ATI2016WD Userguide en-US

Acronis True Image OEM WD Edition
Table of contents
1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 What is Acronis True Image WD Edition? .............................................................................. 4
1.2 System requirements and supported media .......................................................................... 4
1.2.1 Minimum system requirements ............................................................................................................... 4
1.2.2 Supported operating systems................................................................................................................... 4
1.2.3 Supported file systems ............................................................................................................................. 5
1.2.4 Supported storage media ......................................................................................................................... 5
1.3 Installing Acronis True Image WD Edition .............................................................................. 5
1.4 Activating Acronis True Image WD Edition ............................................................................ 6
1.5 Upgrading Acronis True Image WD Edition ............................................................................ 7
1.5.1 Acronis True Image advanced features .................................................................................................... 8
1.6 Maintenance, technical support and product updates .......................................................... 9
2 Getting started ................................................................................................................... 10
2.1 User interface language ...................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Protecting your system ....................................................................................................... 10
2.2.1 Step 1. Backing up your computer.......................................................................................................... 10
2.2.2 Step 2. Creating bootable rescue media................................................................................................. 11
2.3 Backing up all data on your PC ............................................................................................ 12
2.4 Cloning your hard drive ....................................................................................................... 13
2.5 Recovering your computer .................................................................................................. 14
3 Basic concepts .................................................................................................................... 16
3.1 Basic concepts .................................................................................................................... 16
3.2 The difference between file backups and disk/partition images .......................................... 18
3.3 Full, incremental and differential backups........................................................................... 18
3.4 FAQ about backup, recovery and cloning ............................................................................ 19
3.5 FTP connection ................................................................................................................... 20
3.6 Authentication settings ....................................................................................................... 21
3.7 Backup file naming.............................................................................................................. 21
3.8 Wizards............................................................................................................................... 21
4 Backing up data .................................................................................................................. 23
4.1 Backing up disks and partitions ........................................................................................... 23
4.2 Backup options ................................................................................................................... 24
4.2.1 Backup schemes ..................................................................................................................................... 25
4.2.2 Notifications for backup operation......................................................................................................... 27
4.2.3 Image creation mode.............................................................................................................................. 27
4.2.4 Pre/Post commands for backup ............................................................................................................. 28
4.2.5 Backup splitting....................................................................................................................................... 28
4.2.6 Backup validation option ........................................................................................................................ 29
4.2.7 Backup reserve copy............................................................................................................................... 29
4.2.8 Removable media settings ..................................................................................................................... 30
4.2.9 Backup comment.................................................................................................................................... 30
4.2.10 Error handling ......................................................................................................................................... 30
2 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

4.2.11 File-level security settings for backup..................................................................................................... 31
4.2.12 Computer shutdown............................................................................................................................... 31
4.2.13 Performance of backup operation.......................................................................................................... 32
4.3 Operations with backups .................................................................................................... 32
4.3.1 Backup operations menu........................................................................................................................ 33
4.3.2 Backup list icons...................................................................................................................................... 34
4.3.3 Validating backups.................................................................................................................................. 34
4.3.4 Backup to various places ........................................................................................................................ 35
4.3.5 Adding an existing backup to the list ...................................................................................................... 36
4.3.6 Deleting backups and backup versions................................................................................................... 37
5 Recovering data ................................................................................................................. 38
5.1 Recovering disks and partitions ........................................................................................... 38
5.1.1 Recovering your system after a crash..................................................................................................... 38
5.1.2 Recovering partitions and disks .............................................................................................................. 46
5.1.3 About recovery of dynamic/GPT disks and volumes .............................................................................. 49
5.1.4 Arranging boot order in BIOS.................................................................................................................. 52
5.2 Recovery options ................................................................................................................ 53
5.2.1 Disk recovery mode ................................................................................................................................ 53
5.2.2 Pre/Post commands for recovery........................................................................................................... 54
5.2.3 Validation option .................................................................................................................................... 54
5.2.4 Computer restart .................................................................................................................................... 55
5.2.5 File recovery options .............................................................................................................................. 55
5.2.6 Overwrite file options ............................................................................................................................. 55
5.2.7 Performance of recovery operation ....................................................................................................... 55
5.2.8 Notifications for recovery operation ...................................................................................................... 56
6 Tools .................................................................................................................................. 57
6.1 Creating bootable rescue media ......................................................................................... 57
6.1.1 Acronis Media Builder ............................................................................................................................ 58
6.1.2 Making sure that your rescue media can be used when needed........................................................... 60
7 Disk cloning and migration ................................................................................................. 65
7.1.1 General information ............................................................................................................................... 65
7.1.2 Preparing for migration .......................................................................................................................... 70
7.2 Security and Privacy Tools ................................................................................................... 73
7.2.1 Acronis DriveCleanser............................................................................................................................. 73
7.2.2 Hard Disk Wiping methods ..................................................................................................................... 77
7.3 Adding a new hard disk ....................................................................................................... 78
7.3.1 Selecting a hard disk ............................................................................................................................... 78
7.3.2 Selecting initialization method ............................................................................................................... 79
7.3.3 Creating new partitions .......................................................................................................................... 80
7.4 Mounting an image ............................................................................................................. 82
7.5 Unmounting an image ........................................................................................................ 83
8 Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................. 84
8.1 Acronis System Report ........................................................................................................ 84
8.2 How to collect crash dumps ................................................................................................ 85
8.3 Acronis Customer Experience Program ............................................................................... 85
9 Glossary of Terms ............................................................................................................... 87

1 Introduction
1.1 What is Acronis True Image WD Edition?
Acronis True Image WD Edition is an integrated software suite that ensures the security of all of the
information on your PC. Backups allow you to recover your computer system should a disaster occur,
such as losing data, accidentally deleting critical files or folders, or suffering a complete hard disk
crash.
Key features:
 Rescue bootable media (p. 57)
 Hard disk cloning (p. 65)
 Security and privacy tools (p. 57)
Getting started
Learn how to protect your computer with two simple steps: "Protecting your system (p. 10)".
1.2 System requirements and supported media

1.2.1 Minimum system requirements
Acronis True Image WD Edition requires the following hardware:
 Western Digital or SanDisk drive.
 Processor Pentium 1 GHz.
 1 GB RAM.
 1.5 GB of free space on a hard disk.
 CD-RW/DVD-RW drive or USB flash drive for bootable media creation.
 Screen resolution is 1152 x 720.
 Mouse or other pointing device (recommended).
1.2.2 Supported operating systems

Acronis True Image WD Edition has been tested on the following operating systems:
 Windows 7 SP1 (all editions)
 Windows 8 (all editions)
 Windows 8.1 (all editions)
 Windows 10
 Windows Home Server 2011
Acronis True Image WD Edition also lets you create a bootable CD-R/DVD-R that can back up and
recover a disk/partition on a computer running any Intel- or AMD- based PC operating system,
including Linux®. (Note that the Intel-based Apple Macintosh is not supported.)

1.2.3 Supported file systems
 FAT16/32
 NTFS
 Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 *
 ReiserFS *
 Linux SWAP *
If a file system is not supported or is corrupted, Acronis True Image WD Edition can copy data using a
sector-by-sector approach.
* The Ext2/Ext3/Ext4, ReiserFS, and Linux SWAP file systems are supported only for disk or partition
backup/recovery operations. You cannot use Acronis True Image WD Edition for file-level operations with these
file systems (file backup, recovery, search, as well as image mounting and file recovering from images). You also
cannot perform backups to disks or partitions with these file systems.
1.2.4 Supported storage media

 Hard disk drives*
 Solid State Drives (SSD)
 Networked storage devices
 FTP servers**
 CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R (including double-layer DVD+R), DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, BD-R, BD-RE
 USB 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0, eSATA, FireWire (IEEE-1394) and PC card storage devices
* Limitations on operations with dynamic and GPT disks:
 Recovery of a dynamic volume as a dynamic volume with manual resizing is not supported.
 "Clone disk" operation is not supported for dynamic disks.
** An FTP server must allow passive mode file transfers. Acronis True Image WD Edition splits a
backup into files with a size of 2GB when backing up directly to an FTP server.
The firewall settings of the source computer should have Ports 20 and 21 opened for the TCP and
UDP protocols to function. The Routing and Remote Access Windows service should be disabled.
1.3 Installing Acronis True Image WD Edition

Installing Acronis True Image WD Edition
To install Acronis True Image WD Edition:
1. Run the setup file.
2. Read:
 The terms of the license agreement.
 The participation terms of the Acronis Customer Experience Program.
3. If you accept the terms of both documents, click Install.
Acronis True Image WD Edition will be installed on your system partition (usually C:).
4. When the installation is complete, click Start application.
5. On the Sign in tab, enter your Acronis account credentials, and then click Sign in.

If you don't have an Acronis account, go to the Create account tab, fill out the registration form,
and then click Create account.
Recovering from an Acronis True Image WD Edition error
If Acronis True Image WD Edition ceased running or produced errors, its files might be corrupted. To
repair this problem, you first have to recover the program. To do this, run Acronis True Image WD
Edition installer again. It will detect Acronis True Image WD Edition on your computer and will ask
you if you want to repair or remove it.
Removing Acronis True Image WD Edition

To remove Acronis True Image WD Edition components:
1. Open the list of installed programs and applications.
 Select Start -> Settings -> Control panel -> Add or remove programs.
 If you use Windows Vista, select Start -> Control panel -> Programs and Features.
 If you use Windows 7, select Start -> Control Panel -> Uninstall a program.
 If you use Windows 8 or Windows 10, click the Settings icon, then select Control Panel ->
Uninstall a program.
2. Select the component to be removed.
3. Depending on your operating system, click Remove or Uninstall.
4. Follow the instructions on the screen.
You may have to reboot your computer afterwards to complete the task.
1.4 Activating Acronis True Image WD Edition

To use Acronis True Image WD Edition, you need to activate it via the Internet. Without activation
the product works for 30 days. If you do not activate it during that period, all the program functions
become unavailable except the recovery.
You can activate Acronis True Image WD Edition either on your computer or from another computer,
if your computer is not connected to the Internet.
Activation on a computer connected to the Internet

If your computer is connected to the Internet, the product will be activated automatically.
If the computer where you install Acronis True Image WD Edition does not have Internet connection
or if the program cannot connect to Acronis Activation Server, click Account on the sidebar, and then
select one of the following actions:
 Try again - select this option to try to connect to the Acronis Activation Server again.
 Activate offline - you can activate the program manually from another computer that is
connected to the Internet (see below).
Activation from another computer
If your computer is not connected to the Internet, you may activate Acronis True Image WD Edition
by using another computer which has connection to the Internet.
To activate the product from another computer:

1. On your computer, install and start Acronis True Image WD Edition.
2. On the sidebar, click Account, and then click Activate offline.

3. In the Acronis True Image WD Edition Activation window, perform 3 simple steps:
1. Save your installation code to a file by clicking the Save to file button, and specify a
removable media as the file location (for example, a USB flash drive). You may also simply
write down this code on a piece of paper.
2. On another computer which has the Internet connection, go to
http://www.acronis.com/activation/. The instructions on the screen will help you to get your
activation code by using the installation code. Save the obtained activation code to a file on a
removable media, or write it down on paper.
3. On your computer, click the Load from file button and specify a path to the file with the
activation code; or, simply type it into the box from the piece of paper.
4. Click Activate.
"Too many activations" issue
Possible reasons for the issue:
 You exceed the maximum number of computers with installed Acronis True Image WD Edition.
For example, you have a serial number for one computer and you install Acronis True Image WD
Edition on the second computer.
Solutions:
 Enter a new serial number. If you do not have it, you can buy the full product version in the
Acronis built-in store.
 Move the license to your new computer from another one on which the product is already
activated. To do this, select the computer from which you want to move the license. Note
that Acronis True Image WD Edition will be deactivated on that computer.
 You reinstall Windows, or change hardware of your computer.
For example, you might upgrade motherboard or processor in your computer. Activation is lost,
because Acronis True Image WD Edition sees your computer as a new one.
Solution:
To reactivate Acronis True Image WD Edition on your computer, choose from the list the same
computer by its old name.
1.5 Upgrading Acronis True Image WD Edition

o purchase True Image or True Image Cloud:
1. Start Acronis True Image WD Edition.
2. On the sidebar, click Account, and then click Upgrade. The built-in store opens.
3. Select the license that you want to buy, and then click Buy now.
4. Provide your payment information.
Built-in store
Acronis True Image WD Edition provides an in-app store.
To access the in-app store, go to the Account tab, and then click Upgrade. You will see the in-app
store and all available purchase options.

1.5.1 Acronis True Image advanced features
Advanced features of Acronis True Image are unavailable in your product edition. You can get these
features by upgrading your edition to Acronis True Image and Acronis True Image Cloud. After
upgrade, the following features will be available for you:
 Online Backup
Online Backup allows you to store your files and disks on Acronis Cloud. Your data will be
protected even if your computer is lost, stolen, or destroyed, and your data can be entirely
recovered onto a new device, if needed.
 File backup
Instead of backing up entire partitions and disks, you can back up specific files and folders, both
to a local storage and Acronis Cloud.
 Data archiving
Data archiving is a tool that allows you to move your big or rarely used files to Acronis Cloud.
Every time you run this tool, it analyzes the data in the selected folder and suggests uploading
the found files to Acronis Cloud. You can select the files and folders that you want to archive.
After uploading, the local copies of these files will be deleted. Afterwards, when you need to
open or change an archived file, you can download it back to your local storage device or access
and manage it right in Acronis Cloud.
 Family data protection
Family data protection is a unified cross-platform solution that allows you to track and control
the protection status of all computers, smartphones, and tablets sharing the same Acronis
account. Since users of these devices must be signed in to the same account, usually they are
members of the same family. In general, each of them can use this feature, but there is often a
family member who is more experienced in technology than the others. So, it's reasonable to
make that person responsible for protection of the family data. To track and control the
protection status of your family's devices, use the web-based Online Dashboard, which is
accessible from any computer connected to the Internet.
 Data synchronization
You can have the same data - documents, photos, videos, etc. - on all of your computers. Your
data is within easy reach anywhere and anytime. No more emailing files to yourself or carrying
an USB drive all the time.
You can create as many syncs as you need and store your synced files and versions of those files
on Acronis Cloud. This lets you roll back to a previous file version whenever you need it. You can
also access the Cloud using a web browser, without having to install the application.
 Acronis Universal Restore
Acronis Universal Restore allows you to create a bootable system clone on different hardware.
Use this utility when recovering your system disk to a computer with a dissimilar processor,
different motherboard or a different mass storage device than in the system you originally
backed up. This may be useful, for example, after replacing a failed motherboard or when
deciding to migrate the system from one computer to another.
 Acronis True Image for mobile devices
Acronis True Image for mobile devices allows you to back up your mobile data to Acronis Cloud,
and then recover it in case of loss or corruption. You can install Acronis True Image on any mobile
devices that runs either iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod) or the Android (mobile phones and tablets)
operating systems.
 Try&Decide

When you turn Try&Decide on, your computer is in the Try mode. After that you can perform any
potentially dangerous operations without worrying that you might damage your operating
system, programs or data. When you turn Try&Decide off, you decide if you want to apply the
changes to your computer or you want to discard them.
 Acronis Secure Zone
The Acronis Secure Zone is a special secure partition that you can create on your computer for
storing backups.
1.6 Maintenance, technical support and product updates

For any assistance with Acronis True Image WD Edition and product updates, please refer to official
support resources of the vendor.

