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Can I do this?

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First of all, I am not interested in in incremental or differential backups. My sole intention is to have one or two complete disk backups so that I can restore the PC to the state it was, programs and all in case of a hardware failure, disk, motherboard.

Now, I am planning to put them on an external 3.0 USB hard drive. I tried to use the W7 (I have W7 Premium 64-bit) built in backup. It made the backup but upon boot the computer had a hard time recognizing the drive (it did recognize an USB 2.0 drive I also tested).

Now back to Acronis. Can I just make the backup and then reinstall W7(I have the W7 disk), then install True Image and use it to recover the system. In other words overwrite the W7 install I just did so I get my system back the way it was, settings, applications/programs and all from the backup on the external 3.0 drive?

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For safest recovery, you should perform recoveries after booting from the ATI2013 bootable Rescue Media. If you created a full disk mode backup, you can recover it from the external drive to the OS drive and everything will be restored to as it was when the backup image was created.

tuttle wrote:

For safest recovery, you should perform recoveries after booting from the ATI2013 bootable Rescue Media. If you created a full disk mode backup, you can recover it from the external drive to the OS drive and everything will be restored to as it was when the backup image was created.

Are you saying it won't work? Isn't my method the same as replacing the content of the disk with an image without first uninstalling windows? The reason I ask is that when recovering an image made with the built in W7 tool the PC had a hard time detecting the external USB 3.0. If I start True Image now I have the option of recovering any image on the external drive from the list, isn't that the same thing as what I proposed? I realize it's the long way (having first to install windows) but then I would be sure the PC could detect the external drive.

If I use your method should I use the Acronis tool or the BartPE to make a boot disk?

There's no value in first installing Windows in preparation to restore a disk image. Once the image is restored, your new Windows installation would be wiped out and therefore irrelevant.

Plus, we recommend that it's safer to perform restores from the bootable Rescue Media. You asked for advice, so I've given our best advice. You are free to ignore it.

tuttle wrote:

There's no value in first installing Windows in preparation to restore a disk image. Once the image is restored, your new Windows installation would be wiped out and therefore irrelevant.

Plus, we recommend that it's safer to perform restores from the bootable Rescue Media. You asked for advice, so I've given our best advice. You are free to ignore it.

And you are sure the external drive where the image is stored will be recognized? I pointed out my reasons for asking, no need to be rude.

Frederik,

One of the reasons it is recommended to restore via the recovery CD, is because when recovering a system drive (one with the OS installed) using the Windows based version, True Image itself will reboot into Linux (there is a copy of the recovery CD files on the system), this can cause problems as sometimes Windows has marked files as in use or as protected in RAM, and during the reboot strange things happen causing the restore to fail or hardware not to be detected correctly. From this point of view it is much better to start from the Linux environment (or if using WinPe an offline environment) where your actual OS has had no chance to set anything up.

Now, if the recovery CD fails to boot or see your drives, the Windows reboot into Linux will also fail to boot or see your drives. With the recovery CD it is possible to try various kernel settings that might work with your PC if the standard Linux kernel has difficulties, it is also possible to ask Acronis to make you a special version of the recovery CD that will work with your system. Neither of these are possible with the on disk reboot into Linux from Windows.

As for your USB3.0 drive, the bad news is, it may or may not work, you will need to boot from the CD and see if it can detect and use your USB drive, as I said above, if it doesn't recovering from within Windows won't work either. If Linux doesn't have the driver for your USB 3 chipset, it might work if you plug it into a USB 2 port. Naturally you won't get the speed, but at least it will recover.

Note, if you are recovering a non system drive and it is being recovered to a non system partiton or a different drive to that which contains the OS, everything can be done from within Windows.

Fredrik,

Be sure to create the Acronis Rescue Media from within the program to a CD/DVD/USB flash drive, or download a bootable Rescue Media ISO from your Acronis account and burn it to a CD/DVD.

