After reading posts I am not confidant about using 2010H to image my new Win7-32 PC
Can anyone help with a bit of advice . . . . . . . . .
I started off using Ghost 9 which worked fine on win95 until Norton took it over and changed it to Ghost 2003 which was eye wateringly poor, so I went back to Ghost 9.
When I got my WinXP PC I then used ATI 10 Home for several years. It worked fine from the word go because, I think, I did not implement any updates (on the grounds that how could I improve something which worked fine already?).
However, I have now take devlivery of an expensive Win7-32 PC and have just received in the post my ATIH 2010 CD after having bought it on-line as an upgrade.
I just automatically bought the upgrade because I had had no problems with version 10. Maybe I should have read the posts on here first!
I do not have a restore DVD for my new PC (long story) and want to image it before it gets used. However, since this forum contains horror stories about ATIH 2010 messing up on Win 7 I do not know what to do.
The issues confronting me are:
1. If I install ATIH 2010 it and it messes up, then all I can do is go out any buy a different image program and create an image of the mess. No a good idea.
2. The CD which came direct from Acronis does not autorun and present a menu with a help > About option (or a README file); so I can't tell which build I have got. Acronis also did not put the build number on the CD label so no help in that direction.
However, there are 2 files on the CD (truimage2010_s_uk2.exe and truimage2010_s_uk.exe) When I right click either one of these files > Properties > Version tab there is a heading "File Version: 13.0.0.7046." Does this mean build 7046?
3. There is no information about anything whatsoever. No help file, no booket, not even a leaflet! What am I supposed to do: Do I install ATI 10 Home, then insert the Upgrade CD, then randomly select one of the 2 programs supplied by Acronis on the CD, and then does this randomly selected program then upgrade ATI 10 Home ?? Or, do I ignore my copy of ATI 10 Home, randomly select one of the 2 .exe files on the disk, launch it and hope for the best?
Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks.
Someone else who is familiar with the contents of the supplied CD will have to respond.
User manual available here:
http://download.acronis.com/pdf/TrueImage2010_UserGuide.en.pdfDo NOT install the old version. The new version is a standalone version but if an upgrade, you will need the serial number of your old version at time of installing 7046.
If not already done so, go to the main Acronis main website and register your serial number of 7046. The serial number for your old version is also there (if you registered the old one).
If you want the very safest procedure, you can create a pristine backup of your system prior to the installation of 7046. Download the available iso file from your registration page. This is the file labeled as "bootable media". After downloading, then burn the iso file onto a blank Cd to achieve an iso Acronis bootable CD.
Then boot from the newly created iso cd and create a "disk" option backup which will include everything on your disk as illustrated by this attachment.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2009/12/7027/Disk-op…If successfully completed and validated, you can then proceed with your installation of TrueImage onto your Win7 system. At least, your backup will be a safety precaution should something go wrong. Taking the extra time and effort to create this pristine backup is not a requirement but it is good judgment.
(Note: while in the registration page, you might as well go ahead and download the "free plug-in" which contains the "safe mode" version for 7046. After 7046 is installed onto your computer, you can additionally install this safe mode version onto your computer. Once installed, then you can create use the Create bootable media option to add both the full and safe mode version to the TI REscue CD (created by the user after installation).)
Thanks very much GroverH
One response to my question but it looks like I couldn't have had a better one. Thank you very much indeed. A pristine backup before loading Acronis is IMO eminently sensible. I didn't know that this was an option. This is good news.
I looked at the *\disk-option-backup.gif you kindly supplied the link to, and it shows (for the Windows 7 option) an HDD partitioned into 4 partitions, C:, D:, E: and F: and that all 4 partitions are to be backed up. I assume that in my case, with a PC with two separate, unpartitioned HDD's (the operating system on HDD 1 (C:) and HDD 2 (D:) being completely blank) that I would just tick (check) the box for Disk 1 and ensure that if Disk 2 were shown then it was not ticked. I presume that I would then be given the option to create a backup CD or DVD?
A couple more questions if I may:
1. Does the Acronis bootabe CD boot into DOS?
2. Does the bootable media iso file load in a program which is capable or running CD drives?
3. My optical drive is a BluRay which, the spec says, writes to CD's and Blu Ray Disk's. Will the bootable media iso run my optical drive?
Thanks once again for your help.
Depending on how it is made, most Acronis bootable media boot into Linux, with the exception of the Safe Mode (which is DOS based) which is an option for bootable media created via the Acronis Bootable Media Builder and the appropriate plug-in (True Image must be installed for this). The downloaded ISO image will boot into Linux.
For your CD-related questions, someone else will have to help - I don't know about the Linux-based bootable media in this connection. For a BartPE or WinPE bootable media, the answer is yes, the optical drive is supported via Windows drivers.
I don't know if your old account for TI 10 is still active after the upgrade, but if you still have access, you could try to download the ISO image file for TI 10 as described here: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/9260
3. My optical drive is a BluRay which, the spec says, writes to CD's and Blu Ray Disk's. Will the bootable media iso run my optical drive?
