Acronis offering True Image 7 for free - Is it worth the price?

[Bucky Breeder]

Sometimes (a) newer is not better and (b) an old version may do enough
of what you require.

At any rate, I reckon it's worth checking out when offers like this come
up.

R.

Yes, it is, Mike. And that is what I said earlier in the thread too. It's
absolutely worth a hard look and a good try. And *props* out to Acronis
for offering this freely in this manner! And shame-shame on Microsoft for
not providing an imaging backup software with their OS's. But that's just
my opinion; I could be wrong. (Of course, you'd *never* convince me of
that, so even don't bother trying.) (-;


Best wishes to all for a safe and joyous holiday season.

--

Higher beings from outer space
may not want to tell us all the secrets of life,
because, in their little grey minds,
we're not quite ready for that advanced step - yet.

But maybe they'll change their superior tune - after a little torture.

 

[smlunatick]

Where the download url?

 

[Craig]

Where the download url?

From the inestimable Ivan:

 

[C.vd.V]

http://www.missingbytes.net/freeware/index.php?dir=UNTESTED/&file=TrueImage70_u_en.exe

 

[aafuss]

Offer is still valid-and I'm able to download v7.

 

[GaryT]

I would say that it's good practice to get the software, then do a
complete
image, then do a restore to see if it works, how it works, etc. Of course
the fear of doing it the first time is always "what if it doesn't work or
trashes the system?" I don't know if there's an answer to that IRL. For
every person who uses a backup software with success, there's one out
there
that says... you know, the usual, "it trashed my machine."

One option would be to test the restore on a spare HD, which many of us have
PLENTY hanging around (although many with laptops don't have extra drives
available).

Gary

 

[Bucky Breeder]

"GaryT" observerd, contemplated, and shared this in

in


One option would be to test the restore on a spare HD, which many of us
have PLENTY hanging around (although many with laptops don't have extra
drives available).

Gary

Interesting option, Gary!

The salient observation would be that most people use this type software to
back up their root, or (C drive. That generally would entail their
Operating System (OS). Then, whereas the purpose of the effort is
"backup"; they may use the software to restore their root, or (C drive.

Either one of these subordinate operations, the "imaging" in the backup or
the "overwriting of the existing image" in the restore, is where a mistake,
conflict, corrupted file, power-surge, stubbed toe, brain fart, or any
number of things could go awry.

But since "many of [you all] have PLENTY [spare HDD's] hanging around" I'm
sure you have all those details all thought out, and all worked out.

Thanks for sharing your expertise with everybody, Gary! And, keep coming
back...


Best wishes to all for a safe and joyous holiday season.

--

Even though I was their captive,
the Indians allowed me quite a bit of freedom.

I could walk freely, make my own meals,
and even hurl large rocks at their heads.

It was only later that I discovered that
they were not Indians at all, but only pumpkins.

 

[Karl Childers]

In

"GaryT" observerd, contemplated, and shared this in

Didn't trash the machine, but it didn't work properly.

Downloaded and installed it on a box I don't care much about. First (and
last) thing I tried was to "Make a Bootable Recovery CD". <Failed> OK.
Maybe it was bad media. Try again. <Failed> OK. Maybe it doesn't like
this cheap-O-brand of media I'm feeding it. Let me fetch one of those
Memorex brand CD-Rs which have always worked in this particular burner in
the past. Try again. <Failed> OK. Maybe the burner took a shit? Haven't
used it in ages. Let's check. Close Acronis. Insert cheap-O media and
burn CD from random files on machine using XP Wizard. <Success> Insert
Memorex media and burn another CD from more random files on the machine via
the XP Wizard. <Success> That's five new coasters I've made in the past
half hour. It's OK though. The Holidays are coming and I'll put them to
use.

I'm not about to dig any deeper in an attempt to troubleshoot a free program
on a machine I don't care about.

One option would be to test the restore on a spare HD, which many of
us have PLENTY hanging around (although many with laptops don't have
extra drives available).

Gary

Interesting option, Gary!

The salient observation would be that most people use this type
software to back up their root, or (C drive. That generally would
entail their Operating System (OS). Then, whereas the purpose of the
effort is "backup"; they may use the software to restore their root,
or (C drive.

