Acronis True Image Home (Wish list)
Let's hope the upload limit (2 GB), through FTP will be removed, so I can do some positive advertising at work. Currently it's useless for us. THat's why my boss is already deciding to order Paragon's solution instead, however I don't like their interface...
Hello!
My Wish List:
1) after pressing the "shutdown windows" box appears with the choice of tasks to be executed after exiting windows.
2) add the "offline backup" without the OS. Paragon has this feature, it's called "blue screen". In this case, creating an archive is faster than with the OS.
1). I would like to have an option to "Restart computer" as well as " Shut down" after back up completion.
2). I would like to see a proper Wish List for suggestions in this Forum instead of the SH** list it has become therebye making it ipossible to read through and obscuring wish requests. Put the, (mostly justifiable), wingeing elsewhere. Limit the number of words in wish list posts.
Wishlist:
1. Remove from this wishlist thread all "wishes" that have been realized. For people new to the forum it is confusing and unnecessary to read, for example, "have an option to shut down the computer after backup" when that feature has already been added.
2. Real wish: Ability to remove individual folders or files from a Nonstop Backup set (or any backup for that matter). i.e not from the settings, but from the actual backup.
Whishlist
important:
possibility to use disk and partition backup if there is a locked bitlocker drive present (at the moment acronis freezes when clicked)
feature to clone only partitions not complete disks
not very important:
possibility to create Acronis secure zone on unlocked bitlocker drive (at the moment it's failing)
I wish Russian version of the product was updated at the same time as its other localizations.
The latest Russian build is #6597 and meanwhile English (US, UK), German and French localization had updates #6868 #6857 #6696.
At least Acronis should've mentioned on Russian product that if you buy this localization, then most likely you will get extremely slow update cycle.
And even more, as a Russian localization user, you may even never get a latest update for your product. Example:
Latest Acronis True Image 11 Home (English) is build #8101 July 03, 2008
Latest Acronis True Image 11 Home (Russian) is build #8059 November 27, 2007 (according to my personal product update page)
So as a customer, I feel abandoned, because there is lack of commitment to provide support for it. This is sad.
Here are a few things that I would like t see on True Image:
1 - The ability to create a image file regardless of the errors on the HD. Currently I select to ignore errors and still True Image terminates after some trying. This is needed for when we try to recover a drive that is damaged and we only need the recovery partition to transfer to the new drive. Since just taking the recovery partition does not work we need to create the image of the whole drive to transfer to a new drive then boot from the new drives recovery partition and re-install windows. I really don't care what else is on the drive so the software could replace the damaged sectors with zeros for all I care as long as I can get the recovery partition and MBR from the drive intact in the proper locations all would be well. What exactly does "Ignore All Errors" mean if the software terminates before it finishes a HD with errors???? Oxymoron I believe this is... All I need to get is a reasonable replicate of the drive to complete my mission... The recovery partition and portion of the drive is usually pristine because it is never used. I need to get a usable recovery partition from the damaged drive.
2 - The software hangs a lot or takes a long time to do certain things with no indication that it is working. Certainly there can be an hourglass or something to indicate that the software is still working and not frozen.
Most of the time I have to go back to my EZ-GIG II software to complete the task that Acronis True Image stumbles or completely fails on. This cannot be considered "Better" software if I have to go back to the original way of getting thins done. Have I wasted my $50.00 for this software. I have been complaining since day one of my purchase and it is not getting any better.
3 - I have on more than one occasion wiped my host drive with the True Image software because it automatically chooses my host drive. This should be a user choice that does not work unless the user actually chooses the destination so this would not happen. Even a warning that you are about to delete your HOST drive would be an improvement.
By The Way: I think that a forum is a lousy way to deal with customer and their issues. Acronis does not seem to have a presence here and it was Acronis that took my $50.00 not the forum members...
I have not read the 6 pages of wishes, so if there is a repeat, please forgive.
PLEASE ALLOW COMMENTS TO BE ADDED AT START OF CREATION OF VERSION. thanks!
