30 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2009
3.6.2 How it works
When the restoration procedure is started, Acronis True Image Echo Workstation:
1. Finds the sectors in the image which contain system files, and restores these sectors
first. First the OS is restored and can be started very quickly. Having started the OS, the
user sees the folder tree with files, though file contents still is not recovered.
Nevertheless, the user can start working.
2. Next, the application writes on the hard disk its own drivers, which intercept system
queries to the files. When the user attempts to open files or launch applications, the
drivers receive the system queries and restore the sectors that are necessary for the
requested operation.
3. At the same time, Acronis True Image Echo Workstation proceeds with the complete
sector-by-sector image restoration in the background. However, the requested sectors
have the highest priority.
Finally, the image will be fully restored even if the user performs no actions at all. But if
you choose to start working as soon as possible after the system failure, you will gain at
least several minutes, considering that restoration of a 10-20GB image (most common
image size) takes about 10 minutes. The larger the image size, the more time you save.
3.6.3 How to use
To be able to use Acronis Active Restore, prepare your system this way: (you can do it
either locally, using Acronis True Image Echo Workstation local version, or remotely using
Acronis True Image Management Console):
1. Install Acronis True Image Echo Workstation local version or Acronis True Image Agent
on the local computer.
2. Create the Acronis Secure Zone on the local computer hard disk (see
Chapter 9.
Managing the Acronis Secure Zone
).
3. Activate Acronis Startup Recovery manager (see
3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery
Manager
) and create bootable media or RIS package with Acronis True Image Echo
Workstation (see
Chapter 10. Creating bootable
media).
4. Back up (image) the local computer’s system disk to Acronis Secure Zone (see
6.2 Backing up disks and partitions (image
backup)). You can back up other
disks/partitions as well, but the system image is mandatory.
When performing Active Restore, the current Acronis True Image Echo Workstation
version always restores the entire system disk. Therefore, if your system disk consists of
several partitions, all of them must be included in the image. Any partitions which are
missing from the image will be lost.
If failure occurs, boot the local computer from the bootable media, or RIS server, or using
F11. Start the recovery procedure (see
7.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from
images
), select the system disk image from Acronis Secure Zone, choose
Use Active
Restore
and in the next window click
Proceed
. In a few seconds the computer will
reboot to the restored system. Log in and start work – no additional reboots or other
actions are required.
You can perform Active Restore running Acronis True Image Echo Workstation in
Windows operating systems as well. However, it is mandatory to have bootable media in
case Windows cannot boot.