Acronis (the company) - Where have you gone?
Hello Salvador,
Thank you for taking to me to contact us.
If you still need a further assistance, please describe the issue in some words, we will do our best to help you.
We are looking forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.
Thank you.
Oleg: PM sent. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Scott
Hello all,
Scott,
Do you have any news? Could you please share the results of our communication?
We are looking forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.
Thank you.
Oleg:
First of all, let me publicly thank you for your responsiveness. I really appreciate it.
I've downloaded and installed TI 2010. So far it seems to be working OK. I haven't tested the cloning function yet, and will probably do that over the weekend. I will keep you and the group updated on my progress.
Scott
Has anyone managed to get nonstop backup working for more that a couple of seconds at a time.
It worked nicely when I first installed this product, but then mysteriously stopped working. It was the single reason I bought this product over any of it's competitors.
Nick
Hello all,
Thank you for posting your question, I will be happy to help.
Scott,
Thank you for your feedback, it is greatly appreciated.
Nick,
We are aware of the issue, and our developers are working to fix it. Unfortunately, there is no solution at the moment. Meanwhile, as a workaround you can manage a backup task specifying the same conditions.
If the provided information is not clear or if you have any other question do not hesitate to post them and we will be glad to answer.
Thank you.
For an indication of the current state of affairs with Acronis, I think you need look no further than the 30 days of free support. I would suggest that this measly offering is a pretty accurate reflection of the confidence they have in their own product.
"Hi.. buy our product.. we'll support it for just 30 days.. cos it's pretty damn flakey.. so probably best if you give us more money to address all the issues you'll still be coming across after that initial month. Course.. you can always take your chances on the forum.... good luck with that"
I had wondered from time to time whatever happened to Gerald Ratner. I can't help but suspect he's now Acronis Director of Marketing Strategy.
Such a shame for a company that began so solidly. They've driven me from being a loyal customer, to someone who would still have to think twice about purchasing another Acronis product if it came with a free Ferrari. Nice work guys.
The Acronis backup app has been running flawlessly on my two machines as well on some of my customers' machines. I had an initial issue getting it working, which was answered pretty quickly by Acronis support and I have not seen a single issue since.....backups happen successfully every night (I've checked) and this has been true for several months now.
I'm genuinely happy that it's working for you David (and for others). Used in certain configurations, there's no doubt it does work flawlessly (and would guess it's why Acronis are still able to sell this product). It simply doesn't do some of the things they claim it does. If you had a need to try certain other configurations at some point, then you'd have similar problems to many of us posting here. Were that the case, and you'd had the product more than 30 days, then you'd be expected to pay for support (unless of course you'd paid up front for it). Most, if not all the issues raised have been acknowledged by Acronis as being known - but to say they drag their heels over addressing them would qualify for Understatement of the Year consideration. If you do have issues in the future (and I sincerely hope you don't) your only free option for any support past the initial 30 days, would be these forums. Even that would be tolerable, if they addressed their highlighted shortcomings in a timely fashion, but even the most cursory glance through the various postings here will show how unlikely that is.
Yes, I agree - when (if) you get it working, it does actually work. The bugs (and there are hundreds of them) are around the user interface and tasks IMO. The backup engine itself, once (if) you get it working, is reasonably solid.
Plus the non-too pleasant experience when you step into the Linux recovery world, dynamic disks, drivers etc.
I also wish they would get the user interface to stay still for more than five minutes. I'm just evaluating ShadowProtect and it was a real pleasure to step back in time when the user interface was nice and simple - and dare I say usuable?
Cheers, Rob
PS. Companies that we all admire have a) solid products and b) solid support. Acronis has neither anymore IMO. One might say that (b) isn't needed if (a) is sorted but we have to admit that imaging products are always playing catch-up with changes to the operating systems and hardware etc.
Predicition: in five years time, imaging products will be no more. Client OS virtualisation will be baked in allowing real time snapshots, cloning etc. I use VMware Workstation extensively for testing, evaluation, development system environments etc. The need for Acronis in those environments is almost zero.
Cheers, Rob.
It sure was nice to come across this forum and people as equally unhappy with Acronis. Too bad we have to meet on the Acronis forum though.
Even trying to relay my Acronis nightmare here is very hard because I am still living the nightmare. Just let me say firstly:
DO NOT BUY ACRONIS BACKUP & RECOVERY 10 -or- ACRONIS for SQL -or- ACRONIS for EXCHANGE.
