Author Topic: Acronis True Image OR maybe not ??? (Read 31261 times)

tomos · « **on:** September 22, 2007, 03:46 PM »

I could have sworn I saw a thread here about the update to Acronis True Image 11
but cant find it with forum search or FF search plugin

Anyways, I was quite happy with DriveImage XML
but I guess the incremental aspect is worth forking out for (harddrives are cheap, but not that cheap) *

I've read various places now that Acronis release very buggy updates,
take a long time to fix bugs &/or fix & call it an update & charge accordingly.

I'm wondering can the people

recommend another company/product that is more user friendly & does the incremental thing?

* I mean I dont know how often people do images (do you do an image or make it

)
- from the Vista or XP thread -

TrueImage does incremental and differential backups for images as well as at file level. If you want to be able to restore your system complete with installed apps the imaging is the only way to do it. I agree that you should get a "just installed image" of your system but for daily/weekly/monthly backups (however often you choose to do it ... and that reminds me ...) increments for the image are ideal. You can use it like a System Restore (albeit a bit slower but works properly) and has certainly been a life saver for me at times.

Ideally you need a cycle of something like:

Baseline Backup 1 ... Inc 1 ... Inc 2 ... Inc 3 ... .... ... Inc n (however long you want to keep this up)
Baseline Backup 2 ... Inc 1 ...etc.
Baseline Backup 3 (at which point all the increments for backup 1 become a bit irrelevant).

Generally I try to keep the current and last two baseline backups - but only one set of previous backup increments. That way I can wind back to recent daily backups but also jumpt straight back a few weeks to if a problem arises that seems to have started a while ago but was hidden.
-Carol Haynes (September 18, 2007, 04:22 AM)

Darwin · « **Reply #1 on:** September 22, 2007, 03:58 PM »

Well... the bad news is that Acronis does seem to have a high number of "bugs" to work out with each release and that there are always very vocal people complaining about them on their forum. The good news is that True Image has never failed me, I've never been "bitten" by one of the bugs, and the upgrades are about 40% off (and you can skip versions and not have to pay a penalty when you buy your next upgrade - i.e. going from version 9 to 11 is the same price as going from 10 to 11). If you go for the higher end Workstation version they offer maintenance contracts that are actually cheaper than the yearly (they are like clockwork) paid upgrades to the Home version - on the order of about 50% cheaper...

mouser · « **Reply #2 on:** September 22, 2007, 04:23 PM »

The newest version of Acronis True Image (v11) has the ability to let you exclude certain files and folders from the full drive imaging.

To me this is sort of the holy grail of drive imaging that i have been waiting for, as it lets you do a true drive image and yet still mark certain giant folders or files you dont care about to be ignored. Well done Acronis

Darwin · « **Reply #3 on:** September 22, 2007, 04:33 PM »

I could have sworn I saw a thread here about the update to Acronis True Image 11
but cant find it with forum search or FF search plugin
-tomos (September 22, 2007, 03:46 PM)

It's here, Tom!

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #4 on:** September 22, 2007, 04:41 PM »

If you are using Windows XP check out https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=9947.0

True Image 9 is pretty good (and stable now) and for $8 ...

tomos · « **Reply #5 on:** September 22, 2007, 05:00 PM »

The newest version of Acronis True Image (v11) has the ability to let you exclude certain files and folders from the full drive imaging.

To me this is sort of the holy grail of drive imaging that i have been waiting for, as it lets you do a true drive image and yet still mark certain giant folders or files you dont care about to be ignored. Well done Acronis
-mouser (September 22, 2007, 04:23 PM)

yeah,
sounds very good all right... could exclude the 2GB hibernation file for example

I could have sworn I saw a thread here about the update to Acronis True Image 11
but cant find it with forum search or FF search plugin
-tomos (September 22, 2007, 03:46 PM)

It's here, Tom!
-Darwin (September 22, 2007, 04:33 PM)

howdidyoufindthat!!

