User's Guide
Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2010. All rights reserved. “Acronis” and “Acronis Secure Zone” are registered trademarks of Acronis, Inc. "Acronis Compute with Confidence", “Acronis Startup Recovery Manager”, “Acronis Active Restore” and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis, Inc. 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.
Table of contents 1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................9 1.1 What is Acronis® True Image Home? ........................................................................................9 1.2 Acronis True Image Home basic concepts ...............................................................................10 1.3 New in Acronis True Image Home 2010 ........................................................
5 6 Getting to know Acronis True Image Home ...........................................................................31 5.1 Program workspace .................................................................................................................31 5.2 Acronis One-click Backup.........................................................................................................32 5.3 Main screens ............................................................................................
9.3.9 9.4 9.4.1 9.4.2 9.4.3 10 The backup process....................................................................................................................................... 76 Fine-tuning your backups ........................................................................................................76 Backup options .............................................................................................................................................. 76 Local storage settings....
13.4 Examples of backup scheduling scenarios .............................................................................115 13.4.1 13.4.2 13.4.3 13.4.4 14 Full backups with automatic deletion on quota violation ........................................................................ 115 Full backups with automatic deletion when backup storage is filled...................................................... 116 Full backups to Acronis Secure Zone with automatic deletion ...................................
20 Transferring the system to a new disk ................................................................................ 161 20.1 General information ..............................................................................................................161 20.2 Security ..................................................................................................................................161 20.3 Executing transfers ........................................................................
24.3.1 24.3.2 25 Functioning principles of Information wiping methods ........................................................................... 191 Information wiping methods used by Acronis .......................................................................................... 192 Startup Parameters ............................................................................................................ 193 25.1 Description........................................................................
1 Introduction 1.1 What is Acronis® True Image Home? Acronis True Image Home is an integrated software suite that ensures security of all information on your PC. It can back up the operating system, applications, settings and all of your data, while also securely destroying any confidential data you no longer need.
1.2 Acronis True Image Home basic concepts This section provides general information about basic concepts which could be useful for understanding how the program works. Backup According to Wikipedia, "backup refers to making copies of data so that these additional copies may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. Backups are useful primarily for two purposes. The first is to restore a state following a disaster (called disaster recovery).
Snapshot creation usually takes just several seconds. After that the operating system continues working as the imaging process is under way and you will not notice anything unusual in the operating system functionality. In its turn, the Acronis driver continues working to keep the point-in-time view of the partition.
day. Well, with the scheduler you do not have to remember. You can schedule backups and forget about them (at least while the backup disk has enough free space or until the need for recovery arises). The terms related to these concepts will be repeatedly used in the Acronis True Image Home documentation, so understanding the above concepts may be helpful when using the program's features. 1.
VHD format support – Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) is a file format containing the complete contents and structure representing a hard disk drive. Furthermore, Windows Backup utility included into Windows Vista (except Home editions) and Windows 7 operating systems now uses this format for backing up an image of the system hard drive when users select the "Complete PC Backup" option.
NTFS Ext2/Ext3 * ReiserFS * Linux SWAP * If a file system is not supported or is corrupted, Acronis True Image Home can copy data using a sector-by-sector approach. * The Ext2/Ext3, ReiserFS, and Linux SWAP file systems are supported only for disk or partition backup/recovery operations.
2 Acronis True Image Home installation and startup 2.1 Installing Acronis True Image Home To install Acronis True Image Home: Run the Acronis True Image Home setup file. In the Install Menu, select the program to install: Acronis True Image Home. Before installation, you can check for a newer Acronis True Image Home build on the Acronis Web site. If available, the newer version will be offered for installation. Follow the install wizard instructions on the screen.
To save the setup file: Run the Acronis True Image Home setup file. In the Install Menu, right-click on the program name and select Extract. Select a location for the setup file and click Save. Recovering or updating the existing Acronis True Image Home installation with using the .msi file must be done from the command line as follows: 1. Choose Start → Run 2. Type cmd. 3. When the command-line interpreter window opens, type the following command: msiexec /i path_to_msi_file\msi_file_name.
If you use Windows Vista, select Start → Control panel → Programs and Features → → Remove. Then follow the instructions on the screen. You may have to reboot your computer afterwards to complete the task. If you have Acronis Secure Zone on your computer, remove it before removing the program itself because removing Acronis True Image Home will not remove the zone. 17 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
3 General information and proprietary Acronis technologies 3.1 The difference between file archives and disk/partition images A backup archive is a file or a group of files (also called "backups" in this guide), that contains a copy of selected file/folder data or a copy of all information stored on selected disks/partitions. When you back up files and folders, only the data, along with the folder tree, is compressed and stored.
Generally, a differential backup will be recovered faster than an incremental one, as it does not have to process through a long chain of previous backups. 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 files. If you are interested in saving only the last data state to be able to recover it in case of system failure, consider the differential backup.
2) In some cases when you create a new full backup task at a new destination, the backup gets the name "MyBackup_mm_dd_yyyy.tib". If a backup is split (either automatically, e.g. due to the 4GB file size limit on FAT32 disks or when configuring a backup task), the constituent backup files (volumes) are named as follows: MyBackup_mm_dd_yyyy1.tib…MyBackup_mm_dd_yyyyN.
shortcut menu. Double-clicking on an archive opens it and shows all backups (full, incremental, differential) belonging to the archive. Right-clicking on a specific backup opens the shortcut menu allowing to choose a desired operation – mount (for image archives), recover, validate, update, remove the backup, and view the backup's details. If Acronis Secure Zone is password-protected, any operation except viewing backup details will require entering the password.
damaged partitions, even if the operating system won't start up for some reason. As opposed to booting from Acronis removable media, you will not need a separate media or network connection to start Acronis True Image Home. 3.5.2 How to use To be able to use Acronis Startup Recovery Manager at boot time, prepare as follows: 1. Install Acronis True Image Home. 2. Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. To do so, click Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and follow the wizard's instructions.
risk. It does this by creating essentially a controlled, secure, temporary workspace that is insulated from the rest of your computer. If the system crashes or your computer stops responding during these operations, you should revert the system to the previous state by discarding changes made in the Try&Decide mode. If operations are successful, you have the choice of applying the changes to the real system. (For more details see Try&Decide (p. 103)) 3.
3.10 Acronis Nonstop Backup Acronis Nonstop Backup provides easy protection of your disks and files, and allows you to recover both entire disks and individual files and even their versions from disaster. By default Nonstop Backup will protect your system partition, though you can select other partitions and disks for protection as well. Once you start Acronis Nonstop Backup, it will perform an initial image backup of the partition(s) selected for protection.
etc.). As for system Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass storage device drivers, they must be identical on the source and the target computers (see Microsoft Knowledge Base, articles 302577 and 216915). Acronis Universal Restore technology provides an efficient solution for hardware-independent system restoration by replacing the crucial Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass storage device drivers. Acronis Universal Restore is applicable for: 1.
4 Preparing for disaster recovery 4.1 How to best prepare for a disaster Let us remind you of Murphy's Law: "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong" (and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way). And some people say that Murphy was an incurable optimist. So be warned – your computer may crash and will eventually crash (and maybe just at the worst possible moment).
have a spare drive, please, at least validate the image in the recovery environment. A backup that can be read during validation in Windows, may not always be readable under Linux environment. When you use the Acronis True Image Home rescue media, the product creates disk drive letters that might differ from the way Windows identifies drives. For example, the D: drive identified in the standalone Acronis True Image Home might correspond to the E: drive in Windows.
