Re: Acronis and new disk

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Anna wrote:
George:
We have found (as apparently you've found) that at times there are
problems with using the disk copying/disk cloning programs such as the
MaxBlast program you mention offered by the hard drive manufacturers.
Most of the time they do the job for which they're intended but at other
times...

Anyway since you have the ATI 9 program you might as well use it.

Here are step-by-step instructions for using that program. It would
obviously be best if you would simply use the Acronis program to clone
the contents of your 40 GB HDD to your new 120 GB HDD rather than
creating a disk image at this initial stage. Later when you use the
Acronis program for routine backup purposes you can consider creating
disk images rather than disk clones. The instructions that follow detail
both approaches.

And you need not use the Acronis "recovery" CD (what Acronis calls the
"Bootable Rescue Media") to effect this disk cloning operation as one
respondent suggested. There's no reason why you can't simply access the
Acronis program and proceed from there. You should, of course, create the
BRM as the following instructions indicate - but this bootable CD is
basically used for recovery purposes.


"Jeff Barnett" <jbbrus@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uQN70fciHHA.4496@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dear Anna,

I quote part of an answer from an Acronis response to a question I ask
about cloning:
____________________ Start Quote __________________
Dear Jeff,

1. If one schedules clone disk operation in Windows, Acronis True Image
10.0 Home reboots machine into special, so-called Windows Native Mode - a
mode with Windows kernel and necessary drivers running. Some software
(usually antivirus) in several configurations may cause malfunctioning of
this operation. That is why we recommended you to use Acronis Bootable
Rescue Media.

----------------------- End Quote ------------------------------

I recently (within the last week) received email from Acronis with the
above. In fact the first response to my question agreed with what you have
posted - could start clone from windows and it would be performed on
reboot. When I repeated the advise and asked a derivative question, the
advise changed as quoted above. Not having read the Acronis source code or
actually run any controlled tests on the product, I cannot say what is
actually correct. However, if the reboot is (1) to a Windows kernel that
shares files used by the full OS and (2) changes those files during
operation, then I believe that it is possible that the shadow copy
mechanism will capture inconsistent file sets unless all files are
captured while the OS is frozen (as far as I know it does not work that
way). In any event, it is surely safer and not much more difficult to use
the "recovery" CD and avoid the possibility of problems. Even if it turns
out to not be necessary after all. The issue is that a problem in the
clone might not show up immediately, e.g., some essential process is
scheduled to run once a month. If that process is broken, it will be an
average of two weeks before you find out. By that time, you have no way to
attribute the problem to the clone as opposed to a recent *** up.

-- Jeff Barnett


Anna wrote: > Jeff:
If I correctly read the Acronis tech support response to your query it
would
seem that the issue the Acronis folks were addressing has to do
specifically
with *scheduled* disk cloning operations. Perhaps the scheduling operation
introduces some factor that is not present in the usual non-scheduled disk
cloning operation and thus *does* call for using the "Bootable Rescue
Media"
CD. I really don't know.

All I can tell you is that we have undertaken hundreds of disk cloning
operations (non-scheduled) with the Acronis program (chiefly the 9
version)
with scores of different systems and virtually every one of those
operations
has been undertaken accessing the installed program, i.e., not the
"Bootable
Rescue Media" CD. And we've experienced zero problems in doing so that
could
be attributed to a failure of not using the BRM.

Having said that, if you or anyone using the Acronis program is more
comfortable in using the Bootable Rescue Media CD for your routine
day-to-day disk cloning operations, then by all means continue to do so.
Anna


"Jeff Barnett" <jbbrus@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ea1z5JdiHHA.5052@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My response has nothing to do with scheduling per se. A clone initiated in
XP is not executed until there is a reboot, in that sense it is scheduled.
I'm not sure what all the issues are but at least one Acronis tech
recommends using the recovery disk. We are planning to do a clone in the
near future (need the new disk first) and plan to do it with the recovery
disk since it is surely safer and will take minimal extra time. I'm
interested that you haven't found it necessary in your experience though.
The Acronis documentation agrees with your approach but the stakes are too
high, in my case at least, to try the easier path. For the record, I'm
using version 9, not 10.

-- Jeff Barnett


Jeff:
Let me repeat what I've previously related to you and we'll let it go at
that, OK?

We've performed hundreds of disk cloning operations with the Acronis True
Image version 9 program accessing the program's GUI from within Windows
rather than using the "Bootable Rescue Media" CD to perform that operation.
During that time we have never encountered a single problem with this
approach that could be attributable with not using the BRM. And I know of no
other users who have experienced a problem with this approach.

We use (as I suppose in the case of most users) the BRM nearly exclusively
for recovery operations when the recipient of the clone has been an external
HDD (usually a USB external HDD that is, as we know, unbootable) and the
original source disk has become defective or dysfunctional (unbootable) so
that there is no opportunity to access the installed Acronis program and one
*must* use the BRM in that situation in order to clone the contents of the
external HDD back to a non-defective internal HDD in order to recover the
system.

As I've previously indicated - if you (or anyone) desires to use the Acronis
BRM for routine disk cloning operations, you can do so. No great penalty is
exacted in this approach. But I see no need for this approach based upon our
experience.
Anna


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