Acronis True Image Home - 9.0 User's Guide

User's Guide

Acronis True Image 9.0 Home

Compute with confidence

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction...........................................................................................7

1.1 What is Acronis True Image Home?....................................................................................7

1.2 New in Acronis True Image 9.0 Home.................................................................................7

1.4 System requirements and supported media.........................................................................8

1.4.1 Minimum system requirements ....................................................................................8

1.4.2 Suppor ed operating systems.......................................................................................8

1.4.3 Suppor ed file systems................................................................................................8

1.4.4 Suppor ed storage media ............................................................................................8

1.5 Technical support..............................................................................................................9

t t t

Chapter 2. Acronis True Image Home installation and starting ...........................10

2.1 Installing Acronis True Image Home.................................................................................10

2.2 Extracting Acronis True Image Home................................................................................ 11

2.3 Running Acronis True Image Home ..................................................................................11

2.4 Upgrading Acronis True Image Home ..............................................................................11

2.5 Removing Acronis True Image Home................................................................................ 11

Chapter 3. General information and proprietary Acronis technologies ................12

3.1 The difference between file archives and disk/partition images ...........................................12

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backups.......................................................................... 12

3.3 Acronis Secure Zone........................................................................................................13

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager ...................................................................................14

3.4.1 How it works............................................................................................................14

3.4.2 How o use ..............................................................................................................14

3.5 Acronis Snap Restore.......................................................................................................14

3.5.1 How it works............................................................................................................14

3.5.2 How o use ..............................................................................................................15

3.6 Viewing disk and partition information ..............................................................................15

Chapter 4. Using Acronis True Image Home .........................................................17

4.1 Main program window.....................................................................................................17

4.2 Available operations........................................................................................................18

Chapter 5. Creating backup archives ....................................................................20

5.1 Backing up files and folders (file backup) ..........................................................................20

5.2 Backing up disks and partitions (image backup) ................................................................. 24

5.3 Setting backup options....................................................................................................25

5.3.1 Archive protection..................................................................................................... 26

5.3.2 Source files exclusion................................................................................................ 26

5.3.3 Pre/post commands..................................................................................................26

5.3.4 Compression level..................................................................................................... 27

5.3.5 Backup priority.........................................................................................................27

5.3.6 Archive splitting........................................................................................................27

5.3.7 File-level security se ings.......................................................................................... 28

5.3.8 Media components.................................................................................................... 28

5.3.9 Additional settings ....................................................................................................29

Chapter 6. Restoring the backup data ..................................................................30

6.1 Restore under Windows or boot from CD?......................................................................... 30

6.1.1 Ne work settings in rescue mode ...............................................................................30

6.2 Restoring files and folders from file archives...................................................................... 30

6.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from images................................................................... 33

6.3.1 Starting the Restore Data Wizard...............................................................................33

6.3.2 Archive selection.......................................................................................................34

6.3.3 Res oration type selection .........................................................................................34

6.3.4 Selecting a disk/partition to restore............................................................................ 36

6.3.5 Selecting a target disk/partition..................................................................................36

6.3.6 Changing the restored partition type ..........................................................................37

6.3.7 Changing the restored partition file sys em .................................................................38

6.3.8 Changing the restored partition size and location......................................................... 38

6.3.9 Assigning a letter to the res ored partition .................................................................. 39

6.3.10 Res o ing several disks or partitions at once..............................................................39

6.3.11 Setting restore options............................................................................................ 39

6.3.12 Res o ation summary and executing restoration ........................................................ 39

6.4 Setting restore options ....................................................................................................39

6.4.1 Files overwriting mode.............................................................................................. 40

6.4.2 Pre/post commands..................................................................................................40

6.4.3 Res oration priority................................................................................................... 40

6.4.4 File-level security se ings.......................................................................................... 41

6.4.5 Additional settings ....................................................................................................41

t r t r

Chapter 7. Scheduling tasks..................................................................................42

7.1 Creating scheduled tasks................................................................................................. 42

7.1.1 Setting up daily execution ......................................................................................... 43

7.1.2 Setting up weekly execution...................................................................................... 44

7.1.3 Setting up monthly execution.....................................................................................45

7.1.4 Setting up one-time execution................................................................................... 45

7.2 Managing scheduled tasks ...............................................................................................46

Chapter 8. Managing Acronis Secure Zone ...........................................................47

8.1 Creating Acronis Secure Zone........................................................................................... 47

8.2 Resizing Acronis Secure Zone........................................................................................... 48

8.3 Deleting Acronis Secure Zone...........................................................................................49

