Acronis TrueImage

Hi FireDancer,

I will answer you more later today or tomorrow; at the moment I have to leave off home.

If you have for example only 5 GB used on your harddisk, then TrueImage will only make a backup image of those 5 GB and not of the whole 20 GB.

 

For trial version, see this page:

http://www.acronis.com/download/

Quote:

Download Center
Try Acronis products before you buy them!

 

Hi FireDancer,

First of all: sorry that I was a little bit short in my first replies to you !

Thanks

Please feel free to post your questions !
We can all learn from it !

Yes, you understood it right !
You have a 20 GB harddisk with only 5 GB used of it.
So Acronis TrueImage will only make a backup image of those 5 GB which are used on your hardisk.
There is no need to backup the non-used part of your harddisk, and TrueImage will not do that. It only makes a backup image of the part of your harddisk that is used.

And there is more:
TrueImage lets you choose between several compression levels.
There is a product-tour on the Acronis site with screenshots.
I highly advise to have a look:
http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/screenshots.html
The following page shows a screenshot where you can choose your compression-level.
http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/tour.html?tour=2&tour_page=4
I quote from that site:

"A compression level can be selected by moving the slider. If you select zero compression, files will be moved to an archive file without any compression, which is inefficient. On the other hand the work speed might drop and image creation time might increase, if you select the maximal compression. Certainly, the optimal compression level depends on the type of files, stored on a disk/partition, and can only be determined empirically."

So what that page is telling you, is:
You can choose a high compression level. The higher the compression-level, the lesser CD-R's you will need; BUT at the other hand: the higher the compression-level, the more time it will take.
So it might be wise to choose a compromise: choose not the highest level and not the lowest level of compression, but somewhere in between.


Another thing, speaking more in general:
In general it might be wise to first make a backup image onto another harddisk or onto another partition, and then later -if you wish to do so- burn it onto CD-R(W).
The reason: Making a backup image to another harddisk goes faster and you avoid possible compatibility-problems.
BTW: in most cases you will not find such a compatibility-problem !
But what if you don't have a second harddisk and you only have one partition?
I understood from you that that is your situation (only one harddisk with only one partition).
Well, in that case you have only one choice: let TrueImage burn your backup image directly to CD-R(W); it IS able to do so. Recently I did so on a friend's PC (an old one with a slow CD-R-burner).
Maybe if you have the money, you could later buy a Partitioning Program and make a second partition (or buy a second harddisk).
But I have a strong warning in general:
Before you ever use a Partitioning Program: always make a full backup image of your harddisk.
It cannot be said enough; I really do advise to do that. It is always possible that something goes wrong while using a Partitioning Program and in that case you might loose everything on your harddisk!!!

And there is this question:
"Is it wise to make a backup image onto another partition on the same harddisk without burning it also (later) onto CD-R(W)?"
The answer might be: "No".
Because when that harddisk dies, you will also loose your backup image.....


I hope that I was able to answer your question.
Please feel always free to post your question !!!
The only "dumb" question, is the question that was not asked. And we ALL are here to learn from each other.

Cheers, Jan.

 

Here's one little tip about burning an image to cd's with Acronis;

Use a good cd-r or cd-rw.
I use cd-r's and I found that the cheap Imation disks don't work well at all.

Luckily,I horde cd-r's.

Memorex(Cool Colors)and TDK(Extreme) cd-r's are cheap and I haven't had any trouble burning an image to them yet.

 

Thanks for the tip, the Tester !

Karma cookie for you

 

Thanks FanJ.


I found that just cuz I can burn with Nero doesn't neccessarily mean that particular type of cd-r will work with Acronis!

 

Fedorov999 posted some news about a new version of TrueImage (version 7; but we have to be patient: it will take some time before that one will be published !!) at DSLR:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,8183376~root=sware~mode=flat

Quote:

Just got the latest info from Acronis about v7.0 .....
========================================
We are planning to release Acronis True Image 7.0 the end of this year and the start of beta testing is going to be announced on our site within the near future.

The CheckImage utility will be embedded into the program and even available from bootable rescue media as well, just as we promised. Incremental backups will also be possible. You will be able to taste the new version very soon and all your comments and questions will be, of course, very welcome.

---end quote---

 

Thanks for the news on True Image FanJ.

Sounds interesting and available at the end of this year?
I'm looking forward to that release.

 

Hi The Tester,

Well, I guess we have to wait until Acronis tells us more about it.
Until that moment we have to be patient.
And, of course as with every program: I guess indeed some beta-testing has to be done.

So let's wait and give them the time needed; and until that moment: TI 6 is doing its job fine

Cheers, Jan.

 

Acronis TrueImage 7

Folks,

Version 7 of TrueImage is coming near

It is already available in Germany.
Here is the German Acronis site for it:
http://www.acronis.de/products/trueimage/

Once again thanks to the posters at DSLR-Software-Forum who posted about it:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,8534553~root=sware~mode=flat

So, we have to be a little patient till the English version will be published.