2) If you purchased the program after downloading it, you absolutely must create a bootable rescue CD (or other rescue media, for example, a USB stick) following the recommendations given in the User's Guide or program's Help and then make sure this rescue media is bootable on your computer. You must configure your computer so as to enable booting from the rescue media and make your rescue media device (CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive or USB stick) the first boot device. See Arranging boot sequence in BIOS (p.
2. When the command line appears, type "vga=ask" (without quotes) and click OK. 3. Select Acronis True Image Home (Full version) 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).
To test another video mode, close Acronis True Image Home and repeat the above procedure. After you find the optimal video mode for your hardware, you can create a new bootable rescue media that will automatically select that video mode. To do this, start Acronis Media Builder, select the required media components, and type the mode number with the "0x" prefix (0x338 in our instance) in the command line at the "Bootable media startup parameters" step, then create the media as usual. 4.
5 Getting to know Acronis True Image Home 5.1 Program workspace Starting Acronis True Image Home takes you to the Welcome screen. This screen provides quick access to backup and recovery features, as well as highlights any issues with your system's protection. Your system is considered fully protected when it is backed up and a bootable rescue media is created.
Acronis True Image Home uses wizards, which guide you through many operations. Like the main program window, wizards also have the sidebar listing all the steps (both required and optional) needed for completing the operation. For example, see the Backup Wizard screen shot below. The completed steps are marked with green checkmarks. The green arrow shows the current step. After you complete all the required steps and come to the Finish step, the program displays the Summary screen.
If you choose to not use the One-Click Backup shortcut, Acronis True Image Home will offer to perform One-Click Backup during the first start after installation, as well as schedule subsequent full backups – see the screen shot below. The Acronis One-Click Backup tool performs only full backups of the system partition; scheduling an incremental or differential backup is not possible. In addition, it does not support backup of drives protected by BitLocker Drive Encryption in Windows Vista.
Clicking Cancel will cancel One-Click Backup. If you decide to use this feature later, select Tools & Utilities on the sidebar and then choose One-Click Backup in the right pane of the screen. In case the archive storage location is a USB flash drive, the backup will begin automatically when the device is plugged in but only if a scheduled backup has been missed. The USB flash drive must be the same as the one used for all previous backups; if you plug in another flash drive, the backup process won't start.
Here you can also edit comments for backups, see detailed information on the backups, and assign ratings to your backups. For instance, you may want to assign a high rating to an important backup. A backup rating is indicated by the number of "stars" in the Rating column (more stars means a higher rating). The default rating is three stars, but you can raise or lower it by clicking on the stars in the column.
5.4 Options screen Acronis True Image Home has options related to its appearance and various program functions. To view or edit the default options, choose Tools & Utilities→ Options in the main program menu. The Backup options item provides for making settings to be used by default in any backup task. You can modify the settings depending on your backup needs. For detailed information on the backup options and possible settings see Fine-tuning your backups (p. 76).
By default you see only your own tasks, but you have the option to view or manage tasks created by other users. To do so, choose Filter and unselect the Show only tasks created by a current user box. The Feedback option allows you to quit the Acronis Customer Experience Program, if you decided to join it during Acronis True Image Home installation or join the program by selecting the Yes, I want to participate in the program radio button.
6 Creating backup archives 6.1 Preparing for your first backup First of all you should decide where to store your backups. Acronis True Image Home supports quite a lot of storage devices. For more information see Supported storage media (p. 14). Since hard disk drives are now quite inexpensive, in most cases purchasing an external hard drive for storing your backups will be an optimal solution.
backing up large volumes of data (for details see The difference between file archives and disk/partition images (p. 18)). You might think it would take a while to make a copy of your entire hard disk, but the proprietary technologies used in Acronis True Image Home ensure that image creation is quite fast.
Thereafter you will always be able to recover that basic system state after trying new programs – if you don't like them or if something goes wrong. The easiest way of backing up the system partition is using the One-Click Backup either during the first start of Acronis True Image Home after installation or later. This tool is intended for backing up only the system partition and MBR.
to recover them on the original hard disk drive or a new one, e.g. after your hard drive failed. Incidentally, if your system disk contains several partitions, an entire disk backup also provides for recovery of any individual partition. Because system disk backups are the most important for disaster recovery, it is advisable to check both the system disk and the hard disk to be used as the backup storage for errors with the help of Microsoft's Chkdsk utility, which is part of Windows.
6. Carefully read the Summary of actions to be performed during backup and click Proceed if you are satisfied with the backup task settings, otherwise click Options on the Summary screen to change the settings. 7. Select a backup method. For a more detailed explanation of the methods see Full, incremental and differential backups (p. 18). When performing backups in the recovery environment many users prefer full backups, though you may choose another method depending on your needs. 8.
7. At the next step you may exclude certain files and folders from backup. For example, you transferred some movies from your DVDs to the data disk. They occupy quite a lot of space and it doesn't make sense to back them up because you have the DVDs. 8. Set the options for the backup task being created. For example, when your data disk contains sensitive information, you may want to protect the information by encryption.
8. When the project files contain sensitive information, the backup options allow protecting your backups with a password and encryption. In addition, you can set validation of backups immediately after creation – this makes sense in case of frequent backups as it relieves you of remembering to validate them later. 9. The next step allows setting automatic consolidation of the backup archive, for example, when the "age" of backups exceeds the desired time period (30 days by default). 10.
5. The first optional step offers to schedule the backup task. Scheduling together with a backup method and automatic consolidation rules allows implementing a desired backup strategy. For more information see Examples of backup scheduling scenarios (p. 115). 6. Choose a backup method. For a more detailed explanation of the methods see Full, incremental and differential backups (p. 18). Let's reiterate that selection of the backup method may depend on the desired backup strategy. 7.
7 Acronis Nonstop Backup 7.1 What is Acronis Nonstop Backup Acronis Nonstop Backup is a new Acronis True Image Home feature that provides convenient protection of your disks and files, and allows you to recover from disaster both entire disks and individual files and even their versions. By default Acronis Nonstop Backup will protect your system partition, though you can select other partitions and disks to be protected too.
to your preferences. Incidentally, you can also change the settings later. To do this, click the Settings icon (the "cog-wheel") on the toolbar of the Time Explorer window when the Nonstop Backup tab is selected. Changing Acronis Nonstop Backup settings The Nonstop Backup Options window allows you to change the settings of Acronis Nonstop Backup. Protection management - select the partitions on your computer to be protected by Nonstop Backup.
.bmp extension, type *.bmp.) You can also exclude files and folders by selecting them in Windows Explorer and choosing Storages → Exclude from Nonstop Backup in the shortcut menu that opens by right-clicking on the selected file or folder. To change the default Nonstop Backup storage, click the Storage item in the Nonstop Backup settings, select a new storage among acceptable ones and click Create Storage and Make Active on the toolbar of the Nonstop Backup storage management window.
use the storage again, attach the drive, select it on the Nonstop Backup storage management window and make it the active storage. After you activate the old storage, Acronis Nonstop Backup will consolidate the old backups according to the algorithm it uses for consolidating backups and will then start to back up changes on the selected partitions again. When the need arises to recover some data, your actions will differ depending on what you want to recover - partitions or files/folders.
7.5 Recovering files protected with Acronis Nonstop Backup You can recover files from Acronis Nonstop Backup Storage using both the Recovery Wizard and Acronis Time Explorer. Recovering files using the Recovery Wizard 1. Choose Recovery on the sidebar, then click the Disk backups tab on the right pane. 2. Select the backup archive from which you want to recover files at the Nonstop Backup Storages area. Right-click on the backup and choose Recover in the shortcut menu to start the Recovery Wizard. 3.