Chapter 9. Creating bootable media .....................................................................50

Chapter 10. Other operations................................................................................52

10.1 Validating backup archives.............................................................................................52

10.2 Viewing logs .................................................................................................................52

10.3 Managing System Restore.............................................................................................. 53

Chapter 11. Mounting an image as a virtual drive ................................................55

11.1 Mounting an image........................................................................................................55

11.2 Unmounting an image ...................................................................................................57

Chapter 12. Transferring the system to a new disk ..............................................58

12.1 General information.......................................................................................................58

12.2 Security........................................................................................................................58

12.3 Executing transfers........................................................................................................59

12.3.1 Selecting Clone mode.............................................................................................. 59

12.3.2 Selecting source disk...............................................................................................59

12.3.3 Selecting destina ion disk ........................................................................................ 60

12.3.4 Partitioned des ination disk...................................................................................... 61

12.3.5 Old and new disk partition layout .............................................................................61

12.3.6 Old disk data..........................................................................................................61

12.3.7 Destroying the old disk data.....................................................................................62

12.3.8 Selecting partition transfer method........................................................................... 63

12.3.9 Partitioning the old disk........................................................................................... 64

12.3.10 Old and new disk partition layouts..........................................................................64

12.3.11 Cloning summary.................................................................................................. 65

12.4 Cloning with manual partitioning.....................................................................................65

12.4.1 Old and new disk partition layouts............................................................................65

Chapter 13. Adding a new hard disk .....................................................................67

13.1 Selecting a hard disk .....................................................................................................67

13.2 Creating new partitions..................................................................................................67

13.3 Disk add summary.........................................................................................................68

Appendix A. Partitions and file systems................................................................69

A.1 Hard disk partitions.................................................................................................... 69

A.2 File systems.............................................................................................................. 69

A.2.1

FAT16............................................................................................................... 69

A.2.2

FAT32............................................................................................................... 70

A.2.3

NTFS................................................................................................................ 70

A.2.4

Linux Ext2......................................................................................................... 70

A.2.5

Linux Ext3......................................................................................................... 70

A.2.6

Linux ReiserFS................................................................................................... 71

Appendix B. Hard disks and BIOS setup ...............................................................72

B.1 Installing hard disks in computers...............................................................................72

B.1.1

Installing a hard disk, general scheme................................................................. 72

B.1.2

Motherboard socke s IDE cable, power cable....................................................... 72

Installation modes jumpers................................................................................73

B.2 BIOS ........................................................................................................................74

B.2.1

Setup utility....................................................................................................... 74

B.2.2

Standard CMOS setup menu............................................................................... 75

B.2.3

Arranging boot sequence, advanced CMOS setup menu........................................ 76

B.2.4

AwardBIOS ....................................................................................................... 77

B.2.5

Hard disk initialization errors............................................................................... 80

t ,

,B.1.3

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 What is Acronis True Image Home?

Acronis True Image Home solves all backup problems, ensuring the safety of all information on your PC. Using it, you can back up selected files and folders, or entire disks and partitions.

If failures occur that block access to information or affect system operation, or if you accidentally delete necessary files, you'll be able to easily restore the system and lost data.

The unique technology developed by Acronis and implemented in A cronis True Image Home allows you to create exact, sector-by-sector disk backups, including all operating systems, applications and configuration files, software updates, personal settings and all of your data.

You can store backups on almost any PC storage device: local hard drives, network drives or a variety of IDE, SCSI, FireWire (IEEE-1394), USB (1.0, 1.1 and 2.0) and PC Card (formerly called PCMCIA) removable media drives, as well as CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, magneto-optical, Iomega Zip and Jaz drives.

If you are going to install a new hard disk drive, Acronis True Image Home will help you transfer information from the old one in minutes, including operating systems, applications, documents and personal settings.

Wizards and a user-friendly, Windows XP-styled interface will make your work more convenient. Just answer a few simple questions and let Acronis True Image Home take care of everything else! When a system problem occurs, the software will get you up and running in short order.

1.2 New in Acronis True Image 9.0 Home

• Support for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

• Direct backup to DVD and bootable DVD creation

• User-editable default restore options – Users can configure and save restore

parameters, such as files overwriting mode, the original or current date and time for restored files etc.