Hi Acronis developers,
My comments are related to ATI2011
I am missing a possibility to backup new files only within a dedicated list of directories, nevertheless there exist modified as well! Background to this enhancement:
I intend to backup my TV-records (win7 media center) by performing a full backup followed by a certain amount of incementals. That's possible of course. BUT sadly TV-records are marked as modified already when watched for some seconds only. They get a new date. The reason for this is (I assume) that mediacenter remembers the last termination of watching that record to be able to continue at this timestamp! That means, all these records just played back for some seconds will be backuped with the incrementals and thus use a lot of diskspace and backup time. I think, it does not make any sence to make a new backup of these records. Only NEW records should be backuped.
When performing a skeduled backup of files via network, the backup often failes, because the WLAN connection is not done when the task starts (after starting the computer from standby). This is of course not an ATI problem, but nevertheless bothersome. Maybe there could be a check, whether the WLAN-connection is established before starting the BA-task? If the connection is not fine ATI should try to restart it, e.g to disable and to restart the network adapter. This could help with Fritz WLAN adapters which do not reconnect sometimes after standby.
ATI2011 prevents automatic standby when a task is running. That's fine. But please also prevent standby caused by user action. I think a standby during running tasks leads to failures in backup. Please do it like mediacenter does, when a TV-record is working!
Once I got used to the new format, I rather like it.
One thing is very annoying to me.
Under 2010, I was able to create three scheduled jobs each going to a different backup.
I used the daily with a start date and specified each job to wait 3 days before running again. This allowed me have a complete rotating set with no gaps between each set.
Under 2011, the best I could do was to set up 3 jobs, all three weekly with each running on separate days, Job 1 is scheduled to run on Sun,Wed, job 2 to run on Mon,Thurs,Fri and Job 3 to run on Sat, Mon. Not elegant, but it will work, I hope. I have yet to run through a complete cycle. I really would like to have Start Date brought back.
Another somewhat annoying thing is that the speed of the interface seems to be even slower than it was in 2010. Is it just my imagination? Seems to take forever to switch from screen to screen or to update a screen. I am running at 1.8Ghz with 1gb of memory.
David Wright
I have found a work-around. By using 'Monthly' I can set up the pattern I had before for a month at a time.
However, this means that I have to reset it at the beginning of each month. Compare this with what I had before using a different start date for each of the three jobs with a wait of 3 days for each. This process ran perfectly without any changes for over a year.
Cancel the last paragraph. I finally realized that the monthly calendars are not tied to particular months, but refer to all months, so that day 1 on the August should translate as day 1 on the September calender when it rolls around, solving my complaint. I'll let you know if this is true.
Does anyone in authority ever read these posts?
I work with Acronis since 10 years and I wish that TIH 2011 comes back to a user friendly and straight forward GUI like TIH 2010. This GUI may look nice but it's absolutely not comfortable to work with it. Thats why I go back to TIH 2010.
Hi folks
Never used a forum before so please forgive me if I am doing the wrong thing. I have a very simple question, yet cant seem to find an answer anywhere. The question is "can I carry on working on my computer whilst backing up the full disk using Acronis home 2011?"
Many thanks
Yes. If the backup is occurring from within Windows, a snapshot has been taken and the snapshot is being recorded as a backup. None of your new activity will be included in the backup and your working the computer will not interfere with the backup.
Acronis True Image is an application that I certainly do not recommend to anyone. While trying to make a full backup of my C-drive Acronis grinds to a halt, more than two hours and seven DVD's later, with an error message that cannot be found in the data base. And, surprise, surprise, of course there is not the slightest answer to my e-mail about that problem.
Acronis True Image is an application that I certainly do not recommend to anyone. While trying to make a full backup of my C-drive Acronis grinds to a halt, more than two hours and seven DVD's later, with an error message that cannot be found in the data base. And, surprise, surprise, of course there is not the slightest answer to my e-mail about that problem.
