Using Try&Decide

To start the Try mode, proceed as follows:

1. Select Operations -> Try&Decide in the main program menu or click the Try&Decide category in the main program window.

2. When there is no Acronis Secure Zone on the hard disk, the program will offer you to create the Zone and then run the wizard again (see Chapter 10. Managing Acronis Secure Zone). To use this feature, you must accept this recommendation; you cannot use Try&Decide without the Acronis Secure Zone. Sometimes there may be too little free space on the Acronis Secure Zone. If such is a case, the program will inform you that it cannot start the Try mode due to lack of free space. To solve this problem, increase the size of the Acronis Secure Zone and then run the Try mode again.

In the Try mode the program may use the free space of the Acronis Secure Zone quite intensively, so we recommend creating the Zone with a size of at least 20% of the used space on your system disk or increase the size of the Acronis Secure Zone taking into account this recommendation.

If you already have an image of your hard disk on the Acronis Secure Zone, that image will not be affected or damaged if you launch the Try&Decide utility. Your image will be safe even if you choose not to keep the changes from the Try mode.

We do not recommend creating the Acronis Secure Zone on external media (USB drives, etc.), as in such a case the Try&Decide function will be unavailable.

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• System reverting - You can make settings determining program's behavior when discarding changes and reverting the system to the previous state. If you would like to have the choice of making a decision on whether to apply changes before system shutdown, leave the Show decision dialog at system shutdown box checked. If you uncheck the box, the changes you have made will be discarded automatically at system shutdown or rebooting without you being notified. You might want to limit the time allocated for trying changes. If such is the case, check the After the mode has been running for… box and specify the time for running the Try mode.

• Alert settings - You can select when to see messages that will warn and alert you about program’s inability to track changes in the virtual mode due to expiration of Acronis Secure Zone space. You may specify either the Zone's remaining free space in percents or time in minutes left until the Zone is full estimated on basis of Zone filling rate.

• Autorun - You can select whether to run the Try mode automatically each time the computer starts. Set the Autorun mode: On or Off.

Please note that if, having set Autorun to On and then having turned on the Try mode, you will wish to turn Autorun off, you should turn on the Try mode again (if it has been turned off), set Autorun to Off, and then select Apply changes. This is because if you not apply the change in option setting, it will be discarded along with other changes when you select Discard changes or reboot the computer.

If you would like tracking changes on all disks and partitions of the system, uncheck the Track changes of system partition only box.

4. Start the Try mode by clicking the Start Try Mode button. The Acronis True Image Home starts tracking all changes made to the operating system and files and temporarily storing all the changes on a virtual disk, which it creates in the Acronis Secure Zone for this purpose.

5. Having performed all changes you wanted to try, invoke the Try&Decide wizard once more for making your decision. It can be done by clicking the icon in the system tray or running the wizard from the Acronis True Image Home main page.

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• If you are satisfied with the results, apply the changes to the real system by selecting Apply changes and then clicking the Decide button. You can also apply the changes by right-clicking on the program's icon in the system tray and selecting Make a Decision - > Apply changes in the context menu.

• If you do not want to apply the changes, select Discard changes and then click the Decide button. You can also discard the changes by right-clicking on the program's icon in the system tray and selecting Make a Decision -> Discard changes in the context menu. The system will reboot returning to the state it was in before activating the Try mode.

• If you think that may be you would like to try some more changes, leave checked Continue to work in Try mode (selected by default) and click the Cancel button.

It is important to note that the Try&Decide will automatically discard all changes when you reboot the computer, so do not reboot if you are going to apply the changes to the real system.

Acronis True Image Home will be tracking changes until the Acronis Secure Zone is almost full. Then the program will alert you that it cannot track changes anymore and will offer to apply or discard the changes made so far. If you choose to not heed the alert messages, the program will automatically restart the system when the Acronis Secure Zone is full, discarding the changes in the process of rebooting. At that point, all changes will be lost. If you allocated time for trying changes in the System Reverting option, Acronis True Image Home will be tracking changes until the allocated time almost expires. Then it will display message "Your computer will be rebooted in 5 minutes", giving you time to make a decision to apply or discard the changes made so far. If you choose to not heed the message, the program will automatically reboot the system when the allocated time expires, discarding the changes in the process of rebooting. At that point, all changes will be lost. Please note that while working in the Try mode you will experience slowing down the system performance. Furthermore, the process of applying changes could take considerable time. Please be aware that the Try&Decide utility cannot track changes in disk partitions, so you will be unable to use the Try mode for virtual operations with partitions such as resizing partitions or changing their layout.

60 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2007 It is important to remember that in the Try mode you will not be able to perform backups (including scheduled ones) on the Acronis Secure Zone and restore data from the Zone because the Try&Decide feature locks the Acronis Secure Zone while running.