Update 3 User Guide
Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2011. All rights reserved. "Acronis", "Acronis Compute with Confidence", "Acronis Recovery Manager", "Acronis Secure Zone", Acronis True Image, Acronis Try&Decide, and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis, 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. Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Table of contents 1 Getting started ......................................................................................................................8 1.1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................................8 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.4 1.1.5 1.1.6 1.1.7 What is Acronis® True Image Home 2011™? ................................................................................................
3.11.10 3.11.11 3.11.12 3.11.13 3.11.14 3.11.15 Error handling ................................................................................................................................................ 68 Computer shutdown ..................................................................................................................................... 69 File-level security settings for backup..........................................................................................................
6 Backing up to Acronis Online Storage ................................................................................. 107 6.1.1 6.1.2 6.1.3 6.1.4 6.2 Acronis True Image Online settings .......................................................................................118 6.2.1 6.2.2 6.2.3 6.2.4 6.2.5 6.2.6 6.2.7 6.2.8 7 Connection attempts ..................................................................................................................................
9 Tools & Utilities ................................................................................................................. 158 9.1 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager .......................................................................................159 9.1.1 9.1.2 9.2 Creating bootable rescue media............................................................................................160 9.2.1 9.2.2 9.2.3 9.3 General information.......................................................
11 7 Glossary of Terms ..............................................................................................................
1 Getting started 1.1 Introduction In this section What is Acronis® True Image Home 2011™? ............................................. 8 What is Acronis True Image Home 2011 Plus Pack? .................................. 9 Acronis True Image Home 2011 basic concepts ........................................ 9 New in Acronis True Image Home 2011 ..................................................12 System requirements and supported media ...........................................14 Technical Support .....
When performing scheduled backups, Acronis True Image Home 2011 automatically selects a backup mode (full, incremental, differential), in accordance with the backup scheme set by the user. You can store backups on almost any PC storage device. Windows-style interface and wizards will make your work easier. Just perform a few simple steps and let Acronis True Image Home 2011 take care of everything else! When a system problem occurs, the software will get you up and running in no time. 1.1.
Backups are useful primarily for two purposes. The first is to restore a state following a disaster (called disaster recovery). The second is to recover small numbers of files after they have been accidentally deleted or corrupted. Acronis True Image Home 2011 does both by creating disk (or partition) images and file-level backups respectively. By default, Acronis True Image Home 2011 stores an image of those hard disk sections that contain data (for supported file systems).
Snapshots Acronis True Image Home 2011 uses "snapshot" technology which permits you to create system partition backups even while running Windows with files open for reading and writing. Rebooting the computer is not necessary. Once the program starts the partition backup process, it temporarily freezes all the operations on the partition and creates its "snapshot". Snapshot creation usually takes just several seconds. After that, the operating system continues working as the imaging process is under way.
from a tib file containing the system partition image. It converts the tib file into a VHD file which is then used for actual booting. If you can boot from the converted vhd file, you will be able to boot after recovering this backup to your disk. Consolidation Consolidation allows you to delete backups which are no longer needed from a backup chain. A chain to be consolidated can be comprised of a full backup and one or more incremental backups.
Check points - The Acronis Backup Explorer timeline shows Windows and software installation and update dates. Moving your mouse over a check point opens a balloon with information about the update or software. With check points you can check the changes to your system and recover the system to a specific backed up state. USB 3.0 support – Acronis True Image Home 2011 supports the new USB 3.0 standard. If your motherboard can work with USB 3.
1.1.5 System requirements and supported media 1.1.5.1 Minimum system requirements Acronis True Image Home 2011 has minimum hardware requirements corresponding to that of the operating system installed on the computer to be used for running Acronis True Image Home 2011. In addition Acronis True Image Home 2011 requires the following hardware: CD-RW/DVD-RW drive for bootable media creation Mouse or other pointing device (recommended) Using Acronis Nonstop Backup requires at least 1 GB RAM.
1.1.5.4 Supported storage media Hard disk drives* Networked storage devices FTP servers** CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R (including double-layer DVD+R), DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, BD-R, BDRE*** USB 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0, FireWire (IEEE-1394) and PC card storage devices REV® and other removable media * Acronis True Image Home 2011 does not support the following dynamic volume types: Mirrored and RAID-5.
To purchase the full version, please visit http://www.acronis.com/buy/atih/ Click Go to main screen to start Acronis True Image Home 2011 trial version. Click Buy now to go to the official Acronis online store. Click Activate if you have already purchased the full version and have a valid product serial number. 1.2 Acronis True Image Home 2011 installation Installing Acronis True Image Home 2011 To install Acronis True Image Home 2011: 1. Run the setup file.
by Acronis Media Builder for placing on the bootable media and you will be able to add Acronis True Image Home 2011 safe version when creating your bootable rescue media. BartPE (Bart Preinstalled Environment) is a bootable Windows CD/DVD created from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD. Applications are installed into BartPE in the form of plug-ins and the Acronis True Image Home 2011 plug-in can be included into the BartPE plug-in tab.
4. After the install wizard window opens, choose Typical, Custom or Complete installation for repairing or changing the program's components. Upgrading from old versions of Acronis True Image Home If you already have Acronis True Image Home installed, the new version will simply update it; there is no need to remove the old version and reinstall the software.
If you have a large number of preexisting backups or if the overall performance of your system is low, the search for backups may take a long time. In this case, the Welcome screen may also appear. Welcome screen offers you to choose the following items: Back up my critical data Select this item to use the Acronis One-Click Backup tool that allows you to begin protecting your computer as soon as you install Acronis True Image Home 2011.
When you choose to protect your critical data, the program will offer to back up the system partition and your personal data to a destination it considers the optimum place for backups (see the destination selection algorithm below). You can choose another destination for backups by clicking the down arrow to the right of the destination and browsing for a destination you prefer. By default, Acronis True Image Home 2011 will schedule subsequent full backups of the system partition once a month.
1. First of all, the program estimates the space required for operation of the One-Click Backup tool. 2. If there is an external hard drive with enough free space, the backups will be stored on that drive because such backup location will provide better protection for your computer. 3. If the first option is unavailable but you have at least two internal hard drives, the program will back up to a non-system hard drive using a partition with the maximum free space. 4.
your system from a crash, you must create a bootable rescue media or activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. This will allow you to recover your system if Windows does not start. Files and folders - select this item to back up your documents, including photos, videos, music, text files and any other files and folders. Such a backup allows to recover your documents from a virus attack, accidental deletion and corruption.
If you have not created any backups yet, the program will offer to create a new backup with Acronis One-Click Backup tool or manually. If you have at least one backup, the screen will display the list of your backups. Add backups area To create a new or add an existing backup to the backup list, you can use the Add backups area.
schedule. To be able to perform the unavailable operations, you may recreate the settings of the added backup by selecting Operations → Recreate backup settings (for more information, see "Operations menu" later in this section). My backups menu The My backups menu contains the following items: Explore all backups - allows you to explore all your backups in the Acronis Backup Explorer using the time line. Validate all backups - checks the integrity of all your backups.
Operations menu Clicking Operations in the box of a selected backup opens an Operations menu containing the following items: Open backup location - opens the folder containing the backup files. Validate backup - starts backup validation. Edit backup settings - allows editing of the current backup settings.
In case of Nonstop Backup the Operations menu will have less items. The Operations menu of backups created on another computer and added to the backup list without importing the backup settings will also have less items. To collapse an expanded backup box into a narrow strip, right-click in the free area of the box and select Collapse in the shortcut menu. You can also collapse an expanded backup box by doubleclicking on it.
1.3.3 Tools & Utilities screen This screen allows you to select the tools and utilities provided by Acronis True Image Home 2011. To go to the screen, click Tools & Utilities in the main menu. Launch the required tool or utility by clicking the appropriate link. For more information see Tools & Utilities (p. 158). To return to the main screen, click the "Back to" button in the navigation field at the top of the screen or Home in the same field. 1.3.
Wizards have a sidebar listing all the steps (both required and optional) needed for completing the operation. For example, see the Manage Acronis Secure Zone 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. Check the summary of the operation to be performed and then click Proceed to start the operation.
The tab shows the disks and partitions state of when the current backup version was created. You can switch between the backup versions by using the time line at the bottom of the screen. For more information see Time line. To recover disks and/or partitions: 1. On the time line, select the backup version from which you want to recover your disks/partitions. The version's exact date and time will be displayed near the backup name. Your data will be recovered to the state it was at that point in time. 2.