2 Getting started
In this section
User interface language ........................................................................ 10
Protecting your system ......................................................................... 10
Backing up all data on your PC .............................................................. 12
Cloning your hard drive ........................................................................ 13
Recovering your computer ................................................................... 14
2.1 User interface language

Before you start, select a preferred language for the Acronis True Image WD Edition user interface.
By default, the language is set in accordance with your Windows display language.
To change the user interface language:

2. In the Help section, select a preferred language from the list.
2.2 Protecting your system

To protect your system:
1. Back up your computer (p. 10).
2. Create bootable media (p. 11).
It is recommended to test the rescue media as described in Making sure that your rescue media can
be used when needed (p. 60).
2.2.1 Step 1. Backing up your computer

When should I back up my computer?
Create a new backup version after every significant event in your system.
Examples of these events include:

 You bought a new computer.
 You reinstalled Windows on your computer.
 You configured all system settings (for example, time, date, language) and installed all necessary
programs on your new computer.
 Important system update.
To ensure you save a healthy state of a disk, it is a good idea to scan it for viruses before backing it up. Please
use antivirus software for this purpose. Note this operation often takes a significant amount of time.
How do I create a backup of my computer?

You have two options to protect your system:
 Entire PC backup (recommended)

Acronis True Image backs up all your internal hard drives in disk mode. The backup contains the
operating system, installed programs, system settings, and all your personal data including your
photos, music, and documents. Refer to Backing up all data on your PC (p. 12) for details.
 System disk backup
You can choose to back up your system partition or the entire system drive. Refer to Backing up
disks and partitions (p. 23) for details.
To back up your computer:
2. On the sidebar, click Backup.
If this is your first backup, you will see the backup configuration screen. If you already have some
backups in the backup list, then first click Add backup, and then click Create new backup.
3. Click the Backup source icon, and then select Entire PC.
If you want to back up your system disk only, then click Disks and partitions, and then select your
system partition (usually C:) and the System Reserved partition (if any).
4. Click the Backup destination icon, and then select a storage place for the backup (see
recommendation below).
5. Click Back up now.
Result: A new backup box appears in the My backups list. To create a new version of the backup in
future, select the backup box from the list, and then click Back up now.
2.2.2 Step 2. Creating bootable rescue media

What is bootable media?
Bootable media is a product, such as a CD-R/RW or a USB flash drive, from which you can run Acronis
True Image when Windows cannot start. You can make a media bootable by using Acronis Media
Builder.
How do I create bootable media?

1. Insert a CD-R/RW or plug in a USB flash drive.
3. On the sidebar, click Tools, and then click Rescue Media Builder.
4. On the first step, select Acronis bootable rescue media.
5. Select the device to use to create the bootable media.
6. Click Proceed.
How do I use bootable media?
Use bootable media to recover your computer when Windows cannot start.
1. Connect the bootable media to your computer (insert the CD or plug in the USB drive).
2. Arrange the boot order in BIOS so that your rescue media device (CD or USB drive) is the first
device to be booted.
Refer to Arranging boot order in BIOS (p. 52) for details.
3. Boot your computer from the rescue media and select Acronis True Image WD Edition.
Result: Once Acronis True Image is loaded, you can use it to recover your computer.
Refer to Acronis Media Builder for details.

2.3 Backing up all data on your PC
What is an Entire PC backup?
An Entire PC backup is the easiest way to back up the full contents of your computer. We
recommend that you choose this option when you are not sure which data that you need to protect.
If you want to back up your system partition only, refer to Backing up disks and partitions (p. 23) for
details.
When you select Entire PC as a backup type, Acronis True Image backs up all your internal hard drives
in disk mode. The backup contains the operating system, installed programs, system settings, and all
your personal data including your photos, music, and documents.
The recovery from an Entire PC backup is also simplified. You only need to choose the date to which
you want to revert your data. Acronis True Image recovers all data from the backup to the original
location. Note that you cannot select specific disks or partitions to recover and you cannot change
the default destination. If you need to avoid these limitations, we recommend that you back up your
data with an ordinary disk-level backup method. Refer to Backing up disks and partitions (p. 23) for
details.
You can also recover specific files and folders from an Entire PC backup. Refer to Backing up files and
folders for details.
If an Entire PC backup contains dynamic disks, you recover your data in partition mode. This means
that you can select partitions to recover and change recovery destination. Refer to About recovery of
dynamic/GPT disks and volumes (p. 49) for details.
How do I create an Entire PC backup?

To back up the entire contents of your computer:
3. Click Add backup, and then click Create new backup.
4. Click the Backup source icon, and then select Entire PC.
5. Click the Backup destination icon, and then select a destination for the backup.
6. [optional step] Click Options to set the options for the backup, including Schedule, Scheme (p.
25), and Password protection. For more information see Backup options (p. 24).
7. Click Back up now.

2.4 Cloning your hard drive
Why do I need it?
When you see that the free space on your hard drive is not enough for your data, you might want to
buy a new, larger hard drive and transfer all your data to the new drive. The usual copy operation
does not make your new hard drive identical to the old one. For example, if you open Windows
Explorer and copy all files and folders to the new hard drive, Windows will not start from the new
hard drive. The Clone disk utility allows you to duplicate all your data and make Windows bootable
on your new hard drive.
Before you start

We recommend that you install the target (new) drive where you plan to use it and the source drive
in another location, for example, in an external USB enclosure. This is especially important for
laptops.
Warning! Your old and new hard drives must work in the same controller mode (for example, IDE or AHCI).
Otherwise, your computer will not start from the new hard drive.
Using the Clone disk utility

To clone a disk:
1. On the sidebar, click Tools, and then click Clone disk.
2. On the Clone Mode step, we recommend that you choose the Automatic transfer mode. In this
case, the partitions will be proportionally resized to fit your new hard drive. The Manual mode
provides more flexibility. Refer to Clone Disk wizard (p. 65) for more details about the manual
mode.
If the program finds two disks, one partitioned and another unpartitioned, it will automatically recognize
the partitioned disk as the source disk and the unpartitioned disk as the destination disk. In this case, the
next steps will be bypassed and you will be taken to the cloning Summary screen.

3. On the Source Disk step, select the disk that you want to clone.
4. On the Destination Disk step, select the destination disk for the cloned data.
If any disk is unpartitioned, the program will automatically recognize it as the destination and bypass this
step.
5. On the Finish step, ensure that the configured settings suit your needs, and then click Proceed.
By default, Acronis True Image WD Edition shuts down the computer after the clone process finishes.
This enables you to change the position of master/subordinate jumpers and remove one of the hard
drives.
2.5 Recovering your computer

Please be aware that recovery of a system disk is an important operation. Before you start, we
recommend that you read the detailed descriptions in the following Help topics:
 Trying to determine the crash cause (p. 38)
 Preparing for recovery (p. 38)
 Recovering your system to the same disk (p. 39)
Let’s consider two different cases:
1. Windows works incorrectly, but you can start Acronis True Image WD Edition.
2. Windows cannot start (for example, you turn on your computer and see something unusual on
your screen).
Case 1. How to recover computer if Windows works incorrectly?
3. From the backup list, select the backup that contains your system disk.
4. Depending on the backup type, click Recover PC or Recover disks.
5. In the opened window, select the backup version (the data state from a specific date and time).

6. Select the system partition and the System Reserved partition (if any) to be recovered.
7. Click Recover now.
To complete the operation, Acronis True Image WD Edition must restart your system.
Case 2. How to recover computer if Windows cannot start?

1. Connect Acronis bootable media to your computer, and then run the special standalone version
of Acronis True Image WD Edition.
Refer to Step 2 Creating bootable rescue media (p. 11) and Arranging boot order in BIOS (p. 52)
for details.
2. On the Welcome screen, select My disks below Recover.
3. Select the system disk backup to be used for recovery. Right-click the backup and choose
Recover.
When the backup is not displayed, click Browse and manually specify the path to the backup.
4. At the Recovery method step, select Recover whole disks and partitions.
5. Select the system partition (usually C) on the What to recover screen. Note that you may
distinguish the system partition by the Pri, Act flags. Select the System Reserved partition (if any),
as well.
6. You may leave all settings of the partitions without changes and click Finish.
7. Check the summary of operations, and then click Proceed.
8. When the operation finishes, exit the standalone version of Acronis True Image WD Edition,
remove the rescue media (if any), and boot from the recovered system partition. After making
sure that you have recovered Windows to the state you need, restore the original boot order.

3 Basic concepts
In this section
Basic concepts ...................................................................................... 16
The difference between file backups and disk/partition images ............ 18
Full, incremental and differential backups ............................................ 18
FAQ about backup, recovery and cloning .............................................. 19
FTP connection ..................................................................................... 20
Authentication settings......................................................................... 21
Backup file naming ............................................................................... 21
Wizards ................................................................................................ 21
3.1 Basic concepts

This section provides general information about basic concepts which could be useful for
understanding how the program works.
Note: Certain features and functionalities may be unavailable in the True Image edition that you use.
Backup and recovery

Backup refers to the making copies of data so that these additional copies may be used to recover
the original after a data loss event.
Backups are useful primarily for two purposes. The first is to restore a state following a disaster
(called disaster recovery). The second is to recover small numbers of files after they have been
accidentally deleted or corrupted.
Acronis True Image WD Edition does both by creating disk (or partition) images and file-level backups
respectively.
Backup versions
Backup versions are the file or files created during each backup operation. If you do not use
consolidation feature, the amount of versions created is always equal to the amount of times the
backup is executed or to the amount of stored points in time.
So, a version represents a point in time to which the system or data can be restored. To put it
another way, backup versions represent full and incremental backups - see Full and incremental
backups (p. 18).
The backup versions are similar to file versions. The file versions concept is familiar to those who use
a Windows Vista and Windows 7 feature called "Previous versions of files". This feature allows you to
restore a file as it existed on a particular date and time. A backup version allows you to recover your
data in a similar way.
This could be useful when trying to find damaged or deleted files. Simply browse through the backup
versions in the Acronis Backup Explorer until you find the backup version containing the required
files. Additionally, you can recover different saved versions of the found files.

Disk cloning
This operation migrates or copies the entire contents of one disk drive to another disk drive. This
may be necessary, for example, when installing a larger capacity disk. The result is two identical
drives with the same file structure. The "Disk Clone" tool effectively copies all of the contents of one
hard disk drive onto another hard disk drive. The operation allows you to transfer all the information
(including the operating system and installed programs) from one hard disk drive to another without
having to reinstall and reconfigure all of your software.
Acronis True Image WD Edition does not provide for cloning a single partition. You can only clone the
entire drive.
You can also transfer all the information from your hard disk drive to another one by backing up the
entire old hard disk and then recovering the backup to the new disk.
Backup validation
The backup validation feature allows you to confirm that your data can be recovered. As mentioned
above, the program adds checksum values to the data blocks being backed up. During backup
validation, Acronis True Image WD Edition opens the backup file, recalculates the checksum values
and compares those values with the stored ones. If all compared values match, the backup file is not
corrupted and there is a high probability that the backup can be successfully used for data recovery.
Consolidation
Consolidation allows you to delete backups which you no longer need from a backup chain.
A chain to be consolidated can consist of a full backup and one or more incremental backups.
If necessary, you can delete the base full backup from the chain. The program will create a new full
backup in place of the oldest remaining backup. Consolidation keeps whichever backups you choose
and deletes any backups that are not selected.
Because consolidation may require significant time and system resources (including disk space), we
recommend using it sparingly. In many cases, starting a new backup chain and then deleting the old
one will be a better choice.
Disaster recovery
Recovering from a disaster usually requires a rescue media and a backup of the system partition.
Acronis True Image WD Edition provides for recovery from a disaster caused by system data
corruption, viruses, malware, or other causes.
If the operating system fails to boot, Acronis True Image WD Edition will recover the system
partition. You can create a rescue media by using the Media Builder tool.
Scheduling
For your backups to be really helpful, they must be as "up-to-date" as possible. This means that you
should run backups on a regular basis. Although creating an Acronis True Image WD Edition backup is
quite easy, on occasion, you may forget to do a backup.
With the scheduler, you do not have to remember. You can schedule automatic backups ahead of
time. Your data will be backed up as long as there is sufficient storage space.
Understanding these terms and concepts will be helpful when using the program's features.

3.2 The difference between file backups and
disk/partition images
When you back up files and folders, only the files and folder tree are compressed and stored.
Disk/partition backups are different from file and folder backups. Acronis True Image stores an exact
snapshot of the disk or partition. This procedure is called "creating a disk image", or "creating a disk
backup" and the resulting backup is often called "a disk/partition image" or "a disk/partition backup".
A disk/partition backup contains all the data stored on the disk or partition:
1. Zero track of the hard disk with the master boot record (MBR) (applicable to MBR disk backups
only).
2. One or more partitions, including:
1. Boot code.
2. File system meta data, including service files, file allocation table (FAT) and partition boot
record.
3. File system data, including operating system (system files, registry, drivers), user data and
software applications.
3. System Reserved partition, if any.
4. EFI system partition, if any (applicable to GPT disk backups only).
By default Acronis True Image stores only the hard disk sectors that contain data. Furthermore,
Acronis True Image does not back up pagefile.sys under Windows XP and later and hiberfil.sys (a file
that keeps RAM contents when the computer goes into hibernation). This reduces image size and
speeds up image creation and recovery.
You can change this default method by turning on the sector-by-sector mode. In this case Acronis
True Image copies all hard disk sectors, and not only those that contain data.
3.3 Full, incremental and differential backups

Note: Incremental and differential backups are not available in this product edition.
Acronis True Image WD Edition offers you three backup methods:
1) Full: contains all of the data at the moment of the backup creation. It forms a base for further
incremental or differential backups. It can also be used as a standalone backup.
2) Incremental: Only those files will be included which have been changed since the LAST backup.
3) Differential: Only those files will be included which have been changed since the last FULL backup.
We suggest you to choose one of the following three approaches of using the backup methods:
"Full" - A standalone full backup might be an optimal solution if you often roll back the system to its
initial state or if you do not like to manage multiple files.
"Incremental" - These are most useful when you need frequent backups and the ability to roll back to
a specific point in time. Having created a full backup once, if you then create an incremental backup
each day of a month, you will get the same result as if you created full backups every day of the
month. As a rule, incremental backups are considerably smaller than full or differential backups.

