Acronis True Image 11 Home - Not fit for consumption!

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by harleymaninwpb, Feb 19, 2008.

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  1. RAD

    RAD Registered Member

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    In fact, although we can't assume programs will always work, there should at least be a reasonable expectation that a product will work as advertized in the vast majority of cases.
    Unfortunately, ATI 10 simply did not function under VISTA, and I am still fuming that Acronis thinks I should pay for an upgrade rather than have them simply fix all the well-documented and verified bugs in their continual succession of failed attempts to make good.
    I just find it unnerving that there is apparrently a large enough group of new suckers every year (like I was) to keep buying their products. Apparently ATI worked fairly well at some revision in the past on XP systems, but their credibility is long gone.
     
  2. jorge7

    jorge7 Registered Member

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    Hi,
    I am running ATI 11 on 1 PC, ATI 9 on 2 other PCs, and just purchased another copy of ATI 11 for a 4th PC. All PCs are running Windows XP Pro SP2, I have no intention of using Vista in the near future. While trying to migrate data from an old PC running ATI 11, I found that the program repeatedly hung up during the backup, and the only thing that worked was running it with no compression and not excluding *.tib files from the backup. I have had problems with ATI 9 in the past as well. I kind of skipped ATI 10 and never really used it because I upgraded to ATI 11 soon after.

    This is very disturbing, I like to run 2 HDs in each computer, backing up the C to D and the D to C, but I quickly run out of HD space if I don't exclude the existing older backup .tib files. The compression helps a lot too. Reading these posts has further eroded my confidence in ATI 11, and I am considering other options. I absolutely need a reliable backup protocol and program.
    Here are my options as I see it:
    1. See if there is consensus that for XP Pro, ATI 10 is the most reliable version, find out the best build of ATI 10 for this type of use and install it on all 4 computers.
    2. Buy ATI Echo Workstation and the Universal Restore add-on, if Echo Workstation is more reliable than any version of ATI Home.
    3. Keep ATI 11 but only use it without compression, which means buy bigger HDs and/or move older backups to an external HD.
    4. Give up on ATI and try another product.

    What do people think? Is ATI 10 reliable? Does it work without the hangups and problems of ATI 11? If so, which build is best? Is ATI Echo Workstation more reliable than all the ATI Home products?
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2008
  3. RAD

    RAD Registered Member

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    I am certainly no expert in these matters, just an slightly-more-tech-savvy- than-average user. I just know ATI 10 dos not work; but I replaced it with Paragon Drive Backup 8.5 Personal, and that has woorked seemlessly as advertized.
     
  4. Long View

    Long View Registered Member

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    Rad the problem here is that Acronis 10 did not work for you and Paragon did but
    Acronis 10 and 11 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and 9.1 did and do work for me but I could never get Paragon to work at all. Our experiences mean little to others with different hardware - the only thing any user should do is try for themselves.
     
  5. truthseeker

    truthseeker Former Poster

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    No. Acronis do not offer v10 anymore.

    Besides, why would you want to use v10 when v11 is out?

    P.S You can download the BartPE plugin from Acronis and create a VistaPE boot CD with the Acronis BartPE plugin. The plugin is v10. I know because I created one and version says v10 for the plugin.
     
  6. truthseeker

    truthseeker Former Poster

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    Interesting. Because I used Paragon Drive Backup 8.5 Personal and it was the worse backup program I ever used. It failed to restore my images, and it could not successfuly create a boot Zone without errors.

    I could restore from Windows, but the boot CD could not restore without "I/O errors". So if my HDD ever failed and Windows couldnt load, I would be stuffed as Paragon could not restore my images from the boot CD.

    But then I bought Acronis TI 11 and it works perfectly for me. The secure zone works and boots and every backup and restore works without fail.

    Well done Acronis for a great product!!!
     
  7. TheWeaz

    TheWeaz Registered Member

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    "Besides, why would you want to use v10 when v11 is out?"

    Because 10 had most of its bug worked out in the final build. Version 11, just like 10 and 9, seems to have been released with lots of work yet to be done.
     
