Can I use Acronis True Image to make an image of multiple hard drives?

Its not multiple OSs - just XP Home. Hopefully this all makes sense but let me know if you need any more details.





Thanks for your help.Can I use Acronis True Image to make an image of multiple hard drives?
Matthew: You should absolutely be able to create an image of multiple drives and/or partitions. I have not used Acronis Product (I use a vintage Norton Ghost (now known as Norton Backup I think) for one of my XP Home systems.. Acronis is highly rated and recommended by many reputable sources so no worries.





That said my recommendation is to visit the Acroniis website where you will be able to locate a pdf file of the manual for your product. It has 123 page manual in pdf form that is searchable. You should be able to match its descriptions of your particular system configurations to your situation. See in Particular Chapter 5.





Note that the image backup will start with your System Volume Drive and you will make a disk failure less catastrophic by having an image. The advantage of an image is that you won't have to reinstall all the licensed software on your system and/or customized system settings and countless Windows Updates or hunt for software CD's, DVD's or keys for anything that was on the captured image.





Also consider separate regular data backups (i.e. don't rely on image alone for your irreplaceable stuff). Acronis manual also lays out conventional wisdom about separately backing up data files. This is because when you create an image...it captures each and every flaw in whatever state the drive(s) were in when the snapshot was taken (e.g. viruses, malware, corrupt system or data files).





Acronis helpful site will help you develop and implement the backup strategy that is best for you. Do your best to create an image of as clean a system as you can, and if you don't make regular software additions (I do), you'll find that you may not need new images as routinely as you do need to backup your expanding/changing data files.





Finally, maximize the protection of the back-ups you do make by securing them somewhere away from the location of the system that you backed up. For example, if you backup to an external drive....do at a minimum, be sure to keep it powered off between backups, unless it's absolutely necessary to keep it on for frequent scheduled backups....remember....the backup drives can and will fail too....so minimize the risk. Flash drives are also a great place to backup data and easier to keep off site or at least mobile with you. All subject to appropriate security/passwords for the ';valuables'; stored on the backup.





Hope this helps and report back here with your success.