Such a backup scenario may consist of a weekly full system backup with intermediate, daily
backups that cover data that was changed since the LAST backup.
This scenario, while requiring less storage space and time for the daily backups, will require more
work for the program to provide recovery after a system crash. In the event of a Thursday crash,
the program would have to recover the Wednesday, Tuesday, and Monday incremental backups
and the last FULL backup.
"Differential" – is an intermediate between the first two approaches. Each differential backup
includes all the files changed since the last full backup. It takes less time and space than "Full", but
more than "Incremental". The good thing is that recovering is simpler than for (2) - the program will
have to recover the last differential backup and the last full backup.
To choose a desired backup method, you usually need to configure a custom backup scheme. For
more information see Custom schemes (p. 26).
An incremental or differential backup created after a disk is defragmented might be considerably

larger than usual. This is because the defragmentation program changes file locations on the disk and
the backups reflect these changes. Therefore, it is recommended that you re-create a full backup
after disk defragmentation.
If you lose an incremental backup or it becomes corrupted, all later incremental backups will be unusable.
3.4 FAQ about backup, recovery and cloning

 I have a 150GB system partition, but the occupied space on that partition is only 80GB. What
will Acronis True Image WD Edition include in a backup? - By default, Acronis True Image copies
only the hard disk sectors that contain data, so it will include only 80GB in a backup. You can also
choose the sector-by-sector mode. Note than such a backup mode is required only in special
cases. For more information see Image creation mode (p. 27). While creating a sector-by-sector
backup, the program copies both used and unused hard disk sectors and the backup file will
usually be significantly larger.
 Will my system disk backup include drivers, documents, pictures, etc.? - Yes, such a backup will
contain the drivers, as well as the contents of the My documents folder and its subfolders, if you
kept the default location of the My documents folder. If you have just a single hard disk in your
PC, such a backup will contain all of the operating system, applications and data.
 I have an old hard disk drive which is almost full in my notebook. I purchased a new bigger
HDD. How can I transfer Windows, programs and data to the new disk? - You can either clone
the old hard disk on the new one or back up the old hard disk and then recover the backup to a
new one. The optimum method usually depends on your old hard disk partitions layout.
 I want to migrate my old system hard disk to an SSD. Can this be done with Acronis True
Image? - Yes, Acronis True Image WD Edition provides such a function. For procedure details, see
Migrating your system from an HDD to an SSD
 What is the best way to migrate the system to a new disk: cloning or backup and recovery? -
The backup and recovery method provides more flexibility. In any case, we strongly recommend
to make a backup of your old hard disk even if you decide to use cloning. It could be your data
saver if something goes wrong with your original hard disk during cloning. For example, there
were cases when users chose the wrong disk as the target and thus wiped their system disk. In
addition, you can make more than one backup to create redundancy and increase security.
 What should I back up: a partition or the whole disk? - In most cases, it is better to back up the
whole disk. However, there may be some cases when a partition backup is advisable. For
example, your notebook has a single hard disk with two partitions: system (disk letter C) and the

data (disk letter D). The system partition stores your working documents in the My documents
folder with subfolders. The data partition stores your videos, pictures, and music files. Such files
are already compressed and backing them up using Acronis True Image would not give you
significant reduction of the backup file size. In this case, it may be better to use a local sync for
the data partition files and a separate backup for the system partition. However, we also
recommend creating at least one whole disk backup if your backup storage has enough space.
 Could you tell me how to clone: in Windows or after booting from the rescue media? Even
when you start cloning in Windows, the computer will reboot into the Linux environment the
same as when booting from the rescue media. Because of this, it is better to clone under rescue
media. For example, there may be a case when your hard disk drives are detected in Windows
and not detected in Linux. If this is the case, the cloning operation will fail after reboot. When
booting from the rescue media, you can make sure that Acronis True Image detects both the
source and target disks before starting the cloning operation.
 Can I clone or back up and recover a dual boot machine? Yes, this is possible in most cases. If
your systems are installed in separate partitions of the same physical hard disk drive, cloning or
recovery usually proceeds without any problems. If the systems are on different physical hard
disk drives, there may be some problems with bootability after recovery.
 Does Acronis True Image support RAID? - Acronis True Image supports hardware RAID arrays of
all popular types. Support of software RAID configurations on dynamic disks is also provided.
Acronis Bootable Rescue Media supports most of the popular hardware RAID controllers. If the
standard Acronis rescue media does not "see" the RAID as a single volume, the media does not
have the appropriate drivers.
3.5 FTP connection

Acronis True Image WD Edition allows you to store your backups on FTP servers.
To create a new FTP connection, when selecting a backup storage click FTP connection, and in the
opened window provide:
 Path to the FTP server, for example: my.server.com
 Port
 User name
 Password
To check your settings, click the Test connection button. The computer will try to connect to the
specified FTP server. If the test connection has been established, click the Connect button to add the
FTP connection.
The created FTP connection will appear in the folder tree. Select the connection and browse for the
backup storage that you want to use.
Please, be aware that the mere opening of an FTP server's root folder does not bring you to your home
directory.
Acronis True Image WD Edition splits a backup into files with a size of 2GB when backing up directly to an FTP
server. If you back up to a hard disk with the aim of transferring the backup to an FTP later, split the backup into
files of 2GB each by setting the desired file size in the backup options. Otherwise, the recovery will not be
possible.
An FTP server must allow passive mode file transfers.
The firewall settings of the source computer should have Ports 20 and 21 opened for the TPC and UDP protocols
to function. The Routing and Remote Access Windows service should be disabled.

3.6 Authentication settings
If you are connecting to a networked computer, in most cases you will need to provide the necessary
credentials for accessing the network share. For example, this is possible when you select a backup
storage. The Authentication Settings window appears automatically when you select a networked
computer name.
If necessary, specify the user name and password, and then click Test connection. When the test is
successfully passed, click Connect.
Troubleshooting
When you create a network share that you plan to use as a backup storage, please ensure that at
least one of the following conditions is met:
 Windows account has a password on the computer where the shared folder is located.
 Password-protected sharing is turned off in Windows.
For example, in Windows 7, you can find this setting at Control Panel —> Network and Internet
—> Network and Sharing Center —> Advanced sharing settings —> Turn off password protected
sharing.
Otherwise, you will not be able to connect to the shared folder.
3.7 Backup file naming

A backup file name has the following attributes:
 Backup name.
 Backup method (full, inc, diff: full, incremental, differential).
 Number of backup chain (in the form of b#).
 Number of backup version (in the form of s#).
 Number of volume (in the form of v#).
For example this attribute changes when you split a backup into several files. Refer to Backup
splitting (p. 28) for details.
Thus a backup name may look the following way:
1. my_documents_full_b1_s1_v1.tib
2. my_documents_full_b2_s1_v1.tib
3. my_documents_inc_b2_s2_v1.tib
4. my_documents_inc_b2_s3_v1.tib
If you are creating a new backup, and there is already a file with the same name, the program does
not delete the old file, but adds to the new file the "-number" suffix, for example,
my_documents_inc_b2_s2_v1-2.tib.
3.8 Wizards
When you use the available Acronis True Image tools and utilities, the program will in many cases
employ wizards to guide you through the operations.

For example, see the screen shot below.
A wizard window usually consists of the following areas:

1. This is the list of steps to complete the operation. A green checkmark appears next to a complete
step. The green arrow indicates the current step. When complete all the steps, the program
displays the Summary screen in the Finish step. Check the summary and click Proceed to start
the operation.
2. This toolbar contains buttons to manage objects you select in area 3.
For example:
 Details - displays the window that provides detailed information about the selected
backup.
 Properties - displays the selected item properties window.
 Create new partition - displays the window where you can configure a new partition
settings.
 Columns - allows you to choose which table columns to display and in which order.
3. This is the main area where you select items and change settings.
4. This area displays additional information about the item you select in area 3.

4 Backing up data
Acronis True Image WD Edition includes a wealth of sophisticated backup capabilities that would
please even an IT professional. They allow you to back up your disks and partitions. You can choose a
backup feature that suits you most or use them all. The sections below describe the backup features
in more detail.
In this section
Backing up disks and partitions ............................................................. 23
Backup options ..................................................................................... 24
Operations with backups ...................................................................... 32
4.1 Backing up disks and partitions

As opposed to file backups, disk and partition backups contain all the data stored on the disk or
partition. This backup type is usually used to create an exact copy of a system partition of the whole
system disk. Such backup allows you to recover your computer when Windows works incorrectly or
cannot start.
To back up partitions or disks:

1. Start Acronis True Image.
3. Click Add backup, and then click Create new backup.
4. [Optional] To rename the backup, click the arrow next to the backup name, click Rename, and
then enter a new name.
5. Click the Backup source icon, and then select Disks and partitions.
6. In the opened window, select the check boxes next to the partitions and disks that you want to
back up, and then click OK.
To view hidden partitions, click Full partition list.
To back up dynamic disks you can use only the partition mode.

7. Click the Backup destination icon, and then select a destination for backup:
 Your external drive—When an external drive is plugged into your computer, you can select it
from the list.
 Browse—Select a destination from the folder tree.
If possible, avoid storing your system partition backups on dynamic disks, because the system partition is
recovered in the Linux environment. Linux and Windows work with dynamic disks differently. This may
result in problems during recovery.
8. [optional step] Click Options to set the options for the backup, including Schedule, Scheme (p.
25), and Password protection. For more information see Backup options (p. 24).
9. Perform one of the following:
 To run the backup immediately, click Back up now.
 To run the backup later or on a schedule, click the arrow to the right of the Back up now
button, and then click Later.
4.2 Backup options

When you create a backup, you can change additional options and fine-tune the backup process. To
open the options window, select a source and destination for a backup, and then click Options.
Note that options of each backup type (disk-level backup, file-level backup, online backup, nonstop
backup) are fully independent and you should configure them separately.
After you have installed the application, all options are set to the initial values. You can change them
for your current backup operation only or for all backups that will be created in future. Select the
Save the settings as default check box to apply the modified settings to all further backup operations
by default.
If you want to reset all the modified options to the values that were set after the product installation
initially, click the Reset to initial settings button. Note that this will reset the settings for the current
backup only. To reset the settings for all further backups, click Reset to initial settings, select the
Save the settings as default check box, and then click OK.

In this section
Backup schemes ................................................................................... 25
Notifications for backup operation ....................................................... 27
Image creation mode............................................................................ 27
Pre/Post commands for backup ............................................................ 28
Backup splitting .................................................................................... 28
Backup validation option ...................................................................... 29
Backup reserve copy ............................................................................. 29
Removable media settings .................................................................... 30
Backup comment .................................................................................. 30
Error handling....................................................................................... 30
File-level security settings for backup ................................................... 31
Computer shutdown ............................................................................. 31
Performance of backup operation ........................................................ 32
4.2.1 Backup schemes

Backup schemes along with the scheduler help you to set up your backup strategy. The schemes
allow you to optimize backup storage space usage, improve data storage reliability, and
automatically delete the obsolete backup versions.
Backup scheme defines the following parameters:

 Backup methods that will be used to create backup versions
 Sequence of the backup versions created using different methods
 Version cleanup rules
Acronis True Image WD Edition allows you to choose the following backup schemes:
 Single version (p. 26) - select this scheme if you want to use the smallest backup storage.
 Custom (p. 26) - select this item if you want to set up a backup scheme manually.

4.2.1.1 Single version scheme
The program creates a full backup version and overwrites it every time when you run backup
manually.
Result: you have a single up-to-date full backup version.
Required storage space: minimal.
4.2.1.2 Custom schemes

With Acronis True Image WD Edition you also can create your own backup schemes. Schemes can be
based on the pre-defined backup schemes. You can make changes in a selected pre-defined scheme
to suit your needs and then save the changed scheme as a new one.
You cannot overwrite existing pre-defined backup schemes.
So first of all select one of the backup methods in the appropriate box.
 Full (p. 18)
Select this method if you want to create only full backup versions.
Automatic cleanup rules
To delete obsolete backup versions automatically, you can set one of the following cleanup rules:
 Delete versions older than [defined period] (available for full method only) - Select this option to
limit the age of backup versions. All versions that are older than the specified period will be
automatically deleted.
 Store no more than [n] recent versions (available for full method only) - Select this option to
limit the maximum number of backup versions. When the number of versions exceeds the
specified value, the oldest backup version will be automatically deleted.
 Keep size of the backup no more than [defined size] - Select this option to limit maximum size of
the backup. After creating a new backup version, the program checks whether the total backup
size exceeds the specified value. If it's true, the oldest backup version will be deleted.
The first backup version option
Often the first version of any backup is one of the most valuable versions. This is true because it
stores the initial data state (for example, your system partition with recently installed Windows) or
some other stable data state (for example, data after a successful virus check).
Do not delete the first version of the backup - Select this check box to keep the initial data state. The
program will create two initial full backup versions. The first version will be excluded from the
automatic cleanup, and will be stored until you delete it manually.
Note that when the check box is selected, the Store no more than [n] recent versions check box will
change to Store no more than 1+[n] recent versions.
Managing custom backup schemes

If you change anything in an existing backup scheme, you can save the changed scheme as a new
one. In this case you need to specify a new name for that backup scheme.
 You can overwrite existing custom schemes.
 You cannot overwrite existing pre-defined backup schemes.

 In a scheme name, you can use any symbols allowed by OS for naming files. The maximum length
of a backup scheme name is 255 symbols.
 You can create not more than 16 custom backup schemes.
After creating a custom backup scheme, you can use it as any other existing backup scheme while
configuring a backup.
You can also use a custom backup scheme without saving it. In this case, it will be available only for
the backup where it was created and you will be unable to use it for other backups.
If you do not need a custom backup scheme anymore, you can delete it. To delete the scheme, select
it in the backup schemes list, click Delete, and then click Delete scheme in the confirmation window.
The pre-defined backup schemes cannot be deleted.
4.2.2 Notifications for backup operation

Free disk space threshold
You may want to be notified when the free space on the backup storage becomes less than the
specified threshold value. If after starting a backup Acronis True Image WD Edition finds out that the
free space in the selected backup location is already less than the specified value, the program will
not begin the actual backup process and will immediately inform you by displaying an appropriate
message. The message offers you three choices - to ignore it and proceed with the backup, to browse
for another location for the backup or to cancel the backup.
If the free space becomes less than the specified value while the backup is being run, the program
will display the same message and you will have to make the same decisions.
To set the free disk space threshold:

 Select the Show notification message on insufficient free disk space check box
 In the Size box, type or select a threshold value and select a unit of measure
Acronis True Image WD Edition can monitor free space on the following storage devices:
 Local hard drives
 USB cards and drives
 Network shares (SMB/NFS)
The message will not be displayed if the Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode)
check box is selected in the Error handling settings.
This option cannot be enabled for FTP servers and CD/DVD drives.
4.2.3 Image creation mode

You can use these parameters to create an exact copy of your whole partitions or hard disks, and not
only the sectors that contain data. For example, this can be useful when you want to back up a
partition or disk containing an operating system that is not supported by Acronis True Image. Please
note that this mode increases processing time and usually results in a larger image file.
 To create a sector-by-sector image, select the Back up sector-by-sector check box.
 To include all unallocated disk space into the backup, select the Back up unallocated space check
box.
This check box is available only when the Back up sector-by-sector check box is selected.

4.2.4 Pre/Post commands for backup
You can specify commands (or even batch files) that will be automatically executed before and after
the backup procedure.
For example, you may want to start/stop certain Windows processes, or check your data before
starting backup.
To specify commands (batch files):

 Select a command to be executed before the backup process starts in the Pre-command field. To
create a new command or select a new batch file, click the Edit button.
 Select a command to be executed after the backup process ends in the Post-command field. To
Please do not try to execute interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for
example, "pause"). These are not supported.
4.2.4.1 Edit user command for backup

You can specify user commands to be executed before or after the backup procedure:
 In the Command field, type-in a command or select it from the list. Click ... to select a batch file.
 In the Working directory field, type-in a path for command execution or select it from the list of
previously entered paths.
 In the Arguments field enter or select command execution arguments from the list.
Disabling the Do not perform operations until the command's execution is complete parameter
(enabled for Pre commands by default), will permit the backup process to run concurrently with your
command execution.
The Abort the operation if the user command fails (enabled by default) parameter will abort the
operation if any errors occur in command execution.
You can test a command you entered by clicking the Test command button.
4.2.5 Backup splitting

Acronis True Image WD Edition cannot split already existing backups. Backups can be split only when being
created.
Large backups can be split into several files that together make up the original backup. A backup can
also be split for burning to removable media.
The default setting - Automatic. With this setting, Acronis True Image WD Edition will act as follows.
When backing up to a hard disk:

 If the selected disk has enough space and its file system allows the estimated file size, the
program will create a single backup file.
 If the storage disk has enough space, but its file system does not allow the estimated file size, the
program will automatically split the image into several files.
 If you do not have enough space to store the image on your hard disk, the program will warn you
and wait for your decision as to how you plan to fix the problem. You can try to free some
additional space and continue or select another disk.