In theory yes. If by working it you mean burning to the Blue ray disks is possible. Not necessarily. I think Acronis support will have to answer this one. Standard CD and DVD should work fine. You will have to try Bluray to be sure.
that I would just tick (check) the box for Disk 1 and ensure that if Disk 2 were shown then it was not ticked.
Yes, place the x to select the system disk only.
I presume that I would then be given the option to create a backup CD or DVD?
As Gary has indicated, you won't know until you try. Most of the regular contributors discourage the use of optical media for a backup in preference to some type of hard drive. You can expect your backup file size to be about 60-65% of your used disk space.
My "guess" is that your system will boot the TI Rescue CD but I do not know about it writing to DVD. If it does not boot the CD, then an alternative would be to add the iso files to a flashdrive which is being booted from Grub4Dos. See item #8 inside my index below. I have numerous iso files of different versions of l TrueImage mounted on my Grub4Dos flashdrives & usb drives.
You have to test your own hardware configuration. I can tell you that Version X of TI works perfectly on my PCs and the rescue CD boots and is great BUT that isn't your system. There are hardware dependencies that have to be tested with regard to the Linux environment.
Don't be overly concerned about the issues raised on the forum about TI2010, there were hundreds raised about TI10 as well and every other version too. Most people come to this forum because of problems not because they want to share glowing success stories.
Thank you very much, everybody who replied. Because of your help I have been able to move forewards.
After I realised that you do not burn the .ISO to a CD and that you have to convert the image which is the .ISO file and burn the uncompressed image to a CD (I used ISO Recorder Power Toy v1 on a WinXP SP1 PC) the newly created boot CD worked a treat and ATIH 2010 loaded directly into RAM.
I selected "Backup." However, I was then presented with a different directory structure to that which is shown in Windows Esplorer. I have 2 separate HDD's in my Win7 PC. The primary active drive is unpartitioned and contains 16GB of operating system and drivers. The second disk is a 1000GB disk and is currently empty.
In windows Explorer the following is shown when I right click on a drive and look at 'Properties':
C: 500GB 16 GB Used
D: 1000GB 0 Used
However, when I boot from the Acronis boot disk which was created from the .ISO file I get the following structure and nomenclature:
Disk 1
[ ] NTFS (System reserved) (C:) Pri,Act. 100MB
[ ] NTFS (Unlabeled) (D:) Pri 465.7GB
Disk 2
[ ] NTFS (Unlabeled) (E:) Pri 931.5GB
Could anyone please:
1.) Explain why Acronis shows incorrect data like this (clearly the OS is taking up 16GB and not 100MB so it looks like Acronis is providing incorrect information)
2.) Tell me: If I tick to select both C: and D: on Disk 1 and create an image from these 2 iitems, will that image then be able to restore entirely to the Win7 version of C: ?
ATB.
Acronis is not really showing incorrect data, but rather data based on Linux as opposed to Windows. Disk letters will not necessarily be the same under both systems, but this situation is not an error.
The 100MB partition is a system partition for Windows 7, and you will not see this partition via Windows Explorer (I have no idea why it is marked Active - perhaps Mark Wharton can comment on this). Linux assigned this the disk letter C:, but this partition cannot be seen in Windows Explorer, since under Windows it does not have a disk letter. What you see with Windows Explorer with the disk letter C: is the second partition under Disk 1 labelled with disk letter D: by Linux. Again, this is not incorrect information, nor is it an error. It would be good to see what Disk Management shows for the partitions on these disks.
You would need to select both C: and D: on Disk 1 (or select the Disk 1 checkbox which will select the entire disk) to create a full disk backup. The 100MB system partition is definitely required for Win7 to boot properly. This partition is hidden from Windows (but not to Linux) but is required. There are many forum posts regarding this system partition in Win7 that have appeared such as this one (there are others): http://forum.acronis.com/forum/6098
Gary:
A Windows 7 PC boots from the 100 MB System Reserved Partition, so that's why it is the Active partition on the disk.
Thanks for the information, Mark. Since this partition does not show in Explorer, how is it designated in the partition table? If it was hidden, why does Linux assign a drive letter? On my Dell XP Pro SP3 system with a hidden utility partition, the hidden partition shows up with TI but does not have a drive letter.
Gary:
Normal unhidden NTFS partitions are type 07h in the partition table. The Windows 7 system reserved partition is also NTFS but it's type 027h, so it does not show up in Windows Explorer. However, you can see it in Windows Disk Management console and in TI just like you can see the Dell hidden utility partition in Disk Management and in TI.
"Hidden" does not apply to Linux; only to Windows. "Hidden" only means "do not assign a drive letter" and "do not display in Windows Explorer" to a Windows operating system. Other operating systems have their own rules. In the case of the TI Linux-based recovery environment, they (Acronis) coded their program to make up and assign drive letters to all detected partitions. This only confuses people because the letters that TI recovery environment makes up sometimes are different from the ones assigned by Windows. Normally Linux does not use drive letters; they are an artifact of the Windows operating systems (and a holdover from the days of DOS). When using the TI recovery environment it's best to ignore the drive letters; they are meaningless.
Thanks for the information. Much better and more illuminating than many official support options.