My laptop has the main disk partitioned.

I use a filesync programme for the data areas, mail, photos etc

and Acronis True Image for the C: partition, backing up to an external disk.

I now have a new machine with win 7 (64 bit)

and Acronis does not seem to see the main disk at all, let alone allow me to

image a partition.

What is wrong?

I am on the 2010 version of Acronis

Not that it's much help, but when I have similar problems with an earlier version of Acronis on XP, it always turns out to be some required service that isn't running; I have to set the service to "automatic startup" and then reboot; just starting the service without rebooting never seems to be enough.

You might need a 64 bit version. Also VSS works differently between Windows XP and Windows Vista/7.

VSS is used to handle open files or files in use. Necessary for drive imaging.

They have an Acronis forum if you are a paid user I think. If not why not just upgrade to 2012?

I paid for Acronis a few OS back.

7 has a perfectly good built-in image backup.

I just did a quick check on Google. It seems as Acronis True Image 2010, 2011, and 2012 all seem to have issues with Windows 7 64 bit. Check the Acronis forums.

It appears to be a problem that old Acronis versions do not support dynamic disks.

I plan to download the trial version of 2012 and see if that hacks it.

I will also check out the builtin function in Win 7. Thanks for the headsup Mahtin. :jap:

I checked out the builtin function of Win 7 and it does do what I want, but

I am unclear about how I would restore the 48Gb image?

Normally i store image files on an external disk, and with the Acronis boot disk

I can restore the image, within minutes. That was under XP.

Putting the Win7 image on an external drive, how to restore it?

Writing to a pile of DVD's everytime is not an option, in my book.

I checked out the builtin function of Win 7 and it does do what I want, but

I am unclear about how I would restore the 48Gb image?

Normally i store image files on an external disk, and with the Acronis boot disk

I can restore the image, within minutes. That was under XP.

Putting the Win7 image on an external drive, how to restore it?

Writing to a pile of DVD's everytime is not an option, in my book.

check out this link: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html

Thanks for that link.

I am worried about the fact that it formats the whole drive on recovery.

All I want to be able to do is recover the system partitions............

Then would use Filesync to bring other paritions up to date from a seperate backup.

I guess I have to experiment.

I am not happy with Acronis 2012, which will not back up my "dynamic disk"

used by Win 7 without forking out extra money for the Plus pack.

I am not happy with Acronis 2012, which will not back up my "dynamic disk"

used by Win 7 without forking out extra money for the Plus pack.

You might want to check out: EaseUS® Todo Backup Free

It's free and supports dynamic disks.

You might want to check out: EaseUS® Todo Backup Free

It's free and supports dynamic disks.

Thanks again that does seem to do the job nicely.

On the disk there is a 200Mb partition at the beginning and 100Mb at the end.

What do I do about those?

I seem to remember reading that they should also be backed up, but Todo says they are unformated

(windows 7 agrees, but says they are full) and will not allow me to backup.

More reading needed...............

You might want to check out: EaseUS® Todo Backup Free

It's free and supports dynamic disks.

Thanks again that does seem to do the job nicely.

On the disk there is a 200Mb partition at the beginning and 100Mb at the end.

What do I do about those?

I seem to remember reading that they should also be backed up, but Todo says they are unformated

(windows 7 agrees, but says they are full) and will not allow me to backup.

More reading needed...............

The area at the beginning of Dynamic Disk is the MBR which saves the information of the Partition Table on the disk. This partition table is not the same as one of Basic Disk. Its main function is to make Windows and other Disk Managers know the disk is a dynamic disk instead of an empty disk. The area at the end is the Logical Disk Manager (LDM) database.

Ref: http://www.easeus.co...sk-recovery.htm

Hence they appear unformated and full by Windows and other Disk Managers.

Since these are important components of dynamic disk they should also be backed up and maybe they are, automatically by Todo Backup. You'll definitely need to read more.