Solved Acronis True Image 2013 and Windows 8.1

arachnaut

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Sunnyvale, CA USA
This weekend will see the deployment of Windows 8.1. In preparation I have updated all my drivers and such.
I intend to keep ATI 2013 as long as possible because it has always been a difficult piece of software to upgrade.
From what I've been able to read up until now (just days before the official release or 8.1) I think I can expect the upgrade to work and imaging should still work.

I have the Plus pack version with the build at 6514.

I will be upgrading Windows 8 Pro with Media Center. I don't want to do a clean install - I have just too much software to do that and I didn't have too much trouble with the Win 7 -> Win 8 in-place upgrade so I expect this should be similar.

I will make a system image prior to the upgrade (Win 8) and immediately after the upgrade appears stable (8.1).

Then I will try to restore from that image.

I'll post my results here.

I usually do my system image in Windows 8 (not from the external media Linux edition). I have not had any problems with that process and I've tested it perhaps 4 or 5 times this past year when I needed it.

Backup and validation takes about 15-20 minutes and a restore about the same time, so it's not too bad.

Note: I am not endorsing Acronis. It is a real hassle, but when you get it to work it is reliable - at least for me.
Anyone can browse the Acronis forums looking for my name and you will find many issues that took a very long time to get addressed.

For that matter I don't endorse Windows either. You can browse this forum for my name and find lots of unaddressed issues.

I just use these as tools.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64-bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-build
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.3 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 PRO Rev 3.0
    Memory
    16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (4 banks 4GB DIMM DDR3 8-8-8-24 5-32-12-7 1T 1.5V)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
    Sound Card
    Firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W2353V
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2 of Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS (2TB ea.);
    1 of Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 (2TB);
    1 of Hitachi Deskstar HDS722020ALA330 (2TB);
    2 of Seagate Desktop ST4000DM000-1F2168 (4TB)
    PSU
    Corsair AX850 Gold
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
    Cooling
    ThermalTake Silent 1156
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech M310
    Internet Speed
    7Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky
    Other Info
    Event Studio Precision 6 powered audio monitors;
    Boston Acoustics CS Sub 10 Powered Subwoofer;
    NI Kore controller;
    NI Maschine controller;
    M-Audio Axiom 61 keyboard controller; expression pedal; sustain pedal;

    ... and tons of audio software ...

    I also keep two USB 3 thumb drives (A: and B:) attached with boot recovery and security stuff that I can boot into from BIOS in case of emergency
Hi there
ATH 2014 is actually much better all round -- ATH 2012 was a real DOG, ATH 2013 (Boot version) had some issues with external SATA2 and USB3 devices -- although a USB3 disk plugged into a USB2 port was accessible.

BEFORE you do the upgrade - BACKUP AND TEST YOUR RESTORE -- no point in wanting to recover half way through your W8.1 upgrade and then find the recovery file either can't be read or is corrupted.

The extra hour or so (at the absolute most) this takes is well worth it. Definitely time well spent.

(You might also have to disable protected boot (not UEFI BTW) in order to boot from ATH. I don't use protected boot - it's more hassle than it's worth --I have TechNet ISO so embedded keys aren't a problem.

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
I have ATI 2013. I got it as I needed it for Win 8. I had been using Acronis for the last 5 or 6 years, with yearly updates, with no problems. However, ATI failed me on some restores (after a motherboard failed and corrupted the hard drives). That was the second time ATI failed me on a restore and the last time. Both the Linux and WinPE bootable rescue discs had problems along with finally getting a boot and the restores failing. I'm now a Macrium Reflect customer.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    i7 6700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero
    Memory
    16 Gb G Skill TridentZ DDR4 3400
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel (i7 CPU)
    Sound Card
    RealTek Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    27" Dell SE2717HR
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1080
    Hard Drives
    500GB Samsung 850 SSD, 3TB for backups
    PSU
    EVGA Supernova 750 G2
    Case
    BeQuiet Silent Base 600
    Cooling
    Deepcool Captain 120EX
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    Cable - 100MB Downlink
    Browser
    Edge/Firefox
    Antivirus
    Microsoft
    Other Info
    Sonar Platinum 64 bit recording studio software with MOTU 896Mk3 Hybrid recording interface unit.
I tested the new backup image for Windows 8.1 and it works fine. No problems.

Here is the story in a nutshell.

I had everything backup up before hand and this morning I went to the Store APP and downloaded the 8.1 upgrade.

It took a while (I have 3 MBps download).

The C:\$Windows.~BT folder was about 8 GB. It looked like an ISO image so I started to back it up, but it disappeared while I was making the copy! Apparently they don't want you to keep it.

I started the download at 5:00AM and it was ready to restart at 7 AM.

