Comments for Acronis TrueImage Home - Backup Software

Comment from Lawrence Brown on 2009-10-06

2009-10-06T18:09:59Z

Leo,
I enjoyed your video series on using Acronis backup & recovery software. I used it as a tutorial. However, your "How to backup" series reflects on Acronis True Image Home 2009. Last weekend I purchased Acronis True Image Home 2010. My O.S. is Windows XP Home, SP3. I'm using my external USB drive with a Western Digital 500GB external drive. I tried to follow your examples in the video tutorial, but the Acronis 2010 version has a much different interface. The new interface doesn't appear to be user friendly as shown in your video for the 2009 version! I somehow managed to create a bootable rescue media (CD) and tested it. I've backed-up my C: drive on my external Western Digital Passport hard drive. Now, when I open Acronis from my C: drive it states, "Your system is not fully protected". Perfrom the following operations: (Backup My System)" Lastly, I can't schedule incremental backups, as my external hard drive is not continuously connected to my USB port. Should I ignore the incremental backups and only do them manually? Now, my question is, would you be willing to update your video series to reflect on the NEW Acronis 2010 version?
Please advise.
Thank you,

Lawrence Brown

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Comment from Adolfo Picado on 2009-09-26

2009-09-26T19:25:39Z

This is awesome advise. I have been for years not backing up my computer not knowing that there are different ways to do just that. I have not tried the software but, trusting that Acronis is a good choice, things will be much easier. Thank you!

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Comment from Don on 2009-09-09

2009-09-09T15:53:58Z

I was thinking about purchasing Acronis True Image Home 2009 until I read the comments here and a not to flattering review from PCMag.com dated 12.04.08. I am tempted to go with Leo's positive recommendation, but some doubt has been created...

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Comment from Glenn Haslam on 2009-08-11

2009-08-12T00:33:09Z

Regarding the comment asking 'Is there a backup software that can create a system backup image without being installed?' You can just use Acronis TIH 2009 Boot CD, there is no need to install the Acronis program, you are able to make a backup image directly this way. I have done this myself and it seems to work on most occasions without any issues. I did encounter one problem creating a backup to an external USB drive, in which Acronis gave an incorrect message that the drive had bad sectors and would not create the backup image, however this only happened once and hasn't occurred since.

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Comment from Chris on 2009-04-20

2009-04-20T19:40:41Z

Is there anyway to ghost a hard drive without installing the software? I would like to use Acronis but it must be installed. Can it be installed to a USB drive to carry around so we can back up any computer right from the USB?

If not is there any software you might recommend to do this? And how about DriveImage XML ?

Also how does Acronis and DriveImage compare to WindowsXP backup utility. Can the Windows Backup utility ghost the drive just the same as Acronis?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I'm not aware of a truly portable no-install solution. Problem is most imagers need to install a driver or something at a low leve to allow them access to either at the sector level or to files that are in use. Perhaps a reader will know of an alternative. (I don't think Windows backup does true image backups.)

- Leo
21-Apr-2009

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Comment from Larry on 2009-04-13

2009-04-13T20:41:56Z

I've been using Acronis for a few years as an advanced user albeit not a techie. My experience is mixed. When it works, Acronis is a dream. However, on 3 different machines over the past 3 years I have had corruption issues where the backup is confirmed and verified but cannot be accessed - therefore, worthless. In each case, I've had to uninstall the program, then re-install being sure that I have deleted the 'Secure Zone' beforehand. I've experienced this problem with the last 3 versions of Acronis. I'm currently using version 10.

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Comment from Bob on 2009-02-19

2009-02-20T00:50:40Z

I have been using Acronis since version 8, now using 10 without issues. Love the program. I also build computers.

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Comment from Harold D Jones on 2009-01-14

2009-01-15T03:38:35Z

Ok, I back up to my D:Drive, my C: is now erratic and I want to make the D:Drive my boot drive. I don't want to recover to an unstable hard drive, what are my options using acronis?

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Comment from John Goemans on 2009-01-11

2009-01-11T15:32:12Z

After reading Leo's recommendation on ACRONIS backup software, I purchased the product and installed it on my machine. Now, everytime I power on the laptop, I get the message "non system disk hit any key to continue". I hit a key and the machine continues to load. What is that? That scares the hell out of me. What kind of software does that? I removed the software for and everything appears to be working fine again.

Thanks but no thanks. Just write off 50 bucks and move on. When a software package starts fooling around with the system software load process, it is not what I want. All I wanted was a simple backup procedure so that If I loose my harddrive which happened on a previous machine, I would have a mirror copy to reload onto the new hard drive and move on.