• File-level security settings - preserving files’ security settings in the archive, storing encrypted files in encrypted or decrypted state

• Read-write mode of mounting images

• Including MBR in partition images, an option to restore MBR from a disk or partition

image

• Bootable backup media – When backing up to removable media, users can make this media bootable in the same manner as a rescue CD, s o separate recover media is not required

• One bootable media for all Acronis products - Writing standalone versions of other Acronis products to bootable media

• Bootable disks ISOs – In addition to burning a bootable rescue disk, users can s ave its ISO image for burning later

1.4 System requirements and supported media

1.4.1 Minimum system requirements

Acronis True Image Home requires the following hardware:

• Pentium processor or higher

• 128 MB RAM

• FDD or CD-RW drive for bootable media creation

• Mouse (recommended).

1.4.2 Supported operating systems

• Windows® 98 SE

• Windows® Me

• Windows® NT 4.0 Workstation SP 6

• Windows® 2000 Professional SP 4

• Windows® XP SP 2

• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Acronis True Image Home also enables creating a bootable diskette or CD-R/W that can back-up and restore a disk/partition on a computer running any PC-based opera ting system including Linux®.

1.4.3 Supported file systems

• FAT16/32

• NTFS

• Ext2/Ext3

• ReiserFS

• Linux SWAP

If a file system is not supported or is corrupted, Acronis True Image Home can copy data using a sector-by-sector approach.

1.4.4 Supported storage media

• Hard disk drives

• Networked storage devices

• CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R (including double-layer DVD+R), DVD+RW, DVD-RAM*

• USB 1.0 / 2.0, FireWire (IEEE-1394) and PC card storage devices

• Floppy disks, ZIP®, Jaz® and other removable media

* - DVD burning is not supported in Windows 98/Me, burned DVDs cannot be read in Windows 98/Me. Burned write-once discs cannot be read in Windows NT 4 without thirdparty software. Burned rewritable discs cannot be read in Linux without kernel patch.

1.5 Technical support

Users of legally purchased copies of Acronis True Image Home are entitled to free technical support from Acronis. If you experience problems installing or using Acronis products that you can’t solve yourself by using this guide, then please contact Acronis Technical Support.

More information about contacting Acronis Technical Support is available at the following link:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/

Chapter 2. Acronis True Image Home installation and starting

2.1 Installing Acronis True Image Home

To install Acronis True Image Home:

• run the Acronis True Image Home setup file

• in the Install Menu, select the program to install: Acronis True Image Home

• follow the Install Wizard instructions on the screen.

Typical, Custom and Complete installation is available. Having pressed Custom, you can choose to install, besides Acronis True Image Home, Rescue Media Builder and Bart PE plug-in.

With Rescue Media Builder you can create bootable rescue disks (see details in

Creating bootable media

that contains a bootable CD. Installing the Bootable Rescue Media Builder will allow you to create bootable media or its ISO image at any time from the main program window or running Bootable Rescue Media Builder on its own.

The well-known Bart PE utility is used to boot into a Windows-like environment from CD. Applications are installed into Bart PE in the form of plug-ins. Choosing Bart PE plug-in installation (disabled by default) provides the ability to include Acronis True Image Home into a Bart PE plug-in tab. The plug-in files will be placed to the installation folder along with other program files.

When installed, Acronis True Image Home creates a new device in the Device Manager list (Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> Acronis Devices -> Acronis TrueImage Backup Archive Explorer). Do not disable or uninstall this device, as it is necessary for connecting image archives as virtual disks (see

an image as a virtual drive

). You might not need this tool if you purchased a boxed product

Chapter 11. Mounting

Chapter 9

2.2 Extracting Acronis True Image Home

When installing Acronis True Image Home, you can save the setup (.msi) file on a local or network drive. This will help when modifying or recovering the existing component installation.

To save a setup file:

• run the Acronis True Image Home setup file;

• in the Install Menu, right-click on the program name and select Extract;

• select a location for the setup file and click Save.

2.3 Running Acronis True Image Home

You can run Acronis True Image Home in Windows by selecting Start -> Programs -> Acronis -> Acronis True Image Home -> Acronis True Image Home or clicking on

the appropriate shortcut on the desktop. If your operating system does not load for some reason, you can run Acronis Startup

Recovery Manager. However, this must be activated prior to use; see

Recovery Manager

the computer bootup, when you see a corresponding message that tells you to press that key. Acronis True Image Home will be run in the standalone mode, allowing you to recover the damaged partitions.

to learn more about this procedure. To run the program, press F11 during

3.4 Acronis Startup

If your disk data is totally corrupted and you cannot boot (or if you have not activated Acronis Startup Recovery Manager), load the standalone Acronis True Image Home version from the bootable media, supplied with the retail box or creat ed by you using Rescue Media Builder. Then you will be able to restore the disk from its previously created image.

