How do I get my External (D) Drive back?

Kenneth,

You've been to the future how was 2020? :) Are you using 2010 or 2011? What is the build?

Now, the problem is, I've never seen any message about making an external disk compatible or similar when installing or using True Image, so;

Are you using Windows XP?

If you right click on My Computer on your desktop, select Manage. From the panel that pops up, look for Disk Management and see if your D: drive is listed, but just doesn't have a drive letter attached to it.

Thanks Colin for your interest.
Between you and I, and all the others, my dob is 1927, so it would be quite a journey to 2020.Apologies!

I'm running Win XP SP3, on an old machine with only 40 Gb Hd and 3 Mb (?) RAM, frequently upgraded. If fuller details will help let me know.

I attach a screen shot of "Disk Management" and it looks as though Acronis is showing instead of "D"

Yes the phrase I mention was from an old unreliable memory, but there was something during backup which was an option.

The recent external HD is 250 Gb and I wanted access for adding other things.

Sorry I'm so vague, but I do hope you can help me.

Aronis build is 7,046

Thanks

Kenneth

/

Brilliant!

Kenneth, I can see what has happened, though not sure how it happened.

Your new disk the one shown as Disk 1 in your screen shot, I hope was so new that you hadn't stored anything on it, because as it stands what you had on there is lost. If you did have something important on there it may be possible to retrieve it, but it will mean extra cost and not carrying out the next steps just yet.

OK, what has happened is that at some stage you have chosen or been compelled to make a Secure Zone as a place to store your images. This part seems to have gone OK, as the ASZ is showing and without a drive letter which is correct. Why it has wiped out your existing drive letter for the partition now showing as 'unallocated' I'm not sure, unless you hadn't formatted the drive previously.

All you need to do is go back into Disk Management, highlight by clicking on the unallocated partition, then right click and select 'format' this will take a little while and will then allocate a drive letter. It might not allocate 'D', if it doesn't all you need to do is right click on the partition select 'change drive letter', you'll be presented with a drop down box showing all the drive letters that Windows will allow you to have, if 'D' is in the list select that. You might get a warning message telling you that the old drive letter will be accessible until you reboot, as at the moment there is nothing on the drive you can ignore this message.

Did you intend to have and use the SZ?

Thanks Colin.

I did format the external HD before attempting the backup, so it was clear.

I do not intend to use the Secure Zone.

I will follow your advice and all should be well.

I need to do some more reading before jumping in at the deep end!.

Not a particularly user friendly program for a beginner.

Again Thanks

Kenneth

OK,

Don't delete the SZ partition yourself, delete from within True Image - there is an option to remove the SZ. It will ask you a question - do you want to return the SZ to the other partition or do you want to keep it as a seperate partition. The wording won't be exactly that , but that is the cruxt of it.

The choice is yours, if you assign the SZ to the to be made 'D' partition you'll just have a one large partition, if you don't you'll end up with a 'D' and probably an 'E' partition. There is some advantage to that if you intend to use this new drive to keep images of your main drive on, as if you store them on the seperate partition they will be more immune to glitches in the main 'D' partition, but iof course won't be protected if the drive itself goes bung!

Colin,
Followed your instructions from both replies.
Got to Disk Management but there was no Format option on R/click.
I must admit to trying other (forgotten) possibilities, but "D" drive does not show up in the 3 attached screen shots.
Fingers crossed that I have not fully tried your patience, and looking forward to some more of your expert instructions.

Thanks

Kenneth

OK,

Going from your last shot - You would need to click on Disk 2 not disk 1 if you wanted the ASZ on the new drive, in fact I recall this is where you've got it

Is that 'safe run shared folder' an encrypted folder os some kind?

If you clicked on "Disk 1" then you won't get the format menu, you need to click on the part that says unallocated space. see my screen snip with nice yellow splodge marking the spot.

Still no luck!

Clicked on area shown, only options are :- 1.New partition 2. Properties 3.Help

The Safe Run folder is empty and there is no option for "properties"

No I don't want ASZ in the new drive, just un- partitioned for use for the backup and any other folders.

Latest attached screen shot shows:-
Disc 0 Main Drive "C"====right click gives 1.Explore 2. Change drive letter and paths
Disc 1 "unallocated"====right click gives 1.New partition 2. Explore 3.Properties.