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Comment from Dave on 2009-01-05

2009-01-06T02:24:31Z

I have used acronis for a number of years, and must say it does have some odd issues. First one must know what they are doing to use this program. 90% of bad reviews are from people who have little idea of what they are actually doing. They do NOT read the instructions. If one is going to backup to usb hard drives, they must have a drive that windows will identify easily. Many external drives are little more than a VERY cheap built box with a good hard drive. I buy external boxes from bytecc with a cooling fan. If one is using a box without cooling you are using a hard drive toaster. I have had to take dozens of manufactured external drives apart to get to the drive to remove needed files after they boxes failed to read the drive. If you want to use acronis, MAKE CERTAIN YOU ARE USING THE LATEST UPDATE. If you attempt to recover from usb, MAKE CERTAIN THE USB DRIVE IS CONNECTED BEFORE YOU START YOUR MACHINE WITH ACRONIS BOOT DISK. If one cannot figure out how to use the software properly, they should enlist the help of someone with more savy computer skills. Asking for help from someone who knows computers, will only increase your knoledge, as they can walk you through a procedure. I clone, backup, and maintain dozens of machines with acronis without issues. On odd occasions, usually BECAUSE OF MALWARE PROBLEMS, acronis will not work properly. If you are running windows without proper virus and spyware protection, DO NOT EXPECT ANY SOFTWARE TO RUN PROPERLY. If you are a person who likes to push buttons without understanding what they are doing, DO NOT USE ACRONIS, YOU WILL ONLY BLAME THE SOFTWARE FOR ISSUES YOU CREATED.

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Comment from ingo on 2009-01-05

2009-01-05T11:19:03Z

One of the best file centers is Megaupload! For a proper search and downloading use http://megauploadfiles.com/

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Comment from Bob on 2008-12-28

2008-12-28T10:02:15Z

I use Genie Backup Manager Pro and it's quite reliable, although one cannot save a disk image. I've seen here and also elsewhere on the Web that there are big problems with Acronis, and so, even though I've bought it, I don't use it.

By the way, in the first bullet above, did you mean to say that you could restore the entire "HD", rather than "CD" ?

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Comment from Don Cameron on 2008-12-24

2008-12-24T11:26:36Z

I wonder if Range Rover may have created an Acronis Secure Zone on his USB drive rather than merely backing up to a folder . The Acronis Manual says specifically that the Secure Zone will not work on an external USB drive , I back up to a Folder e.g. BakupC on my USB and a restore has not been a problem .
Note that the Secure Zone is formatted Fat 32 not NTFS and therein may lie the problem possibly ?

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Comment from whs on 2008-12-23

2008-12-23T21:08:37Z

For the last year i have been using Norton Ghost to backup 3 systems. But on the 4th system, I use the Maxtor One Touch disk and the Maxtor Manager that comes with it. I find this to be the ultimate in Ease of Use. A lot simpler than the Ghost, Acronis, Macrium, Clonezilla and all the others. Plus it comes with the recovery disk - so you don't even have to worry about burning that like when you download any of the others from the web.

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Comment from Ronald P. Nosack on 2008-12-23

2008-12-23T20:37:06Z

Just to let everyone know. Acronis is not that reliable. Oh yes, it completes the im-age, and you can verify it too. But then when the fateful day arrives that you really need it - it fails. We see this over and over on the Wilder’s forum.
http://tinyurl.com/94qc58
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?s=00ded41e5713f77bed83ba85c0f1d1da&f=65
So if you go down this route, test your image to make sure it is good. And the only way to safely do this is to throw in a new HD, and attempt to restore to it.
I’m a computer tech. When I’m doing heavy duty malware cleaning or other low level repairs, I clone the customer’s drive over to one of mine. After I’m done, I clone back. This way I always have a safety net if Windows spirals out of con-trol. Anyhow, twice Acronis has corrupted the source drive. The last time I was cloning a new Vista HP laptop, and Acronis froze up. After rebooting the source drive would not boot! This is unacceptable. I was able to fix it though.
So be wary of your backups, and be pre-pared for mishaps. Do some of your backups with the highly reliable older Ghost program. I use v. 11 Corporate or Ghost 2003, boot CDs.
Packrat1947

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Comment from eesamp on 2008-08-28

2008-08-28T18:16:20Z

I have had TrueImage 11 now for since April, 2008. Most of its features work well, except for "Save Application Settings". If I select the All button, the function crashes. If I do subsets it works fine. I can do 4 or 5 in the list at a time. I use Vista Home Premium with SP1. I reported this to Acronis and they are "working on it". They had me send crash dumps after each new build, but to date it is still not functioning. Also, only a small number of applications (9 or 10) show in the list. I don't now if this correct.

