User manual ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE 6.0

User's Guide TrueImage 6.0 Compute with confidence www.acronis.com Copyright © SWsoft, 2000-2002. All rights reserved. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. OS/2 is a registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners. Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. Distribution of the work or derivative work in any standard (paper) book form for commercial purposes is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the copyright holder. DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED «AS IS» AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED, EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE HELD TO BE LEGALLY INVALID. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 1. INSTALLING ACRONIS TRUEIMAGE AND GETTING STARTED . 6 1.1 ACRONIS TRUEIMAGE SYSTEM PACKAGE ...................................... 6 1.2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ................................................................. 6 1.3 INSTALLATION................................................................................. 6 1.4 REPAIRING/UPGRADING ACRONIS TRUEIMAGE.............................. 7 1.5 REMOVING THE SOFTWARE............................................................. 7 1.6 USER INTERFACE............................................................................. 7 1.7 STARTING WORK WITH ACRONIS TRUEIMAGE ............................... 8 CHAPTER 2. CREATING DISK/PARTITION IMAGES........................................ 9 2.1 SELECTING PARTITIONS TO IMAGE ............................................... 10 2.2 IMAGE ARCHIVE LOCATION .......................................................... 11 2.3 COMPRESSION LEVEL.................................................................... 13 2.4 IMAGE ARCHIVE SPLITTING .......................................................... 14 2.5 PROTECTING AN ARCHIVE FILE WITH A PASSWORD ..................... 15 2.6 IMAGE ARCHIVE COMMENTS ........................................................ 16 2.7 AN ARCHIVE FILE CREATION SCRIPT............................................ 17 CHAPTER 3. RESTORING A DISK/PARTITION FROM AN IMAGE .................. 18 3.1 SELECTING AN ARCHIVE FILE ....................................................... 19 3.2 SELECTING A PARTITION TO BE RESTORED .................................. 21 3.3 SELECTING A DESTINATION PARTITION........................................ 22 3.4 SELECTING THE RESTORED PARTITION TYPE AND FILE SYSTEM . 23 3.5 RESIZING A PARTITION.................................................................. 25 3.6 SELECTING A PARTITION LETTER.................................................. 26 3.7 SELECTING THE NEXT PARTITION TO BE RESTORED .................... 27 3.8 PARTITION RESTORATION SCRIPT WINDOW ................................. 28 3.9 PARTITION RESTORATION PECULIARITIES .................................... 29 3.10 PECULIARITIES OF RESTORATION FROM REMOVABLE MEDIA...... 30 CHAPTER 4. RESTORING INDIVIDUAL FILES................................................ 31 APPENDIX A. PARTITIONS AND FILE SYSTEMS.............................................. 36 A.1 HARD DISK PARTITIONS................................................................ 36 A.2 FILE SYSTEMS................................................................................ 36 A.2.1 A.2.2 A.2.3 A.2.4 A.2.5 A.2.6 FAT16......................................................................................................37 FAT32......................................................................................................37 NTFS........................................................................................................38 LINUX EXT2 .............................................................................................38 LINUX EXT3 .............................................................................................38 LINUX REISERFS ......................................................................................38 Acronis TrueImage 3 Introduction What is Acronis TrueImage Acronis TrueImage is your ultimate data insurance policy! It takes an exact image of your hard disk drive or separate partitions for complete backup, and allows you to restore all of their contents, including operating systems, programs, personal data and settings. In the event of fatal software or hardware failure Acronis TrueImage protects your data, even when ordinary file backup software does not work. Acronis TrueImage stores disk images on hard and floppy disks, any recordable CD/DVD media, ZIP®, Jaz® and other removable storage devices, allowing to protect archives by a password with an extremely easy Windows XP-like wizard-driven interface. Acronis' exclusive innovative technology allows to create and restore complete disk images online in Windows, so you don't have to deal with annoying reboots to DOS or other systems, even when backing up system partitions. Archive File Acronis TrueImage creates archive files, that is files containing images of partitions and disks. The images contain both data of partitions and/or disks and information, allowing you to restore a partition (disk) from the image. Partition images include all its files and folders, irrespective of their attributes (hidden, system, etc.), Master Boot Record (MBR), File Allocation Table (FAT), and a root directory (Root). Acronis TrueImage software stores only the data sectors of a hard disk in its partition image. Acronis TrueImage software creates an archive file with a '.tib' extension. The .tib file can contain images of several partitions and/or disks. An archive file of large disk partitions or several partitions (and disks) can become quite large. In this case Acronis TrueImage will split the image into more than one archive volume or archive volume files. Splitting an archive into separate volumes may also be required for writing to removable media Create an image of your hard disk in an archive file on any media, be it another hard disk or CD-R, CD-RW. Install a new disk, boot with a CD (or diskette) containing Acronis TrueImage, and restore the old disk contents from the image to a new disk. You can also change disk partition size and location along with their type and operating system if needed. 