Can I boot from a .tib image? (ATIH2013 + Windows 8 Pro)
Is it possible to boot Windows 8 Pro from a .tib image stored on an external HD? And do I even want to?
What I'm trying to do:
On a new machine, I want to put the OS and applications on a 256 GB SSD and data on a 2 TB HDD. I want to back up these two disks to two external drives. I'm comfortable with the data backup, but the OS and application backup...I'm not sure what is the best way. So I've been trying to sort out some simple options: cloning (option 1) versus disk backup (option 2).
CLONING
Option 1a: Clone the OS and apps on the SSD to the external HDD. Couldn't I then leave both drives attached and boot from either one (per BIOS setting)?
Option 1b: Also, I was wondering if I could clone two copies of the SSD to two partitions on the external HDD. From what I can tell, this is not possible, since the origin drive may itself have multiple partitions -- but the idea was to have two identical clones, in case one is corrupted, or to make before-and-after clones when installing new software. So if I want more than one version of the SSD backed up, I'm probably looking at Option 2...
DISK BACKUP
Option 2a: Do a disk backup from SSD to external HDD. Keep two or three versions on the external HDD. The question is: If the SDD failed, could I boot from one of the backup versions (which are .tib files, right?)? Or is this a pointless pursuit? Leading to Option 2b...
Option 2b: If the SDD fails, just boot from wherever -- the Windows 8 disk, for example -- and restore the entire SSD (OS and apps) from the disk backup on the external HDD. I suppose this is the obvious answer...
.
Indeed, I hope this is a naive and simple question! I've searched here in the Acronis support site, as well as in the TIH2013 help files, but I just can't seem to get a clear picture. If my question is answered in another post, please point!
Thanks!
Thanks, Colin B, for your reply. What you say makes sense. I'm still mulling this...
Off-topic: I apologize for taking so long to respond, but I'm not getting notices. I think I have things set up correctly in "My Account" (email address specified and double checked and "Receive comment follow-up notification e-mails" set to "All comments." Does anyone know what domain I should add to my safe-senders list in my email app (Outlook)?
-- A new-comer thanks you!
I can only say, check your and your ISPs spam box filter, if the emails are going there, just whitelist 'noreply@acronis.com'.
When you post are you seeing the 'Notify me etc' tick box checked just above the 'Save' button?
Hey I got an email notification for your comment! Maybe double checking my settings this evening, I corrected some error. Thanks for the help.
Unless you like to run experimental OS or test software as in beta testing, I would just make a complete disk image of your system disk.
There is an advantage if you do software testing in that the tib file can be converted to a VHD file and Windows 8 can mount that or indeed add it to your boot menu and you can then boot it as you do your main OS, but for actual recovery and imaging purposes this is of no use as if your drive dies, you are still left with having to recover an image to allow you to boot again.
... the tib file can be converted to a VHD file ...
Can you briefly explain how/what you need to do this please?
Was Earthling,
Under the utilties tab is an option to convert the tib file to VHD, see page 255 section 8.11 of the user guide for further details.
You won't be able to use the Acronis Boot Sequence Manager unless you have Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise, however in Windows 8 you can either manually or by using somehting like Easy/Visual BCD add the resulting VHD to your boot menu and boot from it. This is what i do with my Windows 8 and Server 2012, they are VHDs booted via my W7 Ultimate boot manager.
Thanks for that. To save me some time do you know if the resulting VHD will mount in VMware? The standard format in VMware is vmdk, I've never experimented with vhd.
It's OK, I hadn't realised VHD is Windows Backup format as I've never used it. Won't have a use for VHDs as I don't use BCD - find Grub4DOS rather more versatile and useful.
To be absolutely correct, VHD is the Windows Virtual PC format, it will mount in all Vista, W7 and W8.
It can be converted to VDMK, but I'm not sure if that can be done from VMWare itself, I use either VirtualBox to convert or WinMount
I believe I would need more than the free VMWare Player to convert but I'll get VirtualBox and see what can be done. Thanks for the tip.
Hi Colin,
I have a similar query on recovery of the disk partition.
My notebook is a Samsung NP355VSC-S02 Series 3 running Windows 8 64-Bit AMD A8-4500M APU processor, which runs a
Windows Boot Manager that apparently does not allow you set the BIOS boot priority sequence to DVDROM then Hard Drive
(although I have unsucessfully tried to reset the BIOS using EasyBootCD). It has a partition recovery system built on the O/S
hard drive as seems to be the norm these days with Window 8 O/S.
I run Aconis 2013 with the Plus Pack & can create backup images of my O/S system onto an external hard drive as an image
.tib file no problem at all, but when it comes to do a recovery of that image file from the initial boot up which entails pressing
the F4 key several times to get into the Recovery Window mode, I have no access to the image back-up on the external hard drive.
