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Need advice on "Acronis® True Image WD Edition" that comes with a "My Book" WD 2TB External Drive

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I searched and didn't find any help on where to post my question so please move it to the appropriate forum as needed.

I bought an external drive for a friend and I see it comes with Acronis® True Image WD Edition. It doesn't say whether it's already on the external drive or not.

I use TIH 2014 and wonder what the limitations of the "WD Edition" are?

The friends' machine runs Win 8 not even upgraded to 8.1. I had planned to just use the backup method in the OS. But after reading how to make an image in Win 8 it may be a blessing that Acronis is included with the drive unit!

My friend or his wife aren't especially computer savvy and I don't want to confuse them by giving them another new program to learn, like Acronis. They have already lost data due to poor information from a tech support place called "iYogi" based in India. Instead of cleaning a virus from a Win 7 installation, that place had them install Win 8 over 7 and they lost all the data of their business!

I want to keep the backup process as simple for them as I can and wonder if keeping the "WD Edition" is the way to go. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2748351

Ha! Now that I read how miserable the process in Win 8 is to make a custom backup, I pray that the WD edition will suffice. There is no way I could show these folks how to use the Win 8 backup system. Plus I have no idea how it restores an image, it makes no mention that it is done using Linux, Which I am sure MS would NEVER DO!!!

Thanks in advance to all who reply and Merry Christmas!

F Wolf

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The link you posted is how you create your own custom refresh image, this is only for advanced users. Windows 8 and 8.1 can both still create system images exactly the same way Windows 7 can.

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57604101-285/how-to-create-a-system…
The link above is the real way to make a system image for windows 8.

It is a little different in 8.1.
http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-81-tip-use-system-image-backup

In both you create a bootable USB recovery drive and use it to restore your system images. It really isn't any more complicated than true image.

The newest build on their website of True Image WD Edition is just a reduced functionality version of True Image 2013.
It can only be used to clone, or backup and restore. All the other bells and whistles are disabled, and it will annoyingly prompt the user to upgrade to the full version. It also will only launch when it can detect a Western Digital drive on the system, so booting from its recovery cd will be hit or miss depending on how the PC's bios recognizes the external USB drive. If their PC just happens to have a an internal WD drive, then it won't be an issue. Otherwise it could be a bit of a pain.

The WD edition requires a Western Digital hard drive to be installed, it is also based on an early version of True Image, TIH 2009, though WD have made some alterations to it. Other than that from an imaging point of view it offers the same basic options, apart form Syn, Cloud, tib2VHD conversion etc.

Hi Joey,

I thought the link I sent was a bit complicated! Turns out it's the wrong one entirely

I have found other articles that deal with Win 8 backups and it looks to me like I should have ordered TIH 2014 as well as the WD external drive.
Most likely that's what will end up happening. Especially if the WD version is going to nag us all the time to upgrade to a full version.

Since I am familiar with the GUI or TIH it will be easy to show someone else how to do it. Rather than wading through the way MS wants you to make an image.

Thanks for the reply and for setting me straight on everything.

Cheers,

F Wolf