Boot your system up to the Rescue Media and check to see if all of your disk drives (target and source) are visible. If so go ahead and restore a file or folder to your system (into a new location, so as not to overwrite any existing data) to be sure you can do this before it is needed. If you have a USB 3.0 drive, and it is not recognized on a USB 3.0 port while booted to the Rescue Media, move it to a USB 2.0 port and try again. At least if you can get to the drive for recovery purposes, you could still access your data, although at a little slower data rate.

It is also a good idea from time to time to boot to the Rescue Media and perform a validation on any critical backup files to be sure they are still in good shape and accessible if needed.

James

Thank you for your clarifications on how Acronis handles the restore procedure. If I understand correctly the Acronis rescue media and BartPE are two different ways of achieving the same thing (booting up and then starting Acronis in an barebone environment to initiate recovery) which one should I use?

Also about the USB 3.0. I am thinking about getting the Plus Pack so I can do this if my motherboard fails and I need to get a different one. In the product information about Plus Pack it only mentions USB 1.0/2.0. I assume that this does not matter and just as with Acronis 2013 I can switch it over to a USB 2.0 port if it does not recognize the drive?

I put my USB drive togheter myself, it's just an standard WD green 2 Tb, if worse come to worse and it doesn't even recognize it on a 2.0 port can I put it in my PC as a secondary Internal before recovery?

If the standard Linux-based ATI2013 bootable Rescue Media recognizes your hardware, then you don't need BartPE or Plus Pack. Try it and see.

ATI2013 bootable Rescue Media recognizes my USB 3.0 ports, so I can use my WD external USB HDs at USB 3.0 speeds. Yours might be the same.

Don't connect via a hub, a port in a monitor, a USB extension cord, etc. Connect the external drive directly to a USB port on the rear of the computer case. See if that works better.

tuttle wrote:

If the standard Linux-based ATI2013 bootable Rescue Media recognizes your hardware, then you don't need BartPE or Plus Pack. Try it and see.

ATI2013 bootable Rescue Media recognizes my USB 3.0 ports, so I can use my WD external USB HDs at USB 3.0 speeds. Yours might be the same.

Don't connect via a hub, a port in a monitor, a USB extension cord, etc. Connect the external drive directly to a USB port on the rear of the computer case. See if that works better.

I need it to be able to restore to a system with (at least partially) different hardware. Then I need Plus Pack unless I have misunderstood. The Manual also states that I can make a WinPE rescue media, however it is not clear wether this is optional and just to ensure maximum chance of sucess regarding drivers or if it is a must when using Plus Pack.

Fredrik Berg wrote:
I need it to be able to restore to a system with (at least partially) different hardware. Then I need Plus Pack unless I have misunderstood.

You didn't mention that. Yes, Plus Pack is required for restores to dissimilar hardware. You'd also need to prepare the required hardware drivers in advance, uncompressed to .inf format.

For regular restoring (not dissimilar hardware), as I said, if the standard Linux-based ATI2013 bootable Rescue Media recognizes your hardware, then you don't need BartPE or Plus Pack for that purpose.

I think you should spend time reading. Check out the many user guides and tutorials in the left margin of this forum, particularly Getting Started and Grover's True Image Guides which are illustrated with step-by-step screenshots.

Plus Pack is required to be able to use the Universal Restore feature.

Creating WinPE based Rescue Media is optional, and is necessary if the Linux based Rescue Media does not detect your hardware properly.

The program created (or downloaded from Acronis) Rescue Media is Linux based, and the hardware driver support contained in it, can not be added to, or modified (except by Acronis personnel).

The WinPE based Rescue Media is created with a separate utility (included with the Plus Pack). The WinPE Rescue Media can have additional hardware drivers added to it upon creation to support hardware the Linux version of the Rescue Media does not support,

Bottom line:

Plus Pack is REQUIRED to be able to use Universal Restore.
Plus Pack is REQUIRED to be able to create WinPE Rescue Media.
WinPE Rescue Media is OPTIONAL (but highly recommended if you own the Plus Pack) if the Linux version supports your hardware.

