Is Acronis True Image 10.0 OK for me?

[John Google]

Hi,

I have some basic questions with regard to restoring the C:\ drive in
the event of a major failure.

My current setup is a single hard disk with a 2G recovery partition and
a 74G NTFS partition which contains Windows XP and all my data. I have
an internal CD-ROM and an external USB DVD-RAM drive. Luckily, I have
never had to restore my system (touch wood) so have never used the
recovery CD. In fact, up to now, I've been quite cavalier about backing
up my data.


I'm thinking of buying 2 new disk drives.

1. A cheap internal drive used purely to contain a disk image of the
C:\ drive to be used to restore that drive in the event of a hardware
or major software problems.
2. An external massive hard disk to contain MPEG videos etc and various
backups / differential backups for 'Documents and Settings' and other
data folders.

I've searched the newsgroups and have seen recommendations for Acronis
True image 10.0. Is it a good bit of software? Would you recommend it
or can you suggest a better piece of software?

My main requirements are:

a) To be able to schedule a regular (weekly?) 'image copy' of my C:\
partition which will only be used if the disk crashes or a catastrophic
user error (i.e. me screwing something up) requires me to restore the
C:\ drive so that the O/S, All Applications etc work exactly as they
did at the time of the last copy.

b) To be able to backup various folders (both full and differential)
which contain my data. I'm happy that ATI 10.0 does this to my
requirements.

c) As much as possible should be done via the XP scheduler. I'm not too
concerned about archiving to DVD automatically as I'll do that manually
whenever I feel it is required.

So my main concern is how good it is ATI 10.0 at doing a).

How does it do the image copy of a drive? Do you need to reboot and run
from a boot-able CD? Can it do this while XP is running? If so, how
does it handle files held open by the O/S and applications. I can make
sure I'm logged off but I don't want to stop a load of services.

Also, if the C:\ drive crashes do I first need to install a clean copy
of XP before I do a restore of drive C:\? If I replace the C:\ drive
with a much bigger drive does ATI 10.0 handle this automatically or do
I need to manually recreate the exact partition sizes on the C:\ drive
myself?

Are there any other problems I haven't though of?

TIA.

 

[TaurArian [MS-MVP]]

Why don't you direct all your questions to the manufacturer -
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/forum/

I'm personally using Acronis and I'm very pleased with the product much more
preferable than Norton's Ghost and much easier to use.
I had no problems when recently I had to restore my computer from the backup.

K

--

==================================
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==================================
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| Hi,
|
| I have some basic questions with regard to restoring the C:\ drive in
| the event of a major failure.
|
| My current setup is a single hard disk with a 2G recovery partition and
| a 74G NTFS partition which contains Windows XP and all my data. I have
| an internal CD-ROM and an external USB DVD-RAM drive. Luckily, I have
| never had to restore my system (touch wood) so have never used the
| recovery CD. In fact, up to now, I've been quite cavalier about backing
| up my data.
|
|
| I'm thinking of buying 2 new disk drives.
|
| 1. A cheap internal drive used purely to contain a disk image of the
| C:\ drive to be used to restore that drive in the event of a hardware
| or major software problems.
| 2. An external massive hard disk to contain MPEG videos etc and various
| backups / differential backups for 'Documents and Settings' and other
| data folders.
|
| I've searched the newsgroups and have seen recommendations for Acronis
| True image 10.0. Is it a good bit of software? Would you recommend it
| or can you suggest a better piece of software?
|
| My main requirements are:
|
| a) To be able to schedule a regular (weekly?) 'image copy' of my C:\
| partition which will only be used if the disk crashes or a catastrophic
| user error (i.e. me screwing something up) requires me to restore the
| C:\ drive so that the O/S, All Applications etc work exactly as they
| did at the time of the last copy.
|
| b) To be able to backup various folders (both full and differential)
| which contain my data. I'm happy that ATI 10.0 does this to my
| requirements.
|
| c) As much as possible should be done via the XP scheduler. I'm not too
| concerned about archiving to DVD automatically as I'll do that manually
| whenever I feel it is required.
|
| So my main concern is how good it is ATI 10.0 at doing a).
|
| How does it do the image copy of a drive? Do you need to reboot and run
| from a boot-able CD? Can it do this while XP is running? If so, how
| does it handle files held open by the O/S and applications. I can make
| sure I'm logged off but I don't want to stop a load of services.
|
| Also, if the C:\ drive crashes do I first need to install a clean copy
| of XP before I do a restore of drive C:\? If I replace the C:\ drive
| with a much bigger drive does ATI 10.0 handle this automatically or do
| I need to manually recreate the exact partition sizes on the C:\ drive
| myself?
|
| Are there any other problems I haven't though of?
|
| TIA.
|

 

[John Google]

Thanks!

I didn't know they had forums.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have some basic questions with regard to restoring the C:\ drive
in the event of a major failure.

My current setup is a single hard disk with a 2G recovery partition
and a 74G NTFS partition which contains Windows XP and all my data.
I have an internal CD-ROM and an external USB DVD-RAM drive.
Luckily, I have never had to restore my system (touch wood) so have
never used the recovery CD. In fact, up to now, I've been quite
cavalier about backing up my data.


I'm thinking of buying 2 new disk drives.

1. A cheap internal drive used purely to contain a disk image of the
C:\ drive to be used to restore that drive in the event of a
hardware or major software problems.
2. An external massive hard disk to contain MPEG videos etc and
various backups / differential backups for 'Documents and Settings'
and other data folders.

I've searched the newsgroups and have seen recommendations for
Acronis True image 10.0. Is it a good bit of software? Would you
recommend it or can you suggest a better piece of software?

My main requirements are:

a) To be able to schedule a regular (weekly?) 'image copy' of my C:\
partition which will only be used if the disk crashes or a
catastrophic user error (i.e. me screwing something up) requires me
to restore the C:\ drive so that the O/S, All Applications etc work
exactly as they did at the time of the last copy.

b) To be able to backup various folders (both full and differential)
which contain my data. I'm happy that ATI 10.0 does this to my
requirements.

c) As much as possible should be done via the XP scheduler. I'm not
too concerned about archiving to DVD automatically as I'll do that
manually whenever I feel it is required.

So my main concern is how good it is ATI 10.0 at doing a).

How does it do the image copy of a drive? Do you need to reboot and
run from a boot-able CD? Can it do this while XP is running? If so,
how does it handle files held open by the O/S and applications. I
can make sure I'm logged off but I don't want to stop a load of
services.

Also, if the C:\ drive crashes do I first need to install a clean
copy of XP before I do a restore of drive C:\? If I replace the C:\
drive with a much bigger drive does ATI 10.0 handle this
automatically or do I need to manually recreate the exact partition
sizes on the C:\ drive myself?

Are there any other problems I haven't though of?

Why don't you direct all your questions to the manufacturer -
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/forum/

I'm personally using Acronis and I'm very pleased with the product
much more preferable than Norton's Ghost and much easier to use.
I had no problems when recently I had to restore my computer from
the backup.

I didn't know they had forums.

Even without forums - one should always check out the information about a
product they are thinking of purchasing straight from said products web
page. They usually at least have a FAQ section (Frequently Asked Questions)
and a support section - where you could email your questions directly to the
manufacturer.

In general - if they do not answer you and/or their support web pages are
horribly maintained - you've at least discovered what type of support to
expect from the company if you purchase their product.