ATI 10 or 11? Opinions Please.

I've been researching this product and can't decide on which version to buy, 10 or 11. I thought here would be the best place to post my query. I have a Dell XPS710 with an nForce 5 chipset, running WinXPPro Media Center Edition, with a 500Gb SATA drive.

It has 2 partitions beside my main "c:" drive, 1 is 32mb (FAT) and one is 4.64GB. I assume one of the partitions is where Dell keeps its recovery files.

I've read about some people having issues with nForce chipsets. I've read so much, I can't remember which vesion of ATI the problems came from. Is 10 recommended over 11? I know that 11 is fairly new. For my system, is one recommended over the other?

Also, is there an advantage to buying the CD over a download? And, is it recommended to use the Secure Zone? Will both versions of ATI make a copy of the MBR before overwriting it? If there are resulting issues, assuming ATI does copy the MBR, is it easy to restore it?

I have read numerous posts in this forum for days and have left myself confused over the versions and issues. I know there is a free trial of 11, but I want to be with a stable product.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

NO advantage to buying cd or extended download. ONce you register your serial number you can download your version andthe various builds that have been released formthe Acronis updates page after signing in.

The SZ is really jsut a way to make backups if you have only one drive. Which won't allow you access to your backups if the drive goes bad and you need to repalce it. Bertter to get a second drive.

The mbbr is overwritten only if you start the recovery agent in Windows. It allows the machine to reboot into linux so ATI restore can restore system fwindows system files. You get the same thing (booting in linus) when you use the ATI BootCD.

If you need to the the mbr you can do it with a windows isntall disk. Use the repair console and issue the fixmbr command -- search the forum for the precise steps for fixing the mbr if needed.

 

Thanks for your thoughts, Shieber. I do have an external WD 320gb USB drive. Do you have any opinions regarding version 10 v. 11?

 

10 is pretty solid. 11 is still very buggy. If 11 has features you specifically want that 10 doesn't, then get a trial of 11 and see if it works on your machine -- also make a boot disk and see if that works.

Otherwise stick with 10. It could be months before the kinks are worked out of 11, and by then, 12 might be standing in the wings. ;-)

 

Thanks again, Shieber.

 

Dont buy 11 get 10 11 still needs work . msux started that "lets relese beta as a finished product" instead of fixing the current versions problems first. i guess Acronis took their approach so i dont purchase any acronis products any more (until they stop releasing unfinished error riddled products).. to bad cause many moved away from acronis because of this and their inability 2 include customer reccomendation/suggestions that would have made using their products easier.. wonder if the fixed oss yet on disk director 10 we complained about that for months and months...
from their past performance i wouldnt expect TI 11 to be in shape until TI 12 comes out.. i purchased every version from when Acronis 1st started and im thru with their games. i will update ti 10 if there ever are updates but i will never purchase ti11 or any other product till they get their act together (wonder will this post be posted).
i, currently using TI 10 to backup my WD 500 giggers and 1TB green WD drives with not one problem - i can actually trust te backups) i wouldnt trust em in TI 11 yet..and refuse 2 use or purchase it. just read the user problems with ti 11. heck i wont even install te demo. Acronis lost a lot of money cause of incompetence or just not giving a damn..


i'm talking about years of incompentcy i actually thought they lost all their programmers. it got that bad, too bad cause they had a good product at first and ti 10 isnt bad.

 

Thanks for taking the time to respond, RTShaw. I actually bought a version 10 download tonight, made my boot disk, made a full backup, booted using the disk. I tried Safe Mode first, but my external USB didn't show up so I re-booted and tried Full Version and there it was! I restored a couple of non-serious files just for the hell of it. So far, so good. I set up my automatic backups, and between ATI10 and my continuing regular file backups using Dantz Retrospect, I think I'll be okay in a disaster. Thanks, everyone, for your help.

In addition to getting lots of information in this forum, I found a FANTASTIC walkthrough, complete with screenshots for all you other "Newbies," at http://www.barrys-rigs-n-reviews.com/reviews/2007/utilities/ti10/ti10_1.htm.

 

Safe Mode runs under a DOS os and can only see USbs if your BIOS directly supports them -- Safe mode only sees hardware thorugh your BIOS.

Full mode operates under linux, as most backup imaging software programs do, and has its own drivers for hardware -- which is why it won't necessarily see all the same hardware as Windows does. When the linux drivers don't work for your hardware, that's when you would fall back to trying Safe Mode.

Another alternative, although it takes quite a bit of work to set up, is to make aBoot disk that runs under windows. called a BartPE disk. Ther's info in the forums on how to do this -- Mustang has terrific plugins for this but you also get one with the ATI program you purchased. But if you don't need the BartPE disk, the easiest thing is to jsut use the BootCD Full mode for your restores and run backups under windows without using a BootCD.

Best bet is to make a backup. runthe Boot cd, attempt to validate the backup -- amke sure boot cd sees all your drives. If you hva spare try, you could even do a restore to that drive jsut to make absolutley sure that, if ever needed, you could do a full restore of your system disk image.

 

It was all the reading I did about having to make a BartPE disk that made me think I was going to be in for a lot of work. I've slip-streamed a disk before, making my Windows XP SP1 boot disk into SP2, so I assume the BartPE disk is somewhat similiar, but I'm glad not to have to go further with it for lack of time.

Thanks again, Shieber.