There were several restarts and I finally got the OOBE window at 8 AM.

I took the Customize route and it tried very hard to make me use a Windows accout. If you say I don't have one, you get a screen to make one. I didn't.

At the bottom of that screen I clicked continue with my existing account which is a local account.

All went well and I had the new desktop up and running in my old local account. I logged out and then in as Administrator and checked that account. It was OK so I restarted into my old account.

There were some issues - the new File Explorer layout shows all your drives by letter - no longer does it group removable drives separately. Perhaps I will discover how to do that later.

The User folders are a bit different. So I used the Locate context menu to select my old Desktop and Documents folders, etc.

Used netplwiz to set up the automatic login.

Installed a few things that didn't come over.
Added my taskbar toolbars.
Set up Classic Start Button.

At 10AM I had everything to my liking so I did the Acronis True Image Backup (2013 build 6514).

After the shutdown I booted from the Acronis recovery media on my flash drive and it processed everything as usual.

I restarted, updated Chrome, check a few major programs and everything seems fine.

I'm sure I'll find lots to do, but this is a good start.

I do see a new product key was assigned, so I saved it.

System Control Pane-pixellated.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64-bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-build
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.3 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 PRO Rev 3.0
    Memory
    16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (4 banks 4GB DIMM DDR3 8-8-8-24 5-32-12-7 1T 1.5V)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
    Sound Card
    Firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W2353V
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2 of Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS (2TB ea.);
    1 of Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 (2TB);
    1 of Hitachi Deskstar HDS722020ALA330 (2TB);
    2 of Seagate Desktop ST4000DM000-1F2168 (4TB)
    PSU
    Corsair AX850 Gold
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
    Cooling
    ThermalTake Silent 1156
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech M310
    Internet Speed
    7Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky
    Other Info
    Event Studio Precision 6 powered audio monitors;
    Boston Acoustics CS Sub 10 Powered Subwoofer;
    NI Kore controller;
    NI Maschine controller;
    M-Audio Axiom 61 keyboard controller; expression pedal; sustain pedal;

    ... and tons of audio software ...

    I also keep two USB 3 thumb drives (A: and B:) attached with boot recovery and security stuff that I can boot into from BIOS in case of emergency
So True Image 2013 / 2014 will work with 8.1?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel 3770K i7 Ivy Bridge oc 4.5 GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus P8Z77 Premium
    Memory
    32GB Corsair Platinum
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GTX 780
    Hard Drives
    Crucial 512GB SSD
    2x 3TB Seagate
    PSU
    Corsair HX850
    Case
    Corsair White Graphite 600T
    Cooling
    Corsair H80i
    Keyboard
    Roccat Isku
    Mouse
    Roccat Kone XTD
I just ran into a snag, While I can back up and restore the system image in 2013, I can't mount the TIB files as drives.
This is a useful feature, so I just ordered the upgrade to 2014.
I hope this goes more smoothly than prior years.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64-bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-build
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.3 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 PRO Rev 3.0
    Memory
    16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (4 banks 4GB DIMM DDR3 8-8-8-24 5-32-12-7 1T 1.5V)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
    Sound Card
    Firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W2353V
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2 of Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS (2TB ea.);
    1 of Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 (2TB);
    1 of Hitachi Deskstar HDS722020ALA330 (2TB);
    2 of Seagate Desktop ST4000DM000-1F2168 (4TB)
    PSU
    Corsair AX850 Gold
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
    Cooling
    ThermalTake Silent 1156
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech M310
    Internet Speed
    7Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky
    Other Info
    Event Studio Precision 6 powered audio monitors;
    Boston Acoustics CS Sub 10 Powered Subwoofer;
    NI Kore controller;
    NI Maschine controller;
    M-Audio Axiom 61 keyboard controller; expression pedal; sustain pedal;

    ... and tons of audio software ...

    I also keep two USB 3 thumb drives (A: and B:) attached with boot recovery and security stuff that I can boot into from BIOS in case of emergency
So I bought ATI 2014.

Indeed it is much better - no installation problems, it found all my older ATI 2013 backups, etc.

I made another backup image and restored from it successfully.

Very smooth, much better install than any version I've had before.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64-bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-build
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.3 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 PRO Rev 3.0
    Memory
    16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (4 banks 4GB DIMM DDR3 8-8-8-24 5-32-12-7 1T 1.5V)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
    Sound Card
    Firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W2353V
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2 of Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS (2TB ea.);
    1 of Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 (2TB);
    1 of Hitachi Deskstar HDS722020ALA330 (2TB);
    2 of Seagate Desktop ST4000DM000-1F2168 (4TB)
    PSU
    Corsair AX850 Gold
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
    Cooling
    ThermalTake Silent 1156
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech M310
    Internet Speed
    7Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky
    Other Info
    Event Studio Precision 6 powered audio monitors;
    Boston Acoustics CS Sub 10 Powered Subwoofer;
    NI Kore controller;
    NI Maschine controller;
    M-Audio Axiom 61 keyboard controller; expression pedal; sustain pedal;

    ... and tons of audio software ...

