Acronis True Image WISH-LIST thread

[Dysthymia]

Just thought it would be nice to make a wish-list thread, and with some luck perhaps some of this might get added to future version of TrueImage.

So just post here which features you think Acronis TrueImage currently is missing and that you would like to see get added.

Here is my list:

• Ability to burn images directly to DVD's and make them bootable. <- this is written in bold, hint hint Acronis. - feature has been already requested
• Automatically start "schedhlp.exe, schedul2.exe, TrueImageMonitor.exe" only when TrueImage is in use and shut these programs down when it's not.
• Having full control when exploring images, just if it were another HDD. Giving you permission to delete/update/rename/move/etc files and folders on the image. (I guess this might not be technically possible?) - feature is implemented

[mike_wells]

Excellent thread! That is, if everyone does not get absurd and ask for things that are of no value and/or too costly or time consuming to implement. I have already submitted my "Wish List" to Vladimir in Tech Support so not wishing to be redundant I will only summarize;

1. Selectable auto image verification (for scheduled jobs) - feature was implemented
2. Append date/time (simulate incremental) for full image file names on scheduled jobs that are not going into a Secure Zone. - feature has been already requested
3. Fully user manageable Secure Zone.

1. Get rid of the TI scheduler (or make it optional). Why not use the built-in windows task scheduler to kick TI awake when needed?

2. - feature has been already requested.

3. An option to merge an image and it's incrementals into a single image (which can play homebase for further incrementals). And of course an option to make an incremental update and automatically squeeze it into the base image.

4. Give http://sourceforge.net a copy of the source code.

5. - feature has been already requested.

[foghorn]

- The ability to clone existing schedules, for when you want to do something very similar to a schedule already setup, but don't want to go through it all again.

- feature was implemented

-Better concurrency. Is there really any reason why two schedules can't run at the same time? - feature has been already requested

-The ability to set up rolling incremental updates without having to configure a whole pile of schedules or have to use SZ.

Thanks.

[Defenestration]

- Improved compression using LZMA compression, as used by 7-zip format. Add an extra "Extra High" level which would be the old current Maximum level, and have the "Maximum" level using the LZMA Ultra or Max compression. While this is not a big deal if you are backing up to DVD or HD, it would make a big difference to people using CD as the backup media.

- Ability to load Image descriptions from floppy/CD. This is more important for the bootable CD version of TI since Copy/Paste can be used when running under Windows. I often have to create several images at different stages of the install process with each image having a similar description with slight changes, and having to re-type in the description each time is laborious.

- feature has been already requested.

Here comes my whishlist:

-Exclusion of directories! - feature is implemented

-I would like to create just _one_ boot cd for all acronis products
that are installed! - feature is implemented

-Better support of memory stick as boot media

[Eliot]

Would really be nice if my True Image 7 Server would allow me to restore backup images on my domain instead of seeing the folder and asking for a password that I know and then telling me its wrong. That is a royal PAIN

[Acronis Support]

Originally Posted by Eliot

Would really be nice if my True Image 7 Server would allow me to restore backup images on my domain instead of seeing the folder and asking for a password that I know and then telling me its wrong. That is a royal PAIN

Try looking at this FAQ article: http://www.acronis.com/products/true...er/faq.html#15

[BillFugina]

• I would like to schedule a single back-up that occurs on schedule that would automatically keep X number of copies of the back-up, deleting the oldest backups to make room for new ones.
• I would like TI to send me an e-mail after a scheduled backup completes (or doesn't) with the final status of the backup. - feature is implemented in Corporate Products line

[tazdevl]

Originally Posted by Dysthymia

Just thought it would be nice to make a wish-list thread, and with some luck perhaps some of this might get added to future version of TrueImage.

So just post here which features you think Acronis TrueImage currently is missing and that you would like to see get added.

Here is my list:

• Ability to burn images directly to DVD's and make them bootable. <- this is written in bold, hint hint Acronis.
• Automatically start "schedhlp.exe, schedul2.exe, TrueImageMonitor.exe" only when TrueImage is in use and shut these programs down when it's not.
• Having full control when exploring images, just if it were another HDD. Giving you permission to delete/update/rename/move/etc files and folders on the image. (I guess this might not be technically possible?)

My thoughts exactly. Also might want to add:

- BETTER & MORE TIMELY HARDWARE SUPPORT Probably have to rearchitect a bit but in the end, cost/benefit is pretty straightforward.
- Ability to verify images during the image creation process.

