Acronis True Image 8.0 questions

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#1 Post by **aamsel** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 11:01 pm

I am thinking about switching from Ghost to Acronis True Image, but have a few questions after reading the user's guide on Acronis' website:

I am planning on moving several USB hard drives between my desktop PC and my Thinkpad for purpose of storing images on them.

Questions:
1.) Does Acronis True Image allow for "clean" movement of external drives between PC's ?? Reading the user's guide, it looks like Acronis wants to delete, format and setup a new disk when detected. If I move an external drive between my Thinkpad and desktop, will Acronis allow this, and will it write images from EITHER PC to the SAME EXTERNAL DRIVE ???

2.) A license costs $49.99. Will that suffice for a desktop and a notebook, or will the program require two purchases for that ???

Thanks,
Andrew
Austin, TX

craigg · #2 Post by **craigg** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 11:34 pm

I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish. If you save an image from your Thinkpad and try to load it on your desktop, in most cases it will not work as the drivers will be different. As far as the license goes, you can create as many images as you want from as many machines as you want. I have noticed no limitations. I have used Ghost in the past and it never worked as well as Acronis. Acronis runs in windows and the last copy of Ghost that I ran had to run in a DOS session.

#3 Post by **JHEM** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 11:40 pm

Andrew,

Acronis will only offer to FDISK and FORMAT a new HD, not one that already has partitions and data on it!

I've been using TrueImage for years to swap images between my laptops and desktops with nary a problem.

Regards,

James

#4 Post by **aamsel** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:03 am

Not what you were thinking.
I want to have several external drives that I can save images from both my desktop and Thinkpad to.
Of course, I would not try to restore a desktop image to a Thinkpad or vice versa.
Just wanted to make sure that Acronis would not "whine" about having an external drive moved between the two machines, or gripe about licensing.

Andrew
Austin, TX

craigg wrote:I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish. If you save an image from your Thinkpad and try to load it on your desktop, in most cases it will not work as the drivers will be different. As far as the license goes, you can create as many images as you want from as many machines as you want. I have noticed no limitations. I have used Ghost in the past and it never worked as well as Acronis. Acronis runs in windows and the last copy of Ghost that I ran had to run in a DOS session.

#5 Post by **aamsel** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:04 am

Thanks James!!
I think I am going to "plunk down" the $50 and get it.

Andrew
Austin, TX

JHEM wrote:Andrew,

Acronis will only offer to FDISK and FORMAT a new HD, not one that already has partitions and data on it!

I've been using TrueImage for years to swap images between my laptops and desktops with nary a problem.

Regards,

James

Leon · #6 Post by **Leon** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:46 am

You will like it......BUT, why not try out the 3o day evaluation first?

#7 Post by **aamsel** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:16 am

Well, I DID download the 30 day eval a few months ago, but I forgot to try it, so the 30 days expired. I uninstalled it, and tried to reinstall it but it was "smarter" than I am, and said that it was expired. Basically, I don't know what registry key or keys to "hack" to get the 30 day to work.

Actually, it is a 15 day trial now.

Andrew
Austin, TX

Leon wrote:You will like it......BUT, why not try out the 3o day evaluation first?

Leon · #8 Post by **Leon** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:32 am

oh well, it IS worth it....get it for $29 here....

update $33.50... see post below.....

#9 Post by **aamsel** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:39 am

WHERE DO I GET IT FOR $29 ???

Andrew
Austin, TX

Leon wrote:oh well, it IS worth it....get it for $29 here....

Leon · #10 Post by **Leon** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:45 am

sorry....33.50

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 1SF&depa=0

#11 Post by **aamsel** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:51 am

Thanks!
Good enough.

Andrew
Austin, TX

Leon wrote:sorry....33.50

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 1SF&depa=0

storage_man · #12 Post by **storage_man** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:59 pm

aasmel

You won't be disappointed. Infact I do exactly what you want to do. I create backup images on a USB drive on my thinkpad, I then move the drive to my desktop and create DVD backups of the images created on the thinkpad.

True Image works like a charm

Storage_man

dd · #13 Post by dd » Sat Mar 19, 2005 12:14 am

I guess the backup utility that comes with XP mustnt be very good as no-body has even mentioned it?

start: programs: accesories: system tools: backup

It seems quite comprehensive? It is from Microsoft and VERITAS software corporation . . . . .
Disable the "use wizard" is best to view all its functions

Any comments?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/usin ... uly14.mspx

damorg · #14 Post by **damorg** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:26 am

MS's ntbackup is fine but it doesn't provide the full coverage of a complete point-in-time "snapshot" of disk or partition like a disk image.

if you don't do disk images and instead just backup your vital data, you are stuck reinstalling and configuring the system and *then* restoring your data. Extra time and hassle as opposed to just restoring an image onto a new/blank disk.

i use ntbackup for data coverage on systems that can't be taken down for an image or for coverage between images.

backups are always a balance between how much time and data you can stand to lose vs. convenience/automation vs. cost.

if it's not a critical system or you can stand the time it takes to rebuild it or move the service to a different system, it may be best to simply do data backups on a schedule.

images provide good piece of mind and increase the likelihood that you can be back up and running at 100% if you have a current image. On the downside, there can be planning and scheduling overhead with images. The more systems you have and the less time you can devote to imaging them, the bigger a hassle they can be.

on the other hand (the 3rd?), packages for backups and imaging that provide advanced scheduling and automation tend to be a fair bit more expensive than single-licensed, consumer/small-business level packages of ghost or acronis (or MS's bundled ntbackup).

dd · #15 Post by dd » Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:00 pm

I see . . said the blindman

Many thanks

DavidNZ · #16 Post by **DavidNZ** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:55 pm

Have read this thread with interest and it has got me thinking about whether I would need imaging software for my X40 or not.

Basically, there is nothing really on my X40 that would be lost if, for example, the hard drive packed it in this afternoon. I keep some documents primarily on the HDD of the computer, but these are mirrored to two portable hard drives. Most primary documents are kept on those portable hard drives. Those are then mirrored to my desktop PC in my office. In short, I have at least four versions of any one document/file. Granted, if my HDD crashed right now, I would loose some things: whatever has changed since my last mirror to the portable hard drives (done usually every few hours as I'm working).

What I would loose, however, is time, specifically the time it would take to get things up and running again. Not to mention the little tweaks that I've done (too numerous to even remember)!

I may give this a go...

Leon · #17 Post by **Leon** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 1:19 pm

download the 15 day trial and try it!

Acronis True Image 8.0 questions

Acronis True Image 8.0 questions

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