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Comment from Linda on 2008-08-12

2008-08-13T04:55:41Z

I've had Acronis 10 for quite a while. I use an external 160GB hard drive for backup storage from my 400GB Sata drive.

Finally I had to restore. It went very smoothly and I was pleased at the initial outcome. However, (and I assume it's because Acronis runs on the Linux program) that all of my drive letters were changed. Hence, all my shortcuts on the desktop were out of sequence.

So I engaged Partition Magic to change them back to what they originally were. I had 4 partitions, operating system, programs, video and documents,pictures,music. So I went to change the letters back to what they originally were; however, because of an unused removable disk letter (one of the memory stick drives) taking up one of the original drive letter names I couldn't change all of them back to their correct paths.

And I'm still trying to figure out how to rectify and try to reason why it changed the drive letters.

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Comment from Leo on 2008-07-18

2008-07-18T21:26:31Z

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I guess I don't understand the issue you're having. The fact
that it's on an external drive *shouldn't* impact anything.
Yes, I'll reiterate that I confirmed the ability to restore
from an external USB drive before recommending this product.

The only thing I can think of is that there's something
different about your drive or USB setup that the Acronis
restoration program doesn't recognize. While that's no
consolation to you it's certainly *not* a common case.

As long as Windows recognizes the drive, you'll at a minimum
be able access that backup from within Windows.

Leo

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Comment from RangeRover on 2008-07-17

2008-07-18T04:23:15Z

I find a glaring problem with this article that was slightly covered by a comment:
I have a 180GB backup of my entire system using Acronis True Image 11. Sounds responsible right?
Well, when the time came to restore my OS with TI 11, It simply said, and I have realized too late, that my backup on my 500GB External drive cannot be used with TI11 - so what's the point? I can't very well store a 200GB image on my internal HD.
I'm at a loss as to how you say that it works so great from your external drive....
It backed up alright, giving me a nice 'false' sense of security. That recover disk booted, I found the image on my external (all as instructed) and then I find out that it will not apply the image even though it's found it, because it's an external USB drive. That is a real buzz-kill!

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Comment from Roy Phillips on 2008-07-08

2008-07-08T22:55:50Z

Hi, I would like to mention that any external hard disc that is used for your back up must be removed from the system after your backup, I made the mistake of using two partition's in my External hard disc, one for my backups the other for programmes that I didn't want on my computer internal hard disc, hence I always had my External hard disc connected, don't know why yet, but my backup was corrupted, I lost all my backups the Acronis 11 partition was completely empty.
Did the Acronis report, Acronis told me of the corruption.
One good thing came out of this, my Try and Decide had never worked, I have now found that the programme can be re downloaded from my account on the Acronis web site, this cured my problems with the Acronis programme.
I have had to restore on two occasions, Acronis worked like a dream each time, it certainly does what it says it can do.
Hope this helps someone.
Regards
Roy Phillips

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Comment from Eugene H Brown on 2008-06-09

2008-06-10T04:36:41Z

By chance only just purch Acronis True Image Home V 11 and your article was perfect guidence for using what I purchased in a Pro-manner.
Thanks a Bunch,
Gene Brown in Charlotte, NC

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Comment from Dominick on 2008-05-30

2008-05-30T15:05:59Z

I have been using TI for years and it has saved me lots of grief on numerous occasions.

I do an incremental every night and once a week start over with a full image and then incremental for a week.

The Clone option is also a good idea.
You can clone your C drive to an internal hard drive and if your C drive fails then all you have to do is physically switch the drives or cable and boot up and your back up and running in minutes and then you can replace your disk that failed at a later time.

For those not familiar with that familiar, it just makes your second hard drive another C drive.

http://www.domdedomdom.com/

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Comment from Igor Brejc on 2008-05-29

2008-05-29T15:58:51Z

Leo,

I'm not attempting to back the USB drive nor am I using it for storing backups. The problem is that the Acronis TIH checks ALL drives before it starts running backup jobs and it somehow "remembers" that I have an USB drive and tries to check it, even though it's not used in backups. Then it falsely reports "bad sectors" for it and doesn't want to continue with the job.

The original "sinner" is Windows, which sometimes doesn't recognize the drive when returning from hibernation. But Acronis options should be flexible enough to be able disable drive checking.