Almost any heavy disk activity will kill your system performance (I have a 6-core CPU in my desktop with 16GB of real memory and I can bring the system to what seems like a halt with a lot of drive activity that involves the C drive) and when backing up to a DVD you got major major disk activities. First Acronis has to copy stuff from the C drive to a temp location (most likely on the C drive), then copy the data to the DVD, confirm the copy, then erase the temp copy. If you have limited space on the C drive or have heavy fragmentation this will add to the performance degradation. Also consider the size of your C drive. For me I've reduce the size of my C drive as much as possible and it is about 260GB, to backup to DVD this will require about 120 DVDs. Thus backing up to DVD is not a good choice. This leaves you with either a USB drive (USB drives at the best only support 280MB/sec transfer) which will perform poorly or a eSATA (the performance will be MUCH better) or a local SATA drive (this is the best option). Again you need to worry about fragmentation on the source and target drives. I use Diskeeper to keep all of my drives defraged.
I suggest you revisit your backup methods, make new decisions and then see if Acronis TI does what you want. BTW don't forget to perform a test restore (total to a different drive) to ensure your BU is good and you know how to perform a total restore. I'd make other suggestions but your post is incomplete.
BTW your post is in the wish list section, I suggest that you start a new thread thus ensuring better coverage.
with an error message that cannot be found in the data base.
I think the wishlist item here is:
The coders must know what they coded to return specific error messages. It would be a quality improvement if they included some information for each error code for which they code. If it really is a compiler error unknown to the ATI coders, then that should be what is reported rather than a zero-result search. Presumably the coding teams would be concerned about their application throwing compiler or operating systems of which they have no understanding.
Hi folks
Never used a forum before so please forgive me if I am doing the wrong thing. I have a very simple question, yet cant seem to find an answer anywhere. The question is "can I carry on working on my computer whilst backing up the full disk using Acronis home 2011?"
Many thanks
Roger - in addition to what GroverH has posted you need to consider the performance hit to the system. (see my above post in response to Disuser ). I schedule all of my backup activities to start about 0300 hours when I'm most likely in bed. However there are times when I'm using my system and depending on which system (desktop, laptop, very-old desktop, very-old laptop) the system performance will vary greatly. On my old systems the system performance is the pits. Because of the degree of tuning and drive placement the hit on my new desktop is very small.
In reply to the 6 posts above there are two issues:
1). Any useful ATIH logging is virtually non-existent that is why so many people find ATIH so difficult to fault find when they have an issue (I include the Acronis support staff in that statement). If the logging was improved the product would improve in quality and it would be easier to find any of those odd corner cases that will always crop up.
2). The priority for disk I/O is not set correctly - that is why it impinges so drastically on system performance. Despite selecting "Low" priority the I/O remains at the same priority as the work you are trying to do. This applies to both an ATIH backup and ATIH Non Stop Backup. All run at "Normal" rather than "Low" or "Background"
Both issues have been mentioned many times.
The software that intervenes between Explorer and TIB files has view options disabled and defaults to the most useless possible form when you are trying to look at files - folder view. No date or size info at all. One reason people are looking in here is to find a specific version of a file. When disabling normal windows applications capabilities - think don't. When deciding on a default value - think.
2 requests
1 - enable view options and remember them.
2 - at least default to a view that includes create and last changed dates as well as size.
Would it be too much to ask that documentation at least vaguely resemble the actual use of the targeted version?
There are conflicting statements, references to obsolete (or newer) versions mixed into the documentation.
There are many (and frequently ambiguous) words used for explaining things.
A major problem is there is a lack of coherent and brief explanations of what SHOULD be done. There needs to an orderly presentation of:
If you want to achieve this overall result - these are the steps and programs/features to use.
I just saw after downloading and installing addons plugins (whatever) to make a bootable restore disk (presumably with drivers). After that, I found the documentation says this won't work for Vista or Win 7. WTF. HOW long has it been since XP became the "not even fairly current" release of Windows? Now - is the documentation wrong or the software. Why is that not the very first statement in the feature/download descriptions or names?
Starting with a FAQ I downloaded the software, but the link to documentation led nowhere that appeared useful. There is no longer a 2011 section in the downloads (how brilliant, like everyone has [or is even minimal likely] upgraded), there are different versions (based on file size) of documentation and software with no indication of what anything applies to.
