Continuing on with our in-depth discussions on backup solutions, this article will review Acronis True Image version 8.0. This will be the final article in our 7-part series, stretching back almost 1 month to date:
* Choosing a Backup Solution: An In Depth Look
* 6 Key Elements for any Backup Strategy
* Backup Made Easy: A Six Point Guide to Buying Backup Software
* Genie Backup Manager Review
* System Restore and similar Registry Reverting utilities -- pointless?
* The results are in: which Disk Imaging Backup software is best?
* Acronis True Image Review (version 8): In Depth
RE: Disk Imaging software versus Regular File Backup
Regular file backup programs such as Genie Backup Manager are fantastic for backing up personal files such as downloads, documents, emails, pictures, bookmarks, and the like. And as we learned previously, Regular file backup is also a great way to archive files onto a more permanent location (such as CD-Recordable) in order to save space on the hard drive.
The flipside of the coin is that regular file backup is not capable of backing up the Operating System. In other words, if your hard drive crashed or if Windows suddenly became inoperable, the only way to resolve the issue would be to:
* format [erase] the hard drive
* reinstall Windows and download all the updates
* reinstall all your programs
* reinstall the backup software
* restore your data that you backed up
In all, that might take 6 to 8 hours to complete (at best) -- not fun.
I personally use regular file backup to archive my most critical files on a regular basis; but, for those truly disastrous situations [often as a result of a Spyware infection, Virus, or something that I downloaded recently that didn't install / uninstall properly], I also use a Disk Imaging software to backup and revert my entire system to a previous healthy state ... often within minutes.
Introducing Acronis True Image 8.0: True Disaster Recovery
Recently voted best disk imaging solution by our Readers, some of the features provided by Acronis True Image v8.0 include:
* [ Click to Enlarge ]An Easy to Use Interface: Simply click "create image" and Acronis' built in Backup Wizard will guide you through 8 Simple Steps to begin backing up your entire system.
* Works within Windows: Unlike inferior MS DOS-based disk imagers, Acronis True Image never requires you to restart your computer in order to complete an imaging backup operation.
* Split Image Files: Image files can be stored on permanent media (such as another hard drive), or on removable medium (such as ZIP disks, CD/DVD-R, etc). If the image is too large to fit on the destination medium, True Image can split the image across multiple volumes.
* Store Images Remotely: Image files are typically quite large in size; in addition to storing the backup on a local computer, True Image also provides the option to save the image backups on a remote PC -- perfect for laptops and older PCs that are short on storage space or don't have a CD burner to store the backup!
* Explore Image and Restore Single Files: In addition to restoring an entire volume, users may choose to extract single [or multiple] files by exploring an image file.
* [ Click to Enlarge ]Full and Incremental Backups: True Image is one of the few disk imaging solutions to offer both Full Image backup as well as Incremental Imaging, which only backs up new or changed data from a previous backup set.
Side note: If you choose to save all your image backups to CD or DVD media, incremental backups can save a substantial amount of time, medium, and money in the long run.
* Scheduler: Automate your backups using Acronis' built in scheduling mechanism -- also a great feature for making regular incremental backups!
* Test Backup Medium: Backing up your data is completely pointless if you can't restore it; Acronis True Image uses bit-level verification to ensure 100% data integrity and restorability of your images -- even after you burn them to CD or DVD.
* Built-in CD and DVD Burning: Image files can be archived directly to CD or DVD. Note that DVD burning requires additional packet writing software (which comes standard with many applications such as Nero Burning ROM, Easy CD Creator, etc).
[ Click to Enlarge ]Side note: If you don't own Packet Writing software, you can save your image files to another location and then burn to DVD using any CD Mastering application.
* Bootable Rescue Media: In case Windows is inoperable or your hard drive is no longer startable, True Image offers bootable Rescue Media that allows you to revert a previous image backup in a stable environment.
* Great for Seamless Hard Drive Upgrades: Transfer Windows and all installed programs from an old (smaller) hard drive, to a new (larger) hard drive: a perfect solution if you're looking to upgrade your hard drive and don't want to reinstall Windows and all your applications on the new drive.
Acronis True Image 8.0: Using it on My Machine
Installation went relatively smooth, except for the fact that True Image gave me an error message when I tried to create a bootable CD Rescue Disc.
I later found out it was because my particular brand of DVD burner [Sony DW-D56A] uses a "non-standard driver," which conflicts with the CD creation process.
But not to worry --
[ Click to Enlarge ]After searching the official Acronis True Image web forums, I found a simple workaround which involved booting Windows XP into Safe Mode, launching True Image, and then choosing to create the rescue disc from the main menu.
With my Rescue Media now burned to a CD-Rewriteable, I decided to test the boot disc by rebooting my computer. Sure enough, the disc started and the Rescue Media screen appeared.
Satisfied that the bootable Rescue Media was working as it should, I rebooted my system once more and created my first image backup. There were 8 steps in creating my image:
1. Choose Hard Drive to Backup
2. Choose Save Location
3. Choose Full or Incremental Backup
4. Choose Automatic or Fixed Image File size
5. Choose Compression Level
6. Password Protect your Backup
7. Enter optional user Comments
8. Proceed with Backup
The interface was very straight-forward and easy to use. In all, True Image took roughly 25 minutes to image my 10 gigabyte C drive [Windows] partition, write it to DVD Recordable, and test the integrity of the backup.
Acronis True Image 8.0: Compatibility
Acronis True Image 8.0 recognizes all hard disks connected to the PC, along with a wide variety of removable media drives with P-ATA (IDE), S-ATA, SCSI, USB, IEEE1394 (Firewire) and PCMCIA interfaces including: CD-ROM / DVD-ROM and CD-R/W recorders and burners, magneto-optical drives, Zip and Jazz devices, and many others.
True Image 8.0 works with Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation Service Pack 6, Windows 98, and supports FAT16/32, NTFS, Linux Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, and Linux SWAP file systems.
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