Windows 7 Ultimate Backup and Restore.

1- yes, take both. In most cases you won't need to restore both. But if your disk dies, you will need to do so.

2- yes, ATI can do that. If your image contains a disk partition layout that has been done by the Win 7 installation DVD (your case, most likely), your partitions are aligned and they will be after restoration. Having partitions aligned is a big deal for SSD disks.

Hello Ronan!

Welcome to our Forum, we're glad to greet you here. Thank you for your questions, I'll be glad to address them.

1. 100 Mb partition is actually an OS partition, without it Windows 7 will not boot, so it's obligatory to have it backed up alongside with the C: drive if you need to boot your machine after recovery
2. You can surely recover the image created to the new hard drive with the help of bootable CD, the drive doesn't need to be pre-formatted or formatted. All the existing data on it will get overwritten with the image you restore. I'd advise you to take a look at the User’s Guide’s chapters 3 and 4 (Backing up data and Recovering data). They contain the detailed information about the process).

I can on your account that you're using Acronis True Image Home 2009. Please be aware that it doesn't support Windows 7, and we cannot guarantee that safety of the data.

Windows 7 support is present in the latest version - Acronis True Image Home 2011. I'd advise you to test the solution to see whether it suits your needs, this will ensure you that in case you're proceeding with the upgrade, you're getting exactly what you need.

Should you need anything else or have any further questions - feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, we will be happy to help you!

Thank you!

Ronan:

Welcome to the forum.

1) Yes, you should include both partitions in at least one of your images. The content on the System Reserved partition hardly ever changes, so you don't need to create frequent images of it but you will need at least one image. The PC boots from this partition, so it is essential to include when restoring to a new, blank hard disk.

2) The target disk can be blank.

Thank you all for the prompt and clear replies :)

Is Acronis True Image 2010 compatible with Windows 7?

Yes it is.

Thanks Pat L :)

OK, I have one final hypothetical scenario regarding a Windows 7 image that was taken without the 100MB partition (the C:\ partition was imaged only).

If the above image was all you had & you needed to replace a crashed drive what would ones options be?

Would doing a clean install of Win 7 on the replacement drive using the Windows DVD followed by restoring the image work?

If yes, would it be the best\only option?

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Hi guys
Just a little question if i may i am using windows 7 Pro and ATI HOME 2011 and i find it works very well with windows 7 Pro. i have made a image backup of both the 100MB partition and the C: drive and all worked ok.
But when i try and restore to image the drive letters are mixed up, so i just restore the C: drive partition buy when i select the C: partition i have to select the D: drive i think it is but it then reverts back to C: drive during the retsore.
So is this normal.

Also on the ATI website it says i can restore form within windows is the for just file restore i would think for a full image restore i have to boot from a boot cd, is that correct please.

Regards to you all

Edward:

Yes, what you see with drive letters is normal. When you boot from the boot CD the 100 MB partition is visible in the boot environment, so it is assigned a drive letter. When Windows is running the 100 MB partition is hidden, so no drive letter is assigned. The two operating systems (Windows 7 and the boot CD Linux OS) may assign drive letters differently, so you have to ignore them. Just go by the size of each partition, or better yet, assign a meaningful name to each partition and go by the name.

You can restore either way, but a lot of us prefer to do the restore from the boot CD because you can see what's happening before and during the restore process. When you start a restore from Windows the PC reboots and you get very little feedback about what's happening.

Hi Mark
Thanks for the info i understand what you have said and i think i will still restore from the boot CD.
Just one more question sometime ago i made a backup and for some reason the name was just the right hand side Parenthesis and it seems to default to this every time is there any way i can remove this please

Edward:

Open TI 2011, and from the main window choose Operations then Edit Backup Settings as shown below:

Then, at the bottom of the Disk Backup screen that opens, change the name:

This won't change the name of existing backups but will change the name for future ones. You can change the name of existing backup files by editing the file names in Windows.