[DonKid]

When scheduled backup is finished, it prompts a message showing all results: For example: Sucessfully finished with image verified automatically.
Because everyday I have to check my images.
Forget about using third softwares like INCD, Roxio´s, etc.

Best Regards,

DonKid.

[Jbmoar]

Excellent Idea!

My Wish List For Future True Image Upgrades:

- When Restoring Or Backing Up With True Image,If You Could Re-Design So The program does not open A Second Window For The Process, Maybe start the restore or backup process in the same main start window at the bottom.

- Remove The Option To Explore Image And Unplug Image Since Version 8 Can Not Explore Inside My Documents Folder Because Of A System Protection,Is Mostly The Most Important Folder Needed To Explore Using Explore Image.

- When Re-Imaging A File, Add The ability to Use Existing Image Archive Comments.

- When Creating Bootable CD, Make The created CD Contents Hidden.
- Ad The Acronis Report Utility Directly Within True Image To Make A Report.
- feature was implemented

- Ad The ability To Verify Automatically Or Manually As A Option To Activate So When A Schedule Is Started, It will Verify The imaged Backup When Finished. - feature was implemented

- Ad The ability When Restoring To The Primary Partition From Windows,TI Can re-start computer By Itself Without going through the procedure Of Choosing the backup to restore,location etc. as When It is ready It has to re-boot and then You have to start the procedure again for which you will be restoring etc. after it reboots, Is easier If It will recognise That you are within windows and re-boot or ask if you want to re-boot when you start the re-store procedure.

Originally Posted by crummock

Hi,

the ability to create images real-time from within Linux rather than having to use the boot disk would make TI's appeal much wider as currently few business Linux users would use TI as you don't want server downtime.

http://acronis.com/products/trueimageserverlinux/

I'd *really* like the ability to create a "Secure Zone" on a network drive, so TrueImage can deal with deleting old images as the disk gets full, instead of me having to!

Let's see:

- feature has been already requested.

- Remote Backup/Restore just via tcp/ip, and an encrypted connection. To have a system depending on MS Networks protocols is a big problem. Ugly thing.

- Ability to create the rescue boot CD/DVD into an .iso file, servers usually don't have a burner and using 6 floppys is disgusting. - feature is implemented

- Ability to generate full backup images depending on a variable (computer name, for instance) and the date.

Generally speaking, the product looks quite fine, it's a pity some features don't really work (at least for me)...

[Caspan]

Originally Posted by snickell

Only two suggestions:
1. ability to make bootable CD/DVD's
2. Command line interface

Both are available with Image for windows, which is cheaper (though more complicated to use).

You can "hack" a bootable CD/DVD, but it should not be too difficult to incorporate as an option. It would mean an image set would be more or les idiot proof - i.e. acomputer novice could use it to repair a PC without any great skill. Perhaps an "auto-install" option when creating the DVD image which would restore the image to its original location without unnecessary prompts.

The command line interface could either be the normal /option type, or perhaps an option to save the image script and then run TI with the script. Thus when you've gone through all the options and TI displays a list of what it is going to do, you would have the option of saving the script as a file which could be used as a parameter to run TI. This would enable you to run TI as part of a batch file.

With Image for Windows I have a batch file which empties the recycle bin, backs up the registry, removes viruses etc, then creates an image to a networked drive and then shuts down - I run it last thing before going to bed. Much easier than waiting for TI to finish

You can make bootable CD/RW just use the create bootable media wizard to create a bootable rescue CD then when you do an image use the same CD the program will use the remaining space in the CD. If your image spans more then one CD then make the last CD the bootable one because you have to start with the last image anyways when you restore so it is faster to just make the last volume bootable.

[Peter Gray]

Originally Posted by Eliot

Would really be nice if my True Image 7 Server would allow me to restore backup images on my domain instead of seeing the folder and asking for a password that I know and then telling me its wrong. That is a royal PAIN

You got that right! I've had the same experience on my server at work, so have to try at home. For some less ambitious wishlist entries...:

I wish TI8 would occasionally succeed at carrying out ANY task that it claims to be capable of. After many hours of thrashing, the only thing it has accomplished is creating one bootup CD, after making numerous coasters. It takes hours to create an image on another HDD (via LAN), and then the file is corrupted, or TI8 fails halfway through, claiming "faulty media."

