Restoring an image with a previous Acronis version
I had been running Acronis True Image 2009, but came across problems: I needed to restore from a previous image, but TI2009 was not allowing me to run startup recovery tool, not even to start from a bootable media. After the first screen, it auto-restarted into windows every time I tried.
I decided to uninstall it and install True Image 2013. Everything looks fine now, the startup recovery manager is working, as well as the bootable media I created, and of course the installed new Acronis is working properly. So I thought, it's time to recover from the older image, which meanwhile I validated. But... logical reasoning says if I do, then I'll be back to the old True Image 2009, which was installed under that image!
I think in principle there will be no problem; when I'll be running the recuperated image, I'll uninstall 2009 and install 2013, the same way I did this time. Or is there any other way of doing this? (I'm afraid there isn't...)
Thanks for any comments
What cleanup tool? I'm asking because I've searched before uninstalling 2009 and found no reference to that tool, only for later versions. The fact is that I deactivated both secure zone and startup recovery manager, uninstalled 2009 and the 2013 I've been running as trial is running well, so it seems.
Acronis True Image Cleanup Utility for 2011-2013: http://kb.acronis.com/content/34876
Be careful to follow all instructions, including not allowing the utility to reboot until you've made the Registry edits.
But, tuttle, I was running True Image 2009, so I did not do that. But Acronis 2013 trial version is running ok.
You may still use the cleanup tool after uninstalling 2009. I would. Of course if you don't want to reinstall 2013, then you may not wish to do it now. I'm just recommending the best practice, which would have been to deactivate those features, uninstall 2009 and cleanup before installing the newer version. It's your choice whether to do that or not.
Let me be clear: I did not read it was necessary to run de cleanup tools in the case of 2009, since that need was mentioned from version 2010 onwards. That was the only reason I did not run it. I only deactivated secure zone and startup recovery before uninstalkling 2009. Then I installed 2013. It seems to be ruinning OK, I tried creating startup recovery zone, I tested and it is running. I created a bootable media, tested and it is running. In these conditions, do you think it is advisable to uninstall 2013, run the cleanup tool (for what version?). reinstall 2013 and restart from that point?
I already tested doing a backup and it was done OK (BTW, it's amazing the amount of less time needed to finish a backup - a full disk backup 2009 did in around 4 hours took around 30 min to finish :-) )
Thanks for your comments
You're confusing me, or you yourself are confused. You asked what would happen when you restore an image made when you had 2009 installed. I explained what would happen, and advised you how you might proceed from there. If you no longer want to do what your originally asked about, then the situation has changed and advice might differ.
Sorry, you're right, I messed things up. The sequence was:
- It looked like I would need to restore the main partition to an earlier backup, because of an error. The Acronis v ersion I had was True Image 2009.
- So, I tried restoring from the startup recovery manager. It didn't work. When the options menu showed, the PC restarted immediately. And it did that every time I tried again, either from the bootable CD I had created previously or letting the system start and trying to recover from Acronis while already working under Windows. It would let me prepare the operation, reboot and also when the main menu started (out of windows) the computer restarted automatically.
- Therefore, I decided uninstalling True Image 2009. Before I did that I read through the knowledge base and kept 3 things in mind: deactivating startup recovery manager, cancelling secure zone and using cleanup tool. I did the first 2, but I was unable to find cleanup tool for True Image 2009, only for the following versions. So I ignored that step, simply uninstalled True Image 2009 using the Windows control panel uninstall application.
- Then, I downloaded and installed the trial version of True Image 2013 and tested its use, including the creation of a secure zone, and the activation of the startup recovery manager. I also created a bootable media created under 2013. Everything looks to be working all right.
- This is still the present situation, since I checked out later that the primitive error did not repeat (at least so far), so I did not need to recuperate from a previous backup as I was intending to.
What's your advice, in this situation? Would it still be advisable to run the cleanup tool? And which? As I said, True Image 2013 is aparently working fine, so I thought there would be no need to change anything else. If you think this is logical, the I will keep the system as it is, buy and register True Image 2013 and go on with it. I've been using it since long before version 2009 and it was my saviour more than once, that is why I largely rely on it and will keep it as a pillar of my computer system.
It's your choice. If everything works fine, then there may be no need to re-do.
FYI:
I advise against creating the Acronis Secure Zone. It's really meant as a sub-optimal method of backup for people who have no external target to which to backup. If your drive fails, you would lose your system, files, and your Secure Zone backups.
It's much better and safer to make backup images to an external hard drive.
Also, in the past there were occasional reports of the Secure Zone causing problems to the system. When I installed Secure Zone on one PC, it corrupted the hard drive causing data loss and rendering the system unbootable. Perhaps the latest versions of Secure Zone are improved, but that experience coupled with its inherent insecurity and lack of redundancy cause me to be wary of Secure Zone.
I also recommend against the associated Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. If activated, it modifies your system drive Master Boot Record (MBR), which can cause problems with multi-boot managers and other low-level disk utilities.
Thanks for your advice, since everything seems to work fine, I'll leave things as they are.
Thanks also for your opinion about secure zone and startup recovery zone. Indeed, I've always done my backups to other drivers than the one containing the system, so really secure zone was never used. Anyway I had deactivated it with 2013 version. About recovery application, I never noticed anything strange so far and I've been using Acronis foir years, but I accpet your suggestion/advice and deactivate it. I had it activated for one single reason: if and when something goes wrong, I hunt everywhere to find our where I did put the bootable rescue media :-) so that is simpler than looking through a pile of CDs ... ;-)