1. Choose Recovery on the sidebar, then click Recover data from nonstop backup on the right pane to open Acronis Time Explorer. 2. Select the partition and then the folder that contains the files you want to recover on the directory tree in the left pane. The right pane lists the files in that folder. Select the files to recover. When selecting multiple files you can use the Ctrl and Shift keys like in Windows Explorer.
Home will recover the file version to a temporary folder and then will open the file using the associated application. 7.6 Managing Acronis Nonstop Backup storage Inevitably the Acronis Nonstop Backup Storage becomes full after a period of time which depends on the selected Nonstop Backup storage and the number and composition of partitions protected by Acronis Nonstop Backup.
8 Online backup Acronis Online Backup might be unavailable in your region. To find more information, click here: https://www.acronis.com/my/online-backup/ The main reason for using Acronis Online Backup is that you will be able to keep your data secure by storing off-site. Because your files are stored elsewhere, they are protected even if your computer gets stolen or your house burns down. So the risk of data loss as a result of theft, fire, or other natural disasters is practically eliminated.
8.2 Backing up to Acronis Online Storage To perform an online backup, log on to your Online Backup service account by clicking Backup → Online Backup on the sidebar and entering your e-mail address used for opening the account and the password. In order to not enter the password during subsequent logons, you may want to select the Remember the password check box. Make these settings and click Log In.
When the computer connects to the online storage, the Online storage screen with your storage space quota appears. If you have performed backup on this computer before, you will see how much Online storage space is occupied by the backed up files and folders. The screen also shows the space occupied by the data backed up from other computers (if any) and the remaining free space on the Online storage in accordance with your quota.
To schedule online backups, click the Edit schedule... link. For instance, you may want the backups to be performed at night in order to not interfere with your web surfing. For more information see Scheduling tasks (p. 109). When you finish scheduling and click OK, the schedule information will be shown above the Edit schedule... link. By default Acronis True Image Home schedules daily backups to the Online Storage with randomly selected backup start time.
Acronis Time Explorer will be opened with the Online Storage tab selected. 2. This window also allows choosing the computer from which you backed up the files and folders you need to recover. Select the computer by its name on the directory tree under Online Storage in the left pane. 3. By default the state of the Online Storage after the latest backup is displayed, so the latest versions of the files and folders will be recovered.
To choose the correct version, you can open the version in the associated application and view the file contents. Select the file in the right pane and the bottom line of Time Explorer will show the times of backing up all its versions kept on the Online Storage. Choose a version by its backup time, then right-click on the file in the right pane and choose Open in the shortcut menu.
2. Select the computer from which you backed up the files you need to manage by its name on the directory tree under Online Storage in the left pane. 3. Select the folder containing the files you want to manage in the left pane. The right pane lists the files in that folder. 4. If you want to delete some versions of a specific file, select the file and click View Versions on the toolbar. This opens the File Versions window. Select the version you want to delete and click Remove on the toolbar.
8.5.2 Storage connection speed One more option gives you the ability to "throttle" the bandwidth allocated for data transfer to the Online Storage. Set the connection speed that will allow you to send e-mail or surf the Web without annoying slowdowns while online backup is running. To do this, select the Limit transfer rate to: check box and set the connection speed (8 Mbps by default).
8.5.3 Storage cleanup The Storage cleanup page is intended for setting the options that enable automatic cleanup of obsolete file versions from the online storage to keep the storage from overfilling. You can: Delete versions that are older than the specified time period - 6 months by default. Specify how many versions of your files must be kept on the Online Storage. This will allow you to return to a previous file version if your changes in a file turn out to be erroneous.
If you do not know your proxy server settings, contact your network administrator or Internet service provider for assistance. Alternatively, you can take these settings from your browser's configuration. 8.6 Recommendations on selecting data for storing online Because online backups are relatively slow, you should think over what data to back up. First of all consider backing up your personal data that cannot be recovered if lost as a result of fire, computer theft, etc.
9 Additional backup features 9.1 Making reserve copies of your backups When you choose the My Data backup type for backing up selected files and folders, you can create reserve copies of your backups and save them on the file system, a network drive, or a USB flash drive. In addition to enhancing the archive security with replication, this feature allows you to copy a set of documents, for example, to a USB stick for working on them at home.
1. When you come to the Backup options step while configuring a My Data backup task in the Backup Wizard (or select that step after completing all the required steps), choose Backup reserve copy and then select the Create a reserve copy of my backups box (if it is not selected in the default backup options). 2. Choose how to duplicate the project file(s) on the USB stick. If you need to save space, choose duplicating as a zip file.
One more useful aspect of this feature is its ability to split backups "on-the-fly". Suppose you perform a backup to a hard disk and in the middle of the backup process Acronis True Image Home finds out that the disk, to which you are backing up, does not have sufficient free space for completing the backup. The program displays a message warning you that the disk is full. To complete the backup, you may either try to free some space on the disk and click Retry or select another storage device.
generator (a button to the right of the line). Then click OK and Acronis True Image Home will complete the backup. Acronis True Image Home permits to assign any backup archive whatever name you wish. Suppose you bought a new hard disk drive and transferred to it the contents of the old one by cloning. You decided to perform a full backup of the new system disk and named it "DiskCafterCloning". After a while you chose to upgrade to Windows Vista.
After working under Windows Vista for some time you decided that you would like to try Linux as well. Before creating a partition for Linux you perform an incremental backup of the system disk and name it "DiskCBeforePartitioning", and so on. As a result, if the need to recover arises, you will be able to find at a glance a backup archive corresponding to the system disk state you want to recover. As was already mentioned, you can save full and incremental or differential backups to different locations.
My E-mail (file-level backup of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Windows Mail settings and messages). My Application Settings (file-level backup of Windows applications settings) File-level backup operations are supported only for the FAT and NTFS file systems. Selecting a backup type starts the Backup Wizard, which will guide you through the steps of creating a backup task. Depending on the backup type chosen, the number of steps in the Backup Wizard may change.
To select all the supported applications found on the computer for backing up, check the Installed Applications box. For instant messenger applications, the program will back up both the settings and history. The list of supported applications will be expanded gradually. Updates will be available with new program builds or via the Internet.
When you have chosen the My Data backup type for backing up files and/or folders, you can select the zip archive type. For more information see Support for Zip format (p. 23). CD/DVD and the Acronis Secure Zone are not supported as locations for zip archives. If you want to append an incremental or differential backup file to an existing archive, select Add to existing backup archive and click the Select button to select the existing archive you are going to update.
9.3.3 Scheduling By default, the Do not schedule option is chosen so the task will run after completing the wizard and clicking Proceed. However, you may wish to schedule the task being configured by choosing one of the scheduling options. For more information see Scheduling tasks (p. 109). 9.3.4 Backup method Select whether you want to create a full, incremental or differential backup.
If you choose (2) or (3) by selecting the Create a new full backup after box, the next backups will be incremental (or differential) until the specified number of incremental (differential) backups is reached. After the selected number of incremental or differential backups is made, the next time a new full backup and a set of subsequent incremental (differential) backups will be created; this process will then continue until you decide to change it.
9.3.5 Selecting what to exclude This step will be present only for the Disk and Partition Backup and My Data backup types. It enables you to exclude unnecessary files from your backup in case you just want to exclude certain file types without creating custom categories. You can exclude hidden or system files and folders, as well as files matching the criteria you specify. You can add your own criteria by clicking Add.
9.3.6 Selecting the backup options Select the backup options (that is, backup file-splitting, compression level, password protection, etc.). The settings of the options will be applied only to the current backup task. Or, you can edit the default backup options and local storage settings if you want to save the current settings for future tasks. For more information see Fine-tuning your backups (p. 76). 9.3.
a maximum archive size By default there are no limits set and automatic consolidation is not performed. To enable automatic consolidation, you must select at least one of the limits and either leave its default value or change it according to your needs. If limits are set, then after creating a backup the program checks the archive for quota violations, such as exceeding a pre-set maximum number of gigabytes set aside for backups and, if any limitation is exceeded, consolidates the oldest backups.
