Please guide me to backup- virtualisation dissimiliar hardware

Reconhell wrote:

My intention is to create a backup of my entire 1.36 TB harddrive with 3 partitions, 2 data, one system reserved. Onto my other drive where the backup will be stored is 2.72 TB.
Since there are mutiple backup options like clone a disk, backup partition/disk im not sure what is best or if it even matters if there is a difference?

You should do a disk and partition backup of all the partitions of your existing disk.

I have installed 100'es of games on this pc, while I know they will be restored on the same hardware, what if I were to buy a new pc one day and use the backup?

You would have to use the universal restore feature to restore a system image (an image containing the system).

I heard 2012 has the virtualisation feature which would allow the backup to be run on other hardware? Meaning if I create image with acronis true image 2012 and then restore it with acronis backup and recovery 11 aka Universal Restore on an other pc will this work?

ABR 11 can recover ATI 2011 images. Not sure aboute 2012 images. You will have to try. If you ABR version inclues the Universal Restore, then it could work. Universal Restore doesn't work all the time. It is often worth trying short of reinstalling everything. If you have games installed in a partition that is not the system partition, I am not sure how UR will behave.

Is this really possible(fault prove can I count on it?), and how does it work normally this wouldn't be possible because the motherboard,processor etc. would be different and each windows 7 installation is unique.

In theory it is possible: this is the purpose of UR. Again, the process of slipping in the right drivers during restoration is a complicated one.

What do I have to do to make sure it's enabled when backupping with Acronis 2012? Or is it not something you enable in making the backup but in restore the backup?

You have to make sure you include all the partitions in the backup. Other than that, backups and UR are independent.

I created a bootable with Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 it asked me to include inf drivers, is this where you would include the new drivers for the hardware? Is this 100% needed? I decided to test it on my USB bootable I made with it. I started and clicked on Universal Restore and got this message:

Apply Universal Restore
To enable you to boot up an operating system recovered on dissimilar hardware or an virtual machine. Universal Restore will search and install drivers and modules that better fit the hardware. OK <--- which is greyed out can't click it and CANCEL

I am not sure whether UR should be active when you restore to the same hardware.

ABR11 can read 2012 archives.

I might have misunderstood the 'virtualisation' meaning, but both ABR11 and 2012 can convert to VHD files which can then be attached to a virtual machine such as Microsoft virtual PC or VirtualBox, VMWare and probably Hyper-V (haven't tried Hyper-V).

Thank you for the reply.

I made a entire disk backup (so no clone) compression said it would be 650 GB with max compress but it turned out 1TB anyway strange..

Ofcourse UR should be active in my opinion I mean the program doesn't know wether it's the same or other pc, let's say I have a disk on a other pc which I would restore here.. See my point.. I don't even get into the procedure :(

I have an Asrock 775 twins Rev 2.0, E6400 Core 2 Duo, I looked on the website and found these drivers:
Floppy_IAT
HDMR_XP64(7.40.00)
LAN_XP64_XP_2K_ME_98(3.50)
Realtek_XP64_XP_2K(R1.42) Audio
SATA_XP64_XP_2K(1.004) Sata HDD

Which drivers would be really important? I'd say Sata of course if I go from Satahdd, the others are not so important because they can be installed later from my external HD... But if I restore the backup on my USB External HD of 3TB..? I don't see I have any DIRECT need for drivers I could just install them after like normally the case on that pc?

I don't seem to have chipset motherboard drivers or anything, and I can't remember I ever needed them on that pc.

Edit: my chipset of the other pc is Uli/Ali M1573 I saw with Everest Ultimate Edition, the manufacturer doesn't have special drivers for it, though I googled and saw www.nvidia.com/page/uli_drivers.html I suppose these are right too?

Oh really that's pretty interesting too except for the virtual machines that don't have good 3D support.

The only s-ata driver you might need is the AHCI one if you don't run your s-ata drives in IDE compatible mode.

Well Im gonna test it with my 3TB ext USB drive so it won't matter I guess, but I don't know what ahci is and got 2 sata drivers, one floppy or something and a normal one. The asrock is a M5287 probably if I should trust google and other users.

I guess it won't need usb drivers since windows 7 can detect that? Anyway when I tried to include usb drivers from the Uli Integrated2.20 package I mentioned I get an error certain .sys files are missing, and I did a search there not even in the package...

Will post back.. I still have to copy over 1TB for I can try it.

Btw the 1 TB copy of my bacup im writing... it can be used on itself as destination right? I want to restore the image on the same drive as it's stored. And the backup has 2 partitions+1 system reserve.