Either one of these subordinate operations, the "imaging" in the
backup or the "overwriting of the existing image" in the restore, is
where a mistake, conflict, corrupted file, power-surge, stubbed toe,
brain fart, or any number of things could go awry.

But since "many of [you all] have PLENTY [spare HDD's] hanging
around" I'm sure you have all those details all thought out, and all
worked out.

Thanks for sharing your expertise with everybody, Gary! And, keep
coming back...


Best wishes to all for a safe and joyous holiday season.

 

[Bucky Breeder]

"Bucky Breeder" wrote in

"GaryT" observerd, contemplated, and shared this in

In

Interesting option, Gary!

The salient observation would be that most people use this type
software to back up their root, or (C drive. That generally would
entail their Operating System (OS). Then, whereas the purpose of the
effort is "backup"; they may use the software to restore their root,
or (C drive.

Either one of these subordinate operations, the "imaging" in the
backup or the "overwriting of the existing image" in the restore, is
where a mistake, conflict, corrupted file, power-surge, stubbed toe,
brain fart, or any number of things could go awry.

But since "many of [you all] have PLENTY [spare HDD's] hanging
around" I'm sure you have all those details all thought out, and all
worked out.

Thanks for sharing your expertise with everybody, Gary! And, keep
coming back...

Didn't trash the machine, but it didn't work properly.

Downloaded and installed it on a box I don't care much about. First
(and last) thing I tried was to "Make a Bootable Recovery CD". <Failed>
OK. Maybe it was bad media. Try again. <Failed> OK. Maybe it
doesn't like this cheap-O-brand of media I'm feeding it. Let me fetch
one of those Memorex brand CD-Rs which have always worked in this
particular burner in the past. Try again. <Failed> OK. Maybe the
burner took a shit? Haven't used it in ages. Let's check. Close
Acronis. Insert cheap-O media and burn CD from random files on machine
using XP Wizard. <Success> Insert Memorex media and burn another CD
from more random files on the machine via the XP Wizard. <Success>
That's five new coasters I've made in the past half hour. It's OK
though. The Holidays are coming and I'll put them to use.

I'm not about to dig any deeper in an attempt to troubleshoot a free
program on a machine I don't care about.

Uninstall Acronis True Image 7. <Success>

There ya go! That was by biggest reservation about the older version as a
free release; to wit, that folks would become leary of imaging as a viable
back-up strategy. Once you get the process routinely down with dependable
software, it is so quick and easy and reliable - both the back-up and the
restore operations. Amazing feeling of security too. And, unfortunately,
as I recall, Acronis just gave me a lot of problems in the earlier
versions. I have not tried any of the v9+ releases, mainly because PQDI
has been so reliable.

I must add that I know many people who use Norton Ghost and are ardently
loyal to that software. Not so many on the later Symantec Ghost releases,
but a few really like and speak well of those too.

Check around and see if anyone has a Ghost or a PowerQuest Drive Image CD
which they will let you try out. Symantec bought them out, but I have the
old PQDI 2002 (uses boot floppies for an emergency restore), which I'm
still using on a couple of machines, and I also have a copy of PQDI v7.02
(uses the CD to boot for an emergency restore). PQDI 2002 boots into a
"Caldera DOS" routine to back up a drive image, but PQDI v7.02 can make an
image of your (C drive right while you're running with your (C drive,
but to restore, you have to boot to the CD and then navigate to the restore
images - which can be on a partition or on removable media... I've used
them both with 100% success for quite a few years now.

Incidentally, I was *not* very happy with the later PowerQuest V2i
releases, mainly because of the background services running all the time...


Best wishes to all for a safe and joyous holiday season.

--

Even though I was their captive,
the Indians allowed me quite a bit of freedom.

I could walk freely, make my own meals,
and even hurl large rocks at their heads.

It was only later that I discovered that
they were not Indians at all, but only pumpkins.

 

[Karl Childers]

In

There ya go! That was by biggest reservation about the older version
as a free release; to wit, that folks would become leary of imaging
as a viable back-up strategy. Once you get the process routinely
down with dependable software, it is so quick and easy and reliable -
both the back-up and the restore operations. Amazing feeling of
security too. And, unfortunately, as I recall, Acronis just gave me
a lot of problems in the earlier versions. I have not tried any of
the v9+ releases, mainly because PQDI has been so reliable.

