Acronis Tech Support Response Time?

On Thursady morning 7/23/2009 I submitted a web form support request, and got this in an auto-acknowlegement email.

~Personal and private information removed.~

It's now Tuesday morning 7/28/2009. How long does it take for Acronis to answer my 'web request' for a bootable (True Image w/Universal Restore) ISO download link? Maybe I should call them today since I'm not supposed to re-submit my request through their support webpage.

I need it because the new TI Media Builder freezes creating an ISO (the 2 computers is question have no CD-Writer) and my previous version working boot CD freezes selecting the TIB image backup made with the new TI so I cannot do a restore!

I know there are downloads in my registered product list but they are presented as 2 separate ISO files - one for a True Image ISO, and the other for a Universal Restore ISO. How would I even deal with that when I need to restore to 2 newer computers (replacing the old ones) with different hardware? I need a ISO for the new True Image w/Universal Restore combined so can make a bootable CD from it.

 

The ISO with the UR probably has the correct version of True Image (Echo Workstation) to go with it. Why not download it an try it?

The Official Support response varies from 1 day to 1 month - there's no rhyme nor reason to when they respond.

 

Well I did download them but the UR file size seems too small compared to the TI file size:

TrueImageWorkstationEcho_s_en.iso (32,668 kb)

TrueImageWorkstationEchoUniversalRestore_s_en.iso (65 kb)

I don't think the UR ISO is going to do the trick by itself. The website says they are 31.9 mb each but this was not the case when I downloaded them both.

[UPDATE] Hmm... I'm downloading the UR again and this time it looks like it will be like 32 mb in size. I don't know what happened on Thursday. I'll keep by fingers crossed!

 

I re-downloaded the TrueImageWorkstationEchoUniversalRestore_s_en.iso (31.9 mb) ISO file and tried burning it to multiple CD-R and CD-RW blank disks.

I tried it using both Roxio software and the free InfraRecorder software that handle burning ISO images to disk, but the burned CD's still did not work.

The burned CD's would not boot and when I looked at the disk contents after burning the disk was blank but had a capacity of 31.9 mb!

 

Sounds like you may have just burned the .iso file itself to disk as data instead of burning an image of the .iso file contents. In whatever burning program you use you want to make sure you're selecting the option to burn an image (i.e. .iso, .bin, etc) and not just write the single image file to cd/dvd as data (so that all you will see in Windows Explorer is one file called xxxwhateverxxx.iso instead of the contents of the .iso image file). When you select to burn an image (each burning program may use a slightly different terminology) the burning program basically mounts or otherwise reads the image file (.iso, .bin etc) and burns its contents, not the single .iso file itself.

Please ignore if I've stated the obvious and you were already aware of the difference.

 

What happens when it tries to boot? Does it try to boot into the recovery environment or just straight into Windows?

Have you changed the BIOS to allow the CD/DVD to boot before the HDD?

Can you boot other disc from the CD/DVD drive?

 

I have an old True Image 9.1 Rescue CD that does boot fine. It just locks-up when I select the newer True Image's TIB backup image file, so I cannot start a restore being frozen out.

The burned CD shows no files in Windows Explorer, even showing hidden or system files view. But the CD has a 31.9mb in use size with 0 bytes free, the same as the ISO file size. I may have misstated that in my previous post. I've burned ISO images to disk before. I know the difference between ISO burns and data file burns to disk.

Here are the Roxio Creator Classic instructions:

To burn the disc image file to disc -

1. In the Other Tasks pane, click Burn From Disc Image File.
2. The Burn from Disc Image File dialog box appears.
   
3. Select the image file that you want to burn to disc and click Open.
4. The Burn dialog box appears.
   
5. Insert a blank disc into your recorder
   
6. Click Burn.

In InfraRecorder the steps are similar:

To burn/record a disc image, you can either use the menu:

1. Actions Burn Image... or the toolbar button.
3. You will be prompted to select the disc image on your hard drive that you want to record.

 

It's normal not to see any files on some of the CDs created by TI. In some cases, you can just see the Recovery Manager files. These files are not the ones used for booting. They're for installing the ASRM. As far as I know, the downloaded ISO files don't include the ASRM files.

In the downloaded ISO files, you most likely will see the isolinux folder and its contents.

The booting files in a "normal" TI CD are "hidden" more deeply. Using a program like UltraISO you can extract the BIF file and see the "hidden" files. It's an image in an image, so to speak.

 

Still waiting for Acronis tech support to contact me. All I need is a FTP download link or something. They helped me out in a similar way a few years ago with an ISO for a fixed boot CD because TI 9.1 would freeze the mouse pointer when I booted up the rescue media CD that I made through the software. Back then they were pretty responsive. It's going on one week tomorrow since I reported my problem to them.

 

Hello snmavronis,

Thank you for using Acronis Software!

I'm sending you PM regarding .iso image of Acronis Bootable Rescue Media.

Could you please also provide me with your support case number? I would check the reasons of delay with the answer.

Thank you,
Michael Levchenko

 

Thanks! I sent you a PM response.