Acronis True Image WISH-LIST thread

As a corporate customer evaluating the enterprise product line, and also as a home user, I would like to offer my observations:

The process of preventing acronis image backups from filling up a hard drive is severely limiting. From what I understand, the secure-zone is self managing, but I want to store images on an external drive or my other pc, so secure-zone isn't for me.

As a former drive-image customer, it was simple as dirt: during the wizard, I picked 'full backup', weekly, keep last X backups. That simple, it worked perfectly.

I only spent 30 minutes this morning evaluating the backup server feature of true-image workstation corporate, but found the overall implementation to be excessively complicated for what I wanted to do.

In a nutshell, if I don't want to centrally manage a workstation, I would still want to be able to backup a pc to a network drive and keep X copies in the wizard.

On the corporate side, I am very much impressed with universal restore to different hardware, which is the primary reason we picked acronis. The lack of a 'keep X copies' is a major hassle, however,

Just wanted to pass along my thought,
Mike

 

no nonsense version

I would like to see a version of TI without the capability to burn CD’s , DVD’s or write to USB drives. This version should have the scheduling and editing fully functional and all other bugs fixed. What say you?

 

hi

backup archives REALLY should have some kind of RECOVERY mechanism.
a) like winrar archives an additional "recovery-record"
with redundant data should be added,
so that a minor damaged archive can be repaired
b) if an (unecrypted) archive cannot be fully repaired
at least the files not affected by the damaged byte region
should be recoverable from the archive...
many compression tools even support this for simple zip files !

ps
find it really strange to have to post this as a 'WISH'
into some god- and developer forsaken list...

it's a simple fact: byte errors WILL occur !!!
- wherefore would servers use expensive ECC RAM,
- why do (some) people prefer super slow and expensive DVD-RAM or MO media over dvdRW,
- how come a whole branch of industry dealing with data and file recovery is coining money,
- why on earth have You bought a backup program

... a security related software like TI
that is advertised with "Compute with confidence"
MUST NOT ignore them (the errors)
and just leave us users with corrupt archives...


bottom

"fear is just a thought of what might happen"
(bottom, thatsme)

 

Here's my 2 cents worth on Acronis True image

I've been using the Home version on my personal PC, and in a small company (6 users) with pretty good success since Jan 2006 (I think when the Home version was bought, it was also geared towards for SOHO too)..

Overall, its a good product; but has a few short sighted design decissions which stop it from being truely awsome.

I've been able to get over some of Acronis's short commings with respect to keeping "X" copies of backups (not using the secure zone), and backups on shutdown, through the use of CMD scripts and some VB supporting applications (Might not be the cleanest; but they work).

The items on my wish list include:

- Ability to pass error levels (as to the status of the success of the backup) to the post command excuted
- The ability to extract/import backup jobs.
- The ability to automaticly convert backup logs (stored in what looks to be qazi xml based) into something text based that can be easily human read.
- Ability to have a backup on shutdown after the user has been logged out (as the Acronis service receives a shutdown request) - I've seen something simmilar mentioned in previous threads; but I'd like to throw my 2 cents in on this one
- The ability to exclude files and/or directories from the full partition image backups
- The ability to always succesfully backup the registry. Not sure about everyone else; but I've seen hickups in backing up the registry while someone is logged in, which can result in a windows corrupt registry error during bootup after restoring an image. As a quick fix I've setup a on boot job which backups the registry while the machine is comming up which seems to help when I have an issue with a corrupt registry)
- The abilitiy to keep x weekly backups (I've setup acronis to perform incremental backups when the machine is left on at night which then shutsdown afterwards if the user is not logged in. Every week, the incremental backups are renamed based on the current date and 5 weekly backup groups are keep with the oldest being deleted. Since the backup files are renamed, the next set of incremental backups are automaticly performed as "full". It would be nice if Acronis could impliment something like this (so that everyone could have access to this base option).
- The ability to detect corrupt image segments on incremental backups, and go back to the previous incremental backup segment as the starting point for the backup, instead of failing the backup
- Details on why the later version of Acronis installer (ie. 3677) are much larger than earlier versions (2337). Twice the size at like 74+ meg ?

