Acronis True Image Home (Wish list)

Windows Backup Conversions (TIB to VHD) that actually work.
An option to choose between a Windows Backup or a VHD.

If not: DON'T call it Acronis to Windows Backup but Acronis to Virtual Hard Disk.

I have a request that I think will never be implemented: Take everything out of True Image except the ability to my a System Image. That is all I want. Instead of adding feature after feature, make a simple program that does one thing, but does it perfectly. I would then be a very satisfied customer. Instead, I have a program that will not work with Windows 7 and one, when the problems are fixed, will use too many resources to do things I don't want.

Hello, I like the feature of backup the Settings of various application, like Firefox oder Outlook. However, why is there no option to save the setting, especially the tasks, from ATIH? When I switched my PC XP to Win7 last week I had to reenter all Tasks again.

I'd like more information about what nonstop backup has been doing. How many Mbytes in the past hour/day; any problems; anything that is at least slightly useful and can change a little bit every once in a while so I know it's really doing something.

Dan_L wrote:

Please make it possible to copy individual partitions on multiple-partition drives from one drive to another. This should allow copying of the C drive on a multiple-partition drive so that it is bootable on the destination drive.

Thank you.

+1
E.g. Clone my 30GB SSD and my 60GB SSD to my 160GB HDD creating the required partitions on the destination HDD.

CorkyG wrote:

I would like the cloning utility to actually create an EXACT duplicate drive, to include exact location of ALL files;

If you make an offline sector-by-sector backup, you will get an exact duplicate of the drive.

A trick to minimize the size of this type of backup:

Prior to making the backup, create a file filled with binary 0's (Null character), filling up all empty space on your hard drive. Once you have completely filled your drive, delete this file, then boot to your TI CD and perform a sector-by-sector backup.

By having zeroed out all unused sectors (instead of leaving them filled with random leftover data), you allow them to be compressed, minimizing the size of the sector-by-sector backup image.

You can use this image to create an exact duplicate of your original drive an any drive of equal or larger capacity. Note that some drives of "equal capacity" may in fact have less sectors, and will therefor not be able to be used to restore the image. Obviously, if you use a larger drive, you will have leftover unpartitioned space at the end that you can use later.

Bob Wentzel wrote:

Something on my wish list is the ability to wake the system from sleep to execute unattended scheduled backups.  Running them on startup just isn't the same thing.

There is a workaround available now. You can use Window's task scheduler, create a benign task scheduled slightly before when you want your backup to run, and set the option that allows it to wake the system if it's in sleep mode.

One caveat - this may not work depending on what version of Windows you have, whether you have a desktop or laptop, and what power scheme you have selected.

To check/fix this in Windows 7 (and I believe Vista too), if you go to the Power control applet, click "change plan settings" and then click "change advanced power settings", you will see a tree of advanced options. Scroll down to and expand the "Sleep" option and then expand the "allow wake timers" sub-option. You will have choices for "on battery" and "plugged in". If you want a scheduled task that is set to wake your PC to succeed, you will need to have these set to "enable".

Even if Acronis were to have the option to wake up your PC for backups, you would still potentially have to make these changes to enable the wake from sleep timer to work.

I run Linux (openSUSE 11.2) on my home system, with virtual machines loaded with several flavors of Windows for when I need to help out friends.

While I would love an affordable version of Acronis True Image that runs on Linux (the only version for Linux is an expensive version for servers), I have been able to make do using the recovery CD (created under a Windows VM) to back up my system.

I would very much appreciate it if Acronis would add support for the ext4 file system, since I have been forced to do sector-by-sector backups since I upgraded from ext3.

Needless to say what I really want is a stripped down home version of their Linux product priced for the home market. Or a way to purchase the current Linux version at a discount under a restricted license. But for now, ext4 support will do.

The ability to not install feature that are not used.
In my case, I never use "try and decide" or any of the cleanup routines - so it would save me some disk space if they were not there!
I only ever use backup itself or the ability to build the rescue disk.
Cheers,
Rog

A version of True Image for netbooks running Linux.

