Two Very Important Questions

[jimmyj68]

I've been fooling around with my SSD's and got some weird hacks of 100 meg partitioned out of all my drives - including my external backup. I'm running WIN7 so out of curiosity I told the bios (Intel DP55SB mobo) to do UEFI - I think that lopped off pieces of all my drives.

Did clean reinstall of WIN 7 that seemed to go as normal. In this process I discovered there was no need to set bios boot order to boot from DVD/CD, the system simply booted from the DVD of WIN7 as it should for an install. Once installed I went into the BIOS to see if I needed to reset the boot to the "c" drive and discovered that apparently UEFI had "eaten" my boot drive list. The bios said no boot listing available. I liked the way the system operated seemingly seamless and fast for everything. I'd like to keep my system AHCI/UEFI permanently but I have some one concern and question.

All my backup data and the system image were saved under WIN7- AHCI normal boot. Is the information recoverable that was saved under normal boot if system is changed to UEFI boot? Data backed up using WIN7 backup process and ACRONIS backup - a double backup. I reverted to normal boot before recovering my backup data after the last round of experiments.

That's question #1

Number two - my wife is finally going to give up on WIN-XP and accept WIN7. She is fanatical about not losing one iota of any thing she has researched or written a note/letter about (even e-mails). She has an external backup using Acronis after Microsoft dropped their "One-Care" program which included a backup system. Question----stuff backed up using WIN-XP/Acronis - is it recoverable into WIN7 if I redownload Acronis?

 

[bankster55]

#1 - EFI is not MBR . There is no MSDOS type partition table, boot list is gone. If you set bios that has dual mode to EFI, like some Intel mobo, after switching to EFI, you should then format to GPT using something like gparted or even the Win 7 install and start FRESH.. Having vital info on a drive formatted in MBR, then switching to EFI is not a good practice. Furthermore, Acronis compresses the backup image 33% (default) or more to save space, so you then have a compressed image on disassociated chunks of clusters. At this point I would STOP "trying things". You may get everything back, and you may not. If it were me, I would go into recovery mode using GETDATABACK 4.02, ZAR 8.5 (Zero assumption Recovery, or Recover My Files 4.6.6.969. You will need to slave the drive to another HDD - sucking files from "bad" drive to "good". (All recov sw should be run in admin mode)

(Incidentally, I would be very curious to know if when you changed back, the MBR and partitions came back properly)

Heres the key - all 3 sw can recover in RAW mode - reading the DATA only, ignoring where it is designated - even if you formatted the whole drive. If a drive is still functioning properly, data recov is relatively easy. At the very least if you just run the apps, you will see where you are at - you dont have to actually use them at that point.

#2 Rebackup now by cloning to another HDD. I dont image - I clone. Cloning is a bit for bit copy - everything. Everyone loves acronis, especially the free ones - until something goes screwy. Its fine for everyday backup, but not for critical irreplacable data IMHO. Just download free trial Casper V6.0 and use it. Casper can be used while in a running O/S being used.The ultimate cloner is Miray HDClone 3.94 (German). This is the one I use daily, and the pro vers is rather expensive. It looks very simple at first glance but has an amazing array of options for the expert. As you go up in grades (they also have a free one) the data transfer rate increases. Is your wifes data worth the price of a HDD and cloner sw??? The choice is yours. Clone or sleeping on the couch in the garage.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

#2 - are you talking about the data? if you back up just the data files there should be no issues. imaging may be a different story, never tried that before.

 

[jimmyj68]

Thanks all. I didn't know there was a real difference between cloning and imaging. I did while fooling around make some major changes to WIN 7 and drive layout only to discover that retrieving an image brought me right back to where I was before all the changes but with all my data and programs restored.

Help me clear something up - does a data backup include any installed programs and it's .exe? WIN7 offers to backup an image and data - I have the option to not backup an image if I so choose. I did an image because I thought that would guarantee getting back all programs - and the data was just iTunes music files of which I have a gazillion. But just like it says ----an image is just that - a duplicate of what you imaged - and a dismissal of any changes you may have made.

I hope I have this right ...... stuff backed up with Acronis on a WINXP platform can be recovered using Acronis in and to a WIN7 platform.......right?????

My PC is a plaything for trying new technologies, listening to music, and flying all over the world with FlitSIM X and addons. I don't get too bent out of shape if I lose my addon aircraft in FLITSIMX, because I can go to the requisite web site and download the aircraft etc. again using my filed activation codes to kick off the airplane again. Rhapsody keeps and archive of your music and reinstalls it when you reinstall Rhapsody (if you have a paid service). iTunes says sorry charley, you paid for it and now it's gone - too bad.

I'm retired, my wife has a home personal service business allied to family management, her degreed skills. Her business is non-profit which makes record keeping a great deal easier and she doesn't charge for her consultations anyway. It's allied to our church which she pastors and I assist. So I can't "mess" with her system. I built it and service it but that's it - I better get it right - she wants to see a copy of a letter she sent to someone or business three years ago.

 

[bankster55]

Cloning is a bit for bit copy, it puts all those 1's and 0's in the Master File Table - its part of Windows. Acronis uses a proprietary (to them) image format - it reserves a bunch of space on the HDD and puts in the data like on a DVD, which has its own format like DVD-R and DVD+R. Acronis is kind of a virtual backup - you NEED acronis to unravel it (compressed), you cant use Ghost or Partition Tragic etc. to get your image back - you MUST use acronis. And you will NEVER know if it will restore until you use it WITH ACRONIS the day you actually need it! Win 7 aint getting your image back. And Acronis has dif versions over the years that have their own pecuiiarities. A hard clone is just that - its either there or not, no question abou it. Would you risk your entire doctoral thesis on a compressed image somewhere?

Murphy's Law.

Of course, I am talking here about large volumes, like whole HDD or partitions - a 750GB partition or a 1.5TB entire HDD, or an O/S config you have spent a year getting just the way you like it, for instance when you have just the O/S and the basic everyday applications installed on a dedicated partition.
"Saving selected data" like quickbooks customer files can just be put on a USB stick and/or DVD and there are lots of sw (free) that offer daily backups to that drive or any other. Most cloners offer daily/monthly scheduled backups also. (to another HDD or partition)

Personally I would NEVER image anything critical to my daily existence.