Windows 7 question
Hi Guys
Ive had a nightmare recently with windows 7 on my Alienware M18R2. I decided to do a fresh install which as usual all went fine until I started windows updates. It hung and hung and hung and the hung for HOURS. So off to Google I went and found that updates is screwed for windows 7 on fresh installs, marvelous. Some 20 hours of searching later I finally found a solution which to my suprise worked! This is it if you're interested or have had the same issue with Windows 7 yourself.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-update/windo…
Anyway the above worked perfectly for me and updates started ok once Id done it.
I then thought I sould make a image of my new install so I dont have to go through that again. So ive done a ton of updates and decided to buy Acronis.
I just took a backup of my whole C drive and all partitions to my lacie external using USB. This went well and completed without errors.
Now in the event I need to do a fresh install to my laptop do I just connect my lacie to the USB port of my laptop, make sure USB is set in Bios as one of the bootable drives and then turn on the laptop? Acronis on the lacie will then do its thing and install the full Windows 7 image I took to my C drive?
Cheers
mark..
Hiya mark
Ah my Lacie is an external powered 1TB HDD connecting to my laptop via USB cable
Cheers
Mark.
Mark:
That's fine, but unless you have configured it to boot your PC into the Acronis Recovery Environment, then by itself it won't do the whole job for you.
There is a way to make an external USB disk bootable; it's outlined here: http://www.themudcrab.com/acronis_grub4dos.php
If you're not into geeky stuff then the easiest way to do this is outlined in reply #1 above.
Mark is there a step by step guide of how to do a backup and retore?
Cheers
Mark
Hi Mark
I did a clone disc from Acronis true Image not a backup..
Thik I found it.
1. Make my Clone which ive done to my Lacie external HDD
2. Go to tools in my Acronis and click Rescue media Builder
3. Make sure I have a USB flash plugged in
4. Select it and let Acronis do its thing
I then use that USB flash to boot from and select my lacie where my clone is stored when I want to restore my C drive after a crash or even to a blank C drive to save me doing a complete fresh windows install.
PS
If windows is installed on the disc already will the clone overwrite it all?
Correct?
Mark, please see KB document: 1540: Difference between Backup and Disk Clone
A clone is an identical copy of one drive to another, where the recommended process is to remove the source drive from the system and replace it with the target drive to be cloned to, then connect the source drive externally using USB (USB to SATA adapter or caddy). The system should then be booted from the Acronis bootable Rescue Media on CD/DVD or USB media and the clone performed completely outside of Windows.
Once the clone is complete, then the source (external) drive should be disconnected, the boot media removed and then the system booted from the new cloned internal drive. You should not attempt to boot with both drives connected as this can cause problems with Windows and lead to corruption, due to both drives having the same disk signature.
See KB document: 56634: Acronis True Image: Cloning Disks for further details of the clone process and the requirements that need to be satisfied.
See also webpage: Check if your PC uses UEFI or BIOS as this is an important factor when booting the Acronis Rescue Media - this must be booted in the same mode as used by your Windows OS, and this may require you to change BIOS settings to disable Secure Boot on some systems.
Mark,
Cloning your system to an external does you no good unless you can (and plan to) take that drive out of the enclosure and put it back in the physical system and then use it attached internally. Otherwise, you want to be taking a full disk backup and restore that backup. Please check out these videos...
How to clone a disk with Acronis True Image 2016 - YouTube
03 - Britec - How to Backup and Restore Your Windows - YouTube
04 - Britec - How To Restore Windows 10 from a System Image - YouTube
Ahhh thanks Bobbo
So from my control panel I acvtually use the first tab then "Backup" and then i can choose to cloud or some other source. Oki ill do a backup now as it appears ive stopped downloading updates finally and the sys is in a good state.
I assume then that you only realy clone when you have many discs you want to install too?
Cheers Guys
I assume then that you only realy clone when you have many discs you want to install too?
I am not a fan of cloning. Cloning is an "all or nothing" process. If something goes wrong, the user may end up with two unbootable drives and loss of data. Backup and recovery is a far safer method, and allows for multiple tries if the user is unfamiliar. Cloning has no advantage over full backup and restore, except a slight time saving at the expense of considerably more risk and complexity.
If you do want to clone, it should be performed only after booting from the ATI bootable Rescue Media. Also, do not allow the PC to boot to Windows with both drives still connected. But, better and safer would be to create a full disk mode backup and restore it to the new drive.
Clone should be used only by advanced users who know what they are doing. It is riskier and can result in a loss of data and a failed system. Create a full disk mode backup and restore it, using the bootable Rescue Media, to the target disk, as it's far safer and simpler.
Good advice.
I have used cloning, but not on systems where any great damage could be done. It should be done using the recovery media (although I have successfully done it via ATI 2017 - somthing I would not recommend).