And the bigest wish list item that I'd like to see

- A complete list of wish list items, and if they were implimented or not. Trying to piece together whats been requested and what hasn't which is a royal pain in the @$$ ;( Expecially when it looks like the posts are edited, and wish list item are replaced with " - Feature has already been reqested or implimtented"

PS. Some of these may be already implimented, as I haven't installed the latest version (as the one I'm currently running is pretty solid from a backup prespective and I haven't had time to test the later releases before, and the update histiory I've reviewed is kinda generic ;-(

Paul

 

What I would like to see is for the Acronis Universal Restore's installer to check the version of the Enterprise Server (et al.) before allowing it to install (it already checks that you have particualt products installed... so it shouldn't be much more work to check the version). That would have saved me a day of futzing about with UR and the wrong version of ES.

 

- The ability to exclude files and/or directories from the full partition image backups

I second this. It is ridiculous that there is no way to avoid cluttering image backups with files such as browser cache files that do not need to be restored.

There should be a great big asterisk next to the "Exclude files" feature touted on the TI 9.0 (home) box, qualifying that it does not apply to image backups.

 

After evaluating the corporate version, I liked it so much I had 3 of my 'private clients' order a copy of the home version. I could just kick myself for not setting up the first client before having all 3 buy their copies.

I just assumed that in 2006, "keep the last X copies" would be a part of every imaging piece of software (my bad).

The safe-zone on the same drive is simply not an option in case the whole drive dies.

I DON'T WANT TO WRITE SCRIPTS, and potentially delete the last good backup and have future backups fail for some reason.

Until the "keep the last X copies" is added, I can't recommend this product for my clients.

Sorry,

 

Verify archive password

When you set the password for the archive, you don't show the actual text of the password (i.e., password dialog box ******* characters).

So, you should have the option to type it in AGAIN to verify that you typed it right.

I'd hate to find out the hard way that I mistyped my password: when I need to restore a mission critical archiver and the pw doesn't work.


password: ___________
verify password: __________________

 

Some of these options should already be there, what kind of QA does Acronis have?

1. If you have an already created job, that is using the DEFAULT OPTIONS, when you change those default option, the already created jobs should UPDATE AUTMOMATICALLY with the default options.

* I have two jobs created, using default options. I noticed that my email notification was incorrect. So I went to the Tool > Options and changed the default options to reflect this. Now I look and edit my jobs? Guess what? All the old options are still intact. Give me a break. Now I have to edit EACH AND EVERY JOB!

2. If the already created job has a missing or removed drive/network path to the storage area, you cannot EDIT the job. You should still be able to edit the job, the job should disable itself since the storage path is down or missing.

3. Allow backup jobs to happen HOURLY. Currently there is no way to do this besides setting up multiple jobs.



<snip>

Thanks.

edited to remove off-topic remark - Detox

 

I have used both TI and Ghost, and greatly prefer TI but Ghost has 1 feature that I wish TI had. Ghost is able to load RAID drivers unique to the system during bootup of the rescue disc, just like Windows allows 3rd party drivers to be added during install using F6 key. One of my systems had a RAID 1 array, and I have had to use Ghost to restore images to it. When I tried Acronis TI on it, TI saw all the individual hard drives as separated drives, not as a mirrored array. Ghost asks for the RAID drivers during bootup, so I am able to insert a floppy containing the RAID driver, and Ghost was able to see the RAID array. Is anything like that planned for TI?

 

How about support for Netware servers while booted on the rescue/backup CD? Lots of folks still have Netware servers and LINUX code is freely available to talk to them. The old PQ Drive/Disk image products and Ghost could be run from a DOS/Win95 command boot floppy so you could load the needed drivers. Lots of Netware shops still use these products for that reason.

Also, I have not tried it lately, but in the past TI versions would hang if the source drive for the backup had bad sectors. Often, folks let the backup get out of date then when drive problems hit, they need to make a new backup to get off what they can. Older Ghost used to be the best for this, after a couple of errors you could tell it to ignore the rest and just back it up.

How about support for LINUX LVM partitions? Last time I looked, TI could back them up but not a "smart" backup - the image took as much space as the WHOLE LVM - not just the used space. Add LVM support to Disk Director Suite as well.

