Acronis Disk Director

Any experiences with Acronis Disk Director?

 

Oooops, I meant with Vista.

 

I intentionally asked the question in the other forum to receive a wider range of opinions.

 

Howard,

Are there any specific questions you had about DD and Vista or were you wanting general information?

 

General.

I expect to get a notebook with a 320GB drive with pre-installed Vista.
I know that Partition Magic is not compatible with Vista, so I gotta look elsewhere.

 

Whew!

Downloaded te datasheet from the Acronis web site.
It did not list Vista as a supported product.

Downloaded the manual, it does list Vista as a supported product.

Does the retail kit include a printed manual?
Or, will I have to kill a tree and print the 1228 page manual?

 

It's a 128 page manual.

 

I'm not sure that the retail version would have the latest build or if it comes with a printed manual. I've always purchased from the web.

Build 2,160 (the current build) has Vista support. I've used it with Vista for some time and it's worked well.

As for general things to note...

1. Install DD in Vista's Administrator Mode for All Users (not the normal user mode). To do this, right-click on the DD installer program and select the Run as administrator option from the pop-up menu. When given the choice of users, select All users.
2. If you create a partition for an XP or Vista installation, let Windows reformat the partition during the installation.
3. If you move, resize or change a Vista booting partition, a Vista repair may be needed (this problem is not limited to DD).
4. DD has a Full (Linux-based) and Safe (DOS-based) version just as TI does. The Full version hasn't been updated in a while so the Safe Mode version may be needed to be used on newer computers.
5. DD also includes a Disk Editor which I've found to be very handy and useful.
6. mustang has a DD BartPE plugin as well as a VistaPE script if you want to use DD in BartPE or VistaPE. I find this very useful as it allows me to quickly switch between TI and DD without needing to reboot.

 

Thanx.

I always download the latest version, rather than use the retail CD.

I live dangerously, in Win 2000, and always use an account with Administrator privs. I'll likely do the same with Vista. Although, I'll test my programs in normal user mode.

Notebook will pre-installed Vista. Not planning on adding an oS to notebook.

Later, I will build a PC using Windows XP.
I'll create a partition for Vista using Partition Magic. If th eVista instal wants to reformat, I'll let it.

THe drive will be 320GB, dunno how it was preformatted for the C drive.
THis could be an issue or the notebook.

I'll do a TRue Image 11 image backup before changing things.

If so, that's a real screwup by Acronis.

 

Ordered Disk Director a few minutes ago.

 

Careful, the advice was not about which or what type of user account you run under, it was to install the program in Administrator mode. That means right clicking the executable and selecting Run as Administrator.

 

That's correct. I will edit my post above to be more clear.

The problem is that the DD installer doesn't always trigger the "elevated prompt" action and when it installs as a "normal user" (even on an Administrator account) it won't work properly.

Once DD is installed, it correctly triggers the prompt when it's run.

 

Well, if MudCRab can edit his/her post, surely Acronis can correctly label its retail CD-ROMs and boxes!!

I received DD yesterday.
Both box and CD make no mention of Vista support, so I dutifuly registerd the product, and started to download the latest update (2160) which is stated to support Vista.

During the download, I explored the CD and it seems that the CD already has version 2160.

Are the files really the same?
Or is the file on the CD misidentified?

 

His post... (Paul Purviance)

Does the retail CD have the same type of installation file as the downloaded version? You can right-click on the download, select Properties and then the Details tab and see the version and build. Perhaps you can do the same on the CD installation file.

Build 2,160 has been out for a while so it's possible that it's on the retail CDs.

 

I stated that I had already checked the vrsion,

I'll get MD5 for both after the download.

I wonder how much business Acronis has lost by having improperly marked boxes. Lots of folkes shop by perusing boxes in stores

 

THe MD5 for the downloaded file is the same as that of the file on the CD.
So, Acronis does have a packaging problem.