Recovery disaster!!

Thanks for helping. But tell her she is still young enough to be doing this herself. Tell her I said "get with it" and that message is from someone OLDER THAN HER. Age is no excuse.:)

First to correct some misconceptions. The Recovery CD is generic. It is NOT specific to one machine.
Yes, your Recovery CD would probably have worked on her machine.
2015 will boot prior builds
2014 wil boot prior builds but it will also boot and restore 2015 backups

The CD REcovery interface is mostly unchanged.

You might want to consider using your own TI Recovery CD and restore her system again when booted from the CD.
Which version of Windows was on the disk which failed?
What type backups does she have. ARe these disk image to include all partitions? Are you sure ALL partitions were included within the backup?

It would help if you knew about her old system as to whether it was a simple boot into Windows or a more complex booting.
Does she have a user created Windows Recovery CD perhaps when she first bought the computer?

My signature link #3 can help. Look at the example in item 2 of that link 3. This is a guide on how to restore a disk image backup.

If you could attach her external to your system which has TI installed, you could double click on the tib file used for restore and look at what is contained within the backup.

Also note that Acronis will help with recovery situations if you contact them via LIVECHAT and explain your issue is a recovey issue.

Your best chance for recovery may be the initiaol FULL backup and do the recoveryi when booted from, the CD.

Both 2013 and 2014 used the newer naming system so each backup should be labelled with the type and sequential number.

Before doing a restoe, you may want to validate the bacikup when booted from the the TI Recovey CD.

Thank you both for replying. I think I know what happened. I "think" that when I had set her automatic backups up, I had set them to only backup her data, not the entire system. So when I restored I probably overwrote her OS with the data. But I think I recall I also made an initial full backup of her entire system before doing anything else. If not, she has her original Windows CDs to restore the system.

So what I plan to do is the following:
1. Take my own laptop over to connect to her ext HDD just to see what is on it.
2. Use my own rescue CD to boot up her system
3. restore her OS if needed before anything else
4. restore the appropriate data backup from the external HD.

One more question if I may. I believe her automated backups were incremental, not full backups. Is it not possible to restore incremental data backups?

As to this lady learning to handle her computer herself, I'm afraid that is a lost cause. I know she should but she won't. It was hard enough to teach her to use email and Word. I have teamviewer installed on her computer so I can help her when she gets into trouble (which happens almost weekly) without needing to drive over. But of course when the hdd crashed teamviewer went too. My own dad, before he passed away at age 94, ran his own PC with minimal help but this lady (unrelated to me) is a computer luddite..... And I feel we all need to help each other, so I do it. With teamviewer it was not such a hardship.

1. Yes this is your first choice:
"But I think I recall I also made an initial full backup of her entire system before doing anything else. If not, she has her original Windows CDs to restore the system. " Once you select this file during your inspection look, you can start by clicking the selected tib file and then keep clicking each resulting window and listed files to as much detail as you want.

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"One more question if I may. I believe her automated backups were incremental, not full backups. Is it not possible to restore incremental data backups? "
The first data backup had to be a full backup but it would only be the base for her data files. You would need each and every incrmental files starting with the first one (Inc B1_S2) and each and every one up to the more recent one you wish to use if B1 is the data chain you are restoring.
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Hopefully you had two tasks. One task for the complete disk image, and another task for the data only. Hopefully your naming setup can help,
plus the size and dates of the files. Your largest should be disk backup if you have one and it should be at least 30 or 40 GB and be the oldest Full backup listed.

Thank you.

She is away for the weekend so I will go over on Monday. That way if I run into trouble Acronis chat will be available.

Thanks for the help guys.

At this link
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/40903
ignore the first picture but picture 2, 3, 4 (Sort 1,2, 3) shows how to use the TI Recovery CD to view the placement and display the partitions included within a disk or partition backup.

Boot the CD and the choose recovery and then adjust the view of a backup as per the pictures.
This is the same method as referred to my signature link 3, item 2 figure 7 .
(but this the info in this link shows more details than the figure 7 example )to gain more detail about the content of the old computer backup.

I tried and things did not work out. But the backups are safely on the external HDD because I checked them and they were fine. It has at least 2 full backups and a bunch of incrementals. And my Acronis Rescue disk worked fine to boot her PC. So what I plan to do for this lady, is sit by her computer and call Acronis to have them walk me through the restore. I was glad to hear that Acronis will provide support for restores but I need to find their phone number. Does anyone here have the number to call for support? Thank you.

Click opn the Support link at the top right of this page, scroll to bottom of page and click Contact Us, answer the required questions and information on how to gain support for your issue will result.

Thank you.