Pre-purchase Questions

One of my PC's became unstable, and I had to rebuild it from scratch. Even using the original "Ghost" image provided by the manufacturer, it took forever (actually not completely done yet ).

I am ready to invest in hard drive imaging software. Trying to decide between Ghost (which my PC manufacturer apparently uses, and it worked fine), and True Image product. A couple of questions for the audience, please

1. If I purchase True Image, does one get free upgrades to new versions, or do I have to pay for them? And if so, how much?
2. Reliability is obviously a key. When creating or restoring an image, how reliable is True Image?
3. I used Norton Ghost a long time ago, and it wasn't exactly user-friendly. Is True Image easy to use - even for someone like me?

 

I have used Ghost for many years and various versions and while when it works it works well, alot of times I have found it unreliable. I have had times where images I had created and used before would not work again, times where even disk to disk would go through the process and then upon boot found the drive was corrupted. I then used Acronis TI8 and was able to successfully image the same disk to disk process with no errors and flawless working imaged drive. In addition TI8 is alot faster and I have even purchased their Enterprise version and it works excellent even on RAID setups. IMO I think Acronis is the best on the market and most reliable bar none. The new version of Ghost which I also own 9.0, is a compbination of the old Powerquest Drive Image which SYmantec acquired and blended in with their code. It is very slow, requires MS Framework Services to be installed on your machine and is aweful at disk to disk images entirely. Their filebrowser is decent but thats all. I will never buy Ghost again.

For the questions on the program updates, well of course for new versions you would be required to buy them but they offer upgrade pricing on their web site so take a look and see. I believe they also offer a 30 day trial so you can test it out first for yourself and see if you like it. However I think you will be sold on it as it is top notch.

Oh and it is definately more user firendly than Ghost is IMO.

Another thing I forgot to mention was if there is a Compusa store near you, they have a sale on TI8 for $39.99 which is a $10.00 instant rebate from the normal $49.99 price. I picked up a copy there this week as well. Also one other thing to note is if your running x64 XP then neither Ghost nor TI8 support it but Acronis is going to have an update for x64 support by the end of the year. I don't believe Symantec will support x64 for another year or so based on their attitude thus far of this April x64 release.

Good luck to you.

 

Thanks for the feedback, A_E. I've read good and back about Ghost. I'll probably get the same about TI. But I've seen where I can get Ghost for half the price of TI.

I think I'll give the 30-day test drive a whirl. I assume it's fully functional ?

 

....Oh, and by the way. If I have multiple PC's that I want to make an image of, do I need to buy multiple licenses?

 

I believe it is truly functional as was the Enterprise version I used for testing but believe me if I could get Ghost for free after rebate or pay $39.99 for TI8, I would pass on the Ghost. Remember I actually own Ghost 9 which I bought late last year when it was released and it is definately not up to par with Acronis.

 

Don't quote me on this but if you want to load the program and run it all the time on multiple PCs then yes you would need to buy a license for each machine and that is with either Ghost or TI8. Remember also that Symantec has that stupid Activation scheme on Ghost now too.

If you wanted to use the boot disk of either one and create images that way for other PCs then no you should need only the one license and just have the Windows interface loaded on one PC. Now with Ghost, version 9 won't run without Windows, so they include a copy of Ghost 2003 CD with the Ghost 9 product. However if you buy their digital download of Ghost 9 then you won't get the additional 2003 cd so be careful to get the retail box of Ghost at the store if you want that functionality.

 

Hi,

Essentialy, you are only allowed to use the bootable rescue CD on the same machine that True Image is installed on.

Here are some links to previous Acronis Support replies regarding licencing (UK spelling!!) issues:

True Image basic
True Image Corporate Workstation
True Image Corporate Workstation (remote management)
True Image Enterprise Server

Regards

 

Of course we run it on only 1 machine!

Anyway, I don't see anything about the CompUSA deal. Do you know when it expires?
I assume it is D/L but we can upgrade as soon as it is installed.

 

I bought mine last week at our local Compusa, retail box version of TI8.

I just checked their website and it shows in stock at my location here in FL and says current as of 8-13 with the same price of $39.99. Looks like its still good this week but can't find anything about when it ends. The shelf sticker showed the price as $49.99 with $10.00 instant rebate and that is what I got it for. Here is the link to the page http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=318349&pfp=BROWSE

 

You can also get it at newegg.com for $30 (download version, but the boxed version isn't much more).

 

Yes, just noticed. Boxed is about $35 + Shipping. Not sure why a d/l version for $29.99 wouldn't be as good. We need to update it anyway!

 

Wow thats a good price for the download version at newegg. I just looked at it and it says $29.99 for the retail download version. Same stuff without all the packing.

 

Thanks everyone! Dowloaded the 15-day trial. Testing it now...

 

I bought the NewEgg downloadable version last week, and then downloaded the 903 update. Made a copy of the program on CD, and created a Rescue CD.

As I wrote in another post (my first one here), I too used Ghost previously, and while I never encountered any reliability problems, I was getting fed up with the poor performance that resulted from having to boot into DOS and loading sub-par Firewire and NTFS drivers. NTBackup was much faster than Ghost, but of course it doesn't permit bare-metal restores.

