Acronis release new version of TrueImage Workstation

[Carol Haynes]

Acronis have released a new 'corporate' version of TrueImage which they are calling TrueImage Echo Workstation. They have also released a new version of their Universal Restore plugin.

It looks very similar to version 9.1 cosmetically and I haven't delved too much yet into what is new.

The obvious (and interesting) new features are:

• You can browse archives in an explorer type window (without mounting them first). You are initially shown a set of icons for each backup point which you double click and a the archive opens in a standard looking Explorer window. It isn't Explorer however so don't expect to see the usual context menu.
• Not sure if this is new but you can consolidate archives by choosing the backup points and creating a new self contained archive.
• With Universal restore you can now convert archives to Vitual Machine drives compatible with VMWare, Virtual PC and Parallels apps.

Looks interesting. I haven't had time to play too much yet but I am hoping that the corporate version doesn't have the usual smattering of bugs that the domestic new releases usually have (fingers crossed).

Full details/version comparison at: http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/comparison.html

[Josh]

Echo is designed for network backups, not individual workstation backups. It is designed to backup and restore to/from a server environment as is very clear on their product page.

[Darwin]

I dunno... it's actually a bit confusing as TrueImage Workstation 9.1 has disappeared from their website AFAICT. The blurb about Echo indicates that it can both backup and restore a network AND backup and restore an individual workstation. I've requested keys for it and the new version of Universal Restore but haven't downloaded/installed it yet...

[Ralf Maximus]

It sounds like there's a bunch of bored programmers at Acronis adding features just because they can.  Is any of that new stuff seriously necessary?

Converting a backup into a VM?  Consider: even if "conversion" takes zero time, it would destroy the backup image in the process.  Which means you probably need to make a copy of your image before conversion, so I'm still gonna sit around and watch 40 gigabytes spool back and forth.  Where's the convenience in that?  Much simpler to just load the backup into the VM.

Consolidating archives?  Why?  Disk savings?  But incrementals don't take much at all.  But I figured out how to consolidate my incrementals a long time ago: it's called making a new full backup.

Browsing without mounting?  Now THAT's kind of cool... except then they don't give me access to explorer.  So I might as well mount the thing to use it, especially if I'm going to go tear-assing around looking for a specific file.

They need to stop tweaking True Image before they wreck something important, like... I don't know, its ability to reliably make backups and restore them.

[Darwin]

Point taken, Ralf. Like you, the only feature that "sparks my interest" is the ability to browse an image without mounting (why do I always feel so dirty when I talk like this?) and I did the same mental gymnastics that that you did and they led me to the same conclusion: sounds cool, but so what? I'm actually better off mounting the image anyway, so what's the point?

They need to stop tweaking True Image before they wreck something important, like... I don't know, its ability to reliably make backups and restore them.

Too late. Check out the support forums. Every single version is bug ridden on initial release. This is one of those apps that probably qualifies for "Perfect Software" status (see, I'm already quoting you back to yourself) but bloat creep to justify ongoing revenue is killing them (without fail they release a new version - paid upgrade - every 12 months). If they really want to make money at this, they should go slow and easy on development and simply force users to pay $10 a year to use it, after the initial purchase price of course. I know, I know, nobody likes this kind of licensing model, but if they keep the yearly subscription fee reasonable and deliver a ROCK SOLID product I, for one, would not complain.

EDIT: OK, I'd still complain. A leopard can't change its spots!

[J-Mac]

Can't be much worse than True Image Home 11!  I ran Acronis TI Home 8, 9, and 10 and though they had their little idiosyncrasies they worked pretty well. TI 11 has not yet been able to write images to my external USB drive - a Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB drive.  I didn't have the drive with TI 8, but TI 9 and 10 wrote to it without problems for a whole year.  TI 11 insists it is "poor media".

I have run a few diagnostics on the drive and it passes with flying colors. Plus I tried writing to an older Maxtor drive that has worked OK with everything I threw at it - TI 11 can't write to that drive either - "poor media" errors again.  Acronis Support says the WD drive is too slow.  Yet this same WD drive takes files synced by SFFS and written by BackUp4All with no complaints.

I'm about to uninstall and try installing TI 10 again.  I agree fully with Ralf's comment that their programmers are bored -- seems like you can always count on Acronis to mess around too much with a good thing!

Jim

[Carol Haynes]

Echo is designed for network backups, not individual workstation backups. It is designed to backup and restore to/from a server environment as is very clear on their product page.

No - you just install Echo Workstation (available as a separate product on the page I pointed too). Workstation 9.1 was also aimed at network backup scenarios run by admins but each workstation could also do backups. The whole range of extra modules has simply migrated from TI W 9.1 to TI W E

It has replaced Workstation 9.1 and does the same job with a few new bits added and AFAICS it is just a normal upgrade (and I got it free because I had maintenance support on 9.1) where they changed the name and got rid of version numbers (there is just a build number associated with Echo Workstation and I suspect this is one reason for the name change).

