Acronis True Image WesternDigital Edition Minimum System Requirements

INTRODUCTION
I have recently acquired a Dell Latitude E6500 with a Western Digital Hard drive, running Windows 7sp1.  I am in the process of setting it up, as a replacement for my Dell Latitude C840, running WinXPsp3.

For the purpose of making and restoring backup images of my E6500’s partitions C: and D:to an Apricorn external disk (which happens to be Hitachi), from the WD website I downloaded (but did not install) Acronis True Image WD Edition, and its User Guide.  I have _ no _ expectation of ever cloning anything.

QUESTION
On my E6500, can I use the Western Digital Edition of Acronis True Image for partition backups to (and restorations from) a non-WD external hard disk, or must both the source and the target be WD drives?

Thanks to anyone who clarifies this.  My problem is that although I can guess, I don’t know for sure the meaning of “Attached Western Digital device” in the Minimum System Requirements section of the Acronis True Image WD Edition User Guide.  (I also am not sure of the meaning of “rescue media.”)  And since I won’t be cloning anything — I will do backups and restorations only — I don’t know if the Attached device requirement applies to my intended use of Acronis True Image WD Edition.

RNFolsom

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BACKGROUND
With my C840, I make image backups to an Apricorn external hard disk made by Hitachi.  The Apricorn software was EzGigII, which was a simplified variant of Acronis.  But EzGigII does not run on Windows 7.

The Acronis TrueImage WD Edition UsersGuide, page 8, Minimum System Requirements, are:
1.3.1 Minimum system requirements

The hardware requirements of Acronis True Image WD Edition correspond to the minimum requirements for the operating system installed on the computer to be used for running Acronis True Image WD Edition.
In addition Acronis True Image WD Edition requires the following hardware:
*  Attached Western Digital device
*  CD-RW/DVD-RW drive for bootable media creation
*  Mouse or other pointing device (recommended).

Acronis True Image WD Edition rescue media has the following hardware requirements:
*  256 MB RAM
*  Processor Pentium 1 GHz or faster

The software requires the computer to have the drive directly connected to the computer

if connected to an USB enclosure it might not work

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Wizer:

  Thank you very much for your reply. But since I am not knowledgeable, I need a clarification of your statements,

You wrote:

  1) “The software requires the computer to have the drive directly connected to the computer.”  I don’t know what “directly” means. There is a USB cable from the Apricorn external disk (which uses a Hitachi hard disk) to a USB port on my laptop computer. What would be more direct than that, for an external disk?

  2) “if connected to an USB enclosure it might not work.” What does “enclosure” mean here? I think that some sort of case would surround any external hard disk. My laptop has three USB ports in various locations on the side of the laptop.

  Taken together, do your two statements mean that Acronis Western Digital Edition software cannot backup to AND restore from my Apricorn external disk?

  Since my initial post in this thread, I HAVE backed up my C: and D: partitions to the Apricorn external disk. And while I am in Windows 7 and have opened WesternDigital Acronis > Disk Recovery > Disk backups button, both images are listed. But there doesn’t seem to be any way to recover them (which may merely reflect that the Windows7 internal hard disk doesn’t need either its C: or D: partitions replaced by the backup images).

On the other hand, if I boot from the WD Acronis Recovery CD I have created and then try to recover, the Recovery CD cannot find the Apricorn hard disk.

Three additional questions:

  a) If I acquire a commercial Acronis version instead of the Western Digital Acronis version, would that solve my inability to restore backups from my Apricorn external hard disk?

  b) If I acquire a Western Digital external hard disk, would I be able to use the Western Digital Acronis to back up and restore my C: and D: partitions?

  c) Is there any way that I have overlooked to enable the WD Acronis version not only to back up to my external Apricorn hard disk but also to restore from from my Apricorn hard disk? (I wanted the WD Acronis version not because it was free, but because it apparently was somewhat simpler than the commercial version, and I wanted to continue using the Apricorn external hard disk because it is less than two thirds full. But maybe having both “wants” isn’t possible.)

  Thanks for any comments, suggestions, or other help.

RNFolsom

In my preceding post, I don’t know why my paragraphing disappeared. And I don’t know any way to edit it re-establish the paragraphs. Roger Folsom

RNFolsom wrote:

 

  a) If I acquire a commercial Acronis version instead of the Western Digital Acronis version, would that solve my inability to restore backups from my Apricorn external hard disk?

 

 

 

Most likely but I’m not sure since I have not used that version

RNFolsom wrote:

 

  b) If I acquire a Western Digital external hard disk, would I be able to use the Western Digital Acronis to back up and restore my C: and D: partitions?

 

 

Nope… Acronis WD edition is not for external drives, not even WD externals

RNFolsom wrote:

 

  c) Is there any way that I have overlooked to enable the WD Acronis version not only to back up to my external Apricorn hard disk but also to restore from from my Apricorn hard disk? (I wanted the WD Acronis version not because it was free, but because it apparently was somewhat simpler than the commercial version, and I wanted to continue using the Apricorn external hard disk because it is less than two thirds full. But maybe having both “wants” isn’t possible.)

 

 

 

don’t think so, not with the WD edition

bare in mind this is a freeware only for WD internal drives so there are certain limitations

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This WD is also a rather old edition based on TI 2009. You would probably be better off with the full Acronis version.

Joe

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Wizer:

Thanks to your comments, I have solved the backup problem for my Dell Latitude E6500 laptop, by buying an apparently new WD product (the box is © 2012):  a “portable hard drive” called the “My Passport,” with a 500GB capacity, and dimensions of about 4.25" x 3.25" x 0.5."  (There also is a 1TB version, which — based on the size of the box — is the same size as the 500GB version that I bought.)

The Passport connects to a USB 3.0 or 2.0 computer port via a single cable.  That setup works _ if _  the port has the ability to power the Passport as well as send data to and from the Passport.  I suspect that the Passport won’t work on my ancient Dell Latitude C800 and C840 laptops or my wife’s IBM A31 laptop.  So I will continue to backup those computers to my old Apricorn external hard disks, using Apricorn’s EzGigII (very simple to use) version of ancient Acronis software.

For my new-to-me Dell Latitude E6500 laptop (which has an internal WD hard disk), the Passport so far is ideal, because the E6500 has a USB 2.0 port with extra power,  Using the WD Acronis software (2009 version) that I had previously downloaded from the WD website and installed onto my E6500, I have backed up my partitions C: (System) and D: (Data) to the Passport, and have been able to restore my data partition D:.  And after using that 2009 version WD Acronis software to create a Recovery CD, I can restore my system partition C:.

In short, at least so far, the Passport is ideal for me.

Roger Folsom

Joe_S wrote:

This WD is also a rather old edition based on TI 2009. You would probably be better off with the full Acronis version.

Joe

Joe:  Thanks for your comment.  In my preceding message to Wizer, I report that the TI 2009 version worked well for me when I used the WD Passport (instead of my unsuccesful efforts to restore E6500 backups sent to my old Apricorn disks).  And I like the TI 2009’s simplicity compared to descriptions I have read on Acronis websites about their current 2013 version.  All I do now (with my older laptops _ and _  my E6500) is weekly backup images of my C: and D: partitions.  I don’t do daily or semi-continuous backups.

However,  the Passport as sold isn’t empty.  It comes with files for a later version of WD Acronis that I have not yet tried using.  As my time permits (setting up Windows 7 on my E6500 is proving to be a big “learning new stuff” project), I definitely will try the WD Acronis software that’s on the Passport.

Roger Folsom