Knowledge Base

Using the sector-by-sector backup method creates a raw image of the whole hard disk drive

Description

The sector-by-sector method allows you to create an image of all sectors of the selected partition. This image will contain not only sectors with data but also sectors that are empty. As a result, this image will be equal in size to the disk being imaged, as there will be no data compression. This method is useful if a partition being backed up is not supported by the Acronis product or is corrupted. In this case, all sectors of this partition are included in this image and will be restored.

Using corporate versions of Acronis products you can create a sector-by-sector image from command-line by adding the /raw parameter. (For Linux systems the parameter is --raw).

For example,

trueimagecmd /create /filename:"C:\Test\1.tib" /partition:2-1 /raw

This will create a sector-by-sector backup archive of partition 1 on disk 2 and place it in folder Test on drive C:. The name of archive will be 1.tib.

See respective documentation for additional information.

In Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 you can also create the raw image by ticking off the Back up sector-by-sector checkbox when specifying disks or volumes to back up.

More information

You may use the standalone version of Acronis True Image Home to create a raw image of the machine with an unsupported operating system. Please see Standalone Version of Acronis Backup Software.