9.3.9 The backup process Clicking Proceed after completing all the optional steps you need for configuring the current backup task will start the task execution if you have configured the task to be started manually, by choosing the Do not schedule option at the Scheduling step, or having selected the Run task now box for a scheduled task (to select the box, you should return to the Finish step). Otherwise the task will run when the scheduled time comes.
9.4.1.2 Pre/post commands You can specify commands or batch files to be executed automatically before and/or after the backup procedure. For example, you may want to remove some temporary (.tmp) files from the disk before starting backup or configure a third-party antivirus product to be used each time for scanning the files to be backed up before the backup starts.
process, though in the case being considered this will most likely not be an issue, because the files will not be too large. The encryption settings are available only for password-protected archives. If you try to recover data from a password-protected archive, or append an incremental/differential backup to such an archive, Acronis True Image Home will ask for the password in a special window, allowing access only to those who know the password. 9.4.1.5 Backup priority The preset is Low.
This option lets you run a backup even if there are bad sectors on the hard disk. Although most disks do not have bad sectors, the possibility that they might occur increases during the course of the hard disk's lifetime. If your hard drive has started making strange noises (for example, it starts making quite loud clicking or grinding noises during operation), such noises may mean that the hard drive is failing.
you click "recover" all data will be recovered to its original place automatically. No options or selections such as resizing partitions will be available. The Acronis One-Click Restore can be added to the media only when creating a full backup of an entire hard disk. It cannot be added when creating an incremental or differential backup, as well as backup of a partition.
If you frequently back up data to network drives, you may consider limiting the network bandwidth used by Acronis True Image Home. To set the desired data transfer speed, drag the slider or enter the bandwidth limit for transferring backup data in kilobytes per second. 9.4.2.3 Free space threshold The preset is disabled. You may want to be notified when the free space on the backup storage becomes less than the specified value.
and burn the archive to DVD+R discs later on. To specify the split file size, select Fixed size mode for Archive splitting and enter the desired file size or select it from the drop-down list. If you do not have enough space to store the backup on your hard disk, select Automatic and create the backup directly on DVD-R discs. Acronis True Image Home will split the backup archive automatically and will ask you to insert a new disc when the previous one is full.
9.4.3 Creating a custom data category for backups To add a custom data category, click Add New Category in the Files to back up screen of the Backup Wizard, select the folder (data source) and provide a name for the category. You can include in the category all files in the selected folder or apply filters to select the specific types of files that you wish or do not wish to back up.
10 Data recovery with Acronis True Image Home The ultimate purpose of data backup is recovery of the backed up data when the original is lost due to hardware failure, fire, theft or just erroneous deletion of some important files. There may be various reasons for recovering your system - from unstable operation after installing a new application, driver or Windows update to complete failure of the system hard drive or replacement of the old hard drive by a new larger one.
3. Select Recovery → Disk and Partition Recovery in the main menu and then choose the image backup of your system partition (or entire system disk) that you want to use for recovery. Rightclick on the backup and choose Recover in the shortcut menu.
(though this is not always possible, e.g. the old drive may be an IDE and the new drive may be a SATA). In any case, install the new drive to where it will be used. 10.2.1 Recovering a disk without a hidden partition At first let's consider recovery of a system disk containing two partitions (none of them hidden) using a disk backup. In addition, we assume that the system disk does not contain a recovery partition which may not be hidden.
7. Clicking Accept will return you to the "Settings of partition ..." screen. Check the partition type and change it, if necessary. You should remember that the system partition must be primary and marked as active. 8. Proceed to specifying the partition size by clicking Change default in the Partition size area. By default the partition will occupy the entire new disk.
Attach the external drive if it contains the backup archive to be used for recovery and make sure that the drive is powered on. This must be done before booting from Acronis rescue media. 1. Arrange the boot sequence in BIOS so as to make your rescue media device (CD, DVD or USB stick) the first boot device. See Arranging boot sequence in BIOS (p. 187). 2. Boot from the rescue media and select Acronis True Image Home (Full version). 3.
9. Carefully read the summary of operations to be performed. If you do not want to validate the backup, click Proceed, otherwise click Options and select the "Validate backup archive before recovery" box before clicking Proceed. 10. When the operation finishes, proceed to MBR recovery. In this case you need to recover the MBR as the PC manufacturer could change the generic Windows MBR or a sector on the track 0 to provide access to the hidden partition. 11.
7. The Options step allows setting the recovery options, for example, to check the file system after recovery. For more information about the recovery options see Setting default recovery options (p. 99). After setting the recovery options click Proceed. Recovering the entire data disk backup requires similar steps with few minor differences, for example, there is no "Check file system after recovery" option.
switch to your identity after recovery by selecting File → Switch Identity in Outlook Express and then double-clicking on your identity in the list of the dialog box. 3. If you are going to recover files from an archive containing incremental backups, Acronis True Image Home will enable selecting one of the successive incremental backups by its creation date/time. Thus, you can roll back the files/folders state to a certain date.
local hard disk or a network share disk. See notes and recommendations for supporting FTP servers in Supported storage media (p. 14). 3. If you are going to recover files from an archive containing incremental backups, Acronis True Image Home will enable selecting one of the successive incremental backups by its creation date/time. Thus, you can roll back the file/folder state to a certain date.
11 Additional recovery information 11.1 Recovery Wizard - detailed information The below description of the Recovery Wizard refers to recovering partitions/disks from image backups. If you need to recover files and folders, see Recovering files and folders (p. 90). 11.1.1 Starting the Recovery Wizard Start the Recovery Wizard by selecting Recovery → Disk and Partition Recovery in the main program menu. 11.1.2 Archive selection 1. Select the archive.
When recovering a backup of Windows Vista or Windows 7 system disk containing restore points, some of your restore points (or all of them) may be missing if you boot from the recovered system disk and open the System Restore tool. If the archive is password-protected, Acronis True Image Home will ask for it. The partitions layout and the Next button will be unavailable until you enter the correct password. 2.
Use Acronis Universal Restore Using Universal Restore (provided by separately purchased Acronis Plus Pack) allows recovering an image of your system partition on a computer with dissimilar hardware. Recover chosen files and folders If you are not going to recover the system, but only want to repair damaged files, select Recover chosen files and folders. You can recover files from disk/partition images only if they have the FAT or NTFS file systems. 11.1.
4. In addition, recovering disk signature allows to recover VSS snapshots used by Windows Vista and Windows 7's "Previous Versions" feature. If the box is unselected, Acronis True Image Home generates a new disk signature for the recovered drive. This may be needed when you use an image backup not for disaster recovery but for cloning your Windows Vista hard drive to another one. Trying to boot Windows after cloning with both drives connected will result in a problem.
Note that no real changes or data destruction will be performed at this time! For now, the program will just map out the procedure. All changes will be implemented only when you click Proceed in the wizard's Summary window. 11.1.6 Changing the recovered partition type When recovering a partition, you can change its type, though it is not required in most cases.
Using this feature, you can redistribute the disk space among partitions being recovered. In this case, you will have to recover the partition to be reduced first. These changes might be useful if you are going to copy your hard disk to a new high-capacity one by creating its image and recovering it to a new disk with larger partitions. 11.1.8 Assigning a letter to the recovered partition Acronis True Image Home will assign an unused letter to a recovered partition.
same result you will get if the recovery is unsuccessful. To recover the "lost" partition, you will have to recover it from the image again. 11.2 Setting default recovery options To set the recovery options to be used by default during any data recovery, select Tools & Utilities → Options → Recovery options. You can always restore the default recovery options to the values preset during installation of Acronis True Image Home.
