Acronis ???

[garyr]

I've been using Acronis True Image Home 2009 for a couple of years,
faithfully backing up my computer to an external hard drive every few days
or after any significant change. Today, for the first time, I tried to do a
complete restore and found I couldn't. The instructions for doing the
restore were ambiguous and did not correspond to descriptions in the Help
text. An error message was displayed at one point that was completely
mystifying. I can live without doing the restore but I'd like to give
Acronis the boot. Is there another product you would recommend for backups?

I'm using Win XP Pro, SP3.

 

[dadiOH]

I've been using Acronis True Image Home 2009 for a couple of years,
faithfully backing up my computer to an external hard drive every few
days or after any significant change. Today, for the first time, I
tried to do a complete restore and found I couldn't. The instructions
for doing the restore were ambiguous and did not correspond to
descriptions in the Help text. An error message was displayed at one
point that was completely mystifying. I can live without doing the
restore but I'd like to give Acronis the boot. Is there another
product you would recommend for backups?
I'm using Win XP Pro, SP3.

Paragon

Free
http://download.cnet.com/Paragon-Backup-amp-Recovery-Advanced-Free/3000-2242_4-10972187.html

All
http://www.paragon-software.com/products/home/

Other free stuff
http://www.paragon-software.com/free/

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[SC Tom]

I've been using Acronis True Image Home 2009 for a couple of years,
faithfully backing up my computer to an external hard drive every few days
or after any significant change. Today, for the first time, I tried to do
a
complete restore and found I couldn't. The instructions for doing the
restore were ambiguous and did not correspond to descriptions in the Help
text. An error message was displayed at one point that was completely
mystifying. I can live without doing the restore but I'd like to give
Acronis the boot. Is there another product you would recommend for
backups?

I'm using Win XP Pro, SP3.

Not to jump on you too much, but. . . If you got this product to save your
bacon at some time, shouldn't you have learned how to use it, and see if it
worked sometime within the past two years before a restore was necessary?
Just saying. . .

I've used ATI Home for quite some time now, and have not had any problems
restoring on XP or Windows 7. If you can remember or duplicate the
mystifying message, you might possibly get help with it. It may not even be
an Acronis problem.

Others have recommended Macrium Reflect- there's a free version of it- and
Paragon. I haven't used either, but have read good reviews of both.

 

[Jim]

I've been using Acronis True Image Home 2009 for a couple of years,
faithfully backing up my computer to an external hard drive every few days
or after any significant change. Today, for the first time, I tried to do a
complete restore and found I couldn't. The instructions for doing the
restore were ambiguous and did not correspond to descriptions in the Help
text. An error message was displayed at one point that was completely
mystifying. I can live without doing the restore but I'd like to give
Acronis the boot. Is there another product you would recommend for backups?

I'm using Win XP Pro, SP3.

Macrium Reflect ( free ) .

 

[thanatoid]

I've been using Acronis True Image Home 2009 for a couple
of years, faithfully backing up my computer to an external
hard drive every few days or after any significant change.
Today, for the first time, I tried to do a complete restore
and found I couldn't. The instructions for doing the
restore were ambiguous and did not correspond to
descriptions in the Help text. An error message was
displayed at one point that was completely mystifying. I
can live without doing the restore but I'd like to give
Acronis the boot. Is there another product you would
recommend for backups?

I'm using Win XP Pro, SP3.

When Acronis still had live support, I found out that
/sometimes/, if you change a /significant/ hardware part (amount
of RAM, for instance, does not count), it will not restore. But
it does not appear that this is your problem.

Have you tried to restore using the emergency recovery CD (which
you, of course, have created and keep in a safe place)?
Sometimes the thing just does not want to work from within
Windows, but works perfectly booting from the CD.

 

[garyr]

Not to jump on you too much, but. . . If you got this product to save your
bacon at some time, shouldn't you have learned how to use it, and see if
it worked sometime within the past two years before a restore was
necessary? Just saying. . .

I've used ATI Home for quite some time now, and have not had any problems
restoring on XP or Windows 7. If you can remember or duplicate the
mystifying message, you might possibly get help with it. It may not even
be an Acronis problem.

Others have recommended Macrium Reflect- there's a free version of it- and
Paragon. I haven't used either, but have read good reviews of both.

Thanks for your reply. I agree with your scolding, I should have learned how
to use this thing. I've restored files from time to time and that always
went just fine.

My backups are on an external USB hard drive. I start Acronis and after the
restore parameters have been specified the computer must be restarted. With
the USB drive plugged in I get an error message "Attempting to boot from USB
device. NTLDR is missing". If I unplug the drive, restart and plug in the
drive before BIOS is complete, the Acronis restore begins but after a short
time another error message appears: "W00040011 Specify location of the
volume 29" and a window is displayed allowing you to browse and locate the
volume. I tried several things but nothing worked.

 

[pjp]

Thanks for your reply. I agree with your scolding, I should have learned
how
to use this thing. I've restored files from time to time and that always
went just fine.

My backups are on an external USB hard drive. I start Acronis and after
the
restore parameters have been specified the computer must be restarted.
With
the USB drive plugged in I get an error message "Attempting to boot from
USB
device. NTLDR is missing". If I unplug the drive, restart and plug in the
drive before BIOS is complete, the Acronis restore begins but after a
short
time another error message appears: "W00040011 Specify location of the
volume 29" and a window is displayed allowing you to browse and locate the
volume. I tried several things but nothing worked.

That sounds like a "boot order" problem, e.g. when usb drive is connected pc
tries to boot from it instead of cd drive.

Might want to look at the boot order in the bios insuring cd drive(s) listed
first and/or there may be some hot key during bootup where the BIOS gives
you a list of what to try booting from (in which case try cd drive rather
than usb of course). Sounds like pc should be able to boot off cd drive with
the external connected and that perhaps will then solve the error message.

I just had small issue where pc would not boot from one of the cd drives. I
was so used to oldfer pc only having the choice "CD" that had forgotten this
pc you actually have to specify which one (have two in pc) so add the place
them as 1st/2nd in order specifically before hard disk to have both work.

It also sounds like you haven't created the stand alone boot cd that Acronis
can make? Do so and try that to boot pc. My experience has been overall
positive with that approach even though it has failed trying to do one thing
I expected it to (restore just will not see 2nd internal hard disk even
though both BIOS and Windows does on one pc I have)

 

[philo]

I've been using Acronis True Image Home 2009 for a couple of years,
faithfully backing up my computer to an external hard drive every few days
or after any significant change. Today, for the first time, I tried to do a
complete restore and found I couldn't. The instructions for doing the
restore were ambiguous and did not correspond to descriptions in the Help
text. An error message was displayed at one point that was completely
mystifying. I can live without doing the restore but I'd like to give
Acronis the boot. Is there another product you would recommend for backups?

I'm using Win XP Pro, SP3.

I use Acronis whenever I need to clone a drive
and it's always worked without a problem

As to data backups...I;ve always thought utilities were rather absurd...
it makes a lot more sense (to me) to simply copy data to another
location...some kind of compressed, propitiatory format never seemed
like a good idea

 

[garyr]

That sounds like a "boot order" problem, e.g. when usb drive is connected
pc tries to boot from it instead of cd drive.

Might want to look at the boot order in the bios insuring cd drive(s)
listed first and/or there may be some hot key during bootup where the BIOS
gives you a list of what to try booting from (in which case try cd drive
rather than usb of course). Sounds like pc should be able to boot off cd
drive with the external connected and that perhaps will then solve the
error message.

I just had small issue where pc would not boot from one of the cd drives.
I was so used to oldfer pc only having the choice "CD" that had forgotten
this pc you actually have to specify which one (have two in pc) so add the
place them as 1st/2nd in order specifically before hard disk to have both
work.

It also sounds like you haven't created the stand alone boot cd that
Acronis can make? Do so and try that to boot pc. My experience has been
overall positive with that approach even though it has failed trying to do
one thing I expected it to (restore just will not see 2nd internal hard
disk even though both BIOS and Windows does on one pc I have)

You were spot-on. The boot order had the USB device first. I changed that to
last and am able to restart now with the USB hard drive attached. That
probably also explains why I couldn't restart with an external (USB)
sound card attached. Now if I could just get up the nerve to try the
restore...

Thanks to all who replied to my post.

 

[pjp]

I use Acronis whenever I need to clone a drive
and it's always worked without a problem

As to data backups...I;ve always thought utilities were rather absurd...
it makes a lot more sense (to me) to simply copy data to another
location...some kind of compressed, propitiatory format never seemed like
a good idea

I'll certainly agree to that! Externals and shares on other networked pc's
have served me well.

 

[VanguardLH]

Paragon

Free
http://download.cnet.com/Paragon-Backup-amp-Recovery-Advanced-Free/3000-2242_4-10972187.html

All
http://www.paragon-software.com/products/home/

Other free stuff
http://www.paragon-software.com/free/

When they went to B&R 2010, Paragon dropped the cyclic backups (where
you could specify to do differential backups with a full backup after
every N differentials). This let you reduce the size of your
*scheduled* backups by not having all them as full backups (or doing
differentials with the first the same as a full backup but then always
thereafter doing differentials which meant the full got very old). Did
they restore the cyclic backup? It was in the prior free version, they
dropped it in the next free version, and now they have a newer free
version but I don't know if they restored the cyclic backup feature (I
doubt it).

