Can I use ATI WD edition if I want to store ALL my home computer images and be able to restore them?

PokerNut1957 · October 15, 2015, 1:34am

I recently purchased Windows 7 family pack and am in the process of upgrading/hosing my computers… My question is this: Can I use Acronis True Image WD edition to make and restore my images EVEN IF the hard drives contained in my computers are NOT Western Digital BUT the main archive storage for all of my images is on a Western Digital USB drive (WDBAAU0015HBK-00).

Background:

Since I bought an upgrade copy of Windows 7, I made an image of my WinXP and my Vista machine as they were before doing clean installs of Windows 7 for each.
In addition to images, I also saved all important files as direct copies to the USB drive.
Thinking that I could get back to either of these original set ups because the images were validated successfully, I also started saving some “Clean install images for Windows 7” on each machine. All images validated successfully.

Now–One of the machines that I tend to play around with the most and is most likely to need recovery is sitting in my office with the hard drive light on continuously, there is a blinking cursor on my display, and the WD USB drive is “On” but doesn’t appear to be providing any data (probably not being asked for it…).

At any rate,after moving some files onto the test system with the intent to restore to a clean install point to test my ability to do so… I ran ATI WD from inside Windows and I was warned that the contents of the C drive would be deleted and replaced with the selected image. That is the last communication I had from this machine.

At this point, since I was able to validate all images, I was able to mount images, and all seemed to be okay I thought this would be a piece of cake. I even performed these functions by using the bootable media that the program helped me create.

I am planning on leaving the computer running for a few hours to see if it actually finishes but I am hoping someone knows for sure whether the software is a means of forcing you to buy a WD replacement or the full version of the Acronis software to be able to restore these images so pleasantly made by the software.

If anyone knows if what I am trying to do is acceptable please let me know or give my any advice you think might be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

PokerNut1957

PokerNut1957 · October 15, 2015, 3:04am

Wouldn’t normally answer my own post but I answered my own question and it may be of help to others so here it is.

YES, you can use Acronis True Image WD edition to back up and successfully restore an image from a hard drive made by another manufacturer when using a Western Digital USB drive to archive your images.

I found I was able to do almost all functions using the Windows component of the software HOWEVER, I had to use the bootable media that the program generates for you to perform the restore of a “pristine” copy of my new operating system.

The problem that prompted me to post my original question was that trying to restore an entire partition including MBR causes the system to need to reboot…but after it has removed the partition that you are replacing, there is nothing to boot from. Using the bootable media doesn’t require a reboot and therefore I experienced no further issues. New install of Window 7 was restored just as I wanted to be able to do…

Hope this helps someone else to know that the software works nicely and when using a WD USB drive you CAN MAKE AND RESTORE IMAGES OF NON WD HARD DISK DRIVES.

Good luck and good imaging

PokerNut1957