Be Prepared: Create a Recovery Drive for your OS

[Rudi]

A useful reminder...

[viking33]

A useful reminder...

Good advice, Rudi.
I rely on Acronis True Image and of course, my Win 7 original DVD, SP1.

[Rudi]

Question:
I made a recovery drive using a spare flash drive. Can I store other folders and files on this flash drive (as long as I do not move or rename the current files and directory structure), or is it supposed to be dedicated to the recovery info alone?

TX

recovery.jpg

[HansV]

I assume that it won't matter - the installation procedure "knows" which folders to use. But why bother? Flash drives are dirt cheap nowadays...

[Rudi]

Well, I've only got 7 in my work bag and this was my spare. So now I don't have a spare

[BobArch2]

A useful reminder...

Sound advice. Backup systems like Acronis True Image and ShadowProtect (the one I use) to name a few, provide for creating bootable Recovery media. The most important thing about creating Recovery media is ensure testing it immediately after it has been created... not when you might need it down the road!

[BobH]

A useful reminder...

Sound advice. Backup systems like Acronis True Image and ShadowProtect (the one I use) to name a few, provide for creating bootable Recovery media. The most important thing about creating Recovery media is ensure testing it immediately after it has been created... not when you might need it down the road!

Howdy, BobA!

Can you tell us more about ShadowProtect? I've had a couple of bad experiences with Acronis TI (most likely my fault, Viking Bob) and discontinued using it. I've been using a real kluge.

I searched on Shadow Protect and found a free download for a single desktop. Is this a legitimate package or should I spend for the one they make money from, and why?

[Rudi]

The most important thing about creating Recovery media is ensure testing it immediately after it has been created... not when you might need it down the road!

Sound advice back at ya! TX.

[Rebel]

BobH,
If I may fill in a few of the blanks until Bob A returns (I also use SP) . . . . . .
The "free" download of ShadowProtect is a "legitimate" package, but it is limited in its scope. It will allow you to make an image of your drive, but it will not allow you to create the bootable recovery media (which of course is necessary if your drive crashes). This free version is fully functional except for that feature, and allows you to test most of the application prior to deciding whether or not to purchase it.

ShadowProtect (Desktop edition) is more expensive than some of the other imaging applications which are available, but as well as the ability to restore an image to your own computer , it also includes the ability to restore your image to completely different hardware (an add-on option and add-on cost with some of the other available applications).

I won't praise the merits of ShadowProtect, and I will refrain from criticizing any of the other applications available. Most people will be very satisfied with whatever software works for them. Declaring that one application is "better" than another simply spawns a never-ending (and mostly pointless) discussion.

In my case, I have tried a few of the other imaging programs, and I have come to the conclusion that for me at least, ShadowProtect is the best option. Why ? ? ? ? ? . . . . . . . because it works!

Hope this helps a bit Bob.

[BobH]

Thanks, John!!!

[BobArch2]

Thanks, John!!!

Hey Bob
I could not have stated it any better than John has. I would echo all of his comments including the one about staying away from criticizing other products. You go with what works for you.

If you decide to give the trial version a test run and need any help, just shout-out. There are a few of us here that use SP.

In a previous note, you said you could get a free copy from a site. Just make sure you get "the desktop version" from the developer's site Storage Craft

[BobH]

Thanks, BobA.

I didn't mean to be critical of Acronis intending only to say that it didn't work for me which is undoubtedly a fault in me and not in the software.

[BobArch2]

Thanks, BobA.

I didn't mean to be critical of Acronis intending only to say that it didn't work for me which is undoubtedly a fault in me and not in the software.

Hi BobH,
My comment about being critical was meant to echo John's thinking... not imply that your comment was critical. Sorry for the confusion.
[P.S. I was a former user of ATI and did have issues with its product line when in the earlier stages. I switched to SP and it does work for me the way I want it to. There are other ATI users who swear by ATI and do not have any problems. To each his own, and long as a product works, then great!]

[Jay Freedman]

I had an off-putting experience this morning with Acronis TI 2013. Maybe someone can tell me where I went wrong, or even whether it's my fault...

I've been making image backups weekly with various releases of TI for years, but so far I'd only used the backups to retrieve individual files. I made a fresh full image last night. At 3:00 this morning Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to change my Windows Update setting from "Let me decide when to install updates" to "Automatic", and it installed 57 updates that I didn't want.

Rather than rolling back to a previous restore point, I decided to load that fresh image. I booted from the recovery CD, chose the backup to restore, and hit OK. First thing, TI wiped the C: drive and made it "unassigned". Then, as it started to read the image, it popped up an error: "MFT corrupted". Try again, same thing. So... No C: drive, no OS, no usable backup (or so I thought).

Dig out the Windows installer disk and install Windows. Install TI (fortunately, the installer was on a second physical drive that wasn't touched), run it, and launch a sector-by-sector restore of C:. That took nearly an hour, but it worked. Everything back to normal.

[BobArch2]

Hi Jay,

Not sure how ATI processes a verify routine of image backups. For example with ShadowProtect, a verify process is NOT automatic after creating an image. When I need to perform a restore, I always, without fail will undergo a verify of the image file before attempting the restore. Once verified, the restore process has never failed me.

So, I might suggest, that before attempting a restore using ATI, that you verify the image. It is always possible that an image can be corrupted for any number of valid reasons.

It has been noted in other articles that the simple process of defragging an image file can corrupt the contents. Do I know this for certain to be true? No. I use 1TB and 3TB drives for my backups and never defrag them. I have had an image file fail the verify process and when that happened, went back to an earlier file and restored with success. I cannot emphasize enough the need to verify before undergoing a restore.

[Jay Freedman]

Thanks for the suggestion, Bob. I have TI set up so it always does a verify of the image immediately after it's created. I don't know, though, exactly what a verify routine looks at. In this case, it appears to have missed a corrupt MFT -- unless that error was a false positive (but I did retry twice, and all three failed on the same error).

Like you, I back up to a 1 TB external drive, which is disconnected and turned off when I'm not using TI. It's never been defragged.

I use TI and the same external drive to back up my laptop and my wife's PC, and now I'm a little worried about what would happen if I needed to restore one of those images.

[BobArch2]

I had an off-putting experience this morning with Acronis TI 2013. Maybe someone can tell me where I went wrong... it popped up an error: "MFT corrupted".

Some hints in the following link that might help. At least it looks like a worthwhile read.

Corrupt MFT

[Edited 2014.08.16 to correct a typo. The link previously showed a description of MTF, s/b MFT]

[BobH]

FWIW: The problems I had with ATI also were MFT related.

[Jay Freedman]

I had an off-putting experience this morning with Acronis TI 2013. Maybe someone can tell me where I went wrong... it popped up an error: "MFT corrupted".

Some hints in the following link that might help. At least it looks like a worthwhile read.

Corrupt MTF

Thanks. I had looked at some Acronis forum posts and support pages but missed that one. It's a couple of years older than ATI 2013, but still some useful suggestions.

I've run chkdsk and sfc on the C: drive, and neither found any problems.

One possibility is that PerfectDisk, which runs in the background, might have done some defragging of the C: drive while ATI was running -- although PD's log doesn't show it running during that period. To avoid that possibility in the future, I'll reboot from the Acronis recovery CD and run the backup from there. It's an extra step, but it might help prevent a repeat.

[BobArch2]

Thanks. I had looked at some Acronis forum posts and support pages but missed that one. It's a couple of years older than ATI 2013, but still some useful suggestions.

OK, here's the link for ATI 2013... with reference to a driver that may be the problem.