After version 9 of TI, it’s all garbage and if you don’t have gray hair, you will. If you don’t get the gray hair, don’t worry, you’ll pull what hair you have, out. IF you are already bald, well you must have already purchased this garbage product & pulled it all out. Sorry pal.
My problem started with a simple issue regarding Data Deduplication on a Centralized Vault. Would you believe after having to re-install, reboot my production servers (on my weekends) – all severs, not just the one I had issues with, turns out I was just in the wrong interface.
It took them more than three months to figure that out, and all the previous hassle, it was for nothing. How could anyone have any confidence in such an important part of one’s infrastructure? You can’t.
The real funny thing.. once they figured that out and I was on my marry way, so I thought, I actually tried to use the Centralized Vault – all of a sudden I got a whole new error “Failed to check the license key. The key is disabled.”.
After they WebEx’d into my server to view the actual error, there only solution: You need to download another version, uninstall it on ALL OF YOUR SERVERS and REINSTALL IT ON ALL OF YOUR SERVERS.
When I balked at the resolution the rep’s only reply was “I can try a few workarounds and see..”. Yeah, right, just what you want to hear about your Disaster Recover product on your production server.
They should NOT be allowed to use the slogan: Compute with Confidence. What a joke, what a big fat, laughable, horrible joke.
I’m going to work this weekend and complete remove ALL TRACES of ACRONIS and switch to a Commvault product.
It's really quite sad. When Acronis first came out, I was a huge fan and recommended it to all of my clients. Not any more. I have already shared my info with clients, they are dumping this junk to.
Hello all,
1. With regards to your concerns about 30-days free after-sales support: we understand that the 30 day cut-off might seem arbitrary, but if we had a 90 day cut-off, someone who had some issue with the product 91 days after the purchase would be unhappy anyway. At some point we have to draw a line and move on to working on the next version. Please also note that restore issues support is free of charge for all versions of our products - means we provide full support for restore issues for every version of any of our product ever released. Please also check this link to find the information about available support options.
2. Jeff, please accept our profound apologies for the difficulties you've experienced and for the level of support you got. We'll do our best to prevent such situations from happening in future. If you still want to resolve the issue with Centralized Vaults and Deduplication please contact me via Private Messages and I'll do everything possible to help you. If necessary, our management and experts will be involved into this, and my direct manager is already aware of this case.
We are looking forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.
Thank you.
Wow! I haven't viewed the Acronis forum since the Wilder forum died. I have been too busy to waste time trying to find out how to make my Acronis backup work the way it should. I just accept the fact that it has its flaws and so I bought other software to back up Acronis. Yes, I am a charter member of the department of redundancy department.
I just finished reviewing this new forum and this thread in particular. I have been an Acronis customer since ATI10 first came out. It crashed my system and I found out why... I tried to use the "Secure Zone" with a RAID system. Since then I have refused to use the "Secure Zone" (not) because I discovered that it made proprietary changes in the partition table.
I eventually got over the frustration caused by ATI10 and accepted that it was my fault, even though there was no prominent warning about this, and I upgraded since then to ATI11. I can identify with the frustrated users represented in this thread... but each time I considered abandoning Acronis for Norton Ghost, I note their forums reveal a mirror image! (pun intended)
I still have my old Power Quest Drive Image discs! Too bad Symantec bloated DI when they bought out PQ... I mention this because I want to emphasize the point made by others in this thread. I have a small office with only 3 computers, each one a different motherboard. What I need is a RELIABLE backup program that will take up minimum space with minimum operator intervention. I run an insurance business and not a computer business... I have built my own systems as a hobby since 1982, but my time is demanded by my business, and when the computers take too much time from that, I will find a way to eliminate the problem, which usually means scrapping the hardware or software causing the headache. If I find a SIMPLE & RELIABLE backup program that will allow a bare-metal recovery from a catastrophic crash, I will buy it in a New York minute!
I have not been favorably impressed with Acronis' business model of issuing a new "upgrade" each year instead of fixing the problems associated with the current release. I see this as a scam to force customers to pay for the solutions that should have been corrected at the source. So I remain with ATI11. I also note that many users of more recent "upgrades" have reported less reliability.
