Using MIGRATE EASY for BACKUP!!!

Hello J E G KEMP,

Thank you for using Acronis Products

You can of course create bootable clone of the disk and use it in case initial hard drive with the system crashes. But Acronis Migrate Easy 7.0 was specially designed just to clone one hard drive to another, so you will not be able for example to use incremental/differential backups as well as many other features available in Acronis True Image Home 2009.

Большое спасибо, Дмитрий,

Thankyou, Dmitry - I take your reply as a YES to my key query. But I am of course well aware of the various advantages of tib files, of backup to zip files, and of cloning. I do use ATI also with the differential option, saving as tib files, to backup to a USB drive. My ventures and query were prompted by the fact that recent backups have either been marked as failed, though many of these when explored in fact seemed ok; others have been marked as succeeded, but then when I did a validation it failed. I do not find the log files helpful: they don't answer the key question: Will this backup work when I try to do a restoration? THE FAILURE TO GIVE A CLEAR INDICATION AS TO WHETHER A SLIGHTLY FAULTY TIB BACKUP WILL ACTUALLY WORK IS THE GREATEST WEAKNESS IN ATI (and, I suspect, in its competitors also), IMHO.  I can't test it, as if it fails I might lose my whole system! I therefore hit upon the clone protocol option in my lead post. But it apears on further reading that if I want to recommend this protocol to my friends, and they wish to buy just one product, it is better done with the Disk Director suite, as there is a clone option there, and the elegant boot option via the OS Slector component is very useful. I shall continue to use both DDR and ATI myself, as I am backing up to a USB drive also, kept seperately in case my desktop computer is stolen or catches fire.

The other advantage of cloning as a backup is that it is independent of any software to explore, copy bits of. I have been irritated by the fact that I can't explore tib files created with ATI 2009 with ATI 10. I have a legitimate and I suspect commonplace reason to need to do this - see my recent post  on the ATI forum. (Iwanted to explore my desktop backup on my USB drive, when my desktop computer was away for repairs and upgrading, and couldn't do it from my laptop as I use ATI 10 on that. Dmitry has told me that I can do this by using the free trial of ATI 2010).

By the way, on researching the reason for my poor quality tib files, I encountered the advice that it may be due to failing memory. I am having the memory replaced on my computer, and hope that I will then be able to produce perfect tib files that validate successfully.

Я желаю вам хорошо, I wish you well, John

Hello John Kemp,

Thank you very much for the detailed description!

I do not find the log files helpful: they don't answer the key question: Will this backup work when I try to do a restoration? THE FAILURE TO GIVE A CLEAR INDICATION AS TO WHETHER A SLIGHTLY FAULTY TIB BACKUP WILL ACTUALLY WORK IS THE GREATEST WEAKNESS IN ATI (and, I suspect, in its competitors also), IMHO.  I can't test it, as if it fails I might lose my whole system!

Unfortunately, log files of current backup software versions do not guarantee image recovery. The only way to be sure is actual testing. It's recommended to do the following after backup:

-Validate backup file

-Create a CD version with our program

-Boot to this CD and start Recovery Wizard to final Proceed button

By reaching this step, you can be sure that this image can be recovered. But, again, there's no guarantee that system will boot after recovery. So the best test here is to recover this image to some testing environment (Virtual Machine, for example).

Note that cloning is not useful in case of dissimilar hardware - your system will not boot, due to lack of correct HAL level drivers. Here you should use our programs with Universal Restore.

But it apears on further reading that if I want to recommend this protocol to my friends, and they wish to buy just one product, it is better done with the Disk Director suite, as there is a clone option there, and the elegant boot option via the OS Slector component is very useful.

Unfortunately, Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 can clone single partition only, and it's better to use our backup or cloning programs for such purpose.

By the way, on researching the reason for my poor quality tib files, I encountered the advice that it may be due to failing memory. I am having the memory replaced on my computer, and hope that I will then be able to produce perfect tib files that validate successfully.

Please note that corrupted archives could be created because there are some bad sectors or unreadable data resides on your HDD.

