I've been an avid G**** (competitor) user for several years now and upon looking to discard the idea of always having to put CD's/floppies in the drive every time I wish to perform a system restore I explored True Image 8, 9, and 10.
The reason I used G**** (v.8 and under boot disks) was because it was consistent--I could use it on ANY system without wondering if it was going to work or not, therefore it was my "one disk fits all" toolkit.
1. True Image, on the other hand, has failed on systems with low graphics memory because it uses a GUI where I'd literally have to guess my way around the menus and hope I clicked the right area of the screen to restore a backup. (Think frozen windows program where you move the window and it "sticks"/creates "trails" everywhere you move it.)
2. USB support is EXTREMELY buggy! It is a toss-up as to whether True Image (any version) will detect your USB ports/drives correctly. It may/may not work, or you might spend 2 hours waiting on TI to finish analyzing your drives only to find that perhaps it's hung up and never will.
3. Why, oh why, is SAFE VERSION removed from the startup entries of Secure Zone
I've not tested it with the version 10 CD in that usually the CD's have the option, but I don't care about the CD versions at this point because I want an imaging utility that does NOT require a CD AND functions as the same time--outside of windows. Perhaps safe version would work from the boot CD, whereas it has before on systems that weren't compatible with True Image, but again, that defeats the purpose at this point if it isn't included in the "Secure Zone" boot menu. (Yes, I have selected F11 twice--once to bring up TI and once to input various parameters suggested in the forums.)
And no, unplugging all of my USB drives and devices is NOT a solution. It is an annoying work-around that is more of an annoyance than simply putting in a G**** boot CD. I have an Asus M2N-E SLI with 6 USB ports, a Dell FPW2405 monitor with 4 USB ports and various storage ports, and a Windows Mobile device with storage on it as well. Most of these ports and drives are in use. No, an end user should not have to "downgrade" their technology usage--software manufacturers should "upgrade" their product to keep up and remain compatible.
4. RELIABILITY: An imaging "solution" HAS to be reliable to be of any use to and end user. A user has to know that once they've backed up their data, if they upgrade their system or drive schemes, data will still remain accessible. That is the point of backing up! If the imaging solution will work on one machine, but not another, dependency doubts arise and the only alternative is to revert to a solution with very low hardware requirements (legacy hardware compatibility) that "just works" wherever you use it, without spending 3 hours trying to get the application to function correctly (as I have this morning to no avail) with today's hardware. The idea is to SAVE time, not to INVEST it.
In theory, "Security Zone" is just what the doctor ordered. In execution, True Image has consistently failed miserably with one exception--a 5-6 year old machine with only one USB drive attached and nothing else.
Albeit, I've researched reviews and True Image really gets an appealing rap from what I've read. Being 1 for 3 with my systems, I must just be one of the very unlucky exceptions to the general rule.
March 23rd, 2007, 04:30 PM
TI 10 USB and General Thoughts
