Acronis True Image and TrueCrypt

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Hi,
I realize this has been discussed in various ways on this and other forums. I am wondering if someone at Acronis or a user can shed additional light on the topic.

My goal: Use TrueCrypt to perform a whole disk encryption (and hence requiring preboot authentication and password input to start the PC) and THEN create a disc image (with Acronis TI) to be stored on a connected external USB drive.

Ultimately, the image would be used to restore the PC if and when needed.

I have read that to do this, the disc image created with Acronis needs to be done in the "sector by sector" mode. Ultimately, when it comes time to restore the PC with the image, one would use the Acronis Recovery CD (that one creates) to allow booting from the attached external USB drive.

Is the sequence all correct and has anyone done this successfully?

My worry of course is that I do this and I will not be able to boot the PC from the saved disc image on the external USB drive.

Thanks in advance.

lun 08/02/2010 - 14:11
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truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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You don't actually boot from the attached external drive. You boot the Acronis Recovery CD which loads a memory-resident Linux environment into the PC. The TI Linux version program runs on the PC and accesses the archive stored on the USB drive and restores it.

Your scheme sounds reasonable but the only way you can be sure the entire process will succeed on your hardware is to do it on your hardware. Doing a test restore to a spare disk is the absolute best way of knowing if your recovery mechanism will work and in the case of encryption, the only way since there is more at play than just hardware and Linux driver issues.

lun 08/02/2010 - 19:05
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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Thanks for the reply.
If I restore to a spare drive, is this still not the same as restoring to the PC where the ecrypted drive is?
When I restore to a spare drive (an external USB drive is OK?), how do I test that to ensure it was successful. In other words, when I have restored a disc image in the past to my PC, the operating system and essentially the whole computer starts up looking like it did at whatever point the disc image was created. I am not clear how this would be done with an external drive.

lun 08/02/2010 - 19:41
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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If you restore to an external drive, afterwards you then have to remove the drive and install it internally before trying to boot from it.
The only way to boot Windows from an external drive is if it is connected via eSata (not USB).

lun 08/02/2010 - 22:28
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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To clarify my previous post. The restoration would be done to a spare drive that is taking the place of the original system drive which would be either physically removed from the machine or unplugged from the motherboard.

As DwnNDrty stated you could restore to a spare drive setup as an external but then install it as an internal before booting.

lun 08/02/2010 - 23:50
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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Thanks again--the external drive I have is actually connected now as USB but does have an eSata port. So I might be able to use it to boot from without disconnected the internal disc.

I assume if something "goes wrong" I will be able to simply unplug the external drive and boot from the internal drive, correct?

Would you create the Acronis Disk Image of the TrueCrypt encrypted disc via the "sector by sector" method as others have suggested? My images of the disc thus far have not been "sector by sector".

Again, I truly appreciate your help.

mar 09/02/2010 - 00:02