Cannot recover the partition from the disk backup because the backup is located on this partition.

OH MY... So i can't restore it on the same driver pffffffft gonna take another 20 hours of copying.. dang

Reconhell,

The only way to recover on the same drive is to make a new partition on that drive, either by use of the Acronis Secure Zone or by making a new partition yourself.

Twenty hours to copy onto a USB drive sounds a little long for a USB2.0 port, i'd expect 2 - 4 hours.

It isn't a good idea to store an image on the same drive (even as a separate partition or as the ASZ if it's on the same drive) as if the drive dies, so do your images. Using the SZ as well as an external drive gives you the best of both worlds.

I see.. thanks for your comment wish I knew that before... How does one do it exactly, you would have to give the partitions same directories like C: and D: in this case? and what about the system reserved partition? I said to make a partition but it doesn't give my a choice to choose filesystem..it just chooses fat32.. Is this a problem?

And as for keeping the image on the same drive that is not a problem in this case, since I also backup the backup image. =) on a seperate 3TB sata drive.

And my drives are USB 2.0 with speeds ranging from 16 to 30 mb per second. So moving/copying 1TB you can imagine would take as long.

So now I have 2 external USB2.0 HDD's one empty 1.36TB and one 2.72 TB and the 1TB image is loaded from the 2.72TB one unto the 1.36TB one.
Will take atleast another 15-20 hours zzzzz I hope it works, then it's worth it atleast.

EDIT:
I had to choose where to restore system reserverd partition so I choose my empty 1.36 TB drive, then I was asked the same for C: and D:.. But the 1.36 TB is grey now WTF... So I NEED to use acronis secure zone I take it?

PFFfffff easy? I have been at it for days.

So im creating a 675 Gb partition on my external HDD and it takes 17 hours wtf??? It's not like there is anything being copied.. it's just empty space allocations ffs... At this rate it will take me weeks. :(

Reconhell.

You say you're creating a partition, so is this DiskPart or Disk Director or some other disk utility that you are using? If it is, then try changing the port you are using for USB, a port at the back of the PC may run get faster throughput, don't attach the drive via an external hub.

Im doing it with acronis secure zone as suggested. In windows disk manager I can't even cut up the external HDD into seperate partitions.

It doesn't have any effect all my usb ports wether 2.0/3.0 front or back have the same transferspeed. An avg of 25 mb per second circa, isn't that bad for usb 2.0 right it's just that my drives are 1.5-3 TB and the backup is 1TB I gues...

EDIT:
LoL the operation should have lasted 9 more hours, but it suddenly said operation completed.

I see I now have the option to convert it to NTFS, which I did. I assumed I can create mutiple acronis secure zones as I need 3? But if I open up acronis secure zone I can only remove, or change excisting acronis secure zone..

EDIT2:
I found a workaround I think Im resizing with EASUS partition mananger to create the 2nd and 3rd partitions... shouldn't I have created them all 3 like this in the first place? Do I need to set a certain partition to active or primary? Or will this automatically be done when recovering images?

Only one SZ can be made, but you can store an image per partition.

Yes but my image contains 3 partitions(C: D: and system reserved) and one SZ is one partition...can't restore all to the SZ so that won't cut it.

So I guess the Secure zone+ EASUS created partitions will work fine? Or would it better to create no secure zones at all and create all partitions with EASUS? What about setting setting active partition or logical/primary partition do I need to change it?

Once you have created your target partitions with EASUS, you can restore each partition to its target place.
When you restore an active partition, mark the new destination primary active with ATI.

I personally don't use the ASZ because of the lack of flexility with deleting/moving backups.

I deleted the ASZ, and the first partition I created with EASUS is done now after like 20+ hours, now im creating the 2nd partition just as big, and it's done within 1 minute WTFFFFFFF And it seems it worked.. The only difference is the first disk that took 20+ hours was set to logical and the 2nd to primary disk, but I doubt that can make that difference..?

NEW problem *sigh*

I tried recovering on my 2.72 TB with the 3 created partitions by EASUS, but I couldn't pick the MBR to the disk the image was on, only to the normal disk of the other pc.. I figured it might had to do with the old OS/MBR of the other and different disk. So I removed the 250 GB disk so that only my 2.72 TB disk with image and partions was connected.

Now when I boot up acronis backup and recovery and press locally as soon as I see the GUI it instantly reboots.. WTF?

What am I doing wrong?

Reconhell,

You do realise you are trying to use TIH in a way it isn't quite designed to work, so some teathing troubles are to be expected.