Right-clicking on a backup version opens the shortcut menu with other available operations: Recover - select to recover the current backup version. Validate - select to check the integrity of the backup version data. Convert to Windows backup (for image backups) - select to convert the backup version's TIB file to VHD file. Mount (for image backups) - select to mount the backup version as a disk. Delete version - select to delete the backup version (the backup chain will not be corrupted).
Mixed (filled square) - this state is available for folders only and indicates that some items in the folder are selected and the others are not. Note that you cannot set the state by clicking the check box, but you can change it to a cleared or selected state. Selecting a disk, partition, file or folder to make it the current item in a list does not mean selecting it for recovery! The majority of user interface elements located on this tab are described in the Disks and partitions tab (p. 28) section.
Nonstop Backup, and brown for other backups, e.g. created by a previous Acronis True Image Home 2011 version). The picture below shows various states of a time line. Its states vary depending on the number of backups and the time interval through which you are navigating. The "Now" interval shows backup versions created during the last hour.
When today is any date from the 16th to 31st day of the month, the "month" interval is named "This month". In that case the time line shows backup versions created from the beginning of the current month to the "week" interval. The "This year" interval shows backup versions created from the beginning of the current year to the “month” interval. The "Older" interval shows backup versions created from earlier than the beginning of the current year.
Delete version File backup version: Validate Delete version Nonstop backup version and Acronis True Image Online version: Explore and recover Delete version Backup version packs and time blocks: Right-clicking on a folded version pack or time interval's block opens the shortcut menu with a single item: Expand Viewing additional information on the time line You can also set up the time line to show additional information. The appropriate commands are available in the View submenu.
The most significant changes occur in the System and Security category of Windows 7 Control Panel. Acronis True Image Home 2011 replaces Windows Backup in the Backup and Restore item. If you first installed Acronis True Image Home 2011 without performing backups, the Backup and Restore window allows you to create a backup using Acronis One-Click Backup tool. When you have created backups, the Backup and Restore window will show the Nonstop Backup box and the box of your oldest disk or partition backup.
1.3.6.1 Integration settings You can select the Acronis components that should be integrated into Windows. Acronis console in Windows Control Panel (available for Windows 7 users only) Select this item to replace Windows Backup with Acronis console in the Windows Control Panel. In such a case, you will be able to manage your backups without running Acronis True Image Home 2011.
2 How to Due to the size of this User's Guide, it is sometimes not so easy to find how to perform a particular task. This section lists some frequently used tasks and provides links to the appropriate parts of the User's Guide. Click the corresponding page number (or the link, if you are viewing the Help), if you need information on how to: protect your entire system from a disaster (p. 131) clone your disk drive (p.
3 Backing up data Acronis True Image Home 2011 includes a wealth of sophisticated backup capabilities that would please even an IT professional. They allow you to back up your disks (partitions), files, and e-mail. You can choose a backup feature that suits you most or use them all. The below sections describe the backup features in more detail. In this section The difference between file backups and disk/partition images ............38 Full, incremental and differential backups ..........................
A disk image includes images of all disk partitions and the zero track with the master boot record (MBR). By default, files in all Acronis True Image Home 2011 backups have a ".tib" extension. This extension should not be changed. It is important to note that you can recover files and folders from both file backups and from disk/partition images. To do so, mount the image as a virtual disk (see Mounting an image (p.
A "differential" backup scenario uses the same weekly full system backup with the backup of files that have changed since the last full backup on a daily basis. While this scheme takes up progressively more storage space as each new day of the week passes, a recovery would only involve two backups - the last FULL backup followed by the previous day's differential backup. Many users prefer this method as it simplifies recovery and most backups are done overnight.
If you delete an incremental backup version or a differential backup version - the program will also delete all subsequent incremental versions till the next full or differential version. 3.3 Backing up partitions and disks The image backup is made as easy as ABC. a) Select a partition to back up by selecting its check box. If the disk has several partitions and you want to back up the whole disk, click Switch to disk mode and then select the disk's check box.
2. You may exclude certain files and folders from backup. For example, you transferred some movies from your DVDs to a folder on the data partition. They occupy quite a lot of space and it doesn't make sense to back them up because you have the DVDs. To exclude the folder, click the Add link to the right of Exclusions and add the folder to the excluded items list. 3.
3.4 Backing up files and folders To back up files and/or folders, click File backup on the main screen. This will open the File Backup window. Let's consider how to use this backup type for backing up a folder. 1. Select the folder on the directory tree in the What to back up area. The right side will show the folder contents with all the files and subfolders selected. There you can unselect the files you do not need to back up, if any. 2.
add task run number - the sequence number of the task run will be added 4. Click the Back up now button if you want to run backup immediately. You can also delay the start of backup for up to 6 hours by clicking the down arrow to the right of this button and selecting a delay interval from the dropdown list. When you need to change the default backup options, click File backup options and set the options you require. You can also change the default backup scheme by clicking on the appropriate link.
To add a custom data category, click Add category. To change the default name of a custom category, double-click the name and enter a new one. Select the data source (e.g. a folder) for the new category by clicking the Browse... button. By default the new category will contain All data from the source, but you can apply filters to select the specific types of files that you wish or do not wish to back up.
Acronis True Image Home 2011 gives the zip format most of the functionality available for the tib format. You can schedule backups, validate zip backups, recover files and folders from zip backups, make incremental and differential backups, etc. However, it does not provide password protection and encryption. Acronis True Image Home 2011 can recover and validate only its own zip backups.
User Settings Address Book For Microsoft Outlook Express Mail Folders Address Book (select Windows Address Book). Acronis True Image Home 2011 provides backup of IMAP (Internet Messages Access Protocol) mail folders for Microsoft Outlook. This means that you can back up folders stored on a mail server. For Microsoft Outlook Express and Windows Mail only backup of local e-mail folders is available.
The main purpose of Acronis Nonstop Backup is continuous protection of your data (files, folders, contacts, etc.), though you can use it to protect partitions as well. If you choose to protect an entire partition, you will be able to recover the partition as a whole using the image recovery procedure. You cannot use Acronis Nonstop Backup for protecting data on external hard drives.
3.6.1 Protecting your data continuously Let's consider how you can use Nonstop Backup for protecting your data. To protect your data continuously: 1. Click Nonstop Backup on the main screen. This will open the Nonstop Backup window. 2. Select on the directory tree in the What to back up area an item to be protected by Nonstop Backup. The right side will show the item contents with all the files and subfolders selected. There you can unselect the files you do not need to protect.
changed the Nonstop Backup destination, the program will create a new full backup of the data to be protected on the new Nonstop Backup storage. You can also include files and folders into Nonstop Backup by selecting them in Windows Explorer and choosing Storages → Include in Nonstop Backup in the shortcut menu that opens by right-clicking on the selected item. 3.6.2 Protecting your system continuously You can use Acronis Nonstop Backup for protecting entire system partition as well.
You can exclude from protection files that match the criteria you specify. To add exclusion criteria, click the Add link to the right of Exclusions. While adding criteria, you can use the common Windows wildcard characters. For more information see Excluding items from backup (p. 56). 3.6.3 Acronis Nonstop Backup data storage Acronis Nonstop Backup data storage can be created only on NTFS formatted local hard disk drives (both internal and external).
by other applications. The overload can be caused by running resource-intensive applications (for example, performing a deep system scan with your antivirus software). In such a case Nonstop Backup automatically pauses and you cannot restart it. After pausing, Acronis Nonstop Backup gives the system one hour to relieve the load and then attempts to restart. The automatic restart count for Acronis Nonstop Backup is 6.
Backups older than 24 hours are automatically consolidated. Acronis True Image Home 2011 will keep daily backups for the last 30 days and weekly backups until all Nonstop Backup storage space is used. The consolidation will be performed every day between midnight and 01:00 AM. The first consolidation will take place after the Nonstop Backup has been working not less than 24 hours. If you turn off Nonstop Backup for some time, the consolidation will start after you turn it on again.
A reserve copy always contains all the files selected for backup, that is, when creating a reserve copy the program always makes a full backup of the source data. You cannot make a reserve copy in the form of an incremental or differential backup, even in tib format.
