Pre-purchase Questions

OK, Dog. I did this. It created a partition on C (10MB). Then I restarted ATI, and clicked again on "Activate Acronis Startup Manager". It ran through a couple of things, and then returned to the main menu.

1. How can I tell if it's activated? The "Activate Acronis Startup Manager" button is still displaying.

2. If I decide to purchase the full version, will I have to unistall the trial version? It appears there is no way to simply key a registration key.

 

I'm not surprised. This is an outstanding forum in general. And since they are here is one of the main reasons I'm leaning towards ATI.

 

1. You'll see the DOS type prompt screen (black screen with white text) during bootup that says something like, "Hit F11 to enter Acronis Recovery Manager".

2. Yes, If you got the trial straight from the Acronis site (rather than requesting a fully functioning trial from Acronis Support), it isn't a fully functioning version ... even if you get the fully functioning, you still need to uninstall and re-install the full version to enter your license Key/info. Also remember to register on Acronis site after purchase to access your personal page where you'll download the updates of your version ... plus a few more things, discount offers etc.

Steve

 

Hello Daisey,

There are some differences between the trial version and full version installation packages, so after you will purchase Acronis True Image 8.0 you will need to install the full version.

However, there is no need to uninstall the trial version as you can install the full version over the free trial installation.

Please visit Acronis online store to purchase the product.

Please also note that we have a flexible system of discounts and the amount of the discount varies depending on the number of copies you want to purchase.

In case you are planning to purchase many copies, please contact our Sales Team at sales@acronis.com.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

That's good. I was concerned that if I did have to uninstall the trial version that it would play havoc with that new partition that ATI created.

Yes, I see that now. Thanks, K9.

Should be a better way of confirming that within the app. I'll try to remember to post that as a suggestion for improvement.

 

OK. I've played around with this long enough now. Everything seems to be working correctly, although I have not tried restoring an image. Hopefully I'll never have to do so.

A couple of final questions, please.

1. I have my image on the partition ATI created on my C drive. Assuming the C drive is not physically damaged, I can restore the C drive from that image, correct? Or do I need to copy it from that partition to an CD/DVD?
2. When I install the full version, above it was stated that I could install it over the top of the evaluation version. Will I have to redo the image I created with the evaluation version, or will that image still be valid?
3. I saw your warning about purchasing the product on-line from bogus vendors. I assume that I can purchase it from a valid reseller. They seem to offer discounts not available on your site.

Thanks!

 

1. Yes you can restore the image to your C: drive but it's not a good idea to have your backup on the same drive as you will lose both the partition you backed up and the backup if the drive fails.

2. No you don't have to redo the image but you may want to create an image anyway to verify that your installation of the full version is ok.

3. I would check with Acronis before you purchase from another reseller to be sure that you are getting a legal copy but if you can buy it legally at a cheaper price then why not!

 

I would have a hard time thinking that Newegg was not OK. I have bought lots of stuff there and even have 3 "T" shirts that they sent me. I think $29.99 is a great price.

 

If it isn't then I would get the retail box deal at compusa for $39.99 which is still alot cheaper than the web site and comes with the CD too.

 

NewEgg e-mails you a download link from Digital River, the same company that Acronis uses for its ESD (Electronic Software Download) program. I had no problem using the serial number provided in the e-mail to register my copy of True Image.

I have no problem recommending NewEgg for purchasing True Image or anything else. I've NEVER had a problem with them, and they have good prices and an excellent selection.

 

Newegg has been very reliable for me too.. I got BOClean there (emailed the 'invoice' in to pre-register for future updates without problem), as well as a lot of hardware

 

...in fact, I bought 20 24X CD-RW's and they came as 4X. The web page was wrong. They fixed the web page, credited my charge card and told me to keep the CD's!

Never had a problem with Newegg.

 

Thanks, MPSAN. I now see that NewEgg is an authorized reseller, according to Acronis web site.

 

No problem. A lot of the system I am using now I built with Newegg parts.