I'm obviously quite lost over this. Would it be easier to uninstall Acronis TIH ?
I am wondering whether I will be able to continue with it's use satisfactorily

Sorry to take so much of your time

Kenneth

Kenneth,

You would need to select the New partition option. This will create the partition in the unallocated space. Just follow the steps in the wizard. In most cases, the default options are fine.

MudCrab

Thanks to you and Colin, My Computer now showing "D" drive .
I have formatted it ,so it's clear.

As I said in my previous comment, I'm not sure if I want to go through this again after my last backup attempt.

Is there a way that I can setup the program to continually backup without any further input from me.

Probably so, but as I said before, I,m quite ancient and finding it difficult to follow through some instructions.

The other previous question was about uninstalling, but I learn that this also is not easy. How can it be done?

with a further

Thank You!

Kenneth

Kenneth,

Rushing as I'm about to leave for work -

Can you be more specific on what you mean by 'continually backup' ? Do you want something that takes snapshots throught the day whilst you are using the computer, or something that will schedule a backup to occur on a daily (or more or less frequent) basis?

What are you wanting to uninstall?

Hi! Colin

In the event of a crash of the main PC I would like to have a complete backup "mirror" to re-install, is this feasible,without my input after initial setup ?

I am leaning towards not using Acronis TIH (I'm very hesitant to try a second backup) and may want to uninstall it. From what I find via Google it can be difficult?.

Can you advise how?

Kenneth

Kenneth,

If you are thinking along the lines of just being able to swap a drive to bring your system back up, you are looking at 'cloning' your main drive. I don't recommend this for a couple of reasons.

First, clones can not be scheduled everytime you wanted to update your second drive you'd have to perform the clone manually. Secondly, cloning can be more confusing for some people as it is easy to make an error and find you've actually deleted the contents of your main drive and the 'cloned' drive hasn't worked properly. There are people though who use this method.

Personally, I would do two things in your case. I would consider using the Non Stop Backup feature so that you can recover files easily where soemthing has for example been deleted by mistake or a file has become corrupted, and then depending on how much you use your computer, (by which I'm thinking about receiving emails that are stored on your PC, installing programs, not just switching it on wandering around the internet, using online email and then switching off), I would make a schedule that makes only full complete disk images, make sure validation is included in the task, and depending on your PC use and what you use the PC for depend whether you'd make the images once a week, once a month or a couple of times a week.

If you were to do the above, you need to make a rescue CD and make sure that it can boot your PC and see your hard drives and keyboard/mouse.

There is not really a problem with uninstall TI, you can either go to Control Panel and use Add/Remove programs, or you can start the installer up and that will have a remove option.

The problem that some people have is when they want to either re-install or install a new version, there is a registry entry that gets left behind and causes the program not to install. More rare is where someone has made an SZ and have deleted it manually, or uninstalled TI leaving the SZ in place, and sometimes the driver that TI uses stays on the system. That is very rare though.

***edited**** - changed has to hasn't

Kenneth,
Since I am only 4 years younger than you, you and I must not and cannot use age as a crutch. After all, you ajd I do not want those younger than us to feel they too much of an advantage (smile) .

It's great that you feel a need for backups and the need to be able to restore your system to a new drive should your existing hard drive fail. This is relatively easy with TrueImage but you do have to become familiar with the software and that familiarity comes with practice and usage.

I have no clue as how you ended up with the problems you had. The installation of the Secure zone is a voluntary option available at install or any any other time. Its installation is NOT related to creating a backup.

Don't be in a hurry to un-install until you've given it a chance. Unfortunately, the new version 2011 (in my opinion) is much more difficult for a new user than past versions. A good work around is to create a Rescue CD and then perform the backups when booted from the TI Rescue CD. Any restores of your system should also be done when booted from the TI Rescue CD.

If you are new to TrueImageHome, I would suggest you do some reading so you can become up to speed. Click on my signature below and look at some of the times listed in item #1 and #2.

The type of backup that offers the most restore benefits is one where you checkmark the Disk so all partitions are included in the backup.

Inside my index,there is also some guides listed under item 3A. There is both a backup guide plus a restore guide but both relate to using the Rescue CD. If yo have the time, look at these guides. If you follow the backup guide, you should have what you need to restore your backup to a new hard drive.

Avoid any options that relate to the Secure Zone. You do not need that function.

If you are going to use TIH 2011 from within Windows, install the user guide and spend some time looking at its features. As I said, 2011 is totally different than prior versions.

Good luck and come back to the forum should you have further questions.

Welcome to the forum from another antique.