Table of contents 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................6 1.1 What is Acronis® True Image™ 2015? .......................................................................................6 1.2 New in this version ....................................................................................................................6 1.2.1 1.3 System requirements and supported media .................................
4 Backing up data ............................................................................................................. 35 4.1 Backing up disks and partitions ...............................................................................................35 4.2 Backing up files and folders .....................................................................................................36 4.3 Backup options ....................................................................................
6 Synchronizing data......................................................................................................... 88 6.1 About the Sync feature ............................................................................................................88 6.2 How we ensure security of your data ......................................................................................88 6.3 What you can and cannot synchronize......................................................................
8.8 Acronis Universal Restore ......................................................................................................135 8.8.1 8.8.2 8.8.3 8.8.4 9 Troubleshooting .......................................................................................................... 139 9.1 Acronis System Report...........................................................................................................139 9.2 Acronis Smart Error Reporting .............................................
1 Introduction In this section What is Acronis® True Image™ 2015? ....................................................... 6 New in this version..................................................................................... 6 System requirements and supported media ............................................. 7 Installing Acronis True Image 2015 ............................................................ 9 Activating Acronis True Image 2015 ........................................................
1.2.1 Alternatives to the removed features After a detailed review, it was decided to remove a number of outdated and redundant features from Acronis True Image. The following is the list of the features that were removed and alternative ways of performing the same functions and operations in Acronis True Image 2015. For more information, refer to the Knowledge Base article: https://kb.acronis.com/content/48662. Email backup.
Acronis True Image 2015 also lets you create a bootable CD-R/DVD-R that can back up and recover a disk/partition on a computer running any Intel- or AMD- based PC operating system, including Linux®. (Note that the Intel-based Apple Macintosh is not supported.) 1.3.3 Supported file systems FAT16/32 NTFS Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 * ReiserFS * Linux SWAP * If a file system is not supported or is corrupted, Acronis True Image 2015 can copy data using a sector-by-sector approach.
Solid State Drives (SSD) Networked storage devices FTP servers** CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R (including double-layer DVD+R), DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, BD-R, BD-RE USB 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0, eSATA, FireWire (IEEE-1394) and PC card storage devices * Limitations on operations with dynamic and GPT disks: Creation of Acronis Secure Zone on dynamic disks is not supported. Recovery of a dynamic volume as a dynamic volume with manual resizing is not supported.
If you use Windows 8, click the Settings icon, then select Control Panel -> Uninstall a program -> Acronis True Image 2015 -> Uninstall. If you used the Acronis Secure Zone or Acronis Nonstop Backup, select in the window that appears what to do with the zone and Nonstop Backup storages. Upgrading from old versions of True Image If you already have True Image installed, the new version will simply update it; there is no need to remove the old version and reinstall the software.
activation code by using the installation code. Save the obtained activation code to a file on a removable media, or write it down on paper. 3. On your computer, click the Load from file button and specify a path to the file with the activation code; or, simply type it into the box from the piece of paper. 4. Click Activate. "Too many activations" issue Possible reasons for the issue: You exceed the maximum number of computers with installed Acronis True Image 2015.
1.7 Upgrading Acronis True Image 2015 Trial version upgrade To upgrade to the full version of the product: 1. 2. 3. 4. Start Acronis True Image 2015. On the sidebar, click Account, and then click Buy full version. The built-in store opens. Select the license that you want to buy, and then click Buy now. Provide your payment information. Updating Acronis True Image 2015 To update Acronis True Image: 1. Start Acronis True Image 2015. 2. On the sidebar, click Help, and then click About Acronis True Image.
1.8 Technical Support Maintenance and Support Program If you need assistance with your Acronis product, please go to http://www.acronis.com/support/ Product Updates You can download the latest updates for all your registered Acronis software products from our website at any time after logging into your Account (http://www.acronis.com/my) and registering the product. See Registering Acronis Products at the Website (http://kb.acronis.com/content/4834) and Acronis Website User Guide (http://kb.acronis.
2 Getting started In this section Protecting your system ............................................................................14 Backing up all data on your PC .................................................................16 Backing up your files ................................................................................16 Cloning your hard drive............................................................................17 Recovering your computer .............................................
Result: A new backup box appears in the My backups list. To create a new version of the backup in future, select the backup box from the list, and then click Back up. For advanced users: the best way to create a backup of your system disk is to do it under bootable media, and not under Windows. Refer to Backing up disks and partitions (p. 35) for details. Where do I store my disk backups? Good: Your ordinary internal hard disk. The best: Acronis Cloud or an external hard disk.
2. Arrange the boot order in BIOS so that your rescue media device (CD or USB drive) is the first device to be booted. Refer to Arranging boot order in BIOS (p. 74) for details. 3. Boot your computer from the rescue media and select Acronis True Image 2015. Result: Once True Image is loaded, you can use it to recover your computer. Refer to Acronis Media Builder for details. Refer to Recovering your system (p. 62) for more details about computer recovery. 2.
To use Acronis Cloud, you must have an Acronis account and a subscription to the Acronis Cloud service. Refer to Subscription information (p. 20) for details. To back up files and folders: 1. 2. 3. 4. Start Acronis True Image 2015. On the sidebar, click Backup. Click the Backup source icon, and then select Files and folders. In the opened window, select the check boxes next to the files and folders that you want to back up, and then click OK. 5.
3. On the Source Disk step, select the disk that you want to clone. 4. On the Destination Disk step, select the destination disk for the cloned data. If any disk is unpartitioned, the program will automatically recognize it as the destination and bypass this step. 5. On the Finish step, ensure that the configured settings suit your needs, and then click Proceed. By default, Acronis True Image 2015 shuts down the computer after the clone process finishes.
5. In the opened window, select the backup version (the data state from a specific date and time). 6. Select the system partition and the System Reserved partition (if any) to be recovered. 7. Click Recover now. To complete the operation, Acronis True Image 2015 must restart your system. Case 2. How to recover computer if Windows cannot start? 1. Connect Acronis bootable media to your computer, and then run the special standalone version of Acronis True Image 2015.