You can set default filters for the specific types of files you wish to preserve during archive recovery. For example, you may want hidden and system files and folders, newer files and folders, as well as files matching selected criteria not to be overwritten by the archive files. While specifying the criteria, you can use the common Windows wildcard characters. For example, to preserve all files with extension .exe, add *.exe. My???.exe will preserve all .
to another dynamic disk or volume to unallocated space of the dynamic group to a basic disk If a dynamic volume is recovered to unallocated space of the dynamic group, the type of the recovered volume will be the same as it was in the archive. Manual resizing of dynamic volumes during recovery to dynamic disks is not supported. If you need to resize a dynamic volume during recovery, it should be recovered to a basic disk.
4. 5. 6. 7. the path to the image file by clicking Browse and selecting the disk and folder that stores the image. Choose Recover whole disks and partitions and select the Use Acronis Universal Restore box. If the target hardware has a specific mass storage controller (such as an SCSI, RAID, or Fibre Channel adapter) for the hard disk(s), specify where to find the driver(s) for the specific hardware at the Drivers manager step.
12 Try&Decide The Try&Decide feature allows creating a secure, controlled temporary workspace on your computer without requiring you to install special virtualization software. You can perform various system operations not worrying that you might damage your operating system, programs or data. After making virtual changes, you may apply them to your original system. If you make changes that you want to keep, you might want to commit those changes to the system.
Because of this, you can safely install system updates when they appear. When Windows Update informs you that updates for the system and Microsoft applications are ready for installing, turn on the Try&Decide mode and then proceed to install the updates. If you encounter any sort of problem, discard the changes and leave your real operating system and applications untouched.
When your computer reboots for whatever reason while working in the Try&Decide mode, before booting of the operating system starts, you will be shown a dialog offering you two choices – stop the mode and discard changes or continue working in the mode. This will allow you to discard the changes that have resulted in a system crash. On the other hand, if you reboot, for example, after installing an application, you can continue working in the Try&Decide mode after starting Windows.
Apply changes with reboot will speed up applying the changes. They will be applied after rebooting your computer Discard changes will return your system to the state it was in before turning on the Try&Decide mode Please note that while working in the Try&Decide mode you will experience slowing down of the system performance. Furthermore, the process of applying changes could take considerable time.
Notifications – specify whether Try&Decide should alert you when it uses up all the space allotted for saving virtual changes and after a specified time period has passed. By default all notifications are On. To change the default settings, click Change alert settings... You can always restore the default settings for the Try&Decide options by clicking Reset settings to default. 12.
3. Let your kid use the computer. When your kid is through with gaming or Internet surfing or when you think that it is time for the them to go to bed, return the system to the state it was in before they started using the computer. To do so, log on and discard the changes made during the Try&Decide session. It is well known that the "Add or Remove Programs" component of the Windows Control Panel cannot give a complete guarantee of cleanly uninstalling applications.
13 Scheduling tasks 13.1 Creating scheduled tasks You can schedule a new task in the Backup Wizard or Validate Wizard in the Scheduling step. It is also possible to create a scheduled task by clicking Create Backup Task or Create Validation Task on the toolbar of the Tasks and Log screen. If the backup archive you want to validate is password-protected , Acronis True Image Home will ask for it. 1. Perform task running scheduling.
startup box. The option does not work when your computer wakes up from “sleep” or “hibernate” mode. If you schedule a task for performing backup to a USB flash drive or external HDD, two more check boxes appear on the scheduling screen – If missed, run the task when device is attached and Run task only if the current device is attached. Selecting the first box will let you perform a missed backup when the USB storage device is attached if it was disconnected at the scheduled time.
13.1.2 Setting up upon event execution If you choose the upon event execution option, set the event upon which to execute the task: System startup – the task will be executed at every OS startup System shutdown – the task will be executed before every system shutdown or reboot User logon – the task will be executed each time the current user logs on to the OS User logoff – the task will be executed each time the current user logs off the OS. You can also specify the task Start date.
13.1.3 Setting up periodical execution If you choose the Periodically option, set the Start time and specify the interval between backups in hours and minutes. You can also specify the task Start date. 13.1.4 Setting up daily execution If you choose daily execution, set the Start time and days on which you want to execute the task: Every day Every weekday Every х days – once every several days (specify the interval).
You can also specify the task Start date. 13.1.5 Setting up weekly execution If you choose weekly execution, set the Start time, specify the task execution periodicity in the Run the task every x week(s) on: box (every week, every two weeks, etc.) and select the days on which to execute the task. You can also specify the task Start date. 13.1.6 Setting up monthly execution If you select monthly execution, set the Start time and days on which to execute the task: 113 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
On the – on the specified day (e.g. on the second Tuesday or fourth Friday); select this from the drop-down lists. On every: x day(s) of the month – on the specified date(s). For example, you may want the task to be executed on the 10th, 20th, and Last days of the month. You can also specify the task Start date. 13.
13.3 Managing scheduled tasks To manage the scheduled tasks, click Tasks and Log on the sidebar and you will go to the Tasks management screen with the Scheduled tasks tab selected by default in the right pane. The tab displays all scheduled tasks along with their name, status, schedule, last run time, last result, and owner. By default you see only your own tasks, but you have the option to view or manage tasks of other users.
b) At the "Backup method" step choose the "Full" method and unselect the "A new full backup overwrites the previous one" check box (selected by default). c) At the "Automatic consolidation" step it is necessary to select the "Number of backups exceeds" check box and set a limit of five backups, then finish configuring the backup task. The program will create full backups starting from the nearest Saturday and will accumulate the first five backups in the archive.
b) Open the default backup options by choosing Tools → Options → Backup options in the main menu. Click on Error handling and select the When not enough space in ASZ, delete the oldest archive box. c) When you come to the Scheduling step while configuring a backup task, select the Weekly option, leave the default value "Run the task every 1 week", then select a day of the week for making backups, e.g. Saturday. d) At the Backup method step choose the Full option.
When all three tasks run, they will implement exactly the backup scenario you want. This approach can be used for implementing any similar backup strategy. For instance, if you want to keep backup chains for two weeks, create two scheduled tasks each running every 2 weeks. To keep such backup chains for four weeks, it is necessary to create four tasks each running every 4 weeks, etc.
14 Managing Acronis Secure Zone The Acronis Secure Zone is a special partition for storing archives on the same computer that created the archive. For more information see Acronis Secure Zone™ (p. 20). When you select Tools & Utilities → Manage Acronis Secure Zone in the main menu, the program searches for the zone on all local drives. If the zone is found, the wizard will offer to manage it (resize or change the password) or delete it. If there is no zone, you'll be prompted to create it.
3. Select the partitions from whose space the zone will be created. 4. In the next window, enter the Acronis Secure Zone size or drag the slider to select any size between the minimum and maximum. The minimum size is about 50 MB, depending on the geometry of the hard disk. The maximum size is equal to the disk's unallocated space plus the total free space on all partitions selected at the previous step. When creating the zone, the program will first use the unallocated space.
5. Then you will see a list of operations to be performed on the partitions (disks). 6. You can set a password to restrict access to the zone. The program will ask for the password at any operation relating to it, such as data backup and recovery, mounting images or validating archives on the zone, resizing and deleting the zone. To set a password, click Options on the Summary window. Acronis True Image Home repair or update will not affect the password.