If you are using Windows XP check out https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=9947.0

True Image 9 is pretty good (and stable now) and for $8 ...
-Carol Haynes (September 22, 2007, 04:41 PM)

unfortunately Carol us in europe have to pay 25$ postage for that .. (& no download option)

tinjaw · « **Reply #6 on:** September 22, 2007, 05:24 PM »

unfortunately Carol us in europe have to pay 25$ postage for that .. (& no download option)
-tomos (September 22, 2007, 05:00 PM)

I'm just thinking out loud, but how cheap is it to mail to Kansas City, MO, here in the USA? You could order it, ship it to my house, I could rip it to an ISO and upload the ISO to my FTP server for you. I, of course, would be your offsite backup copy that you are allowed to legally have. I already own version 9 and am thinking about upgrading to 11. I wonder if this would be worth doing?

tomos · « **Reply #7 on:** September 22, 2007, 06:06 PM »

wow, thanks for the offer tinjaw !

I actually have a copy of True Image 7 with I believe an option to upgrade for 30$
so think I'll go for that ...

EDIT no,
maybe I dont have that option, I'll go sleep on it

Darwin · « **Reply #8 on:** September 22, 2007, 06:10 PM »

I'm actually wondering when, if ever, True Image Workstation 9.1 is going to be updated. I've got a maintenance contract on that, but fat lot of good it's doing me! Of course, I shouldn't complain - it's stable and does exactly what I need it to but it's irksome to see the Home version, which I upgraded from in June 2006 go through two new versions without so much as a bug fix on mine... Yes, I am of the firm belief that if you've got nothing good to say you should come say it to me

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #9 on:** September 22, 2007, 07:08 PM »

If you are using Windows XP check out https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=9947.0

True Image 9 is pretty good (and stable now) and for $8 ...
-Carol Haynes (September 22, 2007, 04:41 PM)
unfortunately Carol us in europe have to pay 25$ postage for that .. (& no download option)
-tomos (September 22, 2007, 05:00 PM)

Where are you based?

If you are in Europe TrueImage 10 is at Amazon.co.uk for under £15 - see http://www.amazon.co...0-Home/dp/B000JQIDB8 in the UK you get free shipping - but it won't be too expensive to get it delivered in Europe.

I also spotted this on a web trawl Acronis True Image Home 11 at $29 (download version) http://www.usergroupstore.com/ (Look under products) I don't know anything about the store or how it works but it might be worth a look. Only if you can face using a new version which may be bug ridden if past experience is anything to go by.

Additional info

If you go through the checkout process you need to be a member of a user group in order to get the discount price - not sure how easy this is to acheive

mwb1100 · « **Reply #10 on:** September 22, 2007, 11:01 PM »

I actually have a copy of True Image 7 with I believe an option to upgrade for 30$
so think I'll go for that ...

EDIT no,
maybe I dont have that option, I'll go sleep on it
-tomos (September 22, 2007, 06:06 PM)

If the $30 offer isn't available, you can get it from newegg for $35 - no shipping since it's a download: http://www.newegg.co....aspx?Item=1528708SF

tomos · « **Reply #11 on:** September 23, 2007, 03:26 AM »

upgrades are about 40% off (and you can skip versions and not have to pay a penalty when you buy your next upgrade - i.e. going from version 9 to 11 is the same price as going from 10 to 11).
-Darwin (September 22, 2007, 03:58 PM)

From Acronis "Live Chat" help:

Andrew: You are right, it is ok if you have version 7 or 8 or 9, any version of home product may be upgraded to Acronis True Image 11 Home

&
he gave me the link with the $29.99 upgrade price

looking good,
only problem now is their checkout page doesnt have any next button after filling in the details

will try again later...

tomos · « **Reply #12 on:** September 23, 2007, 03:36 AM »