When backing up to a CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, BD-R/RE:
 Acronis True Image WD Edition will ask you to insert a new disk when the previous one is full.
Alternatively, you may select the desired file size from the drop-down list. The backup will then be
split into multiple files of the specified size. This is useful when you store a backup to a hard disk in
order to burn the backup to CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW or BD-R/RE later on.
Creating images directly on CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, BD-R/RE might take considerably more time
than it would on a hard disk.
4.2.6 Backup validation option

Note: Certain features and functionalities may be unavailable in the product edition that you use.
You can specify the additional validation setting: Validate backup when it is created.
When this option is enabled, the program will check the integrity of the recently created or
supplemented backup version immediately after backup. When setting up a backup of critical data or
a disk/partition backup, we strongly recommend that you enable this option in order to ensure that
the backup can be used to recover the lost data.
Regular validation
You can also schedule validation of your backups to ensure that they remain "healthy". By default
regular validation is turned on with the following settings:
 Frequency: once a week
 Day: the date when the backup was started
 Time: the moment of backup start plus 15 minutes
 Advanced settings: the Run the validation only when the computer is idle check box is selected
You can change the default settings and specify your own schedule. For more information see
Scheduling.
4.2.7 Backup reserve copy

You can create reserve copies of your backups and save them on the file system or a network drive.
To make a reserve copy:

 Select the Create a reserve copy of my backups check box
 Click Set location... and specify a location for the backup copies
All backup options (such as backup compression, backup splitting, etc.) will be inherited from the
source backup.
A reserve copy always contains all the data selected for backup, that is, when creating a reserve copy the
program always makes a full backup of the source data.
Also remember that you will pay for the enhanced convenience and increased security of your data
by the time required for performing the backup because normal backup and reserve copying are
performed one at a time and not simultaneously.

4.2.8 Removable media settings
When backing up to removable media, you can make this media bootable by writing additional
components to it. Thus, you will not need a separate bootable disk.
Acronis True Image WD Edition does not support creating bootable media if a flash drive is formatted in NTFS or
exFAT. The drive must have a FAT16 or FAT32 file system.
The following settings are available:

 Place Acronis True Image WD Edition on media
Acronis True Image WD Edition - includes support of USB, PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) and SCSI
interfaces along with the storage devices connected via them, and therefore is strongly
recommended.
 Place Acronis System Report on media
Acronis System Report - the component allows you to generate system report that is used for
collecting information about your system in case of any program problem. Report generation will
be available before you start Acronis True Image WD Edition from the bootable media. The
generated system report can be saved to a USB flash drive.
 Ask for first media while creating backups on removable media
You can choose whether to display the Insert First Media prompt when backing up to removable
media. With the default setting, backing up to removable media may not be possible if the user is
away, because the program will wait for someone to press OK in the prompt box. Therefore, you
should disable the prompt when scheduling a backup to removable media. Then, if the
removable media is available (for example, CD-R/RW inserted) the backup can run unattended.
If you have other Acronis products installed on your computer, the bootable versions of these
programs' components will be offered as well.
4.2.9 Backup comment

This option allows you to add comments to the backup. Backup comments may help you to find the
necessary backup later, when recovering data by using bootable media.
If a backup does not have comments, type your comment in the comments area. When a comment
already exists, you can edit it after clicking Edit.
4.2.10 Error handling

When the program encountered an error while performing backup, it stops the backup process and
displays a message, waiting for a response on how to handle the error. If you set an error handling
policy, the program will not stop the backup process, but will simply handle the error according to
the set rules and continue working.
You can set the following error handling policy:

 Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode) - Enable this setting to ignore
errors during backup operations. This is useful when you cannot control the backup process. You
can view the detailed log of all operations after the backup process finishes.
 Ignore bad sectors - This option is available only for disk and partition backups. It lets you
successfully complete a backup even if there are bad sectors on the hard disk.
We recommend that you select this check box when your hard drive is failing, for example:
 Hard drive is making clicking or grinding noises during operation.

 The S.M.A.R.T. system has detected hard drive issues and recommends that you back up the
drive as soon as possible.
When you leave this check box cleared, the backup may fail because of possible bad sectors on
the drive.
 Repeat attempt if a backup fails - This option allows you to automatically repeat a backup
attempt if the backup fails for some reason. You can specify number of attempts and time
interval between attempts. Note that if the error interrupting the backup persists, then the
backup will not be created.
This option is not available, when you back up your data to a USB flash drive or USB hard drive.
4.2.11 File-level security settings for backup

Note: This feature may be unavailable in the True Image edition that you use.
You can specify security settings for backed up files (these settings relate only to file/folder backups):
 Preserve file security settings in backups - selecting this option will preserve all the security
properties (permissions assigned to groups or users) of the backup files for further recovery.
By default, files and folders are saved in the backup with their original Windows security settings
(i.e. permissions for read, write, execute and so on for each user or user group, set in file
Properties -> Security). If you recover a secured file/folder on a computer without the user
specified in the permissions, you may not be able to read or modify this file.
To eliminate this kind of problem, you can disable preserving file security settings in backups.
Then the recovered files/folders will always inherit the permissions from the folder to which they
are recovered (parent folder or disk, if recovered to the root).
Or, you can disable file security settings during recovery, even if they are available in the backup.
The result will be the same.
 In backups, store encrypted files in a decrypted state (the preset is disabled) - check the option
if there are encrypted files in the backup and you want them to be accessed by any user after
recovery. Otherwise, only the user who encrypted the files/folders will be able to read them.
Decryption may also be useful if you are going to recover encrypted files on another computer.
If you do not use the encryption feature available in Windows XP and later operating systems,
simply ignore this option. (Files/folders encryption is set in Properties -> General -> Advanced
Attributes -> Encrypt contents to secure data).
These options relate only to file/folder backups.
4.2.12 Computer shutdown

If you know that the backup process you are configuring may take a long time, you may select the
Shut down the computer after the backup is complete check box. In this case, you will not have to
wait until the operation completion. The program will perform the backup and turn off your
computer automatically.
This option is also useful when you schedule your backups. For example, you may want to perform
backups every weekday in the evening to save all your work. Schedule the backup and select the
check box. After that you may leave your computer when you finish your work knowing that the
critical data will be backed up and the computer will be turned off.

4.2.13 Performance of backup operation
On the Performance tab you can configure the following settings:
Compression level
You can choose the compression level for a backup:
 None - the data will be copied without any compression, which may significantly increase the
backup file size.
 Normal - the recommended data compression level (set by default).
 High - higher backup file compression level, takes more time to create a backup.
 Maximum - maximum backup compression, but takes a long time to create a backup.
The optimal data compression level depends on the type of files stored in the backup. For example, even
maximum compression will not significantly reduce the backup size, if the backup contains essentially
compressed files, like .jpg, .pdf or .mp3.
Operation priority
Changing the priority of a backup or recovery process can make it run faster or slower (depending on
whether you raise or lower the priority), but it can also adversely affect the performance of other
running programs. The priority of any process running in a system, determines the amount of CPU
usage and system resources allocated to that process. Decreasing the operation priority will free
more resources for other CPU tasks. Increasing backup or recovery priority may speed up the process
by taking resources from the other currently running processes. The effect will depend on total CPU
usage and other factors.
You can set up the operation priority:

 Low (enabled by default) - the backup or recovery process will run slower, but the performance
of other programs will be increased.
 Normal - the backup or recovery process will have the equal priority with other processes.
 High - the backup or recovery process will run faster, but the performance of other programs will
be reduced. Be aware that selecting this option may result in 100% CPU usage by Acronis True
Image WD Edition.
Network connection speed limit
When you back up data to network drives or FTP, you can reduce the influence of connection used by
Acronis True Image on other network connections of your computer. Set the connection speed that
will allow you to use Internet and network resources without annoying slowdowns.
To reduce connection speed:

 Select the Limit transfer rate to check box and specify an optimal value and an appropriate
measurement unit (kilobits or megabits per second).
4.3 Operations with backups

In this section
Backup operations menu ...................................................................... 33
Backup list icons ................................................................................... 34
Validating backups................................................................................ 34
Backup to various places....................................................................... 35

Adding an existing backup to the list ..................................................... 36
Deleting backups and backup versions .................................................. 37
4.3.1 Backup operations menu

The backup operations menu provides quick access to additional operations that can be performed
with the selected backup.
The backup operations menu can contain the following items:

 Edit settings - allows editing of the current backup settings.
 Reconfigure (for backups manually added to the backup list) - allows configuring the settings of a
backup created by a previous Acronis True Image version. This item may also appear for backups
created on another computer and added to the backup list without importing their settings.
Without backup settings, you cannot refresh the backup by clicking Back up now. Also, you
cannot edit and clone the backup settings.
 Reconfigure (for online backups) - allows you to bind a selected online backup to the current
computer. To do this, click this item and reconfigure settings of the backup. Note that only one
online backup can be active on one computer.
 Validate - starts backup validation.
 Open location - opens the folder containing the backup files.
 Clone settings - Creates a new empty backup box with the settings of the initial backup and
named (1) [the initial backup name]. Change the settings, save them, and then click Back up
now on the cloned backup box.
 Move - click to move all the backup files to another location. The subsequent backup versions
will be saved to the new location.
If you change the backup destination by editing the backup settings, only new backup versions
will be saved to the new location. The earlier backup versions will remain in the old location.
 Remove from the list - removes the current backup from the backup list shown in the My
backups area. This operation also turns off the scheduling of the removed backup (if a schedule
was set), but it does not delete the backup files.
 Delete - depending on a backup type, this command completely deletes the backup from its
location or allows you to choose whether you want to delete the backup completely or the
backup box only. When you delete a backup box, the backup files remain in the location, and you

will be able to add the backup to the list later. Note that when you delete a backup completely,
the deletion cannot be undone.
4.3.2 Backup list icons

While working with the backup list you will see special icons. The icons give you the following
information:
 Backup type
 Backup current state
Backup type icons

Entire PC backup
Disk-level backup
Backup state icons

The last backup failed.
The backup is in progress.
The last backup was paused by user.
The last backup was stopped by user.
4.3.3 Validating backups

The validation procedure checks whether you will be able to recover data from a backup.
Validating backups in Windows

To validate an entire backup:

1. Start Acronis True Image WD Edition, and then click Backup on the sidebar.
2. From the backup list, select the backup to validate, click Operations, and then click Validate.
Validating backups in a stand-alone version of Acronis True Image (bootable media)
To validate a specific backup version or an entire backup:
1. On the Recovery tab, find the backup that contains the version that you want to validate. If the
backup is not listed, click Browse for backup, and then specify the path to the backup. Acronis
True Image adds this backup to the list.
2. Right-click the backup or a specific version, and then click Validate Archive. This opens the
Validate Wizard.
3. Click Proceed.
4.3.4 Backup to various places

Acronis True Image WD Edition offers you flexibility in choosing destinations for your backups. You
can save full backup versions to different places including a network share, CD/DVD, USB stick, as
well as any local internal or external hard drive.
You can save backup versions to different destinations by changing the backup destination when
editing the settings of a selected backup. For example, after you save the initial full backup to an
external USB hard drive, you can change the backup destination to a USB stick by editing the backup
settings.
One more useful aspect of this feature is the ability to split backups "on-the-fly". Suppose you
perform a backup to a hard disk and in the middle of the backup process Acronis True Image WD
Edition finds out that the disk to which you are backing up, does not have sufficient free space for
completing the backup. The program displays a message warning you that the disk is full.

To complete the backup, you may either try to free up some space on the disk and click Retry or
select another storage device. To choose the latter option, click Browse... in the confirmation
window. The Browse for Destination window appears.
The left pane shows the storage locations available on your computer. After you select a suitable
location, assign a name for the file that will contain the remaining data being backed up. You can
enter the name manually (for example, "tail_end.tib") or use the file name generator (a button to the
right of the line). Then click OK and Acronis True Image WD Edition will complete the backup.
If backup versions belonging to the same backup "chain" have been saved to different destinations,
Acronis True Image WD Edition may prompt you for the locations of previous backup versions during
data recovery. This may occur when the selected backup version does not contain the files you want
to recover (or contains only a part of them). This may also happen when you recover a backup that
was split on-the-fly.
4.3.5 Adding an existing backup to the list

You may have Acronis True Image backups created by a previous product version or copied from
another computer. Every time you start Acronis True Image WD Edition, it scans your computer for
such backups and adds them to the backup list automatically.
If you have backups that are not shown in the list, you can add them manually.
To add backups manually:

1. In the Backup section, click Add backup, and then click Add existing backup. Program opens a
window where you can browse for backups on your computer.
2. Select a backup version (a .tib file), and then click Add.
The entire backup will be added to the list.

4.3.6 Deleting backups and backup versions
You may want to delete backups and backup versions you no longer need. Acronis True Image WD
Edition stores information on the backups in a metadata information database.
Therefore, deleting unneeded backup files in Windows Explorer will not delete information about
these backups from the database, and Acronis True Image WD Edition will consider that they still
exist.
This will result in errors when the program tries to perform operations on the backups that no longer
exist. So you must only remove obsolete backups and backup versions by using the tools provided by
Acronis True Image WD Edition.
To delete an entire backup:
Find the corresponding backup box on the Backup and recovery tab of Acronis True Image WD
Edition. Click the gear icon to open the Operations menu and then click Delete.
When you delete an entire backup, all its versions will be deleted as well.
To delete a specific backup version:

1. On the Backup and recovery tab, find the corresponding backup box, click Explore and recover.
2. In Backup explorer, right-click on the time line the version you want to delete, and then click
Delete version.
When you delete a backup version, please remember that this version may have dependent versions.
In this case the dependent versions will be deleted as well, because data recovery from such versions
becomes impossible.
 If you delete a full backup version - the program will also delete all subsequent incremental
versions till the next full version.
 If you delete an incremental backup version - the program will also delete all subsequent
incremental versions till the next full version.

5 Recovering data
In this section
Recovering disks and partitions ............................................................ 38
Recovery options .................................................................................. 53
5.1 Recovering disks and partitions

In this section
Recovering your system after a crash.................................................... 38
Recovering partitions and disks ............................................................ 46
About recovery of dynamic/GPT disks and volumes .............................. 49
Arranging boot order in BIOS ................................................................ 52
5.1.1 Recovering your system after a crash

When your computer fails to boot, it is advisable to at first try to find the cause using the suggestions
given in Trying to determine the crash cause (p. 38). If the crash is caused by corruption of the
operating system, use a backup to recover your system. Make the preparations described in
Preparing for recovery (p. 38) and then proceed with recovering your system.
5.1.1.1 Trying to determine the crash cause

A system crash can be due to two basic factors:
 Hardware failure
In this scenario, it is better to let your service center handle the repairs. However, you may want
to perform some routine tests. Check the cables, connectors, power of external devices, etc.
Then, restart the computer. If there is a hardware problem, the Power-On Self Test (POST) will
inform you about the failure.
If the POST does not reveal a hardware failure, enter BIOS and check whether it recognizes your
system hard disk drive. To enter BIOS, press the required key combination (Del, F1, Ctrl+Alt+Esc,
Ctrl+Esc, or some other, depending on your BIOS) during the POST sequence. Usually the
message with the required key combination is displayed during the startup test. Pressing this
combination takes you to the setup menu. Go to the hard disk autodetection utility which usually
comes under "Standard CMOS Setup" or "Advanced CMOS setup". If the utility does not detect
the system drive, it has failed and you need to replace the drive.
 Operating system corruption (Windows cannot start up)
If the POST correctly detects your system hard disk drive, then the cause of the crash is probably
a virus, malware or corruption of a system file required for booting. In this case, recover the
system using a backup of your system disk or system partition. Refer to Recovering your system
(p. 39) for details.
5.1.1.2 Preparing for recovery

We recommend that you perform the following actions before recovery:
 Scan the computer for viruses if you suspect that the crash occurred due to a virus or malware
attack.