2.4 Upgrading 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.

2.5 Removing Acronis True Image Home

Select Start -> Settings -> Control panel -> Add or remove programs -> <Acronis True Image Home> -> Remove. Then follow instructions on the screen. You may have

to reboot your computer afterwards to complete the task.

Chapter 3. General information and proprietary Acronis technologies

3.1 The difference between file archives and disk/partition images

A backup archive is a file or a group of files (also called in this Guide “backups”), that contains a copy of selected files/folders data or a copy of all information stored on selected disks/partitions.

When you back up files and folders, only the data, along with the folder tree, are compressed and stored.

Backing up disks and partitions is performed in a different way: Acronis True Image H ome stores a sector-by-sector snapshot of the disk, which includes the operating system , registry , drivers, software applications and data files, as well as system areas hidden from the user. This procedure is called “creating a disk image,” and the resulting backup archive is often called a disk/partition image.

Acronis True Image Home stores only those hard disk parts that contain data (for supported file systems). Further, it does not back up swap file information (win386.swp under Windows 98/Me and pagefile.sys under Windows NT/2000/XP) and hiberfil.sys (a file that keeps RAM contents when the computer goes into hibernation). This reduces image size and speeds up image creation and restoration.

A partition image includes all files and folders independent of their attributes (including hidden and system files), boot record, FAT (file allocation table), root and the zero track of the hard disk with master boot record (MBR).

A disk image includes images of all disk partitions as well as the zero track with master boot record (MBR).

By default, files in all Acronis True Image Home archives have a “.tib” extension. It is important to note that you can restore files and folders not only from file archi ves, but

from disk/partition images, too. To do so, mount the image as a virtual disk (see

Mounting an image as a virtual drive

specified files or folders.

) or start the image restoration and select Restore

Chapter 11.

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backups

Acronis True Image Home can create full, incremental and differential backups. A full backup contains all data at the moment of backup creation. It forms a base for

further incremental or differential backup or is used as a standalone archive. A full backup has the shortest restore time as compared to incremental or differential ones.

An incremental backup file only contains data changed since the la st full or incremental backup creation. Therefore, it is smaller and takes less time to create. But as it doesn’t contain all data, all the previous incremental backups and the initial full backup are required for restoration.

Unlike incremental backup, when every backup procedure creat es the next file in a “chain, ” a differential backup creates an independent file, containing all changes against the initial full archive. Generally, a differential backup will be restored faster than an incremental one, as it does not have to process through a long chain of previous backups.

A standalone full backup may be an optimal solution if you often roll back the system to the initial state (like in a gaming club or Internet café, to undo changes made by the guests). In this case, you need not re-create the initial full image, so the backup time is not crucial, and the restore time will be minimal.

Alternatively, if you are interested in saving only the last data state to be able to restore it in case of system failure, consider the differential backup. It is particularly effective if your data changes tend to be little as compared to the full data volume.

The same is true for incremental backup. In addition, it is most useful when you need frequent backups and possibility to roll back to any of stored states. Having created a full backup once, if you then create an incremental backup each day of a month, you will get the same result as if you created full backups every day. However, the cost in time and disk space (or removable media usage) will be as little as one tenth as much.

It is important to note that the above arguments are nothing but examples for your information. Feel free to make up your own backup policy in accordance with your specific tasks and conditions. Acronis True Image Home is flexible enough to meet any real-life demands.

An incremental or differential backup created after a disk is defragmented might be considerably larger than usual. This is because the defragmentation program changes file locations on disk and the backups reflect these changes. Therefore, it is recommended that you re-create a full backup after disk defragmentation.

3.3 Acronis Secure Zone

The Acronis Secure Zone is a special hidden partition for storing archives on the computer system itself. For archive security purposes, ordinary applications cannot access it. In the Acronis True Image Home Wizards’ windows the zone is listed along with all partitions available for storing archives. Acronis Secure Zone is necessary for using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and Acronis Snap Restore features (see below).

Acronis Secure Zone is always available for archive creation as long as ther e is space for the backup file. If there is not enough space, older archives will be deleted to create space.

Acronis True Image Home uses the following scheme to clean up Acronis Secure Zone:

• If there is not enough free space in the zone to create a backup, the program deletes the oldest full backup with all subsequent incremental/differential backups.

• If there is only one full backup (with subsequent incremental/differential backups) left and a full backup is in progress, then the old full backup and incremental/differential backups are deleted.

• Otherwise, (only one full backup left, and an incremental/differential backup is in progress) you will get a message about space error. In that case you will have to either re-create the full backup or increase Acronis Secure Zone.