I also spotted this on a web trawl Acronis True Image Home 11 at $29 (download version) http://www.usergroupstore.com/ (Look under products) I don't know anything about the store or how it works but it might be worth a look. Only if you can face using a new version which may be bug ridden if past experience is anything to go by.
-Carol Haynes (September 22, 2007, 07:08 PM)

I had spotted that one too

It does look for the User Group Name AND it's "Order Number" after you give your details
I searched for computer user groups thinking I wouldnt mind getting involved in something like that,
unfortunately there's only a couple of groups here with very obscure/specialized subjects
eg "RAM PC User Group"

Found a link to one free online user group (based in Derry!) thought I was made but link dead
Anyone interested in finding one near you,
have a look at Computer User Groups on the Web
or Association of PC User Groups

tomos · « **Reply #13 on:** September 23, 2007, 03:45 AM »

Where are you based?

If you are in Europe TrueImage 10 is at Amazon.co.uk for under £15 - see http://www.amazon.co...0-Home/dp/B000JQIDB8 in the UK you get free shipping - but it won't be too expensive to get it delivered in Europe.
-Carol Haynes (September 22, 2007, 07:08 PM)

thats a very good price - €21 or so
(I'm in Germany, think it would still be less than €30 with delivery)
&
thanks mwb100 for the newegg offer which actually works out at ...25€ - wow the exchange rate is very good, well, for buying in dollars!

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #14 on:** September 23, 2007, 04:34 AM »

Yep - they do have it on Amazon.de and Amazon.fr too but both are much more expensive than the UK price (for once).

Personally if I were to buy it now I would buy TI 10 and not go for TI 11 (even if you can find a cheap copy). IME Acronis will take 3-6 months to make TI 11 bug free.

As a company it has an interesting approach. The corporate versions are at version 9.1 (I use TI 9.1 Workstation) and hasn't seen any sort of update since February. Basically they only seem to move on the corporate versions after home users iron out all the bugs. In other words home users pay to be beta testers!

tomos · « **Reply #15 on:** September 23, 2007, 05:21 AM »

Personally if I were to buy it now I would buy TI 10 and not go for TI 11 (even if you can find a cheap copy). IME Acronis will take 3-6 months to make TI 11 bug free.

As a company it has an interesting approach. The corporate versions are at version 9.1 (I use TI 9.1 Workstation) and hasn't seen any sort of update since February. Basically they only seem to move on the corporate versions after home users iron out all the bugs. In other words home users pay to be beta testers!
-Carol Haynes (September 23, 2007, 04:34 AM)

oops too late, I got the "Beta"

Interesting,
at no stage was I asked the previous registration number -
11 is installed now, its possible it picked up on the older installed version, installed to a different folder though
("True Image Home" as opposed to True Image)

It claims to check/verify the image - was very quick about it so dont know how dependable that is...
(wouldnt like to be that much of a beta tester..)

mwang · « **Reply #16 on:** September 23, 2007, 06:32 AM »

The newest version of Acronis True Image (v11) has the ability to let you exclude certain files and folders from the full drive imaging.
-mouser (September 22, 2007, 04:23 PM)

This was already there with True Image 10, which I'm currently using. I have very bad experience with them, however. See here if you care.

Edit: Serious bugs with ver. 10 include one that requires one to repair after restoring an image under Vista. It's well documented, and its cause was found. It's because TI 10 couldn't handle Vista's new partitioning rules well. Dig a little on their official support forum and you'll see. If those considering ver. 11, you might want to check if this has been fixed first. (Note: only partitions newly formatted by Vista are affected.)

MerleOne · « **Reply #17 on:** September 24, 2007, 10:48 AM »

Actually there is an alternative one should really look at : drive snapshot from a German developer: http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/

This small footprint program is really very powerful, does differential imaging, allows for excluding files & folders, has many interesting options. Combined with BartPE CD for bare metal restoration, it is quite powerful.

Can even image floppy disks and USB sticks.