 Under bootable media, try a test recovery to a spare hard drive, if you have one.
 Validate the image under bootable media. A backup that can be read during validation in
Windows, may not always be readable in a Linux environment.
Under bootable media, there are two ways to validate a backup:
 To validate a backup manually, on the Recovery tab, right-click a backup and select Validate
Archive.
 To validate a backup automatically before recovery, on the Options step of the Recovery
Wizard, select the Validate backup archive before recovery check box.
 Assign unique names (labels) to all partitions on your hard drives. This will make finding the disk
containing your backups easier.
When you use the Acronis True Image WD Edition rescue media, it creates disk drive letters that
might differ from the way Windows identifies drives. For example, the D: disk identified in the
standalone Acronis True Image WD Edition might correspond to the E: disk in Windows.
5.1.1.3 Recovering your system to the same disk

Before you start, we recommend that you complete the procedures described in Preparing for
recovery (p. 38).
To recover your system:

1. Attach the external drive if it contains the backup to be used for recovery and make sure that the
drive is powered on.
2. Arrange the boot order in BIOS so as to make your rescue media device (CD, DVD or USB stick)
the first boot device. See Arranging boot order in BIOS (p. 52).
3. Boot from the rescue media and select <RAND> True Image.

4. On the Home screen, select My disks below Recover.
5. Select the system disk or partition backup to be used for recovery.

When the backup is not displayed, click Browse and specify path to the backup manually.
6. Select Recover whole disks and partitions at the Recovery method step.
7. Select the system partition (usually C) on the What to recover screen. If the system partition has
a different letter, select the partition using the Flags column. It must have the Pri, Act flags.

In case of Windows 7 the System Reserved partition will have the Pri, Act flags. You will need to select for
recovery both the System Reserved partition and the System partition.
8. At the "Settings of partition C" (or the letter of the system partition, if it is different) step check
the default settings and click Next if they are correct. Otherwise, change the settings as required
before clicking Next. Changing the settings will be needed when recovering to the new hard disk
of a different capacity.
9. Carefully read the summary of operations at the Finish step. If you have not resized the partition,
the sizes in the Deleting partition and Recovering partition items must match. Having checked
the summary click Proceed.

10. When the operation finishes, exit the standalone version of Acronis True Image, remove the
rescue media and boot from the recovered system partition. After making sure that you have
recovered Windows to the state you need, restore the original boot order.
5.1.1.4 Recovering your system to a new disk under bootable media

Before you start, we recommend that you complete the preparations described in Preparing for
recovery (p. 38). You do not need to format the new disk, as this will be done in the process of
recovery.
Warning! Your old and new hard drives must work in the same controller mode (for example, IDE or AHCI).
Otherwise, your computer will not start from the new hard drive.
To recover your system to a new disk:

1. Install the new hard drive to the same position in the computer and use the same cable and
connector that was used for the original drive. If this is not possible, install the new drive to
where it will be used.
2. Attach the external drive if it contains the backup to be used for recovery and make sure that the
drive is powered on.
3. Arrange the boot order in BIOS so as to make your rescue media device (CD, DVD or USB stick)
the first boot device. See Arranging boot order in BIOS (p. 52).
4. Boot from the rescue media and select Acronis True Image.
5. On the Home screen, select My disks below Recover.
6. Select the system disk or partition backup to be used for recovery. When the backup is not
displayed, click Browse and specify path to the backup manually.
7. If you have a hidden partition (for example, the System Reserved partition or a partition created
by the PC manufacturer), click Details on the wizard's toolbar. Please remember the location and
size of the hidden partition, because these parameters need to be the same on your new disk.
8. Select Recover whole disks and partitions at the Recovery method step.

9. On the What to recover step, select the boxes of the partitions to be recovered. Do not select
the MBR and Track 0 box.
Selecting partitions leads to appearance of the relevant steps "Settings of partition ...". Note that
these steps start with partitions which do not have an assigned disk letter (as usually is the case
with hidden partitions). The partitions then take an ascending order of partition disk letters. This
order cannot be changed. The order may differ from the physical order of the partitions on the
hard disk.
10. On the Settings of the hidden partition step (usually named Settings of Partition 1-1), specify the
following settings:
 Location. Click New location, select your new disk by either its assigned name or capacity,
and then click Accept.

 Type. Check the partition type and change it, if necessary. Ensure that the System Reserved
partition (if any) is primary and marked as active.
 Size. Click Change default in the Partition size area. By default the partition occupies the
entire new disk. Enter the correct size in the Partition size field (you can see this value on the
What to recover step). Then drag this partition to the same location that you saw in the
Backup Information window, if necessary. Click Accept.
11. On the Settings of Partition C step, specify the settings for the second partition, which in this
case is your system partition.
 Click New location, and then select unallocated space on the destination disk that will
receive the partition.
 Change the partition type, if necessary. The system partition must be primary.

 Specify the partition size, which by default equals the original size. Usually there is no free
space after the partition, so allocate all the unallocated space on the new disk to the second
partition. Click Accept, and then click Next.
12. Carefully read the summary of operations to be performed and then click Proceed.
If your original disk contains a hidden partition created by the PC manufacturer, please proceed to
MBR recovery. You need to recover the MBR because the PC manufacturer could change the generic
Windows MBR or a sector on track 0 to provide access to the hidden partition.
1. Select the same backup again. Right-click and select Recover in the shortcut menu. Choose
Recover whole disks and partitions at the Recovery method step and then select the MBR and
Track 0 box.
2. At the next step, select the destination disk as the target for MBR recovery. You can also recover
the disk signature. Refer to Selecting target disk for MBR recovery (p. 45) for details.
Click Next and then Proceed. After MBR recovery is complete, exit the standalone version of
Acronis True Image.
When the recovery is complete
Before you boot the computer, please disconnect the old drive (if any). If Windows "sees" both the
new and old drive during the boot, this will result in problems booting Windows. If you upgrade the
old drive to a larger capacity new one, disconnect the old drive before the first boot.
Remove the rescue media and boot the computer to Windows. It may report that new hardware
(hard drive) is found and Windows needs to reboot. After making sure that the system operates
normally, restore the original boot order.
Selecting target disk for MBR recovery

In this window you should select a hard disk for recovering the Master Boot Record (MBR) along with
track 0.

Recover disk signature check box
If you have selected MBR recovery at the Content selection step, the Recover disk signature check
box will be in the bottom left corner. Disk signature is a part of a hard disk MBR. It is used for
uniquely identifying the disk media.
We recommend that you select the Recover disk signature check box due to the following reasons:
 Acronis True Image WD Edition creates scheduled tasks using the signature of the source hard
disk. If you recover the same disk signature, you don't need to re-create or edit the tasks created
previously.
 Some installed applications use a disk signature for licensing and other purposes.
 If you use Windows Restore Points, they will be lost when the disk signature is not recovered.
 Recovering a disk signature allows recovering VSS snapshots used by Windows Vista and
Windows 7's "Previous Versions" feature.
We recommend that you clear the Recover disk signature check box when:
 You use an image backup not for disaster recovery but for cloning your Windows hard drive to
another one.
In this case, Acronis True Image WD Edition generates a new disk signature for the recovered hard
drive, even if you recover to the same drive.
Having selected a hard disk drive and specified whether to recover the disk signature, click Next to
continue.
5.1.2 Recovering partitions and disks

To recover partitions or disks:
2. In the Backup section, select the backup which contains the partitions or disks you want to
recover, and then click Recover disks.
3. In the Backup version list, select the backup version you want to recover by its backup date and
time.
4. Select the disks to recover.

If you need to recover separate partitions, click Recover specific partitions, and then select the
partitions to recover.
5. In the recovery destination field below the partition name, select the destination partition.
Unsuitable partitions are marked by red lettering. Note that all data on the destination partition
will be lost because it is replaced by the recovered data and file system.
To recover to the original partition, at least 5 % of the partition space must be free. Otherwise, the Recover
now button will be unavailable.
6. [optional step] To set up additional parameters for the disk recovery process, click Options.
7. After you finish with your selections, click Recover now to start recovery.
5.1.2.1 How to recover more than one partition at once

Here we describe recovery of two partitions. If an image of a hard disk has more than two partitions,
the procedure is similar.
1. Click Recover on the backup box of a disk containing several partitions. The Disk Recovery
window appears.
2. Click the down arrow next to Version: and then select the backup version you want to recover by
its backup date and time.

3. Select a partition to recover. This opens the recovery destination field below the partition name
(label).
4. Click the down arrow to the right of the field and select the destination hard disk. The partition
to be recovered is then placed on the selected hard disk. It occupies all the available disk space.
To reduce the partition size so as to leave enough disk space for the remaining partition, click the
Partition properties link below the recovery destination field. The Partition Properties window
appears.
5. You can resize the partition by dragging its right border with a mouse on the horizontal bar on
the screen.
To assign the partition a specific size, enter the appropriate number into the Total size field.
Remember that you need to leave as much unallocated (free) space after having resized the
partition as will be needed for the remaining partition. Select a disk letter and partition type.
When you finish the settings, click OK to confirm them and return to the main Disk Recovery
window.
6. Select the next partition's check box.

7. Select the unallocated space on the destination hard disk. The program creates a partition
occupying the entire unallocated space.
8. Click the Partition properties link and make the settings for the partition. Select a disk letter and
partition type. When you finish the settings, click OK to confirm them and return to the main Disk
Recovery window.
If the image contains more than two partitions, leave enough unallocated space for other partitions to be
recovered and repeat steps 5-7 until you make the settings for all partitions.
9. Click Recover now to recover the partitions to the destination hard disk.
5.1.3 About recovery of dynamic/GPT disks and volumes

Recovery of dynamic volumes
You can recover dynamic volumes to the following locations on the local hard drives:

 Dynamic volume.
Manual resizing of dynamic volumes during recovery to dynamic disks is not supported. If you need to resize
a dynamic volume during recovery, it should be recovered to a basic disk.
 Original location (to the same dynamic volume).

The target volume type does not change.
 Another dynamic disk or volume.
The target volume type does not change. For example, when recovering a dynamic striped
volume over a dynamic spanned volume the target volume remains spanned.
 Unallocated space of the dynamic group.
The recovered volume type will be the same as it was in the backup.
 Basic volume or disk.
The target volume remains basic.
 Bare-metal recovery.
When performing a so called "bare-metal recovery" of dynamic volumes to a new unformatted
disk, the recovered volumes become basic. If you want the recovered volumes to remain
dynamic, the target disks should be prepared as dynamic (partitioned and formatted). This can
be done using third-party tools, for example, Windows Disk Management snap-in.
Recovery of basic volumes and disks
 When recovering a basic volume to an unallocated space of the dynamic group, the recovered
volume becomes dynamic.
 When recovering a basic disk to a dynamic disk of a dynamic group consisting of two disks, the
recovered disk remains basic. The dynamic disk to which the recovery is performed becomes
"missing" and a spanned/striped dynamic volume on the second disk becomes "failed".
Partition style after recovery
The target disk's partition style depends on whether your computer supports UEFI and on whether
your system is BIOS-booted or UEFI-booted. See the following table:

My system is BIOS-booted (Windows or My system is UEFI-booted (Windows or
Acronis Bootable Media) Acronis Bootable Media)
The operation will not affect neither After operation completion, the
My source disk is MBR partition layout nor bootability of partition style will be converted to
and my OS does not the disk: partition style will remain GPT style, but the operating system
support UEFI MBR, the destination disk will be will fail booting from UEFI, since your
bootable in BIOS. operating system does not support it.
The operation will not affect neither The destination partition will be
My source disk is MBR
partition layout nor bootability of converted to GPT style that will make
and my OS supports UEFI the disk: partition style will remain the destination disk bootable in UEFI.
MBR, the destination disk will be See Example of recovery to UEFI
bootable in BIOS. system (p. 51).
After operation completion, the After operation completion, the

partition style will remain GPT, the partition style will remain GPT, the
My source disk is GPT system will fail booting on BIOS, operating system will be bootable on
and my OS supports UEFI because your operating system UEFI.
cannot support booting from GPT on
BIOS.
Example of recovery procedure

See Example of recovery to a UEFI system (p. 51).
5.1.3.1 Example of recovery to a UEFI system

Here is an example for transferring a system with the following conditions:
 The source disk is MBR and the OS supports UEFI.
 The target system is UEFI-booted.
 Your old and new hard drives work in the same controller mode (for example, IDE or AHCI).
Before you start the procedure, please ensure that you have:
 Bootable rescue media.
Refer to Creating bootable rescue media (p. 11) for details.
 Backup of your system disk created in disk mode.
To create this backup, switch to disk mode, and then select the hard drive that contains your
system partition. Refer to Backing up disks and partitions (p. 23) for details.

To transfer your system from an MBR disk to a UEFI-booted computer:
1. Boot from the rescue media in UEFI mode and select Acronis True Image.
2. Run the Recovery wizard and follow the instructions described in Recovering your system (p. 39).
3. On the What to recover step, select the check box next to the disk name to select the entire
system disk.
In the example below, you need to select the Disk 1 check box:
4. On the Finish step, click Proceed.

When the operation finishes, the destination disk is converted to GPT style so that it is bootable in
UEFI.
After the recovery, please ensure that you boot your computer in UEFI mode. You may need to
change the boot mode of your system disk in the user interface of the UEFI boot manager.
5.1.4 Arranging boot order in BIOS

To boot your computer from Acronis bootable rescue media, you need to arrange boot order in BIOS
so the media is the first booting device.
To boot from Acronis bootable media:

1. If you use a USB flash drive as a bootable media, plug it into the USB port.
2. Turn your computer on. During the Power-On Self Test (POST), you will see the key combination
that you need to press in order to enter BIOS.
3. Press the key combination (such as, Del, F1, Ctrl+Alt+Esc, Ctrl+Esc). BIOS setup utility will open.
Note that BIOS may differ in appearance, sets of items, names, etc.
Some motherboards have a so called boot menu opened by pressing a certain key or key combination, for
instance, F12. The boot menu allows selecting the boot device from a list of bootable devices without
changing the BIOS setup.
4. If you use a CD or DVD as a bootable media, insert it in the CD or DVD drive.

5. Make your rescue media (CD, DVD or USB drive) device the first booting device:
1. Navigate to the Boot order setting by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

2. Place the pointer on the device of your bootable media and make it the first item in the list.
You can usually use the Plus Sign and the Minus Sign keys to change the order.
6. Exit BIOS and save the changes that you made. The computer will boot from Acronis bootable
media.
If the computer fails to boot from the first device, it tries to boot from the second device in the list, and so on.
5.2 Recovery options

In the Disk Recovery Options you can configure options for a disk/partition and file recovery
processes respectively. After you installed the application, all options are set to the initial values. You
can change them for your current recovery operation only or for all further recovery operations as
well. Select the Save the settings as default check box to apply the modified settings to all further
recovery operations by default.
If you want to reset all the modified options to their initial values that were set after the product
installation, click the Reset to initial settings button.
In this section
Disk recovery mode .............................................................................. 53
Pre/Post commands for recovery.......................................................... 54
Validation option .................................................................................. 54
Computer restart .................................................................................. 55
File recovery options ............................................................................ 55
Overwrite file options ........................................................................... 55
Performance of recovery operation ...................................................... 55
Notifications for recovery operation ..................................................... 56
5.2.1 Disk recovery mode

With this option you can select the disk recovery mode for image backups.

 Recover sector-by-sector - select this check box if you want to recover both used and unused
sectors of disks or partitions. This option will be effective only when you choose to recover a
sector-by-sector backup.
5.2.2 Pre/Post commands for recovery

You can specify commands (or even batch files) that will be automatically executed before and after
the recovery procedure.
For example, you may want to start/stop certain Windows processes, or check your data for viruses
before recovery.
To specify commands (batch files):

 Select a command to be executed before the recovery process starts in the Pre-command field.
To create a new command or select a new batch file, click the Edit button.
 Select a command to be executed after the recovery process ends in the Post-command field. To
Please do not try to execute interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for
example, "pause"). These are not supported.
5.2.2.1 Edit user command for recovery

You can specify user commands to be executed before or after recovery:
 In the Command field type-in a command or select it from the list. Click ... to select a batch file.
 In the Working directory field type-in a path for command execution or select it from the list of
previously entered paths.
 In the Arguments field enter or select command execution arguments from the list.
Disabling the Do not perform operations until the command execution is complete parameter
(enabled by default), will permit the recovery process to run concurrently with your command
execution.
The Abort the operation if the user command fails (enabled by default) parameter will abort the
operation if any errors occur in command execution.
You can test the command you entered by clicking the Test command button.
5.2.3 Validation option

 Validate backup before recovery—Enable this option to check the backup integrity before
recovery.
 Check the file system after recovery—Enable this option to check the file system integrity on the
recovered partition.
Only FAT16/32 and NTFS file systems can be checked.
The file system will not be checked if a reboot is required during recovery, for example, when recovering the
system partition to its original place.