I am VERY disappointed in this product. After some miserable experience with Symantec and PowerQuest products, I don't doubt that the the competition is bad, but if this is the best of the three, I can barely imagine how bad the others must be.

an option when uninstalling acronis so you can keep the security zone & startup manager with your image(s) on...

It would be very helpful if TI could be used as a real backup software.
What I would like to see is the possibility to build a scheduled szenario as follows:

Day 01: Full backup A of drive x:
Day 02: Incremental backup A of x:
...
Day 06: Incremental backup A of x:
Day 07: Full backup B of x:
Day 08: Incremental backup B of x:
...
Day 13: Incremental backup B of x:
Day 14: Delete full backup A and all of it's incrementals and then build new full backup A of x:
Day 15: Incremental backup A of x:
...
Day 20: Incremental backup A of x:
Day 21: Delete full backup B and all of it's incrementals and then build new full backup B of x:
...

This is just an example but the idea behind is to be able to restore at least a full week while only do daily incrementals.

Hi!

I've tested TI and I love it!

Nearly perfect.

An option to autofix some bad clusters or perhaps run defrag before the make of an image, remove temps or exclusion of some dirs would be nice


But the mean reason of my post: I've installed TI 8 to make an image of one of my CF card, True Image seams no to see those drives...


Thanks and keep improving


Bye folks

Filebased incremental backups.
Defragging, nuking free space and other disc access does change sector contents but not the files as the user sees them.

That makes incremental backups much larger then they should be!
Most files can be copied without using the sector approach.
Of cource TI can also find out the sectors used by the file and then backup those sectors.

I don't like the way it's handled right now.

"Acronis True Image Server 8.0 for Windows use the following scheme to clean up Acronis Secure Zone:
• If there is not enough free space in Acronis Secure Zone to create an image, then Acronis True Image Server 8.0 for Windows deletes the most old full image with all subsequent incremental backup images.
• If there is only one full image (with subsequent incremental backup images) left and full backup is in progress, then this only full image (with subsequent incremental backup images) is deleted."

Whatever happens I want to keep my 1st full image.
Some solutions:
a] Incremental backups based on full image only. When space is needed deleted oldest incremental backup.
b] Incremental backups based on previous incremental backup. When space is needed merge oldest 2 incremenatl backups and then delete the oldest backup.

Finally a max. number of incrementals instead just waiting to get a Secure Zone filled up.
BTW Does the deleting also work outside secure zones? I have dedicated backup drives so don't need Secure Zone. I find setting aside diskspace inefficient...

Originally Posted by MarkDozier

Directory and file exclusion, We have a lot of music we do not need to back up.

If you want to keep your music, movies, and dirty pictures out of the backup, just keep 'em on a different partition.

File/folder exclusion won't work with an OS-independent imaging app. TI (and any other imaging program) doesn't back up files, it backs up clusters, including those that hold the file allocation table. To figure out the location of the files and folders that you want to exclude, TI would need to read the FAT, skip the clusters it finds there, and remove the corresponding entries from the FAT. It wouldn't be a drive imaging program anymore.

Even the 'exclude page file' option does not really exclude the page file. If you browse the image of your system disk, you'll find the page file there. It's just filled with zeros, so when compressed it takes close to zero space.

Originally Posted by 666

TI would need to read the FAT, skip the clusters it finds there, and remove the corresponding entries from the FAT. It wouldn't be a drive imaging program anymore.

What's in a name....
More functionality never hurts.

Originally Posted by 666

Even the 'exclude page file' option does not really exclude the page file. If you browse the image of your system disk, you'll find the page file there. It's just filled with zeros, so when compressed it takes close to zero space.

It already excludes the page and hibernate files.
Ok it fills the area's with zeros, but to do that it need to locate the files in the FAT. So the code is already present. Well half of it because it's not really removed from teh backup.
But how can it be OS independant? I knows about page files. It reads the FAT. And only installs on windows.

Need more options for scheduling:

like stop the user shutting down the pc if it is scheduled to run (or at least a warning to say to leave it on - or custom messages...) - feature has been already requested

If a scheduled backup is missed, need an option to have it run the next day at the same time - rather than the option of first thing next morning when it is booted (nothing like wasting a few office hours waiting for it to finish..). - feature has been already requested

Also these option should be available wether you have it running daily or monthly etc...

I just want it to run once a month but at the end of the day and not allow the user to come out of windows/shutdown until it has finished - ie run until done & then shutdown...