Backup with Active@ LiveCD

Backup with Active@ LiveCD lets you backup both Windows and Linux operating systems so in the event your system goes down, you can recover the system completely.

Backup with Active@ LiveCD also has other great features like:

  • Virus detection and infected systems repair, anti-virus scanner included
  • Ability to erase all data on volumes securely, 23 international erasing standards supported
  • Security: Encrypted with TrueCrypt volumes and files can be attached and managed
  • Ability to start non-bootable PC for the data access and recovery
  • Allows you to resets administrator’s/user’s password
  • Detects and displays all SAM (Microsoft Security Databases) files automatically. Manual SAM file selection is now available
  • Supports FAT, exFAT, NTFS, HFS+ file systems (Windows)
  • Disk Editor is advanced tool for viewing and editing sectors of Physical Disks, Partitions and contents of any file type
  • Backup with Active@ LiveCD creates an exact image of the data stored in selected partitions of a hard disk or an image of the entire hard disk
  • Plus a lot more!

So let’s get started. First thing you must download the program from here. Once it downloads, unzip the LiveCD into a folder you can find again.
Now open the LiveCD folder and double click on the file called BootDiskCreator. This will run a script that will allow you to create a ISO file you can then burn to a DVD or USB thumb drive.
Next burn the ISO to a DVD or USB thumb drive. Now boot up the OS.

Once the system has booted up it should look like this:  Backup with Active@ LiveCD Pic 1The Active@ LiveCD is based on the OSUE OS. To start a back simply click on the Active@ Disk Backup icon. Here you both options to Backup or Recovery. It allows you to make a Images of Partitions.

You now need to create the backup name and location where your going to save it to. Remember you can’t save it to the drive (partition) your backing up.
Now choose whether or not to compress the image file (would recommend to compress – smaller file size) and whether to encrypt the image. That’s up to you. Now drag and drop a partition you want to backup from the partition list on the left to the backup list on the right (In this example there is only one partition – Tmp-Drive) This is how you tell it which partitions you want backed up. If you like, in the description box you may note information about the partition and other inof on the backup. (This is optional)
Now your screen should look something like this  Backup with Active@ LiveCD Pic 2
Now click on the Create icon and the backup will then start.

Restoring your Backup

If you can you want to try restoring your backup to make sure that you know how to and that the backup worked.
If you can, back up with PartClone, Redo or another backup you know works for you. Nothing worse then doing a backup and the going to restore it and it didn’t work for you.

At the top of the main window there are three buttons corresponding to three main actions of Active@ Disk Backup. Select Restore Backup to switch to creating backup mode. Alternatively you can choose Actions > Restore Backup in the main menu.

Open existing backup

Click on Open… button and select an existing backup. Active@ Disk Backup will open the file and display backup information in backup list in the right part of the main window. It will include backup name, data size and list of all partitions in backup. If you select one of the items in backup, the properties of the item will be displayed below partition and backup lists.

To see a backup description, select the top item in the backup list. Backup description field will appear in the bottom with the text that you have provided while you were creating the backup

If backup is encrypted, you will be prompted to enter a backup password. Backup cannot be restored without a valid password.

Selecting partition to restore

Drag and drop a partition you want to restore from the backup list on the right to the partition list on the left. As soon as you drop a partition its icon in the partition list changes reflecting its status as restored. You need to drop the partition on an existing partition whose on unallocated space is either bigger or the same size as the partition you are about to recover.

If you wish to make a restored partition active, click on partition in backup list to make Active checkbox enabled and then select the checkbox.

Starting disk backup restoring

As soon as you have defined the partition you want to restore, click Restore button to start backup restoring.

While disk backup is in progress, Restore button is replaced with Cancel button and to the left of it you can see the progress information being displayed. It includes the current operation, amount of data processed and the time left. You can interrupt backup restoring process by clicking on Cancel button.

Verifying Backup

At the top of the main window there are the three buttons corresponding to three main actions of Active@ Disk Backup. Select Verify Backup to switch to backup verification mode. Alternatively you can choose Actions > Verify Backup in the main menu.

Starting disk backup verification

Click Verify button to start verifying your backup.

While disk backup verification is in progress, Verify button is replaced with Cancel button and, as in previous cases, left of it you can see the progress information bar. It includes the current operation, amount of data processed and time left.

You can interrupt backup verification process by clicking on Cancel button.

During backup verification Active@ Disk Backup computes the check sums of data stored in backup and compares them to the ones stored in backup. Successful comparison means data in backup file match the original and backup is valid, otherwise it is corrupted during creation or storing. The verification result is shown is dialog box in the end of verification process.

There you have it. Another great and free backup program. If you like the program you can purchase it for both Linux and the Windows version and it comes in 64 bit so it will be faster and support if you need it.

If you have any questions please contact me here.

Reference for this article: Here