5.2.4 Computer restart
If you want the computer to reboot automatically when it is required for recovery, select the Restart
the computer automatically if needed for the recovery check box. This may be used when a
partition locked by the operating system has to be recovered.
5.2.5 File recovery options

You can select the following file recovery options:
 Recover files with their original security settings - if the file security settings were preserved
during backup (see File-level security settings for backup (p. 31)), you can choose whether to
recover them or let the files inherit the security settings of the folder where they will be
recovered to. This option is effective only when recovering files from file/folder backups.
 Set current date and time for recovered files - you can choose whether to recover the file date
and time from the backup or assign the files the current date and time. By default the file date
and time from the backup will be assigned.
5.2.6 Overwrite file options

Choose what to do if the program finds a file in the target folder with the same name as in the
backup.
This option is available only while restoring data from file-level backups.
Selecting the Overwrite existing files check box will give the files from the backup unconditional
priority over the files on the hard disk, though, by default, the more recent files and folders are
protected against overwriting. If you want to overwrite those files and folders too, clear the
appropriate check box.
If you do not need to overwrite some files:

 Select/clear the Hidden files and folders check box to enable/disable overwriting of all hidden
files and folders.
 Select/clear the System files and folders check box to enable/disable overwriting of all system
files and folders.
 Select/clear the More recent files and folders check box to enable/disable overwriting of new
files and folders.
 Click Add specific files and folders to manage the list of custom files and folders that you do not
want to overwrite.
 To disable overwriting of specific files, click the Add... button to create an exclusion criterion.
 While specifying the criteria, you can use the common Windows wildcard characters. For
example, to preserve all files with extension .exe, you can add *.exe. Adding My???.exe will
preserve all .exe files with names consisting of five symbols and starting with “my”.
To delete a criterion, for example, added by mistake, click the Delete icon to the right of the
criterion.
5.2.7 Performance of recovery operation

On the Performance tab you can configure the following settings:

Operation priority
Changing the priority of a backup or recovery process can make it run faster or slower (depending on
whether you raise or lower the priority), but it can also adversely affect the performance of other
running programs. The priority of any process running in a system, determines the amount of CPU
usage and system resources allocated to that process. Decreasing the operation priority will free
more resources for other CPU tasks. Increasing backup or recovery priority may speed up the process
by taking resources from the other currently running processes. The effect will depend on total CPU
usage and other factors.
You can set up the operation priority:

 Low (enabled by default) - the backup or recovery process will run slower, but the performance
of other programs will be increased.
 Normal - the backup or recovery process will have the equal priority with other processes.
 High - the backup or recovery process will run faster, but the performance of other programs will
be reduced. Be aware that selecting this option may result in 100% CPU usage by Acronis True
Image WD Edition.
5.2.8 Notifications for recovery operation

Free disk space threshold
You may want to be notified when the free space on the backup storage becomes less than the
specified threshold value. If after starting a backup Acronis True Image WD Edition finds out that the
free space in the selected backup location is already less than the specified value, the program will
not begin the actual backup process and will immediately inform you by displaying an appropriate
message. The message offers you three choices - to ignore it and proceed with the backup, to browse
for another location for the backup or to cancel the backup.
If the free space becomes less than the specified value while the backup is being run, the program
will display the same message and you will have to make the same decisions.
To set the free disk space threshold:

 Select the Show notification message on insufficient free disk space check box
 In the Size box, type or select a threshold value and select a unit of measure
Acronis True Image WD Edition can monitor free space on the following storage devices:
 Local hard drives
 USB cards and drives
 Network shares (SMB/NFS)
The message will not be displayed if the Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode)
check box is selected in the Error handling settings.
This option cannot be enabled for FTP servers and CD/DVD drives.

6 Tools
Acronis Tools and utilities include protection tools, mounting tools, clone disk utility, security and
privacy utilities, and disk management utilities.
Protection tools
 Rescue Media Builder (p. 58)
Allows you to create a bootable rescue media with Acronis products (or their specified
components) installed on your computer.
Disk cloning
 Clone disk (p. 65)
Use Clone disk wizard if you need to clone your hard disk drive by copying the partitions to
another hard disk.
Security and privacy
 Acronis DriveCleanser (p. 73)
Acronis DriveCleanser utility provides for secure destruction of data on your hard disk.
Disk management
 Add new disk (p. 78)
Add new disk wizard helps you to add a new hard disk drive to your computer. You will be able to
prepare the new hard disk drive by creating and formatting new partitions on this hard disk.
 Trim SSD
Use Trim SSD Wizard to mitigate natural degradation of write operations' speed on a solid-state
drive (SSD) working under Windows Vista and earlier.
Image mounting
 Mount image (p. 82)
With this tool you can explore a previously created image. You will be able to assign temporary
drive letters to the partition images and easily access these images as ordinary, logical drives.
 Unmount image (p. 83)
With this tool you can unmount the temporary logical drives you have created to explore an
image.
6.1 Creating bootable rescue media

You can run Acronis True Image from an emergency boot media on a bare-metal system or a crashed
computer that cannot boot. You can even back up disks on a non-Windows computer, copying all its
data into the backup by imaging the disk in the sector-by-sector mode. To do so, you need bootable
media that has a copy of the standalone Acronis True Image version installed on it.
How you can obtain bootable media:

 Use the installation CD of the boxed product.
 Make a media bootable with Acronis Media Builder (p. 58):
 Blank CD
 Blank DVD

 USB flash drive
Note: The data it may contain will not be modified.
 Create an .iso image file to burn it afterwards onto a CD or DVD.
6.1.1 Acronis Media Builder

Acronis Media Builder allows you to make a USB flash drive or a blank CD/DVD bootable. In case
Windows cannot start, use the bootable media to run a standalone version of Acronis True Image
and recover your computer.
You can create several types of bootable media:

 Acronis bootable rescue media
This type is recommended for most users.
Notes
 If you use non-optical media, the media must have FAT16 or FAT32 file system.
 If Acronis Media Builder does not recognize your USB flash drive, you can try using the procedure
described in an Acronis Knowledge Base article at http://kb.acronis.com/content/1526.
 When booting from the Rescue Media, you cannot perform backups to disks or partitions with
Ext2/Ext3/Ext4, ReiserFS, and Linux SWAP file systems.
 When booting from the rescue media and using a standalone version of Acronis True Image you
cannot recover files and folders encrypted with use of the encryption available in Windows XP
and later operating systems. For more information see File-level security settings for backup (p.
31). On the other hand, backups encrypted using the Acronis True Image encryption feature can
be recovered.
6.1.1.1 Creating bootable media

To create bootable media:
1. Plug in a USB flash drive, or insert a blank CD or DVD.
3. In the Tools section, click Rescue Media Builder.
4. Choose a media type that you want to create. Refer to Acronis Media Builder for details.
5. Select a destination for the media:
 CD
 DVD
 USB flash drive (available only for Acronis bootable rescue media)
If your drive has an unsupported file system, Acronis True Image will suggest formatting it to
FAT file system.
Warning! Formatting permanently erases all data on a disk.
 ISO image file
You will need to specify the .iso file name and the destination folder.
When the .iso file is created, you can burn it onto a CD or DVD. For example, in Windows 7
and later, you can do this using a built-in burning tool. In Windows Explorer, double-click the
created ISO image file, and then click Burn.
6. Click Proceed.

6.1.1.2 Bootable media startup parameters
Here, you can set bootable media startup parameters in order to configure rescue media boot
options for better compatibility with different hardware. Several options are available (nousb,
nomouse, noapic, etc.). These parameters are provided for advanced users. If you encounter any
hardware compatibility problems while testing boot from the rescue media, it may be best to contact
the product's support team.
To add a startup parameter

 Enter a command into the Parameters field.
 Having specified the startup parameters, click Next to continue.
Additional parameters that can be applied prior to booting Linux kernel
Description
The following parameters can be used to load Linux kernel in a special mode:
 acpi=off
Disables ACPI and may help with a particular hardware configuration.
 noapic
Disables APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) and may help with a particular
hardware configuration.
 nousb
Disables loading of USB modules.
 nousb2
Disables USB 2.0 support. USB 1.1 devices still work with this option. This option allows using some
USB drives in USB 1.1 mode, if they do not work in USB 2.0 mode.
 quiet
This parameter is enabled by default and the startup messages are not displayed. Deleting it will
result in the startup messages being displayed as the Linux kernel is loaded and the command shell
being offered prior to running the Acronis program.
 nodma
Disables DMA for all IDE disk drives. Prevents kernel from freezing on some hardware.
 nofw
Disables FireWire (IEEE1394) support.
 nopcmcia
Disables PCMCIA hardware detection.
 nomouse
Disables mouse support.
 [module name]=off
Disables the module (e.g. sata_sis=off).

 pci=bios
Forces to use PCI BIOS, and not to access the hardware device directly. For instance, this parameter
may be used if the machine has a non-standard PCI host bridge.
 pci=nobios
Disallows use of PCI BIOS; only direct hardware access methods are allowed. For instance, this
parameter may be used if you experience crashes upon boot-up, probably caused by the BIOS.
 pci=biosirq
Uses PCI BIOS calls to get the interrupt routing table. These calls are known to be buggy on several
machines and they hang the machine when used, but on other computers it is the only way to get
the interrupt routing table. Try this option, if the kernel is unable to allocate IRQs or discover
secondary PCI buses on your motherboard.
 vga=ask
Gets the list of the video modes available for your video card and allows selecting a video mode most
suitable for the video card and monitor. Try this option, if the automatically selected video mode is
unsuitable for your hardware.
6.1.2 Making sure that your rescue media can be used when
needed
To maximize the chances of your computer's recovery, you must test that your computer can boot
from the rescue media. In addition, you must check that the rescue media recognizes all your
computer's devices, such as the hard drives, the mouse, the keyboard, and network adapter.
To test the rescue media

If you use external drives for storing your backups, you must attach the drives before booting from the rescue
CD. Otherwise, the program might not detect them.
1. Configure your computer to enable booting from the rescue media. Then, make your rescue
media device (CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive or USB stick) the first boot device. See Arranging boot
order in BIOS.
2. If you have a rescue CD, press any key to start booting from the CD, when you see the prompt
"Press any key to boot from CD". If you do not press a key within five seconds, you will need to
restart the computer.
3. After the boot menu appears, choose Acronis True Image.
If your wireless mouse does not work, try to replace it with a wired one. The same recommendation applies
to the keyboard.

If you do not have a spare mouse or keyboard, contact Acronis Support. They will build a custom rescue CD
that will have drivers for your models of the mouse and keyboard. Please be aware that finding the
appropriate drivers and making the custom rescue CD may take some time. Furthermore, this may be
impossible for some models.
4. When the program starts, we recommend you try recovering some files from your backup. A test
recovery allows you to make sure that your rescue CD can be used for recovery. In addition, you
will check that the program detects all the hard drives you have in your system.
If you have a spare hard drive, we strongly recommend that you try a test recovery of your system partition
to this hard drive.
How to test recovery, as well as check the drives and network adapter
1. If you have file backups, start Recovery Wizard by clicking Recovery -> File Recovery on the
toolbar.
If you have only disk and partition backup, Recovery Wizard also starts and the recovery procedure is
similar. In such a case, you need to select Recover chosen files and folders at the Recovery Method step.

2. Select a backup at the Archive location step and then click Next.
3. When recovering files with the rescue CD you are able to select only a new location for the files
to be recovered. Therefore just click Next at the Location selection step.
4. After the Destination window opens, check that all your drives are shown under My Computer.
If you store your backups on the network, you should also check that you can access the network.
If no computers are visible on the network, but the Computers Near Me icon is found under My Computer,
specify network settings manually. To do this, open the window available at Tools & Utilities  Options 
Network adapters.
If the Computers Near Me icon is not available under My Computer, there may be problems either with
your network card or with the card driver provided with Acronis True Image WD Edition.

5. Select the destination for the files and then click Next.
6. Select several files for recovery by selecting their check boxes and then click Next.
7. Click Proceed on the Summary window to start recovery.

8. After the recovery finishes, exit the standalone Acronis True Image.
Now you can be reasonably sure that your rescue CD will help you when needed.
6.1.2.1 Selecting video mode when booting from the rescue media
When booting from the rescue media the optimal video mode is selected automatically depending
on the specifications of your video card and monitor. However, sometimes the program can select
the wrong video mode, which is unsuitable for your hardware. In such case you can select a suitable
video mode as follows:
1. Start booting from the rescue media. When the boot menu appears, hover the mouse over
Acronis True Image WD Edition item and press the F11 key.

2. When the command line appears, type "vga=ask" (without quotes) and click OK.
3. Select Acronis True Image WD Edition in the boot menu to continue booting from the rescue
media. To see the available video modes, press the Enter key when the appropriate message
appears.
4. Choose a video mode you think best suitable for your monitor and type its number in the
command line. For instance, typing 338 selects video mode 1600x1200x16 (see the below figure).
5. Wait until Acronis True Image WD Edition starts and make sure that the quality of the Welcome
screen display on your monitor suits you.
To test another video mode, close Acronis True Image WD Edition and repeat the above procedure.
After you find the optimal video mode for your hardware, you can create a new bootable rescue
media that will automatically select that video mode.
To do this, start Acronis Media Builder, select the required media components, and type the mode
number with the "0x" prefix (0x338 in our instance) in the command line at the "Bootable media
startup parameters" step, then create the media as usual.

7 Disk cloning and migration
This operation copies the entire contents of one disk drive to another disk drive. This may be
necessary, for example, when you want to clone your operating system, applications, and data to a
new, larger capacity disk. You can do it two ways:
 Use the Clone disk utility (p. 65).
 Back up your old disk drive, and then recover it to the new one (p. 42).
In this section
General information ............................................................................. 65
Preparing for migration ........................................................................ 70
7.1.1 General information

You might find that your hard disk does not have enough space for the operating system and
installed applications, preventing you from updating your software or installing new applications. In
this case, you have to transfer the system to a higher-capacity hard disk.
To transfer the system, you must first install the new disk in the computer. If your computer doesn't
have a bay for another hard disk, you can temporarily install it in place of your CD drive. If that is not
possible, you can clone a hard disk by creating a disk image and recovering it to a new hard disk with
larger partitions.
Warning! If you clone a disk with Windows to an external USB hard drive, you will not be able to boot from
it. Windows does not support booting from external USB hard drives. Please clone to internal SSD or HDD
instead.
For best results, install the target (new) drive where you plan to use it and the source drive in
another location, e.g. in an external USB enclosure. This recommendation is especially important for
laptops.
On program screens, damaged partitions are marked with a red circle and a white cross inside in the upper left
corner. Before you start cloning, you should check such disks for errors and correct the errors using the
appropriate operating system tools.
We strongly recommend that you create a backup of the entire original disk as a safety precaution. It could be
your data saver if something goes wrong with your original hard disk during cloning. For information on how to
create such a backup see see Backing up partitions and disks. After creating the backup, make sure that you
validate it.
To clone a disk:
 Click Clone disk on the Tools and utilities tab of the Home screen.
 Follow the Disk Clone Wizard steps.
7.1.1.1 Clone Disk wizard

Before you start, we recommend that you read general information about Disk cloning utility (p. 65).
To clone a disk:
1. On the sidebar, click Tools, and then click Clone disk.
2. On the Clone Mode step, choose a transfer mode.