If I use the Recovery System built into the notebook Windows 8 O/S it states I need a hard drive of minimum free space of 500gig
before it will do a complete image back-up where my total image size is less then 80gig when using Acronis 2013 & this is including
the built in existing Win 8 Recovery Partition!!!!
Is there a way I can access the Acronis Image .tib file from boot up as per previous O/S using a bootable recovery disk or other means
in the Win 8 Recovery Mode if my O/S fails?
Regards
Ted
Ted,
First check to see if your BIOS can disable Secure Boot, this might be the only thing stopping you booting from a CD or DVD. Once your image is recovered Secure Boot has to be re-enabled to allow windows 8 to boot.
A tib file needs to be recovered using the Acronis recovery environment. At this moment the current build requires the secure boot to be disabled and on some systems UEFI set to legacy mode.
It might be possible to remake the Microsoft recovery wim file to include True Image, though I've not tried that, but you would definitely need to have access to Windows PE 4.0/ADK and the True Image Plus Pack to even attempt it. I've never tried this, but have made Windows PE based Acronis recovery environments.
If you used True Image to convert your tib file to VHD, you could boot into it as an actual OS, I haven't though ever tried to see what happens if Windows Backup is used to restore a VHD derived from a tib file made by True Image.
You could activate the Acronis Recovery Manager, this changes the boot code of your disk so that on pressing F11 it starts the Acronis recovery environment. This is almost what you want except that like the using the CD it will require the secure boot function to be disabled and possibly the UEFI switched to legacy mode.
Another option might be to use a USB flash drive as your system will probably allow booting from USB, it is also possible to copy the recovery CD contents to a booting partition on your external drive so that all you need to do is plug the drive in and boot the laptop and from here the recovery version of True image will boot and allow you to access the main partition of your external drive to recovery an image. This is how i have one of my external USB drives set up. However I think you will still need to go through the rigmarole of the secure boot/UEFI until Acronis bring out a build that is secure boot enabled and that I suspect depends on how quickly the Linux kernel is updated or for Microsoft to approve a signed Linux bootloader.
Bear in mind, that if your need for recovery is due to a failed hard drive, you will need to use either a CD or USB flash/hard drive to boot the system in order to recover your images.
Hi Colin,
Thanks for the reply.
I will give your suggestions a go, especially disabling the secure boot as I seem to remember that is an option in the BIOS Boot setup.
Cheers
Ted
Hi Colin,
Update on your suggestions.
Tried disabling secure boot & booting from CD...no luck, kept booting back into O/S.
Tried converting .tib file to Windows VHD, & then tried a boot into Recovery & also boot from USB
to see if Recovery would accept the vhd file ...no success,only accepts the existing Recovery partion file.
Will keep my fingers crossed & hope my hard drive doesn't fail in the near future!!!!
It's a pity that the BIOS Chip Set is not accessible to change the settings!!!
Cheers
Ted
Do you have CD booting as a higher priority than hard drive in your BIOS?
Hi Colin,
At present even with the secure boot disabled it will not allow boot from CDROM.
I have contacted Samsung of my problem & they are sending me a BIOS update program which will amend
the BIOS boot setup to allow CD boot to be enabled so hopefully this will cure the problem.
Cheers
Ted
Does it allowing booting form USB?
If it does and you have a spare USB stick that can be formatted, the recovery media can be installed to a USB stick.
Hi Colin,
I tried that method with a USB stick with the secure boot disabled without success.
Unfortunately the present BIOS setup is configered only to boot from the hard drive
regardless of the BIOS secureboot being disabled..
I don't know why manufacturers are now setting up BIOS chipsets this way with secure boot/EUFI configerations
& making it difficult for other programs to be installed from boot up.
I even tried to install Windows 7 from my disk I got with my previous laptop but that didn't work either.
It looks like I'll have to wait for the BIOS update. It is just so frustrating as I have been using Acronis for years
with other operating sytems without any problems until this notebook (which by the way has an excellent AMD setup
but has Win8 pre-installed on it)..otherwise I would go back to Win7 Ultimate 64!!!!!!
Thank you for your input, much appreciated as this a new learning curve for me.
Cheers
Ted
Update on BIOS configeration.
Samsung have informed me that there is no configeration of the BIOS chipset of my model Samsung notebook that will
allow me to downgrade so as to install Windows 7 or to that fact of any other O/S.
So I'm stuck with Window8 whether I like it or not.
I initially went for the Samsung model because of the specs that were very good as far as value for money compared with
other notebooks with similar items..i.e CPU speed, graphics card & RAM.
So I advise people buying the latest model notebooks with Windows 8 pre-installed to check first the BIOS setup of that PC
as manufactures are now doing deals with Microsoft which locks you into the operating system installed!!!!!!!
Cheers
Ted
Haven't had time to read everything first but does your BIOS have any legacy boot options? It was that which enabled me to get around this issue on my new Lenovo.
Your query is answered in previous posts.
Cheers
Ted