Mounting .tib files and disks

SourceA
SourceB

Acronis True Image Home 10
Acronis True Image Home 11
Acronis True Image Home 2009 ==> Version 12
Acronis True Image Home 2010 ==> Verison 13
Acronis True Image Home 2011 ==> Version 14

Acronis guarantees backup compatibility for different Acronis backup products only within the same version. E.g. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Server for Linux will work with backups created by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Workstation. You can’t restore backup archives created with Acronis True Image Home 2009 using Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 products.

I would recommend you to recreate all backup archives and images using Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.

Unfortunately without Acronis software installed you cannot view the contents of a .tib file. As a workaround, for example,  you can use a bootable CD to boot the other machine and use the CD to restore specific files or folders. You can refer to page 130 of our user guide for additional information.

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You juste have to install acronis console on the computer (this feature does not require licence), and then, you will be able to open .tib files.

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If you only have the tib image, you could create a new VM and restore the tib image using the Acronis Boot CD. 

Then run VMware Converter Standalone and select "Configure Machine" to inject the appropriate disk drivers.

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1. My tibs are done in Acronis Home 2009 and 2010

Theses tib files cannot be imported by the Converter.

2. Does the error mean that I do the import for certain versions of acronis only?

Yes.

3. Is there possibility for successfull import the machine using the converter installed on vCentre rather than standalone version of converter?

No.

4. Why I do need bootable cd as well to do successfull import?

Using the procedure I outlined in my previous post is an alternative option to be able to use the tib images.

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 Yana wrote:

Windows can boot from the physical drive only, and the mounted image is just introduced in the system as a partition, while mounted image is a virtual partition, thus not available for booting.
It's hard to say why exactly the converted archive is not bootable.

Thanks Yana!

You may want to read MS article Deploy a Virtual Hard Disk for Native Boot for a surprise discovery that VHD drives with Win7 guest on them are attachable in Win7 host, and bootable in several ways on a physical PC. Further, one can boot inside any VM from its virtual drive with OS installed, including VHD drives. Yet, Acronis tib virtual drives are not bootable on a physical PC, for one reason,  in contrast with VHD drives TIB can't be attached automatically after reboot (even so you have such "Try to boot" feature in Acronis Home package). Further, in contrast with VHD drives, its not bootable even inside a VM after being mounted on the host and attached to that VM. And it remains unbootable inside the VM even after "OS image generalization" to remove traces of host hardware, or when its content is erased completely and a new OS installed on it inside the VM.

Hence, there is a definite issue with mounted TIB drives that needs to be addressed. My particulars are irrelevant here, since I didn't say the tib archive won't boot after being restored to a different physical hard drive. What I say, you can't boot from a mounted tib drive - neither host, no guest OS. But you can boot from VHD drives - yet not from those converted from tib to VHD by Acronis. :) You may want to try boot from your own bootable partition tib to see the same deficiencies. So my suggestion is to alert your team attention to this, and make it possible in the next Workstation release, so that drive archives can be tested and serviced before being restored on other PCs.

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Unfortunately *tib and mounting feature was never designed to work in such a way (though it would be nice to have such an option and I've just forwarded your suggestion to the Development team).

The thing is, backup converted to VHD must, ought and should be bootable. Thus, in case you cannot boot from it after conversion, there's obviously some issue occurred, which needs to be fixed as soon as possible. That is why I asked you to gather the diagnostic information and forward it to support. 

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Acronis products allow to Clone disks, and Copy & Transfer disks and partitions. A physical disk may have several bootable partitions on it. When a partition copied by Acronis, it looses its bootable status, even if then marked Active. Only cloned disks remain bootable: the original disk can be marked Passive, and the new one Active to boot on the same PC, if its OS updated to a new NT sig.

When it comes to backing up partitions and attaching their tib volumes, a user also often needs to backup just one bootable partition, then mount the tib and boot from it. An attached tib gets its own NT sig. Furthering discussion, Acronis products should allow to backup not only disks, but also partitions such a way that they remain bootable, when tib is attached to the host or added to a VM. One can mark such tib Active and current system partition Passive, and reboot from the tib on a physical machine or VM.

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 I created machine, launched the recovery disk, and restored most recent backup. I didn't even have to configure machine drivers.

What I had to do more I did put the new OEM key.

I used standalone converter. So I could do everything without VCenter 

Acronis 2011 restore from TIB - works but I get Windows Product Activation message