I just wonder how many others had a similar problem to the one I had? If
so, Acronis didn't do themselves any favors by offering an older version of
TI for free.

I must add that I know many people who use Norton Ghost and are
ardently loyal to that software. Not so many on the later Symantec
Ghost releases, but a few really like and speak well of those too.

You couldn't offer me enough money to install anything *Norton* on any of my
machines. Not even the one I don't really care about. Norton/Symantec has
become crap. Ironic, ain't it? Especially if you're old enough to remember
"The Honeymooners", and what Norton (Art Carney) did for a living on the
show.

Check around and see if anyone has a Ghost or a PowerQuest Drive
Image CD which they will let you try out.

I'm all good in the imaging department on the machines I care about, but
thanks.

Symantec bought them out,

<snip>

Enough said.

 

[AAH]

Bucky
Your comments would be appreciated on
PQDI 2002.
My OS WinMe
I am using PQDI 2002. It works fine as far as
i save the image files on to hard disk(d: partition) and restore operation
works fine.

When I try to save the image operation files
directly to a Cd. First cd ok when insert the
second cd, the error message comes on
" Unable to write the image file
error #1805"
I have tried with various make of cds but no
luck.
I had an version 4 that worked ok.
The recording software installed on my os is
easy cd5 basic/oem with direct cd and the
basic oem ver nero6 (bundled) without InCD.

Any helping comments would be appreciated

"GaryT" observerd, contemplated, and shared this in

In

Interesting option, Gary!

The salient observation would be that most people use this type
software to back up their root, or (C drive. That generally would
entail their Operating System (OS). Then, whereas the purpose of the
effort is "backup"; they may use the software to restore their root,
or (C drive.

Either one of these subordinate operations, the "imaging" in the
backup or the "overwriting of the existing image" in the restore, is
where a mistake, conflict, corrupted file, power-surge, stubbed toe,
brain fart, or any number of things could go awry.

But since "many of [you all] have PLENTY [spare HDD's] hanging
around" I'm sure you have all those details all thought out, and all
worked out.

Thanks for sharing your expertise with everybody, Gary! And, keep
coming back...

Didn't trash the machine, but it didn't work properly.

Downloaded and installed it on a box I don't care much about. First
(and last) thing I tried was to "Make a Bootable Recovery CD". <Failed>
OK. Maybe it was bad media. Try again. <Failed> OK. Maybe it
doesn't like this cheap-O-brand of media I'm feeding it. Let me fetch
one of those Memorex brand CD-Rs which have always worked in this
particular burner in the past. Try again. <Failed> OK. Maybe the
burner took a shit? Haven't used it in ages. Let's check. Close
Acronis. Insert cheap-O media and burn CD from random files on machine
using XP Wizard. <Success> Insert Memorex media and burn another CD
from more random files on the machine via the XP Wizard. <Success>
That's five new coasters I've made in the past half hour. It's OK
though. The Holidays are coming and I'll put them to use.

I'm not about to dig any deeper in an attempt to troubleshoot a free
program on a machine I don't care about.

Uninstall Acronis True Image 7. <Success>

There ya go! That was by biggest reservation about the older version as a
free release; to wit, that folks would become leary of imaging as a viable
back-up strategy. Once you get the process routinely down with dependable
software, it is so quick and easy and reliable - both the back-up and the
restore operations. Amazing feeling of security too. And, unfortunately,
as I recall, Acronis just gave me a lot of problems in the earlier
versions. I have not tried any of the v9+ releases, mainly because PQDI
has been so reliable.

I must add that I know many people who use Norton Ghost and are ardently
loyal to that software. Not so many on the later Symantec Ghost releases,
but a few really like and speak well of those too.

Check around and see if anyone has a Ghost or a PowerQuest Drive Image CD
which they will let you try out. Symantec bought them out, but I have the
old PQDI 2002 (uses boot floppies for an emergency restore), which I'm
still using on a couple of machines, and I also have a copy of PQDI v7.02
(uses the CD to boot for an emergency restore). PQDI 2002 boots into a
"Caldera DOS" routine to back up a drive image, but PQDI v7.02 can make an
image of your (C drive right while you're running with your (C drive,
but to restore, you have to boot to the CD and then navigate to the restore
images - which can be on a partition or on removable media... I've used
them both with 100% success for quite a few years now.

