Has anyone used Acronis True Image 8.0 to make clone of factory fresh hard drive?

I do it all the time with TrueImage 8. I couldn't get Ghost to work for me. I use an external USB2 hard drive to store my images.

You can boot either on the TrueImage 8 CD or on your internal drive and then create the image of your drive and store it on the external drive or cd's, dvd's, etc. Whenever you want to, you can restore the image to your internal drive and the hidden partitions will actually work just like when you got the computer. All partitions can be copied and restored.

You must create the image before you change your hard drive (while the hidden partitions still work).

Mandatory...

Would you know if True Image 8.0 supports live backups, meaning it creates an image while the OS (XP Home in my situation) is running and dosn't need to reboot into DOS to make the image?

Thanks

-Mike

Thanks again Mandatory.

One more question and then I'll leave you alone.    :smileyhappy:

What destination interfaces and media does True Image 8.0 support? Meaning can it create the image on an exteral USB 2.0 harddrive, internal optical drive, etc.?

Thanks

-Mike

I'm verifying my drive image on cds right now. It was a rather easy process to image teh whole drive and took 9 cds at high compression.

Btw - I downloaded True Image last night from Tucows for a bit cheaper than the manufacturer's site.

Ok, I just answered my own question.

On Acronis' site it mentions all of the drive types supported. It says it does support optical (both CD and DVD), USB 1 and 2, 1394, etc.

Nice!

-Mike

OK, one more question.

does True Image really create a true "image" of the drive?

Meaning,  is the image file-based or is it sector-based?

Thanks

-Mike

Message Edited by mandatory on 03-31-2005 09:35 PM

I understand what you are asking,  but I'm not sure if the answer will tellyou what you want to know.

True image will backup a drive (or partition) into an image file.  I have made a drive imae using TI8,  and then replaced my internal HD and restored the image onto the new drive and as far as my system was concerned,  nothing had changed except that the C: drive now had an additional 20GB of free space because I restored a 60GB image onto an 80GB drive (and specified to enlarge the partition).

Since TI8 allows you to create incremental backups,  I do not think that it does a sector based backup,  but rather it does a file basd backup.  From looking at the help PDF file for TI Server 8,  Here is some info I see:

TI8 does allow you a "Clone Drive" option which makes a copy of one drive onto another,  but I have not used that functionality myself.

JersWork, I share your skepticism about TrueImage making sector-based images.  I suspect it's really file-based.  There's one way to tell for sure, so maybe some of you people who own TI can run an experiment for the rest of us: start with a partition that has fragmented files, then image it, then restore it, and finally compare the level of fragmentation of the restored partition to the original.  Sector-based imagers will preserve the fragmentation, while file-based imagers should naturally defrag the partition as part of the process.

JersWork and dg1261:

You took the words right out of my mouth.  :smileyhappy:

It appears that TrueImage is really file-based (which really isn't a true image if we want to get technical about it).

This can be good or bad, depending on what one's needs are. For testing purposes this may be bad since a restore will LOOSE all fragmentation, metadata and attributes. For general use, this may be OK, since most folk's intent is to be able to restore a "baseline" in case of a system crash, virus or HD upgrade.

But to call it "True Image" is rather misleading.

I also agree that the trial version is rather crippling, since it only creates basically a WOM (write-only-memory) file.   :smileyindifferent:

For my needs, however, I need an app that can create a compressed file of a baselined HD and then, in the case of an upgrade, virus, etc. I can restore from that file and have the system back to THAT EXACT baseline state (independant of fragmentation). Can True Image do this for me?

Without having to experiment with my hard-earned currency, in my humble opinion, I feel  that a time-trial is better then a cripple-ware one.

Anyway, it appears that "True Image"????  may do what I need it to do, which is to backup a baselined HD, and then in the case of a virus, HD upgrade, etc. can restore that backup and be back to my baseline...   Is my thinking correct or am I still missing something?   :smileyhappy:

Thanks

-Mike

Message Edited by Simmerheli on 04-03-2005 09:04 AM

Message Edited by Simmerheli on 04-03-2005 09:06 AM

Message Edited by Simmerheli on 04-03-2005 09:14 AM

True image worked for me.

However Digial Dolly is Free for home users.

http://www.innotrix.com/index.htm

I think named after the sheep that got cloned called Dolly.

Ok, here is a description from the Aconis site: