Acronis True Image WISH-LIST thread

Suggestion:

Keep incomplete backup.
Normally if a backup operation is canceled, the whole archive is deleted. But incomplete backup is better than no backup. Note this might only work if archive splitting is enabled, because backup files are not normally flushed.

 

Re pre/post commands...

If you use a post command to rename the created file, then the verify process fails because it cannot find the file. Seems to me that all of the backup processes should be completed before the post command processing is executed. In my mind that would mean that the verify would occur before post command processing. And yes, I realize that I can use a preprocessing command to rename the previously created file. I would just prefer to change the name immediately after creation.

 

Re: Acronis True Image WISH-LIST thread - RELIABILITY

Forget new features - once a certain level of features is reached, and TI has reached it in my opinion, the real thing a backup program has to do is be rock solid reliable.

It isn't right now.

So - test, test, test, and make sure that what it is does do, it does right.

New features are nice, but after that.

 

Self Restoring Disc

I work with a school district and for some rooms where the teachers are tech savvy, we let them restore PC's if they get damaged.

It would make it a lot easier if we had self restoring boot cd's

Meaning they would just put the disc in and it would restore itself with or without prompting. This would be great.

For myself it's no big deal, I used DVD cases which hold 2 discs. 1 is the boot disc and the 2nd is the image disc.

Just a thought,

Matt

 

Geez:

All I like to see is the capability to record to DVD +- R DL without having to resort to RW DVDs as they don't hold up as well and they're a LOT slower.

Regards,
Chuck Billow

 

integrity check by command line tools with linux TI

If it was possible to check the image integrity with the TI linux server command line tools, batch programming was easier and I wouldn't have to check it manually...

Kind regards, jr

 

Pretty good now really, but here's a list of suggestions:
1) Ability to write to DVD-R and DVD+R.
2) Ability to write to DVD-RW and DVD+RW without use of 3rd party UDF s/w.
3) Sort out compatibility issues with Nero etc (both appear to install wnaspi32.dll, but they are different sizes, therefore versions - are they compatible?).
4) Ability to backup and restore partitions with errors. Often a partition is working OK even with some errors. TI may back it up OK, and refuse to restore it. Bad news: a warning is one thing - useful even - but refusal to get it back can be a disaster.
5) Make backup command line scriptable, so backup can be integrated with other maintenance scripts, and run from the Windows scheduler.
6) Provide a written justification as to how it is possible to guarantee a backup of a live booted partition. I can see that maintaining the consistency of the filing system is just about possible, but the data? What if some app relies on coherency between sets of files (some databases can require that, also version control systems). How can TI know? It can't. Big tape backup systems that can handle things like live MS Exchange installations do it by having an agent that understands how Exchange works. Therefore to know the limitations would be good.
7) Arrange that if one has disk director and true image installed, one boot CD contains both. Recreating a complex system from scratch may well require both to be used, and it is irritating to have to keep swapping CDs and rebooting.
Provide a test utility that will really stretch the PC hardware in the way TI does to see if the system will produce reliable backups or not. TI seems to use hardware in ways other apps do not.
9) Simple text editor to edit things like boot.ini on restore.
10) Optional self booting backup media where possible. Not sure if this is possible with DVDs.
11) BartPE Acronis supported plug-in for TI 9.0.
12) Ability to 'plug' spanned media, with ability to plug only part of it (say one tree, not another), otherwise media changing will be a nightmare (as it is with another well known offering).
13) Wording changes on 'insert media' dialogues. It was not obvious to me that a 'volume' didn't mean a disk until I read someone's forum comment. This is because most programs just ask you to insert disk 'n'.
14) Ability to cope if it finds duff media half way through a backup. Ie ask for another, rather than just abort the whole backup operation.
15) Test, test and test again.

 

support for a wireless mouse when you are trying to restore an image.

 

Re: Wish-list thread

I second this, and, less importantly, the request to condense incrementals into a single baseline.

I have an entire raid dedicated to backing up my home's computers. I really, really, need for the system to be able to start a new basline backup every NN number of days, and keep only so many cycles. Otherwise, I will have to spend way too much time managing backups. I don't even know how I would delete "older backups" with only one baseline backup.

~Removed comments unrelated to Acronis products~ Ron

Thanks!

 

My wish list (TI9 - build 2337)

I like SecureZone in theory unfortunatly there does not appear to be a way to extract backups from the securezone to copy to external media (USB drive in my case) in the event of disk failure. I would like the ability to copy and/or move images from securezone.

Support for Virtual PC/VMWare images. I can get fully configured demos and beta versions in VPC images that are rather convienent however because virtualization is so damn slow I've figured out a method to extract these images to a physical disk partion but not without a lot of work. My procedure goes something like this. Copy vhd file as backup, sysprep virtual machine, add a second fixed size virtual hard disk (physical disk does not work with TI in vpc), boot vpc using TI CD in Safe Mode (Full Mode does not work in vpc so no network support thus second disk), backup disk to image on second vhd (painfully slow), shutdown and restore peviously copied vhd (presysprep), boot virtual machine normally, open disk management and assign drive letter to second disk, copy image via network (or drag/drop if vm extentions are installed) to host machine. Now restore image to physical partition. It would be awsome if I could restore a vhd or vmdk file directly to physical disk and convert between the image formats.

