Buying Acronis TI8

I am considering switching to TI8 as my imaging system. This is my setup as I have it now:
WinXP Pro
512 mb DDR Ram
A single 80gb HD, partitioned into 3 virtual drives. C drive holds only the OS, D drive is used for installing programs and E drive is for data only. I am presently using Ghost 2003 <Ghost 2004 I found did not or would not do what I wanted>. The only issue I have with Ghost 2003 is that it is NOT reliable when spanning CD/DVD disks when creating images.

These are some of the questions I have about TI8.

Can an image of the HD <all partitions> be made directly to DVD disks? If it can, then does it span disks reliably?

Can I make an image of each partition separately, to either a DVD disk or to the data partiton? If I place the images on the data partition, can they then be burned to a CD/DVD disk and operate as the boot disk?

Does TI8 compress the images to place a maximum amount of information on a disk?

I know from reading other questions in this forum, TI8 will make a rescue disk, is this a CD or is it a floppy rescue disk?

My major concern is that if Windows fails or a HD fails, can I use the images from TI8 to do a complete restore? I know I can do this from Ghost as long as the image fits on a single DVD disk.

I also have an old pc, with win98se as the OS, how well does TI8 work with win98se?

This should be enough information to let me make an intelligent decision. Any information is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

Hello fawny,

Thank you for choosing Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

You may store images on DVDs, however you need to have some third-party software to accomplish this operation. Acronis True Image supports DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-RW. To get the detailed info on how to create images on DVDs please refer to the following article:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/faq.html#20

If you store the image on hard disk and then want to burn it to DVD please make sure you have splitted the image file so that it fits DVD disk. Once the image is created you won't be able to split it.

Acronis Bootable Media may be created on CD or on floppy (or on both) depending on which way is more convinient. If your Windows doesn't start you will be able to boot Acronis Bootable Media and then restore the image that is stored on DVDs, CDs, hard drive or any other media.

Acronis True Image 8.0 does support Windows 98 SE. You may download free trial version of Acronis True Image from our site http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Thank you Toytman

I will DL the trial Acronis and give it a try.

If I understand this correctly for Acronis to write directly to a DVD+/-RW disk,the disk(s) first have to be formatted. Is this correct?
As I remember once a RW disk is formatted, it cannot be used for anything other than drag and drop. This does not make me real happy as it seems a waste of the rewritable properties of the RW.

Presently I have access to both Roxio CD/DVD Creator 6 and also Roxio Media 7, so burning is not an issue.

Thank you

 

Not sure I understand you - A RW disk can be used just like a big floppy which includes dragging and dropping files from elsewhere onto it.

 

Fawny,
I've used Acronis True Image on a Windows 98 SE machine for a long time and it's worked perfectly.

On my new computer with Windows XP Pro it's worse than useless because you can't trust it to do the job properly. I find that you can't make any bootable CD's or floppies that work and the F11 option is the same. They come up with an error message "can't find any hard drives".

From reading the Acronis home page you would never suspect that on a lot of configerations it just doesn't work. Even though there is a trial period I think it is unethical not to warn buyer about the many problems they are likely to face.

 

PC computers are constantly evolving with new hardware being designed and software being released and upgraded from thousands of developers. Each individual's computer is therefore one of a multi-million permutation of bits and pieces - it's a wonder anything works.
I'd love it if everything worked together without problem but realistically that's not going to happen. That's the reason software license agreements basically say that if it works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't. I can't remember the last time I saw any computer company stressing that their hardware or software may not work. Or, for that matter, any company. Is Ford unethical by not warning that my car won't start sometimes or that it may not be advisable to leave the bitumen and drive crosscountry?
Companies like Acronis will keep having to modify their software as new hardware is introduced or some incompatibility is discovered that needs a workaround. That's why users are encouraged to upgrade to the most recent version of a program - it's probably the way to get the best features with the least problems.
Acronis, unlike some companies, takes the approach of releasing a new software build frequently hence getting problem resolutions sooner.
For anyone considering buying TrueImage 8, decide if TrueImage 8 has the features you want then try the trial version.
Should you buy it and a problem arises then use this forum to investigate the issue then if you can't resolve it report the details to Acronis Support. Hopefully they can help provide an answer to the problem.
Unfortunately sometimes an issue can't be resolved and I'm afraid the only alternative is to try to find a product which will do what you want.

 

Hello langdon,

Thank you for choosing Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

Could you please clarify what problem you have under Windows XP? Also please let us know the full version of Acronis software you use (including build number). We will certainly try to help you with the problem.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

That is exactly what I meant After that, at least Roxio will NOT allow me to burn data or music or any normal burn cycle. I can only drag and drop like a big floppy.

I did download Acronis and tried it. I was less than thrilled to say the least. When I tried to burn an image to a dvd +RW disk, Acronis consistantly said the disk was bad. I went through 3 <all new disks> different brands of disks and it did that on all 3. All the disks worked perfectly using drag and drop, so I assume the disks are good. Now I have three 4.7gb floppy disks

For now at least, I think I will stick to Ghost 2003. It does 99% of what I want without fail.

Thanks for the help anyway.

 

Hello fawny,

The problem you had may be because you have not formatted DVD disks before the image creation. Could you please preformat them and then retry to create the image?

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Hello fawny,

Using Nero InCD I can carry out an InCD Erase to remove the UDF packet writing (i.e. drag-and-drop) format and revert the disk to a normal DVD RW. I assume Roxio's DirectCD/Drag-to-Disk software has a similar feature.

You may or may not find my input this <previous thread> helpful.

Regards

 

They were preformatted and that is why now I have 3 RW disks that can only be used for drag and drop.

I don't use Nero. I have tried it and I know this will cause some people a problem, but I hated Nero. Also there is NO way to have both Nero and Roxio both installed, as they conflict bigtime. As for Roxio the erase option for a DVD +RW is only a quick erase. As far as I can see the format cannot be taken away after it is formatted.

 

You say that you have Roxio CD/DVD Creator 6 and Roxio Media 7 installed. Would either of these include Roxio's DirectCD/Drag-to-Disk packet writing application? If so then I'm really amazed that it doesn't provide a way for erasing the UDF packet writing format.

Regards

 

It sure does:

http://img75.exs.cx/img75/8504/roxiodirectcderase4vz.th.png

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

 

MiniMax is that from Roxio 6 or 7?

How do I get to that screen. I don't see Direct CD format utility anywhere in Roxio Media 7.