Info note about Acronis True Image

For those that use Acronis True Image for backups, a "gotcha" that I ran into.  I was trying to restore from a backup, using the Acronis bootable rescue disc and was unable to get past the point of selecting the target hard drive to restore the back up to. 
 
As it turns out, with certain hardware (and my new Gigabyte GAZ77X UD5H motherboard is one) Win PE is needed on the rescue disc.  The basic Acronis bootable rescue disc uses Linux and that was the problem.  The Acronis "Plus Pack" versions include Win PE for the bootable rescue disc operating system and that will recognize newer hardware. 
 
I would suggest those that use Acronis True Image and do not have the Plus Pack option, to test their system to see if they can restore a hard drive from a backup.  You don't have to actually do the backup, just boot the rescue disc that you create with Acronis and see if you can select the backup you want to use and if you can select the drive to restore to.  If you can select the restore drive you are OK.  If you can't you will need to buy the Plus Pack option.

FWIW, I have no issues using an Acronis True Image 2012 Bootable Rescue CD to backup/restore machines using motherboards with Z77 chipset (including Gigabyte).

An update to my original post.  As it turns out the Acronis "Plus Pack" does not contain the Win PE, that has to be created from a download direct from Microsoft.  The procedure, a long and convoluted procedrue, is required to get it fully implemented.

I looked at the other two popular backup programs, Macrium and Paragon.  Both of these use Win PE but there is still the need for a separate download of Win PE, its not included with either program.

I downloaded a trial version of Macrium to see what it does but it aborts with an error when trying to create a backup, which I assume is a limitation of the trial version.  If its not a limitation but a program bug that throws up a red flag for Macrium.

At least with Acronis, it does include the Linux version of the bootable "Rescue Disc" so if it works there is no need to install/create Win PE bootable media.

What is Windows PE ?

J

It has nothing to do with UEFI, according to what I got from the Acronis forum.

From Wikipedia":

WinPE was originally intended to be used only as a pre-installation platform for deploying Microsoft Windows operating systems, specifically to replace DOS in this respect. WinPE has the following uses:

• Deployment of workstations and servers in large corporations as well as pre-installation by system builders of workstations and servers to be sold to end users.
• Recovery platform to run 32-bit or 64-bit recovery tools such as Winternals ERD Commander or the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE).
• Platform for running 3rd party 32-bit or 64-bit disk cloning utilities.

The package can be used for developer testing or as a recovery CD/DVD for system administrators. Many customized WinPE boot CDs packaged with third-party applications for different uses are now available from volunteers via the Internet.
The package can also be used as the base of a forensics investigation to either capture a disk image or run analysis tools without mounting any available disks and thus changing state

I downloaded a trial version of Macrium to see what it does but it aborts with an error when trying to create a backup

There is a free version of Macrium reflect. It is not full featured, but it does permit making a disk image. If you are getting an error with that, then there is probably a problem with your system compatibility. 


Sounds like the problem may be a driver issue. If you have a raid controller enabled, it may be presenting your drives to the bootable OS in a way that is not recognized. The Win PE environment may have a more robust driver library, (or an easier way to add drivers on the fly) than the Linux version that Acronis is using on their  published version. They do have an iso available, that may have been updated since your version was shipped.

I created the Win PE Acronis bootable rescue disc.  It does boot to a lite version of Windows 7 and then the Acronis recovery program loads.  I am able to see all the hard drives in my system, which I couldn't do with the Acronis Linux version.

But back to the original post.  If you are using Acronis True Image, and haven't created or tested the Bootable "Rescue Disc" I suggest this be done ASAP.  Test to see if everything works on your PC, including accessing the media (drive) that contains  the Acronis backup and if you can access the drive that you want to restore to.  DO NOT actually restore, just check to see if you can.  If you can't access the drive to restore to then you are in the situation I was in and will need the Win PE/Acronis version bootable rescue disc. 

this all sounds way too complicated for a dummy like me to use

Since they are charging $$ for a program that is supposed to be simple, it does make you wonder about the appropriateness of the program to the target user. I have created a few special boot discs (Bart's PE etc.) in the past, and it is not something a dummy like me finds intuitive either. In fairness, disc imaging programs have never been really user friendly, and always had the potential for disaster in uninformed hands. The Windows 7&8 built in disc imaging is simple enough to use, but the web is full of problems people had if they tried to do anything other than use it exactly as MS intended. It is particularly unsuitable if you want to move the image file after it has been created. It is fine to say you can do a system partition backup to removable media, but who can back up their system partition to DVD? 