4. Click Back up now and do not forget to take the USB stick home. Please be aware that built-in support of zip files in Windows does not cover operations with multivolume zip archives, and zip archives exceeding 4GB in size or which contain files of more than 4 GB each. Also remember that CD/DVDs are not supported as locations for reserve copies. 3.8 Backup to various places Acronis True Image Home 2011 offers you flexibility in choosing destinations for your backups.
To complete the backup, you may either try to free up some space on the disk and click Retry or select another storage device. To choose the latter option, click Browse... in the confirmation window. The Browse for Destination window appears. The left pane shows the storage locations available on your computer. After you select a suitable location, assign a name for the file that will contain the remaining data being backed up. You can enter the name manually (for example, "tail_end.
You can exclude hidden and system files from a backup by selecting the corresponding check boxes. In addition, you can exclude files meeting the criteria you specify. To do this, select the Files matching the following criteria check box, enter the exclusion criterion, and then click Add. By default, the program excludes from backups files with the following extensions: .~, .tmp, and .tib. You can enter explicit file names for exclusion from the backup: file.
settings as default check box to apply the modified settings to all further backup operations by default. Note that disk backup options, file backup options and e-mail backup options are fully independent, and you should configure them separately. If you want to reset all the modified options to their initial values that were set after the product installation, click the Reset to initial settings button. In this section Backup schemes ......................................................................
Backup scheme defines the following parameters: Backup methods that will be used to create backup versions (full, differential or incremental) Sequence of the backup versions created using different methods Version cleanup rules Acronis True Image Home 2011 allows you to choose the following backup schemes: Single version (p. 59) - select this scheme if you want to use the smallest backup storage, or if you back up data that changes insignificantly. Version chain (p.
Backup scheduler setting for file backup: daily. Result: you have a single up-to-date full backup version. Required storage space: minimal. 3.11.1.2 Version chain scheme This backup scheme differs for disk backup and file backup types. Disk backup version chain At first the program creates the 1st full backup version. The version will be kept until you delete it manually.
Select this method if you want to create backup chains containing only full and differential backup versions. You can configure the scheme by using one of the following options: Create only differential versions after the initial full version - select this item to create only one backup version chain. Automatic cleanup is not available for this option. Create a full version after every [n] differential versions - select this item to create several backup version chains.
Note that when the check box is selected, the Store no more than [n] recent versions check box will change to Store no more than 1+[n] recent versions. Automatic version consolidation Automatic consolidation of a backup is enabled by setting the overall limitations for the backup.
8. Click Create a full version after every [n] incremental versions, and type or select "6". In that case, the program will first create the initial full backup version (no matter how you set up a backup process, the first backup version will always be the full one), and then 6 incremental versions day by day. Then, it will create 1 full version and 6 incremental versions again and so on. So every new full version will be created in exactly a week's time. 9.
2. In the File Backup window, select files and/or folders you want to back up, and specify the backup destination. 3. Click Turn on and schedule your backup if needed. 4. Click Version chain near the Backup scheme item (Version chain is the default backup scheme). 5. In the File Backup Options window, make sure that the Backup scheme tab is selected. 6. Choose Custom scheme instead of Version chain scheme. 7. In the Backup method box, select Incremental from the drop down list. 8.
If you want to use AES encryption, choose one of the following keys: AES 128 - to use 128-bit encryption key AES 192 - to use 192-bit encryption key AES 256 - to use 256-bit encryption key If you do not want to encrypt the backup and only want to protect a backup with a password, select None. Having specified the backup protection settings, click OK. Note that you cannot change the password of a password-protected backup after the backup was created.
3.11.5 Backup splitting Sizeable backups can be split into several files that together make up the original backup. A single backup can also be split for burning to removable media. The default setting - Automatic. With this setting, Acronis True Image Home 2011 will act as follows. When backing up to a hard disk: If the selected disk has enough space and its file system allows the estimated file size, the program will create a single backup file.
before, your computer must be in the "screen saver" state. The same will occur on September 15, and so on. You can change the default settings and specify your own schedule. This may be useful if you set a custom backup scheme with incremental backups. For example, you may want to schedule validation of all backup versions (the initial full backup version and subsequent incremental backup versions) once a week. For more information see Scheduling (p. 149). 3.11.
Acronis System Report - the component allows you to generate system report that is used for collecting information about your system in case of any program problem. Report generation will be available before you start Acronis True Image Home 2011 from the bootable media. The generated system report can be saved to a USB flash drive.
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. When the hard drive completely fails, you can lose important data, so it is high time to back up the drive as soon as possible.
If you do not use the encryption feature available in Windows XP and later operating systems, simply ignore this option. (Files/folders encryption is set in Properties → General → Advanced Attributes → Encrypt contents to secure data). These options relate only to file/folder backups. In addition, they are unavailable for zip backups. 3.11.13 Virus scan This option is available only when Acronis True Image Home 2011 is used as part of Acronis Backup and Security package.
Operation priority Changing the priority of a backup or recovery process can make it run faster or slower (depending on whether you raise or lower the priority), but it can also adversely affect the performance of other running programs. The priority of any process running in a system, determines the amount of CPU usage and system resources allocated to that process. Decreasing the operation priority will free more resources for other CPU tasks.
To set the free disk space threshold: Select the Show notification message on insufficient free disk space check box In the Size box, type or select a threshold value and select a unit of measure Acronis True Image Home 2011 can monitor free space on the following storage devices: Local hard drives USB cards and drives Network shares (SMB/NFS) The message will not be displayed if the Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode) check box is selected in the Error handling s
backup version) only the most recent differential backup version in the chain and all subsequent incremental backup versions (if any) between the differential backup version and the selected incremental backup version. This information can be helpful, for example, when you find out that a backup comprising a full backup version and a chain of incremental ones is corrupted. To troubleshoot the backup, do as follows.
Click OK to continue. 3.13.2 Backup selection The Backup selection window displays a list of backups belonging to the selected archive with the backup creation date and time (like in the Recovery wizard). The top backup is the full backup; the rest are incremental backups. To select the backups you want to keep: Select the backups you want to keep. The other backups will not be included into the consolidated archive.
3.14 Cloning backup settings When you already have a backup and you need to create a new backup of the same type (disk, file or e-mail backup), there is no need to configure the backup process from scratch. The program allows you to copy all settings from an existing backup. After that, you only have to slightly correct the copied settings for your new backup and click Back up now. To create a new backup based on an existing backup: 1.
4 Recovering data The purpose of data backup is to recover backed up data when the original is lost due to hardware failure, fire, theft or accidental deletion of files. We hope that you backed up your system and data using the backup features provided by Acronis True Image Home 2011. If so, nothing will have been lost. The following sections describe how to recover disks, partitions, files and folders. In most cases, you will use Acronis Backup Explorer to recover files and folders.
with the required key combination is displayed during the startup test. Pressing this combination takes you to the setup menu. Go to the hard disk autodetection utility which usually comes under "Standard CMOS Setup" or "Advanced CMOS setup". If the utility does not detect the system drive, it has failed and you need to replace the drive. If the utility correctly detects your system hard disk drive, then the cause of the crash is probably a virus, malware or corruption of a system file required for booting.
3. Select My disks below Recover on the Welcome screen. 4. Select the system disk or partition backup image to be used for recovery. Right-click on the backup and choose Recover in the shortcut menu.
Click Browse and show the path to the backup. 5. Select Recover whole disks and partitions at the Recovery method step. 79 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
6. Select the system partition (usually C) on the What to recover screen. If the system partition has a different letter, select the partition using the Flags column. It must have the Pri, Act flags. In case of Windows 7 the System Reserved partition will have the Pri, Act flags . You will need to select for recovery both the System Reserved partition and the System partition. 7.
8. Carefully read the summary of operations at the Finish step. If you have not resized the partition, the sizes in the Deleting partition and Recovering partition items must match. Having checked the summary click Proceed. 9. When the operation finishes, exit the standalone version of Acronis True Image Home 2011, remove the rescue media and boot from the recovered system partition. After making sure that you have recovered Windows to the state you need, restore the original boot order. 4.
If you want to recover the partition to the state it was at an earlier date, click Explore and recover under the Recover last version button. This will open Backup Explorer which allows you to select the image backup version created on that date. Clicking Recover after selecting the required version will open the Disk Recovery window. a) Select the corresponding check boxes of the partition(s) to recover.