14.2 Resizing Acronis Secure Zone 1. If you want to resize the Acronis Secure Zone, select Tools & Utilities → Manage Acronis Secure Zone in the main menu. 2. Select to increase or decrease the zone size. You might need to increase it to provide more space for archives. The opposite situation may arise if any partition lacks free space. 3. Select partitions from which free space will be used to increase the size of Acronis Secure Zone or that will receive free space after the zone is reduced. 4.
2. Select Change password. 3. Enter the new password and confirm it or select Do not use password protection. You can also select a secret question that will be asked in case you forget the password. 4. To perform the password change operation, click Proceed in the final wizard window. 14.4 Deleting Acronis Secure Zone 1. If you want to remove the Acronis Secure Zone, select Tools & Utilities → Manage Acronis Secure Zone in the main menu and then choose Remove Acronis Secure Zone. 2.
15 Creating bootable media 15.1 Creating Linux-based rescue media You can run Acronis True Image Home from an emergency boot disk 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 archive by imaging the disk one sector at a time. To do so, you will need bootable media that has a copy of the standalone Acronis True Image Home version installed on it.
Acronis True Image Home offers the following components: Acronis True Image Home full version Includes support of USB, PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) and SCSI interfaces along with the storage devices connected via them, and therefore is strongly recommended. Acronis System Report This component allows you to generate a system report after booting from the rescue media when both Windows and Acronis True Image Home full version cannot start.
When using 3.5" diskettes, you will only be able to write one component at a time (for example, the full version of Acronis True Image Home) on a set of diskettes. To write another component, start Bootable Media Builder again. 4. If you are creating a CD, DVD or any removable media, insert a blank disc so the program can determine its capacity. If you choose to create a bootable disc ISO image, specify the ISO file name and the folder in which to place it. 5.
If you do not have the boxed version of Acronis True Image Home, you will need to download a separate installation file from your Acronis account: Go to My Account section Log in; Register the serial number for your copy of Acronis True Image Home (if it is not registered yet); Click Registered Products; Under the registered products click on Bart PE & Safe Media to download the plug-in. Install the plug-in as follows: 1. Double-click on the downloaded file to start installation. 2.
Make sure you have the Acronis True Image Home plug-in enabled on the Plugins screen: Close the Plugins window and click the Build button to start the building process. If you want the image to be burned to CD, select the Burn to CD option and choose the necessary burner in the Device menu; After the image is created, burn it to CD or DVD. (If you did not check the Burn to CD option at the previous step.) After booting from the CD/DVD, you can find the Acronis True Image Home plug-in in Go/System/Storage.
Windows Vista (PE 2.0) (also suitable for Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 or later) Windows Vista SP1 (PE 2.1) Windows 7 (PE 3.0) If you already have media with PE1.x distribution, unpack the media ISO to a local folder and start the Acronis WinPE ISO Builder by selecting it from Start → Acronis → Plus Pack for Acronis True Image Home 2010. The wizard will guide you through the necessary operations. Please refer to Adding the Acronis Plug-in to WinPE 1.x (p. 129) for details.
5. Specify the full path to the resulting ISO file including the file name. 6. Check your settings in the summary screen and click Proceed. 7. Burn the .ISO to CD or DVD using a third-party tool or copy to a flash drive. Once a machine boots into the WinPE, Acronis True Image Home starts automatically. 15.3.2 Adding the Acronis Plug-in to WinPE 2.x or 3.0 Acronis WinPE ISO Builder provides three methods of integrating Acronis True Image Home with WinPE 2.x and WinPE 3.
7. Check your settings in the summary screen and click Proceed. 8. Burn the .ISO to CD or DVD using a third-party tool or copy to a flash drive. Once a machine boots into WinPE, Acronis True Image Home starts automatically. Be aware that starting may take considerable time. To create a PE image (ISO file) from the resulting WIM file: replace the default boot.wim file in your Windows PE folder with the newly created WIM file. For the above example, type: copy c:\AcronisMedia.
16 Working with vhd files 16.1 Converting tib images into vhd virtual disks and vice versa Conversion operations are not supported in standalone versions of Acronis True Image Home that start when booting from the rescue media. 16.1.1 Converting to Windows backup Users of the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 can convert a tib image of the system partition into the vhd format if they want to use the converted vhd file for booting the operating system.
4. Click Proceed in the Summary window. When a tib image selected for conversion contains partitions, for example, from two physical hard disk drives, the program will create two vhd files corresponding to those physical drives. Acronis True Image Home cannot convert tib files containing images of spanned and striped dynamic volumes. 16.1.2 Converting to Acronis backup Windows Vista and Windows 7 users can convert vhd files created by Windows Backup into tib archives.
16.2 Recovery using vhd files created by Windows Backup If you used Windows Backup utility included into Windows Vista (except Home editions) and Windows 7 operating systems for backing up the system hard drive and later purchased Acronis True Image Home, you can recover your system hard drive from those Windows Backup utility backups (vhd files) using Acronis True Image Home. So, when you need to recover your system using a vhd backup file, proceed as follows: 1.
3. As actual booting is performed from VHD, the program needs to convert the selected tib file, so the appropriate dialog will appear. 4. Click OK if you want to save the converted file to the default location with the same name or browse for another location. Saving to another location allows changing the name of the vhd file. If there is not enough space for the converted file in the selected location, the program will notify you.
The Acronis Boot Sequence Manager tool is only available for users of the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7. 136 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
17 Exploring archives and mounting images Acronis True Image Home offers two kinds of archive contents management: mounting for images and exploring for both images and file-level archives. Exploring images and file-level archives lets you view their contents and copy the selected files to a hard disk. To explore a backup archive, double-click on the corresponding tib file. You can also rightclick on the file and choose Explore in the shortcut menu.
2. Select the archive for mounting. If you selected an archive containing incremental images, you can select one of the successive incremental images (also called "slices") by its creation date/time. Thus, you can explore the data state at a certain moment. To mount an incremental image, you must have all previous images and the initial full image. If any of the successive images are missing, mounting is not possible.
letters. If you would like to assign different drive letters to the partitions to be mounted, click Options. You can also 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 unselect the partition's checkbox. 4.
17.2 Unmounting an image We recommend that you unmount the virtual disk after all necessary operations are finished, as maintaining virtual disks takes considerable system resources. If you do not unmount the disk, it will disappear after your computer is turned off. To disconnect the virtual disk, choose Tools & Utilities → Unmount Image, select the disk to unmount and click OK. If you have mounted several partitions, by default all of them will be selected for unmounting.
18 Searching backup archives and their content 18.1 Searching In addition to the ability to explore backup archives, Acronis True Image Home provides a search facility for tib and zip archives themselves, for files in tib archives only, as well as offering full-text search in the comments to archives. This facilitates searching for the information you need for using Acronis True Image Home and for recovering files from your backup archives. Here's how you can search for the data you need. 1.
backup for vhd archives), Edit Comments, and Details buttons for tib archives, or Recover, Validate, Move, Remove, Update backup, Edit Comments, and Details buttons for zip archives. The Backup contents area shows results of searches for files and folders in tib archives. Doubleclicking on a filename opens the file. You can recover the file by right-clicking on its filename and choosing Recover in a shortcut menu.
Google Desktop has a "Quick Find" window. This window is filled with the most relevant results from your computer. The results change as you type, so you can quickly get to what you want on your computer. Windows Search provides similar functionality.
2. Verify that the plug-in is installed. Right-click on the Google Desktop icon in your system tray and select Options in the context menu. Google Desktop opens the Preferences window in your browser. Make sure that Acronis Indexer (Acronis Backups) is selected in the Indexing Plug-ins area. 3. Right-click on the Google Desktop icon in your system tray once more and select Indexing → ReIndex. Click Yes in the confirmation window that appears.
