using the existing BIOS settings)?

Not at all. Your ability to boot to something else than the hard disk where the Acronis recovery manager and Windows live, eg the recovery CD, is set in the BIOS.

Koosharem wrote:
Does the Startup Recovery Manager provide a complete alternative to the Rescue Disk?

No. If your disk is completely dead or if you MBR gets compromised for any reason, you will need the rescue disk to be able to boot your computer and restore.

Pat L -- Thank you for your response to my post. I suspect my concern may involve terminology and/or semantics, coupled with ignorance about what is in the MBR and how it is used.

My shaky understanding so far is as follows. When you follow the instructions in User's Guide paragraph 3.5.2.2 to "activate" the Startup Recovery Manager, you are performing a "Setup" (via the Wizard) to create a tool (the Startup Recovery Manager). During this Setup, the MBR is "updated" (or "over-written" to use the User's Guide terminology) so that, later, if a "failure" occurs, pressing F11 during bootup will cause a stand-alone version of my ATIH to start. If there is no "failure", and I don't press F11 during bootup, the system will boot normally (as it did before "activating"/"Settingup" the Startup Recovery Manager tool. (This is the crux of my concern, the term "overwritten" has a changed-forever ring to it, i.e., the normal boot process will be lost.)

If this "understanding" is correct, the utility of the "Startup Recovery Manager" versus the using "Recovery Disc" must lay in the nature of the "Failure". Such as, if your primary boot drive is still functional, but the complete bootup process is failing, use the Recovery Manager. If you experience a more serious failure (like the primary boot drive is dead), use the Recovery Disc.

Am I on the right track here??

Yes you are, but it is very important that you make a rescue disk and test it to make sure it can boot your PC ,and that your keyboard, mouse and your hard drives can be seen by TI.

The reason it is so important to test, is because if the rescue CD won't work, the ASRM won't work either, as they both use the same Linux OS.

If there is a problem there may be ways to solve them.

Possible F11 conflicts are when the manufacturer of your computer has a Recovery partition on your disk and if it uses the F11 key, then you will not be able to access the Recover partition should you wnat to return the computer to its original installation.

In some instances, there are ways to change the F11 Acronis key to another key to avoid a conflict.

Thanks to all (Pat L. Colin B, and GroverH). I have a much better understanding of setting up the ASRM, and that it is not an alternative to the Rescue Disk. And, yes, I have made a Rescue Disk and I will test it! In order to round this out, I have one other question. The ASRM starts a "slightly different" (stand-alone) version of ATIH. When would you chose to use the ASRM rather than the complete program (or even the Rescue Disk)??