Hi All Support,

My name is Ahmed Al-Nabhani, and I'm a new member represented my company ITEC (Image Processing) from Jordan, for your free Trial Version of the backup, please redirect to my e-mail necessary, in order to communicate more better, because we have an issue here, when we download the trial version, the extension became ".Partial", please advice how to run this on Windows Server 2008 R2 Platform, also we managed to make the backup immediately, so please respond to this, any further help will appreciated by our side.

Thanks,
Best Regards,

Ahmed Al-Nabhani
Technical Support Engineer
P.O.Box 2848 Amman, 11953 Jordan
Tel: +962 (6) 55 40 890, Ext: 144
Mobile: +962 78 83 66 708
Ahmad.Al-Nabhani@itecj.com
WWW.ITECJ.COM

Ahmed,

Did you download and install True Image 2013 or ABR11.5? I didn't think True Image would allow itself to be installed on Server platforms.

Ah, sorry, I realise it is downloading the trial itself that is the problem. Depending on your browser (Firefox perhaps), you might be able to restart the download, if not, delete the partial download and start again.

Colin,

and that's what I'm going to understand, first I have downloaded the Trial, but it appears that I should Register to the web site first, then make the License entered, is that right ??
so I restart the whole operation, with the help of my IT Head, to re download this Trial, let us see what next will happened and then, I for sure will come back to you ...
but please at first answer me about the first question, please advice.
Thanks,
Best Regards,

Ahmed Al-Nabhani
Technical Support Engineer
P.O.Box 2848 Amman, 11953 Jordan
Tel: +962 (6) 55 40 890, Ext: 144
Mobile: +962 78 83 66 708
Ahmad.Al-Nabhani@itecj.com
WWW.ITECJ.COM

Ahmed,

You don't have to register the serial number, but if you do register it to your account the trial recovery ISO will also become available, also a copy of your serial number will be available to you should you loose the email version during the trial period.

Registering the trial serial number also helps Acronis if you need Acronis support, as the support software checks to see what products you have.

Collin,

Of course, that what I did from the beginning, I entered the Registration Code at the first time, then I began to enter the License Key for it, then download will load till then, its finished I think, its name is:

"ABR11S_trial_en-US.exe.h3n0424.partial"

you see ".partial" extension, how could I download this file to the Server ?, please help and advice ASAP.

Best Regards,

Ahmed Al-Nabhani
Technical Support Engineer
P.O.Box 2848 Amman, 11953 Jordan
Tel: +962 (6) 55 40 890, Ext: 144
Mobile: +962 78 83 66 708
Ahmad.Al-Nabhani@itecj.com
WWW.ITECJ.COM

".partial" is an extension created by Windows for downloads in progress. That extension means that the file was not fully downloaded; it is incomplete.

Tuttle and Collin,

please advice, how come would that happened !!!
the process was running smoothly and completed itself, notified me it was successful !!!
could it be from the download link that Acronise gave me ?
or is it possible that, the same file uploaded to the site was wrongly added ?
If that so, that will be so frustrated to our corporation, that we would regretfully, fall back with the process of cloud computing backup our servers !!!
something like that is UNACCEPTABLE !!!
we share this Trial service, in order to get a benefit from it in the next future, a budget was prepared from this operation, losing customers is not your major job right ?

thanks,
Best Regards,

Ahmed Al-Nabhani
Technical Support Engineer
P.O.Box 2848 Amman, 11953 Jordan
Tel: +962 (6) 55 40 890, Ext: 144
Mobile: +962 78 83 66 708
Ahmad.Al-Nabhani@itecj.com
WWW.ITECJ.COM

Ahmed,

Are you referring to downloading the installer file or actually making an image now? You mention Cloud computing, so I want to make sure we are all talking about the same problem.