 

You can now welcome me to the ranks of official ATI users.

Purchased my copy this weekend. Unfortunately, I guess the only way I'll ever know how well it works is once I have problems and need to restore an image. And I hope that never happens....

 

Hi Daisey,

Short of undertaking an actual restore, you should be able to obtain reasonable peace of mind by following this precedure:

1. Create a "Full" bootable rescue CD (or floppies if you have to).
2. Use TI's Check Image Wizard to verify your recently created image.
3. Rename your hard drives/partitions so that they are called something meaningful e.g. System, Backup, Data, etc. The reason for this is that the drive letters seen after booting from the Linux based rescue disk will be different to those seen in Windows.
4. Use the Explore Image Wizard to mount the image as a virtual drive and check that you can copy files from it to your physical hard drive and access them without errors.
5. Boot from the rescue CD/floppies and check that TI correctly detects your hard drives/partitions, be they internal or external, RAID or otherwise.
6. Work through the Restore Image process up to but not including clicking the Proceed button (nothing gets commited until the Proceed button is selected).

If everything is alright up to this point you can be pretty confident that, when the time comes, an actual restore will work as advertised.

Regards

 

Some good ideas, Menorcaman. I've done #1 and #2 already. Regarding #3, I only have one partition on this PC, and that is "c:" - unless you refer to the hidden partition created by TI. If so, I'm not sure how to rename it.

I'll give the rest a try.

 

Have you created a SecureZone on your hard drive? It sounds like that from what you have said. Yes you can do that and TI will let you create images but if the drive fails you will not be able to recover. You need to create images somewhere else other than the drive you are backing up.

 

Yes, but I don't know how to rename the partition as suggested by Menorcaman (#3).

 

It's not necessary for you to do that Daisey. Menorcaman is correct that in a scenario where you may have multiple partitions it is useful to give the partitions meaningful names so you can identify which partition is which when you have booted from the Acronis Bootable Rescue CD. As you only have one 'visible' partition + SZ that's not going to be a problem for you as you will only ever see a single partition whatever you call it.

I'm still concerned you are having your backup on the same drive as the partition you are backing up. You will have some protection if your c: partition gets screwed somehow but not if the drive fails ... then you will lose everything including the backup. As you only have a single hard drive you should maybe consider imaging to an external drive or to CD or DVD if you have a burner. What do you think Daisey?

 

You make a very good point, pjb. Here is how I'm thinking.

• If something goes wrong while installing some type of software, or something else happpens to corrupt the operating system (which has happened to me many times over the years), I'm protected
• If for some reason the drive fails, I'm screwed. However, this has NEVER happened to me. I only say that as I usually base decisions on probabilities. But if this were to happen..........
  • Nightly I use Karen's Replicator (which I would highly recommend - and it's FREE) to automatically backup my documents / favorites / etc to my server. So, I would have to do a complete reinstall of all software, but I have all my docs ready to go.
  • I guess I could write the image to my server, but it's pretty full, and I have concerns about the reliability of restoring from a networked drive.

I'm still open to doing things a different way, and a woman has the right to change her mind, so I can be pursuaded. But for now this is how I'm getting things going......

 

Well Daisey, I feel a lot easier now you have explained your rationale. I agree that total drive failure is unlikely but it can and does happen. You base your decisions on the balance of probability so you are prepared to make the effort to re-install your operating system and programs should the unlikely happen and then restore your docs, favourites etc from your 'Karen's Replicator' backup. It sounds to me that you have thought it through and your contingency plan is viable. I was just worried that you are leaving yourself exposed if the unthinkable did happen. You are obviously open to suggestions (no innuendo intended ) and that's refreshing to see as so many of us have closed minds and refuse to see outside our own personal box.

IMHO you don't need to make any changes to your backup/recovery plan as it is something that will work for you if needed. I guess you could create an image on some external device but, as you say, the likelihood of drive failure is negligible so why go to great lengths to cover that eventuality.