4 Introduction How to Find the Necessary Information in this Guide Acronis TrueImage user's guide contains the following main chapters: · Chapter 1. «Installing Acronis TrueImage and Getting Started» and Getting Started» - this describes how to install, run, and remove the software; · Chapter 2. «Creating Disk/Partition Images» - this describes how to create an exact disk/partition image; · Chapter 3. «Restoring a Disk/Partition from an Image» - this describes how to restore the entire hard disk or individual partitions; · Chapter 4. «Restoring Individual Files» - this describes how to restore accidentally deleted or damaged files without restoring the entire hard disk. · Appendix A. «Partitions and File Systems» - this describes the hard disk structures, and interaction with an operating system. Software Usage Conditions The conditions for Acronis TrueImage software usage are described in the «License agreement», included with this package. The supplied registration card is the confirmation of your legal purchase and usage of Acronis TrueImage on your system. Each registration card has its own unique registration number. Under current legislation the «License agreement» is considered a contract between a user (you) and a software manufacturer (Acronis Inc.). The contract has legal effect and its violation may entail a court examination. Illegal use and/or distribution of this software will be prosecuted. Technical Support Users of legally purchased and registered copies of Acronis TrueImage receive free technical support from Acronis Inc. In case you have problems with installation or use that cannot be solved with this guide or read-me file, please visit our support web-site or e-mail our support department at the addresses shown below. You must also send us the registration number of your Acronis TrueImage copy. This number is written on a registration card supplied with this product. Support URL: http://www.acronis.com/support/ E-mail: support@acronis.com Acronis TrueImage 5 Chapter 1. Installing Acronis TrueImage and Getting Started 1.1 Acronis TrueImage System Package Acronis TrueImage system package includes: · an installation disc, · this guide, · license agreement, · registration card, · advertising materials. 1.2 System Requirements To take full advantage of Acronis TrueImage one should have: · a PC-compatible computer with a Pentium CPU or similar, · 32 MB RAM, · a floppy or a CD-RW drive, · VGA monitor, · a mouse (recommended), · free disk space for archive files. 1.3 Installation To install the Acronis TrueImage: 1. Insert the Acronis TrueImage installation CD into CD-ROM drive and start the installation procedure. 2. Carefully follow the installation program instructions on the screen. 3. After making your installation choices and copying of Acronis TrueImage files onto your hard disk, you will be offered to create a bootable diskette or CD-R/W (you may omit this step if you have purchased the boxed product that contains a bootable CD). While TrueImage creates disk images in Windows, it might be necessary to run restoration procedure from a bootable diskette or CD-R/W. Therefore it is strongly recommended you create either of them. You can also create the bootable diskette or CD-R/W when the set-up process is finished. 6 Chapter 1 : Installing Acronis TrueImage and Getting Started After installation of Acronis TrueImage is completed, you should restart your computer. 1.4 Repairing/Upgrading Acronis TrueImage In order to upgrade or repair your software, start the TrueImage installation program again. It will determine that TrueImage was already installed on your computer and will ask you if you want to restore (update) the program or completely remove it from disk. 1.5 Removing the Software To remove the software select Acronis TrueImage Uninstall Acronis TrueImage from the Programs menu. You will see a dialog box asking if you really want to remove the software from your PC hard disk. Press Yes to confirm removal. Acronis TrueImage software will be completely removed. 1.6 User Interface Acronis TrueImage has an extremely easy to use wizard-driven Windows graphical user interface and can be managed with a mouse or Tab, Shift+Tab, Left, Right, Up, Down, Space, Enter, and Escape keys. If you work with Windows, X Window, or OS/2 applications on a regular basis, you will have no problems understanding and using Acronis TrueImage interface. While working with a partition store and restore wizard, a user sees a sequence of Wizard pages, on each of which he (she) selects from several available actions, and thus sets switches to the desired state. Acronis TrueImage 7 The switches can be set with the mouse or keyboard. Each dialog box contains detailed text comments for the dialog's purpose and switches (control elements) as well as for each switch state. There is no Help button on Wizard pages. It is unnecessary because on each page there is detailed information about the purpose of the page and its controls. Moreover, there is detailed information about what possibilities you get if you select any of controls in any possible state. Almost all Acronis TrueImage windows are Wizard pages. 