True Image 2009 Home & XP: "A complete mess!"

Based on the very happy previous experience I had with Acronis True Image up to version 11, I decided I give the new 2009 (latest build update2 b12009709) version a go! and BOOM! it went completely insane!

The whole vista interface not good on xp, backup/restore don't work nothing like it should and many problems with acronis services and drivers.

Secondly the installation/uninstallation is a complete joke!
Not being impressed with the product I thought I just uninstall it and go back to version 11! but NO! it's not that simple at all!

As mentioned in the program I removed thorugh add/remove programs and restarted and guess what! after removal the add/remove entry is still there! along with all the left over folders and registry entries!
I then tried repairing using the original installer .exe and after the consequent restart I attempted second uninstall using the installer .exe file and choosing "Remove". SAME thing happened again! all the registry strings for drivers and shell integration are still there together with application folders and add/remove uninstaller entry! any further attempt to repair/uninstall/reinstall now resulted in error with installer/uninstaller shutting before it completes.

At this stage I decided to go wise and contacted live chat support and after waiting for about 45min got through someone who pointed me to the clean up utility eventhough I mentioned I use 2009! Contacting support the second time and explained it in all details to another adviser and he had no idea why this would happen!!! Now you go on google and start searching the problems people have with 2009 and XP in particular getting rid of the program! and see how many results you come up with! Yet that adviser had no idea why this would happen.

Worst of all is that there is no propper clean up utility for 2009 and even the manual instructions posted on the website only instructs the removal of a few left overs and not the somany other strings that the installer fails to remove! (just do a registry search for acronis and you'll see them)

So I had to use my own judgement and experience I had with such programs.
For anyone facing the same problem at the moment try this: (you won't get it from Acronis support)

1. Get the latest build from website
2. make sure all security software is disabled and no network is active
3. Do a repair install of the latest build
4. Restart pc and with network and security disabled use the same installer and choose "Remove" this time to "partially" uninstall.
5. Restart pc and this time download Microsoft Installer Clean Up utility
6. Run that and choose acronis true image. you probably need to do this step twice for some reason.
7. Finally follow the manual uninstallation post on Acronis support website

Now you got rid of about 95% of the left overs!
- I'd also recommend you delete any created drivers in windows folder.
Restart pc and feel free to go back to 11 if you wish.

To Acronis support/devs: Please issue a complete clean-up utility for True Image Home 2009 or all 2009 Acronis products ASAP so we can completely remove everything that is injected to system.

I must admit I am totally dismayed and disappointed with the new True Image. Why is it that so many great companies who made such amazing and practical softwares ruin everything with their new versions?

 

yashar,
Did you consider using V11 CD and restoring a prior archive to before the 2009 install?

 

I didn't want to restore the whole system just because 2009 messed up. Frankly I am not supposed to do that. A reliable program should have a seperate uninstaller and clean all traces in case user decides to completely remove or go back to an older version.

 

You are absolutely right, but that doesn't do any good.

I tell my clients to always make a full TI backup before installing any new software or hardware. That way, they can restore the backup made minutes or hours before the new installation problem if necessary.

The big surprise is that some of them don't remember to do this.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis True Image

The appropriate task to create an Uninstall utility for Acronis True Image Home 2009 has been created.

Thank you.

--
Oleg Lee

 

Yes, I had the same experience. Unistalling TI Home 2009 left a complete mess on my XP SP3 machine. After uninstalling, my machine became extremely slow and unstable - never had that problem in the 4 years I have owned it. I used a registry cleaning program that found and removed well over a hundred orphaned Acronis registry entries. After cleaning and optimization, the system seems to be back to normal. I used Registry Booster, but I would imaging many of the available registry maintenance programs will work just fine.

You are correct, no respectable software product should be this shoddy. I haven't had problems like this since back in the days of Windows 3.1 and 95.

 

Looking forward to it. Hopefully it will remove all left over registry strings, folders and drivers.

Yes unfortunately that's been the case with some really reputable and reliable softwares like Nero etc. Once producing unbeatable single-task-focused softwares and now giving out bloatware and unfunctional new versions with many compatibilty and stability issues (and shiny interface ofcourse!).

 

Hello yashar,

Thank you for your interesting in Acronis True Image

Use the following link to manually uninstall Acronis True Image Home 2009 from your computer http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/kb/articles/1090/

Best regards,
--
Dmitry Nikolaev

 

Be sure you backup your Registry before you attempt those instructions. One wrong move and you might make your system totally unbootable.

 

Thanks very much for prompt response and attention. The new clean utility should do the trick.