Making system/file back up with Acronis True Image Home 11

jjscotman

Hello

I am a "silver surfer" with limited computer knowledge so would appreciate help.

I recently purchased a new Acer Aspire 5920G laptop. It has proved an excellent purchase and is working well (touch wood!!).

However it did not come with a recovery/rescue cd and I tend to worry about what I would do if I had a major problem so, seeing a strong recommendation for Acronis True Image Home 11 in a computer magazine, I paid for and downloaded a copy of this program over the weekend. I am now a little uncertain of the next step.

I am intending to buy a new external hard drive and create a mirror image of my computer on this so that I could re-create my entire present system and files etc fairly easily in the event of computer catastrophe.

I have in mind to buy a Western Digital 160GB Elements External USB 2.0 2.5" Hard Drive for approx £42 from Amazon.

Is this the correct approach and would this Western Digital hard drive serve my purpose well ?

Before I make the purchase and proceed along this route, I would appreciate confirmation, comments and tips from more knowledgeable forum members.

Many thanks !!

Reluctant_spender

If I may can I direct you to the official Acronis Forum - they have a very good FAQ section and company techies answer questions. Just scroll down the page

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/

mdbarber

Most acers come with the ability to create their own recovery cd/dvd look in all programs, don't trust an external drive to be your only backup, they break too.

jjscotman

Thanks very much for help.

The reason I had posted here was I had sent an email to Acronis.co.uk tech support but did not receive a reply yet.

I have now posted query to Acronis thread in Wilders forum and hope to get a response about using True Image.

Suggestion about Acer has prompted me to explore the Acer eRecovery facility (which had previously been a mysterious area of the system !!) and I see it provides ability to create a full back up on cd or dvd.

I'm rather ashamed to show my ignorance but (1) would cd or dvd be better (2) how many would i require - my 5720G is 160GB and (3) what brands are most reliable/cost-effective ?

If anyone can help on these further questions I would be really grateful.

jjscotman

Thanks for the tip about DVDs.

I see these on Amazon for £16.99 -Verbatim 43549 DVD-R 16x 4.7GB 100pk Sp

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Verbatim-43549-DVD-R-4-7GB-100pk/dp/B000BEZYLA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1222123289&sr=1-


Would these be suitable for making the back ups ?

Sorry for my ignorance !!

Poppycat

I uses Acronis on several computers including a laptop, its really a brilliant program and can save you hours of time.

Its best to back up a image of say C drive where the operating system is on to a spare partition or external hard drive. You can back on to a DVD drive too, by selecting within the program the image size if the image is over 4.7gb it makes two or more files usually 2 is more than enough these are spanned files meaning each image is associated to each other

You can increase the compression from the default when backing up but it doesn't make much of a smaller file size

You can even mount a image within the program too to see what's they and extract files/folders with in.

You cant go wrong withVerbatim they are regarding as one of the best media you can use

Poppycat

When I use Acronis True Image I load program up, select backup and next tick the box my computer and next select the drive in tick box ie drive C and next select location of where the image is to be stored yo can select c like c:\laptop.tib click next create a full backup and then next.Select options manually and next. I type in the window for example it may differ for you.

Tick the box archive splitting and select 4.7gb and next

XP pro, office, antivirus, firewall and latest drivers (this lets me know whats on the image. I did a fresh install with XP, I installed office, and updated all teh latest drivers and firewall and av

Click proceed and this will back it up

f1charlie

I use the Maxblast program which is a cut down version of Acronis.

You need to create a boot CD, which you should keep safe and would use in the event of having to do a full restore of your system disk from an Acronis image. There should be an option within Acronis for creating the boot CD.

jjscotman

Thanks for confirming the Verbatim dvds would be good to purchase.

Thanks also for the tips on procedure. I have Vista Home Premium SP1. Would the procedure be any different ?

Regarding the external hard drive, some-one in the Wilders Acronis Forum suggested I get a 500GB one rather than a 160 GB so as to give more room for future back ups.

I see this one on Amazon -Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive - for £56.80.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000WP0NM8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Is Western Digital a reliable brand and would this model be suitable to make a back up with Acronis True Image.

Sorry to ask so many questions but as a computer newbie who has never worked with Acronis, external hard drives or even DVDs before, I want to make sure I am not only doing the right things but also not wasting money by making wrong purchases.

f1charlie

A pity you've already bought Acronis as Maxblast and Seagate DiscWizard (same programs, cut down version of True Image) are available as free downloads and will work if you have a Maxtor or Seagate drive, internal or external.

thor

I have a dual boot system spread over 2 drives. One disk has 2 partitions including one with the system files for win2k while the other has 3 partitions including one for the fiels for winxp pro.
Would trueimage allow me to clone the whole lot onto one drive so that I could swap it in for the two originals and still have a working dual boot system?