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Basic Newbie Questions

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Maybe it's just me, but I find the Acronis 2011 interface rather confusing. 3 basic questions:
(1) I have 4 choices of items to back up: Local disc C, My Partitions, My Personal Data, My System. To be able to do a complete image recovery of all files, partitions, personal data, and system, do I have to back up all of these individually or just "My System" and if "My System" is all that is required, why would I want to back up each of the others individually?
(2) Why are multiple items listed to choose from, i.e. I see 5 "My Systems," 3 "Local Disc," etc. and how do I delete duplicates?
(3) I notice for "Personal Data" the only choice seems to be "continuously back up." I don't want continuous backup of anything nor do I want to put backups on a schedule. How do I just do a backup whenever I feel like it?
Thanks for your answer(s.) This may all be quite obvious but it alludes me.
Frank

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(1) The core backup you need is a backup containing all the partitions on the disk where your system is. Once you get to know Acronis better, you will be able to refine that.

(2) Dismiss the welcom screen. Create a new disk and partition backup. Click on the blue link in the upper right corner to switch to disk mode. Check your system disk. Click on destination, choose browse, double click your way until you have opened the folder where you want to store your archives. Change the name of the file to something simple like "System". Close the destination selection window. CLick on the blue link that describes the backup scheme (probably Version Chain). Go to the validation tab, unfold the navigation section. Click on the link that says "monthly validation". In the schedule window that pops up, verify the schedule is what you want. Unfold the advanced settings here, uncheck all boxes. Close all windows. Click on backup now. Once the backup is completed, validate it. Next, create your bootable recovery CD. Boot your computer on it, try to restore a couple of files only (not partitions!). If this work, your computer is protected.

(3) If your personal data is in a partition included in the custom "System" backup above, you are covered. If you want to backup personal data more often that you want to run the "System" backup above, you can create a file backup.

As to item (1), I have disc c.tib, my partitions.tib, and my system.tib on my external hard drive. If my computer fails and I get a new one, do I have everything necessary to restore my computer? (assuming I also have the original Acronis CD which I do.)
It would seem from reading the Acronis manual that all I really would need would be mysystem.tib, but just wanting to be sure.

Frank,

No, this was my point. You just need that backup I described. Disc C.tib has probably been created by a disk and partition backup in disk mode. Double click on disk C.tib. Noting that TIB partitions letters might not be the same as the windows partitions, make sure you have all the partitions that you see in the disk management console on your computer (right click the My Computer icon on your desktop, choose manage, storage, disk management).

I would bet that diskc. tib is the only one you need.

My partitions.tib could be the same backup, but created using a disk and partition backup in partition mode. In partition mode, when you select all partitionsn of disk, you have the same backup as you would have in disk mode, selecting the entire disk.

Your system.tib backup seems to be the default backup created from the ATI wizard. It is not guarranteed to have all the partitions of C in it. You double check.

In doubt, delete all these backups and create the all-partition disk and partition backup I was describing.

Thanks for your follow-up explanation- so sorry I didn't reply sooner, but I was away.
I do have diskc.tib so may be all. I will study your reply further and may have other questions later.