Please perform the following operations:

-Check the disks for errors

 Go to the Command Prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd)
 Enter the command: "chkdsk DISK: /r"
 where DISK is the partition letter you need to check. Please note, that
 checking the C: drive may require you to reboot the machine.

-Change the backup location (for example save your backup to the internal HDD instead external)

-Change the type of backup (for example if you performed full backup try to make e-mail backup)

-Please try to perform the operations using Acronis Bootable Media. To create it please follow: Tools -> Create bootable rescue media. Then boot your machine from it and you will be able to use Acronis True Image Home without booting any OS.
Acronis Bootable Rescue Media is a standalone version of Acronis True Image Home, burned onto a CD and based on a Linux operating system.

Thank you.

Thankyou very much, Alexander. This is becoming a very interesting and informative thread! I shall print off the important advice re 'manually' validating archives, but it's palaver, which is one of the reasons why I so like my bootable clone protocol, as I can test the viability of backup immediately and easily by booting into it. My data has many large photo files, many of the psd or tiffs, with lossless compression and which can't be compressed much by ATI. The disk usage very soon builds up which is why I use differential, not incremental, backups to my USB drive. But to my mind, the pair of clones, replaced alternately, makes MUCH more sense:

One more question. Have I just been lucky that I can boot into my first backup? My first two HDDs are identical (make, model, and size), so maybe this avoids HAL problems? But I see no mention of needing to use absolutely identical disks in the OSS program!? Of course, as both disks are on the same computer, all the other hardware is the same anyway.

I did note your suggestion for using Acronis Universal Restore. Situations that might require this is the one weakness in my backup protocol, I know. But people using ATI conventionally are also not covered for such problems either. I'm no worse off!  AUR seems to be available only as an addon to expensive enterprise-level software. There's a need for an affordable consumer equivalent. Despite what one might think from the name, 'Acronis Migrate Easy' is NOT that program, am I right?

But if I needed to transfer my OS + programs + configurations + data - which has built up over years - to a new system (e.g. if I wanted a faster processer, bigger C drive and more memory and it didn't make sense to make multipke upgrades to my system) am I right in assuming that a professional could put my C drive OR a cloned backup into a new computer AS A BACKUP DRIVE (assuming I wanted a new, maybe larger, C drive) and, without not too much time or expense, clone it to the new C drive and sort out the boot, HAL and drivers? It would avoid the horrendous task of  reinstalling all programs and personalisations!

Best wishes, John

[quote=Alexander]

"By reaching this step, you can be sure that this image can be recovered. But, again, there's no guarantee that system will boot after recovery. So the best test here is to recover this image to some testing environment (Virtual Machine, for example)."

I am moderately computer literate. The friends I am helping are much less so. I do not wish to get involved with virtual machines for testing: too much hassle, and I've no other reason to read up on them or use them.  My friends will never have even heard of them. (I may try in effect a virtual machine for UBUNTU: see below)

"Note that cloning is not useful in case of dissimilar hardware - your system will not boot, due to lack of correct HAL level drivers. Here you should use our programs with Universal Restore".

I wasn't fully aware of this, but understand the point now it is made. But I am thinking primarily of operations all on the one (real) machine. Are we looking at problems that don't apply here? Is the HAL a constant for the machine, whatever disk we are booting from? In which case this explains why OSS can work without (presumably) the sophisticated components of Universal Restore? It would also explain why one can duplicate the OS on the system on another (cloned) disk and boot from it, without running into Microsoft (or anyone else's) Product Activation problems!

Am I right? If so, it doesn't matter what internal disks I use for  backup, as long as they are big enough, and as long as I'm not partitioning them (if using DDS for the cloning)!

HOWEVER: Alexander, when you say that DDS can clone only a single partition only, what happens if one clones a partitioned disk in toto? Also, there's a user-friendly way of installing UBUNTU into a FOLDER (NOT PARTITION!) on the C drive, using WUBI (Windows Ububtu Installer). I presume a disk used in this way could be cloned, AND that OSS would recognise the UBUNTU installation and be able to include it in the boot menu? 

Thanks and best wishes to Dmitri, Alexander, and all contributers! - John