2.7 Getting started with Acronis Cloud Acronis Cloud might be unavailable in your region. For more information, click here: http://kb.acronis.
4. An email message will be sent to the address you specified. Open this message and confirm your wish to create an account. 2.7.2 Cloud and Acronis True Image Unlimited Please note that Acronis Cloud is a subject of Fair Usage Policy for holders of Acronis True Image Unlimited license. See more details at: https://kb.acronis.com/atih2015/fairusage.
3 Basic concepts In this section Basic concepts ..........................................................................................22 The difference between file backups and disk/partition images ............23 Full, incremental and differential backups ..............................................24 FAQ about backup, recovery and cloning ................................................26 Deciding where to store your backups ....................................................
Back up your old disk drive, and then recover it to the new one. Backup file format True Image usually saves backup data in the proprietary tib format using compression. The data from .tib file backups can be recovered only through True Image, in Windows or in the recovery environment. Acronis Nonstop Backup uses a special hidden storage for data and metadata. The backed up data is compressed and split into files of about 1 GB.
3. File system data, including operating system (system files, registry, drivers), user data and software applications. 3. System Reserved partition, if any. 4. EFI system partition, if any (applicable to GPT disk backups only). What is excluded from disk backups? To reduce image size and speed up image creation, by default Acronis True Image 2015 only stores the hard disk sectors that contain data. Acronis True Image 2015 excludes the following files from a disk backup: pagefile.sys hiberfil.
1.tib, 2.tib, 3.tib, 4.tib - full backup versions. Additional information A full backup version forms a base for further incremental or differential backups. It can also be used as a standalone backup. A standalone full backup might be an optimal solution if you often roll back the system to its initial state or if you do not like to manage multiple backup versions.
On the other hand, incremental versions require more work for the program to provide recovery. In the example above, to recover the entire work from 4.tib file, True Image reads data from all backup versions. Therefore, if you lose an incremental backup version or it becomes corrupted, all later incremental versions are unusable.
backup, the program copies both used and unused hard disk sectors and the backup file will usually be significantly larger. Will my system disk backup include drivers, documents, pictures, etc.? - Yes, such a backup will contain the drivers, as well as the contents of the My documents folder and its subfolders, if you kept the default location of the My documents folder. If you have just a single hard disk in your PC, such a backup will contain all of the operating system, applications and data.
3.5 Deciding where to store your backups Acronis True Image 2015 supports quite a few of storage devices. For more information, refer to Supported storage media. The table below shows possible backup destinations for your data.
3.5.1 FTP connection Acronis True Image 2015 allows you to store your backups on FTP servers. To create a new FTP connection, when selecting a backup storage click FTP connection, and in the opened window provide: Path to the FTP server, for example: my.server.com Port User name Password To check your settings, click the Test connection button. The computer will try to connect to the specified FTP server.
How it works Once you start Acronis Nonstop Backup, the program will perform an initial full backup of the data selected for protection. Acronis Nonstop Backup will then save changes in the protected files (including open ones) every five minutes, so that you will be able to recover your system to an exact point in time. Usually the different states of the protected data will be backed up at 5-minute intervals for 24 hours.
When an external hard disk or NAS is unavailable, the Nonstop Backup destination can be an internal disk, including a dynamic one. Please note that you cannot use a partition to be protected as a Nonstop Backup storage. If your computer has a single hard disk drive with a single partition, but you want to use Acronis Nonstop Backup anyway, you can create Acronis Secure Zone and use it as the Nonstop Backup data storage.
considerable amount of data modified, the process may load CPU for some time. After the check is done and all the modified data is backed up, Acronis Nonstop Backup goes back to normal. Can I have Acronis Nonstop Backup storage on an FAT32 partition of a local hard disk? - Yes, FAT32 and NTFS partitions can be used as the storage.
Windows Start menu The Start menu displays Acronis commands, tools and utilities. They give you access to True Image functionality, without having to start the application. Acronis True Image 2015 button on the taskbar The Acronis True Image 2015 button on the Windows taskbar shows the progress and result of Acronis True Image 2015 operations. Taskbar notification area icons During most of the operations, special indicator icons appear in the Windows taskbar notification area.
For example, see the screen shot below. A wizard window usually consists of the following areas: 1. This is the list of steps to complete the operation. A green checkmark appears next to a complete step. The green arrow indicates the current step. When complete all the steps, the program displays the Summary screen in the Finish step. Check the summary and click Proceed to start the operation. 2. This toolbar contains buttons to manage objects you select in area 3.
4 Backing up data In this section Backing up disks and partitions................................................................35 Backing up files and folders .....................................................................36 Backup options.........................................................................................37 Operations with backups .........................................................................57 4.
If you do not have an Acronis account, click Create account, type your email address, password, and then click the Create account button. Refer to Subscription information (p. 20) for details. Your external drive—When an external drive is plugged into your computer, you can select it from the list. Browse—Select a destination from the folder tree. If possible, avoid storing your system partition backups on dynamic disks, because the system partition is recovered in the Linux environment.
5. In the opened window, select the check boxes next to the files and folders that you want to back up, and then click OK. 6. Click the Backup destination icon, and then select a destination for backup: Acronis Cloud—Sign in to your Acronis account, and then click OK. If you do not have an Acronis account, click Create account, type your email address, password, and then click the Create account button. Refer to Subscription information (p. 20) for details.
After you have installed the application, all options are set to the initial values. You can change them for your current backup operation only or for all backups that will be created in future. Select the Save the settings as default check box to apply the modified settings to all further backup operations by default. If you want to reset all the modified options to the values that were set after the product installation initially, click the Reset to initial settings button.
4.3.1 Scheduling The Schedule tab allows you to specify the backup and validation schedule settings. You can choose and set up one of the following backup or validation frequencies: Nonstop (p. 29)—The backup will run every five minutes. Monthly (p. 40)—The operation will be executed once a month or several times a month on the selected dates. Upon event (p. 41)—The operation will be executed upon an event. Daily (p. 40)—The operation will be executed once a day or more frequently.
If you schedule a backup to a USB flash drive or validation of a backup that is located on a USB flash drive, one more check box appears: Run when the current destination device is attached. Selecting the check box will let you perform a missed operation when the USB flash drive is attached if it was disconnected at the scheduled time.
Set the operation's start time. Enter hours and minutes manually, or set the desired start time using the up and down buttons. Description of the Advanced settings see in Scheduling (p. 39). 4.3.1.4 Upon event execution parameters You can set up the following parameters for the Upon event operation execution: Event User logon – the operation will be executed each time the current user logs on to the OS.
Version cleanup rules Acronis True Image 2015 allows you to choose from the following backup schemes: Single version (p. 42) - select this scheme if you want to use the smallest backup storage. Differential - select to create only differential backups after an initial full backup. Version chain (p. 42) - this may be the optimal scheme in many cases. Incremental - select to create a full version after every five incremental versions. This is the default scheme. Custom (p.
At first the program creates the 1st full backup version. The version will be kept until you delete it manually. After that, according to the specified schedule (or when you run backup manually) the program creates: 1 full and 5 differential backup versions, then again 1 full and 5 differential backup versions and so on. The versions will be stored for 6 months. After the period the program analyzes if the oldest backup versions (except the 1st full version) may be deleted.
Create a full version after every [n] differential versions - select this item to create several backup version chains. This is a more reliable but more space-consuming backup scheme. Incremental (p. 24) Select this method if you want to create backup chains containing only full and incremental backup versions.
You can overwrite existing custom schemes. You can create not more than 16 custom backup schemes. You cannot overwrite existing pre-defined backup schemes. In a scheme name, you can use any symbols allowed by OS for naming files. The maximum length of a backup scheme name is 255 symbols. After creating a custom backup scheme, you can use it as any other existing backup scheme while configuring a backup. You can also use a custom backup scheme without saving it.
3. Click Options, open Schedule tab, then click Monthly and specify, for example, the 1st and 15th days of the month. This will result in a backup version in about every 2 weeks. Then specify a start time for the backup operation. 4. Open the Backup scheme tab, and then choose Custom scheme instead of Incremental scheme. 5. In the Backup method box, select Differential from the drop down list. 6. Click Create a full version after every [n] differential versions, and type or select "3".
This option cannot be enabled for FTP servers and CD/DVD drives. Email notification You can specify an email account that will be used to send you email notifications. To configure the email notifications: 1. Select the Send e-mail notifications about the operation state check box. 2. Configure email settings: Enter the email address in the To field. You can enter several email addresses in a semicolon-delimited format.
How to use the default exclusion settings After you have installed the application, all the exclusion settings are set to the initial values. You can change them for your current backup operation only or for all backups that will be created in future. Select the Save as default check box to apply the modified settings to all further backup operations by default.
4.3.4.1 Excluding online data Before you start a backup, you can reduce the backup size by excluding data that does not need to be backed up. Acronis True Image 2015 now allows you to exclude your local data that is uploaded or synchronized with third-party Cloud services, such as Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive. This data is already reliably protected and can be easily downloaded to your computer. Therefore you can exclude it to reduce the backup size and to speed up the backup process.
4. Having specified the backup settings, click OK. How to get access to a password-protected backup True Image asks for the password every time you try to modify the backup: Recover data from the backup Edit settings Delete Mount Move To access the backup, you must specify the correct password. 4.3.7 Pre/Post commands for backup You can specify commands (or even batch files) that will be automatically executed before and after the backup procedure.
4.3.8 Backup splitting Acronis True Image 2015 cannot split already existing backups. Backups can be split only when being created. Large backups can be split into several files that together make up the original backup. A backup can also be split for burning to removable media. The default setting - Automatic. With this setting, Acronis True Image 2015 will act as follows.
4.3.10 Backup reserve copy Backup reserve copy is an independent full backup version created immediately after a normal backup. Even when you create an incremental or differential backup version containing only data changes, the reserve copy will contain all the data selected for the normal backup. You can save reserve copies of your backups on the file system, a network drive, or a USB flash drive. Please, be aware that CD/DVDs are not supported as locations for reserve copies. To make a reserve copy: 1.
4.3.12 Backup comment This option allows you to add comments to the backup. Backup comments may help you to find the necessary backup later, when recovering data by using bootable media. If a backup does not have comments, type your comment in the comments area. When a comment already exists, you can edit it after clicking Edit. 4.3.
To eliminate this kind of problem, you can disable preserving file security settings in backups. Then the recovered files/folders will always inherit the permissions from the folder to which they are recovered (parent folder or disk, if recovered to the root). Or, you can disable file security settings during recovery, even if they are available in the backup. The result will be the same.
Select the Store no more than … recent versions check box and enter a value that limits the maximum number of all versions in the storage. 4.3.17 Encryption key This option is only available for online backup. To protect your data on Acronis Cloud from unauthorized access, you can use encryption. In this case your data will be stored on Acronis Cloud in encrypted form. To encrypt and decrypt your data, the program needs the encryption key, that you should specify when you register your computer.
Note: You cannot change the data center for an already existing backup. To select a data center: 1. On the Online Backup Options screen, click Advanced, and then click Data center. 2. Select the country that is closest to your current location. 4.3.
4.4 Operations with backups In this section Backup operations menu .........................................................................57 Validating backups ...................................................................................58 Backup to various places ..........................................................................58 Adding an existing backup to the list .......................................................59 Backing up to Acronis Cloud from several computers .............
Move - click to move all the backup files to another location. The subsequent backup versions will be saved to the new location. If you change the backup destination by editing the backup settings, only new backup versions will be saved to the new location. The earlier backup versions will remain in the old location. Remove from the list - removes the current backup from the backup list shown in the My backups area.
