Is Acronis Really That Good

Anyone using Acronis True Image 11? There are glowing reviews all over the net. But on the Acronis Forum, lots of concerns. I understand these forums usually have more negative inputs than positive. I don't want to be sorry after spending $50. (I know there is a trial). I have an FZ190E, so interested if any FZ or Sony Vaio users have Acronis and how it is working. I am barely an intermediate computer user and would like a solid program for my laptop to make a complete PC back-up. Not being proficient and liking to experiment, I sometimes get into trouble. I like the features on Acronis, they seem tailored for my needs. One example of a Vista problem from the Acronis website, is lack of showing complete back-up status. Says it will be fixed in next update. Many of these concerns may be for non Vaio hardware. Also, is it easy for an average user to figure out how to use all the features safely? Any input appreciated.

Thanks,

Ken

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65

 

Do the trial. Try it. I bought it and it cannot restore my PC.

 

yep, it's that good and more

check your messages

 

I find its a great program even though it does not work perfectly for me. For some reason it hangs when I need Full Mode (USB, CD, etc) so I cannot backup the ENTIRE drive to external media, which I need if I mess with the partition structure a lot. Other than that it suits my needs, I find it to be very reliable, I have never had problems with corrupted images unlike in Norton Ghost and Acronis is a lot faster.

You should really try the trial to see if it works on your machine.

 

I can backup, but cannot restore an entire drive image.

Paragon Drive Backup can backup and restore an entire drive image.

 

I have version 10... never tried version 11.

But in regards to version 10, I've never tried restoration on my Sony SZ but it works fine for the different desktops I've used it on. Also worked fine on the Asus W7J notebook. (Backup and restore)

 

Have mostly used Ghost (old version - Norton Ghost 2003), with good results.

For general info on disk imaging and details on Ghost, take a look at the Radified website.

It also has a Forum where one can get answers to image & backup questions (not necessarily related to Norton/Symantec Ghost).

 

Don't pay $50. I paid $10 after rebate at Dell Home for my full-blown TI11 Home. I also have TI9 and TI10 (yes, I am a believer). However, right now it is $19 (not sure what happened to my deal) at Dell:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A1286606

At that price, even if it fails...so what. The USB boot to recover feature is alone worth $50 in my opinion. Find the rebate here:

http://slickdeals.net/?pno=11161&lno=2&afsrc=1

 

i've never tried acronis but i'll recommend u norton ghost, its so good. i am using norton ghost 12 right now and love it

 

I have version 11, I can backup my OS after installing all drivers and settings to my D: partition and restore any time i 5 minutes! best backup software i've used

 

using version 11 by the way

 

Thanks for all the great replies. I may try the trial. Is it fully functional? I looked at a couple others, but like the array of options in Acronis. I really want the complete PC Back-Up/Image feature and want to put it on DVD +R's 4.7G. MaXimus777, do you back-up to DVD or an External Drive with your Sony? If DVD, how many does it take, since data is compressed. I have about 45G used. I only have the C: drive with My User name with Documents etc showing outside the C: drive when I look at My Computer. I assume Acronis will back-up all that to the DVD's. A complete computer image. Also, I thought I read those DVD's will be rebootable. So I don't need a separate boot DVD. As I said, I am not good on these things.

Thanks,

Ken

 

Unfortunately, the demo is crippled. However, you can see how it works and do basic things with it.

 

Thanks monakh

Ken

 

The way I do it is, install the Operating system, install all drivers and configure settings, run Windows Update, I don't install any software at this point.

First I make my image to D:\ (takes about 4 GB [a complete Windows Vista installation with all updates, bloatware removed])
Then I install the software and utilities I need.

Once my system feels strange, I just fire Acronis True Image, and click RESTORE, and everything is back to fresh after 5 minutes, I then reinstall the software again which takes only about 15 minutes.

Never needed to backup to a DVD but I don't think that should be hard.

 

I use Acronis True Image 11, (I have also used 10), and its 100% perfect on my SZ and the desktop I built for my mum!

I can backup and restore without any problems what-so-ever!

 

Acronis True Image and Acronis Disk Director FTW!!!

 

Another vote for Acronis. I've bought/upgraded every version since v9 as well as Disk Director Suite v10. I like that you can combine both TI and DD on the rescue CD. IMO it beats Ghost by a long shot.

v11 worked fine to backup my AR670's RAID array to an external USB drive, and DD v10 (in Safe Mode) worked fine to resize the 400GB single RAID0 partition into a smaller OS C: partition and D: partition for apps & data. I haven't tried a restore yet, but I think the poster saying it won't work has some problem specific to his system, since I've seen many others with Sony notebooks, as with H3rmaN's post above, that had no problem with restoring.

Acronis has a bootable rescue CD, but AFAIK any DVD's that you burn the images to are not bootable by themselves. You boot from the rescue CD, then put in the image DVD(s) to restore from. I image to an external USB HDD so I'm not 100% positive on that with the current version, but at least with the older versions it was the case. Now it's quite possible that you could use an ISO editing tool to copy an image file to a rescue CD ISO, then burn all together to a DVD. You'd then be able to point the rescue boot to the same disc to load the image from. Personally I think that's too much effort for little gain, but it would certainly seem possible.

 

Thanks MaXimus777 and H3rmaN,

Glad to know individuals with similar computers are happy with Acronis. My older son has talked to me about doing a clean Vista install. If I do that, MaXimus' idea sounds great. I don't mind the price as long as I get the complete PC image and ability to restore. I have my original Restore DVD's and do standard back-ups regularly.

Ken

 

Thanks dmorris68,

I think you're right on the Rescue CD. And, I did think some of the problems by others may be hardware related. I'll have to check out Disk Director also.

Ken

 

you won't even need a rescue CD IMO.

Today's computers have more than enough diskspace, so to make the world easier, like I said, I spend a good hour configuring every small detail/setting on my laptop, save the image to D:\ and restore back when needed.

As long as you have a good antivirus and update regularly, you will never reach to a state where your files are corrupted to a state that you can't restore back from D:\

 

Storing to the notebook's hard drive, even a separate partition, doesn't account for drive failure, MaXimus. It's always a good idea to keep a DVD copy separate from any HDD images. I image to an external USB drive, but then burn those compressed images to DVD's in case my USB drive fails.

 

Good point dmorris68. I have plenty of memory. So, I could do both. What USB drive are you talking about? All I use is a 4GB SanDisk Thumbdrive to back-up application data and some programs.

Ken

 

I use a Western Digital 250GB Passport HDD to store my backups on.

 

Thanks H3rmaN,

My laptop has no permanent spot in the house. It is there, wherever, whenever I want internet access, email, etc. Needed it because of limited access to the desktop in my youngest 26 year old, when will he ever graduate college son's bedroom. I think he has a 500GB one for anime back-ups. They are nice, I am just strictly portable with this one.

Ken

 

I backup to a 250GB external USB hard drive as well. It's normally plugged into my desktop, but I simply plug it in to the laptop or any other machine I need it for, and image to it.

 

I use Acronis True Image Home 10 to backup My Sz680 to my desktop PC on Gigabit lan. It works flawlessly!

 

I backed up the entire eee 8gb SSD configured with XP and all my programs to 4GB USB flash drive. It took all of 8 minutes!

 

Have a look at this article.
PDF file of the comparison is here

Acronis gets the honors !

 

Backup is all well and good. How many of you have actually restored?

 

H3rmaN and MaXimus have both indicated that restores work perfectly for them. I don't see any other reports in the Acronis support forums that indicate a trend with restore failures on Sony notebooks. In fact I see people restoring to Sony notebooks, but having other issues such as the need to run a Vista repair after a partial drive restore -- which is an issue with Vista that would affect all imaging tools. If it didn't work on a large subset of popular machines, it would be widely reported. Yours has to be an isolated incident.

I've not tried to restore my new AR yet, but I've restored countless other drives and never had an issue. This seems to be isolated to you, because no one else has stepped forward to claim it doesn't work for them, and with the popularity of both TrueImage and Sony notebooks, there have to be lots of users of both.

You said you tried the trial version -- maybe it's limited or buggy?

 

I tried both 8027 and 8053 of ATI11.

I suspect it is an issue with the USB drivers ATI uses, since the backup (under Vista) runs fine (and validates), but the restore (under ATI boot disk) fails every time.

Anyway, Paragon seems to be working fine both ways, and if I'm extremely fortunate, I might get a response someday from Acronis regarding my request for a refund.

 

I just bought the 320GB version of the Passport for $190 from Buy.com. In June, I bought a 160GB Seagate FreeAgent for $130, and I thought then that I had done good.

Don't you just love technology's price deflation?

 

Lot's of great advice. When I get this laptop working the way I want, have a Sony Shared Library problem now, I will try Acronis and buy an External HDD to plug in only when I need to image or back-up. Seems like less hassle than doing 10? DVD's every time. Acronis' Imaging feature will make a complete COPY of the ENTIRE PC. OS, Programs, Files, Settings, All Drives, Documents, Personal Data, ETC. Am I correct?

Ken

 

I just ordered a full-size WD MyBook Home 750GB USB/Firewire/eSATA for $225. I normally build my own externals, but by the time I would have bought a 750GB drive with a decent enclosure with those interfaces, I'd have spent about that much and it wouldn't have looked as nice as those new MyBooks.

 

It's very flexible. It can do a complete clone of the entire drive, or just specific partitions. Or it can do a filesystem backup that you can selectively backup/restore files with.

 

Thanks dmorris68,

But, not being computer proficient, I am still not understanding. When you say drive, I think my C: drive, not the entire PC. That would include all the items in the snapshot below and the hidden partition Sony uses to restore from. So, everything on the computer. That's why I wouldn't mind having the HDD, to put the entire image on and restoring that complete image if I screw something up. Sorry for being so thick headed. I may be making this harder than it is.

Ken

 

You can restore everything/anything. Individual partitions, entire drive.

But you cannot save an image to a location you are backing up. Example: You want to backup C:, you cannot save the image to C:, you would have to back it up to another drive or partition.

 

However, the Acronis recovery can repartition your existing C drive into the 'Acronis Zone' along with the main partition and create an online recovery system like the OEMs, so a simple key combination takes you to the recovery console. This is good if you do frequent restores because you effed something up but not good for DR. For disaster recovery, you should back up the entire image to an external drive/media.

 

Here's another question:

If I imaged my current HD, and replaced it with a Hitachi 7200rpm, would I be able to use acronis to restore the old image to the new HD?

 

I only read the op but I use Acronis Trueimage Workstation. My copy worked great on xp but when I upgraded to Vista I had to purchase the latest version to get it working properly. I use Acronis to manage 10 machines and it works great with every machine. I use a WD "Mybook" 500gb drive for most backups. Thumbs up!

 

i use acronis a lot. i keep an image on an 160gb usb drive and keep images for both my laptop and desktop(dell xps 700> Cpu 2x 3.60 >Ram 4gb> Seagate 7200 2x320gb, WD 7200 2x300gb>>usb flash 1x2gb, 1x4gb, 1x8gb. i have restored completely from both images and also done a partial extracting files I needed. DJ9V3-VYAMP-52WPS-FCKD7-CW429

 

Yep, nate, you can do just that. In fact, this is one the primary functions of TI Home.

 

It's not hard at all, you're just probably not clear on some of the terms.

Drive = one entire physical drive's contents. All partitions. NOT necessarily the "entire computer" because computers often have more than one drive. Even laptops -- my AR670 has two 200GB drives; although they're striped together in RAID0 and appear as one drive, I could break them into separate drives if I wanted.

Partition = C:, D:, and any other "drives" on that one physical drive, including the hidden restore partition. A drive can contain as few as one, or as many as several partitions. People commonly refer to C: "drive" because that's the C: partition occupied 100% of the drive in about 95% of cases, especially in the old days of PC's, so the term "drive" sticks even though it's not technically accurate.

Filesystem = the file layout on each partition, including all of your files and directories.

True Image lets you backup and restore at any of those levels:

* You can image an entire drive, including your C: partition and hidden restore partition. I recommend doing this with a new machine or immediately after a factory restore. It's almost always quicker and easier to restore a factory image this way than going through the OEM's restore function.

* If you just wanted to backup a factory C: partition while leaving the restore partition alone, you could do that too. Also, if you want to break up your drive into multiple partitions (C:, D:, etc.) you can resize the main partition using something like Disk Director, GParted, or Partition Magic, and create the extra partitions. For example, I've always created a C: partition just for the OS, and D: for everything else. That way I can format/reinstall or restore from image the OS without affecting my apps & data partition. I also dual-boot some machines, and create a separate partition for each additional OS. Then you can use True Image to image, for example, just your C: partition so you can restore it separately, without affecting your D: partition on the same drive.

* Finally, you can also use True Image like a traditional file backup utility, pointing it to certain files or directories on your filesystem for backup/restore.

 

Thanks dmorris68,

From your post and some others above you, sounds like I can get everything on my HD to to an external HDD and back again through Acronis. My Sony Vaio has 2 100GB HD's, I believe. I'll probably have my eldest son help do this after I find a way to get Sony Shared Library back on my computer. The versatility of Acronis sounds great. I've read a lot of good ideas from everyone's posts on how to utilize that versatility. Sounds like fun!

Ken

 

Thought I'd bump this up and report my own experiences with restoring from the ATI v11 boot disc.

It works fine for me.

My AR670 came with a single 400GB RAID0 partition that I had previously chopped into C: and D: partitions. I decided I wanted to de-RAID and have two separate 200GB drives, so I backed up C:, D:, and the recovery partition (which I prefer to hang on to) to my external MyBook drive over Firewire, using the ATI boot CD. I then de-RAID'ed, which blows away everything, booted again from the ATI CD, and restored Recovery and C: to drive #1, and D: to drive #2. Worked flawlessly.

I continue to highly recommend Acronis True Image. Like any software, there is always risk of bugs and unsupported hardware, but ATI works as well or better than anything I've ever used, and their support is quite good. They regularly give users reporting issues with new hardware access to unreleased updates to address their problems. I just wish Acronis would update Disk Director, which I also bought -- it only works with ICH9 in Safe Mode, and even then will hang a lot of times. ATI v11, on the other hand, works fine with ICH9(R).

 

I've got to agree. I had V. Ultimate installed on our dell desktop. Used the backup option in ultimate to make an image of the drive >>> saved to 160GB USB drive >> trouble......... >> went to restore to the C: partition, ~70GB, and no restore!!!!! The image created by Vista must be stored on a HDD/partition similar in size,structure, etc. It also likes it to be "located" next to "C". So, I couldn't use that image. That's not a problem w/ Acronis >> it doesn't care where you store the image >> size shape etc.

see my post above > serial

thanks for bumping dmorris68 >> good infomation

 

I think I'll board the ship and promote the greatness of Acronis True Image 11 Home. Saved me quite a bunch of times - especially when my Optical Disc Drive is swapped with an HDD leaving me only a USB to boot from. Their tool that creates a bootable USB is awesome. Small and powerful =)

 

I recommend Acronis as well though I don't have latest version, mine's v8 I think. One time at band camp... I wiped out my entire HDD on my old VAIO and restored it - everything worked. Usually I use external drives (firewire or USB) because it's much faster than reading and writing from the same drive (lots of HDD head movement there). If you have 2 HDDs in your laptop in non-RAID-configuration, backing up from one drive to another should be fastest method possible.
10 years ago (NT4/Win95 ages) I used Ghost exclusively (from Binary Research Ltd., the New Zealand company which created the world’s first PC Cloning software - Ghost, later acquired by Symantec).
One Acronis disadvantage I found is because of its sector-based nature: incremental backup works fine as long as you don't defrag, otherwise it creates unnecessary big incremental files because it won't understand that files only have been moved.
I guess v10 is still sector-based (unlike Vista's built in imaging which is file-based)? Somebody knows if described incremental bahaviour still exists?

 

TrueImage is not sector based, unless you select sector-by-sector as an option. A 300GB partition with only 30GB on it, will create a 30GB image (or less, with compression) unless you choose sector-by-sector, which backs up every sector whether used or not. And that's been the case ever since I've used TI, which is since about v6 or so. I skipped to v9, and have bought every version since. I also used Ghost from its early days 10 or 15 years ago, and at the time I thought it was state of the art. Acronis long ago surpassed it though, IMO.

I specifically bumped this here because it was suggested that ATI had problems with new Sony VAIO's running ICH9 controllers, specifically with restoring backups. Others had indicated that not to be the case, and now from my experience I have to agree. The folks with problems are obviously isolated incidents. So if you have a VAIO or any other modern system with an Intel chipset, rest assured ATI *should* work for you.