Potential New Customer Question

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying ATI 10.0 but have a couple of questions before I do so. (Yes, I did look at the 92 page PDF but, as I've no experience of backing up the entire C:\ partition before, I wasn't too sure that I understood what it was saying). Also, manuals don't tend to say what they can't do and what problems you might encounter!

The system I bought (3 years ago) is one of the standard home PCs where the single IDE drive is split into 2 partitions. Partition 0 is a hidden 'recovery' partition of about 2.4G and partition 1 is the main, bootable partition (about 74G) which contains C:\. Luckily, I've never had to use the recovery CD to restore the system.

Everything I've installed from day one has gone onto the C: drive.

I now want to install a second IDE drive of about 500G to act as:

1. A backup for the entire C: drive (weekly/monthly).
2. Separate data backups during the week of 'Documents and Settings' etc.
3. Standard additional storage for MPEGs files from my PVR.

All my software was installed on the C: drive so all their data files are there also. I've got some services which run all the time and update various files (which they tend to hold open exclusively) on the C: drive. Their triggers come randomly from the internet so I don't want to close these services down unless I absolutely must.

My questions are:

1. Can I use ATI 10.0 to backup my C: drive while Windows XP is still running?

Obviously, I would stop most applications but there are a few services that I do not want to stop unless I have to. If ATI 10.0 is doing a backup of my C: drive and services are potentially updating various data files (which are interdependent) can I end up with corrupt files if I do a system restore?

2. When backing up the C: drive can I get ATI 10.0 to close programs if they are running or do I have to do that myself?

If I must close down services to avoid the above problem does ATI 10.0 do this for me automatically or do I have to do it myself?

3. If my hard disk crashes and I need to replace it with a larger disk, do I need to partition it with the exact same sizes as the original disk or will ATI 10.0 do this automatically?

Thanks in advance for any help you may provide.

CM.

 

The easiest way to find out if TI will do what you want would be to download the trial version. It's fully functional in windows, but the rescue cd won't create a backup. This will also let you know if it works well with your hardware before you purchase it.

1. Yes, you can do a backup from windows while windows is running. You can even continue to use the computer while the backup is in progress. Some people prefer backing up from the rescue cd so that there are no windows conflicts. If there are specific services that you're concerned about, you might run a search on this forum and see if you find anything. Personally, I've had no problems backing up from windows. It's also usually faster than the rescue cd.

2. If you really want (or need) to stop services, it might be better to use the rescue cd to do the backup. I don't think TI will shut down services automatically. You can set command(s) to run automatically before and after the backup so if you know the commands you might get it to work. I've never tried it myself.

3. There is no need to partition or format a new hard drive before doing a restore. TI will take care of all that. You can restore the drive with the same sized partitions or expand them to fit how you want on the new drive.

 

dont buy it - terrible terrible customer service when you really need it.... well except for this forum. the actual company service is bs.

 

Hey MudCrab, as in Scylla serrata, my favourite food. Are you from Aussie?

 

After a bit of investigation of ATI 10.0 I get the impression that v10 has some bugs and the support on the acronis web site forums seems awful. So, I won't be buying ATI 10.0.

~Non-support related comments removed. - Ron~

 

No, I'm from California.

 

It's your decision, but realize that these forums are full of people with problems. Many people use TI successfully. As for support, it does seem slow, but it does work. (Acronis sent me a custom ISO for my computer.) Just yesterday I screwed up a partition and TI had it fixed in a few minutes.

 

Indeed. We probably all think the support is rubbish, but the product is basically very good. So good in fact, that I wouldn't be surprised to see you back here after you have checked out the competition

F.

 

Quite possibly!

 

I just downloaded version 10 trial. Unfortunately, it appears as if you can only install the trial if you are connected to the internet. I contacted the live support and was told "sorry, we can't help. submit a support request". Wow, talk about trying to sell the software! For my first interaction with support I am pretty disappointed! I don't know if I want to persue it further or just look for a different software company.

 

Well you could try Symantec or some other big corporation and get some real frustration from "support," then Acronis will look pretty peppy by comparison.

This register-on-line thing built into the trial version seems to be a real pita for some potential customers -- even some that do have internet access. I don't know why Acronis keeps doing this to potential customers. I think they are trying to track how many folks actually install the trial version, but it seems a like a bad way to collect statistics -- It just seems so counterintuitive from a business perspective -- a good example of what-not-to-do to potential customers.

They can give you a link to download a version of the trial that doesn't require the registration. Unfortunately, instead of giving info about this in the trial, you have to PM them to get it. You'd think Acronis would at least put a sticky on the forum.

 

Your prediction came true foghorne!

Just bought TI 10 after trying out IFW and BING.

 

Nice to have you back

And it would make a nice change for the forum to hear some positives. Are you able to say where True Image scored points over these products?

F.

 

I bought it for £23.97 from amazon which was as cheap as anywhere which means I've got the actual install disk rather than just a download. It would have cost 49.99 euros from Acronis which works out at about £31 in my book - and that for a download only version.

I used IFW and tried to do an entire hard drive backup HD0 as a test. Only to find it only backed up a partition and not the MBR. You have to use a utility called ImageAll which I thought was naff. Also, why don't they bundle all the free utilities into a single download?

I found I could use TI 10 straight out of the box without reading the manual to do a full HD0 backup. After messing around with partitions I then did a restore of the entire drive with no problems. (I don't like the idea of backing up C: while windows is running.) I didn't intend to do a restore but I screwed something up with BING. At least I'm confident that a system restore works OK.

I like the GUI from the boot disk and find it easy to understand.

IFW was just too much of a techie oriented package for me.

I used to use Genie Backup Manager to do incremental backups of my regularly updated data but, for some reason, it has started crashing each night during the automated run so I'll replace it with TI 10.

 

Thanks for your comments - interesting stuff.

F.