Incidentally, I was *not* very happy with the later PowerQuest V2i
releases, mainly because of the background services running all the time...


Best wishes to all for a safe and joyous holiday season.

--

Even though I was their captive,
the Indians allowed me quite a bit of freedom.

I could walk freely, make my own meals,
and even hurl large rocks at their heads.

It was only later that I discovered that
they were not Indians at all, but only pumpkins.

 

[Bucky Breeder]

Bucky
Your comments would be appreciated on
PQDI 2002.
My OS WinMe
I am using PQDI 2002. It works fine as far as
i save the image files on to hard disk(d: partition) and restore
operation works fine.

When I try to save the image operation files
directly to a Cd. First cd ok when insert the
second cd, the error message comes on
" Unable to write the image file
error #1805"
I have tried with various make of cds but no
luck.
I had an version 4 that worked ok.
The recording software installed on my os is
easy cd5 basic/oem with direct cd and the
basic oem ver nero6 (bundled) without InCD.

Any helping comments would be appreciated

My procedure using PQDI 2002 on Windows XP is the same as I used it on
Windows 98 & 98SE, as stated back toward the beginning of this Acronis free
release thread, and it goes a little like this: I use both Partition Magic
and Drive Image [and shame on Microsoft for not providing these tools with
every OS]. So, initially I install PQPM & PQDI >

1st; I partition the HDD: normally new, and configured as (C, I take ~10%
to ~15% and partition it as (D backup;

2nd, on a WinXP box I format (D backup to FAT32, and I use PQPM to insure
the cluster size is appropriate, as recommended in their dialog.

3rd; I use a file system convention naming folders on the backup drive like
this " D:\[Machine.Name]_[2006.12.11]-C\[Machine.Name]_[2006.12.11]-C.pqi ;
et seq.

4th; I divide my file sizes into 100MB files, just a matter of preference,
and I defrag my backup drives regualarly as well. That file size seems to be
easier to handle and seems to make my routine maintenance go quicker.

5th; once backup procedure is completed and Caldera DOS boots back to
Windows, every so often I copy one of those [key] backups, folder containing
the file volumes, to a firewire/usb combo drive for backup storage to be
secured "off-site."

Your CD/DVD recording software should not effect PQDI's operations. However
PQDI 2002 does want the image file sizes to be "640 MB" as the default file
size. I'm not sure why that is.

As far as how PQDI 2002 deals with CD and/or DVD drives, and on newer boxes,
I just don't know because I never used it that way. I have Lite-On burners
on those boxes, and PQDI does recognize them as an option for "Destination"
during backup operations. I have used PQDI v7.02 to backup to CD's, and I
don't recall there being any problem with the backup itself; however, I
didn't have to restore either - and pretty quickly those CD's became
obsolete, because I had newer backup images to HDD. To me, CD's very quickly
fell off the list of practical considerations for backups because large
external HDDs got very inexpensive very quickly and are so very easy and
convenient to use; deleting the older files, and replacing with newer
backups, etc.

I have restored many times from both PQDI 2002 and v7.02, but from a HDD
which held the image file(s).


Best wishes to all for a safe and joyous holiday season.

--

Even though I was their captive,
the Indians allowed me quite a bit of freedom.

I could walk freely, make my own meals,
and even hurl large rocks at their heads.

It was only later that I discovered that
they were not Indians at all, but only pumpkins.

 

[AAH]

Bucky
Thanks for your comments.
I think PQDI 2002' image file size 640 MB
keeping in mind at time the size of an ordinary
cd of 650 MB for to fit easily the image file.

Thanks once again.



message

Bucky
Your comments would be appreciated on
PQDI 2002.
My OS WinMe
I am using PQDI 2002. It works fine as far as
i save the image files on to hard disk(d: partition) and restore
operation works fine.

When I try to save the image operation files
directly to a Cd. First cd ok when insert the
second cd, the error message comes on
" Unable to write the image file
error #1805"
I have tried with various make of cds but no
luck.
I had an version 4 that worked ok.
The recording software installed on my os is
easy cd5 basic/oem with direct cd and the
basic oem ver nero6 (bundled) without InCD.