In the meantime, and since Acronis cannot be relied upon, I use two other backup software programs and store their copies on external discs on my main system, my NAS, and my other workstations connected to my LAN. That way should one computer crash, I have multiple copies available. It takes a little extra time to maintain the extra backups, but this is the only strategy I have come up with to allow me to sleep at night. I pity the single computer user.
Power Quest Drive Image as with so many others taken over were good products. Before that was PC Tools (not the current one again taken over by Symantec) that produced utilities that worked from floppy discs at the time Norton needed a CD to do a poorer job. Buts its not just Symantec that can create poor, bugged, bloat ware by taking over good products the creators of True Image have managed that with out there help.
It has been months now since the problem with Acronis Nonstop Backup stopping for no identifiable reason began to be reported here. So far I have seen no update to the product offering a fix for this. I am ready to abandon Acronis as I judge their product clearly doesn't do what they claim it does. The depressing news is that so far I haven't been able to find another backup product for Windows7 that fairs any better. I trialed the latest version of Nova Backup 11.1 with it's new "Timeslider Technology" and was unable to configure it to operate with the timeslider on anything other than the C: drive. From what I read in this forum and others, Symantec's products sound no better. It is quite amazing to me that the overwhelming sense I get from this forum and others is that these backup products all appear to have moved backwards in terms of useability and reliabilty over the last few releases, and totally fail to fulfill their over hyped marketing claims. If just one of these companies could fix their product up, it seems to me that they would have pretty much no competition until the others followed suit. You would think if it was in their capability to do so, that acquiring this distinct competitive advantage would be motivation enough for them. It makes me suspect whether they may have lost the key technical developers that would enable them to achieve it.
Nick.
>It makes me suspect whether they may have lost the key technical developers that would enable them to achieve it.
Actually, I think there still are some excellent developers in there but I suspect they are suffering from several classic mistakes:
http://www.stevemcconnell.com/rdenum.htm
For example:
#08: Unrealistic expectations: most likely as this ALWAYS happens
#11: Lack of user input: hmm, lots of input here ;-)
#12: Politics placed over substance: hope not...
#13: Wishful thinking: probably as always happens
#14: Overly optimistic schedules: DEFINATELY most likely to be an issue
#17: Insufficient planning: probably as nobody ever plans well enough
#18: Abandonment of planning under pressure: surprising how often this happens when it's the one thing that can save u
#20: Shortchanged upstream activities: most likely, see #23
#21: Inadequate design: actually, the fundamental design seems reasonably sound
#22: Shortchanged quality assurance: BIG TICK... in fact, top problem I suspect
#23: Insufficient management controls: maybe the root cause
#24: Premature or too frequent convergence: feels likely as product was rushed IMO
#26: Planning to catch up later: probably as everyone does this
#27: Code-like-hell programming: hope not but often happens when #17 kicks in
#28: Requirements gold-plating: ohh yes, lots of this - how many people have asked for it to be simpler
#29: Feature creep: ditto
#30: Developer gold-plating: ditto
As a software developer myself I can sympathise to a certain level as many things are outside of their control.
Cheers, Rob.
I agree #22 is most likely. When I was is software development and support, I made a test bucket with every major problem found. Then when the next release came along, I'd run that test bucket before putting the new release in production. Amazing how often such a simple approach is neglected. Obviously Acronis neglected it with ATI 2010. They appear to be understaffed in the support area as well, as an earlier poster suggested. Put all this together and you have inadequate management and a big blight on their reputation.
Most unfortunate when they have several competitors who're getting the job done without releasing such highly buggy products. Ghost 15 is on sale at a local Fry's in a package with Norton Internet Security and Norton Utilities for ZERO after rebates. And I can attest that it works flawlessly with Windows 7. I'm not a fan of Symantec, but compared to Acronis they look wonderful!
Paragon's stuff works well too, if you can get past the really awful interface. Ghost has really improved and EASEUS, Reflect and some other s are competitive. Acronis has slipped dramatically of late, and the support has all but vanished. 30 days isn't adequate. Even this forum software was bad choice because it's had to navigate.
Acronis, you can't live on your reputation forever. Remember WordPerfect and Borland?
Thanks for the heads-up on Ghost. Used to use this product several years ago but it suffered from the same bloat/quality issue that Acronis has right now when Symantec took over.
Cheers, Rob.
