Can I use on more then one

I am thinking of getting the 'Acronis True Image 9.0 Homebackup'. My question is can I use it on more then one computer. I have a desktop and a wireless laptop at home. Can I backup both ? I'm not talking anything fancy just a simple backup of each standalone machine. Thanks

 

Yes, you "CAN". Licensing is another issue.

 

I'm not sure what that means. I have read where you must register your s/w to get the latest version/upgrades. Once you register can it be only used on 'that' machine ? I guess my question is : is this product designed for use on only one machine per purchase ?

 

The answer to that question is, yes. You need a license for each machine you intend to use TI on.

Regards,

Terry

 

Thanks !

 

Hello all.

Reading this brings a question to mind:

Does Acronis offer any discount at all for purchasing a second license? For just the scenario mentioned by the OP?

Since so many people use both desktop and one notebook computers, a great number of large developers (including Microsoft with Office) allow their applications to be installed on "...one stationary and one mobile computer...."

I can understand that some developers, including Acronis apparently, may have priced their applications based on a business plan that did not allow for this type of use. However in that case, most at least offer additional licenses to home or personal users at a discount.

Anyone know if Acronis does this?

Thanks.

 

Hello J-Mac,

I'm afraid that Acronis grant discounts for a higher number of licenses, but your point about the desktop-laptop pair seems a very good one to me.

Go ahead, send them a mail. After so many updates of their software an update of their licensing policy would not hurt.

 

I think the day of a 2 computer home (desktop-laptop) is in fact here. I'm sure a lot of people are like me and want to purchase software I can legally use on both my machines at home without doubleing my cost. I will probably keep looking for backup s/w and hope to find that scenario.

 

Hi pitroad,

Just in case you were not aware of that: backup software and imaging software are far from being the same thing.

 

I guess I thought imaging software could be used as a means of backup. Is the primary purpose of imaging to xfer to another hd. etc for another reason ? What are the correct def's of both ?

 

pitroad,

Backup software will backup selected files or folders, useful to protect your own files should you have to reinstall Windows.

Imaging software will copy all the data from the disk/partition (inclusive hidden files, system data and programs as installed) enabling you to recover from a Windows crash or to transfer the system to a new hard drive when the old one breaks without ever reinstalling Windows and programs. It will also delete all possible traces of viruses or program installations by letting you restore the drive to a previous healthy state.

 

Yea, that's what I want, the 2nd one. I recently paid $700 to get my desktop back up and running after a os failure. I was running ME at the time of the crash and upgraded to XP home and installed a new HD as well. Very bad and costly experience. What type and how many cd's are required to back up a small 256mb/40gb) desktop and a (1gb/80gb) laptop ? I don't have dvd burn capability.

 

Number of CDs depends on how much of your disk is in-use and what is the file mix on it. Jpgs, Mpegs, Zips etc do n't compress any further. So if you have drive of jpgs and mpegs and it has 10GB used then you will have to backup 10 GB of data. For a 700MB CD that would be about 15 CDs!

A typical C partition without many compressed data files will compress to very roughly 70% of its in-use size since the swapfile and hibernation files aren't copied and the other files will compress somewhat. If you have 30GB of your 40GB allocated and we assume a compression factor of 70% then you would need about 30CDs. IMO, CDs are not the way to go! You would need about 5 DVDs.

The best backup solution is a USB 2.0 external or another internal drive. I only use DVDs as a second or third line of protection. They are slow and the least reliable of media.

 

Would a person need two external drives (one for each system being backed up) or could the same ext drive be used. I also wonder if my older desktop (Dell Dimension 8100) and new Dell 1505 laptop would work with the same ext drive ? Do you have any suggestions as far as USB 2.0 drives go ? What kind of cost am I looking at ? Thanks

 

You can use the same drive for multiple systems as long as there is room for the images. You want to create images not clone your drive to the external drive.

One thing you want to check is that your PCs support USB2. USB1 is very slow in comparison. You can get a USB card if necessary for your desktop. I don't know but I have a feeling it might be USB1; a card is about $25-30.

NEC chipsets are considered to be good ones but there are other ones that will work as well. A sometimes problem is that very large files, such as images, don't work with the chipset. One would hope that as this is less of a problem with modern chipsets since it is a known problem.

You can buy ready-made USB drives or you can just buy a USB2 enclosure (US$20-25 range) and put a drive in it. If you buy the total package it may run you a bit more than assembling the pieces yourself.