Ghost 9.0 vs True Image 9.0: my POV

Perhaps it would be more apt to title this Symantec vs Acronis...

About a month ago, I thought Ghost 9.0 was supposed to the the premier product so I bought it without question. After backing up and restoring to/from CDRs, the next thing I wanted to try was backing up/restoring via a network drive. Each time I tried backing up, the operation would get stuck in the "Initializing" stage (I waited up to 10 hours!). So, I begrudgingly performed the WinXP SP2 hacks (DEP, boot.ini) they recommend on their web site and even performed an uninstall/reinstall of Ghost. No luck. 15 hours consumed.

Next, I described the problem to their free webmail support service and received an emailed response with a case number. After 3 weeks of waiting, I went back to send them another webmail and could not find the webmail service. It had disappeared! What's more, nothing had been added to their support section addressing my problem.

I decided to pony up and spend the $29.95 to talk to their support, but before they'd give me the number, I had to run 2 or 3 of ActiveX programs that would "quickly diagnose the issue." They didn't and I finally got an 800 number to call. I also noted that the webmail "service" is now hidden behind the ActiveX rain dance as their phone number is. Before calling the number, Symatec suggested I fill out a web form to receive "priority" support which I did spending 15 minutes to fill in the details. Unfortunatly, when I hit "submit" the form complained that I had entered a "special character" which I could not find. After canceling out, they gave me another number to call which connected me to GoBack support. Thankfully, I wrote down the first number which was correct. After going through the menus and being connected to a gentleman with a think Indian accent, he proceeded to ask me the same questions that were on the form. After spending 3 minutes trying to get the first two questions right (name and email address), I went back to the form and was able to enter in the minimum to avoid the special character problem again. By luck perhaps, I delt with the same support person "Tom" for my 3 phone calls. After looking in his database of solutions, Tom told me to change the permissions on my share, and that should fix it, and call back if I still have issues. Nothing improved so I called back.

His next response was that I had a network problem and that I should contact my system administrator to which I replied that I was the administrator. After that he asked me if I truly know everything about windows (what?) and if I had tried backing up to another server (which I had - same thing). I asked him to explain how, from the machine running Ghost, I can create files on the share with other applications just fine, but Ghost cannot and that means I have a network problem? All that came back was a verbal smoke screen of an obvious fraud.

Next, Tom quickly shuffled me off to his workarounds:
1. Tom: Add an internal drive to your computer. Me: But I have a laptop.
2. Tom: Add an external drive to your computer. Got anything cheaper?
3. Tom: Back up your C drive to your C drive and copy the image to your network share. Me: What about when my C drive gets full?

That was the end of my relationship with Symantec.

So, I'm trying the evaluation right now. Everything with backing up and restoring disks/partitions is working peachy so far. Acronis has this great forum which seems to be actively contributed to by their employees, and it looks like their phone/email support is alive and well.

Yes, I see the grumbling here. Product forums are great at attracting every person that has a problem, but few who have actually had success. It's amazing that True Image works at all and one has to appreciate all the configurations they're trying to support. It's looking like I'll be sending in my money soon.

Thanks Acronis!

tjf

 

Good telling of a nightmare. I've had good luck with Acronis. Support for me since version 6 has been MUCH better than your experience with Symantec. We all wish things were perfect at first, but at least these guys are trying. They actually monitor these forums and enter responses. Many support forums i've been in for other products seem to be ignored by those vendors.

 

My sentiments EXACTLY on BOTH posts!

 

Indeed.

Having a forum that is actively monitored and responded to is a huge plus.

Support for something as important as backups is critical, and it's good to see that Acronis seems to be responsive in that area.

 

I have moved this thread over to "software and services" as it is a comparison thread. I can see how it pertains to Acronis but we try to limit the dedicated forum to support issues and keep the comparatives over here.

 

Moved? Huh. Where? I can't seem to find a "software and services" sections on wilderssecurity. Got a link?

 

Look at the top of the thread, just above the thread title. There's the location this thread is now