Acronis 2019: Worst version ever?
I've been a faithful user since 2010. I have always been impressed with Acronis and it's simplicity and usefulness.
This all changed with 2019. Not only does the boot CD take a very long time to boot, it does all sorts of other things when I simply want to backup or recover my data. The desktop version console looks extremely amateurish with it's fade text. It's cluttered and has too many features.
Worst of all, my portable Seagate Data drive isn't recognized in 2019 when booted by CD. And 2018 worked fine here. I'm extremely let down and disappointed with Acronis with their 2019 version. I won't buy despite it's special Black Friday offer.
Just to add - it's a LOT faster booting WinPE Recovery from a USB SD card / Flash drive than from a CD.
I have to second Laurie's comment CD booting takes several minutes longer compared to a USB drive.
Steve Smith wrote:My first question for the above issue would be to ask what build version of ATI 2019 is on your CD? There have now been 2 distinct Update builds since 2019 was launched which have fixed a number of issues, including some around rescue media. Please try creating a new CD with the latest build #14690 version, or download this from your Acronis account if you still have time in your trial copy?
I am not aware of any reasons why your Seagate drive should not be recognised, but would need more information to work with for this issue?
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Hi Steve, yes I have the latest version:14690. I didn't know the legacy version was hidden in the Advance section. This is not intuitive from someone who's used previous versions. I think the windows version should not be the default.
The desktop version there's no ability to backup just specific folders (vs files) like in the boot version. Additionally, the boot version on USB doesn't work on all computers. The boot disk hangs at the Acronis screen.
I think this version is a step backwards. Acronis needs to understand that simple is better and not complicate matters. I think I will continue to use an older version of Acronis or find another image recovery application.
See KB 60091: Acronis True Image 2018: how Simple bootable media creation mode works
and KB 61632: Acronis True Image 2019: how to create bootable media - where a lot more information is given on the new media creation processes.
I would also recommend reading through KB 59877: Acronis True Image: how to distinguish between UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot modes of Acronis Bootable Media - as this very much comes into play when using the rescue media with different computers.
I am not sure what this means:
"The desktop version there's no ability to backup just specific folders (vs files) like in the boot version. Additionally, the boot version on USB doesn't work on all computers. The boot disk hangs at the Acronis screen."
Is this truly a change from past versions where I could do either a file backup and choose specific folders or files within a folder? Why would one want to backup files in the boot version? In case the files on the hard drive are present but the computer is not bootable on its own?
Greg
Greg, as far as I am aware there is no difference between the features available in the Windows and the bootable Rescue Media ATI environments / applications. You can do exactly the same in terms of Backup, Recovery and Clone tasks with the exception that all operations in the bootable application are manual, i.e. there is no scheduling possible and all configuration has to be set on each time it is used.
Nothing has changed in Acronis 2019 - you can still backup files/folders as well as disks:
I have always just logged into my Acronis account and downloaded the Acronis bootable ISO image from here, rather than install the Acronis software. (i only use the Acronis boot media. I never INSTALL Acronis.) Such a shame that they only offer the Linux version on the download page if they are pushing the WinPE version. Seems like they can't make up their mind or they are too cheap to pay MS for a license to distribute WinPE, forcing users to make it themselves.
When I create an image back-up with Acronis installed, it doesn't seem to give me any option to NAME the back-up. But with the bootable media I can choose the name of my back-up. This is incredibly important if you are backing-up more than one PC and you need to know which back-up is which.
Hi Carey,
Microsoft doesn't authorize the full distribution of WinPE and requires that it be built on a fully licensed OS. You'll find that other similar backup products also require that you build it as well.
To name the backup task from within the application, just click on the default name before you run the first backup. Otherwise, after running the backup, you can rename it by clicking the right edge of the backup name and selecting "rename".
Carey, the Linux media will still work for a majority of users, but lacks many abilities when dealing with RAID, BitLocker, NVMe M.2 drives etc. Acronis intend for the ATI application to be installed within Windows (or Apple Mac) and that is how the majority of user will use it. The installed application does not require any extra Windows PE application when used with Windows 10 and a working Windows Recovery environment, as the WinPE files are taken from there.
See KB 60091: Acronis True Image 2018: how Simple bootable media creation mode works
When using the Windows ATI GUI - the task name used for your backup is the key to the filename of the files being created, so you do have the option to name your backup as you wish. ATI will choose a default name based on the Source being selected, but you can very easily change this using the rename option for the task.
If you are backing up multiple PC's then I would strongly recommend using different destination folders to keep your backups separate. That is a whole lot easier to manage than sorting through a single folder with backups from multiple computers, and avoids any issues if the same names do get used.
Thank you both for responding. Just FYI, I only use Acronis Bootable Media and I only make FULL image back-ups. In this way, I do not need to create separate folders and I can hold dozens of images on a large, single USB flash drive.
I'm a bit old-school, but I like to have the control. I've also had problems in the past with Acronis software installed on Windows PCs. For example, this was a nightmare until I figured out it was Acronis causing it.
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-home-forum-older-ver…
Turns out the problem was an Acronis system file. It took me a long time to figure this out, and while it was years ago, as the saying goes 'once bitten, twice shy.'
I've also had older computers slow down and have to remove Acronis items that were auto-installed into the Windows task manager. There have been about a half-dozen Acronis-related Windows issues resulting from installing the Acronis software since I started using Acronis TrueImage Echo and the versions since.
So I have developed this method of back-up that ensures I will never have so much time consumed trying to solve a problem I should have never had. It was also embarrassing as the customer followed my advice to purchase and install Acronis, and then his search function in Windows stopped working. Though, the cause-and-effect were not obvious at the time.
So this is the reason for my methods to ensure customer satisfaction and to keep my business profitable.
Thanks again for the replies.