A Look At Acronis True Image 11

Folks here is an interesting article for u to digest. Another dissapointed ATI user like me. Actually, I dont need all the features. All i wanted to do is to be able to backup my C drive (system file) and it does a wonderful job on restoring from using hard disk but cannot restore the backup using DVD. Go figure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.tweakhound.com/reviews/trueimage11/index.htm

 

Thanks for the interesting read.

 

Very good review!

My opinion: Looks like Acronis is replacing the IT guys with marketing managers. But noone should forget that marketing is useless without customers...

 

The question is, supposing that 11 is fixed, what substantially beneficial feature does it have that 10 doesn't have?

I can't think of one, at least, not the way they are implemented. For example, Try and Decide is not substantially useful, imo, because of the reboot issue.

Perhaps 11 will have better linux drivers and a few bug fixes compared to 10 -- that might be a reason for upgrading although that sounds more like an update.

 

Ok, here goes my opinion (even though I'll probably get shot down)...

First of all, I'm using TI9 which does exactly what I need, and does it well.
It's all I need with Windows XP.

Now, the Acronis software is smart enough to know where everything is on the partition for backup and where it has to go back to for recovery.

Since Windows and Linux aren't exactly the best of friends, the recovery feature fails 99.99% of the time (give or take).
I don't see why Acronis doesn't create a plug-in for it's own Restore CD/SRM instead of telling their customers to create a BartPE CD (which I tried a couple times and failed miserably).
Why should anyone have to mess around creating something the software should already be capable of (but apparantly isn't).

The plug-in should be smart enough to know where to look for and extract the drivers from your Windows installation and copy them to the CD/SZ ... presto, problem solved.

If you're going to say it's a licensing issue...
-- your copy of Windows is legal and licensed to you, isn't it?
-- your copy of TI is legal and licensed to you, isn't it?
-- you will be the only one using the CD/SZ won't you?
-- it most likely wouldn't work on another computer anyway, would it?

Ok, that's it ... I'm ready for the firing squad

 

Only one shot to the stomach, dougee, ... the CD works on any computer.
BTW, I'm also still using ver 9.

 

If ATI sells a disk that boots windows, they have to license Windows for each pc/user. Linux is essentially a free OS. Frankly I"d prbably be willing to pay the extra for win Boot disk. I've had good and bad luck making PE disks for diff machines. It's like crank starting your car engine or push starting your car; I know it can be done andhas some benefits (doesn't require a fuol size battery) but I simply don't want to sweat that much in order to drive.


sh

 

They wouldn't be selling a CD that boots windows.
You would be creating your own copy with drivers extracted from your own copy of windows.

If installing the drivers is legal on a BartPE CD (which you create yourself), it should surely be just as legal on an Acronis Rescue CD and in the SRM (which you also create yourself).

 

True it will boot up, but not all computers use the same drivers (I shot you back)

 

Intersting comments on the legalities of using Windows. IIRC, Bart initially had issues with Microsoft when he released BartPE because MS felt it was a license violation; this seems to have been solved.

Possibly the way BartPE is getting around the licensing is that the user is personally making his own CD from presumably his copy of Windows which is not exactly the same as another company (Acronis) going in and extracting pieces of Windows to make a profit. May be a subtle difference but it is one that has money involved and that can make subtle very significant!

I don't think Acronis and others are using Linux just because they like it better than Windows.

 

I wonder how Symantec Ghost does it, licensing-wise? Their recovery CD boots to Windows PE 2.0, the replacement for Windows PE (which BartPE is based on). It boots way faster than BartPE because the boot image is decompressed on the fly, and contains all the drivers that Vista comes with. You can even build a new recovery CD based on the original and add your own drivers. I wonder if Acronis has investigated this method?

 

Well for one, if you're a Vista user the current build of TI10 is broken insofar as restoring Vista partitions and it doesn't seem as if Acronis has intentions of fixing the problem in v10!

 

Nope. It sure looks like they aren't going to fix the bugs and weaknesses in 10. I found 10 useful for the automated backup fucnitons -- even though they go squirrely sometimes and you have to recreate your Backup Locations and/ or tasks. It would have been nice if they fixed that in 10.

The *new* features in 11 seem kind silly, at best -- that's if they actually worked. It's sort of like the old joke, the food in this resataurant is horrible. Yes, and the portions are so small.

This program has silly added features. Yes, and none of them work.

 

I just purchased 11 and it works for me. I do not have Vista though on the machine I purchased a license for. Windows XP PRO sp2, here.

I have a Raid 0 setup and it works great with it. I created a boot recovery cd and was able to create and restore backups. Am now testing the try&decide feature, works well. Not sure what I will use it for other than secure internet browsing and testing software configurations but it seems to work.

I am not sure what system configurations you all have that are causing you problems with using 11 but my Asus P5N-E SLI mobo and Raid drive(s) work great with the software. I destroyed my raid after making the backup and was able to recreate my opsys partition direct from backup with the recover cd I created with 11.

I am using build 8027 of TI 11 Home, is that what you are using?


I tested the software with the features I will be using and everything works.
Though I am not too sure the usefulness of the application settings backup option. Nice idea but if you do frequent full backups of your system you wont need that option anyway. I did test it and it worked on my system. Was able to backup and restore one of the very few softwares that it recognizes, that is that I use. I have installed over 60 applications and it only recognizes 6 or so. I like this feature but the way they are implementing it is not that great, hard coding the list into the software. Why not make it modular and allow for importing lists. That way Acronis only has to update a file we can all download instead of waiting for an update on the software itself.

Plus users could add new configurations to the list and allow for faster updates and greater number of software ATI 11 recognizes. Just a thought.


Anyway, ATI 11 works great for me. Not sure why I am apparently the exception to the rule here in the forum.

 

Most people come to the forum because something doesn't work. The number of people for comparison that have no problems is unknown.

 

You are using Nvidia RAID. The problem seems to exist only with Intel RAID. These 2 use completely different drivers under Linux (which the Boot CD uses). Nvidia RAID using ACHI and Intel RAID using ata_piix.
I tried to submit some information that could be relevant but never heard back from anyone. Even if I was off base they could have at least said thanks for the effort.

 

I thought ACHI was a nonRAID mode on an Intel products?

Uh, oops, got it. AHCI is the open standard the Nvidia has switched to and supported on Intel RAID chipsets.