Any helping comments would be appreciated

My procedure using PQDI 2002 on Windows XP is the same as I used it on
Windows 98 & 98SE, as stated back toward the beginning of this Acronis free
release thread, and it goes a little like this: I use both Partition Magic
and Drive Image [and shame on Microsoft for not providing these tools with
every OS]. So, initially I install PQPM & PQDI >

1st; I partition the HDD: normally new, and configured as (C, I take ~10%
to ~15% and partition it as (D backup;

2nd, on a WinXP box I format (D backup to FAT32, and I use PQPM to insure
the cluster size is appropriate, as recommended in their dialog.

3rd; I use a file system convention naming folders on the backup drive like
this " D:\[Machine.Name]_[2006.12.11]-C\[Machine.Name]_[2006.12.11]-C.pqi ;
et seq.

4th; I divide my file sizes into 100MB files, just a matter of preference,
and I defrag my backup drives regualarly as well. That file size seems to
be
easier to handle and seems to make my routine maintenance go quicker.

5th; once backup procedure is completed and Caldera DOS boots back to
Windows, every so often I copy one of those [key] backups, folder containing
the file volumes, to a firewire/usb combo drive for backup storage to be
secured "off-site."

Your CD/DVD recording software should not effect PQDI's operations. However
PQDI 2002 does want the image file sizes to be "640 MB" as the default file
size. I'm not sure why that is.

As far as how PQDI 2002 deals with CD and/or DVD drives, and on newer boxes,
I just don't know because I never used it that way. I have Lite-On burners
on those boxes, and PQDI does recognize them as an option for "Destination"
during backup operations. I have used PQDI v7.02 to backup to CD's, and I
don't recall there being any problem with the backup itself; however, I
didn't have to restore either - and pretty quickly those CD's became
obsolete, because I had newer backup images to HDD. To me, CD's very
quickly
fell off the list of practical considerations for backups because large
external HDDs got very inexpensive very quickly and are so very easy and
convenient to use; deleting the older files, and replacing with newer
backups, etc.

I have restored many times from both PQDI 2002 and v7.02, but from a HDD
which held the image file(s).


Best wishes to all for a safe and joyous holiday season.

--

Even though I was their captive,
the Indians allowed me quite a bit of freedom.

I could walk freely, make my own meals,
and even hurl large rocks at their heads.

It was only later that I discovered that
they were not Indians at all, but only pumpkins.

 

[Oldus Fartus]

In

Didn't trash the machine, but it didn't work properly.

Downloaded and installed it on a box I don't care much about. First (and
last) thing I tried was to "Make a Bootable Recovery CD". <Failed> OK.
Maybe it was bad media. Try again. <Failed> OK. Maybe it doesn't like
this cheap-O-brand of media I'm feeding it. Let me fetch one of those
Memorex brand CD-Rs which have always worked in this particular burner in
the past. Try again. <Failed> OK. Maybe the burner took a shit? Haven't
used it in ages. Let's check. Close Acronis. Insert cheap-O media and
burn CD from random files on machine using XP Wizard. <Success> Insert
Memorex media and burn another CD from more random files on the machine via
the XP Wizard. <Success> That's five new coasters I've made in the past
half hour. It's OK though. The Holidays are coming and I'll put them to
use.

I'm not about to dig any deeper in an attempt to troubleshoot a free program
on a machine I don't care about.

Uninstall Acronis True Image 7. <Success>

I wonder what the problem was? I have been playing with it over the
last few days, and have found it to just "work", with no problems at
all. I particularly like being able to run both backup and restore
from either floppy or CD without having to go into Windows.

I first downloaded and installed it on a P4 machine. Created the
Recovery CD and then made a full system backup of my boot drive, whilst
still in Windows, to another drive on the system. I set the image size
at 4 Gig, and let it do the backups. When it had finished I burned the
image files to DVD. I used the program to then verify the images.
After a reboot, and from Windows, I did a restore - everything OK.

I then rebooted using the recovery CD, and recovered the boot drive from
the DVD images, which took about a half hour, and was successful.

My next experiment was to boot from the recovery CD, and make another
image of the boot drive to another computer on my network - once again
the backup and then recovery worked fine, with no problems at all.

