The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - Acronis backup: problems? Confirmed success?

Acronis backup: problems? Confirmed success?

Hi,

I'm looking for a good option to backup my HD to my slave drive.

Someone recommended Acronis, which looks good. Does a full image backup, plus it tracks changes, etc.

However, I looked at the reviews on Cnet.com. They're a bit mixed.

But we've (all?) read the Jos thread on how flaky those review *can* be.

SO... has anyone had success with restoring an Acronis backup? Problems trying save or restore ?

Someone also recommended (and it has good reviews) :
http://www.centered.com/

But it doesn't backup in use files (and his reasoning seems reasonable).

Ghost might be an option too, though I think it runs from DOS.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

The real Entrepreneur
Friday, February 13, 2004

I haven't tried that specific product, but, for what it's worth, I was very pleased with other Acronis products, namely PartitionExpert, RecoveryExpert and TrueImage. On one occasion, Partition Magic wouldn't even start, complaining something about my HDD having the wrong geometry or something (I had 11 partitions on that HD... don't ask). Acronis's PartitionExpert did the job just fine without giving me a single message complaining about anything. TrueImage also kicks ass (the boot CD behaves exactly like the real program running on Windows XP. Yup, XP-style buttons and all.)

TJ Haeser
Friday, February 13, 2004

I haven't restored from Arcronis yet. I made a clone of the laptop with no problem.

I have restored many times from Ghost, always successfully, (at the moment I'm using it for 180 machnes) so if you are worried at all get that. Like Partition Magic it has its own version of DOS. Also it will write to a Virtual Dos partition on the Hard Drive, for cases where you don't have a floppy, and don't want to be booting from loads of CD's.

The thing to check out is the version you are using (this applies to all cloning software). Firstly the NTFS file system changed from NT4 to W2K and XP, and you need round about Ghost 6 to do other than a bit by bit copy of the partition (no problem now of course). There are also some other questions with XP. This applies to all versions, so if you are getting a freeware version of Drive Image or Acronis from a cover CD (I have both) do check out the version number on the web site. Secondly, you should always restore an image, WITH THE VERSION YOU USED TO MAKE IT.

In general the problems you get with images is that they don't restore because of deterioration in the media. You could probably simply use a spare hard disk to test it out.

Stephen Jones
Friday, February 13, 2004

i've owned and used it for several months.
works fine.
my only complaint is the amount it will cost me to upgrade to the latest version, so soon after buying it.

ano nymous
Friday, February 13, 2004