Thank you

Edward,

Do this as well: Operations > Edit Backup Settings. Click on the destination. Scroll down until you see 'Browse'
In the left navigation panel, double click your way to your destinatio folder, until you have double-clicked on it. Use the left panel, as there is some UI bug in your way otherwise.
Once there, type the name you want for your backup files. You can add date and time stamps. You can then edit your backup task name (which can be different from the backup file name).

@Ronan,

It depends. In many cases it will work, but be aware:
If you use Bitlocker, you will need a back up your Bitlocker keys to restore it on a new disk for example.
Also, you will need to reactivate Windows. With an OEM version of Windows, the reactivation works if this is the "same" machine. It tolerates some changes.
Finally, you might lose some of your system functionality. If you have a system with mutliple OSes or a system with special partitions (like an IBM, HP or Dell machine), you might have special code in the MBR to start a recovery with the OEM image.
So...
If you want to restore your system like it was, it is much safer to have a full disk image (the entire disk is selected as what to back up). Make sure you always have one you feel comfortable going back to (i.e. not too old to your taste).

MB: don't rely on Non-stop backup for that. It will not have all the information you need in case you need a new disk.

Thanks Pat,

I'm curious too as to how restoring an image to a different machine with different hardware works. Considering that the original image would have chip-set drivers for a totally different system along with other incorrect drivers? Is there much to it and is it successful?

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If you have the plus pack option, ATI will allow you to specify a path to the boot time drivers (like chipset: disk controler et al). Then Windows can sort out the other drivers will running.

Well, I initially thought I had two questions but the helpful users and Mods here have brought me back with another one.

My buddy who has ATI 2010, built a desktop & I built an identical one too, absolutely no difference between the two. I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on his, updated the drivers, installed and updated security software (MSE) updated Windows & installed all the little favorite Apps we both wanted. Deleted all Temp files and defragged the machine. I used his 2010 media disc to image his machine. I then used that image & his disc to restore the image to my desktop. Everything worked out fine and both machines are identical now both hardware & software wise (with the exception of the Windows key).

I then decided for experience purposes to image my desktop (the 2nd machine).

The original image taken from the first desktop is 12+GB's. After it was used to restore to the second desktop & I made an image of that, the image size is 9+GB's!!! Why would that be the case?

I then caddied my HDD and formatted it clean and used the second image (the 9GB one) to restore to my machine (which also worked fine) & that's what's prompted me to ask this question. I can see no difference in the two machines, yet one image is 12GB & the other is 9GB.

Is there a logical explanation for why this would be?

Finally, if I were to purchase ATI 2011? what advantages would it give me over my buddies 2010?

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Ronan:

Windows 7 creates restore points, plus shadow copies of changed files, when you install software or when Windows Updates are installed. The space used by these files can grow quite large, depending on how much space you have allocated in the System Protection dialogs.

These files do not survive imaging (unless the imaging software restores each and every sector to the EXACT same location on the target disk). So when you restored your buddy's image to your PC, the restore point files were all deleted by Windows (it detects that they are invalid and wipes them out), leaving you with less used space on your disk. So when you made an image of your disk it ended up smaller than your buddy's image.

If you go back to your buddy's machine and delete all of the restore points you'll find out that a new image created on his machine will then shrink to 9 GB.

I can't comment on your other question since I've never used TI 2010.

Hi Mark,

Thanks, that sounds like it could explain where the 3GB went I guess, I never thought about the restore point aspect of it all. Nice one :)

I have my own license for ATI 2009 which I'm told is not compatible with Win7 so that's why I tried my friends 2010 disc.

I find ATI so time saving & will be purchasing my own copy of 2011 hopefully. I'm hoping someone else can point out the improvements over 2010. I hope it's not just a case of a new year a new product and loads of more dollars lol :)

Thanks again for your prompt response Mark on the image size issue. :)

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