help-Acronis alternative

hello lads...
what i would like to know is whether Acronis I.T. is the best in its category?
also whats the next best free/paid alternative?
I know the bottom line comes down to my personal choice, but i would like to know what i should look for.
cheers guys

 

i find True Image to be quite good, but if ur wanting alternatives heres a list (in no particular order):

Shadow Protect
Image for DOS/Windows
DriveImage XML
O&O DiskImage
Paragon Drive Backup
Drive SnapShot
Norton Ghost or Save & Restore

 

The trial of ATI is pretty convincing. But out of curiosity, i would like to try an alternative

 

After reading the long wish list on ATI here on this forum and reading the list of crashes, lost partitions, corupted images I purchased at a 30% discount,

Paragon Drive Backup 8 Personal Edition.

So far everything works as advertised. No weird behavior.

I'm sure I'll run into problems at some point but their problem list is small.

 

I have downloaded the trial version after reading another thread. But i have yet to try it. I thought i might ask for the advice of more knowledgeable peeps.

 

In your case I would go for ShadowProtect first.

 

Acronis TI is the best for me. Been using it for quite some time now and never had any problems.

As a matter of fact, I love all the Acronis software. They're the best

 

I would rule out those above that do not provide for mounting of volumes from within the backup archive.

Ghost 10, at least on my system, runs much faster than TI 9.

And, for the past several months, on at least 2 systems of which I am aware, Ghost 10 has been issuing "service not found" message at startup, yet GHost still runs. So I last used Ghost 10 on 3 Nov 2006.

If you want TRUE incremental/differential updates, see http://forums.hardwareguys.com/ikonboard.cgi?s=4492619c5fa1ffff;act=ST;f=13;t=4573, you do not get those with ShadowProtect, Ghost, and, I ASSuME, Norton Save and Restore.

I also question the robustness of TI, as it archives all logical drives in a single file. If that file goes bad, you lose everything. ShadowProtect, Ghost, Norton Save and Restore, and maybe others, archive each logical drive in a separate file. Thus it's harder to loose evertything.

I do intend to start using Shadow Protect when version 3 is released, perhaps before. I would use it just for full backups.
I might try TI 10.

 

Well, some of us are (night) owls and we do give a hoot.

 

am spoilt for choice really!
would Shadow Protect or ATI actualy backup everything on my laptop. including the files?
Am sorry, i dunno much in regards to backup. maybe a bit more about other stuff.
what am looking for is something that will backup everything, e.g the minor tuning i have done on my laptop, my updates, my files etc. and which will enable me to restore from that back up.
also, it be a plus if it would allow me to partition my HD.
Am sorry guys...
Av had to format xp 3 times in 2 months-entirely my mistake given that i have been playing with various options and programs. It lead to my lappy not functioning proply.
The hard part is having to tune it back to my preferences and having to constantly transfer all my files.

 

Yes, choices in backup are confusing. Let me make it simple for you:

There are 2 basic things on your PC's, data and programs (software).

I don't know much about your situation but one real simple way to view this is just copy all your data/files word, excel etc to a CD or floppy or external hard drive using explorer on a regular basis. And save that in a desk drawer

If you have legal copies of all your software windows xp, etc on cd's then they are backups ! right? keep all those in your desk drawer.

I withdraw my suggestion on Paragon since it may be too complex at this point. You could test the trial and see, and then make your decision. Trial tests are best. But 1 trial at a time. The image file will save all your settings but first make sure they are worth saving. I'd do a defrag, remove duplicate user files, update all needed software, remove unneeded software.

Some users try to run 2 AV's at the same time, a plan for disaster!

Hope this helps.

BTW, it sounds like you PC may need a real tidy up

 

lol...
thanks Escalader.
my lappy ain't in so much of a mess. just that i regularly try out new softwares for the fun of it. I ask other's opinion so am sure that in spite of my good/bad experience, i eventualy make the right choice.
i am close to reachin my best bundle of softwares. so i probably won't b doing too much changes (tho i get so bored of the same thing that i like to try out new stuff all the time-which brings me back to where i started!!!)
there are loads of documents on my laptop-family pics(extremely dear to me), documents, loads of music files, all in all, around 13gb-increasing all the time.
now i could load it on an external HDD but i don't want to b spending my money on that yet. or write them on external storage. but its pretty much a pain to have to write new cds all the time to update all my info.
1.) would a partition sort this out? i could store my data on the partition and not lose it even if i need to format?
2.) in the unfortunate event where i would need to format my pc, i would like to have a program that would store the exact image of my OS and restore it from that point. now i don't know whether this program can restore my preferences (e.g disabled startup items, folder options, mouse movements, tweaks etc) and microso$ft updates. but idealy thats what i want.

Since i am not very familiar with Paragon n AIT, i dunno their limitations.
I hope its now easier for you to understand.

Any programme that can do that?
cheers once again lads. much appreciated

 

Paragon can mount volumes. I think ATI is in fact a little easier to use but you never know if ATI will work or not.

 

In the Paragon forum, it was indicated that Paragon could not mount volumes.

 

an imaging program like ATI or Ghost can image a partition or the entire disk. this includes all files, programs, updates...everything.

theres also file backup software (like cobian backup) that only backups certain folder and files. ATI can do both image backups and file backups.

 

hi...
i have installed ATI! it seems pretty cool.
What i would like to confirm is: when i format lappy, do i lose Acronis Secure Zone?
Obviusly if there is a choice i will not select to format that partition. But how does it actualy work?
do i re-install ATI after formating? afterwhich i get acces to Acro Secure Zone?

 

teh acronis secure zone is a partition with its own file system, u can access it through the Acronis program either installed on the computer or via the rescue CD.

 

Neither True Image nor Ghost does a forensic backup, i.e.m only "used" sectors are backed up.

Shadow Protect does allow for a forensic backup.

 

cheers guys
havn't formatted laptop yet. but acronis is looking promising!