 Automatic—Recommended in most cases.
 Manual—Manual mode will provide more data transfer flexibility. Manual mode can be
useful if you need to change the disk partition layout.
If the program finds two disks, one partitioned and another unpartitioned, it will automatically recognize
the partitioned disk as the source disk and the unpartitioned disk as the destination disk. In such case, the
next steps will be bypassed and you will be taken to the cloning Summary screen.
3. On the Source Disk step, select the disk that you want to clone.
Acronis True Image WD Edition does not support cloning of dynamic disks.
4. On the Destination Disk step, select the destination disk for the cloned data.
If the selected destination disk contains partitions, you will need to confirm deletion of the
partitions. Note that the real data destruction will be performed only when you click Proceed on
the last step of the wizard.
If any disk is unpartitioned, the program will automatically recognize it as the destination and bypass this
step.
5. [This step is only available in the manual cloning mode]. On the Move method step, choose a
data move method.
 As is—a new partition will be created for every old one with the same size and type, file
system and label. The unused space will become unallocated.
 Proportional—the new disk space will be proportionally distributed between cloned
partitions.
 Manual—you will specify a new size and other parameters yourself.
6. [This step is only available in the manual cloning mode]. On the Change disk layout step, you can
edit settings of the partitions that will be created on the destination disk. Refer to Manual
partitioning (p. 68) for details.
7. [Optional step] On the What to exclude step, you can specify files and folders that you do not
want to clone. Refer to Excluding items from cloning (p. 69) for details.

8. On the Finish step, ensure that the configured settings suit your needs, and then click Proceed.
If the cloning operation is stopped for some reason, you will have to configure and start the
procedure again. You will not lose your data, because Acronis True Image does not alter the original
disk and data stored on it during cloning.
Cloning a disk containing the currently active operating system will require a reboot. In that case,
after clicking Proceed, you will be asked to confirm the reboot. Canceling the reboot will cancel the
entire procedure. By default, Acronis True Image WD Edition shuts down the computer after the
clone process finishes. This enables you to change the position of master/subordinate jumpers and
remove one of the hard drives.

7.1.1.2 Manual partitioning
The manual transfer method enables you to resize partitions on the new disk. By default, the
program resizes them proportionally.
To edit a partition:
1. Select the partition, and then click Edit. This will open the Partition Settings window.
2. Specify the following settings for the partition:

 Size and position
 File system
 Partition type (available only for MBR disks)

 Partition letter and label
Refer to Partition settings (p. 80) for details.
3. Click Accept.
Be careful! Clicking any previous wizard step on the sidebar in this window will reset all size and
location changes that you've selected, so you will have to specify them again.
7.1.1.3 Excluding items from cloning

If you do not want to clone specific files from a source disk (for example, when your target disk is
smaller than the source one), you can opt to exclude them in the What to exclude step.
We do not recommend excluding hidden and system files when cloning your system partition.
You have two ways to exclude files and folders:

 Exclude by files and folders - this tab allows you to select specific files and folders from the
folder tree.
 Exclude by masks - this tab allows you to exclude a group of files by mask or an individual file by
name or path.
To add an exclusion criterion, click Add, type a file name, a path or a mask, and then click OK.
You can add as many files and masks as you like.
Examples of exclusion criteria:
 You can enter explicit file names:
 file.ext - all such files will be excluded from cloning.
 C:\file.ext - the file.ext file on the C: disk will be excluded.
 You can use wildcard characters (* and ?):
 *.ext - all files with a .ext extension will be excluded.
 ??name.ext - all files with a .ext extension, having six letters in their names (starting with any
two symbols (??) and ending with name), will be excluded.

 You can enter path to a folder:
 C:\my pictures - my pictures folder on the C: disk will be excluded.
You can edit and remove exclusion criteria using the corresponding buttons on the right pane.
7.1.2 Preparing for migration

Solid state disks have become quite common. Many users decide to replace their system hard disk
with an SSD to enhance the disk system performance. Such a replacement may raise a number of
questions.
First of all, make sure that Acronis True Image WD Edition detects your new SSD both in Windows
and under the Acronis rescue media. If there is a problem, see What to do if Acronis True Image WD
Edition does not recognize your SSD (p. 71).
SSD size
Because SSDs are still somewhat expensive, the size of your new SSD will usually be less than that of
your old hard disk. This may cause a problem if your hard disk contains the operating system,
programs and data.
We presuppose that before purchasing the SSD you estimated the approximate space occupied by
your operating system and applications and that you selected an SSD that has a reasonable reserve
capacity.
If the occupied space on your old hard disk exceeds the size of your SSD, you will need to free up
space on the system disk to make migration possible. See What to do if your SSD does not have
enough space for all HDD content.
SSD alignment
Another question concerns the alignment of SSDs. To get the optimum performance from an SSD and
to prolong its life, the partition offset must meet certain criteria. In most cases you do not need to
check or manually fix the alignment, the program will do it automatically.
In any event, we recommend that you perform one of the following:

 Create the backup you are going to use for migration in disk mode. In other words, back up the
source disk entirely, not just the system partition.
 Make sure the destination SSD does not contain partitions (the disk space is unallocated). Note
that if your SSD is new and has never been used before, it does not contain partitions.
For more information see SSD support.
Which migration method to choose

If your system disk consists of a single partition (not counting the hidden System Reserved partition
existing in many installations of Windows 7), you can try to migrate to the SSD using the Clone tool.
For more information see Cloning a hard disk (p. 65).
However, we recommend to use the backup and recovery method in most cases. This method
provides more flexibility and control over migration. See Migrating to an SSD using the backup and
recovery method (p. 72).

7.1.2.1 What to do if Acronis True Image WD Edition does not recognize
your SSD
Sometimes Acronis True Image WD Edition may not recognize an SSD.
In such a case, check whether the SSD is recognized in BIOS.
If the BIOS of your computer does not show the SSD, verify that the power and data cables are
properly connected. You may also try to update the BIOS and SATA drivers. If these suggestions do
not help, contact the Support of your SSD manufacturer.
If the BIOS of your computer does show the SSD, you can try the following procedure:
For Windows Vista/Windows 7 type cmd in the Search field and press Enter.
For Windows XP, type cmd in the Run field and press Enter.
At the command line prompt type:
diskpart
list disk The screen will show the disks connected to your computer. Find out the disk number for
your SSD. Use its size as the reference.
select disk N Here N is the disk number of your SSD.
clean This operation removes all information from the SSD and overwrites the MBR with the default
one.
exit
exit
Start Acronis True Image WD Edition and check whether it detects the SSD. If it detects the SSD, use
the Add new disk tool to create a single partition on the disk occupying the entire disk space. When
creating a partition, check that the free space before partition is 1 MB. For more information, see
Adding a new hard disk (p. 78).
The next step is to check whether your Acronis bootable rescue media recognizes the SSD.
1. Boot from the rescue media.
2. Select Tools & Utilities -> Add New Disk in the main menu and the Disk selection screen will
show the information about all hard disks in your system. Use this for checking whether the SSD
is detected in the recovery environment.
3. If the screen shows your SSD, just click Cancel.
If the rescue media does not recognize the SSD and the SSD controller mode is ACHI, you can try to
change the mode to IDE (or ATA in some BIOS brands) and see whether this solves the problem.
Attention! Do not start Windows after changing the mode; it may result in serious system problems. You must
return the mode to ACHI before starting Windows.
If after changing the mode the rescue media detects the SSD, you may use the following procedure
for recovery or cloning under rescue media:
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Boot to BIOS, change the mode from AHCI to IDE (or ATA in some BIOS brands).
3. Boot from Acronis rescue media.

4. Recover or clone the disk.
5. Boot to BIOS and change IDE back to AHCI.
6. Start Windows.
What to do if the above suggestions do not help
You can request a custom rescue media from Acronis Support. For more information, see Creating a
custom rescue CD.
Please be aware that finding the appropriate drivers and making the custom rescue media may take time.
Furthermore, finding the appropriate drivers may not be possible in some cases.
7.1.2.2 Migrating to SSD using the backup and recovery method

You can use the following procedure for all supported operating systems. First, let's consider a simple
case: your system disk consists of a single partition. Note that for Windows 7, the system disk
usually has a hidden System Reserved partition.
We recommend that you migrate your system to an empty SSD that does not contain partitions (the
disk space is unallocated). Note that if your SSD is new and has never been used before, it does not
contain partitions.
To migrate your system to an SSD:

2. Create Acronis rescue media, if you do not have it yet. To do this, in the Tools section, click
Create bootable media and follow the instructions on the screen.
3. Back up your entire system drive (in the disk backup mode) to a hard disk other than your system
hard disk and the SSD.
4. Switch off the computer and remove your system hard disk.
5. Mount the SSD into the slot where the hard disk was.
For some SSD brands you may need to insert the SSD into a PCI Express slot.
6. Boot from your Acronis rescue media.

7. Validate the backup to make sure that it can be used for recovery. To do this, click Recovery on
the left pane and select the backup. Right-click, select Validate Archive in the shortcut menu and
then click Proceed.
8. After the validation finishes, right-click the backup and select Recover in the shortcut menu.
9. Choose Recover whole disks and partitions at the Recovery method step and then click Next.
10. Select the system disk at the What to recover step.
11. Click New location and then select the SSD as the new location for your system disk, then click
Accept.
12. At the next step click Proceed to start recovery.
13. After the recovery is complete, exit the standalone version of Acronis True Image WD Edition.
14. Try to boot from the SSD and then make sure that Windows and applications work correctly.
If your system hard disk also contains a hidden recovery or diagnostic partition, as is quite often the
case with notebooks, the procedure will differ. You will usually need to resize the partitions manually
during recovery to the SSD. For instructions see Recovering a disk with a hidden partition (p. 42).

7.2 Security and Privacy Tools
Acronis True Image WD Edition contains the utility for secure destruction of data on an entire hard
disk drive, and individual partitions.
When replacing your old hard drive with a new, higher-capacity one, you may accidentally leave
personal and confidential information on the old disk. This information could be retrieved even if you
have reformatted the disk.
The Acronis DriveCleanser provides for the destruction of confidential information on hard disk
drives and/or partitions with the help of techniques that meet or exceed most national and state
standards. You can select an appropriate data destruction method depending on the importance of
your confidential information.
The data destruction methods are described in detail in Hard Disk Wiping methods (p. 77) of this
guide.
In this section
Acronis DriveCleanser........................................................................... 73
Hard Disk Wiping methods ................................................................... 77
7.2.1 Acronis DriveCleanser

Acronis DriveCleanser allows you to permanently destroy all data on selected hard disks and
partitions. For the destruction, you can use one of the preset algorithms or create your own. Refer to
Algorithm selection (p. 74) for details.
Why do I need it?

When you format your old hard drive before throwing it away, the information is not destroyed
permanently and it can still be retrieved. This is a way that your personal information can end up in
the wrong hands. To prevent this, we recommend that you use Acronis DriveCleanser when you:
 Replace your old hard drive with a new one and do not plan to use the old drive any more.
 Give your old hard drive to your relative or friend.
 Sell your old hard drive.
How to use Acronis DriveCleanser
To permanently destroy data on your disk:
1. Click the Start button —> Acronis (product folder) —> True Image —> Tools and Utilities —>
DriveCleanser.
The Acronis DriveCleanser wizard opens.
2. On the Source selection step, select the disks and partitions that you want to wipe. Refer to
Source selection (p. 74) for details.
3. On the Algorithm selection step, select an algorithm that you want to use for the data
destruction. Refer to Algorithm selection (p. 74) for details.
4. [optional step] You can create your own algorithm. Refer to Creating custom algorithm for
details.
5. [optional step] On the Post-wiping actions step, choose what to do with the partitions and disk
when the data destruction is complete. Refer to Post-wiping actions (p. 76) for details.

6. On the Finish step, ensure that the configured settings are correct. To start the process, select
the Wipe the selected partitions irreversibly check box, and then click Proceed.
Be aware that, depending on the total size of selected partitions and the selected data destruction algorithm,
the data destruction may take many hours.
7.2.1.1 Source selection

On the Source selection step, select partitions and disks where you want to destroy data:
 To select partitions, click the corresponding rectangles. The red mark ( ) indicates that the
partition is selected.
 To select an entire hard disk, click the disk icon ( ).
Acronis DriveCleanser cannot wipe partitions on dynamic and GPT disks, so they will not be shown.
7.2.1.2 Algorithm selection

On the Algorithm selection step, perform one of the following:
 To use one of the preset algorithms, select the desired algorithm. Refer to Hard Disk Wiping
Methods (p. 77) for details.
 [For advanced users only] To create a custom algorithm, select Custom. Then continue creating
on the Algorithm definition step. Afterwards, you will be able to save the created algorithm to a
file with *.alg extension.

 To use a previously saved custom algorithm, select Load from file and select the file containing
your algorithm.
Creating custom algorithm

Algorithm definition
The Algorithm definition step shows you a template of the future algorithm.
The table has the following legend:

 The first column contains the type of operation (to write a symbol to disk; and to verify written).
 The second column contains the pattern of data to be written to disk.
Each line defines an operation that will be performed during a pass. To create your algorithm, add as
many lines to the table that you think will be enough for secure data destruction.
To add a new pass:

1. Click Add. The Wiping Pass Adjustment window opens.

2. Choose an option:
 Write pattern
Enter a hexadecimal value, for example, a value of this kind: 0x00, 0xAA, or 0xCD, etc. These
values are 1 byte long, but they may be up to 512 bytes long. Except for such values, you may
enter a random hexadecimal value of any length (up to 512 bytes).
If the binary value is represented by the 10001010 (0x8A) sequence, then the complementary binary
value will be represented by the 01110101 (0x75) sequence.
 Write a random number

Specify the length of the random value in bytes.
 Write complementary to previous pass pattern
Acronis True Image adds a complementary value to the one written to disk during the
previous pass.
 Verify
Acronis True Image verifies the values written to disk during the previous pass.
3. Click OK.
To edit an existing pass:
1. Select the corresponding line, and then click Edit.
The Wiping Pass Adjustment window opens.
Note: When you select several lines, the new settings will be applied to all of the selected passes.
2. Change the settings, and then click OK.

Saving algorithm to a file
To save the created algorithm to a file in order to use this algorithm afterwards:
1. On the Saving custom algorithm step, select Save to a file, and then click Next.
2. In the window that opens, specify the file name and location, and then click OK.
7.2.1.3 Post-wiping actions

In the Post-wiping actions window, you can select actions to be performed on the partitions selected
for data destruction. Acronis DriveCleanser offers you three options:
 No action — just destroy data using the algorithm selected below
 Delete partition — destroy data and delete partition

 Format — destroy data and format partition (default).
7.2.2 Hard Disk Wiping methods

What is the problem?
Information removed from a hard disk drive by non-secure means (for example, by simple Windows
delete) can easily be recovered. Utilizing specialized equipment, it is possible to recover even
repeatedly overwritten information.
Leakage mechanism
Data is stored on a hard disk as a binary sequence of 1 and 0 (ones and zeros), represented by
differently magnetized parts of a disk.
Generally speaking, a 1 written to a hard disk is read as 1 by its controller, and 0 is read as 0.
However, if you write 1 over 0, the result is conditionally 0.95 and vice versa – if 1 is written over 1
the result is 1.05. These differences are irrelevant for the controller. However, using special
equipment, one can easily read the «underlying» sequence of 1's and 0's.
Information wiping methods used by Acronis

The detailed theory of guaranteed information wiping is described in an article by Peter Gutmann.
Please see "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory" at
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html.
No. Algorithm (writing method) Passes Record
1. United States Department of 4 1st pass – randomly selected symbols to each byte of
Defense 5220.22-M each sector, 2 – complementary to written during the
st
1 pass; 3 – random symbols again; 4 – writing
verification.
2. United States: NAVSO 4 1st pass – 0x01 to all sectors, 2 – 0x27FFFFFF, 3 –
P-5239-26 (RLL) random symbol sequences, 4 – verification.
3. United States: NAVSO 4 1st pass – 0x01 to all sectors, 2 – 0x7FFFFFFF, 3 –
P-5239-26 (MFM) random symbol sequences, 4 – verification.