Splitting backups on-the-fly When free space on the destination storage is insufficient to complete the current backup operation, the program displays a message warning you that the disk is full. To complete the backup, perform one of the following: Free up some space on the disk and click Retry. Click Browse, and then select another storage device. When versions of a backup are stored in different locations, you may need to specify the locations during recovery. 4.4.
4.4.6 Removing data from Acronis Cloud Because the available space on Acronis Cloud is limited, you need to manage your Cloud space by cleaning up the obsolete data or the data you do not need anymore. Cleanup can be done in a variety of ways. Deleting entire backup The most "drastic" one is deleting the entire backup from a computer on Acronis Cloud. To remove the backup, click the gear icon on an online backup box and then click Delete.
5 Recovering data For information on how to recover to dissimilar hardware, refer to Acronis Universal Restore (p. 135). In this section Recovering disks and partitions ...............................................................61 Recovering files and folders .....................................................................75 Recovery from Acronis Cloud ...................................................................76 Recovery options.............................................................
5.1.1.2 Preparing for recovery We recommend that you perform the following actions before recovery: Scan the computer for viruses if you suspect that the crash occurred due to a virus or malware attack. Under bootable media, try a test recovery to a spare hard drive, if you have one. Validate the image under bootable media. A backup that can be read during validation in Windows, may not always be readable in a Linux environment.
4. On the Home screen, select My disks below Recover. 5. Select the system disk or partition backup to be used for recovery. When the backup is not displayed, click Browse and specify path to the backup manually. 6. Select Recover whole disks and partitions at the Recovery method step. 7. Select the system partition (usually C) on the What to recover screen. If the system partition has a different letter, select the partition using the Flags column. It must have the Pri, Act flags.
In case of Windows 7 the System Reserved partition will have the Pri, Act flags. You will need to select for recovery both the System Reserved partition and the System partition. 8. At the "Settings of partition C" (or the letter of the system partition, if it is different) step check the default settings and click Next if they are correct. Otherwise, change the settings as required before clicking Next. Changing the settings will be needed when recovering to the new hard disk of a different capacity. 9.
10. When the operation finishes, exit the standalone version of Acronis True Image 2015, remove the rescue media and boot from the recovered system partition. After making sure that you have recovered Windows to the state you need, restore the original boot order. Recovering your system to a new disk under bootable media Before you start, we recommend that you complete the preparations described in Preparing for recovery (p. 62).
9. On the What to recover step, select the boxes of the partitions to be recovered. Do not select the MBR and Track 0 box. Selecting partitions leads to appearance of the relevant steps "Settings of partition ...". Note that these steps start with partitions which do not have an assigned disk letter (as usually is the case with hidden partitions). The partitions then take an ascending order of partition disk letters. This order cannot be changed.
Type. Check the partition type and change it, if necessary. Ensure that the System Reserved partition (if any) is primary and marked as active. Size. Click Change default in the Partition size area. By default the partition occupies the entire new disk. Enter the correct size in the Partition size field (you can see this value on the What to recover step). Then drag this partition to the same location that you saw in the Backup Information window, if necessary. Click Accept. 11.
Specify the partition size, which by default equals the original size. Usually there is no free space after the partition, so allocate all the unallocated space on the new disk to the second partition. Click Accept, and then click Next. 12. Carefully read the summary of operations to be performed and then click Proceed. If your original disk contains a hidden partition created by the PC manufacturer, please proceed to MBR recovery.
1. Start Acronis True Image 2015. 2. If you want to recover your data from Acronis Cloud, make sure that you are signed in to your Acronis account. 3. In the Backup section, select the backup which contains the partitions or disks you want to recover, and then click Recover disks. 4. In the Backup version list, select the backup version you want to recover by its backup date and time. 5. Select the disks to recover.
2. In the Backup section, select the backup which contains the partitions you want to recover, and then click Recover disks. 3. In the Backup version list, select the backup version you want to recover by its backup date and time. 4. Select a partition to recover. This opens the recovery destination field. 5. Click the down arrow to the right of the field and select the destination hard disk. The partition to be recovered is then placed on the selected hard disk. It occupies all the available disk space.
Remember that you need to leave as much unallocated (free) space after having resized the partition as will be needed for the remaining partition. Select a disk letter and partition type. When you finish the settings, click OK to confirm them and return to the main Disk Recovery window. 7. Select the next partition's check box. 8. Select the unallocated space on the destination hard disk. The program creates a partition occupying the entire unallocated space.
9. Click the Partition properties link and make the settings for the partition. Select a disk letter and partition type. When you finish the settings, click OK to confirm them and return to the main Disk Recovery window. If the image contains more than two partitions, leave enough unallocated space for other partitions to be recovered and repeat steps 5-7 until you make the settings for all partitions. 10. Click Recover now to recover the partitions to the destination hard disk. 5.1.
dynamic, the target disks should be prepared as dynamic (partitioned and formatted). This can be done using third-party tools, for example, Windows Disk Management snap-in. Recovery of basic volumes and disks When recovering a basic volume to an unallocated space of the dynamic group, the recovered volume becomes dynamic. When recovering a basic disk to a dynamic disk of a dynamic group consisting of two disks, the recovered disk remains basic.
To create this backup, switch to disk mode, and then select the hard drive that contains your system partition. Refer to Backing up disks and partitions (p. 35) for details. To transfer your system from an MBR disk to a UEFI-booted computer: 1. Boot from the rescue media in UEFI mode and select True Image. 2. Run the Recovery wizard and follow the instructions described in Recovering your system (p. 62). 3.
3. Press the key combination (such as, Del, F1, Ctrl+Alt+Esc, Ctrl+Esc). BIOS setup utility will open. Note that BIOS may differ in appearance, sets of items, names, etc. Some motherboards have a so called boot menu opened by pressing a certain key or key combination, for instance, F12. The boot menu allows selecting the boot device from a list of bootable devices without changing the BIOS setup. 4. If you use a CD or DVD as a bootable media, insert it in the CD or DVD drive. 5.