PS:
Question for the admins/mods:
What shall we do: start a new thread for version 7 or go on in this thread?

Cheers, Jan.

 

Hey FanJ, did you happen to see this article in pcmag:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1094490,00.asp

TrueImage is looking GOOD.

Acadia

(Damn, why does that link keep breaking?)

 

Hi Acadia,

Thanks for the link.
TrueImage is indeed very nice !

PS-1:
That review is for the existing version 6.

PS-2:
You can fix the link by putting url-tags around it

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1094490,00.asp

Cheers, Jan.

 

Hi,

I just saw that the Server-version of TrueImage has now version 7.
The workstation-version is still at version 6.

http://www.acronis.com/products/

 

First Impression of Acronis TrueImage Server edition version 7:

Nice posting from Howie here:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,8595039~root=sware~mode=flat

 

Hi All:

As a result of this thread and one at DiamondCS forum I became interested in Acronis TI and installed the trial version recently. It seems fairly easy to use and I've made a backup of my C: drive onto CDs and also onto my D: drive (or partition). I also made the 5-floppy set of bootable floppies, have tested them, and was happy to find that they work.

To round things out I also made the "Bootable CD" the program allows for, but I'm left wondering how to use it. How do you boot from a "Bootable CD" if you haven't first booted up some other way so that you can open the CD tray? What exactly does Acronis mean by "Bootable CD"?

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Hi tepi,

Some general information on bootable CD's can be found here:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rossstew/drs/sec1.html#bk12

In order to use them you probably have to alter your BIOS settings.
n the BIOS Setup program, the user can choose to boot from a diskette drive, hard drives, CD-ROM, or the network. The default setting is for the diskette drive to be the first boot device, the hard drive second, and the ATAPI CD-ROM third. The fourth device is usually disabled.

To boot from the CD you will have to change that following order so the CD-ROM comes before the hard drive.

HTH,

Pieter

 

Hi Pieter:

Thanks. That's more or less what I'd suspected - resetting the BIOS. But since the mere idea of fiddling with the BIOS terrifies me I think I'll leave well enough alone and just settle for using the floppies - if and when the need should arise, which I'm hoping it won't.

Regards,

tepi.

 

Hi tepi,

Not resetting the BIOS, but changing a setting. It is not as scary as it seems. But if you are not comfortable with it, I am the last one that will try to convince you to use that option.

Regards,

Pieter

 

Hi Pieter:

I see. Yes, well I've heard so many horror stories of changes to the BIOS leaving computers inoperable that, as a non-techie (and coward!) , I've always kept well away from it and will probably continue to do so. But thanks very much for clueing me in.

Regards,

tepi.

 

Hi Tepi

A little hint with respect to the bootable floppies:

Not so long ago I wanted to restore a TI backup image using the bootable floppies.
Alas, one of the floppies wasn't working anymore
I was lucky: it was not a critical situation, and I could make another set of floppies.

So: it might be a good idea to have a second set of floppies, just in case......

Cheers, Jan.

 

Hi Jan:

Thank you. Yes, very good idea. I've had the same thing happen in the past more than once. It's for that reason that I now keep my critical floppies in shielded cases that block magnetic fields. But I'm going to go ahead and make another set anyway.

Cheers

 

Hey Tony,

Thank you too for your hint.
I didn't even know that such shielded cases were existing. If you might have a link, please

Cheers, Jan.

 

Hi Jan:

Sorry. I'm afraid I don't have a link. My wife bought the cases in Tokyo. They hold just 10 floppies and all it says on the case is:

ACTIS FLOPPY DISK MAGNETIC SHIELD CASE. This case has the special value of a magnetic shield effect.

Maybe a Google search might turn up something, although perhaps some sort of metal box might serve just as well.

Cheers

 

NO backup program will work in DOS mode unless you have DOS drivers for that
peice of hardware.
I experienced this along time ago with Drive Image and a SCSI DVD-Write drive.
I never did find a way.
So, if you want to use DOS to restore an Image, you need to get DOS drivers, NOT Windows.
My gripe was, If your system is trashed and you can't boot to windows, how can you restore from a SCSI, USB or Firewire without DOS drivers for the hardware?

controler

 

Hi Controler !

I'm not sure whether I understand your question right....

I myself (on W 98 SE) have had no problems with restoring a backup image made by TT-6.
I've done it more than once
The backup image was on an external USB HD connected at an USB-2 card in my PC.
When I want to restore a backup image, I restart my PC with the first bootable TI floppy in it.
After restarting the PC the PC then boots from the floppy, completely without getting into Windows.
The PC runs then from the TI-floppies using TI's own Linux kernel.
So, it doesn't run from Windows and it doesn't run from DOS, but it runs from the Linux kernel of TI.
Of course TI does need to "know" your hardware. That's why you often see, when there is an update for TI, in the change-log at the Acronis-site things like "added support for hardware xyz".

I hope that helps


Off topic:
Oops oops, just a few hours ago my external HD crashed