TI 9 Impressions & Some Serious Questions

Just started to try Acronis True Image 9 and the new features.

One of them is the differential backup. But honestly - I did not get the point. You could do the same with the Version 8 if you take a different name for each incremental backup. So what is really new?

The other thing is that you can do backups of folders. I did and then I tried to have a look at the contents of the backup. I could not look at all and of course I could not restore certain files. The only thing I could do is to restore the folder. I hope that I am wrong. If not I never saw a backup like this. WinZip has a better compression and you can look at AND restore any file in the "backup". So please tell me that I am wrong and simply overlooked something in the documentation.

One thing I did not test so far. True Image until version 8 had nothing to do with an image of a partition at all. It was not even able to handle a not standard cluster size - what even backup software normally can. In my case after restoring the true image I had to restore MY cluster size and defrag the whole partition again. This has nothing to do with an image at all and the name "True Image" was misleading. I hope that this changed with version 9. Otherwise every backup software could do much better. And Acronis has to change the name True Image since it is misleading the customers - like it did me with Version 8!

I did not try yet - if it is in Version 9 like in Version 8 I will be busy for hours to get to a for me usable partition again. But then I will switch to Symantec and ask Acronis for a refund. And again - then Acronis really HAS TO change the name of their somehow backup product - and this from a legal point of view. But I am still full of hope.

If anybody has experience with the cluster size and defragmentation in Version 9 already I am grateful for a hint. I could save hours of work to rebuild the partition after restoring the then still UNtrue ?image? again.

 

Good luck on getting any help you need from Support; there are, however, a few on the Forum that'll give you a hand. I had assistance by private messages and right here

If you purchased TI-9 online through DigitalRiver, their refund # is: 1-800-656-5426. I took the exact same route you are contemplating and I am

 

Now I have made the final test - restoring the system partition. First of all True Image V9 still writes back a somehow backup and not more. There is no way at all to avoid that it changes the cluster size and with this the whole disk layout. No way to get back an image!!!

The other thing is what seems to be new. The user interface? Lets look at an example. I try to restore the system partition from within Windows. So I have to enter everything in detail - what and where to restore it. The where is the last thing to enter. Now TI realizes that I want to restore the system partition. It shuts down the system and restarts in its "system". I look at the starting screen of the Acronis software and have to enter everything again. Does Acronis use the software itself?

To summarize my comment from my first post and this one. There is no need to waste money for version 9. Not even the order of entries when you restore a partition is changed... The backup utility of files or folders is useless. You cannot explore the backup file at all. And worst of all TI is still not able to restore an image. It cannot even handle the original cluster size that you had when the image was created. And there is no way to avoid the change of the complete disk layout. Only to stop True Image before it starts what means not to use it at all.

My urgent advice to Acronis - it is really time to change the name True Image. Again - it is misleading potential customers since the software is not able to restore an image!!!! It is like selling a product that somehow looks like wine and is sold in a bottle with the label True Wine - it is against the law!

 

Since more replies have shown someone is determined to drag this topic into the gutter, this thread will be closed.