Thus, you can back up data automatically on a schedule (see

Chapter 7. Scheduling tasks

and not worry about zone overflow issues. However, if you keep long chains of incremental backups, it will be a good practice to periodically check the zone free space, indicated on the second page of the Manage Acronis Secure Zone wizard.

For information on how to create, resize or delete Acronis Secure Zone using this wizard, see

Chapter 8 Managing Acronis Secure Zone

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

3.4.1 How it works

The Acronis Startup Recovery Manager enables starting Acronis True Image Home without loading the operating system. With this feature, if the operating system won't load for some reason, you can run Acronis True Image Home by itself to restore damaged partitions. As opposed to booting from Acronis removable media, you will not need a separate media or network connection to start Acronis True Image Home.

3.4.2 How to use

To be able to use Acronis Startup Recovery Manager at boot time, prepare as follows:

1. Install Acronis True Image Home.

Chap er 8. Managing Acronis Secure

2. Create Acronis Secure Zone on the hard disk (see

Zone

3. Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. To do so, click Activate Acronis Startup

Recovery Manager and follow the Wizard’s instructions. If you try to activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager while Acronis Se cure Zone is missing

from the system, you will be prompted to create the zone, Manager will be activated. Otherwise, Acronis Startup Recovery Manager will be activated immediately.

then Acronis Startup Recovery

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 have to reactivate them after activating the Startup Recovery Manager. 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 failure occurs, turn on the computer and press F11 when you see the "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager" message. This will run a standalone version of Acronis True Image Home that only slightly differs from the complete version. For information on restoring damaged partitions, see

Be careful! Disk letters in standalone Acronis True Image Home might sometimes differ from the way Windows identifies drives. For example, the D: drive identified in the standalone Acronis True Image might correspond to the E: drive in Windows.

Chapter 6 Restoring the backup data

3.5 Acronis Snap Restore

With this feature you can boot the OS on a crashed computer before the system is completely restored from an image, and start work seconds after the restoration is launched. The restoration will be continued in the background.

This feature is currently available for images being restored from the Acronis Secure Zone (see above). Naturally, Acronis Snap Restore cannot be used if the image contains no operating system (a logical partition or disk image) or when restoring file archives. Also, Snap Restore of Windows 98/Me systems is not supported.

3.5.1 How it works

When the restoration procedure is started, Acronis True Image Home:

1. Finds the sectors in the image which contain system files, and restores these sectors first.

Thus, the OS is restored and can be started in a very short timeframe. Having started the

OS, the user sees the folder tree with files, though file contents still is not recovered. Nevertheless, the user can start working.

2. Writes on the hard disk its own drivers, which intercept system queries to the files. When

the user opens files or launches applications, the drivers receive the system queries and restore the sectors that are necessary for the current operation.

3. At the same time, Acronis True Image Home proceeds with the complete sector -by-sector

image restoration in the background. However, the system requested sectors have the highest priority.

Finally, the image will be fully restored even if the user performs no actions at all. But if you choose to start working as soon as possible after the system failure, you will gain at least several minutes, considering that restoration of a 10-20 GB image (most common image size) takes about 10 minutes. The larger the image size, the more time you save.

3.5.2 How to use

To be able to use Acronis Snap Restore in case of system crash, prepare as follows:

1. Install Acronis True Image Home.

Chap er 8. Managing Acronis Secure

2. Create Acronis Secure Zone on the hard disk (see

Zone

. r

3. Activate Acronis Startup Recovery manager (see

and create bootable media with Acronis True Image Home (see

bootable

4. Back up (image) the system disk to Acronis Secure Zone (see

partitions (image backup)

image is mandatory.

If failure occurs, boot the computer from the bootable media or using F11. Start the recovery procedure (see system disk image from Acronis Secure Zone, choose Use Snap Restore and in the next window click Proceed. In a few seconds the computer will reboot to the restored system. Log in and start work – no more reboots or other actions are required.

You can perform Snap Restore running Acronis True Image Home in supported Windows operating systems as well. However, it is mandatory to have bootable media in case Windows cannot boot.

media).

). You can back up other disks/partitions as well, but the system

When performing Snap Restore, the current Acronis True Image Home version always restores the entire system disk. Therefore, if your system disk consists of several partitions, all of them must be included into the image. Any partitions which are missing from the image will be lost.