1.7 Starting Work with Acronis TrueImage Acronis TrueImage software runs in different modes during disk/partition image creation or restoration, in case of a serious system malfunction or disk filing structure damage. To create a disk/partition image under Windows, select Start Programs Acronis TrueImage Acronis TrueImage. You will immediately see a welcome window containing the partition (disk) image creation and restoration wizard. If your operating system is damaged and you are unable to boot the PC from its system partition, you should use the bootable diskette or CD-R/W that you previously created, selecting Start Program Acronis TrueImage Bootable Rescue Media Builder. 8 Chapter 1 : Installing Acronis TrueImage and Getting Started Chapter 2. Creating Disk/Partition Images Acronis TrueImage software starts with the welcome page. The next wizard window will offer you to select an action to perform with the help of Acronis TrueImage. There are three actions available: · create an image of a disk partition and/or the whole hard disk drive (a group of partitions, several partitions); · restore a partition (disk) from an image file, stored in an archive file; · connect an image, stored in an archive file, as a temporary logical drive to restore separate files and/or folders. Action Selection window Acronis TrueImage 9 2.1 Selecting Partitions to Image In the next Selecting Partitions to Image window you will see the structure of the disks connected to your PC. Click a rectangle representing a partition to select it. As a result this rectangle will become underlined red. You'll be able to consequently select several hard disk partitions and/or different disks. Click a rectangle representing the whole hard disk (with an icon, disk number and capacity) to select it for image creation. As a result all disk's partitions will become underlined red. Selecting Partitions to Image window Having chosen the partitions and/or disks, click Next to continue. Have in mind that this button will be disabled until none of partitions and disks is selected. 10 Chapter 2 : Creating Disk/Partition Images 2.2 Image Archive Location In the next Image Archive Location window you'll need to select a type of a device to create a disk/partition image. Acronis TrueImage supports three device types: · hard disks, · network disks, · removable media ­ CD-R/RW, DVD+RW, Iomega Zip, Iomega Jaz, magneto-optical, and other drives. Selecting Image Archive location In the next Image Archive Creation window you'll need to provide an archive filename to store images of chosen partitions (disks) to as well as its full path. Enter a filename to the File name field. Acronis TrueImage 11 You can also use a connected disks tree in the left part of the window to find archive files (if previously created) and their locations. Selecting a folder and an archive file name If an archive file with the entered filename already exists in the chosen folder, you'll be prompted about it by Acronis TrueImage with a question if you want to create a new file with the same name, that is to delete an old archive file and create a new one instead. You can store images of several partitions or even disks in a single archive file, but you can't append images to an existing archive file. You can also create an archive file with an image of the partition (disk) on the same partition (disk), included into an archive, if there's enough free space. There's a simple rule: do not store archive files with partition images on the same hard disk you create back-up copies of. As in case of filing structures (for example, Partition Table) damage, you'll just not be able to access these images! 12 Chapter 2 : Creating Disk/Partition Images 2.3 Compression Level In the next Compression level window you'll need to select a data compression level of a partition image. A compression level can be selected by moving the slider. If you select zero compression, files will be obviously moved to an archive file without any compression, which is inefficient. On the other hand the work speed might drop and image creation time might increase, if you select the maximal compression. Certainly, the optimal compression level depends on the type of files, stored on a disk/partition, and can only be determined empirically. Image's data compression level Acronis TrueImage 13 2.4 Image Archive Splitting In the next Image Archive Splitting window you'll be able to select if the software should create a single archive file or split it into a number of volumes. If you set the switch to Automatic, Acronis TrueImage will try to determine settings for certain situations itself. If there's enough space on a hard disk that you've chosen for locating an image on, the software will create a single archive file. If there's not enough space, Acronis TrueImage will prompt you a warning and wait for your actions. You'll be able to try to and free some additional space on the partition, where an archive file is being created, and then continue the image creation. But you will also be able to terminate Acronis TrueImage, prepare a partition for image creation, and run the process anew. FAT16 and FAT32 limit file sizes. In particular, the maximal file size of FAT16 and FAT32 is 4 GB. FAT32 file system is currently the most widespread in individual users' PCs. At the same time modern hard disks have 20 GB, 40 GB, and higher capacities! Hence the maximal file size can be easily exceeded at creating an archive file. In this case Acronis TrueImage will automatically split an archive file into separate volumes. If you are creating an archive file on CD-R, CD-RW disks in Automatic mode, Acronis TrueImage will simply pause and prompt you to insert a new disk into the drive, if the current disk space is fully occupied. You can also appoint a fixed archive size switching to Fixed Size and setting the volume size manually. Splitting an archive file into separate volumes 