 

Index contents of backups, integrate with Google Desktop & Windows Desktop Search

Feature request: as you make the backup, build an index of the backup contents (or better, add the index to Google Desktop index and/or Windows Desktop Search index). Then one can search through backed-up data without inserting any of the backup disks. The search hits would be of the form "File X on disk Y of backup named Z". Then I could easily move data from hard disk to CD-R/DVD-Rs and still be able to search through it and find it instantly.

 

1)Ability to burn images directly to DVD's and make them bootable <--- man, I can't stress this enough!! Hint Hint.

2) Support for DVD DL disks

 

A Bootable Clone Disk

If you really want (~Removed comment unrelated to Acronis products~ Ron) competitor, then it would have to be in a bootable CD format, in case the system to be cloned is in unstable condition.

 

True Image 9 Seems to be quite complete except A Few Enhancements:

Give true image 9 Rescue CD the ability to re-boot computer Automatically after restore or backup finishes. This could be done by default or a option in the settings when doing a restore or backup which you choose to re-boot when done as then if you leave your computer when this is being done (backup/restore operation) when you return, your all set to go in your windows computer

 

- Ability to NAME the backup image with variables (ie: %DATE% would return the current date %TIME% would return the current time) so that files don't ever get overwritten AND can be identified easier. Some good variables to use (in addition to DATE and TIME) would be MACHINENAME, DOMAIN, and DRIVENAME. Another option would be using %INC% to increment a number at that point (ie: My%INC%Backup would return "My1Backup.tib", "My2Backup.tib", etc). I would use the previously mentioned "max # of images" request in conjunction with this request.

 

Since this is a wish list -
I run a website, www.TweaksRUs.com, and in my forum we have members that change systems like they change their socks (more often than that maybe, lol). They tend to do reformats and reinstalls often, because of this. I extoll the virtues of making TI images, but a restore is dicey when a mobo is changed, especially if the user goes from Intel to AMD or vice-versa.

What would be really great, and probably profitable for Acronis, would be a "TrueImage Tweakers Edition" that would be TI Home with Universal Restore included. Something like Universal Restore would be a boon to the enthusiast community.

This package would sell like hotcakes if the price was reasonable. And just in my forum alone, you'd find hundreds of willing beta testers. lol

 

Subject line of email notifications and other email features

In the Server and workstation editions of Acronis True Image the subject line should state whether the Image/Backup was either successful, failed, or needs attention. This way you don't have to open the email up to see the useful information. The message should be customizable.

You should also be able to specify the sending email address. This makes it much easier for those of us that support multiple companies to identify who the backup is from. (This also makes it easier to push your product )

These are features that Veritas has had for some time and provides a peace of mind for users.

Also you should be able specify multiple email addresses to receive notifications.

Thanks,

Euser

 

An automatic internal update

it's a shame that ti has not a internal update!!!!!!!!!!1


at last a check version !

 

For the Enterprise version, how about the ability to input subnets to search for servers? I don't know of any Enterprise that only has 1 subnet, and I hate having to input and connect to a server that the management console dosen't see automatically. I have 24 servers on different subnets, and it's easier to just go to the machine than it is to work with the management console.

Brian

 

True Image WISH-LIST:

- to extend the task-building-process, so you can not only build task's for backup's but also it's also possible to build task's for restore an image (from a pre-defined path/folder/file or from the newest image in secure-zone)

 

Cut out the Image File Corrupted messages when trying to verify a back up image,.

 

Develop a more reliable and easier to use "RESTORE". I have not been able to complete one in 6 tries. They all terminate with: Restore has encountered a problem and must close". Backup works just fine but the Restore product is unreliable. Wardell1.

 

Corrupted Image - Suggested Enhancement

I would like to see Acronis implement an additional verification mode (which by default is off for performance reasons but can be turned on at run time for diagnostic purposes). This verification should be interleaved with the .tib creation. That is, as soon as data is written to disk then all cache should be flushed and the data re-read. The re-read data should be matched with the original data that TI was writing to disk. These should be identical, if not then some corruption has occurred. At this point the .tib creation should fail and detailed error logging should report the nature of the error together with complete data dump of the sectors involved(original and corrupted). The way in which the sectors are corrupted (bit flip, wrong sector data, etc) might hopefully help to identify the cause. Maybe even an obscure bug in TI?

If you have any comments please add them to this thread:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=128085

 

[reposted from main forum]

Is it just me or are the function names used in TI very disorganised?

Sometimes they're Operations, sometimes Tools and sometimes Tasks with no apparent consistency.

Items under the Operations and Tools menus are shown again, but grouped differently, under Pick A Task and Pick A Tool from the main page.
And a different subset appears in the "Common Tasks" bar under the heading Tools.
And another different subset on the Tools toolbar!

Then there are the Active Tasks which are different to the above sense of task (and aren't even active until they're started).

From a user's perspective, the terms Tool, Task, Operation don't help distinguish their qualities. Just call them all the same, let's say Tools, and split them up meaningfully like disk tools or backup tools, etc. and use them consistently and fully (no incomplete lists) throughout.

With this done, Active Tasks could simply be Tasks in a more meaningful and unambiguous sense.

A couple of other things:
To me at least, the use of Recovery instead of Restore defies convention.
The word Acronis, where it appears in the Tool name, is redundant.

 

If verify after backup is set and a post-backup command is set up for a scheduled task, the post-backup command is run before the verify operation. I wish it could be set so that the post-backup command runs after the verify.

If I use a command to rename a file, the rename is attempted before the verify -- the rename fails and the verify works. I'd like to be able to verify and THEN have the rename command run.