Formatting windows 7 hard drive

I am using #2 sons Vista laptop and a USB caddy, to re-format my Windows 7 hard drive.

A couple of questions:

When the re-format is complete, is it best to re-install the original W7 disk and then run my Acronis FULL Backup over a standard Windows 7 install

OR

simply install my Acronis FULL Backup over the empty re-formatted hard drive.

I can't remember if W7 asks you for a volume name when you install it. If not, how do I add a volume name as added security?

Thanks, in anticipation

Bazza

 

I am not sure why, but re-formatting my 500 gig hard drive took forever. Over many hours the progress ribbon moved slowly to 100%. As I was out most of the day yesterday I could not keep my eye on the formatting as I would have liked too.

When I finally checked it out, it was "re-formatted" but did not show the 465 gig free.

I then did a "quick" re-format and almost immediately the 465 gigs re-formatted as "free". So now I have a blank formatted NTFS hard drive. :major

I'd still like an answer to the questions I asked in post #1. If no answers are forthcoming, I will restore my backup on a blank drive.

Bazza

 

Thanks David. Yes, partition is the same size.

I thought it would be OK to re-install the full ATI Backup.
Just wanted to get 2nd and 3rd opinions.

Thanks to you both. Here goes. :-D

Bazza

 

When restoring an Acronis image it really doesn't matter whether the target partition is the same size, or bigger, or even smaller than the original. It just has to be at least as big as the used size of the original.

 

Thanks Earthling :-D

Great to know this.:major

Bazza

===

 

No good so far. :cry

I am trying to do a Full restore from an external hard to my re-formatted "C" drive ( in a USB caddy) , via my son's Vista laptop. No dice. :cry

ATi error, and I can't marry up my version of ATI (trueImage.exe) to my tib version. :-o :confused

I have detailed my problem to an ATI Forum and await their solutions/suggestions with interest.

Bazza

 

Good news at last.

Finally at 3 am this morning (4 hours ago ), I finally succeeded in restoring my Acronis True Image (ATI) FULL backup from an external hard drive (E), via a loan desktop (C), to my Toshiba laptop (in a USB caddy) (G).

I finally matched up my ATI backup to the correct ATI software version.

Now all I have to do is get my HP printer working with Windows 7, and install a recently purchased MS 2010 Office, both to my W7 laptop. The MS 2010 Office originally wouldn't install without some update and really was the start of my problems that compounded.

Still battling.

Bazza

 

I'm really puzzled here bazza, as the usual routine is simply to connect the USB drive which holds the ATI tibfile and boot the target machine with the ATI Rescue Media (the bootable CD). You can then do a direct restore to the target machine's hard drive without using caddies or intermediate devices of any sort and without any need to format the target drive first :confused

 

Thanks Earthling for your reply.:major Although I have been using Acronis for a long time, I have never had to recover a tib backup before. Yes, I know, I should have tested out "recover" before now, but never did. :-o :-o

I had to reformat the target hard drive because I got hit with a "scareware" virus that infected my "C" drive, and every *.exe program that I opened would tell me that the file was infected. I figured that as I had a recent FULL Backup at the time, I would be better off re-formatting the drive than fiddle about trying to remove the infection. I thought I could easily go from my *tib file on "E" (also with ATI on it), via my son's Vista laptop (C), to my re-formatted drive (in a USB caddy) in "F".

I didn't have a Rescue CD to boot from, and thought I really didn't need one as what I was trying should work. :-D :-D

To make a long story even longer, my version of ATI wouldn't read my *.tib Backup file. Still don't know exactly why. For some stupid reason, a *.tib backup file cannot tell you the 'properties" as to what version of ATI was used to create it.

I will be creating a Rescue CD ASAP . I will also be investigating the possibility of using another backup program that backs up using *.zip format, or some other less proprietary format. That will be the another software post, for another time and thread, after I finish solving another couple of "annoyances" still outstanding.

I really learn't a lot out of this experience and will test out the recover/restore function, on future backup program/s before I really need them again.

Bazza

===

 

Well, at least you finally got there, though it's unusual for Acronis to do a successful recovery after the first attempt has failed, as failure usually indicates it considers the tibfile corrupt, so it's good practice always to validate a backup immediately after creating it.

Another reason for failure can be that you have upgraded your version of ATI. There's a new version each year and while they usually will recover tibfiles created with the previous version it isn't guaranteed. It's also essential to create a new rescue CD with the new version, as you cannot recover a tibfile created with a later version. As you say, it certainly would be helpful if the tibfile could somehow identify its ATI version.

I agree with your sentiment about the proprietary format but AFAIK there isn't yet a comparable program available that uses zip or rar.

All good stuff, especially the need to do a fire drill before fire breaks out

 

Thanks again, Earthling, for your comments. :major

I'm probably being unreasonable but I consider it unacceptable, to me, that a new version of ATI may not work on a just recent version of a tib backup. It is also unacceptable to me, that a rescue CD must be prepared for each new version, and kept, just in case.

I do validate each and every backup that I do.
I have used ATI for many years, and many versions, and I guess I've been lucky never to have had to do a recovery before now.

I will be looking elsewhere for another backup program.

Thanks again,

Bazza

(end of rant) :-D

===

 

Only thing I would say is why update at all until such time as you have to? If your version works for you then all those potential update issues are avoidable. plodr I believe uses a version that's donkey's years old, and why not?

 

Thanks guys. I updated from v9 to later version/s. I had to put in both versions serial codes. This is one area where I came to grief originally. I forgot which serial code related to which version. :-o

If I remember correctly, I asked Acronis if I could relate a *.tib to a particular version of ATI. Their reply that is not "retail" possible to do this, started off my dilemma.

As for not updating if an old version still works, I thought I would update. Big mistake I guess. The old maxim of if it ain't broke don't fix it is one I usually stick with, but in ATI's case I didn't.

Still thinking about what to do in future.

Bazza

 

This was always a moot point on the Acronis forums so I thought I would test it. I installed version 7 from 2004 in XP SP3 and created an image with it, and then validated that image with the ATI 2011 rescue CD. No problems at all. Doesn't prove that every later version will also be able to do so of course, but likelihood is they will.

The test got me wondering why I had paid for all those later versions when the oldest version I could get my hands on still worked just fine, in XP at least. It probably wouldn't work in Vista or Win 7 though.

EDIT - This is what the current user guide says about compatibility -

 

Yes, I remember you always do it that way, but you do lose access to the scheduling features, and having to boot to the CD to take an image would test my patience I'm afraid. Anyway in all the years I've used Acronis I've never known the installed version to cause any problems, or had a failure backing up from within Windows.