Does all this mean that one can or cannot buy the new version of Acronis and clone hard drives then if a crash happens, just restore everything to a new drive and be happy? .. or do you have to go somewhere else first before you can get there from here? This fred is a little bit confusing to me, just being a user. I've never built or programmed a computer. I want to backup, and I do backup to a seperate drive using Norton 360, however I am aware that I am not cloning. If I buy something like Acronis I want to choose an option, click the button, and completely copy any hard drive to another hard drive... but I am not sure I can do that, can I ?? Sorry to be so ignorant about this... but I am.

As mentioned above, I've used Acronis True Image 2012 (standard Bootable Rescue CD - not built with WinPE) to successfully backup and restore many machines... including those with Z77 chipset (including Gigabyte motherboards).

No program is 100%, just as some never have a problem with Sonar and others have varying degrees of problems.  Acronis is as good as any on the market.  The issue I had is not with ALL systems, but is a known issue with SOME systems, from the info I got on the Acronis forum. 

I took the time to create the WinPE/Acronis rescue disc.  It was not the big hassle I originally thought it was based on the initial procedure info I got.   

That is one of the main reasons I use partitions. Only the C:\ drive will go out, the rest will still be usable. I used an old version of a program I got with a 500Gb harddrive for my old computer (just bought a new one for reasons I do not actually know I guess, still like XP better). It came with the Seagate harddrive and part of it is a reduced version of Acronis for backup and the bootable disk. I was able to make both without any problem after installing on the new Win7 computer (I will not get Win8) and it worked fine. I have not tested it but it seems to know what it was doing and I had no error messages or nothing.

fireberd: as you surmised and slartabartfast suggested, the problem you encountered was due to the Linux bootloader (iirc, Grub) used by Acronis lacking necessary hardware support for your very recent motherboard's SATA controllers.

The WinPE version you downloaded from MS is more current (it has to be, to allow installation of Windows on newer systems) and so had no problem installing the necessary SATA/AHCI support so that your drives became visible to your Acronis recovery application.

jbow: it is really incorrect to generalize cloud backup/storage as risky, because if implemented correctly by a cloud backup/storage provider your data is stored in several separate locations (replicated and spread across 
the "cloud") for safety and fault tolerance, rather than in only a single vulnerable location (like in a single data center, which is probably where CW's servers were/are located). Lots of big companies are moving their data (and their servers also) to cloud services for that reason (there are other reasons as well, like accessibility, but data safety/fault tolerance is a biggie). But, it costs, and cloud services differ. 

Amazon S3 is probably the most reasonably priced cloud solution for regular consumers, and is very robust, but it requires some technical expertise to set up and use. There are cloud storage companies which will do the heavy technical lifting for you (many simply use Amazon's or other cloud systems but have easy to use web interface front ends).

Expect many more cloud backup/storage services to appear, since the recently launched Windows Server 2012 enables cloud storage deployment and management. So prices may hopefully come down.

Meanwhile, besides Acronis, for backup/recovery there are some other low cost (and even free) applications I've used which might be of interest:

http://www.easeus.com/

http://www.boot-disk.com/

I had problems restoring with Acronis and have dumped it in favor of Macrium Reflect (paid version).   I had used Acronis, and did backups, without problems (except for the Win PE issue) for several years and always recommended Acronis. 
 
I ran into two recent problems that Acronis failed me and it won't get a third chance.  The first one, I have an SSD drive for Windows 8, on a dual boot system with Windows 7 on a separate drive.  The Win 8 SSD had a firmware upgrade available (worthwhile upgrade) but the firmware upgrade will wipe out all data.  I backed up the SSD, using Acronis (I don't remember if it was 2012 or 2013 version) to a conventional hard drive and did the firmware upgrade.  I then attempted to restore the data to the drive but Acronis would abort every time I tried.  I finally gave up and just did a reinstall of Win 8 since it had been a recent install and nothing much on it.    The second time, I had a motherboard fail on a different PC and also corrupt the hard drive.  No problem, I had an Acronis backup that was on a USB connected drive.  However, after replacing the motherboard, every time I tried to restore from discs (and I tried a 2013 Acronis recovery PE Disc, 2013 Linus Acronis Recovery Disc, 2012 Acronis discs, both Win PE and Linux, and an even older version recovery disc) it would complete the restore but I could never boot with the restored drive.   I took the hard drive to a different PC and connected it as a USB drive and after several attempts I was finally able to get the disc restored.    That was the end of Acronis. 
 
I had previously tried Macrium but didn't have any success.  I tried again and it all worked out - both making a backup and then creating/restoring a disc from the Macrium backup.  Even the Win PE recovery disc was easier.  On Acronis it required a lot of manual intervention and downloading.  With Macrium, the process was automated, including dowloading Win PE, and there was very little manual intervention.