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Comment from Leo on 2008-05-28

2008-05-28T17:22:42Z

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Igor: it's a little unclear, I can't tell if you're
attempting to backup that external drive or not.

If you are my recommendation would be to set up two separate
backup jobs, one for it specifically that can fail when it's
not around, and another for "everything else" that should
presumably keep working.

Leo

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Comment from Leo on 2008-05-28

2008-05-28T17:19:09Z

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Susan: in my case ATI did recognize my external USB drive,
and I've restored directly from that. My guess is that it
has to do with the age of and/or USB support in the
machine's BIOS, but I could be wrong.

Leo

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Comment from Igor Brejc on 2008-05-27

2008-05-28T06:33:55Z

Hello Leo,

I've purchased Acronis TIH based on your previous recommendations. Though the SW itself is good, I have one issue (which I spent a week discussing with Acronis support, but that didn't resolve it): I have an external USB drive but I'm not using it for backing up (I have an extra SATA drive for backups). But the USB drive sometimes does not get recognized by the OS after waking up from hibernation. This in turn causes the Acronis to fail on the startup even though the drive isn't really used by Acronis. The reason for this is that Acronis checks all of the disks before running the backup job. This is kind of a killer for me, since I cannot leave it to do its job without my intervention. I would like to be able to turn this disk checking off, but this isn't possible in the current Acronis TIH version.

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Comment from Susan Daum on 2008-05-27

2008-05-27T20:16:17Z

I did recently have to restore a backup of an acronis image. The image had to be on the hard drive (not the externally connected USB drive where I store a few images. But other than that, it went flawlessly.
I've been using Acronis TI for quite a number of years, and like the program. (I used to use Drive Image, and that was harder to use. )
Susan

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Comment from Leo on 2008-05-25

2008-05-25T16:19:57Z

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While I totally understand the concern, I'm approaching it
from a much more practical nature: the harder you make it,
the less likely average folks are actually going to do it.
Having to remember to take manual steps, particularly
rebooting a couple of times, is a huge barrier.

In my experience Acronis actually does a fairly impressive
job at this. (I'm certain it's not the only one, but it's
the one I have experience with.) The bare-metal restores (a
complete restoration of the machine image) I've performed
have all worked exactly as expected.

I have seen Acronis fail a backup because things were "in
use". My belief is that there may still be a few situations
that it cannot handle safely, in which case it takes the
safer of two evils, fails the backup and at least notifies.
But it's rare (and might have even been a bug in ATI 10).

But in my opinion the imporance of actually backing up
regularly - and that means not having to think about it in
most cases - outwieghs what appears to be a very, very small
risk, if it's an actual risk at all.

Leo

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Comment from Michael Horowitz on 2008-05-22

2008-05-23T00:09:16Z

I disagree with the concept of backing up Windows while it is running. You wouldn't backup a Word document while you are in the middle of editing it with Word. Acronis may be a great product and be able to do this, but it's an error prone thing to attempt. I prefer the easier-to-program approach of backing up Windows while it is not running, that is, from a bootable CD. This is, however, more work. To each his own.

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Comment from LeRoy Laycock on 2008-05-20

2008-05-21T02:48:51Z

I had Acronis True Image 10 and have upgraded to Ver. 11. I have an external Maxtor disk and keep about three full-disk backups. My problem?, I have never had a failure where I had to restore from the backup; however, I hear many tales of problems with restoring backups and all I can do is 'cross-my-fingers' and hope it works when/if I need it!

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Comment from Ray on 2008-05-17

2008-05-18T00:05:09Z

I tried Acronis TrueImage a couple of years ago - it had a lot of problems then, and judging by their forum, I wasn't alone in having them. One of the big issues was the boot record modification for the auto-recover feature. Users found that if they uninstalled TrueImage, the Windows installation was hosed as well.

Steve Gibson put me on to Drive Snapshot, a blindingly fast, easy to use, and cheap, disk imaging utility for making full and differential backups. I run it using the Window's scheduler once a day; a differential backup of my 500GB system drive takes less than 10 minutes including verification. Combined with a bootable BartPE Windows CD I've always been able to recover from a disk or Windows installation failure.

For data, and yes, I separate my data storage from my OS and program files, most compression utilities these days come with excellent backup features. I recommend 7-Zip, available for free on SourceForge. It's fast, easy to setup, very flexible, and handles "genourmous" files.

I've found the combination of Drive Snapshot and 7-Zip very easy to use at a fraction of the cost of the Acronis applications.

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