For a more polished GUI, there is also O&O DiskImage 2.1. I must say I have made many successful system disk (XP) restoration with drive snapshot, never really with diskimage 2.1.

DiskImage 2.1 also does incremental imaging and allows to merge incrementals with the base image if required. Unfortunately incremental imaging is not faster than full imaging, it only saves space. Drive snapshot differential imaging is much quicker.

Drive snapshot has a powerful yet easy command line interface that makes it simple to schedule backup using XP task scheduler. It seems O&O DI2.1 lacks any scheduling function.

Just my 2 cents.

ad-min · « **Reply #18 on:** September 24, 2007, 01:08 PM »

Actually there is an alternative one should really look at : drive snapshot from a German developer: http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/
-MerleOne (September 24, 2007, 10:48 AM)

Yes, DriveSnapshot is a wonderful program.

I don't like bloated applications and so I never liked Acronis TrueImage or O&O DiskImage.

Another great program (very small and fast) is Image for Windows (www.terabyteunlimited.com/imagew.html), but I don't know whether it does incremental imaging.

MerleOne · « **Reply #19 on:** September 24, 2007, 02:11 PM »

For the moment I4W doesn't propose incremental/differential backups. Also, backups are not encrypted whereas drivesnapshot also has encryption.

The strong point of I4W is its direct DVD burning engine that can create bootable restoration DVD. I try to backup all my main partitions with it every month (I manage 4 PC at home).

I rely on Drive Snapshot for automated backup, the destination being a dedicated partition on each HDD. When it's full, I either remove some differential backups or I transfer them to an external dedicated HDD. When it's full, I then burn DVD.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #20 on:** September 24, 2007, 02:37 PM »

DriveSnapShot looks really good - I may give it a go.

The only drawback I can see with it (in principle) is that backing up to and restoring to removable media (such as DVD+R) is not supported. Sure you can set the maximum backup file size and burn them manually but they would have to be copied to a partition or a network drive before you could restore them.

MrCrispy · « **Reply #21 on:** September 24, 2007, 02:45 PM »

Another program to consider is Paragon Drive Backup. Its more power user oriented than Acronis but as a result has more options and configurability. I have not had any issues with using it and feel safer.

edbro · « **Reply #22 on:** September 24, 2007, 02:49 PM »

I rely on Drive Snapshot for automated backup, the destination being a dedicated partition on each HDD. When it's full, I either remove some differential backups or I transfer them to an external dedicated HDD. When it's full, I then burn DVD.
-MerleOne (September 24, 2007, 02:11 PM)

What's the use of backing up to a partition on the same HD? If the hd goes, both partitions are going with it. At least you should backup to a dedicated partition on the hd other than the source.

MerleOne · « **Reply #23 on:** September 25, 2007, 01:21 AM »

Actually I am using a second HDD to save the images on. But even if it wasn't the case, HDD hardware fault are fairly seldom nowadays. Most restoration needs come from software I have installed that damaged somehow my system. And, as an extra security, I transfer the old images to an external USB HDD on a regular basis.

tomos · « **Reply #24 on:** September 25, 2007, 12:00 PM »

Yes, DriveSnapshot is a wonderful program. I don't like bloated applications and so I never liked Acronis TrueImage or O&O DiskImage.
-ad-min (September 24, 2007, 01:08 PM)

yeah,
I was a bit shocked by the Acronis download - 100+MB
install is 36MB + 196MB in common folders....
what is in there ???!!!

For the moment I4W doesn't propose incremental/differential backups. Also, backups are not encrypted whereas drivesnapshot also has encryption.

The strong point of I4W is its direct DVD burning engine that can create bootable restoration DVD. I try to backup all my main partitions with it every month (I manage 4 PC at home).
-MerleOne (September 24, 2007, 02:11 PM)

did I miss something here (?)
whats 14W?

to console myself for having bought such a monster (Acronis 11) I can point out that incremental backup is (hopefully) more of a space saver than Differential