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I have successfully restored systems from the RAID1 drives, yes.
(You said "restore onto" but I think you meant "restore from", yes?)
In fact, after many, many years (I think since 2002), I finally
decided to do a clean install of XP. (Photoshop CS4 would *not*
install, because of some legacy Adobe and Macromedia stuff, and even
their tech support finally threw up their hands and suggested I
reinstall the OS.)
The first thing I did was to clean install XP to a virtual machine,
making sure it was fully updated, fire-walled and anti-virused. Then
I installed some key apps, including Photoshop and AB. There were
absolutely no problems. When I had all my myriad custom settings
matched in both the real and virtual systems, I backed up the virtual
machine to the USB RAID setup, and with a full system backup there,
too, (just in case) I attempted to use Universal Restore to restore
the VM XP system partition to my real system partition.
Absolutely no problems whatsoever. (It's been about 3 weeks now, and
I haven't yet nuked the old system backup, but I'm getting ready to.)
If your backup destination is a network drive, I suspect you would
have to have the server version of the software, but I am not
positive about that. Maybe not; maybe just the workstation version,
but I doubt that the home version of Acronis will do it.
There is at least one other thing I know that you might need to
consider: The two versions of XP (Home and Pro) are not equal. It is
impossible, for example, to install the TI Agent on Home versions.
So you may have some trouble doing what you want network-wise if you
have the Home version of XP. You can find a lot of information about
this stuff at the Acronis site.
I'm surprised you could even try a restore once you changed the RAID
configuration. Usually, changing RAID configurations wipes all the
drives. But maybe I did not understand what you did.
The newest USB RAID setups can be configured to run either on 'Auto'
or 'Manual'. And I don't even know why anyone would consider 'Auto'.
The auto setting (it's a toggle switch on back of the unit with mine)
means that the unit is powered up *ONLY* when it is getting a USB
signal from the OS. Yes, this means that when you remove the device
with Windows safe removal option, the OS stops sending a USB signal
there, so the device powers off automatically, even though the power
switch is in the ON position. I find this really odd. You have to
switch OFF, then back ON to power up the unit again, or reboot.
But booting with the setup on auto is an odd experience. Apparently
the OS (or the BIOS, or something during boot) sends, then stops
sending, then finally again sends a USB signal. So the device will
shutoff, then come on, then shutoff again, then once again power on.
Very disconcerting to me.
More importantly, it seems to bother the Acronis recovery program run
from a boot CD. If you leave the unit on auto, for some reason
Acronis does not seem to see it until you power off and then power on
again, being sure to power on while the "Loading Acronis" message is
displayed on the screen. But in manual (drive always on unless you
flip the power switch), it's apparently seen immediately by the
Acronis program when it loads from boot. The problem seems to be
that after initially getting a USB signal at some point during the
boot (power to the unit then goes ON), the signal then is cut when
the bootable CD is detected, which cuts the power to the USB unit
just when you want the now-loading recovery program to detect it. No
thanks; I don't want to play around like that. At first, I thought
the recovery program was never going to be able to read that RAID
setup, and that I had a real problem. But I finally figured it all
out with a little trial and error, and the manual from the RAID gear
explaining Auto and Manual. Default was Auto. As I say, no thanks.
I just think I'd rather turn the drive off myself when I want it off
-- one can configure these drives with either cache enabled
(*potentially* better performance, but the possibility of data loss
if you do a hot unplug) or disabled (I think my performance is the
same because when my system is writing to that setup I have nothing
else going on, so there is not really any need for the system to
cache anything anyway), which allows you to unplug the drive without
any warning or preparation, assuming you are not going to unplug it
in the middle of a backup operation, of course. ^_^
I've heard horror stories about Ghost, but some people swear by it of
course. Since they insist on .NET now, I have no need to even review
the product.
Yuki
Sunday, January 4, 2009, 4:00:35 PM, you wrote:
JB> Yuki,
JB> Did you have the opportunity to actually use Acronis True
JB> Image to restore your complete system (bare metal restore)
JB> onto the raid1 drive you use?
JB> The reason for my question is that I was using Norton Ghost
JB> and felt secure until I needed to restore my system from an
JB> image I created (from a raid1 HD). It failed to restore to
JB> the same raid1 drive but if I disabled the raid everything
JB> functioned ok. I had to start reinstalling windows from
JB> scratch in order to keep my raid configuration ;(
JB> Also, does Acronis True Image work with a backup destination
JB> that is a network drive? (this would apply to a backup of a
JB> laptop).
JB> --
JB> Joseph Biran
JB> ____________________________________________
JB> -----Original Message-----
JB> From: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Yuki Taga
JB> Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 4:04 PM
JB> To: Lester Vanhoff
JB> Subject: Acronis True Image Re: [amibroker] Re: Re: Curing
JB> AmiBroker slowdowns with a system restore
JB> Lester, on what do you base your claim that USB drives are
JB> any less reliable than others? I've got a Buffalo twin 1-TB
JB> in a RAID1 configuration, and I've never had a hint of any
JB> problem. And a six-year-old Buffalo 120 GB USB is still in
JB> perfect operating condition, other than the fact that I
JB> cannot use it for an entire system backup anymore, because
JB> of the size. (Thank you, 15 megabyte RAW files.)