In this case, Acronis True Image Home 2011 generates a new disk signature for the recovered hard drive, even if you recover to the same drive. Disk recovery options - click to set up additional parameters for the disk recovery process. Use Acronis Universal Restore - click to use Acronis Universal Restore technology during recovery.
space. To change the partition properties, click the Partition properties link below the recovery destination field. 4. To reduce the partition size so as to leave enough disk space for the remaining partitions, click the Reduce size link. 5. You can resize the partition by dragging its right border with a mouse on the horizontal bar on the screen. To assign the partition a specific size, enter the appropriate number into the Total size field.
Disk letters may differ when booting from the rescue media. The names will help you find the drive containing your backups, as well as the target (new) drive. Information on partition sizes, drive capacities, their manufacturers, and model numbers can also help to correctly identify the drives. It is highly recommended to install the new hard drive to the same position in the computer and to use the same cable and connector that was used for the original drive. This is not always possible, e.g.
7. 8. 9. 10. 11. to the new disk, click New location. Select the destination disk by its assigned name or by its capacity. 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. Proceed to specifying the partition size by clicking Change default in the Partition size area. The partition will occupy the entire new disk by default.
4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 87 If the disks have different disk letters in Windows and the recovery environment, the program will display the following error message: "Acronis True Image Home 2011 cannot detect volume N of "Name" archive". Here "Name" is the name of the required image backup. The volume number (N) may be different depending on the number of backup versions in the backup. Before continuing with the recovery, you need to know the sizes and physical order of all existing partitions.
12. At the next step, select the destination disk as the target for MBR recovery, click Next and then Proceed. After MBR recovery is complete, exit the standalone version of Acronis True Image Home 2011. Windows should not "see" both the new and old drive during the first boot after recovery because this could result in problems booting Windows. If you upgrade the old drive to a larger capacity new one, disconnect the old drive before the first boot.
How to recover mail, application settings, and system state This refers to recovering data from your E-mail backups. Application settings and system state can be recovered only from old backups created by an earlier Acronis True Image Home version, for instance, Acronis True Image Home 2010. Let's see how you can recover data from e-mail, application settings, and system state backups. 1. Select a required backup version in the Acronis Backup Explorer and click Recover to start recovery.
Until you select a file version in the View Versions window, the Open and Recover... buttons remain disabled. Selecting a file version enables the buttons: Select the required version by its backup time and click the Recover... button. This will open the File Recovery window. Select the destination and recover the file version to the folder of your choice. For more information see Recovering data from file-level backups.
2. Click the Recover button on the backup's box if the backup consists of a single version. When there are several backup versions, click Explore and recover. Select the backup version you want to recover on the Disks and partitions tab, and then click Recover. 3. When the Disk Recovery window opens, select the system partition's check box and choose the recovery destination. 4. Select the Use Universal Restore check box. Then click Settings to open the Drivers manager window. 5.
3. Click the My Disks link below Recover on the Welcome screen to start the Recovery Wizard. Then, choose the image of the system disk for recovery. Since drive letters in the standalone Acronis True Image Home 2011 may differ from the way Windows identifies drives, you may need to specify the path to the image file. Click Browse and select the disk and folder that stores the image. 4. Choose Recover whole disks and partitions and select the Use Acronis Universal Restore check box.
5. 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. If the driver(s) is stored on a diskette or CD, select the Search removable media for device drivers box. If some drivers are stored on a local hard disk or a network share, select the Search for device drivers in the following locations box (when it is not selected by default).
4.9 4.9.1 Acronis Universal Restore Purpose of Acronis Universal Restore Universal Restore is part of the Acronis True Image Home 2011 Plus Pack which must be purchased separately. Acronis True Image Home 2011 Plus Pack has its own license and is installed from its own setup file. You need to re-create bootable media in order to make the newly installed Universal Restore add-on operational in the bootable recovery environment.
4.9.2 General principles of Acronis Universal Restore 1. Automatic selection of HAL and mass storage drivers Acronis Universal Restore searches the Windows default driver storage folders (in the image being restored) for HAL and mass storage device drivers and installs drivers that best fit the target hardware. You can specify a custom driver repository (a folder or folders on a network drive or CD) which will also be used to search for drivers.
GRUB), you might consider installing them to a Linux root (or boot) partition boot record instead of an MBR before activating Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. If a failure occurs, turn on the computer and press F11 when you see the "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager" message. This will start a standalone version of Acronis True Image Home 2011 that differs only slightly from the complete version. Browse for a backup containing an image of your system partition and recover your system.
When recovering a basic volume to an unallocated space of the dynamic group, the recovered volume becomes dynamic When recovering a basic disk to an unallocated space of a disk in the dynamic group, the disk becomes basic When recovering a basic disk to a dynamic disk of a dynamic group consisting of two disks, the recovered disk remains basic and the second disk of a spanned/striped dynamic volume becomes "missing" 4.
Some motherboards have a so called boot menu opened by pressing a certain key or key combination, for instance, F12. The boot menu allows selecting the boot device from a list of bootable devices without changing the BIOS setup. 4.14 Recovery options In the Disk Recovery Options, File Recovery Options and E-mail Recovery Options windows you can configure options for a disk/partition, file and e-mail recovery processes respectively.
In the Working directory field type-in a path for command execution or select it from the list of previously entered paths. In the Arguments field enter or select command execution arguments from the list. Disabling the Do not perform operations until the command execution is complete parameter (enabled by default), will permit the recovery process to run concurrently with your command execution.
4.14.5 Overwrite file options Choose what to do if the program finds a file in the target folder with the same name as in the backup. Selecting the Overwrite existing files check box will give the files from the backup unconditional priority over the files on the hard disk, though, by default, the more recent files and folders are protected against overwriting. If you want to overwrite those files and folders too, clear the appropriate check box.
4.14.7 Notifications for recovery operation Sometimes a backup or recovery procedure can last an hour or longer. Acronis True Image Home 2011 can notify you when it is finished via e-mail. The program can also duplicate messages issued during the operation or send you the full operation log after operation completion. By default all notifications are disabled. Free disk space threshold You may want to be notified when the free space on the backup storage becomes less than the specified threshold value.
To send a notification concerning process failure, select the Send notification upon operation failure check box. To send a notification with operation messages, select the Send notification when user interaction is required check box. To send a notification with full log of operations, select the Add full log to the notification check box. 102 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
5 Using Acronis Online Backup In this section What is Acronis True Image Home 2011 Online Backup? .....................103 Subscription information .......................................................................103 Main window .........................................................................................104 Backing up to Acronis Online Storage ....................................................107 Acronis True Image Online settings .......................................................
If you do not have an Acronis account, fill in the appropriate fields, and the account will be created for you. Provide your first and last names and e-mail address. You will be offered a country selected on the basis of the IP address of your computer, though you can select another country, if you wish. Then provide a password for your new account and confirm the password by retyping it once more in the appropriate field.
To remove the selected computer from the registered computers list and delete all its online backups from the Online Storage, click Options → Remove from Online Storage and then click Yes in the confirmation window. Online data management You can back up data only from the current computer. You can specify what data to back up, what data to exclude from the backup, schedule the online backup task, and recover data from the Online Storage.
current computer, you can collapse it by clicking the down arrow at the right-side end of the Legend line. Time scale At the bottom of the window there is a special time scale. To view any prior data state, just find the date you need using the arrows on the time scale, click the date and select a time. To go to the oldest backup date for a selected file or folder, click the "Left arrow" button below the left end of the time scale.
6 Backing up to Acronis Online Storage In this section Log in to the online storage ...................................................................107 Computer selection ................................................................................108 Setting up Acronis True Image Online for a new computer ..................110 Online backup task creation ..................................................................111 6.1.
6.1.2 Computer selection If this is the first time that you are logging on to the online storage, you will be prompted to register your computer on the online storage. To register a computer on the online storage: Type a name for the computer (for example, My home PC) in the appropriate field and then select an icon for the computer. You can type any name, not necessarily the computer's network name.
After the computer connects to the Acronis True Image Online Server, set up an online backup task for this computer. For more information see Setting up online backup for a new computer (p. 110). What is an encryption key To protect your data on the online storage from unauthorized access, you can use encryption. In this case your files will be encrypted before transmission over the Internet and your data will be stored on the online storage in encrypted form.
6.1.2.1 Data encryption in Acronis True Image Online To protect your data on the online storage from unauthorized access, you can use encryption. In this case your data will be stored on the online storage in encrypted form. To encrypt and decrypt your data, the program needs the encryption key, that you should specify when you register your computer. An encryption key is a unique alphanumeric code, like a password. You can specify any set of characters you like. Note that the key is case-sensitive.