I agree about the generational backups as well. A company licensed a number of TI 9 copies at my suggestion, but they either overwrite an existing backup (so if the new backup fails, they have none) or build an unlimited series of full backups until they run out of disk space - or someone thinks to remove the older versions. They should be able to say "keep 3" and TI would not delete the oldest until after the new backup completes w/o errors.

Thanks,
Dennis

 

One software plug removed - I think it should be clear that this is a wish-list for Acronis True Image; not a "post your spam for free here" area.

 

Disable Tray-Icon

We're using TrueImage 9.1 Server on a Terminal Server. Each time a backup or restore process is running, an animated icon in the Tray in displayed, which shows the current status of the process.

This icon is shown to every logged on user on the terminalserver, admin or not. Although simple users don't have the right to cancel or in any other way manipulate the process, I'd rather not display this icon to normal users at all.

So, what I wish is, that the administrator should have the ability to disable the tray icon. I'm sure it wouldn't be a great deal to implement this feature, would it?

Thanks for reading,
nathan_se

 

Re: Wish-list thread

I would love this feacture
I've seen a new aplication form acronis that allows images to be restored to virtual machines, but havent tried it yet

 

Wish – ATI capability to backup the Windows XP registry separately. Currently I use the Backup Utility for Windows and check “System State” only. Being able to restore the registry like this has saved my backside on more than one occasion.

 

As there is not supposed to be discusssion in the wish list thread, I cannot comment here, but such wish list items really do require discussion.

 

Well I will take the chance. There are so many ways available to backup and restore a registry separately why on earth build in yet more options and complexity into true Image? Keep it simple is my opinion.

 

tHe comment is crucial enough to warrant its own thread, but proper discussion is too complex for the wish list.

P.S. A better appraoach may be to eliminate the wish list and instead provide a means for marking a thread/posting as a "Wish Item", which can easily be searched for. And, the poster of such an item could then remove/adapt the comment.

 

My wish list request is that someone should take on the task of editing this wish list or a more radical approach would be to delete it and start again.

Presently it is just too voluminous and contains a lot of duplicates and a large number of items which have either already been taken up in subsequent builds or some which are so outlandish they should have been strangled at birth!

Any volunteers ? I know of at least one who could do a grand job but I rather think that Menorcawoman would put her foot down very firmly at the prospect even if her other half could be interested

 

a practical solution may be:

1. Lock this thread.
2, Start a Wish-List forum.
3. Allow folkes to replicate their posting as a new thread in the new forum.
4. Allow folkes to DELETE their postings in the old wish list thread. Give folkes, say, 3-6 months to do this. Eventually, the old thread will be whittled down to stuff than can be deleted by the moderators.

 

Acronis Bootable Agent:
1. When loading agent on empty computer name it by ip (currently the name is "none" which can't be connected from browse in console, only by IP).
2. Add option to connect agent by ip without usr, pwd.
3. Export of kernel.dat ramdisk.dat in media builder for PXE boot.
4. Let agent use all network ports (currently uses eth0 only).

 

It would be nice to be able to manage secure zone : remove unnecessary images.

 

able to boot windows from mounted hdd images. i'm sure it's pretty hard to make, maybe even impossible without bios interference

 

Create Backup Wizard

Select Backup Type:

o Entire HDD or Individual Partition - Recognizable Sectors Only.

o Entire HDD or Individual Partition - All Sectors (recognizable or not).

o Files and Folders.

We already have the functionality of the first and last selections. What is needed is the middle (blue) selection. And of course, we should be given compression options for the new selection as well as the other two.

Presently, the only way to accomplish the 2nd procedure is by using the very awkward (and error-prone) command line method. Nuff said...

 

add some commandline parameters for the pre-/post-backup scripts. This would make per-/post backup tasks (like file rotation, messaging, etc,) much easier. I would like to see these parameters:

1.) Filename
2.) Path
3.) Size
4.) Status
5.) Backup Method (full, incr., etc..)
6.) Backup Job Name
7.) Backup Source (Drives, etc.)

Thanks
Kurt