Hey Colin,
How so? So tell me what do I need to do...?

I got an image of the disk I want to restore and I want to restore on a different pc on a USB external drive.
I want it to boot the dissimiliair pc from usb when image is restored.

The pc shouldnt reboot -_-

Windows is not natively bootable from a USB drive. There is no problem restoring an image to a PC from a USB drive but Windows will not boot directly from USB.

The only way I can think of to boot a Windows copy is to convert the image to a VHD and then add that VHD to the other PC's BCD, which can be done via the Acronis Sequence Manager, but only if you are running Ultimate or Enterprise versions of Vista or W7, or install Windows Virtual PC on the other PC which can then boot the VHD on your USB drive.

How dissimilar is this other PC? Does it have the same hardware and chipset?

I see... well that sucks!! wish I knew that, I thought I heard people loading windows from usb disk... but ohwell..

I started a operation this morning.. all attempts to restore the image from sata disk to usb were impossible as it seems, and restoring partitions to the Sata disk from usb didn't work either since the Sata disk only has 1 partition. So I choose to restore the entire disk from the usb drive unto the Sata drive. Since it accepted it , I suppose that the other partitions are created in the recovery process???

It says that total operation will take about 2 days. Speed is sucky because of Sata 1 and maximum compression I presume, most of the time I see it at 8 mb per sec(though once I saw it at 17 mb per sec)

I hope all goes well -_- it's been almost a week now of non stop trying this thing...

First PC:
i7 2600k
Asrock P67 Extreme 6
8 DDR 3 RAM
SATA 3 HDD
Geforce GTX 570 1280MB

Second PC:
Core 2 Duo E6400
Asrock 7752 twins hdtv rev 2.0
2GB DDR 2 RAM
Sata 1 port
Geforce 7900 GTO 512MB

The method you desribe at the end of the post might allow me to boot on usb disk? But that method is not for me anyways because you need a OS/other drive to get it working and my point is I want a plug and play disk backups if my Main Sata disk dies. As you said that is impossible :(

USB 1? You'll be there for a very long time especially with high compression!

What you're really looking for is disk cloning, but the dissimilarity of the hardware is now the problem. I can't see any way to solve this that doesn't require a 3rd step.

How have you got the Sata drives set up? If using AHCI that might stop PC 2 booting from PC1 image (Microsoft won't like it either), if you run your Sata drives in IDE compatible mode that might help. The video cards being different will be a problem.

Even if you could get this going, Windows activation will sulk when it meets the other PC. Your best bet and probably the cheapest in terms of your sanity, would be to bite the bullet, find yourself a cheap copy of W7, install, activate etc, and then see if something like Cameo (free) or VM ThinInstall (not free) can package your favourite programs and run them on your new setup. There are other possible ways of getting even closer to what you want, but they will all cost substantial amounts of money - virtualisation of your systems, though this would really need to have been done before you ever installed software on your original system.

Perhaps someone else may have a brainwave and come up with some ideas.

VHD files can be run from USB, but you still have the problem that a boot loader and initialisation file (the BCD) have to be present to do so.

Perhaps you should search the interweb and see if anyone has any ideas on booting a VHD via Grub on a USB or similar.

No both pc's have usb 2.0 atleast.

The process is 31% complete time elapsed 12 hour 39 minute, time remaining 1 day 16 hours at 13 mb per sec. Bytes recovered: 400GB

When I asked this earlier if to do cloning or backing up partition/disk. Pat L said to back up partitions read up... Soo clone disk is what I should have used instead of my image? how does this differ?

I think I have AHCI enabled in bios... it was on RAID but I thought Ahci might be better lol.. Will raid option be better? Im not sure wether it runs in IDE ccompatibility, if I remember correctly it does. I'd have to check after restore... But I can just switch to raid after install right..

The videocards problem won't matter I think because either A. you get back screen and have to boot up in F8 safe mode to remove/reinstall correct drivers, or B a default monitor/vga driver gets installled with suhky resolution.

Pfftt grey hairs man. I wish there was a clean FOUL PROOF (screenshot)instruction to clone a pc for use to dissimiliair hardware

Will postback results..

Ok Im back the operation completed in 1 day 17 hours.

And ofcourse more problems -_-

It completed succesfully with warnings...

Failed to detect GRUB loader error code 7 module 57
Failed to detect GRUB activator error code 7 module 57
disk has invalid bios number (0) the following value will be used "128" error code 500 module 29
disk local\hdsign (0002714C) has invalid bios number (0) the following value will be used "128" error code 500 module 29

And on booting I get MBR error 3 MBR error 1 MBR error 2 in this order.