To start backup immediately, click Back Up Now. You can also delay online backup start for up to 6 hours by clicking the down arrow to the right of this button and selecting a delay interval from the dropdown list. 6.1.4 Online backup task creation The online backup task allows you to schedule the backup to the online storage. You can create one online backup task only. The task will be run even after you log off the online storage.
You can include both file categories and individual files and folders. When selecting the file category(ies) to back up, you can include the following default categories: Documents, Finance, Images, Video, and Music. Each category represents all files of associated types found on the computer's hard drives. Furthermore, you can add any number of custom categories containing files and folders. The new categories will be saved and displayed along with the above.
Creating a custom data category To add a custom data category, click the Add category icon in the Categories pane and provide a name for the category. Select the data source (e.g. a folder) for the new category by clicking the link to the right of Category source: in the right pane, and then clicking the Browse button. By default the new category will contain All data from the source in the data source, but you can apply filters to select the specific types of files that you wish or do not wish to back up.
You can exclude hidden and system files from online backup by selecting the corresponding check boxes. In addition, you can exclude files meeting the criteria you specify. To do this, select the Files matching the following criteria check box, enter the exclusion criterion, and then click Add. By default, the program excludes from backups files with the following extensions: .~, .tmp, and .tib. You can enter explicit file names for exclusion from the backup: file.
6.1.4.3 Scheduling The Scheduler window allows you to specify the online backup task execution settings. Choose one of the following backup frequencies: Daily (p. 116) - the task will be executed once a day or more frequently Weekly (p. 116) - the task will be executed once a week or several times a week on the selected days Monthly (p. 117) - the task will be executed once a month or several times a month on the selected dates Next choose when to start online backup: At a specified time.
Some of these options might be disabled depending on the operating system. Having finished scheduling of online backups, click OK to return to the main window. Daily execution parameters You can set up the following parameters for daily task execution: Frequency: Daily Start: at a certain time, upon a certain event or every certain number of hours If you select At, set the task's start time. Enter hours and minutes manually, or set the desired start time using the up and down buttons.
If the computer is switched off when the scheduled time comes, the backup won't be performed, but you can force the missed task to run at the next system start-up. To do so, select the If missed, run the task at startup check box. If there is no Internet connection when the scheduled time comes, you can force the missed backup to run when an Internet connection is established. To do so, select the Run when the connection is established check box.
In this window Acronis True Image Home 2011 shows the approximate backup time and data transfer speed. The progress bar indicates the level of completion of the online backup. In some cases, the online backup operation may take a long time to be completed. If this is the case, select the Shut down the computer after the backup is complete check box. When the backup finishes, Acronis True Image Home 2011 will turn the computer off. You can also close the progress window by clicking Hide.
In case of any network problems, if the first connection attempt fails, the program will repeat the attempts till a connection is successfully established. You can set the number of connection attempts and the time interval between the attempts in seconds. To do so, type or select the values in the appropriate boxes. 6.2.2 Storage connection speed You can reduce the influence of the online storage connection on other network connections of your computer.
6.2.3 Storage cleanup You can configure the cleanup settings for the Online storage to optimize usage of its space. To set the limits for the amount of versions in the Online storage: Select the Delete versions that are older than check box and enter a value that limits the maximum age of the older versions. All other versions will be automatically deleted except the most recent versions.
To test the proxy server settings, click the Test Connection button. If you do not know your proxy server settings, contact your network administrator or Internet service provider for assistance. Alternatively, you can try to take these settings from your browser's configuration. 121 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
6.2.5 Backup priority Changing the priority of a backup process can make it run faster or slower (depending on whether you raise or lower the priority), but it can also adversely affect the performance of other running programs. The priority of any process running in a system, determines the amount of CPU usage and system resources allocated to that process. Decreasing the backup priority will free up more resources for other CPU tasks.
Enter the password in the Password field To specify additional notification settings, click the Additional e-mail parameters... link.
and/or the subject in the Subject field. If you leave the From field empty, the e-mail will be composed using the name from the outgoing account. To send notification concerning process completion, select the Send notification upon operation's successful completion check box. To send notification concerning process failure, select the Send notification upon operation failure check box.
Unselecting the Do not perform operations until the command's execution is complete box, selected by default, will permit the backup process to run concurrently with your command execution. If you want the backup to be performed even if your command fails, unselect the Abort the operation if the user command fails box (selected by default). You can test execution of the command you created by clicking Test command. 6.2.
7 Recovery from Online Storage In this section Recovering data from Online Storage ....................................................126 Selecting a version to recover ................................................................127 Recovery operation progress .................................................................128 7.1.1 Recovering data from Online Storage Acronis True Image Home 2011 allows you to browse and recover data that was backed up on Online Storage.
To select multiple files/folders, you can use the Ctrl and Shift keys like in Windows Explorer. After you finish selection, right-click and select the required action in the shortcut menu. Shortcut menu items: Open - opens a folder or recovers the file to a temporary folder and then opens the file using the associated application Recover - recovers the selected file or folder View Versions - opens the window that contains the list of the selected file's versions.
In the File Versions dialog window that appears, select a version, and then click Recover, or simply drag the version to a destination in Windows Explorer To remove a file version from the storage, select the version and click the Remove icon (cross) to the right of the version number. To exit the window without recovering, click Cancel. 7.1.3 Recovery operation progress Once you start recovery of the selected files, the recovery progress window appears.
7.2 Removing data from Online Storage Because the available space on Acronis Online Storage is limited, you need to manage your Online Storage space by cleaning up the obsolete data or the data you do not need anymore. Cleanup can be done in a variety of ways. The most "drastic" one is removing a computer registered on the Online Storage. Removing a computer results in deleting all data that was backed up from that computer. Therefore, such an operation must be carried out with caution.
7.3 Viewing Log If you want to view the log of Acronis True Image Home 2011 Online Backup operations, click Help → Event Log in the upper right corner of the main window. To view the logs for a specific period, select the period from the drop-down list. You can select Today, Week, and Month. To view all logs, select Show all. To delete a log entry, select it, right-click and select Delete in the shortcut menu. To delete all log entries, select Delete all.
8 Useful information In this section Protecting your system and data ...........................................................131 Preparing for backups ............................................................................134 Testing bootable rescue media ..............................................................138 Testing that your backups can be used for recovery .............................141 Trying system changes safely .................................................................
1. Start Acronis True Image Home 2011 and then click Disk and partition backup in the main window. 2. This opens the Disk Backup window with your system partition (usually C:) selected by default. 132 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
If you use Windows 7, the program will also select the System Reserved partition. Do not clear its check box, because you may need to recover that partition if your system crashes. 3. Select a destination for backup (you can leave the default destination or browse for a destination after clicking the down arrow to the right of the current destination and selecting Browse...). 4. Click Back up now.
8.2 Preparing for backups If you would like to create your own backup strategy, you will need to consider at least the following issues: where to store your backups, what data to back up and how often. The below sections will discuss these issues in detail. Incidentally, it would be a good idea to make some additional preparations before carrying out any backup, especially image backups. It is advisable to scan the system for viruses and malware to ensure that the backup does not contain any "surprises".
Due to the necessity of swapping discs, it is strongly recommended to avoid backing up to DVDs if the number of discs is more than three. When there is no alternative to backing up to DVDs, we recommend to copy all DVDs to a folder on a hard disk and then to recover from that folder. Acronis True Image Online Acronis True Image Home 2011 allows you to use Acronis True Image Online service for safeguarding your most important files by saving them to a secure remote location.
When you click the Test connection button, the computer will try to connect to the selected network share. If you receive an error message, check if the credentials are correct and provide the correct user name and password for the selected network share. To repeat the connection attempt, click the Test again button. If you select the Use NT authentication check box, the computer will try to log on automatically with the credentials used for logging on to Windows.
8.2.3 Deciding how often to back up Disk and partition backups Let's first discuss backing up your system disk. Since it is impossible to know when it may crash, you must create the first system disk backup as soon as possible. Then you can decide how often to "refresh" that backup. You may also want to add new backups without deleting the old one, if you have available space on the storage device used for backups.
their native format by copying them using Windows Explorer. If those files are important to you, Acronis True Image Home 2011 has the Reserve backup copy feature. It can back up the same data files both in tib format and in native format to two different backup locations. You can schedule such backups as needed, for instance, on weekly basis if you regularly download new music files.
