Swapping drives using Acronis True Image

[Rupp]

Ohk here's the scenario. I use Acronis True Image to backup my entire drive weekly. The drive fails. How do I restore my Acronis Image so I can reboot from the "original" data? If the drive fails and I put in a new drive how do I even boot?

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

I would think that you could boot off of your operating system CD

 

[DavidL]

Can't speak for Acronis, but most backup utilites also have a provision for creating a floppy to boot from that loads the image from the CD drive once booted.

 

[electron]

Acronis allows you to create an emergency boot disc, so you can restore the image to a new HD (or so it looks like, haven't tried this yet).

 

[Rupp]

Dang Dan I was hoping you had done this at least once to see if it actually works. I think I read where John may have had to do this at one time or another. Maybe he can attest to the ease and reliability of a restored image.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Hehe, make sure you create a [How-to] after you figure this out Rupp!

 

[JohnBullard]

I'll second that!!! I'm also a new owner of Acronis.

Oh never mind, wouldn't do me any good if I crashed right now, since I haven't installed it yet.


Maybe Jrfuda will put his new book down long enough to chime in with some guidance.

 

[jrfuda]

Guys, Sorry I could not reply sooner - I've been traveling (I'm now in NC)

The bootCD you can create with TrueImage works great, as does the startup manager.

To restore using the bootCD, make sure you can boot from CD on your PC and that you can access whatever media (other HDD, CD, or DVD) that you have the image you want to restore saved on. The boot CD will boot to a nice looking GUI and let you explore all local drives for images to restore from. Once you select an image and restoration location, everything proceeds automatically. It's worked well for me. This is your only option available when your boot HDD is completely messed up and you can't boot at all.

Using the startup manager works the same way, except, the HDD you're booting from (and on which the startup manager is installed) must still be funtional. Pressing F11 during the boot process (and when the prompt appears on your screen) will boot you into the TruImage GUI rather than windows. This option is useful for when you've messed-up your windows installation, but can still use the HDD - it's a little quicker than booting from CD.

I also beleive that you can create images from the bootCD, so this could be a technique for imaging computers on which you do not have the software installed

I also own Acronis Disk Director, which recently rescued an otherwise unrecoverable drive.