6. Select the files and folders that you want to recover, and then click Next. 7. Select a destination on your computer to where you want to recover selected files/folders. You can recover data to its original location or choose a new one, if necessary. To choose a new location, click the Browse button. When you choose a new location, the selected items will be recovered by default without recovering the original, absolute path. You may also wish to recover the items with their entire folder hierarchy.
5.3.1 Recovering data from online backups With Acronis True Image 2015 you can browse and recover data that was backed up on Acronis Cloud. If you have backed up data from several computers, select the online backup box for the computer from which you backed up the data you want to recover. To recover files and folders from Acronis Cloud: 1. Start Acronis True Image 2015. 2. On the sidebar, click Backup. 3.
2. In the window that appears, select the required version and then click Recover. 3. Select the version to which you want to rollback. The version's exact date and time will be displayed. Your current version will be reverted to the state it was at that point in time. 4. Click Recover to proceed. The selected version will become the latest version on Acronis Cloud. 5. After the process finishes, refresh the Files page in your web browser. 6.
Internet connection has been lost. Connection to Acronis Cloud has been lost. You canceled the recovery, deliberately or accidentally. Electricity supply problem. When recovery is not complete due to a connection problem, Acronis True Image 2015 automatically tries to reconnect to Acronis Cloud and resume the recovery process. It is recommended that you check your Internet connection settings in this case.
4. To add the online backup of the system disk or system partition to the list of available backups, click Browse. 5. In the directory tree of the opened window, select Acronis Cloud and enter credentials of your Acronis account. 6. Select the backup you want to use for recovery, and click OK. 7. On the Archive selection step, select the online backup and click Next. 8. On the Recovery method step, select Recover whole disks and partitions.
9. On the What to recover step, select the system partition (usually C) and the System Reserved partition (if any). You can also recognize these partitions by the Pri, Act flags. 10. On the "Settings of partition C" (or the letter of the system partition, if it is different) step, change the settings, if necessary. For example, you need to change settings when recovering to the new hard disk of a different capacity. 11. Carefully read the summary of operations at the Finish step.
Overwrite file options ..............................................................................83 Performance of recovery operation ........................................................84 Notifications for recovery operation .......................................................84 5.4.1 Disk recovery mode With this option you can select the disk recovery mode for image backups.
Check the file system after recovery—Enable this option to check the file system integrity on the recovered partition. Only FAT16/32 and NTFS file systems can be checked. The file system will not be checked if a reboot is required during recovery, for example, when recovering the system partition to its original place. 5.4.
To delete a criterion, for example, added by mistake, click the Delete icon to the right of the criterion. 5.4.7 Performance of recovery operation On the Performance tab you can configure the following settings: Operation priority Changing the priority of a backup or recovery process can make it run faster or slower (depending on whether you raise or lower the priority), but it can also adversely affect the performance of other running programs.
USB cards and drives Network shares (SMB/NFS) The message will not be displayed if the Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode) check box is selected in the Error handling settings. This option cannot be enabled for FTP servers and CD/DVD drives. E-mail notification You can specify an email account that will be used to send you email notifications. To configure the email notifications: 1. Select the Send e-mail notifications about the operation state check box. 2.
Caution: Restoration will erase all personal data and programs on the computer including all your backups in Acronis Secure Zone. How to check if factory configuration can be restored on your computer Acronis True Image 2015 offers three ways to restore a computer to factory settings: Directly in Windows by using the standard recovery feature of Acronis True Image 2015. When booting into Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. When booting from factory bootable media.
1. Boot up the computer using the factory bootable media. 2. Select Recover. 3. Confirm the operation by clicking Yes. Once the operation is complete, the computer will be restarted or powered off. At next computer boot up, it will load the original Windows installation.
6 Synchronizing data In this section About the Sync feature ............................................................................88 How we ensure security of your data ......................................................88 What you can and cannot synchronize ....................................................88 Sync icons .................................................................................................89 Sync creation ................................................................
Storage types A synchronization process may be established between: Two or more folders on two or more computers. A mobile device and Acronis Cloud. See details in What is True Image for mobile devices (p. 91). One or more computers and Acronis Cloud. Acronis Cloud always contains the last versions of the synced files. At the same time you cannot select a folder on Acronis Cloud to participate in a sync, such folder is created automatically.
An error occurred during the last synchronization. Windows Explorer Sync state icons for files and folders: The file or folder is synchronized. The file or folder is being synced at the moment. The file or folder has not been synchronized because of an error. The notification area Sync state icons: The last synchronization completed successfully. (rotating) (static) The sync is in progress at the moment. All syncs are paused or each sync has only one participant.
The default sync always syncs with the Acronis Cloud. You cannot unsync the storage. The contents of the default sync folder automatically sync with the default sync folders on other computers registered under the same Acronis account. It also automatically syncs with your mobile devices that have True Image app installed. It also always stores file versions on the Acronis Cloud. As long as Acronis True Image 2015 is installed, you cannot delete the default sync folder.
6.6.1 How to install True Image app on your mobile device To sync with your mobile device, you need to install the appropriate True Image app. Depending on your mobile device, go to App Store or Google Play and search for the Acronis True Image app. For example, to find and install True Image app for iOS: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. On your iPhone, open App Store. Tap the Search icon. Enter acronis in the search field. Select acronis true image in the search results to go to the app page.
6.7.1 Reverting to a previous file version If you store sync history on the Acronis Cloud, you can revert the current version of a synchronized file to its previous version. This is useful when you want to undo some undesirable sync operation. To revert to a previous file version: 1. In the Sync section, find the sync box with the needed file. Then click the Acronis Cloud link. 2. After the list of sync items opens in your Web browser, select the file which you want to revert to a previous version.
4. Clicking Advanced cleanup allows you to select more cleanup rules. You can apply the cleanup rules for: individual syncs and online backups all syncs and online backups you have on Acronis Cloud 5. Choose the desired rules and click Clean up now!. One more way to clean up is to delete a sync or online backup which you no longer need. In this case, all version history for the sync or online backup is deleted from Acronis Cloud. 6.
