Is there a thread for ATI Home 2010 Beta?

Is there either an official or an unofficial thread for the ATI Home 2010 Beta testors? Having a technet subscription I will have access to Windows7 Gold bits in just a couple of weeks. I'm going to need a way to move partitions back and forth and I guess this is the release to use for that purpose?

Anyhow I'd really like to see what the testors are saying but strangely enough I just cant seem to find a thread for the beta product. I'm not all that familiar with ATI in general yet so I guess I just don't know where to look? Any help would be appreciated

 

After I just sent an email to Acronis, asking this question, I came back here and saw this.So much for my attention span.
I also asked if it is possible for 2010 to corrupt the data on the computer or would it just corrupt the backup, if something was buggy in 2010.

Anyway, now there is an un-official thread.

 

Hi philetus,

Although I wouldn't be opposed to this becoming the unofficial thread it sure would be nice to find a thread where there are already a lot of posts relating to the issues. I imagine that is already a significant number.

My guess is that 2010 would be unlikely to corrupt your computer, assuming you didn't restore, but Acronis will have to take the party line and say that they make no promises on Beta code.

BTW, I take it you haven't tried to install 2010 yet?

 

There is a forum for beta testing, but Acronis have not opened it to ATI2010 as yet.

In answer to philetus, there is always the possibility of a beta install doing something nasty.

I would suggest always making an image of any 'in use' disk before installing a beta version and, if possible install onto either a seperate hard drive or a partition specially set aside for testing. Some may suggest using a virtual machine.

 

What are they waiting for? Didnt the beta start a couple of weeks ago?

 

You and philetus have a PM.

 

"if it is possible for 2010 to corrupt the data on the computer"

I was tentatively considering installing it on my wife's computer since she runs windoze. I run Ubuntu.

I've decided to install it on a XP I set up as a dual boot on mine.If I crashed her computer, I'd have to move to Siberia.
I have her computer running backups with Home 2009 and Mozy, so I could fix it, but it would inconvenience her.LOL

 

Well if anyone dobuted that ATI 12/2009 wouldn't be fixed, allay your doubts. ATI13/2010 is coming on the regular annual schedule to replace it -- not that, as history has shown, that will avoid the bugs, but it will add cash to Acronis. Okay, maybe too cynical about about ATI13/2010 but as for ATI12/2009 being fixed, that does appear to be up in smoke.

 

Since I have never owned ATI, can you please shed some light as to what "coming on the regular annual schedule" means in terms of a release date?

Also, what is the significance of the two links at the bottom of your post?

 

A new version of TI tends to come out typically around October give or take a few weeks. It also means that bug fixes for the current version won't be done and the only way to maybe get a fix is to buy the upgrade. It also means that TI will be rushed to market to meet whatever release date is set regardless if a bunch of the features actually work or not. TI is a great product if you use the basic image creation/restoration but it takes a few bug-fix build releases before it approaches the marketing hype for a lot of the bells and whistles features. This has happened with every new version that has been released since I started using it with TI9. We keep hoping that maybe this one will be better, hoping, hoping, ....

The links he lists regard how to deal with some common TI problem areas.

 

Thanks Seekforever.

I'd like to get a headstart with W7 Gold which for me, a technet subscriber, will be available this Thursday.

I am going to need to copy some partitions from one disk to another. I may want to create a new multi-boot drive with Vista, W7 RC1, and W7 Gold, and an NTFS data partition.

So what would you suggest? Buy 2009 but don't try to mount or opt for the 2010 Beta? Since I'm buying to use with W7 it sounds like I'll have to upgrade almost right away.

 

True Image 2009 build 9796 will install on Win7 Gold. I think I've read about one problem which may not have anything to do with 7gold but with 2009 itself (are we surprised!) and that is doing a manual backup from the installed software. The user had to do a scheduled backup setting the time to something like 1 or 2 minutes from the time the user was setting it up so it was pretty close to a manual backup.

 

Has the volume mount problem been solved? If it has been solved was it a change in the W7 that fixed it?