Simcha-Yitzchak Lerner to original post from CorkyG wrote:

I would like the cloning utility to actually create an EXACT duplicate drive, to include exact location of ALL files

If you make an offline sector-by-sector backup, you will get an exact duplicate of the drive. <<-- see comment 2 below

A trick to minimize the size of this type of backup: Prior to making the backup, create a file filled with binary 0's (Null character), filling up all empty space on your hard drive. Once you have completely filled your drive, delete this file, then boot to your TI CD and perform a sector-by-sector backup. By having zeroed out all unused sectors (instead of leaving them filled with random leftover data), you allow them to be compressed, minimizing the size of the sector-by-sector backup image.

my two cents:

• Rather than make the user do this zeroing, automate it and save time (and trouble finding a neat way to make a binary zero file)! An option to "not include unused space" would seem simple enough. Let the restore do the zeroing.
• the sector-by-sector backup includes the BSL (bad sector list) which you probably don't want to restore to a new disk. As their contents are unused and unusable, exclude them like other unused space.

It should not be the user to find tricks when SW can do it!

Rolf

Its a valuable advantage that TI 2010 can now convert vhd <-> tib.

But the real power of backup and bootable vhd's for Windows 7 would become available with one or two of the following additions:

• Allow backups to a vhd file directly
• Allow to append incremental changes to a vhd file
• or alternatively provide a method to boot from .tib files

The point is that this way you could quickly boot up a (full) backup if you wrecked your live system -- without restoring a backup first (save time!).  It would also avoid destroying the evidence / reason why the system went bad.

Rolf

Software:
Acronis True Image Home 2010 Build 6053.

Scenario:
A 'Fixed size' is specified for 'Archive splitting' (via 'Backup > Disk and Partition Backup > Backup options') and 'Automatic consolidation > Number of backups exceeds' is set up.

Results:
A scheduled backup produces a consolidated archive which is split according to the 'Fixed size'.
A manual consolidation produces an archive which is not split.

Wish:
I wish a manual consolidation would produce an archive which is split according to the 'Fixed size'.

Scheduled cloning w/reboot! With the price of hard drives, why make backups where you have to do a restore. Plugging in a recently cloned drive takes seconds(eSata) to a few minutes (Internal HD swap)!!!

You already support cloning, just let me schedule it and don't ask me to hit a key to shutdown when done.

Real time on-line cloning would be even better! :)

Thanks

Benz Dean wrote:

Real time on-line cloning would be even better! :)

That sounds a lot like raid-1 (disk mirroring / duplexing). If so, simply using raid-1 could give you additional benefits that you wouldnt get by just cloning. And that would probably be the way to go. But maybe you mean something different.

My wish is for Acronis to fix the bugs first before adding new features.
Dont get me wrong, new features are nice. I just think its more importaint to have a
solid stable product.

Once the bugs are fixed there are a lot of great suggestions on this thread.

I'd just like it to uninstall cleanly when you select 'remove' from the windows control panel add/remove programs applet.

Provide built-in support for hardware RAID drivers as in previous builds such as 5055.

Today TI already has a mechanism where it states
"your system is not fully protected"
if the recovery CD has not yet been created.

Please take that one step further and make a "wizzard" that PROVES this cd is viable and that I know how to use it. suggestions for this wizzard are:
A) Ask me which target drive I want to confirm/test (default answer is "c:")

B) create a known 1 meg backup .tib, location for backup canNOT be same as target i.e -> "c:".

C) Display a dialog asking me to boot from the recovery cd and run menu "xxxx".
have a button to begin the test. This would then start the reboot as well as make the wizzard pickup where it left off upon returning into windows. In the time inbetween the shutdown and when we return into windows the user is supposed to boot from the recovery CD and run a specfic menu item.

D) The recovery CD has a menu item "xxxx" which ONLY exists on the recovery cd.
This menu item performs a restore of the known .tib backup to a temp file on whatever disk drive the user wants to confirm/test. The menu item then does a checksum of the temp file created, deletes the temp file created and at the top of the device just tested creates a xx byte "status" file as to the result of the restore/checkum testing for this hardware id device.

E) Upon rebooting into windows the acronis wizzard would pickup where it left off and look for this status file on the target drive.
if the status file is missing - the wizzard would report the recovery CD test FAILED
if the status exists but contains an INvalid code the wizzard would report the recovery CD test FAILED
if the status exists and IS valid the wizzard would report success and give me a smileyface/graduation cap.

I have earnd my diploma because I have successfully proved that:
- I have created my recovery CD
- proved that I know how to boot from the recovery CD
- proved recovery CD viable/compatible with my hardware and the drivers on the CD will successfully read and write without issue.

F) Regardless of the result of the test, the status file can now be deleted and the wizzard is done.

Successfully running this wizzard should be mandatory to getting the highest level "green" light/graducation cap on the acronis opening screen. Without having earned my diploma my system is NOT "fully protected" as I have NOT yet proved that backups on my hardware can be successfully restored by ME and MY recovery cd. Conversely, if I have successfully run the wizzard then Both I (the customer), and you (acronis support) now have some assurance that acronis is working perfectly and the user has a basic understanding of how to backup and most importantly how to restore.

This graduation diploma should be a requirement to getting that "green" light on the opening screen to acronis.

Just an idle suggestion David. Could you have done what you wanted to, if you had booted your system using a "BartPE" or other Linux System which would load from the CD Drive, then do a "side by side" Properties compare on the folders you suspected were bad. You should have been able to mount the image file under Linux but if not, you could have started the Acronis program under Linux and then use the "Explore Image" feature to do your comparison against your Windows Folder.

I haven't tried this David. You just prompted some thoughts on my part on how this might be done. In repairing computers in my business, I have sometimes met with the same problem that you describe. Usually, I too, have done a full retore to eliminate the problem file(s).

Regards,

It would be nice to have the ability to create schedules on a yearly basis. i.e. Similar to weekly and monthly.

See attached

Regards,
Chad...

Thanks for great program!
I would love to see further options for handling consolidation:
1) Protection from consolidation of incremental backups of your choosing - perhaps evaluated by the number of stars a given backup has received by you. This combined with an option to making a description for an individual backup (as suggested by two others earlier in this thread).
2) Scheduled Consolidation that could be run in idle-save hours since consolidation is very ressource- and timeconsuming.

David Martin wrote:

Would be nice to have a log of what has been backed up, or atleast a summary of number of files etc. Something that could be used to compare to the disc drive a backup came from, that can be used to validate that teh backup is reliable etc.

David.

Absolutely. I asked for the notification to include a full log, yet it doesn't even tell me "X number of files scanned, Y number backed up". This seems like a huge oversight. In fact the only reason I registered on this forum just now was to find out where the option to show me what was backed up lives...! (Seems there isn't one!)

It would be great if the serial number problem for upgrades was to be solved. I did an upgrade to True Image home 11, at a cost with disk and support of $52+ and can not install the program as I no longer have the serial number of the original program that I upgraded from. This was Disk Wizard, which according to Seagate does not have a serial number.

So all I have for my money is a disk that don't work. When a product is registered, there should be a field to enter the serial number that was required for initial install. Then, when the hard drive crashes and the product needs to be re-installed, people are not left with an expensive but useless disk. I have been bounced around between Acronis and Seagate with no result, other than a loss of $52 and some two hours of wasted time.

Hey, Happy New Year 2010...

I recently received a custom quad core for my recording studio that has 3 internal HDDs including 2 x 1 TB HDDs drives. The primary C:\ drive which has the OS & apps installed now, I didn't think until I installed the OS, etc, that the 1 TB C:\ HDD needs to be in a smaller partition to save in the "Acronis Security Zone" on my other internal 1 TB HDD(100% free) .

I need space to clone the c:\ HDD 1 TB drive, & the clone to it my OS & studio apps. So, despite the TB drive being open, I need a smaller primary partition. *(c)

Sooo...I create a smaller partition on the C:\ 1 TB now using Acronis 11, without removing the OS/apps? (as I thought I read when I 1st used it, last clone). I thank-u for any help....Thx BD

Hey, Happy New Year 2010...

I recently received a custom quad core for my recording studio that has 3 internal HDDs including 2 x 1 TB HDDs drives. The primary C:\ drive which has the OS & apps installed now, I didn't think until I installed the OS, etc, that the 1 TB C:\ HDD needs to be in a smaller partition to save in the "Acronis Security Zone" on my other internal 1 TB HDD(100% free) .

I need space to clone the c:\ HDD 1 TB drive, & the clone to it my OS & studio apps. So, despite the TB drive being open, I need a smaller primary partition. *(c)

Sooo...I create a smaller partition on the C:\ 1 TB now using Acronis 11, without removing the OS/apps? (as I thought I read when I 1st used it, last clone). I thank-u for any help....Thx BD

Hey, Happy New Year 2010...

I recently received a custom quad core for my recording studio that has 3 internal HDDs including 2 x 1 TB HDDs drives. The primary C:\ drive which has the OS & apps installed now, I didn't think until I installed the OS, etc, that the 1 TB C:\ HDD needs to be in a smaller partition to save in the "Acronis Security Zone" on my other internal 1 TB HDD(100% free) .

I need space to clone the c:\ HDD 1 TB drive, & the clone to it my OS & studio apps. So, despite the TB drive being open, I need a smaller primary partition. *(c)

Sooo...I create a smaller partition on the C:\ 1 TB now using Acronis 11, without removing the OS/apps? (as I thought I read when I 1st used it, last clone). I thank-u for any help....Thx BD

oracledba wrote:

Here is an idea that would make me upgrade yet again:

I call this "consolidate_leave_x".

+1 from me.

The functionality is already there in the consolidate wizard. But I believe this can only be run manually.
We just need another parameter on the automatic "consolidate when file count exceeded" setting either to say how many are left (as above) or how many incrementals to consolidate.

My main justification is the time take to consolidate (in my case ~200MB incremental with ~45GB full backup), which happens on every backup once the file limit is reached. I would guess that consolidating multiple incrementals wouldn't take much longer than one - you'd probably consolidate the incrementals prior to consolidating the result with the full backup.

A file browser to make files/folders to be excluded from a backup easier to add. The present type-a-full-path is a nightmare.

This idea has been discussed years ago see here but nothing as yet!!

Thanks John

I wish Acronis would go back to being the almost bug-free product I switched from Symantic Ghost to, back in Version 8. I remember back then being excited to recommend Acronis to family, friends and other people that work for and with me. Finally something that was better than Ghost.

Get new support people and fix all the product bugs without charging people for a new version. Please!!!

These are minor backup related:

When using the "My Data" backup method of selected folder groups on the C drive (ie: AppData, Presets, etc) the option to create a tib file (as it is now), with the additional options of: a standard folder or a zipped version of the folder group. As this is something I would like to backup on a daily/weekly basis, it would be nice to have quick access to the contents.

Also, ability to add MY chosen applications to the list of places. At the moment it shows MS office, but none of my uber important audio programs (settings & Presets).

For the moment I am using SyncToy to make the minor backups, but I would prefer if I could do it all from within Acronis TI.

Lastly a UI addition: would it be possible to add the schedule services to the options dialogue (as I never use them)? As I currently turn these off in my services control panel (I make music on my PC and I need all of its resources, without anything affecting the recording state)

- Sam

Ability to build the bootable rescue CD from the installation on windows (as now) but using the default settings as modified on windows - e.g. compression, file splitting, files to ignore, automatic validation, etc.
This would save having to change these each time you take a backup using this CD.

DaveH wrote:

They've made a mess of the date format for tib file names in TI 2010, using DMY instead of YMD. That strikes me as a fundamental programming error, especially since it can't be changed by the user.

The result is that archives are filed in a very unhelpful sequence within the archive folder, if date is part of the file name.

This needs fixing this urgently, reverting to YMD as in TI 11, or letting the user choose date format (not that I can see any reason why anyone would want anything other than YMD)..

Yes, please. At least provide an option for the Date Format.

Bigchipmunk wrote:

Hello, I like the feature of backup the Settings of various application, like Firefox oder Outlook. However, why is there no option to save the setting, especially the tasks, from ATIH? When I switched my PC XP to Win7 last week I had to reenter all Tasks again.

Yes, please! This should also be useful in other scenarios (e.g. in a scenario, where I had to restore my C partition to an older state. After the rerstore of the C partition, I could run an additional restore that would restore the ATIH task definitions from the backup created by the feature requested by Bigchipmunk).

Something important to me: "incremental" and "differential" file/folder backups that are not sensitive to disk defragmentation.
I would like to have this possibility, at least as an option.

For me, the amount of disk space used by incremental and differential defragmentation is very important; much more important than the speed of the backup process.

I need to perform (among other) a weekly incremental or differential file/folder backup of the 120 GB of my photo files. And I want to keep my backups for a long period. Therefore the size of the incremental/differential backup files is essential for me.

Unfortunately with today's ATI, the size of an incremental/differential backup increases substantially after a disk defragmentation and the ATI user's guide recommend to perform again a Full Backup after a defragmentation. This is not acceptable for me.