To check the drives, start Backup Wizard by clicking My Disks below Back Up on the Welcome screen. Select a disk to back up at the What to back up step and click Next. Click the Browse button to the right of the Backup location field. When the Browse for location window opens, check that all your drives are shown under My Computer. Having checked the drives, click Cancel to close Backup Wizard.
2. When the command line appears, type "vga=ask" (without quotes) and click OK. 3. Select Acronis True Image Home 2011 (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 2011 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. 8.
8.5 Trying system changes safely In this section What is Try&Decide ...............................................................................142 Starting the Try mode ............................................................................145 Stopping the Try mode...........................................................................145 Try&Decide options and notifications ...................................................145 Try&Decide: typical use cases ..................................
After starting Try mode you can safely install any system updates, drivers and applications without worrying about what might happen to your system. If anything goes wrong, you can simply discard the changes made in the Try mode. One of the best features of Try&Decide is that it isolates your "real" operating system from changes to the temporary operating system duplicate made by updates.
When your computer reboots for whatever reason while working in the Try 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 mode after starting Windows.
Try&Decide and Nonstop Backup cannot work simultaneously. Starting the Try mode suspends Nonstop Backup. You will need to restart Nonstop Backup manually after you stop the Try mode. 8.5.2 Starting the Try mode To start the Try mode: Click Try & Decide in the main program menu. Set up the Try&Decide options: Protected partitions (p. 146) Storage for virtual changes (p. 146) Alert settings (p. 146) Start the Try mode by clicking the Try & Decide icon.
You can change the following Try&Decide options and notifications: Protected partitions: specify the partitions you want to protect from unauthorized changes during a Try&Decide session. By default, T&D protects the system partition (Disk C), though you may add other partitions or disks in your system. Storage for virtual changes: specify where Try&Decide will store information about virtual changes to your system. By default, T&D saves the information to a free space on Disk C.
On time elapsed since Try&Decide started: - using this option, the program will notify you if T&D has been working for longer than the period of time you specified. Having specified the alert settings, click OK. 8.5.
guarantee complete uninstallation. The Try&Decide feature, however, will ensure complete and perfect uninstallation of any software quickly and easily. Here's how: Turn on the Try mode. Install the software application you want to evaluate. Try using the application. When you want to uninstall it, just discard all the changes made to your computer in the Try mode.
8.6 Scheduling The Scheduler window allows you to specify the backup and validation schedule settings. You can choose and set up one of the following backup or validation frequencies: Daily (p. 150) - the operation will be executed once a day or more frequently. Weekly (p. 150) - the operation will be executed once a week or several times a week on the selected days. Monthly (p. 150) - the operation will be executed once a month or several times a month on the selected dates. Upon event (p.
check box will let you perform a missed operation when the USB flash drive is attached if it was disconnected at the scheduled time. Run the backup upon HDD alarm (available when Acronis Drive Monitor is installed) – if enabled, the backup will run as soon as there is an alarm on Acronis Drive Monitor about a potential problem with one of the hard disks in the backup source. Acronis Drive Monitor is a hard drive health monitoring utility based on information received from hard drive S.M.A.R.T.
If you select On, choose the date(s) for operation execution (example: you may want the operation to be run on the 10th, 20th, and last day of the month) Start time Set the operation's start time. Enter hours and minutes manually, or set the desired start time using the up and down buttons. Description of the Advanced settings see in Scheduling (p. 149). 8.6.
Enter a search string into the Search field at the top right of the Acronis True Image Home 2011 window. You will be taken to the Acronis Backup Explorer screen. The program shows search results on the Files and folders tab. By default Acronis True Image Home 2011 performs the search in all the sources where it can search information. That is, it searches files in all backups and their versions on all local storage devices.
8.7.2 Windows Search and Google Desktop integration Acronis True Image Home 2011 has plug-ins for Google Desktop and Windows Search. If you use any of these search engines on your computer, you can install an appropriate plug-in for indexing your backups. Indexing will speed up searches in the backups. After indexing you will be able to search backup content by entering a filename into the Google Desktop or Windows Search deskbar query field without opening Acronis True Image Home 2011.
To open the Indexing Options window in Windows Vista or Windows 7, open the Control Panel and then double-click the Indexing Options icon. The Windows Vista and Windows 7 indexing options have some differences in content and appearance, though most of the following information is applicable to those operating systems as well. 3. Click Advanced, select the File Types tab and then make sure that the tib extension is selected and ".tib IFilter" is shown in the Filter Description field.
the backups 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. You just have to add the share to the Indexed Locations list by typing the appropriate UNC path after selecting the Add UNC Location tab of Advanced Options. 155 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
Give Windows Search some time for indexing Acronis backups on your computer's hard disks and adding the indexing information to its index database. The required time depends on the number of backups and the number of files they contain. After completing the indexing, the Windows Search will be able to search files in tib backups. The search engines in Windows Search and Windows Vista or Windows 7 have similar functionalities, though search results are presented somewhat differently.
8.8 Choosing columns for viewing in wizards You can change the way the columns are represented in various wizards. To sort items by a particular column, click the header (another click will switch the items to the opposite order). To select columns to view, right-click in the right pane and select Choose Columns in the shortcut menu. Then flag the columns you want to display. You can also change the display order of columns using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
9 Tools & Utilities Acronis Tools & Utilities include Protection tools, Conversion tools, Disk management utilities, Security and privacy utilities, Mounting tools and Backup settings transfer tools. Protection tools: Acronis Startup Recovery Manager Allows you to start Acronis True Image Home 2011 without loading the operating system by pressing F11 at boot time before the operating system starts.
Mounting tools: Mount image With this tool you can explore a previously created image. You will be able to assign temporary drive letters to the partition images and easily access these images as ordinary, logical drives. Unmount image With this tool you can unmount the temporary logical drives you have created to explore an image. Conversion tools: Convert Acronis backup to Windows backup Use the feature to convert a backup file format from tib to vhd.
2. Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. When Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is activated, it overwrites the master boot record (MBR) with its own boot code. If you have any third-party boot managers installed, you will need to reactivate them after the Startup Recovery Manager has been activated. For Linux loaders (e.g. LiLo and GRUB), you might consider installing them to a Linux root (or boot) partition boot record instead of MBR before activating Acronis Startup Recovery Manager.
If you have chosen not to install the Bootable Media Builder during Acronis True Image Home 2011 installation, you will not be able to use this feature. When booting from the Rescue Media, you cannot perform backups to disks or partitions with Ext2/Ext3/Ext4, ReiserFS, and Linux SWAP file systems. To create bootable media: Run the Acronis Media Builder wizard.
Acronis System Report - the component allows you to generate a system report that is used for collecting information about your system in case of any program problem. Report generation will be available before you start Acronis True Image Home 2011 from the bootable media. The generated system report can be saved to a USB flash drive. To select a component: Select the check box of the program you want to include into the bootable media.
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. nousb Disables loading of USB modules. nousb2 Disables USB 2.0 support. USB 1.1 devices still work with this option. This option allows using some USB drives in USB 1.1 mode, if they do not work in USB 2.
Gets the list of the video modes available for your video card and allows selecting a video mode most suitable for the video card and monitor. Try this option, if the automatically selected video mode is unsuitable for your hardware. 9.2.1.3 Bootable media selection Select a destination for bootable media creation: CD-R/RW - if you are creating CD, insert a blank disc so that the program can determine its capacity.
To cancel operation and quit Acronis Media Builder, click Cancel. After you create a boot disc, mark it and keep it in a safe place. Please keep in mind that the backups created by the later program version may be incompatible with the previous program versions. Due to this reason, we strongly recommend that you create a new bootable media after each Acronis True Image Home 2011 upgrade.
Go to the Acronis True Image Home 2011 installation folder. (The default folder is C:\Program Files\Acronis or C:\Program Files\Acronis\Media Add-ons). Rename the BartPE folder to Acronis. Copy this folder into the Plugin folder in the BartPE builder installation directory. (The default directory is C:\pebuilder3110a or similar); Run the PE builder, put in the necessary paths (the online help is available at http://nu2.
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 2011 plug-in in Go/System/Storage.