Has True Image.exe now downloaded and installed properly?

As I'm sure you know, there are many reasons why downloading a file can become interrupted and to be honest it is a little difficult to give you a specific answer on this one.

Collin,

I'm talking about downloading the installer file, the the that appears after you entered the License No. in order to download the Trial Version Package...
and Yes we talking about the same problem here, Cloud Computing Back up Service, that what we want ...
it ain't downloaded, it still gave me a ".partial" file !!!
and for the question, I'm not ASKING too hard thing, please send me another download link ...

Best Regards,

Ahmed Al-Nabhani
Technical Support Engineer
P.O.Box 2848 Amman, 11953 Jordan
Tel: +962 (6) 55 40 890, Ext: 144
Mobile: +962 78 83 66 708
Ahmad.Al-Nabhani@itecj.com
WWW.ITECJ.COM

Ahmed,

Are you trying to download True Image 2013, True Image Lite 2013, Acronis Server Cloud or the standalone Acronis Online Backup?

Are you using any download accelerator software to download the trial?

True Image doesn't produce such a file, some browsers do.

Are you downloading this from your Acronis account page or from a link in the email?

You are able to ask for Acronis Support during your trial period, log into your account and select Support and then your product and you can then start a Chat session or send an email to support.

None of the MVPs here are employed by Acronis, everything we do here is in our own time, so I have no way of offering you a different way to download the program.

I have asked Acronis to look at this thread, but if they do look in, it may not be immediately.

Ahmed, stop the outrage and the accusations. You have not even installed the software yet. This is not an Acronis problem.

".partial" is an extension created by Windows for downloads in progress. That extension means that the file was not fully downloaded; it is incomplete. There may have been a problem with your computer, your Internet connection, the Internet in general, a router between you and Acronis - anything.

If you created an account at Acronis.com and registered your serial #, you may download the installer as many times as you want. Download it again.

Tuttle,

Please, it's not my fault, I tried to download it many times, every time I checked in was the same problem, I also checked the Gateway of mine and Acronis, Servers, IPs, anything related, even Software or Hardware, please advice, as this problem takes too many long time as it is, I will check with my IT Head about this issue again, thanks, may be we will arrange meeting next time, in an open session.
thanks,
Best Regards,

Ahmed Al-Nabhani
Technical Support Engineer
P.O.Box 2848 Amman, 11953 Jordan
Tel: +962 (6) 55 40 890, Ext: 144
Mobile: +962 78 83 66 708
Ahmad.Al-Nabhani@itecj.com
WWW.ITECJ.COM

Collin,

No, No, not from accelerator, from Google chrome down loader itself, standalone Acronis Online Backup I am downloading ... and downloading from my Acronis account page, when the e-mail sent into my inbox, opened it into a new browser page then, click on the link and download it, about the Chat and the open session I will ask my IT Head about that, and we will be very gratefuller to have a conference with you, really we are ...
sorry about the confusion, was not in my know that you are just a volunteer, and makes hard work with me, but please feel with me that my Company need this as fire, in order to manage much data to be uploaded in the cloud, and I will wait you then, thanks for the info.

Best Regards,

Ahmed Al-Nabhani
Technical Support Engineer
P.O.Box 2848 Amman, 11953 Jordan
Tel: +962 (6) 55 40 890, Ext: 144
Mobile: +962 78 83 66 708
Ahmad.Al-Nabhani@itecj.com
WWW.ITECJ.COM

Try a different web browser, with no download accelerator.

Hello Everyone,

Colin, tuttle, James, thank you for helping!

Ahmed, please specify the exact names of Acronis products you want to test.

I've sent you personal links for installation file of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Advanced Server for Windows and Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Advanced Server SBS Edition via PM, because these trial serial numbers are registered under your account.

Let me know, if the download is successful. If not, or if you need additional assistance, feel free to contact me via PM.

Thank you.