6.10 How to unlink a device from your account Sometimes you may need to unlink one of your computers or mobile devices from your account. For example, when a computer fails or gets stolen. To unlink a device: Go to yourAcronis account page at http://www.acronis.com/my/index.html. 1. Log in to your account. 2. Click Synchronization in the left-hand side of the screen. The Computers tab in the Manage synchronization area is displayed by default. 3.
7 Disk cloning and migration This operation copies the entire contents of one disk drive to another disk drive. This may be necessary, for example, when you want to clone your operating system, applications, and data to a new, larger capacity disk. You can do it two ways: Use the Clone disk utility (p. 96). Back up your old disk drive, and then recover it to the new one (p. 65). In this section Disk cloning utility ....................................................................................
If the program finds two disks, one partitioned and another unpartitioned, it will automatically recognize the partitioned disk as the source disk and the unpartitioned disk as the destination disk. In such case, the next steps will be bypassed and you will be taken to the cloning Summary screen. 3. On the Source Disk step, select the disk that you want to clone. Acronis True Image 2015 does not support cloning of dynamic disks. 4.
8. On the Finish step, ensure that the configured settings suit your needs, and then click Proceed. If the cloning operation is stopped for some reason, you will have to configure and start the procedure again. You will not lose your data, because True Image does not alter the original disk and data stored on it during cloning. Cloning a disk containing the currently active operating system will require a reboot. In that case, after clicking Proceed, you will be asked to confirm the reboot.
7.1.2 Manual partitioning The manual transfer method enables you to resize partitions on the new disk. By default, the program resizes them proportionally. To edit a partition: 1. Select the partition, and then click Edit. This will open the Partition Settings window. 2.
Partition type (available only for MBR disks) Partition letter and label Refer to Partition settings (p. 122) for details. 3. Click Accept. Be careful! Clicking any previous wizard step on the sidebar in this window will reset all size and location changes that you've selected, so you will have to specify them again. 7.1.
??name.ext - all files with a .ext extension, having six letters in their names (starting with any two symbols (??) and ending with name), will be excluded. You can enter path to a folder: C:\my pictures - my pictures folder on the C: disk will be excluded. You can edit and remove exclusion criteria using the corresponding buttons on the right pane. 7.2 Migrating your system from an HDD to an SSD In this section Preparing for migration...........................................................
If the BIOS of your computer does show the SSD, you can try the following procedure: For Windows Vista/Windows 7 type cmd in the Search field and press Enter. For Windows XP, type cmd in the Run field and press Enter. At the command line prompt type: diskpart list disk The screen will show the disks connected to your computer. Find out the disk number for your SSD. Use its size as the reference. select disk N Here N is the disk number of your SSD.
One more option is to request a custom rescue media from Acronis Support. For more information, see Creating a custom rescue CD (p. 141). Please be aware that finding the appropriate drivers and making the custom rescue media may take time. Furthermore, finding the appropriate drivers may not be possible in some cases. 7.2.2 Migrating to SSD using the backup and recovery method You can use the following procedure for all supported operating systems.
8 Tools Acronis Tools and utilities include protection tools, mounting tools, clone disk utility, security and privacy utilities, and disk management utilities. Protection tools Acronis Universal Restore media If you recover your image on a computer with a dissimilar hardware configuration, the program may not be able to find some of device drivers in the default folders, especially when the target hardware has a specific mass storage controller.
8.1 Creating bootable rescue media You can run Acronis True Image 2015 from an emergency boot media on a bare-metal system or a crashed computer that cannot boot. You can even back up disks on a non-Windows computer, copying all its data into the backup by imaging the disk in the sector-by-sector mode. To do so, you need bootable media that has a copy of the standalone Acronis True Image 2015 version installed on it. How you can obtain bootable media: Use the installation CD of the boxed product.
Acronis Media Builder supports only x86 WinPE 3.0, WinPE 4.0 and WinPE 5.0. This WinPE distribution can also work on x64 hardware. A PE image based on WinPE 3.0 requires at least 256MB RAM to work, for WinPE 4.0 and WinPE 5.0 this requirement is 512 MB. If Acronis Media Builder does not recognize your USB flash drive, you can try using the procedure described in an Acronis Knowledge Base article at http://kb.acronis.com/content/1526.
hardware compatibility problems while testing boot from the rescue media, it may be best to contact Acronis Technical Support. To add startup parameters: Enter a command into the Parameters field. You can type several commands, separated by spaces. Click Next to continue.
pci=nobios Disallows use of PCI BIOS; only direct hardware access methods are allowed. For instance, this parameter may be used if you experience crashes upon boot-up, probably caused by the BIOS. pci=biosirq Uses PCI BIOS calls to get the interrupt routing table. These calls are known to be buggy on several machines and they hang the machine when used, but on other computers it is the only way to get the interrupt routing table.
To create a PE image (.iso file) from the resulting .wim file: 1. Select Microsoft Windows AIK Windows PE Tools Command Prompt from the Start menu. Users of Windows 7 should select Microsoft Windows AIK Deployment Tools Command Prompt from the Start menu. If you create WinPE 4.0 ISO, select Windows Kits Windows ADK Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment from the Start menu. 2. Run the copype.cmd script to create a folder with Windows PE files.
If you do not have a spare mouse or keyboard, contact Acronis Support. They will build a custom rescue CD that will have drivers for your models of the mouse and keyboard. Please be aware that finding the appropriate drivers and making the custom rescue CD may take some time. Furthermore, this may be impossible for some models. 4. When the program starts, we recommend you try recovering some files from your backup. A test recovery allows you to make sure that your rescue CD can be used for recovery.
2. Select a backup at the Archive location step and then click Next. 3. When recovering files with the rescue CD you are able to select only a new location for the files to be recovered. Therefore just click Next at the Location selection step. 4. After the Destination window opens, check that all your drives are shown under My Computer. If you store your backups on the network, you should also check that you can access the network.