3. Install the Microsoft .NET Framework v.2.0 from this kit (NETFXx86 or NETFXx64, depending on your hardware). 4. Install Microsoft Core XML (MSXML) 6.0 Parser from this kit. 5. Install Windows AIK from this kit. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the help documentation supplied with Windows AIK. A good starting point is the "Create an image" section of "Getting Started for IT Professionals" white paper.
4. Specify the path to the folder WinPE\ISO, e.g. c:\winpe_x86\ISO. 5. On the next screen choose the Add components and build an ISO option and click Next. 6. Specify the full path to the resulting image file including the filename or leave the default path and filename (AcronisMedia.iso). 169 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
7. Check your settings in the summary screen and click Proceed. 8. Burn the .ISO to a CD using a third-party tool (for example, Nero) and you will have a bootable Windows PE disc with Acronis True Image Home 2011. Once a machine boots into WinPE, Acronis True Image Home 2011 starts automatically. Be aware that startup may take a considerable amount of time. 9.2.3.2 Adding the Acronis Plug-in to the existing WinPE 2.x or 3.
2. Specify the path to the source WINPE.WIM file. The standard path to this file for x86 hardware is \Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\X86\winpe.wim. 3. Specify the full path to the resulting WIM file, including the filename or leave the default path and filename (AcronisMedia.wim). 4. Check your settings in the summary screen and click Proceed. To create a PE image (ISO file) from the resulting WIM file: 1. Select Microsoft Windows AIK → Windows PE Tools Command Prompt from the Start menu. 2.
In the Acronis True Image Home 2011, the zone is listed along with all locations available for storing backups. Certain Windows applications, such as Acronis disk management tools, can access the Acronis Secure Zone. When you create an Acronis Secure Zone, an icon appears under My Computer in the Other section. Double-clicking on the Acronis Secure Zone icon opens the Secure Zone and you can view all the backups it contains.
You can back up data automatically on a schedule (see Scheduling (p. 149)). In order to not worry about zone overflow during a scheduled backup, it is recommended to select the When not enough space in ASZ, delete the oldest backup box in the scheduled backup options (Error handling). 9.3.2 Acronis Secure Zone location If you are creating the Acronis Secure Zone, select a disk and its partition whose space will be used to create Acronis Secure Zone.
To select a partition: Select the appropriate partition check box and click Next. 9.3.4 Size of Acronis Secure Zone You can specify the size of the Acronis Secure Zone. 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/enlarging the Acronis Secure Zone, the program will first use the unallocated space.
9.3.5 Managing Acronis Secure Zone You can manage the Acronis Secure Zone. Increase size (p. 175) - choose this item if you want to increase the size of the Acronis Secure Zone. Decrease size (p. 175) - choose this item if you want to decrease the size of the Acronis Secure Zone. Remove (p. 177) - choose this item if you want to remove the Acronis Secure Zone from your hard disk. Convert file system to NTFS (p.
9.3.5.3 Acronis Secure Zone protection Here, you can set up password protection for the Acronis Secure Zone in order to prevent it from unauthorized access. The program will ask for the password at any operation relating to the Acronis Secure Zone such as data backup and recovery, mounting images or validating backups in the Acronis Secure Zone, resizing and deleting the Acronis Secure Zone.
9.3.5.4 Convert file system to NTFS When you upgrade from a previous version of Acronis True Image Home 2011 and the Acronis Secure Zone exists in your system, you can convert the zone file system from FAT32 to NTFS. Such a conversion will not result in the loss of backups you already have in the Acronis Secure Zone. It is recommended to convert the zone file system if you plan to use the Acronis Secure Zone as the Acronis Nonstop Backup data storage.
Click the Proceed button to start the listed operations. Click the Options button if you want to protect Acronis Secure Zone with a password. Click the Cancel button to exit the wizard without performing any operations. 9.4 Cloning a hard disk In this section General information...............................................................................178 Security ..................................................................................................179 Selecting clone mode ..............
9.4.2 Security Please note the following: if the power goes off or you accidentally press RESET during the transfer, the procedure will be incomplete and you will have to partition and format or clone the hard disk again. 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.
9.4.4 Selecting a source disk You can determine the source and destination using the information provided in this window (disk number, capacity, label, partition and file system information). If the program finds several partitioned disks, it will ask you which is the source (i.e. the older data disk). The current Acronis True Image Home 2011 version does not support cloning of dynamic and GPT disks. Select the source disk and click Next to continue.
9.4.5 Selecting a destination disk After you select the source disk, you have to select the destination where the disk information will be copied to. The previously selected source becomes grayed-out and disabled for selection. Select the destination disk and click Next to continue. 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.
Manual - you will specify a 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 can see disk capacity, the label, volume and file system information. Different volume types, including primary, logical and unallocated space are marked with different colors. To resize, change the volume type, change the label of the existing volume, right click on it, and select Edit in the shortcut menu. This will open the Partition Settings window.
If the cursor turns into two vertical lines with left and right arrows, it is pointed at the partition border and you can drag it to enlarge or reduce the partition's size. If the cursor turns into four arrows, it is pointed at the partition, so you can move it to the left or right (if there's unallocated space near it). Having provided the new location and size, click Accept. You will be taken back to the Change disk layout window.
Cloning a non-system disk or a disk containing an operating system, but one that is not currently active, will proceed without the need to reboot. After you click Proceed, Acronis True Image Home will start cloning the old disk to the new disk, indicating the progress in a special window. You can stop this procedure by clicking Cancel. In that case, you will have to repartition and format the new disk or repeat the cloning procedure. After the cloning operation is complete, you will see the results message.
9.5.1 Selecting a hard disk Select the disk that you have added to the computer. If you have added several disks, select one of them and click Next to continue. You can add the other disks later by restarting the Add New Disk Wizard. You can also see the properties of all the hard disks installed in your system, e.g. the name and the model of the selected disk drive, its capacity, file system and its interface. 9.5.
partition letter and label. If you allocate all unallocated space on the disk to the new partition, the Create new partition button disappears. 9.5.2.1 Partition settings Specify the settings for the partition being created. Size You can resize and relocate the partition being created. If you want to resize the partition: Point the cursor at the partition border. If the cursor is pointed exactly at the partition border, it will change into two vertical lines with arrows on each side.
one then no unallocated space will be reserved for system needs. Later, you may convert this unallocated area into a primary disk if there is any need for it. File System Choose the file system type for partition being created and click Next to continue. Different partitions may have different type of file system.
Partition letter Select a letter to be assigned to the partition being created from the drop-down list. If Auto is selected, the program assigns the first unused drive letter in alphabetical order. Partition label Partition label is a name, assigned to a partition so that you can easily recognize it. For example, one could be called System — a partition with an operating system, Program — an application partition, Data — a data partition, etc. Partition label is an optional attribute.
9.6 Security and Privacy Tools Acronis True Image Home 2011 contains utilities for secure destruction of data on an entire hard disk drive, and individual partitions. It can also erase individual files and eliminate traces of user system activity. When replacing your old hard drive with a new, higher-capacity one, you may accidentally leave personal and confidential information on the old disk. This information could be retrieved even if you have reformatted the disk.
Click Tools & Utilities on the toolbar, and select Acronis DriveCleanser. Follow the Acronis DriveCleanser wizard steps. 9.6.1.1 Data selection First, you must select the hard disk partitions where you want to destroy data. To select a partition, click the corresponding rectangle. You will see a red mark in the upper right corner indicating that the partition is selected. You can select an entire hard disk or several disks for data destruction.
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. 9.6.1.2 Algorithm selection Acronis DriveCleanser utilizes a number of the most popular data destruction algorithms. Select the desired algorithm from the drop-down list.
Acronis DriveCleanser offers you another useful capability — to estimate the results of executing a data destruction algorithm on a hard disk or partition. It features an integrated Disk Editor (hard disk browsing tool). 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 algorithm. But what you actually see are disk sectors filled with either zeros or random symbols.
The window has the following legend: The first column of the list contains the type of operation on a disk (there are just two: to write a symbol to disk, "writing"; and to verify written, "verification"); the second column contains the pattern of data to be written to disk. The pattern to be written is always a hexadecimal value, for example, a value of this kind: 0x00, 0xAA, or 0xCD, etc. These values are 1 byte long, but they may be up to 512 bytes long.
In the same way, you can create any data destruction algorithm to match your security requirements. Saving custom algorithm In the next Saving Custom Algorithm window, you will be able to save the algorithm you have created. This will be useful if you are going to use it again. In order to save your algorithm, you need to give it a filename and define the path in the Select file field or locate an existing file on the disk. Each custom algorithm is stored in a separate file with its own name.