 

Sorry, I have no idea.

 

If you mean the inability to mount a saved backup in ATI Home 2009, build 9796 running Windows 7, 32-bit -- the answer is no, it has not been solved.

 

From what I've seen that hasn't been a problem ... you simply 2-click on the .tib file and it will open showing the drive icons with drive letters, then another 2-click will open the drive just as if you were using Windows Explorer.

 

Maybe I don't have a clear understanding of the limitation. If you create the backup on W7 using 9796 can you subsequently mount the volume in W7 using 9796? What about create in Vista using 9796 and mount same using W7 and 9796? I'm assuming 32 bit here for everything.

 

At the moment, TI 2009 will not mount in W7 or MS Homeserver (neither will TI 11, but strangely TI 10 will). They all mount in Vista.

Exploring images via Explorer or a 3rd party file manager does work, as does imaging and restoring.

The answer to your last question is yes, you can do that. The mounting limitation is down to TI and Windows not the actual image file. In fact TI 2009 does actually mount the file, if you have your file manager open or Disk Manager you'll see the mount point appear, and then something causes it to dismount at the point where Windows is about to pop up the 'new drive' info box. The end result is of course the file has to all intense and purposes not been mounted.

 

Thanks Colin, imaging and restoring is actually what I need for the conversion to W7. I guess it wont be long before I have to upgrade to 2010 to pick up the other features for W7 operation. Sounds like the 2010 beta is a pretty exclusive group so that's probably not a likely option either. At least I know the path now.

 

I see others replied...for the record, I downloaded the trial, 9796, and installed in Win7 x64 and mounting a volume was a NO GO. It "tries" to mount, but then after trying for a minute, and temporarily showing a virtual drive (it does appear in explorer)...and even allowing me to click on that virtual drive and view the contents of the volume...it ultimately disappears followed by an error message saying it can't mount the volume.

I was hoping that TI 2009 would work with Win7 x64 since my TIv9 wouldn't even install. No luck. Further, uninstalling TI 2009 left a partially operative Windows Explorer...right clicking on "drive: | properties" promptly crashed that instance of windows explorer. Fortunately I heeded a warning from a friend and took an image prior to this endeavor and restored it successfully using the v9 rescue disk.

Gotta say, Win7 x64 is pretty sweet...coming from XP. Too bad about TI 2009.

Edit: The comment above referring to Explorer crashing now appears to be an issue with W7 as it has resurfaced.

 

You can always sign up for beta testing, if you follow the link sticky at the top of the forum.

 

GPB, what was your experience with image backup and restore from the disk? Sounds like I might not want to even try installing the software on W7.

 

My experience was limited to backup and restore from the TI v9 rescue disk which has been working for me for years, until it wouldn't install on W7. 2009 did install, but would not uninstall without causing problems, as I wrote. Backup and restore using TI v9 was flawless.

I would not try installing the software UNLESS you first image using a rescue disk because when you run into problems, you'll have to roll back. Now, my tests are limited to W7 x64 so far. I just put W7 x86 on my laptop but don't have any immediate plans to try TI 2009 again. Others say you can't mount a drive and that's important for me. I might take a look at what W7 backup and imaging have to offer. Hope that helps.

PS...I'm seriously disappointed with Acronis' responsiveness to bugs in their software...as has been discussed in this thread.

 

GPB,

I don't own the software yet but wouldn't it be possible to make offline CD's by installing the software on a vista machine to make the boot CD's and then use those CD's to move volumes between the vista machine and the W7 machine? You don't really have to install the software on the W7 machine to do this do you?

 

NCGuy...well...I don't know. I personally don't trust it. There is another possible alternative though. If you have a seagate drive, you could check out their tools...they have a scaled down version (TI-lite) that does all the cloning and replicating. You do need at least one Seagate drive for it to work (can be an external drive too). I think I'll give this a try tomorrow.

Oh...to answer your question about the CD...yeah...but you need a way to create it first. Too bad someone can't just shoot you an ISO copy of it for you to burn.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard
http://www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf