Using Acronis True Image Home 2011 to Backup

[Baasha]

I purchased Acronis True Image Home 2011 yesterday and I want to backup my system before the impending upgrades to my rig (Gen. 3 SSDs etc.).

I have never used this or any other imaging program before so I am new to this. When I wanted to back files/folders before, I would simply Copy & Paste to an external HDD and I thought it was "backed up".

I never knew that you can create an 'image' of your OS and then when you install new SSD/HDD, you can just "copy" that image over and everything (OS/programs/drivers etc.) is all there! That's what made me purchase Acronis.

Can someone help me with setting up the backup process with Acronis? Here's what I want to do:

A.) When I get new SSDs, I will create a RAID0 array for my OS drove (right now I have 2 SSDs in RAID0 as my OS drive but I want to get 4)

B.) So I want to create an 'image' of my OS as it is right now

C.) Once I install the new SSD array, I want to be able to 'copy' or 'clone' the image to the new array so that all I have to do is push the power button and it boots into Windows.

First, this should be possible with Acronis right? How do I do this? Can I create a "backup" of my OS drive onto an external HDD and then once I install the new SSDs, what do I do to "copy" the backup to the new array?

If someone has experience with Acronis or backups in general, or knows how to configure the backups, I would greatly appreciate your help.

Thanks.

 

[Diogenes2]

Do you have Windows 7 ?
If so, you can create an image with Win7 and restore it to your new drive.
When you make the Backup - Win 7 will prompt you to create a restore CD .
Create the CD and you will be able to boot with it, and restore your image to the new drive/s..

Sorry I can't help you with Acronis..

 

[T101]

First of all. You can make the backup easily in windows if you have Acronis 2011 installed. By selecting the "one-click-backup". Then you select the drives, folders, etc. that you want backed up to the image file and where that is to be located. It has to be located in another location than any of the drives you backup.

In order to restore the backup onto new discs, you need to create a bootable rescue media in acronis. Like an USB stick that boots acronis, and allows you to restore that image to a disc. Once you have that rescue media and can boot it, you can also use it to make backups as well as restore them. It is pretty straightforward.

 

[wirednuts]

i always used acronis before, but since win7 has a top-notch system imager i dont use anything else.

 

[13Gigatons]

You can do all that with Acronis. The only sticking point might be going from 2 drives to 4 drives.

Here is the raid listing: