Works great --I use it all the time**Updated 3 times**
Written: Jun 02 '04 (Updated May 29 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Copies EVERYTHING even while running operating system, copies to DVDs, incremental backups, restores individual files
Cons: Accessing data from another computer problematic, although possible. Cannot restore individual files from DVDs
The Bottom Line: It copies EVERYTHING, even while you're working, allows easy access later if using same computer. Accessing backups from a dead computer (using another computer) is a problem, but still possible.
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| t_o_n_y's Full Review: ACRONIS True Image 7 |
*** Update May, 29, 2008 ***
This software does not work with the Vista operating system and also does not work with Windows XP running on a MacBook Pro as described here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_431273840260
Updating to a more recent version of True Image will allow it to work on Vista, but for the MacBook Pro, there are free imaging software packages (as mentioned in the above linked review).
*** Update July 27, 2007 ***
I've been using Acronis True Image 7 for about 3 years now, and find it invaluable. I'm now on my 4th laptop hard drive, and each time I install the new drive, I depend on True image to allow a complete transfer of all my data. I guess I must be hard on my computers because I really have taken advantage of the ability to completely restore the computer to an earlier image over and over again. One thing that can cause trouble, however, is the interaction with my security software (Norton Internet Security) which can get confused after an image restore, requiring me to tinker with it before it gets back to normal.
Everything I've written previously holds true til today, and I definitely would buy this software again. It does take a while to back up and restore images, but it's just something you've got to do.
*** Update: Nov. 11, 2004 ***
This product continues to work well for me 5 months since purchase after many uses. In addition to the disaster noted below, I regularly use it to back up two different laptops. Also, I recently had another occasion to use it for a full system restore and it worked just as expected after I downloaded the latest build. Before that, I had contacted Acronis via email about a problem recognizing one of my disks and they had given me a work around. But with the latest build (595 of version 7.0) things worked great.
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*** See June 22, 2004 update below in which I used this product during a disaster and it worked (mostly)***
I've been using True Image 7 for 3 months and have found it to be just what I wanted. I just read the review by nc10 and will not attempt to repeat the sort of details found there (thanks for such an excellent review, it helped me learn how to use the program). I just wanted to say that in my experience so far, the program does what I wanted.
-Copies everything even while running the operating system
-Copies segments of an archive to DVD's (or other sizes)
-Allows incremental backups
-Allows restoring individual files
-Allows different levels of compression
-Restores are suprisingly quick, although creating the initial images takes quite a while
I'm a power user and I realize (through experience) how easy it is to lose valuable data. Therefore, I have struggled for years attempting to back things properly...but it is no small task without software like this. The reason is that the operating system doesn't like to copy portions of itself -- but True Image 7 somehow gets around this. I have already made backup images of entire drives and have restored them successfully with this software. I've also recovered individual files.
Although I've stored images directly to DVD RW's, I've found it to be less desireable to do so since you cannot restore individual files if everything in on DVD's...hopefully they will fix this in future releases. Therefore, the method I've used is to back up a partition on my laptop in DVD-sized segments. I then write these segments to DVD RW disks. That means I have a backup of my backup. However, there are problems with backing up onto a partition of the same drive since once it's there you have to erase it in order to make an image of the whole drive. Still, this is what I've been doing and it's worked okay. I have found working with DVD's like this to work fine, but it is a little cumbersome and time consuming to write the 4 separate DVD RW's I need. But it works, and it's cheap. (However, I've just purchased an external hard drive and perhaps I'll add to this review after experience with that.)
My experience is been using a Sony PCG-GRT100P laptop with a 60GB drive running at 2.8GHz running XP pro and have a home network involving another laptop running XP home as well as a windows 98 desktop.
*** June 22, 2004 update ***
Last week the laptop described above suddenly died and I faced the prospect of no computer for a week or more while it was being serviced. Since I'd made a backup image of my data, I figured great, now is an opportunity to really take advantage of this software. It did work, and I was able to get at my important data, but there was a problem too.
Using my wife's laptop I was definitely able to look at individual files or even restore the entire image onto a AcomData hard drive I had recently purchased (see my review here http://www.epinions.com/content_145050930820). However I learned two things:
1) Trying to access files from a restored backup using another computer can be a problem because of Windows XP's security features (but there's a way around this)
2) restoring a backup image onto a hard drive must be done onto a partition other than the partition containing the backup.
Solving (2) is relatively easy if you've just started out with your hard drive, but I had to copy all my data onto DVD's in order to repartition.
Solving (1) might not be an issue if you don't make use of Windows XP User Accounts to password protect your data, but I do so it caused me a problem. After much research, I found that there is a way, even though Acronis had written me back telling me there was no way. Hats off to Sony tech support for helping me. Here is the letter I wrote to Acronis containing the important information:
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Acronis,
Thank you for your reply to my question. I also contacted Sony tech support about this question and found out that there is, in fact, a way to access my data in this situation by using the procedures outlined in the following knowledge base articles:
http://www.iq.sony.com/srvs/autoresponse.asp?id=228411
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];308421
It seems to me that,
1) the sort of situation I have described is exactly the sort of situation where your product becomes useful
2) not knowing how to get around the password protection problem dramatically reduces the usefulness of your product in this situation
I'm very pleased that Sony was able to help me in this situation and very pleased that I had your product. Perhaps by noting this information you will be able to help others in this situation in the future.
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In brief, one needs to log on as "Adminstrator" and then go through steps to grant yourself rights to the folders. After going through this process I found that there were some "access denied" errors that cropped up during copying the files. Since these stopped the copying process under Windows, I made use of XCOPY under the dos prompt, using the switches needed to allow copying to continue even if errors occur. What a mess, but it worked.
As I wrote in the letter to Acronis, it seems that this is something which users of this software would reasonably run into. The only thing I can think of which *might* get around this problem is to remove password protection from accounts prior to making a backup image. Since True Image allows for password protection of the backup image itself, there is still the possibility of retaining security. I'll probably try this in the future, although it's a slightly awkward extra step.
All that being said, I still think this is great software.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
t_o_n_y
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Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Ph.D. scientist who appreciates finding and sharing helpful information
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