6.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from images

3 4 Ac onis Startup Recovery Manager

Chapter 9. Creating

5 2 Backing up disks and

), select the

)

3.6 Viewing disk and partition information

You can change the way of data representation in all schemes you see in various wizards. To the right are three icons: Arrange Icons by, Choose Details and i (Display the

properties of the selected item), the last duplicated in the context menu invoked by right-clicking objects.

To sort messages by a particular column, click the header (another click will switch the messages to the opposite order) or Arrange Icons by button and select the column.

To select columns to view, right-click the headers line or left-click the Choose Details button. Then flag the columns you want to display.

If you click the i (Display the properties of the selected item) button, you will see the selected partition or disk properties window.

This window contains two panels. The left panel contains the properties tree and the rig ht describes the selected property in detail. The disk information includes its physical parameters (connection type, device type, size, etc.); partition information includes both physical (sectors, location, etc.), and logical (file system, free space, assigned letter, etc.) parameters.

You can change the width of a column by dragging its borders with the mouse.

Chapter 4. Using Acronis True Image Home

4.1 Main program window

The main program window contains the menu, the toolbar, the sidebar, the Active Tasks pane and the main area. The main area contains operation icons, while the side bar features Tools and Help panels.

Most of the operations are represented tw o or even three times in different window areas, providing several ways to select them for more convenience. For example, you can start the necessary operation or tool by clicking its icon in the main area or by selecting the same item from the Operations or Tools menu.

The main window contains operation icons divided into two groups. The Task group contains the following operations:

• Backup – create a backup archive

• Recovery – restore data from a previously created archive

• Clone Disk – transfer the OS, applications and data from the old disk to the new one

• Add New Disk – add a new disk for data storage leaving th e OS a nd applications on the

old one.

The Tools group contains the following items:

• Mount Image – connect a disk/partition image as a virtual drive

• Unmount Image – disconnect the connected virtual drive

• Validate Backup Archive – run the archive integrity checking procedure

• Show Log – open the Log Viewer window

• Manage Acronis Secure Zone – create, delete and resize a special hi dden par tition for

storing archives (Acronis Secure Zone)

• Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager – activate the boot restoration manager (F11 key).

• Manage System Restore – turn on/off Microsoft Windows System Res tore tool and set its options directly from Acronis True Image Home

Program menu

The program menu bar features the Operations, View, Tools and Help items. The Operations menu contains a list of the available operations, including scheduling tasks. The View menu contains items for managing the program window look:

• Toolbars – contains commands that control toolbar icons

• Common Task Bar – enables/disables the sidebar

• Status Bar – enables/disables the status bar

• Active tasks – enables/disables the Active Tasks pane at the bottom of the main area.

The Tools menu contains the following items:

• Manage Acronis Secure Zone – create, delete and resize a special hi dden par tition for storing archives (Acronis Secure Zone)

• Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager – activate the boot restoration manager (F11 key)

• Validate Backup Archive – run the archive integrity checking procedure

• Create Bootable Rescue Media – run the bootable media creation procedure

• Show Log – open the Log Viewer window

• Options – open a window for editing default backup/restore options, setting text

appearance (fonts), configuring email/Winpopup notifications etc.

The Help menu is used to invoke help and obtain information about Acronis True Image Home.

Active Tasks pane

The Active Tasks pane displays the scheduled and currently-being-executed tasks. It features its own toolbar. You can customize this toolbar view by right-clicking on it and selecting the desired options.

Status bar

At the bottom of the main window, there is a status bar divided into two parts. The left sid e briefly describes the selected operation; the right side indicates operation progress and results. If you double-click on the operation results, you will see the logs window.

Taskbar notification area icon

During most of the operations, a special indicator icon appears in the Windows taskbar notification area (the right portion of the stat us bar with the clock). If you mouse over the icon, you will see a tool tip indicating the operation’s progress. This icon doesn’t depend on the main program window being open. It is present for background execution of scheduled tasks as well.

4.2 Available operations

You can perform the following operations on the computer.

• Backup and restore data, including system disks/partitions

Click Backup or Recovery, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

Creating backup archives

• Schedule backup operations

Click the very left button on a tasks pane toolbar, then follow the Wizar d’s instructions. See details in

• Set up backup/restore options, such as backup process priority or files overwriting

Select Tools -> Options -> Default backup options or Default restoration options and make settings. See details in

options.

• Validate backup archives wherever they reside, be it local, network or

Click Validate Backup Archive, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

Chapter 7. Scheduling tasks

mode.

removable media

Validating backup archives

• Browse logs of Acronis True Image Home operation

Click the very right button on a tasks pane toolbar at the bottom of the window. See details

10.2 Viewing logs

• Manage Acronis Secure Zone

and

Chapter 6. Restoring the backup data.

