best ATI version for XP

Hello all... Been a while since I visted this forum and am doing so now because I just got myself a new Dell 1501 Inspiron laptop running XP Home. My previous system had Win98SE and has ATI v9.0 installed. I run regular backups and am quite satisfied with it. I did, however, have a real problem creating a bootable CD. If fact, I ended up using a bootable SCSI connected external JAZ drive for my recovery software. The backup images are stored on an internal slave HDD.

Now to my question... The laptop has a TSSD DVD burner and would be the obvious choice for a bootable device for recovery and perhaps image storage. I also have a Venus DS3 external enclosure where I can store backup images. I recall at the time I was installing ATI v9.0 in my old machine (about July 2006) there was considerable dialoge on this forum about problems burning images to DVD and/or creating a bootable DVD. Seems some burners would work OK and others would not. Does this problem still exist?

Any referals to relavent posts or recommendations about the best version of ATI to use (10 or 11) would be much appreciated.

Raybro

 

I have XP SP 2 & version 9 (trial period)worked & purchased #10 & that worked too. Make a start up disk for each version though-should work for you.

 

The problem with burning Images directly to DVD is that when you do a restore (and you should at least do a test restore), the process will have you swapping those dvd discs in and out like there's no tomorrow if your images span 4 or more discs. With 3 discs there is still a lot of swapping, but it is tolerable.
Those who like to keep a copy of their backup on dvds use the 2-step method. First make the backup on a hard drive using a suitable split size then burn those splits to dvds.

Version 9 build 3677 works for me and I have no intention of updating it. It even works for Vista when using the bootable Rescue CD.

 

That's not the only problem. Another is that you can sometimes successfully create the backup to DVD using TI, but TI won't be able to read the DVDs. I had this happen to me in a test. The computer that created the DVD (in TI's Full Mode) couldn't read it, but I could validate the DVD just fine booted to TI on another computer. So the DVD was good, it was just a TI/DVD drive/computer problem.

If you're going to use DVDs, make sure your computer and TI can successfully create and validate them.

I would recommend the version of TI that works best on your system (which can only be determined by trying them). Currently, 11 is the latest version, but it still needs a release or two to get most of the bugs out (some of which could be considered major). Since your computer is new, you may need 11 to get support. TI 10 may be a better choice if it supports your hardware okay or you create a BartPE or VistaPE CD and use that instead of the Acronis CD.

 

Thanks MudCrab... That's the kind of info I am looking for. Purchased a copy of v 10 from Amazon for $22.50. Should have it by mid week.

What do you think about using a 4GB USB thumb drive as a bootable medium to launch the Acronis recovery program... Feasable??

Raybro

EDIT... Just did a little test... Plugged the thumb drive into a USB port and rebooted, then into BIOS and the USB Mass storage device is listed in the BOOT menu. So I assume if the device is programmed as bootable and made first in the boot list it would work as a recovery boot device to load Acronis at startup. Sounds good to me. What do you think?

EDIT 2... Just read your link on How to Create an Acronis bootable USB Hard Drive... Guess I should have read that before posting. Please ignore.

 

In my tests, a 4GB flashdrive worked okay with Media Builder and TI 10 (4,942) and TI 11 (8,053). TI 9 has a problem with flashdrives over 2GB, but it can be worked around.

Since the flashdrive shows up in the BIOS boot list, you should be okay in that area.

If you have problems with your flashdrive not booting, check out the link in my signature.

 

To some extent it depends on the age of the hardware, older machines may well run fine on v7 or 8 for example. This is simply based on the availability of the Linux drivers which ship with TI. If the machine is modern (as yours is) the chances are you will need the latest version.

However a word of warning. Since at least V7, the first 6 months or so of an ATI release have teething problems. They have historically released a version each year, usually in the autumn. If you object to paying for version x a month or two before version x+1 is released there seems to be a sweet spot for buying the latest version between say March and July of each year. At this stage the latest version is relatively mature and has had updates released.

I'm not sure what he availability of TI10 is at the moment, but since you can download a free trial of V11 I think this is the most obvious route to see how it all hangs together on your system.

F.

 

As DwnNdrty said-disks are risky! I myself use an external HD AND an 8 G flash drive And EITHER is good although E HD is a little faster. Well worth the extra expense because you can never have too many backups ! (Just in case Ext HD ever quits on you ; you don't have to worry about a scratch on them) !!!

 

Since you are a new owner of v10 software, register your software and contact Acronis support. I believe you may qualify for a free upgrade to 11--which would be a 110mb(?) download from the Acronis site after you register your v11 serial number. This would give you the ability to use either version.

My information could also be completely wrong but why not give it a try!