I couldn't agree more. I have been a loyal Acronis customer for years, but having dealt with what is possibly the worst piece of software Acronis has ever spawned -- TI Home 2010 -- I am done, done, done. If only earlier Acronis builds (good, functional, no-frills, no flashy GUI's or "schedulers") were compatible with Windows 7. But (of course) they aren't. (Money, money, money: buy more, buy more, buy more.) I am tired of Acronis-caused BSOD's -- in my case (following a meticulous review of the memory dump file) caused by one thing and one thing only, beyond any (ANY) shadow of a doubt: the rogue Acronis driver (whose reach quite clearly exceeds its grasp), snapman.sys.
How sad that what started out as an excellent piece of software several years ago has morphed into something as truly awful as TI Home 2010, which is (to put it politely) an unadulterated piece of meretricious crap much given to freezing and other quasi-operatic behaviors (enter fat lady with fan and third-rate voice). So -- along with some other contributors to this forum, apparently -- I am saying goodbye to Acronis, a company that has shot itself in the foot, big time, by its ceaseless efforts to create and exploit wholly artificial customer "needs," rather than building on something good and instead of making it better, merely making it flashier and a whole lot worse.
Tomorrow, I shall remove all traces of Acronis (Disk Director as well as TI) from my computer, including the offending snapman.sys driver -- albeit with a certain degree of trepidation, since if the driver is improperly removed, the result, I gather, is a system that won't boot.
Acronis should be the subject of a seminar at the Harvard or Wharton Business School: How to take a sublimely beautiful piece of software (which is how you guys started out), and -- in the name of greed or ego or some other human failing (Cf BP) turn it into dust.....
I've recently been evaluating other imaging systems such as ShadowProtect. None of them are flawless but they are more stable from reading the forums & trialing the software. B&R does have some nice features such as the recovery boot option on F11 that other products don't offer. SP failed at the first hurdle as the recovery CD didn't have a driver for the Realtek network cards we were using whereas B&R has been pretty good with network drivers (not so hot with disk drivers though). I haven't tried Macrium Reflect but it's certainly cheap at £19.99 compared to £50.00 for B&R workstation in the UK.
So I suspect B&R scores highly on feature set but is let down by quality & support. If they can resolve the quality issue then support will naturally start to solve itself and they will have the #1 product again.
Cheers, Rob.
I had been thinking of trying out Norton Ghost 15 after giving up on Acronis B&R and also having a bad experience with NovaStor which also didn't do "what it says on the tin". I decided not to bother after reading this thread: http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/genuinewindows7/thread/55776012-4…
I think for the time being I'll just stick with the built-in B&R that comes with W7!
I would like to thank MudCrab for ALL the work he has put into adding Windows 7 to OSS.
I will be leaving Acronis OSS behind with all the Nasty/TOO Technical stuff it takes to make it work at all.
BootIT NG is a wonder compared to Acronis OSS 11. Acronis should take a HARD look at this product!
The lack of key features in DD 11 that were in DD 10 will force me into making another sad decision.
I have been a fan of Acronis for years and have recommended it to all who would listen ( even at work ),
HOWEVER those days seem to be over.
It is really sad to see such a fine company with such great products going down the tubes.
Unless and until I can see a GREAT change in attitude and PRODUCTS I will be an EX Acronis user.
P.S. I would like to hear from other users that have found GOOD B&R programs...
You are dead right with your comments. I am having problems with the software and can't get any tech support. I've used the product for a while and know how to backup so I'm sure it's the software. I will no longer be using software from a company with known quality issues and terrible tech support. This is too bad as it used to be a good product, but it seems Acronis has gone out of their way to ruin both the software and their reputation.
Have just upgraded to the latest Build of ATI2011, went to do a backup but its just says that there is not enough space in ASZ , I do have it set to delete the oldest, so I had to delete it manually before I could backup, of course this is no good when you set up a schedule, anyone know why this is happening ??
Surely someone on here must know !! I have contacted Acronis but they are as much help as a wet week all they sent me was a standard stock reply from there literature which did not address the problem at all.
I have the feeling they don't have a clue why its happening.....................
Think I will go and find another program I did try out Paragon on my old laptop and it worked great and it was free.
I have been using ATI since 2007 and like a fool I always upgraded to the new upgrade
PeteSilver,
Was this an SZ from a previous version of TI?