5.3 Setting backup options

and

6.4 Setting esto e

Chapter 5

r r

10.1

Click Manage Acronis Secure Zone, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

Chapter 8. Managing Acronis Secure Zone

• Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

Click Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager, then follow the Wizard’s instructi ons. See details in

• Mount partitions’ images to explore and modify their contents, or to restore

individual files

Click Mount image, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

Mounting an image as a virtual drive

• Unmount previously mounted partition images

Click Unmount image, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

Unmounting an image

• Transfer the system to a new hard disk

Chapter 12. Transferring the system to a new disk

See

• Format partitions on a new hard disk

Chapter 13. Adding a new hard disk

See

• Turn on/off Windows System Restore tool

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

Chapter 11.

11.2

10.3 Managing Sys em Restore

See

• Create bootable rescue media or its ISO image

Chapter 9. Creating bootable media

See

Chapter 5. Creating backup archives

To be able to restore the lost data or roll back your system to a predetermined state, you should first create a data or entire-system backup file.

If you are not concerned about restoration of your operating system along with all settings and applications, but plan to keep safe only certain data (the current project, for example), choose file/folder backup. This will reduce the archive size, thus saving disk space and possibly reducing removable media costs.

Backing up the entire system disk (creating a disk image) takes more disk space but enables you to restore the system in minutes in case of severe data damage or hardware failure. Moreover, the imaging procedure is much faster than copying files, and may significantly speed the backup process when it comes to backing up large volumes of data (see details in

3.1 The difference between file archives and disk/partition images

5.1 Backing up files and folders (file backup)

1. Invoke the Create Backup Wizard by clicking on the backup operation icon in the main

program window.

2. Click Next.

3. Select Backup files and click Next.

4. From the tree pane, select files and folders to back u p. You can select a random set of

files, folders, partitions, disks and even computers.

If you select a partition, disk or computer, and archive all its files, including system and hidden files, the bare-metal restore of that disk (partition, computer) still will not be possible. You also may not be able to boot the restored operating system. Therefore, it is recommended that you select only files and folders containing user data. To back up a disk or partition, use image backup.

5. Click Next.

6. Set filters for the specific types of files you do not wish to back up. For example, you may

want hidden and system files and folders, as well as files with .~, .tmp and .bak extensions, not to be stored in the archive.

You can also apply custom filters, using the common Windows masking rules. For example, to exclude all files with extension .exe, add *.exe mask. My???.exe mask will reject all .exe files with names consisting of five symbols and starting with “my”.

All of these settings will take effect for the current task. For information on how to set the default filters that will be called each time you create a file backup task, see

files exclusion

5.3.2 Sou ce

7. Click Next.

8. Select the name and location of the archive file.

If you are going to create a full backup, type the file name in the File Name line, or use the file name generator (a button to the right of the line). If you select an existing archive, it will be overwritten.

If you are going to create an incremental backup (see

backup

), select the latest full or incremental backup you have.

In fact, if all incremental backup files are stored together, it doesn't matter which one you select, as the program will recognize them as a single archive. If you stored the files on several removable disks, you must provide the latest archive file; otherwise, restoration problems might occur.

3.2 Full, incremental and differential

If you are going to create a differential backup, select the full backup which will be a base, or any of the existing differential archives. Either way, the program will create a new differential archive file.

The “farther” you store the archive from the original folders, the safer it will be in case of data damage. For example, saving the archive to another hard disk will protect your data if the primary disk is damaged. Data saved to a network disk or removable media will survive even if all your local hard disks are down. You can also use Acronis Secure Zone (see details

3 3 Acronis Secure Zone

) for storing backups. In that case, you need not provide the file

name.

9. Click Next.

10. Select whether you want to create a full, incremental or differential backup. If you ha ve

not backed up the selected files/folders yet, or the full archive seems too old to append incremental changes to it, choose full backup. Otherwise it is recommended that you create an incremental or differential backup (see

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backup

11. Click Next.

12. Select the backup options (that is, backup file splitting, compression level, password

protection etc.). You may Use default options or Set the options manually. If the latt er is the case, the settings will be applied only to the current backup task. Alternatively, you can edit the default options from the current screen. Then your settings will be saved as the defaults. See

5.3 Setting backup options

for more information.

13. Click Next.

14. Provide a comment for the archive. This can help prevent you from restoring the wrong

files. However, you can choose not to make any notes. The backup file size and creation date are automatically appended to the description, so you do not need to enter this information.