One thing I noticed is that after the image recovery suddenly my sata disk was recognised in my bios wherebefore it was recognised in boot selection but nowhere to be found in the bios, a new option appeared under IDE disks with SATA1, SATA2, SATA3, SATA 4. With my disk being SATA1 port. Btw Ata combination was disabled not sure if this matters.

,

Im trying to fix it with windows 7 fixmbr right now..
Btw I see an extra partition in windows 7 setup which shouldn't be there.. it's called disk 0 partition 1 128 mb total size 128mb free type MSR (Reserved) other partitions are disk 0 partition : system reserved Total Size 200MB Free space 171 MB, Disk 0 partition 3 total size 1369.5 GB, Disk 0 partition 4 total size 1424.7 GB..

:( all this time for nothing? Why did this recovery fail?

MBR 3 error means your MBR doesn't contain stabdard information - fixmbr from Windows might fix that.

Yes im trying that but my windows cd doesn't have system recovery and the one I tried burning failed lol.. wow everything just fails.xD

Anyway I find it more important to know WHY im getting these errors..

As I want to create a good backup procedure which is faultless may one of my disks fail..

Btw when the backup completed universal restore STILL had the same issue as posted some posts above.. couldn't press ok WTFF?

Could someone help please?

And what are the right bios settings here for the second pc.. concerning i want to use sata and ide at the same time possibly.

EDIT:
Im going to start over using clone method. But I'd still like to know why the errors came, what settings to use in bios, and why universal restore refused..

EDIT2:
Pff NEXT PROBLEM I try copying disks and it says it needs to reboot now it gives error failed to read data from the disk. Failed to read from sector 128 of harddisk 1 direct r/w operation has failed (0x590001)

Then I pressed retry and it worked.. should I let it continue..?

If I recall correctly, you had a Secure Zone lurking, if you activated the ASRM - this will alter the MBR - if suddenly the SZ does not exist or due to being recovered to a different size drive, these components are missing - you will get the MBR3 error. As you've found everything still boots, you just get the annoying message each time.

Having written that, I've just realised what you should do is boot from the rescue CD and de-activate the ASRM (if activated) that should cuase a default MBR to be written to the disk and everything should be fine. If you didn't activate the ASRM then fixmbr is the way to go, you can use your install DVD, for W7 there will be a repair option that will allow you to get access to the command line.

You should either clone your drive in which case you will need a spare drive that has the same capacity or larger than your source drive. This will copy all partitions including hidden ones to the new drive. It is imperitive that if the destination drive is internal, you do not reboot the machine with the new drive attached - Windows will become confused and the result will not be determinate.

Your other option is to make one image that contains your OS and System partitions, then further separate images for each of your other partitions, you can then restore the partitions as you please. Make sure that the MBR is included in your OS and System image.

Unless you are intending to use your drives in a RAID configuration, I would leave the Sata drives in IDE compatible mode, which depending on your MB might be the only option if you are going to mix and match IDE and Sata.

I don't know why you get the Grub message, but others have mentioned getting that as well.

I don't know the answer as far as UR is concerned. On a daily basis I use ABR11, so I haven't made a PP rescue media for 2012 as yet, as it lives in a VM for the moment.

You are doing and changing so many things, that it is getting difficult to keep up! :)

Thank you for your response.. so you say my previous secure zone interferred even though I removed it?

Anyway I cloned my disk and it worked! My system boots, well this is on the first same pc so not the one with different hardware.

But I encounterd ANOTHER problem ofcourse, I tried to uninstall acronis 2012 on the restored drive and it says I don't have sufficient acces.. WTF?

I tried giving all folders complete acces, and adding the user account, everyone to allow all.
And I took ownership.

Still I get the same retarded message while this is the same systemcopy!!! but different disk I suppose some ntfs problem?

I tried to run the installer and removing it (run as admin) but it says could not find the file specified.

This leads to believe me there is something wrong as this should be an 1:1 copy...

I think I can solve the universal restore problem by going back to Acronis true image 2011. Isn't there some place or someone who could give me direct support.. this is getting nowhere.

I included the log file of the installer.

Check that the uninstall components have actually installed on your system. I had a problem with one beta version where the uninstaller didn't register itself properly, but then using the installer to uninstall worked for me.

What I would suggest is to repair the 2012 install (you haven't changed the PC's name by any chance on the clone?) and then try uninstalling.

See if this path and file actually exist - C:\Windows\Installer\2d0f878.msi