Cloning question versus restoring from TIB files
I have Windows 8.1. I have a bootable USB acronis thumbdrive
I have an extra hard drive I can instert into laptop
Process 1.
I performed the cloning as instructed. Take out laptop hard drive. Put in new hard drive. Attach original laptop drive via usb to laptop. Boot with USB, then clone. Put back original laptop drive. Keep cloned drive in case of disaster with laptop or broken hard drive.
I have done the above many times.
Question is this--Now that I have a cloned drive, in the future do I still have to take out the laptop hard drive, put in cloned hard drive and perform the above steps to make an exact image?
---OR--
Process 2 - after creating a cloned drive that is bootable and tested .
Can I just create TIB files on my separate enclosed external USB connected backup drive (not the cloned drive I use for file andother backups.)
I would boot from USB thumbdrive, create TIB files of all partitions, MBR and so on to my external enclosed hard drive.
Then I was hoping I could restore all these files if needed back to my spare (prior cloned) bootable spare laptop hard drive without having to go through the process 1 above (remove and replace, clone).
Goal have a replica hard drive I can put in laptop using TIB backup and restore and still boot from this drive after inserting it into machine and have everything work as if I had cloned it like process 1 above. ie: not clone but just do a restore. ???
Thanks
Peter
Peter,
Process 2 will work. If the "cloned" drive is being used as a backup, there is no need to install the drive in the computer.
I have a couple of additional suggestions:
There is no need to boot from a usb drive to create the tib backups. Assuming you have ATI 2016 loaded on your laptop, you can run ATI 2016 under windows and set up a task to perform a full backup, followed by daily incremental (or differential) backups. Incremental or differential backups don't take long to run (just a couple of minutes), and they are small, compared to a full backup. One big advantage of doing your backups this way is you have use of your laptop while the backups are being performed.
The backup should be a disk & partition backup, using full partition list, with all items checked. Restoring this backup is equivalent to a clone. Restoring it to your backup "cloned" drive is equivalent to a clone.
Hopefully, I have answered your questions. If you have any more questions, I will be happy to answer them.
One more recommendation...assuming you start using process 2, every so often, after performing a restore to the backup drive, install it in your laptop and boot from it. Assuming it boots OK, which it should, take it back out and put the system disk back in.
Regards,
FtrPilot
Hi Peter,
First a true clone as you performed on your extra hard drive is a bit for bit copy of the orignal hard drive from which the clone was taken.
A backup .tib image is not a bit for bit copy like a clone is because such an image has certain data that is by default excluded from the .tib image produced. This excluded data varies depending upon whether you use the bootable recovery media to create the .tib image backup or the Windows installed app to do so.
In either case above a restore of such a .tib file will result in a bootable disk however a restore of a full disk backup file that is produced using the Windows installed app using the default settings of the app with default exclusions will not restore some items that you desire such as certain app data, system volume information which some installed applications use to store athentication code, and installed browser content such as favorites and bookmarks among others. If the .tib backup file was created using the bootable recovery media these default Windows app exclusions will be included in the backup due to the fact the recovery media is Linux based and does not follow the same exclusion rules as the Windows installed app does and when restored such data will be available to you upon restore.
It is possible to remove the default exclusions in the Windows installed app using the Options function in the app and selecting the Exclusions tab to access the defaults and manually removing them from the list. So it is possible to create a backup using the Windows app that mimics the recovery media created .tib image.
So the answer to your question is Yes you can restore a .tib image that will be almost identical to a clone but you must be mindful that default exclusions from a .tib image depending upon the method used to create the image need to be adjusted to fit your needs so that the end result is what you are expecting and not something less.
Thank you all.
From what I gather in reading these posts is that the safest way so I do not exclude any Windows components on the back up is to probably boot from the USB stick that has acronis on it.
And then do a and then do a backup of everything
And with the restore do the same thing in booting from the USB stick
And of course as suggested test booting with the spare hard drive inserted from time to time.
Question will I have any issues with the boot chains if I am doing a full backup from the USB thumb drive? I do not intend to do any incrementals. I recall in the past having some problems and reading about boot chains not being found. But I think that had to do with acronis somehow remembering what was backed up and if somebody deleted the tib files. But booting from the USB stick should probably avoid any such issues. Correct?
Actually have a Acronis 2014 but thought this forum would provide more responses.
Thank you very much, Peter
If you do full disk backups with the USB thumb drive they will standalone disk images, no chains involved. Chains come into the picture with incremental and differential scheme backup plans.
TI 2014 is a bit different animal than 2016 but the same basics apply.