There have been few major or minor updates to 9.1 for ages and I am sure users (like me) have been asking when the next version will be released because the home version has moved to version 11. Now they don't have to worry about version numbers and each update with be a minor build number update instead and support can stop telling people there isn't going to be a version 10 or 11 or the corporate version.

[Carol Haynes]

It sounds like there's a bunch of bored programmers at Acronis adding features just because they can.  Is any of that new stuff seriously necessary?

Probably not but that never stopped developers developing. Was anything really 'necessary' after the CP/M operating system or MSDOS? Probably not but computers are a lot cooler for the development work!

Converting a backup into a VM?  Consider: even if "conversion" takes zero time, it would destroy the backup image in the process.  Which means you probably need to make a copy of your image before conversion, so I'm still gonna sit around and watch 40 gigabytes spool back and forth.  Where's the convenience in that?  Much simpler to just load the backup into the VM.

Why should it destroy the backup? It just copies from backup format to VMWare hard disc format - so it effectively does a bare metal restore to your chose VM software format. Sounds kind of neat to me. I keep old system backups long past their sell by date - but if I wanted to check something out from an old Windows 98 backup I could simply restore it to VMWare and run the apps as before without affecting my old system - which would be a hell of a lot quicker than installing Win98 in VMWare and then installing all my old crap and copying data.

It also gives me a method for converting VM hard discs between VMWare, VirtualPC and Parallel's - just use TI to backup on one format and then convert the archive to another format. I have tried all three Virtual environments and it is a pain having to reinstall everything from scratch each time.

Consolidating archives?  Why?  Disk savings?  But incrementals don't take much at all.  But I figured out how to consolidate my incrementals a long time ago: it's called making a new full backup.

True - but suppose you do one main backup and then differential backups (which are more convenient than incremental but tend to grow over time). Consolidating archives before burning them to DVD if you want to transfer stuff to another system would save a lot of DVD space - or band width/time if you restore over a network.

What happens if you want to consolidate a backup from an earlier set of backups for archiving? You can't simply do that by doing a new backup.

Browsing without mounting?  Now THAT's kind of cool... except then they don't give me access to explorer.  So I might as well mount the thing to use it, especially if I'm going to go tear-assing around looking for a specific file.

That has always been the case though - previously you could browse without mounting but it was via a crappy tree interface. Persoanlly I never saw the point as it was quick and easy to mount an image.

They need to stop tweaking True Image before they wreck something important, like... I don't know, its ability to reliably make backups and restore them.

That is my main worry - because it happens all the time with the home version. I am guessing (though I have no evidence) that they are a bit more serious about the corporate version otherwise they would lose a lot of major revenue if they screw up!

[Darwin]

I didn't know you could already explore images without mounting them... mea culpa

[Darwin]

Carol - after almost a month of wrangling with Arconis I have keys for both Echo Workstation and Universal Restore for Echo Workstation (long story short: I purchased maintenance on both in July but was supplied a maintenance key for Workstation and only a second licence key for UR; a sales expert had to sort out the resulting mess. PIA,). Anyway, now that I have keys I am considering installing and wonder if you have any comments after a month of use before I take the plunge?

[Carol Haynes]

Initial impressions are good but I can't say I have spent a great deal of time with Echo yet.

I have run out of disc space and need a radical deleting session to generate space for making images. Too much duplication on my discs (esp. music and photos) plus I have a partition for software I download which has got totally out of control with umpteen versions of stuff I use scattered to the four winds and loads of defunct stuff that needs to be trashed! Trouble is like most things in my life these days I can't face doing it and keep putting it all off!

[Darwin]

Thanks for the update - I'll install it and take it for a spin. Frankly, though, I'm loathe to do it as everything is just working at the moment. Maybe I'll just hold off for now...

[Carol Haynes]

Coward ...

[Darwin]

Not so fast... Downloading the installer for the registered version now!

[Ralf Maximus]

If Darwin's computer gets smoked, boy is Carol gonna be in trouble.

:-)

[Darwin]

If Darwin's computer gets smoked, boy is Carol gonna be in trouble.

:-)

I wish I could find the animated smiley of a smiling face eating popcorn - it would have been perfect here!

[jgpaiva]

I always like cookies better than popcorn

[Carol Haynes]

Mmmmm popcorn ...

(Actually I prefer cookies too - see I can even speak American)

[Darwin]

Here's the popcorn smiley (when I said that I wished I could find it, perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that I wished that I could have been bothered  ):

[attachimg=#]