15. Click Next.

16. At the final step, the backup task summary is displayed. Up to this point, you can click

Back to make changes in the created task. Clicking Proceed will launch the task execution.

17. The task will appear on the Active tasks pane of the main window. The task progress

will be shown in a special window. You can stop the procedure by clicking Cancel. You can also close the progress window by clicking Hide. The backup creation will continue,

but you will be able to start another operation or close the main program window. In the latter case, the program will continue working in the background and will automatically close once the backup archive is ready. If you prepare some more backup operations, they will be queued after the current one.

You may want to adjust the backup process priority. To do so, click on the process icon in the System Tray and select Low, Normal, or High priority from the menu that appears. For

5.3.5

information on how to set the default priority, see If you burn an archive to several removable media, be sure to number them, since you will

have to insert them in order during the restoration.

18. You may want to see the log when the task is completed. To view the log, click the

Show Operation Logs button on the toolbar.

5.2 Backing up disks and partitions (image backup)

1. Invoke the Create Backup Wizard by clicking on the backup operation icon in the main

program window.

2. Click Next.

3. Select Backup disks and click Next.

4. Select disks or partitions to back up. You can select a random set of disks and partitions.

5. Click Next.

6. Select the name and location of the archive file.

If you are going to create a full archive, type the file name in the File Name line, or use the file name generator (a button to the right of the line). If you select an existing archive, it will be overwritten.

If you are going to create an incremental backup (see

backup

), select the latest full or incremental backup you have.

3.2 Full, incremental and differential

If you are going to create a differential backup, select the full backup which will be a base, or any of existing differential archives. Either way, the program will create a new differential archive file.

The “farther” you store the archive from the original partition, the safer it will be in case of data damage. For example, saving the archive to another hard disk will protect your data if your primary disk is damaged. Data saved to a network disk or removable media will survive even if all your local hard disks are down. You can also use Acronis Secure Zone (see details in

3 3 Acronis Secure Zone

) for storing backups. In that case, you need not provide the file

name.

7. Click Next.

8. Select whether you want to create a full or incremental backup. If you have not backed u p

the selected disks/partitions yet, or the full archive seems too old to append incremental changes to it, choose full backup. Otherwise it is recommended that you create an incremental or differential backup (see

3 2 Full, incremental and differential backup

9. Click Next.

10. Select the backup options (that is, backup file splitting, compression level, password

5.3 Setting backup options

for more information.

11. Click Next.

12. Provide a comment for the archive. This can help prevent you from restoring the wrong

disk/partition. However, you can choose not to make any notes. The backup file size and creation date are automatically appended to the description, so you do not need to enter this information.

13. Click Next.

14. At the final step, the backup task summary is displayed. Up to this point, you can click

Back to make changes in the created task. Clicking Proceed will launch the task execution.

15. The task will appear on the Active tasks pane of the main window. The task progress

will be shown in a special window. You can stop the procedure by clicking Cancel. You can also close the progress window by clicking Hide. The backup creation will continue,

You may want to adjust the backup process priority. To do so, click on the process icon in the System Tray and select Low, Normal, or High priority from the menu that appears. For

5.3.5

information on how to set the default priority, see If you burn an archive to several removable media, be sure to number them, since you will

have to insert them in order during the restoration.

16. You may want to see the log when the task is completed. To view the log, click the

Show Operation Logs button on the toolbar.

5.3 Setting backup options

To view or edit the default backup options, select Tools -> Options -> Default Backup Options from the main program menu.

You can edit the default (or set the temporary) backup op tions while creating a backup task as well.

+ 56 hidden pages

Acronis True Image Home - 9.0 User's Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 What is Acronis True Image Home?

1.2 New in Acronis True Image 9.0 Home

1.4 System requirements and supported media

1.4.1 Minimum system requirements

1.4.2 Supported operating systems

1.4.3 Supported file systems

1.4.4 Supported storage media

1.5 Technical support

2.1 Installing Acronis True Image Home

2.2 Extracting Acronis True Image Home

2.3 Running Acronis True Image Home

2.4 Upgrading Acronis True Image Home

2.5 Removing Acronis True Image Home

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backups

3.3 Acronis Secure Zone

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

3.4.1 How it works

3.4.2 How to use

3.5 Acronis Snap Restore

3.5.1 How it works

3.5.2 How to use

3.6 Viewing disk and partition information

Chapter 4. Using Acronis True Image Home

4.1 Main program window

4.2 Available operations

Chapter 5. Creating backup archives

5.1 Backing up files and folders (file backup)

5.2 Backing up disks and partitions (image backup)

5.3 Setting backup options