I have yet to find ANYTHING that has a readme explaining what is in a zip file, or what version, or even product, it might apply to. Given the propensity to make yearly changes that are incompatible with all earlier releases, it is supremely important to understand releases and capabilities. Re: release compatibility - how in the hell can it be necessary each year to disavow all previous files and data structures. Get real. This is a damn backup program. It is easy to imagine keeping information in the backup system that MUST be available between releases. Especially when the installation program, and the overall programming, prohibits running more than one release. Do we not understand differentiating directory structures to allow multiple versions on the same machine? Stupid question, "we" do not! File naming conventions in these downloadable files has also undergone a semi-random change and it is impossible to rationalize older (e.g., 2 months ago) downloads with the ones currently available on the site. The new convention actually seems meaningful. I am not sure how long there has been an Acronis product, but that would seem an awfully long time to figure out a coherent and interpretable naming convention.
I am so sick of dealing with this product. The application is confusing and difficult to use. The documentation makes the application look crystal clear. I just need to get one restore done and find something else. After all of the assurances that the issues with 2011 are being heard and development will deal with it; it continues to be crap. Now a alpha release of 2012 that they expect us to pay for in the hopes (now shattered based on forum comments) that it has become an understandable, usable, and fully functional application.
Suggestions for alternatives solicited.
Acronis True Image Home with Plus Pack should have ability to add drivers using Acronis WinPe builder similar like in ABR products. At the moment ABR WinPe builder is esier to use than ATIH WinPe builder. In ATIH during WinPe media creation user must add drivers manually.
Dont fill up a HDD then stop half way because its full, perhaps check size of HDD before?
Perhaps even better, if the disk fills up on a differential scheme, do the cleanup and then finish the backup.
Perhaps even better, if the disk fills up on a differential scheme, do the cleanup and then finish the backup.
Would it be too much to ask that documentation at least vaguely resemble the actual use of the targeted version?
There are conflicting statements, references to obsolete (or newer) versions mixed into the documentation.
There are many (and frequently ambiguous) words used for explaining things.
A major problem is there is a lack of coherent and brief explanations of what SHOULD be done. There needs to an orderly presentation of:
If you want to achieve this overall result - these are the steps and programs/features to use.
I just saw after downloading and installing addons plugins (whatever) to make a bootable restore disk (presumably with drivers). After that, I found the documentation says this won't work for Vista or Win 7. WTF. HOW long has it been since XP became the "not even fairly current" release of Windows? Now - is the documentation wrong or the software. Why is that not the very first statement in the feature/download descriptions or names?
Starting with a FAQ I downloaded the software, but the link to documentation led nowhere that appeared useful. There is no longer a 2011 section in the downloads (how brilliant, like everyone has [or is even minimal likely] upgraded), there are different versions (based on file size) of documentation and software with no indication of what anything applies to.
I have yet to find ANYTHING that has a readme explaining what is in a zip file, or what version, or even product, it might apply to. Given the propensity to make yearly changes that are incompatible with all earlier releases, it is supremely important to understand releases and capabilities. Re: release compatibility - how in the hell can it be necessary each year to disavow all previous files and data structures. Get real. This is a damn backup program. It is easy to imagine keeping information in the backup system that MUST be available between releases. Especially when the installation program, and the overall programming, prohibits running more than one release. Do we not understand differentiating directory structures to allow multiple versions on the same machine? Stupid question, "we" do not! File naming conventions in these downloadable files has also undergone a semi-random change and it is impossible to rationalize older (e.g., 2 months ago) downloads with the ones currently available on the site. The new convention actually seems meaningful. I am not sure how long there has been an Acronis product, but that would seem an awfully long time to figure out a coherent and interpretable naming convention.
I am so sick of dealing with this product. The application is confusing and difficult to use. The documentation makes the application look crystal clear. I just need to get one restore done and find something else. After all of the assurances that the issues with 2011 are being heard and development will deal with it; it continues to be crap. Now a alpha release of 2012 that they expect us to pay for in the hopes (now shattered based on forum comments) that it has become an understandable, usable, and fully functional application.
Suggestions for alternatives solicited.
Excellent post Hal and very true! I want to be able to feel comfortable that a backup I make can be restored asap, if a problem occurs and my system is down. The time I use to restore, should be used to execute that restore procedure/program, not on fixing or troubleshooting the very software that suppose to get me back up and running.
This latest fiasco regarding Installation on problems with the new True Image 2012 release, is the straw that broke the camels back for me. It is obvious that whoever is responsible for quality control testing, either dropped the ball by being incompetent or even of worse, purposely rushed a product to market they knew or weren't sure was ready, in lieu of quick $$. I will look at other alternatives like Paragon and maybe, just maybe, in the future if Acronis gets their sh$t together, someday I may return. A word of advice; Always remember its easier to keep a customer than it is to get a new one!
Sorry Duplicate post
I believe this suggestion was given back in 2010, but I'll put it here again, at least to act as another vote for it:
Please give the option to customize ALL available options for the Recovery Disc *before* the disc is made. (Compression ratio, file extensions for exclusion, [files to include in the backup WITHOUT compression, such as ZIP, PNG, RAR], image creation mode, and so on.)
There is already a limited set of command line parameters available, but they are mainly for resolving compatibility problems which may arise.
For example, I would like to set up a boot disc for my parents so that they can easily do a full system backup of their system drive on their own - without me standing there directing them through it. (I live quite a distance away, so I'm not home too often.) They're not terribly computer-savvy, or at least not terribly at-ease with this sort of operation, so fewer options to have to fiddle with is a good thing. (Having them *available* is nice, but being able to set the defaults is definitely beneficial.)
For example, I would like to be able to set the boot disc's defaults to a Full backup (not incremental), and to use the maximum compression ratio.
As it stands now, any options like that need to be changed every time they use the boot disc.
I'll also put forth the idea of increasing the default backup ratio, or perhaps make it adaptable to the PC's processor. Excessive computing power is becoming rather ubiquitous - even low-end processors are now multi-core, and give impressive levels of per-clock-cycle performance versus previous processor generations. I'd wager that the read/write speed of the hard drives is the going to be limiting factor, rather than the processor doing the compression.
(For those wondering, I'm using the boot disc option so I can be sure that ALL files are backed up - I know that, at least in the past, lots of active program files are locked, and cannot be accessed by any software while Windows is running. Using the Acronis boot disc was the only way I could be sure that everything was being copied.)
I have updated within TIH 2011. I have been waiting for the bugs to get ironed out of 2012. Each build update of TIH causes the backup process to begin with "The backup is corrupted."
I am using a differential scheme. I just deleted through TIH one of two sets and consolidated the second set. I start a new differential with only one existing file which was created by the current build, and still it starts with... you guessed it, "The backup is corrupted."
It validates and restores files just fine. The only thing worse than error messages you can't understand is error messages when there is no error. These kinds of glitches are really frustrating and waste people's time and energy.
I WISH I could create a windows driver based USB boot Rescue stick. At the moment, it's impossible to create one, so one would be nice.
Thank you.
I wish there were a separate forum for wishes.
In a single thread it's almost impossible to see if your wish has been wished before or to have a discussion about it.
But my greatest Acronis wish is to be able to manually start several backup tasks at once. I backup five partitions as separate backups because this is most likely how they'll need to be restored. These make five tasks which I would really like to set off in one go. As things stand (2010), I have to start one, wait for it to finish, start the second, wait for it to finish, start the third, wait for it to finish, start the fourth, wait for it to finish, start the fifth and only then can I select 'shutdown when complete'. Tedious. So-called "One-click Backup" is something completely different.
I know I can schedule but that's not convenient for me. I can't be sure the computer will be switched on and I don't want it running while I'm working. I want to be able to start all my backup tasks manually at the end of the day with 'shutdown when complete' and walk away. If this were possible I know I would backup more often.
Pogle - you can automate what you do manually by using the Command line interface of your current version.
Examine the scripts directory and determine which 5 ".tis" files are your 5 partition backups.
use notepad create a ".bat" file with six commands, one for each of your 5 backups with the last command being the desired shutdown.
From now on when you want to do a backup simply double click this .bat file and walk away.
The 5 backups will occur and when the last finishes your PC will shut down.
Your bat file will look similar to this:
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageHomeService.exe" /script:"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts\AAAAAAAAAAAA.tib.tis"
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageHomeService.exe" /script:"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts\BBBBBBBBBBBB.tib.tis"
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageHomeService.exe" /script:"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts\CCCCCCCCCCCC.tib.tis"
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageHomeService.exe" /script:"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts\DDDDDDDDDDDD.tib.tis"
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageHomeService.exe" /script:"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts\EEEEEEEEEEEE.tib.tis"
::
:: Shutdown
shutdown -t 300 -f -s -c "Acronis Backup done SHUTDOWN in x seconds TO CANCEL the shutdown click start run and type \"shutdown -a\" (no quotes)"
:: FYI flags for the shutdown command are:
:: -t ## is countdown (in seconds) to shutdown
:: -s means shutdown the pc (-r would mean restart)
:: -c "xxx" is a comment text to user
:: -f forces running applications to close without warning.
Many thanks. That's very helpful. I've created the batch file but haven't actually tried it yet.
It's not obvious which task is which but I was able to find out by opening and examining the .tis files in Notepad. This will keep me happy although I'd love to see a checkbox against each task in TIH with the option to run selected.
Thanks again.
I am using 2012, but have used versions since about 2008.
I would like to be able to use the program to do simple, independent backups, the way it worked in older versions.
For example, define a backup set, containing a selection of folders to be backed up either on a schedule or irregularly.
Call it 'workfiles_@date@'
When it is run, a full backup is created called for example workfiles_2012_11_04.tib. Each backup will be an independent file.
I should be able to delete any of these files, as they are independent full backups.
I should be able to restore from any of them, regardless of which other files exist.
The system at present gets upset if I delete some files, or do not have them all on the same external drive, even though they are supposed to be independent (I use custom full backup method).
Hi David,
I think many of us have been begging for that. The drive to make it all "automatic" has sacrificed control I think we wanted. We want to be able to create tasks, but also just create backups (that don't show up on a list or become subject to TIH's internal tracking.
Unfortunately it seems to fall on deaf ears.
I wish for a 2012 update to get it to work with Windows 8.
2013 works with Win8 for me. Perhaps you need to upgrade.
What about this:
What about this:
If you really just want to back up data Acronis is overkill.
There are dozens of free solutions that work simply and effectively.
Acronis is only really useful if you have a need/desire to back up system state -- your OS as it may be tweaked to your own needs and the software and settings.
Data? A scheduled "copy" command can do that for you.
As far as Win8 goes, if you read the fine print every time you log in to your own computer Microsoft is automatically logging you into all their systems as well -- and this is non-optional if you use any Microsoft account -- so you may as well use SkyDrive. They've come up with the perfect way of cascading privacy approvals without any actual awareness of the users. Clever devils.
I share your frustration with some of Acronis's approaches to issues, but heck, it's not exactly commercial-grade pricing and you really do have a pile of alternatives available so I really don't see how it's productive to complain and name-call.
I hope that in the Chinese user guide adding complete guidance about how to uninstall Acronis True Image Home and AcronisBack up & Recovery,s trial or older version of the software in standards and safety operations, including security delete existing backup mirror ASZ hidden partition and ASZ partitionthe space successfully merged back to the hard disk partition it belonged to before, to prevent the creation of ASZ partition of the hard disk where your lost or partition table abnormal!!
I am also eager that ATIH and ABR software can estimate the mix necessary space for creating the backup system paritition or the whole harddisk backup before we beginning the backup operations ,so it can avoid operations failed due to finding out the PC harddisk is not enough.Well ,if authour of ATIH and ABR has a clear description of the radio between the ATIH and ABR backup mirror it will create and the original data size of system paritition or the whole harddisk , it will be more perfect.
Looking forward to official online Chinese forums open to make Chinese use and reply the forum more conveniently.It is incovenient to read and reply the software tips on English forum.
Sincerely
And perhaps they should put out an update if people have only just bought ATI 2012