As I had a HP laptop in my workshop for a complete reformat and
reinstall of the OS and programs over the weekend I used that as another
test. Reinstalled Windows XP and the customer's software, downloaded
and installed all service packs and updates, virus scanner, anti-spyware
etc and made sure everything was working OK.

After booting with the Acronis CD, I did a complete backup of the system
to one of the other computers on my network, verified the image, then
rebooted from the boot CD again, and restored the image. All went fine.

I am still exploring the programs capabilities, but so far it looks
fine, so looks like being a permanent addition to my toolkit.

 

[Karl Childers]

In

I wonder what the problem was?

No idea. Maybe something went flakey during my particular download/install?
That's the only thing I can think of. As I stated, I was just attempting to
play with it on a secondary box. When it screwed up right out of the chute,
I ditched it without really delving into the problem any further than
confirming it wasn't my burner.

I'm glad it's working OK for you. If I have time, I'll attempt a fresh
DL/Install, and report back.

 

[Larry Sabo]

In
[snip]
Downloaded and installed it on a box I don't care much about. First (and
last) thing I tried was to "Make a Bootable Recovery CD". <Failed> OK.
Maybe it was bad media. Try again. <Failed> OK. Maybe it doesn't like
this cheap-O-brand of media I'm feeding it. Let me fetch one of those
Memorex brand CD-Rs which have always worked in this particular burner in
the past. Try again. <Failed> OK. Maybe the burner took a shit? Haven't
used it in ages. Let's check. Close Acronis. Insert cheap-O media and
burn CD from random files on machine using XP Wizard. <Success> Insert
Memorex media and burn another CD from more random files on the machine via
the XP Wizard. <Success> That's five new coasters I've made in the past
half hour. It's OK though. The Holidays are coming and I'll put them to
use.

I'm not about to dig any deeper in an attempt to troubleshoot a free program
on a machine I don't care about.

Uninstall Acronis True Image 7. <Success>

Any version before 9.0 (or is it 10?) would only write directly to
CD-RW or DVD-RW, I believe. Perhaps this was the cause of the problem.
The alternative is to write the images in chunks to the hard drive
then burn them.

Larry

 

[Karl Childers]

In

In
[snip]
Downloaded and installed it on a box I don't care much about. First
(and last) thing I tried was to "Make a Bootable Recovery CD".
<Failed> OK. Maybe it was bad media. Try again. <Failed> OK.
Maybe it doesn't like this cheap-O-brand of media I'm feeding it.
Let me fetch one of those Memorex brand CD-Rs which have always
worked in this particular burner in the past. Try again. <Failed>
OK. Maybe the burner took a shit? Haven't used it in ages. Let's
check. Close Acronis. Insert cheap-O media and burn CD from random
files on machine using XP Wizard. <Success> Insert Memorex media
and burn another CD from more random files on the machine via the XP
Wizard. <Success> That's five new coasters I've made in the past
half hour. It's OK though. The Holidays are coming and I'll put
them to use.

I'm not about to dig any deeper in an attempt to troubleshoot a free
program on a machine I don't care about.

Uninstall Acronis True Image 7. <Success>

Any version before 9.0 (or is it 10?) would only write directly to
CD-RW or DVD-RW, I believe.

Not according to the 7.0 user guide. Says one can use either CD-R or CD-RW.
No mention of DVD at all. You don't have to take my word for it. Here's
the link:
http://us1.download.acronis.com/pdf/trueimage7.0_ug.en.pdf

Perhaps this was the cause of the problem.

Apparently not.

<snip>

 

[Larry Sabo]

In

Not according to the 7.0 user guide. Says one can use either CD-R or CD-RW.
No mention of DVD at all. You don't have to take my word for it. Here's
the link:
http://us1.download.acronis.com/pdf/trueimage7.0_ug.en.pdf


Apparently not.

<snip>

I thought it was supposed to write directly to DVDs, too, but the Help
on version 9, which I have, says "You will need DVD UDF recording
software installed for burning images on DVD disks. Examples of this
software are Roxio DirectCD or Ahead InCD." It is my understanding
that version 10 introduced the ability to write directly to DVDs.

In any case, I think it should write directly to CD-Rs, which it would
not do for you, so the point is moot.

Larry