Restoring entire drive
Hi All:
I have a new computer with WinXP Pro SP-3 operating system & TI 9.0, Build 3854. It has the latest Western Digital hard drive as the primary drive. I did a full backup about 12 hours ago.
Since then, I screwed up my start menu & just want to restore everything back the way it was. When I tried to restore by using the rescue disk, the following occurred:
1) If I clicked on True Image Full Version, it didn't recognize my primary drive. It did recognize my removable drive where I had the full backup. Nevertheless, I couldn't do a restore, as it didn't see the drive.
2) If I clicked on True Image Safe Version, it recognized my primary drive (the one I wanted to restore), but when I selected my full backup image, it said it didn't recognize it as a valid image. I rebooted back into windows, validated the backup image, & found it was OK.
Questions:
1) Why won't the "Safe Version" recognize the valid image & can I do anything about that?
2) Can I restore the primary C:\ drive directly from windows (I'm afraid to try without knowing)?
3) If I upgrade TI to TI 10, so it will see the drive from the rescue disk, can I restore a backup that was made with TI 9? Or can I just add the necessarydrivers to my TI 9 rescue CD.
4) Can I just restore the start menu from the backup? [When I tried to delete certain folders, Windows complained it was a system folder (even though I created it).]
Thank you in advance for any help,
Phil
Thank you for your quick reply.
I am talking about the Windows Start Menu. I know how to delete, add, & move them. It's just that I spent hours trying to get it the same way I had on my old computer & ended up creating start menu folders that I can't delete, as Windows thinks it's a system folder.
I tried restoring from Windows, but when it rebooted, it said there were errors. It rebooted without restoring anything.
I went to my account, but I don't know what ISO stands for. And I couldn't see anything except downloading the two versions that I already have (8 & 9). How do I find the ISO download? (Sorry for sounding so clueless, but my brain is really addled right now.
Thanks again,
Phil
P.S. Just went to knowledge base & found out that ISO is the bootable media. However, in following their instructions, there is no option to download a bootable media for TI 9 on my account page.
Log in to your account, go to products and downloads, expand the version 9 tab. YOu should see something similar to the attached screen capture. Click on Bootable media, download.
This will give you .ISO file.
Download imgburn http://www.imgburn.com/, install it and use it to burn directly the ISO to your CD.
Thanks again, Pat. However, my account doesn't have a bootable media tab...only Latest Build, Support, & Updates.
OK. I am not quite sure how to proceed for you to get it.
Alternatively, you could try ATI 2011 and use the trial to build a new bootable media. If you choose this path, you should uninstall your existing version of ATI, use the corresponding cleanup utility if it exists, and then install the trial.
Acronis offers alternate "Bootable Media iso" beginning with version 10 so none is available from your registration page.
One thing you might try and I do not know whether Windows will allow this either.
From within Windows explorer, right click on the backup file and choose Explore. Explore inside the backup tree to your c:\Documents & Settings folder. Go inside each user folder (My xp pro has 4 users as listed below). and use either copy & paste or drag and drop but attempt to get copies of the entire Start menu folder from each user folder. Copy the folders onto the external drive as additional normal folders.
Then boot into Windows Safe Mode and see if Windows will allow you to copy each folder overtop the existing Start Menu for each user.
You may also be able to open two windows. One windows open to the bad start menu and another window open to the extra start menu copy. Drag files from the copy to the bad window and do this for each user.
Should you decide to buy the 2011 package (or the 2011 upgrade) without getting the trial version , registering the 2011 serial will give you immediate access to the 2011 alternate "bootable media" and you can use it to perform the restore and then convert from 9 to 2011 more at your leisure.
Do not install version 2011 without uninstalling version 9 first.
My XP Pro Start menu has folders (pieces) in each of these sub-folders.
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\
C:\Documents and Settings\Grover\Start Menu\
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Start Menu\
C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Start Menu\
Another option might be to remove the system disk from your computer and attach it as a 2nd external to another computer and copy the extra folders from your 1st external to your system disk without the hassle from Windows.
Thanks, Grover, for all the ideas. Somehow, I managed to delete the folders that I wanted...I have no idea how. But for now, I think I'll just copy, move, or delete individual files...it's safer. I contacted the person who built my computer (who also uses True Image) & he said that he had to upgrade to Version 10 to see my type of drive. I've heard there's some visual problems with version 11, so I'm thinking of upgrading to Version 10.
--
Thanks again,
Phil
P.S. I can't seem to find a way to upgrade to Version 10. Do you know if it's available?
Your folders should be safe inside your backup unless you deleted them before the backup.
Be careful in your use of version number terminology.
Version 2011 should be identified as version 2011
Version 2010 should be identified as version 2010
Old version 11 should be identified as old version 11
Old version 10 should be identified as old version 10
Wrong identiification of TrueImage will get you wrong answers because each version has its own features.
Thanks, Grover. I've just purchased version 2010, with the help of your link. I really appreciate your help!!