 

[dadiOH]

When they went to B&R 2010, Paragon dropped the cyclic backups (where
you could specify to do differential backups with a full backup after
every N differentials). This let you reduce the size of your
*scheduled* backups by not having all them as full backups (or doing
differentials with the first the same as a full backup but then always
thereafter doing differentials which meant the full got very old).
Did they restore the cyclic backup?

Sorry, don't know, I use an ancient version of their Hard Drive Manager.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[dadiOH]

Thanks for your reply. I agree with your scolding, I should have
learned how to use this thing. I've restored files from time to time
and that always went just fine.

My backups are on an external USB hard drive.

I suspect that is your problem. Can that drive boot?

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[Alan]

I had an identical experience. Fortunately I recalled changing the
boot order to try booting from a USB drive, and not switching it back.
Duh! Worked fine when fixed.

If you are recovering using the boot CD, I have found there are a
couple of places where the program seems to freeze. When you hit a
key, the computer beeps. In one case, this goes on for a minute or
so. Disconcerting, to say the least. However, it will eventually
finish whatever it is doing. I have not had this when restoring from
the version on the HD. Like you, I have ATI 2009 and at least in my
configuration have found it bulletproof.

 

[philo]

I'll certainly agree to that! Externals and shares on other networked pc's
have served me well.

Hard drives are so cheap

I usually put my data on three separate drives

 

[VanguardLH]

Sorry, don't know, I use an ancient version of their Hard Drive Manager.

Did a test install inside a virtual machine.

- You get blocked on the install. It throws you at their web site to
dole out your email address which they then send you the product and
serial key via email. You have to wait for the email to show up before
you can continue the installation (assuming the email shows up since
there is no guarantee of delivery for email or that their process
functions correctly to generate the email).

- There is no cyclic backup where you can select to do differentials
with a full backup every Nth backup.

- The free version lets you save differential backups but YOU must
select the full backup on which it is based. That means if you schedule
this backup, all differentials are based against the same full backup.
Obviously the full backup gets old as you end up only doing
differentials against it. You would have to manually edit the backup
job to select a different full backup to start a newer chain of backups.
That also means YOU will have to do a full backup before you run that
differentials based on it. Personally I prefer an *automated* backup
schedule rather than me having to remember to do the backups.

- The free version doesn't come with any help. Instead they throw you
at their web site which obviously means you need Internet connectivity
when you're trying to get help on using their product. You then have to
wait until the link to the .pdf file eventually gets downloaded. This
saved all of 5MB from their 96MB download.

So they dropped the cyclic backup and haven't yet restored it. The only
advantage of Paragon's free offering over Macrium Reflect Free is the
inclusion of differential backups; however, that requires user
intervention to do a *new* full backup so you can select it in a
differential backup. Paragon's support of differential backups devolves
you into manual operation of the program, not really the point of a
backup program where scheduling ensures the backups get done whether you
remember to do them or not.

With differentials losing their advantage in Paragon in a comparison
against Macrium Reflect Free, you then have to consider other
advantages/disadvantages between these two freebies. There are some
reviews that compare the free backup products. This one is a bit dated:

http://dottech.org/featured/11628

Paragon still has some features missing in Macrium but you have to
consider if they are important to you. For example, how often have you
really needed your OS and host to shutdown after a scheduled backup has
completed? This article, as well as other comments I have seen, shows
Macrium is faster and produces smaller image files than Paragon;
however, I've also heard that restores using Macrium are longer than for
Paragon. Yet it's likely you will perform far more backup jobs than
restore jobs.

 

[BillW50]

In

When Acronis still had live support, I found out that
/sometimes/, if you change a /significant/ hardware part (amount
of RAM, for instance, does not count), it will not restore. But
it does not appear that this is your problem.

Have you tried to restore using the emergency recovery CD (which
you, of course, have created and keep in a safe place)?
Sometimes the thing just does not want to work from within
Windows, but works perfectly booting from the CD.

I find it odd that very few people ever mention that Acronis True Image
doesn't restore from all USB drives. I have a half of dozen of them and
some models it will now restore at all (can't see them) and others, some
days it can and some days it can't.

And it is only a problem under Acronis True Image and nothing else. As
the BIOS can see all of them. So can Windows as well as other backup
software. Acronis True Image admits this is true and recommends
restoring from an internal drive. Well that is just unacceptable to me
as a solution. Yet Acronis True Image has no problems at all backing up
to any of these drives. It is only restoring it can't see some of them.

I have the free version of ATI and 2009 and 2011 as well. The problem is
there on all of these versions. I read somebody mentioning that ATI
doesn't work well with some USB chipsets. Might be true as far as I
know.