  8. Grahford

    Grahford Registered Member

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    Ummm....*double checks the name of the thread*.....because we are having issues with v11? :)

    Personally I've gone back to ghost + syncbackse to handle my backups. I haven't given up on ATI 11, just waiting for an update to see if it solves my issues.
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2008
  9. TheWeaz

    TheWeaz Registered Member

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    BTW, truthseeker, why do you write hyperbole filled posts about TI and how no product is perfect and works in every case, yet seem to condemn Paragon Drive Backup 8.5 Personal as “the worse backup program I ever used”?
    It's bad because it didn't work for you, yet when people criticized TI because it didn't work for them, you're filled with "disbelief"?
     
  10. truthseeker

    truthseeker Former Poster

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    Any person who reads all my posts and is contextualizing my comments, will realise what you wrote is inaccurate.

    Firstly, notice I said: "the worse backup program I ever used"

    So I am not making generalizations, just relative observations from personal experiences.

    And I know that Paragon works well for some people as they have told me it does.

    And lastly, I am not filled with disbelief when Acronis TI doesn't work for some people, because as I have stated before... There exists not even one product that will work on every single system and configuration.
     
  11. Earthling

    Earthling Registered Member

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    This happened to me too, but after they failed to cure the problem after a support request I was given a free licence for ATI 11.

    Mind you, that didn't work properly either :rolleyes:
     
  12. TheWeaz

    TheWeaz Registered Member

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    Huh??
     
  13. dme

    dme Registered Member

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    The bart plugin that came with mine is v11 and the Bart PE download is also v11. The reason I bought True Image was to be able to make an image of an older PC in a format compatible with VMWare Converter. I have yet to get a working image either using the boot CD or v11 under Bart. In fact I cannot even get v11 under Bart to create an image file. Acronis is suppose to be compatible with VMWare Converter at least with the older versions. I don't know about 11.

     
  14. truthseeker

    truthseeker Former Poster

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    The disbelief was aimed at his comment how TI 11 was flawed in general. I did not refer disbelief that it didn't work for him perfectly.

    As I said, you need to learn to contextualize what people say, or you will be guilty of making false accusations as you have done.
     
  15. truthseeker

    truthseeker Former Poster

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    Acronis do not have a v11 Bart plugin. It is v10

    Here is how you can know.... Boot your VistaPE boot CD and then chose Acronis TI plugin. Then once Acronis TI is running from the boot CD you created with the Acronis Bart plugin, go to the ABOUT menu and read the version number. You will see it says v10, not v11.

    And my VistaPE boot CD that I created with Winbuilder and that I inserted the Acronis Bart plugin with, works really good at creating images and restoring them. So it does work. So I have no idea why the Boot CD with Bart plugin doesn't work for you. Keep trying till you get the steps correct, because it's user error at this stage.
     
  16. TheWeaz

    TheWeaz Registered Member

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    People who come here looking for help deserve better (until they prove otherwise) than to be hit in the face with gross exaggerations, either pro or anti TI.
    People who come here to provide help deserve better than to have the cloud of “paid shill” cast over them.
    Your agenda is clear and further post will be ignored.
     
  17. LarryR2

    LarryR2 Registered Member

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    I am a relatively new user of Acronis True Image (only since V9) but I was very happy with both V9 and V10. Then I made the SERIOUS MISTAKE of upgrading one of my V10 licenses to V11 (8053) and installing it.

    The first thing I did was to create a full backup of my three partition hard drive. It seemed to work like V10, but the percent of completion reset at the end of each partition (0-100 for C, 0-100 for D and 0-100 for E) instead of being the percent of the entire job. Not a good sign but not the end of the world.

    Also, when I looked at the log files, only today's backup and verify were visible - all my V10 logs were gone. Not a good sign but not the end of the world.

    Then I verified the archive file (it was ok) and tried "explore" the archive (as I have done many times with V10 to recover individual files). I double-clicked the archive (.TIB) file in Windows Explorer and, after a long time, it popped up a window asking me to chose the application for this type of file. Not a good sign at all.