Ian
I agree with Tuttle. Cloning is supposed to be the easy method (in theory), but is much more finicky and prone to cause issues, due to users not understaning the limitations of the bios and needing to properly configure the bios settings in advance, as well as having the physical drives in the proper order and not booting the system after a clone, unless one of the drives has been disconnected first and the other in the original connector already.
I always go for a backup and recovery over a clone as it's safer, gives you a backup to restore to in case things go badly and has less disk-level limitations.
I would only clone if I had no place to take a backup image first and I'd really try to find that space unless there was absolultely no option.
Here are my thoughts on clone vs backup
And if you still want to clone, please review the recommended clone procedures and be aware of the limitations of cloning.
Hi Guys
When you do a full backup is that literally copying everything then? So the whole windows install, settings, all the updates it has done, games, files? etc
Cheers
Mark.
Yes, for all practical purposes, with limited exceptions. Disposable files that Windows can re-create (paging file, hibernation file, etc.) are not copied over in order to make the backup file smaller.
Here is an over-simplified explanation of the difference between the two methods:
An image backup is: Existing Disk contents --> Image file --> New disk
A clone is: Existing Disk contents --> New disk
Note that the clone process skips the intermediate step of writing the existing disk contents to a file. Having the file is your insurance policy against something going wrong.
Hi Guys
Ok I did a full backup from whole PC to my external HDD. Now the odd thing is that the bwckup size is 392 gig and yet my C drive only has 238 gig on it? I excluded my D drive which is my second internal drive on this laptop but this is what my lappy looks like at the moment
C = used 61 gig of 238
D = used 368 gig of 931
so how did I end up with a backup of 382 gig? It looks like its backed up C and also D at the same time but that would be 429. Im confused.
Cheers
mark.
Did you perhaps select the option to backup "Sector-by-sector"?
Mark:
A whole PC backup would include EVERY disk attached to the PC. Was your external disk attached?
But it doesn't matter in the end. When you restore, you get to select what to restore from the backup file. If there was something in there that you did not intend to back up, then don't restore the unwanted parts.
Can you post a picture from Windows Disk Management of your laptop's contents?
Hiya Guys
Just to be clear on this laptop I have
C Drive SSD using 61 gig at te moment
D drive 950 Gig sata using 368 gig at the moment
A drive my external Lacie which is 1TB Sata
So I selected backup whole PC
I selected single version scheme
I selected to backup to A drive the Lacie external (connected via USB)
I selected to exclude D in options
Some other parts of C were auto excluded I saw in that panel
I did not tick sector by sector
Then I just clicked go and it did wrk but the backup is a very odd size as i was expecting 61 gig ish for C drive only
"entire pc" backups will backup other connected drives that you may not acticipate - these can be other internal drives, or even external drives. I would recommend you not use "entire pc" and kill your existing backup task. Create a new one, but instead of "entire pc" select the source using the "disks and partitions" option. Then, click on paritions if you have a single drive with C and D where you plan to exclude D. Make sure you select all other paritions on the disk, except for D in this case. Alternatively, you should be able to pick the "disk" option and add an exclusion for D:\*, but not 100% sure about that. It's easier to recovery disk vs parition backups since it's one click so if the exlusion works, that is probably the more simple method.
I would also check the exlcusions tab and remove anything that points to a web browser (chrome, firefox, opera) if you like to keep your favorites, which most people do. Pretty much all of the other defaults are safe to keep excluded though.
With this backup, using the disk/partitoin scheme, you should end up with a backup size that is about 20% less than the total used space of your C: drive. Give or take anyway, as other files that are open when the OS is active (pagefile.sys, hiberfile.sys, recyclebin, temp folder) are excluded by default and should remain excluded as backing those files up has no bearing on the recovery and would only take up wasted space in your backup.
Hiya
Thats better :) Ill try that one..
Mark,
Yes, that's the one you want. D: drive is it's own seperate hard drive. I would recommend backing up each drive (the ones you want to), individually with there own backup tasks.
FYI, in your screenshot, on the lower left corner is "full partition" list. Click on that one and it will show all paritions on the drive (just to be sure you got them all).
Hi Guys
Ok I did that backup and it worked but it only backed up 21Gig. As you know my C drive is using 61 gig of 250 so what did it decide to not backup and why?
Cheers
Mark.
Mark, by default ATIH will exclude a number of items which can add up to a considerable size saving, such as your system pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys and System Volume Information folders - check you task Exclusions page to see what else is being excluded from your backup image.
Download a copy of the TreeSize Free utility program and use this to get an idea of the size of these items in the context of your total used data size on your drive.
You could also mount your backup image as a drive letter then run a second copy of TreeSize Free to see how the size of data in the backup compare to your source drive sizes.
On average Normal compression by True Image is roughly 30%.