Thanks for the test. I remember I tried to use Acronis Backup and Recvovery 11.5 to restore an image that was created by True Image Home edition, Acronis BR 11.5 could not find the image file when I pointed to the correct directory. So I think BR 11.5 might use the xml file to identify the backup image, rather than the tib image itself? It's not good to have your Recovery partition visible - It means Acronis BR changed the attributes of the partition. I use Acronis TI Home 2014 to backup and restore GPT partitions and never have this problem.. So maybe you would switch back to TI Home version
Obviously you don't want to create a Master Boot Record on a GPT disk so that option is for MBR disks
I have to take back what I said, because I tried ABA now again and it did not make the Recovery partition visible. So not sure why it happened yesterday. Hmmm.
Great post! I am using Acronis, IFW and Drive Snapshot as my current imaging apps, and your results confirmed I'll be ok to keep using them.
Yes it did, but I will test it again today to be sure. I did not format the HDD before restoring, will re-do the tests and format HDD in diskpart before restoring.
Acronis TI 2014 does not have a x64 version, right??? So you can only create a 32bit WinPE which is unbootable on UEFI unless you use WinSE. I wanted to try TI but will skip it because of this.
I no like software that does not work on UEFI without the use WiinSE. Thats why I prefer Acronis Backup Advanced over TI, it has x64 version.
Dear =)(=, Did you delete the partition structure of the system before you perform "Restore Partition Structure" and the acutal restore?
Hmm, tested O&O again, and got different result, 01:35 restore time. Cleaned the HDD in diskpart before restore this time. Weird.
Tested restore operation of Drive Snapshot - not so good. I deleted the Recovery partition and C partition in computer management under Win8.1SE x64 environment. Then when I tried to restore it could not perform the restore because it could not find C drive anymore - for some reason, it always wanted to restore to the 128MB MSR partition. I also noticed that the MSR image that was automatically backed up by DS does not have a HD-3 kind of name but was given a drive letter G. So it appears DS messed up the drive letters under WIn8.1SE (like what =)(= has observed). So I have to use Acronis to restore to normal. Consistent again with what =)(= has observed, under Win8.1SE it appears the EFI partition is seen under Windows Explorer and C partition appears RAW. I rebooted and all is well. Strange,but the restore works. In summary, I'll stick with my usuall two Acronis and IFW/IFL for disk backup/restore.
I had yesterday created a new Linux Server, running Debian 7.4 Wheezy with nothing on it. It's just for to testing Backup and Imaging Software. As I had problems with Acronis Echo Enterprise Sever 9.5 I was getting an older Version 8 of it as an bootable .ISO file. That I tested today and done the Backup of that Test Servers HDD (500GB) with an normal compression, showing an estimated time of 8hour . That backup went fine even it was need 4½h (!) for to backup the whole HDD with all Partitions. Now the restore is running and will need app. 5h for to be complete. Which is running now! Will be interesting to see it will be back a bootable Linux Server HDD!! If that restore is OK, I'll will keep that HDD which had the backup on it for later restoring because I'll test more Backup Application for Linux. Not interested for to do test for Windows Server because I stopped to use any of them. The latest running Windows Server 2003 WebEdition, I changed 2 month ago to linux as well and that runns more smooth and even faster than the Windows Server. I also changed from cPanel to ISPConfig, which is Freeware and has a much better security! Support from the developer is just excellent! I'll post more reports about the Apps I'll try to use, one after the next!