    I also keep two USB 3 thumb drives (A: and B:) attached with boot recovery and security stuff that I can boot into from BIOS in case of emergency
True Image 2013 DOES NOT recover

I had to buy True Image 2013 when I got Windows 8 (because the prior releases would not work with this new OS), and it backed up and restored correctly. Windows 8.1 broke the restore for this product. It will NOT boot into the USB recovery drive. (This is with the current latest build, 6514, which is from 4/4/2013). If you back up with this build you are wasting your time.

I've read that TI 2014 does restore properly, though I haven't tried it myself, as I refuse to pay more money to this company as they chose NOT to update 2013 for 8.1, and expect their users to be beta testers for their new releases (after paying for a new product). These people are so arrogant!! To be fair, I've been using TI forever, and it is an excellent product, when it works.

I followed the advice of another poster, and have switched to the free version of Macrium Reflect, which DOES support 8.1 (one can boot into the recovery media). The free version if very basic though, and does not support file backup or incremental backup, but DOES mount images.

For basic imaging, perhaps products like Macrium Reflect, Aomei Backupper and perhaps Paragon Backup will negate the need for Acrnonis and their arrogant (and expensive) ways.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 8.1
So True Image 2013 / 2014 will work with 8.1?

ATH 2014 works FINE with W 8.1 (am using W8.1 X-64 Enterprise version).

I find also making a Windows to GO bootable system is a much better restore / recovery system since I can boot the Windows to Go (works just like a Windows system) and then use the WINDOWS version of ATH for my restores -- I find this is better than using boot disks or Winpe type of mechanisms -however the ATH boot media DOES work.

Also works with protected boot systems if you use those too - and of course GPT drives.

What I don't like about Macrium Free is that you can't disable the restore algorithm from using sector by sector restores if it decided to restore that way -- not only will a restore take longer than it needs to you won't get the advantage of a "de-facto" disk re-organisation - not NOT a physical defrag -- when you restore your image.

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
So ATI 2013 does work with Windows 8.1 Pro?

After reading the posts above, seems some use ATI a lot more extensively than I do. I'd like to use it to just make an image of my Windows 8.1 partition now that I have it where I want it and just do backups to certain folders say twice a week.

This is how I use it on Windows 7 and it has saved my butt more times than I care to list, I'd just like to know if I can use ATI 2013 in the same manner safely on Windows 8.1 Pro.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64 / Windows 8.1 Pro x64 Dual Boot
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    Memory
    8 gigs
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GE Force 5200
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP 2009M x's 2
    Screen Resolution
    1600 x 900 x's 2
    Hard Drives
    One internal Western Digital HD 650 GB
    Three external Western Digital HD's - 1 TB each
Ati 2013 CANNOT boot into recovery media for Windows 8.1 (I don't have PRO so can't comment on that). The last build is from April, way before 8.1 was released. You CAN do a backup, but that's useless as you can't do a restore. Sorry. User jimbo45 from above says that ATI 2014 DOES work with 8.1.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win 8.1
I found that I can save an image and restore it in 8.1 with ATI 2013. I just could not mount the TIB in case I wanted to find a file.

I ended up upgrading to 2014 and that went very well.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64-bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-build
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.3 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 PRO Rev 3.0
    Memory
    16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (4 banks 4GB DIMM DDR3 8-8-8-24 5-32-12-7 1T 1.5V)
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
    Sound Card
    Firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 14
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W2353V
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2 of Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS (2TB ea.);
    1 of Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 (2TB);
    1 of Hitachi Deskstar HDS722020ALA330 (2TB);
    2 of Seagate Desktop ST4000DM000-1F2168 (4TB)
    PSU
    Corsair AX850 Gold
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
    Cooling
    ThermalTake Silent 1156
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech M310
    Internet Speed
    7Mbps
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky
    Other Info
    Event Studio Precision 6 powered audio monitors;
    Boston Acoustics CS Sub 10 Powered Subwoofer;
    NI Kore controller;
    NI Maschine controller;
    M-Audio Axiom 61 keyboard controller; expression pedal; sustain pedal;

    ... and tons of audio software ...

    I also keep two USB 3 thumb drives (A: and B:) attached with boot recovery and security stuff that I can boot into from BIOS in case of emergency
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