How large is your SZ and how much free space does it reprot?
Roughly how large are your images?
If you have a consolidation or version enabled task, then you will need almost the same amount of free space as the images take up themselves for consolidation to work.
Hello Peter and Colin!
Thank you for your comments and many thanks to Colin for his valuable questions.
Peter, thank you for sharing the issue with us. Unfortunately it's not obvious from your comment what exactly is happening when you're trying to backup and what settings you have specified in the product.
In case you've set to automatically delete the olderst backup when ASZ is out of space, and you're still getting the error marks, then there can be several reasons for the problem. In order to localise one we will need additional diagnostic information. Could you please gather
- Acronis System Report
- Exact sequence of steps performed
and submit it to the case you've got opened? This will shed the light to the issue cause and help us to find an appropriate solution.
I would also appreciate if you could contact me directly via PM with this information attached: I will make sure that the case is escalated to the Development team in the timely manner.
Should you need anything else or have any further questions - feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, we will be happy to help you!
Thank you!
It makes me unhappy to read these kinds of posts because I, too, have had excellent results with Acronis True Image 11 Home and Acronis Disk Director.
I've been looking for a good, reliable off-site backup program. I was all set to subscribe to Mozy when they suddenly capped their storage and raised their prices in an obvious move to dump what they considered an un-profitable market that took too much time to support properly.
I was unable to find anywhere on the Carbonite site where they supported external drives, although the rumor is/was that they now do. I just couldn't confirm it.
So I took a look at The Acronis product and was favorably impressed. The layout looks familiar and I think it might be useful.
Unfortunately, I can't get answers to questions, Postings to the User Forum disappear without any reply. I find no way to reach true Support.
I can't invest in something that's going away soon, or will be sold off to Symantec, where good programs go to die.
The lack of "real-time" tech support is a non-starter for me when it comes to off-site backup. If I have off-site backup, and have a problem, I need it fixed *now*, not whenever a tech support rep gets to me in an email queue.
Please forgive me for throwing in my two bits as one of the many simple home users of Acronis.
When I bought Home 10 some years ago, I had to learn by hit and mis how to do the only thing I bought it for: making a full backup, later incremental ones, and how to restore my laptop to a previous backup.
In the manual that came with it page after page of technical description -that I had no idea what they meant- appeared, telling me all the no doubt marvelous things I could do with Acronis. But not one single step by step tutorial on how exactly to do it.
If it would have had only the following info in it, it would have been a useful handbook to me, instead of a for me way too technical advertisement extolling the many things you could do with Acronis Home 10:
"To make a first complete backup of your pc: In Start choose Acronis > Backup > Choose "Complete Backup" > (etc...)
"To make an incremental backup to add the latest changes made since the last backup: In Start choose Acronis > Backup > Choose "Incremental Backup" > (etc...)
"How to restore your pc to a previous backup: In Start choose ..... (etc.)
This is all I ever needed to know, but could not find anywhere in that thick technical Handbook. It took me many hours of reading and reading again, until I gave up and simply started to experiment, and as said, learned on my own how to use this otherwise marvelous software that saved me a lot of work I used to do before I had it -when I sometimes even had to resort to reformatting and start all over from scratch on my Windows xp.
But a few days ago I had to buy a new laptop with with Windows 7 on it, because my old laptop would have been too expensive to repair for the second time in two months. So today I downloaded the trial version of Acronis Home 11 and just tried to make a first complete backup of my new now tweaked machine. But it starts all over again. I see the exact same to me useless manual is still being offered, and I see a panel appear when I call up Acronis, but search me if I see anywhere how to make a first full backup. When I try the to me unclear options -they have different names now- instead of the familiar interface -or a somewhat modernized version of it as I expected- that panel appears, and then an advice not to choose the option chosen, and when I try another option, my cd/dvd tray opens, expecting me to insert a disk instead of doing what I want: to make a complete backup and have it placed on a secure partition on my internal hard disk...
I just read the reference above to the free Easeus Todo Backup software, and just before posting this downloaded and installed it. It looks great and as if it wil work just like Acronis Home 10 did... only the interface looks so simple that I don't need any manual to use this software. All it looks like I have to do is hit "Disk and partition backup. Backup entire computer or selected hard drive partitions."
I will do just that, right after I remove some other backup software I also have installed on it...