No. Algorithm (writing method) Passes Record
4. German: VSITR 7 1st – 6th – alternate sequences of: 0x00 and 0xFF; 7th
– 0xAA; i.e. 0x00, 0xFF, 0x00, 0xFF, 0x00, 0xFF, 0xAA.
5. Russian: GOST P50739-95 1 Logical zeros (0x00 numbers) to each byte of each
sector for 6th to 4th security level systems.
Randomly selected symbols (numbers) to each byte
of each sector for 3rd to 1st security level systems.
6. Peter Gutmann's method 35 Peter Gutmann's method is very sophisticated. It's
based on his theory of hard disk information wiping
(see Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and
Solid-State Memory).
7. Bruce Schneier's method 7 Bruce Schneier offers a seven-pass overwriting
st
method in his Applied Cryptography book. 1 pass –
0xFF, 2nd pass – 0x00, and then five times with a
cryptographically secure pseudo-random sequence.
8. Fast 1 Logical zeros (0x00 numbers) to all sectors to wipe.
7.3 Adding a new hard disk

If you do not have enough space for your data, you can either replace the old disk with a new
higher-capacity one, or add a new disk only to store data, leaving the system on the old disk.
To add a new hard disk:

1. Shut down your computer, and then install the new disk.
2. Turn on your computer.
3. Click the Start button —> Acronis (product folder) —> True Image —> Tools and Utilities —>
Add New Disk.
4. Follow the wizard steps.
5. On the Finish step, ensure that the configured disk layout suits your needs, and then click
Proceed.
In this section
Selecting a hard disk ............................................................................. 78
Selecting initialization method .............................................................. 79
Creating new partitions ........................................................................ 80
7.3.1 Selecting a hard disk

Select the disk that you have added to the computer. If you have added several disks, select one of
them and click Next to continue. You can add the other disks later by restarting the Add New Disk
Wizard.

If there are any partitions on the new disk, Acronis True Image WD Edition will warn you that these partitions
will be deleted.
7.3.2 Selecting initialization method

Acronis True Image WD Edition supports both MBR and GPT partitioning. GUID Partition Table (GPT)
is a new hard disk partitioning method providing advantages over the old MBR partitioning method.
If your operating system supports GPT disks, you can select the new disk to be initialized as a GPT
disk.
 To add a GPT disk, click Initialize disk in GPT layout.

 To add an MBR disk, click Initialize disk in MBR layout.
If you use a 32-bit version of Windows XP, the GPT initialization method will be unavailable and the
Initialization options step will be absent.
After selecting the required initialization method click Next.
7.3.3 Creating new partitions

To use the space on a hard disk, it must be partitioned. Partitioning is the process of dividing the hard
disk's space into logical divisions which are called partitions. Each partition may function as a
separate disk with an assigned drive letter, its own file system, etc.
To create a new partition:

1. On the Partition creation step of the wizard, select the unallocated space, and then click Create
new partition.
2. Specify the following settings for the partition being created:
 Size and position
 File system
 Partition type (available only for MBR disks)
 Partition letter and label
Refer to Partition settings (p. 80) for details.
3. Click Accept.
7.3.3.1 Partition settings

Size
To resize the partition, perform one of the following:

 Point to the partition border. When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow, drag the
pointer to enlarge or reduce the partition size.
 Type the desired partition size in the Partition Size field.
To relocate the partition, perform one of the following:
 Drag the partition to a new position.
 Type the desired size in either the Free space before or Free space after field.
When you create partitions, the program may reserve some unallocated space for system needs in front of the
created partitions.
File System
You can either leave the partition unformatted, or choose between the following file system types:
 NTFS is a Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 native file
system. Choose it if you use these operating systems. Note, that Windows 95/98/Me and DOS
cannot access NTFS partitions.
 FAT 32 is an improved 32-bit version of the FAT file system that supports volumes up to 2 TB.
 FAT 16 is a DOS native file system. Most operating systems recognize it. However, if your disk
drive is more than 4 GB, it is not possible to format it in FAT16.
 Ext2 is a Linux native file system. It is fast enough, but it is not a journaling file system.
 Ext3 – officially introduced with Red hat Linux version 7.2, Ext3 is a Linux journaling file system. It
is forwards and backwards compatible with Linux Ext2. It has multiple journaling modes, as well
as broad, cross platform compatibility in both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.
 Ext4 is a new Linux file system. It has improvements in comparison to ext3. It is fully backward
compatible with ext2 and ext 3. However, ext3 has only partial forward compatibility with ext4.
 ReiserFS is a journaling file system for Linux. Generally it is more reliable and faster than Ext2.
Choose it for your Linux data partition.
 Linux Swap is a swap partition for Linux. Choose it if you want to add more swap space using
Linux.
Partition letter
Select a letter to be assigned to the partition. If you select Auto, the program assigns the first unused
drive letter in alphabetical order.
Partition label
Partition label is a name, assigned to a partition so that you can easily recognize it. For example, a
partition with an operating system could be called System, a data partition — Data, etc. Partition
label is an optional attribute.
Partition type (these settings are available only for MBR disks)
You can define the new partition as primary or logical.
 Primary - choose this parameter if you are planning to boot from this partition. Otherwise, it is
better to create a new partition as a logical drive. You can have only four primary partitions per
drive, or three primary partitions and one extended partition.
Note: If you have several primary partitions, only one will be active at a time, the other primary
partitions will be hidden and won’t be seen by the OS.
 Mark the partition as active - select this check box if you are planning to install an operating
system on this partition.

 Logical - choose this parameter if you don’t intend to install and start an operating system from
the partition. A logical drive is part of a physical disk drive that has been partitioned and
allocated as an independent unit, but functions as a separate drive.
7.4 Mounting an image

Mounting images as virtual drives lets you access them as though they were physical drives. Such
ability means that:
 A new disk appears in your system.
 You can view the image contents in Windows Explorer and other file managers.
The operations described in this section are supported only for the FAT and NTFS file systems.
You cannot mount a disk backup, if it is stored on an FTP server.
How to mount an image

1. In Windows Explorer, right-click the image file that you want to mount, and then click Mount
image.
The Mount wizard opens.
2. Select the backup for mounting by its creation date/time. Thus, you can explore the data state at
a certain moment.
Note that you cannot mount an image of the entire disk except in the case when the disk consists of one
partition.
3. [optional step] On the Drive letter step, select a letter to be assigned to the virtual disk from the
Mount letter drop-down list. If you do not want to mount a partition, select Do not mount in the
list or clear the partition's check box.
4. Click Proceed.
5. After the image is connected, the program will run Windows Explorer, showing its contents.

7.5 Unmounting an image
We recommend that you unmount the virtual disk after all necessary operations are finished, as
maintaining virtual disks takes considerable system resources.
To unmount an image, perform one of the following:

 In Windows Explorer, right-click the disk icon and click Unmount.
 Restart or shut down your computer.

8 Troubleshooting
In this section
Acronis System Report.......................................................................... 84
How to collect crash dumps .................................................................. 85
Acronis Customer Experience Program ................................................. 85
8.1 Acronis System Report

When you contact the product's support team, they usually need information about your system in
order to resolve your problem. Sometimes getting the information is an inconvenient process and
may take a long time. The Generate system report tool simplifies the procedure. It generates a
system report containing all the necessary technical information and allows you to save the
information to file. When it’s necessary, you can attach the created file to your problem description
and send it to the product's support team. This will simplify and speed up the search for a solution.
To generate a system report, perform one of the following:

 On the main program window click the question mark symbol, and select Generate system
report.
 On the Windows Start menu, click All Programs -> Acronis -> True Image -> Tools and Utilities ->
Acronis System Report.
 Press CTRL+F7. Note that you can use the key combination even when Acronis True Image WD
Edition is performing any other operation.
After the report is generated:
 To save the generated system report to file, click Save and in the opened window specify a
location for the created file.
 To exit to the main program window without saving the report, click Cancel.
 When you create your bootable rescue media, the Acronis System Report tool is automatically
placed on the media as a separate component. This component allows you to generate a system
report when your computer cannot boot. After you boot from the media, you can generate the
report without running Acronis True Image WD Edition. Simply plug in a USB flash drive and click
the Acronis System Report icon. The generated report is be saved on the USB flash drive.
Creating a system report from the command line prompt
1. Run Windows Command Processor (cmd.exe) as administrator.
2. Change the current directory to the Acronis True Image WD Edition installation folder. To do so,
enter:
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\True Image
3. To create the system report file, enter:
SystemReport
File SystemReport.zip will be created in the current folder.
If you want to create the report file with a custom name, type the new name instead of <file
name>:
SystemReport.exe /filename:<file name>

8.2 How to collect crash dumps
Because a crash of Acronis True Image WD Edition or Windows can be caused by different reasons,
each crash case must be investigated separately. Acronis Customer Central would appreciate if you
could provide the following information:
If Acronis True Image WD Edition crashes, please provide the following information:
1. A description of the exact sequence of steps performed before you encountered the issue.
2. A crash dump. For information on how to collect such a dump, see the Acronis Support
Knowledge Base (KB) article at http://kb.acronis.com/content/27931.
If Acronis True Image WD Edition causes a Windows crash:
2. A Windows dump file. For information on how to collect such a dump see the Acronis Support KB
article at http://kb.acronis.com/content/17639.
If Acronis True Image WD Edition hangs:
2. A userdump of the process. See the Acronis Support KB article at
http://kb.acronis.com/content/6265.
3. The Procmon log. See the Acronis Support KB article at http://kb.acronis.com/content/2295.
If you cannot access the information, contact Acronis Customer Central for an FTP link for uploading
files.
This information will speed up the process of finding a solution.
8.3 Acronis Customer Experience Program

Acronis Customer Experience Program (CEP) is a new way to allow Acronis customers to contribute
to the features, design and development of Acronis products. This program enables our customers to
provide us with various information, including information about the hardware configuration of your
host computer and/or virtual machines, the features you use most (and least), and the nature of the
problems you face. Based on this information, we will be able to improve the Acronis products and
the features you use most often.
To make a decision:
1. On the sidebar, click Help, and then click About Acronis True Image.
2. To leave the program, turn off the Participate in the Acronis Customer Experience Program
switcher.
If you choose to participate, the technical information will be automatically collected every 90 days.
We will not collect any personal data, like your name, address, phone number, or keyboard input.
Participation in the CEP is voluntary, but the end results intended to provide software improvements
and enhanced functionality to better meet the needs of our customers.

Copyright Statement
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016. All rights reserved.
"Acronis", "Acronis Compute with Confidence", "Acronis Recovery Manager", "Acronis Secure Zone",
Acronis True Image, Acronis Try&Decide, and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis
International GmbH.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
VMware and VMware Ready are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the
United States and/or other jurisdictions.
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 this 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.
Third party code may be provided with the Software and/or Service. The license terms for such
third-parties are detailed in the license.txt file located in the root installation directory. You can
always find the latest up-to-date list of the third party code and the associated license terms used
with the Software and/or Service at http://kb.acronis.com/content/7696
Acronis patented technologies

Technologies, used in this product, are covered and protected by one or more U.S. Patent Numbers:
7,047,380; 7,275,139; 7,281,104; 7,318,135; 7,353,355; 7,366,859; 7,475,282; 7,603,533; 7,636,824;
7,650,473; 7,721,138; 7,779,221; 7,831,789; 7,886,120; 7,895,403; 7,934,064; 7,937,612; 7,949,635;
7,953,948; 7,979,690; 8,005,797; 8,051,044; 8,069,320; 8,073,815; 8,074,035; 8,145,607; 8,180,984;
8,225,133; 8,261,035; 8,296,264; 8,312,259; 8,347,137; 8,484,427; 8,645,748; 8,732,121 and patent
pending applications.

Bootable media
9 Glossary of Terms A physical media (CD, DVD, USB flash drive or
other media supported by a machine BIOS as a
B boot device) that contains standalone version
of Acronis True Image WD Edition.
Backup Bootable media is most often used to:
1. The same as Backup operation (p. 87).  recover an operating system that cannot
2. A set of backup versions created and start
managed by using backup settings. A  access and back up the data that has
backup can contain multiple backup survived in a corrupted system
versions created using full (p. 87) and
incremental backup methods. Backup  deploy an operating system on bare metal
versions belonging to the same backup  back up sector-by-sector a disk that has an
are usually stored in the same location. unsupported file system
Backup operation
D
An operation that creates a copy of the data Disk backup (Image)
that exists on a machine's hard disk for the
A backup (p. 87) that contains a sector-based
purpose of recovering or reverting the data to
copy of a disk or a partition in packaged form.
a specified date and time.
Normally, only sectors that contain data are
copied. Acronis True Image WD Edition
Backup settings provides an option to take a raw image, that
A set of rules configured by a user when is, copy all the disk sectors, which enables
creating a new backup. The rules control the imaging of unsupported file systems.
backup process. Later you can edit the backup
settings to change or optimize the backup F
process.
Full backup
Backup version 1. A backup method that is used to save all
the data selected to back up.
The result of a single backup operation (p. 87).
2. A backup process that creates a full
Physically, it is a file or a set of files that
backup version (p. 87).
contains a copy of the backed up data as of a
specific date and time. Backup version files
created by Acronis True Image WD Edition Full backup version
have a TIB extension. The TIB files resulting A self-sufficient backup version (p. 87)
from consolidation of backup versions are also containing all data chosen for backup. You do
called backup versions. not need access to any other backup version
to recover the data from a full backup version.
Backup version chain
I
Sequence of minimum 2 backup versions (p.
87) that consist of the first full backup version
Image
and the subsequent one or more incremental
versions. Backup version chain continues till The same as Disk backup (p. 87).
the next full backup version (if any).
R
Recovery
Recovery is a process of returning of a
corrupted data to a previous normal state
from a backup (p. 87).
V
Validation
An operation that checks whether you will be
able to recover data from a particular backup
version (p. 87).
When you select for validation…

 a full backup version (p. 87) - the program
validates the full backup version only.
 an incremental backup version - the
program validates the initial full backup
version, the selected incremental backup
version, and the whole chain (if any) of
backup versions to the selected
incremental backup version.

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Acronis True Image OEM WD Edition

2 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

3 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

1.2 System requirements and supported media

1.2.2 Supported operating systems

4 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

1.2.4 Supported storage media

1.3 Installing Acronis True Image WD Edition

5 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

Removing Acronis True Image WD Edition

1.4 Activating Acronis True Image WD Edition

Activation on a computer connected to the Internet

To activate the product from another computer:

6 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

1.5 Upgrading Acronis True Image WD Edition

7 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

8 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

1.6 Maintenance, technical support and product updates

9 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

2.1 User interface language

To change the user interface language:

2.2 Protecting your system

2.2.1 Step 1. Backing up your computer

Examples of these events include:

How do I create a backup of my computer?

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2.2.2 Step 2. Creating bootable rescue media

How do I create bootable media?

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How do I create an Entire PC backup?

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Before you start

Using the Clone disk utility

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2.5 Recovering your computer

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Case 2. How to recover computer if Windows cannot start?

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3.1 Basic concepts

Backup and recovery

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3.3 Full, incremental and differential backups

Acronis True Image WD Edition offers you three backup methods:

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An incremental or differential backup created after a disk is defragmented might be considerably

3.4 FAQ about backup, recovery and cloning

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3.5 FTP connection

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3.7 Backup file naming

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A wizard window usually consists of the following areas:

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4.1 Backing up disks and partitions

To back up partitions or disks:

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4.2 Backup options

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