ATI 2015 Entire-PC: restored but left all my restore points out

Nicholas:

Unless you exclude them, Windows restore points and shadow copy files are normally backed up by most versions of TI except TI 2015. In the Windows version of ATI 2015 they are not backed up by default because there is an entry called System Volume Information in the list of files to be excluded, under Backup Options. You can remove this entry if you do want them backed up.

In the bootable media version there is no corresponding entry in the exclusions list unless you manually add one yourself (I normally do this), so by default a backup made with the bootable media version of TI 2105, and older versions, will include restore points. If you don't want to back them up then you need to add them to the exclusions list. You would exclude them by adding the following entry:

C:\System Volume Information\{* (meaning exclude all files in the System Volume Information folder that begin with the curly brace character.

Since drive letters in the bootable media version may be assigned differently than what you normally see in Windows, you will need to change the drive letter(s) to correspond to how the drives are lettered in the bootable media interface. You can add multiple exclusions; one for each partition (drive) that contains restore points and/or shadow copies.

Here is the catch, however. If you do back up the restore points, TrueImage will not necessarily put each and every sector back in the exact same location on the disk when you restore. The normal restore process works somewhat like a defragmenter, restoring files sequentially on the disk. After a normal restore, Windows will detect that the restore point data no longer contains the correct sector-level information needed and will declare them invalid, and Windows will then delete all of the now-invalid restore points. This will happen on the first boot into Windows after restoration.

If you want to preserve the restore points then make sure that the backup includes them. When restoring, there is an option that you can choose that will restore each and every sector to its original location. When you set up the restore, choose "Options" then check the box on the Advanced tab for "Recover sector-by-sector". If you do this then the restore points will survive restoration.

Thank you for such a detailed reply, Mark.

I'll copy your important remarks here to a place I will find in the event of a crash.
Regarding sector-by-sector restore: I'm assuming I don't have to have done a sector-by-sector backup first?

(Sorry for the delay. Depite my checking the box "Notify me when new comments are posted" I only find out about replies by logging in to see my threads..)

> I'm assuming I don't have to have done a sector-by-sector backup first?

Thanks from me as well and also the same question: sts backup required or not?

Nicholas and Techland:

This is my understanding after reading the Acronis articles on the sector-by-sector feature. You must do a sector-by-sector backup in order to do a sector-by-sector restore.

A sector-by-sector backup copies all sectors on the partition(s) into the image file, whether or not they contain data. This mode is useful if you are backing up an operating system or file system that is unsupported by TrueImage, or if you are backing up a corrupted file system to do forensic recovery later. Or, in your case, if you want to preserve Windows restore points and shadow copies. Keep in mind that the resulting image file will be larger than an image created normally.

A sector-by-sector backup can be restored in sector-by-sector mode, which will put every sector back in the exact same position as on the source disk. Or it can be restored normally which will recover all of the files but not the unallocated sectors.

This article might help: http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATIH2013/index.html#…
It is a little more informative than the one for TI 2015: 
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2015/index.html#7…

You could include System Volume Information when the task is first set up by opening the options and clicking the Exclusion tab. Just right click the System Volume Information line and click the x at the right end of the line to remove it from the exclusion list.

Paul:

That's a necessary step, but not sufficient. The shadow copy information contained in the System Volume Information folder consists of changed sectors that are referenced by absolute sector location, so for a successful restore of the shadow copies and restore points, the sectors restored by TI have to be in the exact same location as on the source disk. So you also need to do a sector-by-sector image and restore it in sector-by-sector mode.

From reading the Acronis articles referenced in reply #4, it looks like you could exclude unallocated space when doing a sector-by-sector backup, but I haven't tried that to verify.

Thanks Mark. Very interesting. Makes me very glad I decided to disable System Restore many years ago and stop wasting disk space.