If the trial version of Acronis Home 11 would have made a full backup on my internal hard disk when I tried a moment ago, I would have been very happy with that, and not come to this forum to try to find out how to make it work... nor have read the above reference to that free backup program...
It always surprises me when a good product on which expert code writers have spend so much time and energy is presented in a way which does no justice to the actual product. I got the impression now that I can't have a backup placed on my hard drive anymore, and only have the option to have it stored either on an external disk, or on the offered remote server. That latter option I really don't like, and I would most probably never have used it anyway. But that's just a matter of personal preference.
But just out of curiosity: how can one exactly make a complete backup on a secure partition on the internal hard drive? And I mean step by step, like the examples I gave above.
Sorry for sounding a bit disappointed and frustrated. But I think it's a shame for a no doubt still excellent product to be presented in such a shabby unprofessional way. Is user friendliness -meaning easy to understand instructions- not a must for sales on a large scale to a mostly unprofessional market, of which I am an average member, like most of us home and family users?
With Regards,
Lodewijk Langeweg
I posted the same question twice yesterday. The first never appeared at all. The second was up most of the day, but today - poof - it's gone. I'll try once more .But what goes on here ... with postings just disappearing ... no comments, no replies? How am I to know that its advantages outweigh Carbonite - or others - that are coming up to meet the need for off-site storage?
Jud,
I can assure you that your postings are not missing. Most likely what happened is that this is a fast moving forum and newer postings just naturally moved them several pages beyond.
You can find your postintgs via several ways.
1. Be advised by email when a response is made. The email provides a link to your post.
2. Click on your user name and you will be forwarded to your personal profile which contains a listing of "created forum topics" plus "commented forum topics".
3. User the search window at the top of this forum and search the forum for "Jud Banks" (include quotes).
4. Support can be contacted via the support instructions along the left margin
18623: Getting Technical Support: Tips, Tricks and Useful Information
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/18623
under useful links. Support does not guarantee to see or respond to each posting. Support can be obtained as per their link. Official support is obtained via filling out a written support request--as per their link.
5. Links to your postings are below.
18863: Last Request (Response by Colin)
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/18863
18784: Basic Question -- Unclear about (duplicate post)
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/18784
18826: Lights on ... anybody home?
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/18826
18773: Basic Question -- Unclear about . (Response by Pat)
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/18773
6019: Acronis (the company) - Where have you gone?
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/6019?page=2#comment-57346
TALE OF TWO COMPANIES
Terabyte Unlimited, based in Las Vegas, is a USA-based and USA-supported company with very good technical expertise and reputation. TBU's website (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/products.htm) is the best spokesman for its products and services, but in my many years of acquaintance with the company (via my paid license), their agile and expert support of users has been peerless.
So attentive was TBU to forum users, I began to wonder whether a forum moderator named "David" ever slept-- he was always available. Computer industry writer Fred Langa also has high praise for Terabyte, and he is among several to mention the company in the computer press.
TBU's single-minded dedication to product excellence and support is what new users naturally expect, in return for their investment. I began to use TBU as a model, simply to evaluate other companies for my consulting business.
Like many other posters, I first heard of Acronis years ago in a favorable context, and concluded I would try out a license, just to keep an eye on them from a user perspective. After PowerQuest was plundered in a hostile buyout by Symantec, Acronis seemed a natural to fill the market niche PowerQuest occupied. As an early market leader, Acronis played a part in advancing development and support standards, and won good standing among users.
So, this post of mine is perhaps not the place to go into a laundry list of recent complaints about Acronis. Yet, as an experienced user and provider of a modest level of technical support to others, I know what the market standard for performance is, could be and should be.
Only a few examples from Acronis serve to make the point. For one, when my 30 days of free Acronis support after purchase was up, I was left to a forum system that, until recently, was all but derelict.
For another, when I had an error code which actually linked me to an Acronis "knowledgebase", nothing could be found in five consecutive attempts. "We are sorry..." the knowledgebase informed me, "but nothing matches..."
On occasions when an Acronis error code actually found several matches, none was relevant. And when an Acronis error contained more than one error code, searching Acronis with multiple codes became all the more difficult when cut-and-paste is not available to transfer the long code strings.