If you want to see all the search results, click the "See all N results in a browser" and you will see something like the screen shot below. 145 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
Clicking in the browser window on a line related to the desired file version opens a small dialog with just two options: View and Recover. Choosing View starts the application associated with this file type and opens the file. Choosing Recover starts Acronis True Image Home and you can then recover the file to a desired location.
2. You can verify that the tib support is enabled. Right-click on the Windows Search icon in your system tray and select Windows Desktop Search Options… in the context menu. The following window appears. Make sure that the "tib://..." item is present in the Included Locations list. To open the Indexing Options window in Windows Vista, open the Control Panel and then double-click the Indexing Options icon.
4. Click OK and while the Indexing Options window is open, check that the disks where you store your tib backup archives are shown in the "Included Locations" list. If the list does not contain those disks, the tib files will not be indexed. To include the disks, click Modify and select them in the window that appears. If you store backups on a network share, Windows Search can index them too.
Windows Search results Windows Vista Search results 149 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
19 Other operations 19.1 Validating backup archives The validation procedure checks whether you will be able to recover data from a particular backup, so when you select for validation… a full backup, the program validates the full backup only. an incremental backup, the program validates the initial full backup, the selected incremental backup, and the whole chain (if any) of backups to the selected incremental backup.
3. After entering the correct password you will be taken to the Scheduling step, where you can schedule validation of the backup or leave the default setting Do not schedule. 4. Clicking Proceed will start the validation procedure. If you have decided to validate the backup archive on schedule, the validation will proceed according to the schedule you set. After the validation is complete, you will see the results window. You can cancel validation by clicking Cancel. 19.
19.2.1 E-mail notification To set up e-mail notification, select Tools & Utilities → Options → Notifications → E-mail: Provide the e-mail address to which notifications will be sent as well as the outgoing SMTP server name and port. A user name and a password might also be needed if the SMTP server requires user authentication.
if the operation failed (check Add full log to the notification to add the full operation log to the message) during the operation when user interaction is required After setting up e-mail notifications, you can send a test mail message by clicking the appropriate button. 19.2.2 WinPopup notification WinPopup notification is not available in Windows Vista and Windows 7 because these operating systems do not support the Messenger Service.
The logs contain only partial information on operation of Acronis Online Backup and Acronis Nonstop Backup. The remaining information on operation of those features is written to their own log. That log is not available to users as it is intended for Acronis Support personnel to help in troubleshooting the issues users have with those features. It is included in Acronis System Report. To open the Tasks & Log screen, click Tasks & Log on the sidebar.
When the Log tab is selected, the upper pane shows the calendar, while the lower one shows logs' contents. To view the logs for a specific period, select the period by clicking the right arrow buttons in the From: and To: fields of the Show for the period area. Clicking the arrow in the From: field opens a pop-up calendar where you can set the start day of the period by double-clicking the appropriate day. Then set the end day using the same procedure for the To: field.
19.4 Managing backup archives After a while you may wish (or be forced) to manage your backup archives, for example, in order to free up some space for new backups by removing the oldest backups or those you no longer need. As now Acronis True Image Home stores information about the backup archives in a metadata information database, you must manage backup archives (e.g. delete or move some of them) by using the program's tools and not Windows Explorer.
Convert to Windows backup - see Converting to Windows backup (p. 132) (this item appears only if an image backup in the tib format is selected) Convert to Acronis backup - see Converting to Acronis backup (p. 133) (this item appears only if an image backup in the vhd format is selected) Details - viewing detailed information on the selected backup 19.
3. The program displays a list of backups belonging to the selected archive with their creation date and time. The top backup is the full backup; the rest are incremental backups. Select the backups you want to keep and click Next. 4. By default, the program selects the same location for the consolidated archive and the original backup archive will be overwritten.
You cannot choose another location when consolidating backups in an archive located in Acronis Secure Zone. 5. After choosing the new location click Proceed to start consolidation. In our example, when consolidation is complete, disk G will contain two new archives Disk1_backup2 and Disk1_backup4. Disk1_backup2 is a full backup and Disk1_backup4 is an incremental backup.
19.6 Removing backup archives You may want to remove backups and backup archives you no longer need. Because Acronis True Image Home stores information on the backup archives in a metadata information database, deleting unneeded archive files using Windows Explorer will not delete information about these archives from the database and Acronis True Image Home will consider that they still exist. This will result in errors when the program tries to perform operations on the backups that no longer exist.
20 Transferring the system to a new disk 20.1 General information Sooner or later, most computer users find that their hard disk is too small. If you just don't have space for more data, you can add another disk just for data storage as described in the following chapter. However, you might find that your hard disk does not have enough space for the operating system and installed applications, preventing you from updating your software or installing new applications.
No data will be lost because the original disk is only being read (no partitions are changed or resized). The system transfer procedure does not alter the original disk at all. After the procedure finishes, you might want to format the old disk or securely wipe the data it contains. Use Windows tools or Acronis DriveCleanser for these tasks.
20.3.2 Selecting source disk If the program finds several partitioned disks, it will ask you which one is the source (i.e. the older data disk). You can determine the source and destination using the information provided in this window (disk number, capacity, label, partition, and file system information). 20.3.3 Selecting destination disk After you select the source disk, you have to select the destination where the disk information will be copied.
20.3.4 Partitioned destination disk At this point, the program checks to see if the destination disk is free. If not, you will be prompted by the Conformation window stating that the destination disk contains partitions, perhaps with useful data. To confirm deletion of the partitions, click OK. Note that no real changes or data destruction will be performed at this time! For now, the program will just map out cloning. All changes will be implemented only when you click Proceed.
Manual – you will specify the new size and other parameters yourself If you elect to transfer information "as is," a new partition will be created for every old one with the same size and type, file system and label. The unused space will become unallocated. Afterwards, you will be able to use the unallocated space to create new partitions or to enlarge the existing partitions with special tools, such as Acronis Disk Director Suite.
Along with the hard disk number, you will see disk capacity, label, partition, and file system information. Different partition types, including primary, logical, and unallocated space are marked with different colors. First, select a partition to resize and click Edit on the toolbar. This will open the Partition Settings window, where you can resize and relocate the partition.
Having provided the new location and size, click Accept. You will be taken back to the Change disk layout window. You might have to perform some more resizing and relocation before you get the layout you need. 20.3.7 Cloning summary The cloning summary window graphically (as rectangles) illustrates information about the source disk (partitions and unallocated space) and the destination disk layout.
21 Adding a new hard disk If you don't have enough space for your data, you can either replace the old disk with a new highercapacity one (data transfers to new disks are described in the previous chapter), or add a new disk only to store data, leaving the system on the old disk. If the computer has a bay for another disk, it would be easier to add a data disk drive than to clone a system drive. To add a new disk, you must first install it in your computer. 21.
Select a file system for the new partition. You may select a partition letter of your choice (or leave the default one) and input a label for the new partition in the corresponding field. Finally, select a partition type. Click the Accept button and you will be taken back to the Partition Creation screen. Check the resulting partition's settings and start creating another partition by clicking Create new partition again.
After you click Proceed, Acronis True Image Home will start creating new partition(s), indicating the progress in a special window. You can stop this procedure by clicking Cancel. You will then have to repartition and format the new disk or repeat the disk add procedure. 170 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
22 Security and Privacy Tools Acronis True Image Home includes tools for secure destruction of data on an entire hard disk drive, individual partitions, as well as for erasing individual files and eliminating user system activity traces. These tools ensure the security of your confidential information, as well as maintain your privacy when you work with a PC, because they clean-up the evidence showing your actions (records in various system files) that you don't even know about.