    Since "exploring" didn't work, I right-clicked the .TIB file and chose "Mount". It brought up Acronis and asked for the partitions to mount (I selected all three). After a long time, I got a pop-up about not being able to assign a drive letter and Windows Explorer (and most of the desktop) was now dead. I could not even shut down and had to power off the computer. Not a good sign at all.

    The next thing I did was create a recovery CD and boot it. It booted up fine, but not all my devices and partitions were in the list of possible Archive Locations. I booted it again and the devices and partition list was now slightly different. Not a good sign.

    I booted the V11 recovery CD on an old Thinkpad to see what would happen. Although Acronis seemed to start ok, whenever I went to any screen that referenced "Backup Archives," it hung with only "My Computer" in the left panel and an hourglass cursor. If I waited a LONG time (like 5-6 minutes), the devices and partitions would finally appear under My Computer but were not necessarily correct. To be sure it was not related to the Thinkpad, I booted my V10 (4942) recovery CD and everything worked fine.

    Ok, I had enough of V11 so I uninstalled it, rebooted, and reinstalled V10. During the installation it asked me whether I wanted to override two .DLL files having newer dates. That was ok, but it indicated that V11 was not completely uninstalled. V10 seemed to come up ok, so I made another full backup and verified it (so far so good). However, when I tried to "explore" the archive by double-clicking the .TIB file, the same thing happened as with V11 - after a long time it asked me to choose the application for that type of file. Not a good sign at all.

    Ok, so I right-clicked on the .TIB file and selected "Mount" and Acronis came up. This time I selected only one partition and it soon popped up a window that it assigned a drive letter. However, Windows Explorer (and most of the desktop) was now dead again and, as before, I could not shut down and had to power off. Not a good sign at all.

    Since I needed to get this working and I did have a full backup I could probably restore with the V10 recovery CD, I uninstalled V10 and rebooted. Then I went into Regedit and removed all the Acronis, .TIB, tibfile, TrueImage, etc, entries that I could find (there were VERY MANY considering the application was "uninstalled"). There was also a bunch of entries related to the virtual device driver for exploring archives still in the registry, but it would not let me remove them. Shouldn't that device driver have been removed during uninstallation?

    Anyway, I rebooted and then reinstalled V10 and then rebooted. I made a new full backup and verified it. Then I double-clicked the archive .TIB file and (glory be) a virtual disk appeared with three partitions. I successfully opened a few files from the archive (whew!). I have not yet had the courage to actually "mount" the .TIB file (I'm quite fed up with rebooting the poor PC).

    I apologize for this overly long post, but somebody must get V11 fixed so it becomes useful before TI loses its otherwise good reputation. As it is, I had recommended TI to a friend before my V11 problems and had to tell her to hold off buying it since V11 was the only version available.

    Larry
     
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2008
  18. Dave49

    Dave49 Registered Member

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    LarryR2, a lot of members have related such bugs to Acronis. But they remain silent on the problems or a fix being released. It's disappointing to say the least. It makes one think they have no idea of how to fix this.

    ~Dave
     
  19. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    LarryR2,
    Just some random comments.

    You did not indicate whether you had an un-install of 10 before installing 11. Although, Acronis does not indicate it necessary, many of us prefer the un-install first method. It saves a lot of time and grief for many.

    The Rescue CD runs in a Linux environment and may(?) assign completely different drive letters to your devices. This not an error. It is just a different method of assignment. If you have not done so, it is imperative that you assign meaningful names to your drives so that they can be recognized by their names and then you can ignore the drive letter differences.

    Your clean un-install of everything probably helped clean out some obstructions where 11 is obviously different than 10. That probably cured the issue to not assigning drive when exploring files. Un-assigned drive letters must be available before being assigned to a new virtual. V11 Acronis may have thought the other letters were still in use. Glad its working now.

    I do believe you will have much fewer problems since your registry has fewer previous entries from Acronis. You cannot have two versions of TrueImage installed at the same time--if they was attempted.

    Some Validation should be done using the Rescue CD since it is the Rescue CD which will be used when restoring your system partition or drive.
     
