What to backup with ATI 1011?
I got a new Dell Alienware X51 a few days ago. It came with a single 1 tb internal drive. I partitioned it into OS (200 mb) and D (for data) partitions. I installed ATI v. 2011. I am trying to back up the OS partition into a portable drive (1 TB, My Pssport). With Alienware, I am very confused. My question is which partitions should I back up? In the attachment, I see ESP and DIAGS FAT partitions which I have no idea what they are.
Should I only select "OS (C:)" or three partitions altogether (i.e., ESP, DIAGS and OS (CL)) for backup? Jorge
As I described in the original post, the second D-partition contains about 300 gb data (out of 800 gb space). I do not wish to include these data, because it would increase the length of backup time. How can I skip D-partition under disk mode backup?
Disk mode is all inclusive.
One option would be to look at Drive D and see if all your data is in one or two folders. If yes, you could use the disk mode but use the exclusions optiion to exclude the folders.
Otherwise, you will have to use partition mode and select the partitions to be included and not be all inclusive.
Many user make at least one disk mode backup and then later backup to be smaller. Having a full disk mode backup makes creating a replacement disk to be easier and then you could restore only the more recent backups in order to be current.
Thanks for useful tip.
>you will have to use partition mode and select the partitions to be included and not be all inclusive.
This is my question. As shown in the attachment, should I include ESP and DIAGS FAT partitions in addition to OS (C:\) partition?
On all my Dell computers, I did not see ESP or DIAGS stuff. So I am wondering in Alienware computer these ESP and DIAGS are required to get a proper restore later.
Please advise me.
Jorge Cervantes wrote
"This is my question. As shown in the attachment, should I include ESP and DIAGS FAT partitions in addition to OS (C:\) partition? "
My response would be yes but, .... if using Windows 8, you would need TI 2013.
and if you restored that backup to a new disk, you should be able to boot the new disk but you may have to use the Windows Recovery Startup Repair and of course, you would need to resize your disk to make room for the Data Disk addition and its restore by whatever means you are using. But I also wrote:
One option would be to look at Drive D and see if all your data is in one or two folders. If yes, you could use the disk mode but use the exclusions optiion to exclude the folders. The advantage of this is that you have place holders for the data partition for a later restore of the data partition.
Many user make at least one disk mode backup and then later backup to be smaller. Having a full disk mode backup makes creating a replacement disk to be easier and then you could restore only the more recent backups in order to be current.
I don't own Dell so I am no expert on its configuratins.
Note: Only version TrueImage 2013 supports Windows 8--not 2011 or 2012.
I tried to backup the whole disk in disk mode as you suggested . When I selected the disk mode, what I see is that the internal hard drive is greyed out but see only the portable drive (1 tb portable). I repeated it again. I was getting the same result. It appears that something was wrong with either ATI or the Alienware computer. So I decided to go for partition mode. I backed up the whole disk (ESP, DIAGS, Recovery, OS (C:\) and also D-partition (data) and verified. It took 45 min to complete the backup. I decided to restore the backup tib (I.e, to test how it works) within windows. When booted for the restore, it started windows not Acronis. Restore was not unsuccessful, even after repeated attempts.
Incidentally, I also tried the same tib file with an ATI bootable disk which I created this afternoon (since emergency bootable disk created from ATI screen did not work). This is how I did. I visited Acronis website and found ATI 2011 (which I registered two years ago). From there I downloaded ISO files (ATIH2011_en-US.iso). It was burned to CD. My computer was booted with the CD (The first boot sequence of the computer was changed from hard disk to CD/DVD). My computer did not recognize it as a bootable disk. It started windows instead of Acronis.
I did not have any similar problem with my several Dell computers in the past. It appears that Alienware x51 computer is of a different structural system. Alternatively, it is possible that ATI 2011 version is not compatible with the Alienware computer.
BTW, I tested CD-booting on the computer with Windows 7 Professional disk (this computer came with Windows 7 Home Premium). When booted with Win 7 Pro disk, the computer automatically booted with Windows 7 Pro. The initial screen I see was "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...". This confirms that this computer boots with bootable CD/DVD disk but not with ATI bootable disk (or rescue media CD).
Any comment would be appreciated.
BTW, Dell Alienware X51 is a desktop computer with 16GB RAM. It is a very fast computer.
GroverH,
I am having a problem with restore. I am going to post another thread on this issue. I hope you do not mind it.
If you could find a solution, please post to the new thread. Thanks for your help.