3. By default the program will use the Fast method (see Hard Disk Wiping Methods (p. 191)). You can also choose one of the other preset data destruction methods from the drop-down list. Clicking Proceed after you select the desired method will start the task execution (if the Proceed button is unselectable, click Finish on the sidebar and select the Destroy the selected files and folders irreversibly box to enable the Proceed button). 22.
Click Next to continue. If the disks and/or partitions you have selected include the system disk or partition, you will see a warning window. Be careful, because clicking OK in this warning window and then Proceed in the Summary window will result in wiping the system partition containing your Windows operating system. Acronis DriveCleanser utilizes a number of the most popular data destruction methods described in detail in Hard Disk Wiping Methods (p. 191) of this manual.
In the Post-wiping actions window Acronis DriveCleanser offers you three choices: No action — just destroy data using the method selected below Delete partitions — destroy data and delete partition(s) Format — destroy data and format partition (default) In this example, the switch is set to Format. This will allow you to see the results of partition and data destruction, along with the reformatting of the partition. You cannot delete partitions on dynamic and GPT disks.
The aforementioned algorithms offer various levels of confidential data destruction. Thus the picture you might see on a disk or partition depends on the data destruction method. But what you actually see are disk sectors filled with either zeros or random symbols. 22.3 Creating custom algorithms of data destruction Acronis DriveCleanser gives you the opportunity to create your own algorithms for wiping hard disks.
Having created a custom method, you can save the algorithm you created. This will be handy if you are going to use it again. To save your algorithm, you need to give it a filename and show the path to the folder you want to store it in by selecting the folder from the tree shown in the left pane. Each custom algorithm is stored in a separate file with its own name. If you try to write a new algorithm to a pre-existing file, the existing file's contents will be erased.
After you run the wizard by selecting Tools & Utilities → System Clean-up in the main program menu, it will search for any traces of user actions stored by Windows. When the search is finished, its results will be available at the top of the wizard window. You can view the search results and manually select the items you wish to remove. 22.
22.5.2 "Files" setting The "Files" setting defines the names of files to clean with System Clean-up Wizard and can be used with a search string. Under the Windows operating system, a search string can represent a full or partial filename. A search string can contain any alphanumeric symbols, including commas and Windows wildcard symbols, and can have values similar to the following: *.* – to clean all files with any file names and extensions *.
As a result, all computer search strings will be deleted from the registry. After entering the "Computers" setting value, you can browse the search strings found by the System Clean-up Wizard in the registry. To do so, click Show Computers. You will see the window with full and partial computer names searched for in the network. These items will be deleted. 22.5.4 "Drive Free Space" setting Here you can manually specify physical and/or logical drives to clean up free space on.
This will result in removing commands with names corresponding to or containing any of the names or parts of names you entered. 22.5.6 "Network Places Filter" setting Here you can enter (separated by semicolons) any hostnames or IP addresses of network places, servers, FTP servers, network shares, etc. to which you have made connection by supplying network credentials (a username and password). While entering hostnames and IP addresses you can use * and ? wildcards.
23 Troubleshooting 23.1 General The below sections may help you in troubleshooting issues encountered during installation and use of Acronis True Image Home. Among other information the Troubleshooting chapter includes links to Acronis Support Knowledge Base (KB) articles intended for helping to solve issues with Acronis products.
3. Log in to Vista’s built-in administrator account and try to install the program: a. Click Start → All Programs, then find and open the "Accessories" folder. b. Right-click on the "Command Prompt" item and select "Run as administrator". c. Type the following command line in to the opened window: net user administrator /active:yes Take note that there is a space between "Administrator" and "/active:yes". d. Log off the current account and log in to the “Administrator” account. e.
- If the issue persists, try the solutions provided in Acronis Support KB article "Acronis Backup Software Scheduled Tasks Do Not Run" by clicking the following link: http://kb.acronis.com/content/1518. The RPC server is unavailable When a backup task is supposed to run according to its schedule or after starting a task manually, you get an error message: Error #1722 - "The RPC server is unavailable".
23.4 Recovery issues System and/or data recovery after a disaster is the most important operation performed with Acronis True Image Home. Indeed what's the value of a backup program that cannot recover backed up data? If you have problems with recovery, try the following actions: 1) First of all make sure that you have the latest build of Acronis True Image Home. You can download it through your Acronis account.
The machine BIOS is configured to boot from another hard disk drive (HDD). Solution: Configure the BIOS to boot from the HDD where the operating system resides. In some cases BIOS has two menus for setting the boot sequence: one for setting the boot devices priority and the other - for setting the HDD boot order. Windows was recovered to a dynamic volume that cannot be set bootable Solution: Recover Windows to a basic or simple dynamic volume.
Acronis product reboots in Windows Native Mode, but the cloning process finishes after a few seconds with no result. To handle the issue, see the Acronis Support KB article "Acronis Product Fails to Clone After Reboot". You do not receive E-mail notifications How to work around the situation when the set up E-mail notifications fail to be received can be found through the following Acronis Support KB article "E-mail Notifications Fail in Acronis True Image".
24 Hard Disks and Boot Sequence 24.1 Arranging boot sequence in BIOS BIOS has a built-in setup utility for initial computer configuration. To enter it, you have to press a certain key combination (Del, F1, Ctrl+Alt+Esc, Ctrl+Esc, or some other, depending on your BIOS) during the POST (power-on self test) sequence that starts immediately after you turn your computer on. Usually the message with the required key combination is displayed during the startup test.
1. Configure the new hard disk as slave by properly installing jumpers on its controller board. Disk drives generally have a picture on the drive that shows the correct jumper settings. 2. Open your computer and insert the new hard disk into a 3.5'' or 5.25'' slot with special holders. Fasten down the disk with screws. 3. Plug the power cable into the hard disk (four-threaded: two black, yellow and red; there is only one way you can plug in this cable). 4.
the marked thread connected to pin #1 of the socket. A similar rule was used for connecting cables with the motherboard. Incorrect connection of the cable with either the hard disk or the motherboard does not necessarily damage the electronics of the disk or the motherboard. The hard disk is simply not detected or initialized by BIOS. There are some models of hard disks, especially the older ones, for which incorrect connection damaged the electronics of the drive.
24.2.4 Installing a SATA hard drive Most recently manufactured PCs use the SATA interface for hard drives. In general, installing a SATA hard drive is easier than an IDE drive, as it is not necessary to configure master-slave jumpers. SATA drives use a thin interface cable with seven-pin keyed connectors. This improves airflow through the PC case. Power is supplied to SATA drives through 15-pin connectors.
a new hard disk (p. 168). Then configure your BIOS to boot from the SATA controller and boot from the SATA hard drive to ensure it works. 24.3 Hard Disk Wiping methods Information removed from a hard disk drive by non-secure means (for example, by simple Windows delete) can easily be recovered. Utilizing specialized equipment, it is possible to recover even repeatedly overwritten information. Therefore, guaranteed data wiping is more important now than ever before.
24.3.2 Information wiping methods used by Acronis The table below briefly describes information wiping methods used by Acronis. Each description features the number of hard disk sector passes along with the number(s) written to each sector byte. The description of built-in information wiping methods No. Algorithm (writing method) Passes Record 1. United States Department of Defense 5220.
25 Startup Parameters Additional parameters that can be applied prior to booting Linux kernel. 25.1 Description Additional parameters that can be applied prior to booting Linux kernel Description The following parameters can be used to load Linux kernel in a special mode: acpi=off Disables ACPI and may help with a particular hardware configuration. noapic Disables APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) and may help with a particular hardware configuration.
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.