9.6.1.5 Disk Editor (read-only mode) Acronis DriveCleanser offers you another useful capability — to estimate the results of executing a data destruction method on a hard disk or partition. To view the state of your cleaned up disks or partitions, click Tools & Utilities on the toolbar. Then click the View current state of your disks link and choose the partition whose cleaning results you wish to view. This opens an integrated Acronis Disk Editor (in read-only mode).
Go to sector You can go to the necessary sector according to its absolute offset by selecting the Go to… line in the Search menu (or by pressing the Alt+P key combination). Selecting this line opens the Go to… dialog window. The transition is performed by entering the absolute sector offset, or cylinder, head, and sector numbers.
Having selected the contents for shredding, click Next to continue. 9.6.2.2 Data destruction method selection File Shredder utilizes a number of the most popular data destruction methods. Here, you need to select the desired data destruction method. The data destruction methods are described in detail in Hard Disk Wiping Methods (p. 205) of this guide.
In some cases, the operation may take a long time to be completed. If this is the case, select the Shutdown the computer after completion check box. When the operation finishes, Acronis True Image Home 2011 will turn the computer off. 9.6.3 System Clean-up The System Clean-up wizard enables you to securely remove all traces of your PC actions stored by Windows.
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. If you want to change the default system clean-up settings, click the corresponding link in the first window of the System Clean-up wizard.
Temporary files Hard disk free space Find Computer list Find File list Recently Used Documents list Windows Run List Opened/saved files history User Credentials Windows Prefetch Directory 9.6.3.2 Default clean-up options The default clean-up options are available by clicking the Click to change this setting… link on the Data Destruction Method option page. To change the default clean-up options: Choose on the tree the component clean-up settings which you need to change.
Data destruction method System Clean-up utilizes a number of the most popular data destruction methods. Here, you need to select the desired data destruction method. Use common method - if you leave this parameter selected, the program will use the default method (the initial setting is Fast method). If you need another destruction method to be set as a default, click on the corresponding link.
All files with names corresponding to at least one of the search strings will be cleaned. Upon entering the Files setting value, you can browse the files matching the search strings. To do this, click Show Files. You will see a window with the names of the found files. These files will be cleaned. Drive free space Here you can manually specify physical and/or logical drives to clean up free space on. By default, System Clean-up cleans up free space on all available drives.
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. "Commands" setting Here you can select the commands to remove during Windows Run List clean-up. This template can contain any command names or their parts separated by semicolons, e.g.
To select/unselect a component Expand the System Components item in the System Clean-up tree and make sure that the component you wish to clean up is selected. If you do not want to clean up a component, simply clear its check box. If required, you can dig deeper by expanding a component and selecting/unselecting its contents. Having specified the components for clean-up, click the Clean-up button to continue. Windows Vista and Windows 7 do not keep information on file and computer searches.
9.6.4.1 Functioning principles of Information wiping methods Physically, the complete wiping of information from a hard disk involves the switching of every elementary magnetic area of the recording material as many times as possible by writing specially selected sequences of logical 1's and 0's (also known as samples).
No. Algorithm (writing method) Passes Record cryptographically secure pseudo-random sequence. 8. Fast 9.7 1 Logical zeros (0x00 numbers) to all sectors to wipe. Mounting an image Acronis True Image Home 2011 offers mounting for images and exploring for both images and filelevel backups. Exploring images and file-level backups lets you view their contents and copy the selected files to a hard disk. To explore a backup in Windows Explorer, double-click on the corresponding tib file.
If you selected a backup containing incremental images, you can select one of the successive incremental images (also called "backup versions") 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 backup versions and the initial full backup. If any of the successive backups are missing, mounting is not possible. To mount a differential image, you must have the initial full image as well.
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 clear the partition's check box. 4. If you select the Mount the partitions in the read-write mode box, the program assumes that the mounted image will be modified and creates an incremental backup file to capture the changes. It is strongly recommended that you list the forthcoming changes in the Comments section to this file.
If you have mounted several partitions, by default all of them will be selected for unmounting. You can disconnect all mounted drives together or disconnect only those you do not need mounted anymore. You can also do this in Windows Explorer by right-clicking on the disk icon and choosing Unmount. 9.9 Working with vhd files In this section Converting tib images into vhd virtual disks and vice versa ..................210 Recovery using vhd files created by Windows Backup ..........................
1. Click Convert Acronis backup to Windows backup on the Tools & Utilities screen. 2. Select the disk image to convert. If the backup is password-protected, Acronis True Image Home 2011 will ask for it. Note that the resulting vhd file will lose password protection. Converting an incremental backup requires all the previous incremental backups and the original full backup. Converting a differential backup requires the original full backup. The result of conversion will always be a full backup. 3.
1. Click Convert Windows backup to Acronis backup on the Tools & Utilities screen. 2. Select the vhd file to convert. 3. Specify the path to the tib file to be created. By default, the converted file will be created in the same location as the file to be converted. However, you can select another location by clicking Browse. The file can be directed to any storage supported by Acronis True Image Home 2011, except for Acronis Secure Zone. 4.
4. Choose the vhd backup file to be used for recovery by its creation date. When the required vhd backup is not shown, click Browse, choose Windows Backup Archives (*.vhd) in the "Files of type" field and locate the backup for recovery. Even if the required vhd backup is shown on the screen, after you choose it Acronis True Image Home 2011 may display the following message: "Acronis True Image Home 2011 cannot detect volume 1 of "Backup_Name" archive", where Backup_Name is the name of the chosen backup.
into a tib file. When you boot from a dynamic vhd file, the VHD is automatically expanded to the maximum size. If the physical host partition of the vhd file does not have enough free disk space for the maximum size of the dynamic VHD, the boot process will fail. Furthermore, you need to have additional space for the paging file (Pagefile.sys), as the paging file is created on the host partition outside the virtual one.
The settings content can be different depending on a backup type.
10 Troubleshooting In this section General recommendations ....................................................................216 Acronis System Report ...........................................................................217 Acronis Smart Error Reporting ...............................................................217 Creating a custom rescue CD .................................................................219 Viewing Log .........................................................................
10.2 Acronis System Report When you contact the Acronis support team, they will usually need information about your system in order to resolve your problem. Sometimes getting the information is an inconvenient process and may take a long time. The Generate system report tool simplifies the procedure. It generates a system report containing all the necessary technical information and allows you to save the information to file.
You can view more detailed information about the error by clicking the More details link in the message box. The detailed information may look like as is shown on the following screen shot: To view the Acronis Knowledge Base article suggesting a solution(s) for correcting the error, click the Knowledge Base button. This will open a confirmation window that lists the information to be sent via Internet to the Acronis Knowledge Base. Click OK to permit sending the information.
More information about this error and an applicable solution may be available online in the Acronis Knowledge base. To access the online resource manually, enter the event code at: http://kb.acronis.com/errorcode/ Event code: 0x00970007+0x00970016+0x00970002" The event codes from different modules are combined with "+" symbols. When manually entering such event codes into the appropriate field to search in the Knowledge Base, enter the event code components without spaces around the "+" symbols.
it is intended for Acronis Support personnel to help in troubleshoot the issues users have with the feature. It is included in Acronis System Report. If you want to view the log of Acronis True Image Home 2011 operations, click Help → View log in the upper right corner of the main window. To view the logs for a specific period, select the period from the drop-down list. You can select Today, Week, and Month. To view all logs, select All.
221 Choose Yes, I want to participate in the program if you want to join the program Choose No, I do not accept if you do not want to join the program Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
11 Glossary of Terms A Acronis Secure Zone A secure partition for storing backups (p. 222) on a hard disk.
Bootable media A physical media (CD, DVD, USB flash drive or other media supported by a machine BIOS as a boot device) that contains standalone version of Acronis True Image Home 2011. Bootable media is most often used to: D Differential backup 1. A backup method used for saving data changes that occurred since the last full backup version (p. 223) within a backup. 2. A backup process that creates a differential backup version (p. 223).
Incremental backup 1. A backup method used for saving data changes that occurred since the last backup version (p. 222) (of any type) within a backup. 2. A backup process that creates an incremental backup version (p. 224). R Incremental backup version V A backup version (p. 222) that stores changes to the data against the latest backup version. You need access to other backup versions from the same backup (p. 222) to restore data from an incremental backup version.
