12 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2012
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 True Image 2013 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 True Image 2013 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. Please note that
activating Acronis Startup Recovery Manager on dual- and multiboot systems with Linux loaders
requires special preparation. For more information, see How to use Acronis Startup Recovery
Manager (p. 101). Furthermore, recovering a backup of a dual boot machine to different
hardware requires using Acronis Universal Restore.
Does True Image 2013 support RAID? - True Image 2013 supports hardware RAID arrays of all
popular types. Support of software RAID configurations on dynamic disks is provided only with
True Image 2013 Plus Pack. Even with the Plus Pack, the program does not support software
RAID 1 (mirrored) and RAID 5. 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. Owners of the True Image 2013
Plus Pack can try to create WinPE-based rescue media. This media may provide the necessary
drivers.
Can I use True Image 2013 to migrate from a single disk to RAID? This is possible in many cases.
However, it is better to use the backup and recovery method rather than cloning. If you recover a
backup of a single disk to RAID, you will usually need to use the Universal Restore feature
provided by Plus Pack to add the RAID drivers during recovery. The drivers must have the .inf
filename extension.
1.1.6 System requirements and supported media
1.1.6.1 Minimum system requirements
True Image 2013 has minimum hardware requirements corresponding to that of the operating
system installed on the computer to be used for running True Image 2013. In addition True Image
2013 requires the following hardware:
CD-RW/DVD-RW drive for bootable media creation
Mouse or other pointing device (recommended)