  20. LarryR2

    LarryR2 Registered Member

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    Thank you very much, GroverH. I neglected to mention it but, yes, I did uninstall V10 before starting the install of V11. In fact, I thought that was the reason I lost the logs of the V10 activity. However, those old logs "came back" after I reinstalled V10 (strange that different version logs would be in different places).

    I do understand the recovery environment (somewhat). What I meant about the drive letters was not that they were different from the Windows environment; it was that occasionally there were devices or partitions missing from the list (compared to V10) and, in at least one case, there were two different entries with the same drive letter (the external USB drive and the CDRW-drive). I did not perform an exhaustive experiment but, in the few times I booted the recovery CD, the list occasionally changed between boots.

    "Mount" uses drive letters but "exploring" does not (at least in the way I think of the two terms) so I'm still troubled that V11 did not let me double-click an archive .TIB file to create a virtual device, even if the drive letters were unavailable. Is "exploring" still a feature of V11?

    For the time being, I plan to continue using the V10 program and recovery CD, since I know that V10 works with no problems in my environment. I already deleted the one V11 archive .TIB file since I know that might not work with the V10 program or recovery CD.

    Larry
     
  21. truthseeker

    truthseeker Former Poster

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    If that is the case, Acronis will do the right thing and release a new version for free to all those who purchased v11. I am confident that Acronis will do the right thing by their loyal customers.

    As for me, TI 11 works like a charm. Hasn't let me down at all. But in all fairness to the other users, I am not using it for any fancy tasks. I only do simple backups and restores of my Linux ext3 and Vista partitions.

    It seems to be that people do not have any main issues with tasks such as mine, however, when it comes to more complicated tasks, it seems v11 may need some fixes. But this I am not aware of, as stated, I only do basic backup and restores of my ext3 and NTFS partitions.
     
  22. RAD

    RAD Registered Member

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    Admittedly, I never even bothered to fill out a support request. When things didn't work under ATI10, I started monitoring this forum, and became discouraged by the overwhelming number of problems reported about ATI10. ATI support also gets very low marks here, so I didn't get much motivation to try it.
    I don't think anyone can deny, after reading through this forum, that ATI 10 (and 11) have multiple persistent problems even for people with very ordinary computer setups. It is not just obscure bugs in oddball setups. My computer is about as ordinary as any mainstream computer could be (HP a1748x, with an HP PSC 2200 printer, Vista Home Premium).

    So, when ATI wanted me to "upgrade" to ver. 11 without offering ANY ugraded versions to the bug-ridden ver. 10 (and they still haven't) I just wrote them off as a compny I will never do business with again. I just check back here once in a while to see if anything has changed (which it seems it hasn't) :(

    I have no special connection to Paragon. I can just report that their support team responds knowledgably to my emails on a daily basis, even on pre-purchase questions; and I have tested and restored full image backups without the slightest hitch. Everything works exactly as advertized, even in the trial version, which I wrung-out heavily before purchase. There is no need to mess around with "BartPE" disk or creating "plugins", etc...It is just self contained and the menus do what they say they will. You can even run it off the downloadable disk if your system is corrupted (which is one of the ways I retored an image). I actually ended up buying their "Hard Disk Manager Suite" instead of just the Backup Personal 8.5, because I was so impressed with the accurate functionality of their products.
     
  23. shieber

    shieber Registered Member

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    Otoh, if you take a look at the Paragon forums, you'll see folks with the same kinds of probs that foks have had here for ATI 8, 9 or or 10.
     
  24. Dave49

    Dave49 Registered Member

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    Don't get me wrong. Acronis is the best program of it's kind I've ever had. But it's been quite awhile now since many have reported things like Scheduled Tasks not working, or working intermittently. This is a major problem for some folks, although it's a minor annoyance for me. There's a work-around for this problem using the Windows Scheduler, but it took a member here to come up with it. I'm getting the impression that Acronis is just going to try and fix this in ATI 12, or maybe it's not even fixable. But why won't they even address the problems like this?

    ~Dave
     
  25. RAD

    RAD Registered Member

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    The Paragon forum has far fewer real problems, and it is mostly newbie questions about different functions.
    But don't believe me; check for yourselves.

    or there are even discussions of paragon's software at this forum:
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=200761&highlight=Paragon
     
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