Not surprisingly, recent Acronis users-- at least those in the vast majority-- are likely to believe they are on their own. The Acronis support forums are moderated from the vast and frozen expanse of Russia (and Belarus?), and there are only so many Acronis sub-forums which indicate a high level of interest or recent activity. One forum had queries that had been left unanswered for months.
My most recent crisis with Acronis happened after my 30 days of free support for ATIH2011 expired, when I discovered build 6597 would not write an image to a USB external hard drive. The replicated error was always "user canceled..." After searching the forums with both Acronis and Google engines, I came across several likely hits, but none were relevant and/or actually worked. Perhaps my search string was not the best, but after a few more attempts, I finally found the article with a solution-- and it worked.
Ultimately, I realize the investment of maintenance time-- all, simply to make ATIH work reliably-- may not seem cost-effective to many users. In my own case, only dogged persistence finally brought success.
These comments are interesting. But I gave up on attempts to get the kinds of answers regarding off-site backups I needed WHEN I needed them and worked out a scheme that costs nothing.
I'm an individual, but my data is just as precious to me as to a business. I don't collect "songs" or movies so I don't need huge amounts of space.
I do a complete backup of all five drives and their partitions. Three drives are internal, two are USB's. My main backup is directed to a reliable USB drive. I've never had trouble recovering anything from it.
Then I copy the entire backup to yet another external USB drive
Periodically I do a Differential backup to the first USB. The Differential backup of each drive is assigned a number. Then I copy only the new Differential to the second USB backup drive that I can take off the premises if I want to feel extra secure. I could do it daily, but I chose to do it weekly, so the most data I could lose would be just the last week's work.
I have some old IDE drives lying around doing nothing and I put them into USB enclosures. All I have to do is plug them in and copy my latest Differential backup. I know how to do that much and I don't have to depend on someone somewhere else in the world whose equipment may or may not be stable. My entire Internet connection went kaput last night. So what would have happened if I'd been in the middle of an important transfer? My data stays with me and isn't available to snoops for any reason.
But, as I said, I'm an individual. I might feel differently if I were running a large business and had lots of people putting stuff into the system all day every day.
But the scheme I described above works for me - as long as I have the self discipline to follow through.
Then I copy only the new Differential to the second USB backup drive that I can take off the premises if I want to feel extra secure.
Jud,
Perhaps I am misunderstanding your comments but a TrueImage differential has no value unless you also include the full which created the diff.
Experience has also shown that anytime you copy a backup to a different location, it is wise to perform an occasional validation on the new copy and the new location. However, a diff backup validation will fail if some of the other diffs are missing. It may still restore but will fail the validation due to the missing pieces--even if the missing pieces are diffs. This has been a bug in the last couple versions but not sure about 6696. A diff should not fail validation (but they do) just because not all other diffs are not present/
Jud Banks,
I tried some of the free backup software that was mentioned earlier in this thread, but found out that it only works with an external drive. This is what was posted as an answer in the thread I started called "How to Save the Backups on the Internal Hard Disk.":
Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:12 am Post subject:
Dear Lode,
We are glad to hear from you again.
Actually, you can also save the backup image to your internal hard disk. But when you want to restore the backup image, you should move the backup image to an external hard disk at first. Because you cannot save the backup image to the same hard disk which you want to restore. Otherwise, you cannot restore it correctly.
In your case, you can back up the hard disk to confirm how large will it be. And then you can choose a suitable external hard disk to save it.
Sincerely,
EASEUS Support Team S
EASEUS Customer Support Center:
http://www.easeus.com/support.htm
http://forum.easeus.com/viewtopic.php?t=19979&highlight=make
Since I already have Windows 7's integrated backup system on my brand new laptop, I decided to order an external hard drive. I don't know yet if I will use that to save my complete and incremental backups with on my internal hard disk. I don't see the need for that anymore.
But for those among us who want to save their backups directly to their internal disk, Acronis seems to be the thing to buy. Although on the interface of the trial version I did not see how to do that. I did see the option to have it saved on an remote server, but I prefer to keep my data at hand, and more so after you mentioning the Internet connection problem you had.
If only the free Acronis Home 11 trial version had not opened my cd tray when I tried to make a first complete backup, I would have kept it...
The website also offers support for Home (Acronis® AdvantageSM Home) at $9.99 per year but there is no way to purchase it and no one seems to know how to purchase it.
I have managed how to purchase it but my opinion about paid support fell down after that.