5. Select the destination for the files and then click Next. 6. Select several files for recovery by selecting their check boxes and then click Next. 7. Click Proceed on the Summary window to start recovery. 8. After the recovery finishes, exit the standalone Acronis True Image 2015. Now you can be reasonably sure that your rescue CD will help you when needed. 8.1.2.
2. When the command line appears, type "vga=ask" (without quotes) and click OK. 3. Select True Image in the boot menu to continue booting from the rescue media. To see the available video modes, press the Enter key when the appropriate message appears. 4. Choose a video mode you think best suitable for your monitor and type its number in the command line. For instance, typing 338 selects video mode 1600x1200x16 (see the below figure). 5.
Factory bootable media is a special type of rescue bootable media that includes a backup of a computer's factory configuration. You can use such media to restore your computer to factory settings. Note that the restoration will erase all personal data and programs on the computer. You may have received factory bootable media with your new computer.
2. In the opened window, click Activate. How to use If a failure occurs, turn on the computer and press F11 when you see the "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager" message. This will start a standalone version of Acronis True Image 2015 that differs only slightly from the complete version. Additional information Disk letters in standalone Acronis True Image 2015 might sometimes differ from the way Windows identifies drives.
Removing Acronis Secure Zone..............................................................119 8.3.1 Acronis Secure Zone The Acronis Secure Zone is a special secure partition that you can create on your computer for storing backups. The Acronis Secure Zone has a FAT32 file system. Acronis Secure Zone in Windows Explorer When you create an Acronis Secure Zone, it is displayed in the Other section of Windows Explorer. You can navigate through the Acronis Secure Zone as an ordinary partition.
1. Click the Start button —> Acronis (product folder) —> True Image —> Tools and Utilities —> Acronis Secure Zone. The Manage Acronis Secure Zone wizard opens. 2. Perform one of the following: If you want to create the Acronis Secure Zone, specify its location (p. 117) and size (p. 118). If you want to modify the Acronis Secure Zone, select an action: Increase or decrease size (p. 117) Remove (p. 119) Change password (p. 118) Then follow the wizard steps. 1. On the Finish step, click Proceed.
1. Select the partitions from which space will be used to increase the size of the Acronis Secure Zone, or that will receive free space after the size of the Acronis Secure Zone is reduced. You can also select partitions with unallocated space. 2. Click Next. 8.3.4 Size of Acronis Secure Zone To specify the size of the Acronis Secure Zone: Drag the slider to the appropriate position or type an exact value. The minimum size is about 50 MB, depending on the geometry of the hard disk.
The program will ask for the password at any operation relating to the Acronis Secure Zone such as data backup and recovery, mounting images or validating backups in the Acronis Secure Zone, resizing and deleting the Acronis Secure Zone. To set a password for the Acronis Secure Zone: 1. 2. 3. 4. Select Set password. Type the password in the Password field. Retype the previously entered password in the Confirm field.
To add a new hard disk: 1. Shut down your computer, and then install the new disk. 2. Turn on your computer. 3. Click the Start button —> Acronis (product folder) —> True Image —> Tools and Utilities —> Add New Disk. 4. Follow the wizard steps. 5. On the Finish step, ensure that the configured disk layout suits your needs, and then click Proceed. In this section Selecting a hard disk ..............................................................................120 Selecting initialization method ..........
8.4.2 Selecting initialization method Acronis True Image 2015 supports both MBR and GPT partitioning. GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a new hard disk partitioning method providing advantages over the old MBR partitioning method. If your operating system supports GPT disks, you can select the new disk to be initialized as a GPT disk. To add a GPT disk, click Initialize disk in GPT layout. To add an MBR disk, click Initialize disk in MBR layout.
3. Click Accept. 8.4.3.1 Partition settings Size To resize the partition, perform one of the following: Point to the partition border. When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow, drag the pointer to enlarge or reduce the partition size. Type the desired partition size in the Partition Size field. To relocate the partition, perform one of the following: Drag the partition to a new position. Type the desired size in either the Free space before or Free space after field.
Ext3 – officially introduced with Red hat Linux version 7.2, Ext3 is a Linux journaling file system. It is forwards and backwards compatible with Linux Ext2. It has multiple journaling modes, as well as broad, cross platform compatibility in both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. Ext4 is a new Linux file system. It has improvements in comparison to ext3. It is fully backward compatible with ext2 and ext 3. However, ext3 has only partial forward compatibility with ext4.
Why do I need it? When you format your old hard drive before throwing it away, the information is not destroyed permanently and it can still be retrieved. This is a way that your personal information can end up in the wrong hands. To prevent this, we recommend that you use Acronis DriveCleanser when you: Replace your old hard drive with a new one and do not plan to use the old drive any more. Give your old hard drive to your relative or friend. Sell your old hard drive.
To select an entire hard disk, click the disk icon ( ). Acronis DriveCleanser cannot wipe partitions on dynamic and GPT disks, so they will not be shown. 8.5.1.2 Algorithm selection On the Algorithm selection step, perform one of the following: To use one of the preset algorithms, select the desired algorithm. Refer to Hard Disk Wiping Methods (p. 133) for details. [For advanced users only] To create a custom algorithm, select Custom. Then continue creating on the Algorithm definition step.
Creating custom algorithm Algorithm definition The Algorithm definition step shows you a template of the future algorithm. The table has the following legend: The first column contains the type of operation (to write a symbol to disk; and to verify written). The second column contains the pattern of data to be written to disk. Each line defines an operation that will be performed during a pass.
To edit an existing pass: 1. Select the corresponding line, and then click Edit. The Wiping Pass Adjustment window opens. Note: When you select several lines, the new settings will be applied to all of the selected passes. 2. Change the settings, and then click OK. Saving algorithm to a file To save the created algorithm to a file in order to use this algorithm afterwards: 1. On the Saving custom algorithm step, select Save to a file, and then click Next. 2.