I downloaded the True Image trial and was very happy with what I saw. Being a longtime NewEgg customer who was about to order something else there anyway, I checked their price, and then on a whim opted for the electronic True Image download and instant gratification. After registering using the key I got in the e-mail with the download link, I downloaded the Build 903 update -- no problems so far.

 

Got it installed. Have not had a chance to make an image yet, but I did notice these two items are automatically loading every time I start my PC. If there is one think I hate - it's resource-hogging apps.


Can anyone explain why these are running? Why do I need them? Can (and should) I turn them off?

I'm running with what one might call a less-than-leading-edge PC, and I can't afford lots of processes running in the background. Thanks.

 

As I mentioned I just bought the product recently myself and thus far have used it primarily for full image and disk to disk use, but the program is also capable of incremental backups and that is what I believe the TrueImageMonitor.exe function is for. I also think this is a startup item and not a service and can be disabled without affecting TI8 functionality other than the incremental functionality. The other item you mentioned appears to be the sceduler where you can schedule backups, again this item should also be able to be disabled and run when needed.
However if you want the incrmental and auto scheduled backups to function then you should leave them run.
Oh and another thing to mention is that Ghost 9 has a tremendous amount of resident services running and mine was something like 60mb of resident services when I had it installed. It also needed MS Framework to be loaded which again adds to more resident resource hogging services.

Currently I am only using TI8 for disk to disk and boot imaging as my new system is leading edge x64 and I am just awaiting Acronis to release the x64 support for x64 at the end of the year before I can run TI8 resident on my machine.

Good luck with your testing and all in all I truly think TI8 is the top product out there for disk imaging.

 

OK. Do you know how to disable these startup services? I don't see the option to do this listed.

 

Schedule2 Service -> Services.msc & Scdelhlp -> Hk_LM Run... But really you don't need to disable them, they barely use anything at all.

 

Thanks, Dog. This looks like your sayng I need to edit the registry directly, right?

 

It'd be easier if you used another tool to do it. If you have either Spybot (advance mode -> tools -> system startup and uncheck 'schedulhlp.exe) or RegSeeker (startups right click the appropriate entry and set to disable) on board that can disable the helper using the HKLM Run. For the service Start->Run-> type services.msc ... double click the acronis shedule2 Service / stop the service and set the startup to either disable or manual.

But honestly I'd suggest you leave them running ... they don't use very much in regards to resources. But the choice is yours.

 

Well, I created an exact image of my entire C drive (no other partitions on my PC), and verified the image. From reading the literature, it appears that in the future if I run into trouble that I have two methods of restoring the drive.

1. Preferred method - Start ATI from Windows and go through the restore procedures. This sounds strange to me.

• • If my PC is experiencing problems, chances are that I will not be able to start ATI from within Windows anyway. Can I restore a partition from within Windows SAFE mode?
  • If I am running Windows, how can ATI possibly restore the entire C drive, from which Windows is running? Are not files locked / in use etc. when Windows is running? Not to mention the ATI program itself is running from C. How is this possible?

2. ATI Rescue CD. - I created this when first installing ATI. I was able to verify the partition image that I created using ATI. I sure hope this Rescue CD was created correcly. I see no option to verify it's integrity.

• • From what I've read, in the event of a catastrophe I simply insert the rescue CD, and it will prompt me from there.
  • For the Rescue CD to wor, I assume the ATI program was (to some degree) saved on the rescue CD.

I guess the only way to test it from here is to completely restore the image. But that's a scarey proposition, since this PC is currently working fine.

 

You've convinced me, K9. If in the future I decide to disable them, I can always come back to your post.

Thanks!

 

Hello Daisey,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Answering your question concerning Acronis True Image 8.0 resident programs:

schedul2.exe -- Acronis scheduling service.
This service is started on the computer startup and remains active until
the computer is turned off. It is used by Acronis software to start
scheduled tasks.
Note that Acronis True Image always schedule image creation tasks,
even if you start the "Image creation" operation. Thus if you stop
Acronis scheduling service, then you loose the ability to create images
in Windows.

schedhlp.exe -- Acronis scheduling service helper
This program monitors the logons and logoffs in the running system and
notifies Acronis scheduling service about them. It is started when a
user logs into the system and terminates when the user logs off.
Acronis True Image uses this program to schedule tasks on user
logon/logoff and to run non-scheduled "Image creation" operation.

TrueImageMonitor.exe -- Acronis True Image Monitor
This program provides the interface between running Acronis True Image
tasks and the user. It allows to observe the tasks progress and cancel
the running tasks. It is started when a user logs into the system and
terminates when the user logs off.
This program is not required by Acronis True Image to perform its tasks,
and can be terminated if you think it occupies too much memory, but you
will loose the ability to control running Acronis True Image tasks.

All Acronis resident modules uses very little amount of physical memory
in normal state (when no imaging or other task is performed) since
operating system swaps them off to the swap file on the hard disk.

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

It best it you enable the Acronis Startup recovery manager ... during boot you hit 'F11" to access it, it loads the Linux Kernel Acronis uses to operate ... allowing the recovery operation to happen. ...It's the easiest method to me to restore images. I always create images from within windows though.

Truly Daisey ... As a former Ghost user I really didn't know what I was missing ... Acronis is better in every way by massive leaps and bounds. I can't tell you how much I think of this program, it's absolutely great and IMO the best in this field.

 

Another great aspect of Acronis is that they even answered your thread directly. I am telling you, this product and the company are outstanding!