14 Chapter 2 : Creating Disk/Partition Images Splitting an archive file into separate fixed size volumes makes sense when storing it on a hard disk as well, as you'll be able to move archive volumes to CD-R/RW, DVD+RW disks in the future. Creating an archive file directly on a to CD-R/RW, DVD+RW disk would have taken much longer time then in case of a hard disk. 2.5 Protecting an Archive File with a Password An archive file with a partition (disk) image can be protected with a password. If you think a partition (disk), you create an image of, shouldn't be restored by anybody except you, enter a password and its confirmation into the text fields of the next Image Archive Protection window. A password should consist of at least 8 symbols and contain both letters (in the upper and lower cases desirably), and numbers. (So it would be harder to hack it.) Protecting an archive file with a password When you try to restore a password protected partition (disk) from an image, stored in an archive file, Acronis TrueImage will prompt you to enter it into the appropriate window and won't allow restoring it by a person without this password. Acronis TrueImage 15 2.6 Image Archive Comments In the next window you'll be able to provide an archive file with any comment that may include any information on the PC and its user, the hard disk, partition data, image creation time, and any peculiarities and conditions. For example: True Image of Primary Partition HDD1: OS: Windows XP Applications: Office 2000 (Word, Excel, Outlook) Adobe Photoshop Adobe Acrobat True Image of Primary Partition HDD2: My work files 10 July 2002 Commenting an archive file 16 Chapter 2 : Creating Disk/Partition Images 2.7 An Archive File Creation Script In the next window you'll see a partition (disk) image creation script (several images, perhaps). It will contain a list of operations to be performed on partitions (disks) along with their main features. An archive file creation script All operations of a partition (disk) image creation in an archive file are delayed in Acronis TrueImage. A partition (disk) image creation script is created first, and then it's executed. Now Acronis TrueImage software is ready to perform a procedure of image creation in an archive file. If you click Back, you'll be able to select other partitions and/or disks for image creation, other compression level, etc. After pressing Proceed Acronis TrueImage takes care of everything automatically. Acronis TrueImage 17 Chapter 3. Restoring a Disk/Partition from an Image Partition or disk restoration from an image is a more complex procedure than storing. When you store a partition, you can do it directly under Windows or from a bootable CD. But your system is assumed inoperable in general. If you need to restore individual files only, you'll be able to work directly under Windows. However, if your system or a system partition (usually the primary one) is damaged, it gets more complex. In this situation there's only way to restore everything: booting from a diskette, created with Acronis TrueImage, or from a bootable CD with Acronis TrueImage. You can run Acronis TrueImage from a CD and then replace a bootable disk with an archive file CD, containing the image of a partition to be restored. But an archive file can be possibly stored on a special back-up hard disk. In this case you'll have to connect it to PC. So, the main thing for partition restoration is the availability of a bootable media (a diskette or CD), created with Acronis TrueImage, and also the access to an archive file with a partition image (on a hard disk or removable media). After you ran the software from a diskette or a CD and got to Acronis TrueImage welcome window, the further steps should not be of any difficulty to you. 18 Chapter 3 : Restoring a Disk/Partition from an Image 3.1 Selecting an Archive File To restore a disk/partition from an archive file you must set the switch to Restore a partition or the whole hard disk drive or deploy a new PC in the Action Selection window. Selecting an action: restore a partition In the next window Acronis TrueImage will show you the complete list of storage devices connected to your PC, including hard disks as well as any other storage drives. You'll be able to navigate the files and folders tree, using standard Windows controls, to find the archive file with the image of a partition to be restored and select it by clicking. Selecting an archive file Acronis TrueImage 19 If you commented the archive file when creating it, the description will help you understand if you selected the right archive file or the partition image is located in some other file. Your comment will be shown in the right part of the Image Archive Selection window. Notice that a comment is available without entering a password that protects an archive file. However, you won't be able to either restore, or browse archive file contents without a password. Contents of a password unprotected archive file The more detailed is your comment, the more assured your actions would be. In particular, you can store several system partition configurations in archive files, if working intensively with your operating system, experimenting with various applications or device drivers, to restore one of them if needed. Having made sure that you are to restore a partition from the right archive file, click Next to continue. So, if an archive file is protected with a password, Acronis TrueImage will prompt you for it in the next window. You won't be able to move to the next wizard page, i.e. to continue the restoration without entering a password, as the Next key will be disabled. If you enter the right password, you'll be able to move to the page of selecting a partition to be restored. 20 Chapter 3 : Restoring a Disk/Partition from an Image