JB> Also, a tip for something I *finally* solved in conjunction
JB> with Acronis and my backup configuration. For a long time
JB> with this RAID setup, I was getting ftdisk or disk errors in
JB> the System log, for about 1 to 2 hours after a nightly
JB> backup was completed. Then the errors would stop (about 5
JB> am in the morning). I could not solve it until I finally
JB> looked at each and every item in Tools > Options > Default
JB> Backup Options > Additional Settings. Unchecked by default,
JB> is a line item: "Dismount media after backup is finished".
JB> I checked that, and from that moment on I never had another
JB> ftdisk or disk error in the System log. I should add here
JB> that the errors did not mean anything -- the data was fine.
JB> Oddly enough, as far as Windows is concerned, the USB drives
JB> are still mounted in the morning. So the "dismount" must be
JB> Acronis from the drives, rather than the drives from
JB> Windows. But I think Acronis ought to fix this so that it
JB> doesn't spit out dozens upon dozens of yellow triangles in
JB> the log. (Why the default would be not to dismount prior to
JB> program close, I cannot imagine.) They could overhaul that
JB> interface, too. The sub windows (such as the one you get to
JB> above) are much too small and don't stay sized, and resizing
JB> them has an clunky feel about it. When I "drill down", I
JB> like to see where I've been, as well as where I am and where
JB> I'm going. ^_^
JB> Excellent program however. I've accomplished numerous
JB> restores and never had a bit or a byte out of place to my
JB> knowledge. That's what we pay for: peace of mind.
JB> I'll add that in your "the way it works" explanation, maybe
JB> you forgot to say that one has a choice, too, of either
JB> restoring entire partitions, or just restoring files or
JB> folders. And in the later case it's sometimes just as easy,
JB> or even easier, to simply mount the image and do a manual
JB> copy across, than to sort through all the dialog options for
JB> a restore.
JB> BTW, I've always had an uneasy feeling about the Secure Zone
JB> feature of Acronis. To me, that just adds one more layer of
JB> complexity between a restore and the data. (If, for any
JB> reason, TI cannot solve the Secure Zone -- that it exists on
JB> the drive -- then I cannot see how it can possibly restore
JB> the data that resides there, nor can I see how one could use
JB> the OS to make that data visible to the
JB> program.) So I never used it and still don't. But TI has
JB> never failed to restore (never had an unreadable backup), so
JB> I have no particular reason to think it might fail to
JB> decipher the Secure Zone.
JB> I just like to keep things as simple as possible.
JB> Finally, I never bother to verify my images after writing
JB> them anymore. First, I've never had an image that did not
JB> verify, and second, according to posters on Acronis forums,
JB> a verified image still is no guarantee that the image can be
JB> restored or mounted. So I don't bother with verifying now.
JB> (The verify process only verifies that *all* data on the
JB> image can be read; it does *not* compare data on the image
JB> with source data.)
JB> Yuki
JB> Sunday, January 4, 2009, 6:24:26 AM, you wrote:
>>> I can take a product like this and save my complete hard
JB> drive on say
>>> a usb hard drive and it will automaticly backup the
JB> complete hard
>>> drive when ever I want it to do it.
JB> LV> 1) The backup can be stored on your disk, in the secure
JB> partition
JB> LV> which is not visible to Windows XP / Vista. On the
JB> screenshot below
JB> LV> it is shown as "Logical Disk - Unknown (BC) and has no
JB> drive letter:
JB> LV>
JB> http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/7749/01032009160435kv5.pn
JB> g
JB> LV> 2) Another method is to store the backup on an external
JB> hard drive.
JB> LV> USB drive is not a good idea because they are not very
JB> reliable.
>>> Then if I have hard drive problems, I can put the copy
JB> that is on the
>>> [external] hard drive on my machine hard drive and it
JB> will be just
>>> like it was, with all programs and files the same as the
JB> last backup?
JB> LV> That's right. The backup copy has it's own mini-OS (it
JB> doesn't need
JB> LV> Windows). You boot into the external drive (or into the
JB> secure
JB> LV> partition) and follow the prompts.
JB> LV> My Windows XP takes about 8 GB of disk space and
JB> restoring all this
JB> LV> from Acronis secure partition takes about 4 minutes.
>>> This type of software is something everyone should have.
JB> LV> Absolutely correct.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Lester Vanhoff
>>>
>>> Microsoft's System Restore is very unreliable. It's
JB> just dumb luck
>>> that it worked for you. Consider getting a disk imaging
JB> application
>>> and do the disk image backup every day. One of the best
JB> programs is
>>> Acronis True Image, I've been using it for years. The
JB> way it works,
>>> when you get into a problem, it wipes out (formats) the
JB> whole disk
>>> (or selected partitions), including your operating
JB> system, and then
>>> restores everything from the backup image.
>>>
>>>
JB> http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
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