Data rescue with Acronis Survival Kit

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is a rescue disk?

  A rescue disk is a CD, DVD, or USB drive that lets you boot your computer without launching the operating system from the hard drive, so you can safely analyze and troubleshoot any issues that might be affecting your system. A “factory settings” version is sometimes included on the hard drive of new computers so you can create a rescue disk, but a better option is to occasionally create a rescue disk that is designed for your current system, which captures any changes.

  The Acronis Survival Kit in Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office (formerly Acronis True Image) is an all-in-one recovery drive, so you have the boot media, system partition and even backups needed to rescue your computer and recover any files needed.

• Can a rescue disk help when your computer doesn't boot from the hard drive?

  Absolutely, as long as you’ve adjusted the boot order in your computer's BIOS or UEFI to ensure your rescue disk is the first option the machine will check. When you create an Acronis Survival Kit, for example, it will be created an external hard drive. If that drive connects via USB, your BIOS’ boot order needs to be set to read USB drives first.

  Then if your computer won’t boot from the hard drive, you simply connect the Acronis Survival Kit to the USB drive. As long as the boot order is set to check the USB first, the machine will launch from the recovery drive. Then you can safely troubleshoot the issue.

• How do you use a rescue disk?

  Connect your rescue disk and restart the computer. With an Acronis Survival Kit, you can analyze and troubleshoot system issues, restore the system partition or individual files from backups, or recover your system using a recent full image backup. Once you make the necessary system changes or reset the system, you can try booting from the hard drive to confirm that the machine is running properly.