Clean the recently used documents list Clean the Windows Run list Clean the opened/saved files history Clean the list of network places to which the user has connected using network credentials Clean the Windows prefetch directory, where Windows stores information about programs you have executed and run recently Windows Vista and Windows 7 do not store information on file and computer searches.
Expand the System Components item in the tree and select the component clean-up settings which you need to change. You can enable or disable scanning of the component by the Clean-up wizard. To do this, select or clear the Enable check box. If required, you can also expand a component and customize the desired data destruction method, files to clean, clean-up registry search strings you have used for finding computers in the local network, etc.
8.5.2.3 Specific clean-up options You can customize the following clean-up options: Data destruction method Default options Files Drive free space Computers Commands Network places filter Data destruction method System Clean-up utilizes a number of the most popular data destruction methods. Here, you need to select the desired data destruction method. Use common method - if you leave this parameter selected, the program will use the default method (the initial setting is Fast method).
*.* – to clean all files with any file names and extensions. *.doc – to clean all files with a specific extension – Microsoft document files in this case . read*.* – to clean all files with any extensions, and names beginning with "read". read?.* – to clean all files having five-letter names and any extensions, names beginning with "read"; the fifth letter is random. The last search string, for example, will result in the removal of read1.txt, ready.doc files, but readyness.
The Computers setting is similar to the Files setting. It is a string that can contain any number of full or partial computer names separated by semicolons. The deletion of computer search strings is based on a comparison with the Computers setting value according to Windows rules. If you simply need to delete all local network computer search strings (suitable in most cases), just leave the default value of this setting.
Click Show network places to view the list of network places that you visited using the credentials you want to delete. 8.5.2.4 Preview When the scanning is finished, its results will be available in the upper part of the wizard window. By default, all system components are scanned for clean-up. If you want to customize which of the system components should be scanned and which should not, change the default clean-up settings.
Information wiping methods used by Acronis The detailed theory of guaranteed information wiping is described in an article by Peter Gutmann. Please see "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory" at http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html. No. Algorithm (writing method) Passes Record 1. United States Department of Defense 5220.
Note that you cannot mount an image of the entire disk except in the case when the disk consists of one partition. 3. [optional step] On the Drive letter step, select a letter to be assigned to the virtual disk from the Mount letter drop-down list. If you do not want to mount a partition, select Do not mount in the list or clear the partition's check box. 4. Click Proceed. 5. After the image is connected, the program will run Windows Explorer, showing its contents. 8.
8.8.1 What is Acronis Universal Restore The Acronis Universal Restore tool is designed to help boot an operating system on a physical or a virtual machine. The tool finds and installs drivers for devices that are critical for the operating system start-up, such as storage controllers, motherboard, or chipset. Universal Restore is extremely useful in the following scenarios: 1. Instant recovery of a failed system on different hardware. 2. Hardware-independent cloning and deployment of operating systems. 3.
system. Use the CD or DVD supplied by the hardware vendor or download the drivers from the vendor’s website. The driver files should have the *.inf, *.sys or *.oem extensions. If you download the drivers in the *.exe, *.cab or *.zip format, extract them using a third-party application. The best practice is to store drivers for all the hardware used in your organization in a single repository sorted by device type or by the hardware configurations.
If Universal Restore cannot find a compatible driver in the specified locations, it will display a prompt about the problem device. Do one of the following: Add the driver to any of the previously specified locations and click Retry. If you do not remember the location, click Ignore to continue the process. If the result is not satisfactory, reapply Universal Restore. When configuring the operation, specify the necessary driver.
9 Troubleshooting In this section Acronis System Report ...........................................................................139 Acronis Smart Error Reporting ...............................................................140 How to collect crash dumps ...................................................................141 Creating a custom rescue CD .................................................................141 Acronis Customer Experience Program .................................................
If you want to create the report file with a custom name, type the new name instead of : SystemReport.exe /filename: 9.2 Acronis Smart Error Reporting When an issue is caused by an error in the program's operation, Acronis True Image 2015 displays an appropriate error message. The error message contains an event code and a short description of the error.
9.3 How to collect crash dumps Because a crash of Acronis True Image 2015 or Windows can be caused by different reasons, each crash case must be investigated separately. Acronis Customer Central would appreciate if you could provide the following information: If Acronis True Image 2015 crashes, please provide the following information: 1. A description of the exact sequence of steps performed before you encountered the issue. 2. A crash dump.
5. After the report is generated, click Save and in the opened window specify a location for the created file. The program will archive the report into a zip file. Send the file to the Acronis Customer Service Department. They will build an iso image of a custom rescue media compatible with your computer hardware and send you the iso file. Burn this file to a CD/DVD using a program that can handle iso files such as Nero.
Copyright Statement Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2014. All rights reserved. "Acronis", "Acronis Compute with Confidence", "Acronis Recovery Manager", "Acronis Secure Zone", Acronis True Image, Acronis Try&Decide, and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis International GmbH. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. VMware and VMware Ready are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions.
10 Glossary of Terms A Acronis Secure Zone A secure partition for storing backups (p. 144) on a hard disk. Advantages: enables recovery of a disk to the same disk where the disk's backup resides offers a cost-effective and handy method for protecting data from software malfunction, virus attack, operator error eliminates the need for a separate media or network connection to back up or recover the data B Backup 1. The same as Backup operation (p. 144). 2.
Bootable media Disk backup (Image) A physical media (CD, DVD, USB flash drive or other media supported by a machine BIOS as a boot device) that contains standalone version of Acronis True Image 2015. A backup (p. 144) that contains a sector-based copy of a disk or a partition in packaged form. Normally, only sectors that contain data are copied. Acronis True Image 2015 provides an option to take a raw image, that is, copy all the disk sectors, which enables imaging of unsupported file systems.
N Nonstop backup Nonstop backup actually is a disk/partition or file backup that is created using the Acronis Nonstop Backup feature. This is a set of one full backup version (p. 145) and a sequence of incremental backup versions (p. 145) that are created at short intervals. It gives almost continuous protection of data, that is, it allows recovery of previous data state at any recovery point you need.