---
Edit: I have not the slightest idea (and do not need to know) how ATI has organized the format of those archive files that contain Full/Differential/Incremental Backups of files/folders. Depending on how ATI has organized the content of these files: would it be reasonably feasible to add an Acronis-provided Post-Processor, that would eliminate from the Incremental/Differential Backup Files, those Files that have not really changed but that are in the Incremental or Differential Backup Files just because of the Defragmentation?

Edit on 26 January 2010: I expanded my original post (which was mentioning "only" incremental backups) in order to include also differential backups. Originally, I was intending to use/exploit incremental backups. But I came to the conclusion that ATI is currently not sufficiently robust to entrust my data to incremental ATI backups. I am thefore now intersested in Differential backups that are less fragile than incremental backups.

Something else that is important for me: I wish to have my File/Folder backup files in a non-proprietary Format, that preserves within the backup the original folder structure.

Its not the possibility to have a 2nd or 3rd copy of the backup in a non-propriatary format that I wish to have; my wish is for the first or only copy.

The non-propriatary format requirement is sufficient important for me, to accept slower-running backups and restores.

If backups/restore with a non-propriatary format will be substantially slower than for the current format: then it would of course be reasonable to let the user choose between the two oprtions (because different users will have different preferences/priorities).

Edited on 20.01.2010: ATI Home 2010 supports the creation of file/folders archives in .zip format. However, unfortunately, this option does not support .zip archives exceeding 4 GB in size (see section 3.9 of the ATI Home 2010 User's Guide). With this limit, the use of .zip format is useless for me (right now, I need to backup more than 120 GB of photo files.... more in one or two years)
---
I would like to be sincere and honest: even though I will probably remain a user of ATI Home (assuming that i will not encounter too many bugs), the issues of the "propriatary Format" and of the size-increase of incremental Backups after a defragmentation bother me a lot. I ask myself again and again, whether I shall look because of these 2 issues to another File-Backup Software.

PLEASE give us better control for the option of recovering to a new location. The current method is conceptually flawed, more or less "black box", AND apparently undocumented.

As far as I can tell, it deletes the directories down to the level where the directories fan out and it keeps all the directory branches and leaves. Currently it forces an automatic check mark of all directories that contains a manually check marked file or directory, but DOES NOT INCLUDE THESE CHECK MARKED DIRECTORIES IF THEY ARE PART OF THE MAIN TRUNK ABOVE ALL BRANCHES.

 By definition any checked mark file or directory should be part of the backup, and this just is NOT the case.

So what is correct?

What is needed is a complete scope of choice where all the resulting branches are in a directory structure consistent with the original directory structure.

Here is how this might be done correctly:

Whatever the interface, the user should be able to specify a specific destination directory path by browsing and then appending new directories if desired. The user should then be able to specify by browsing the original structure, one set of arbitrary files or directories in an arbitrary common directory to directly attach to the user specified destination directory path mentioned above.

How could this be done with minimal changes to the current implementation?

This should be done so that the user would ALWAYS know exactly what he/she is going to get in the backup because the root path would be explicit and the the files and directories that get backed up woud be EXACTLY THOSE WHICH ARE CHECKED...NO MORE...NO LESS!

The first part can be down with the current facility of browsing directories and specifying a path in a text field. The text field then could be modified by the user to add new directories in any arbitrary way. The implementation would simply take the root directories that already exist until it found a new directory, and then the rest of the specified path would be new directories to be automatically created.

The second part could be done simply by changing the current check mark implementation in a carefully programmed way (the currently check mark implementation doesn't always check-mark things correctly...it is rather sloppy.)

I haven't fully analyzed how it should work for best editing ease of use but should follow some rules:

1. All backed up branches will always have a single common root from the original directory structure that will be replaced by the path specified in the first part.
2. The single common root will be recalculated after each check-mark change.
3. Automatically filling in check marks above or below any manual newly check marked directory or file, will be consistent with maintaining a consistent structure AND ease of the overall specification process.  For example, manually check marking a directory in which none of the sub-files and sub-directories are check marked would check mark everything under the manually check marked directory. Unchecking a directory would uncheck all sub-files and sub-directories. However, whether super directories are automatically checked or unchecked would not only depend on the manual check or uncheck, but also the relationship to the current single common root, and in fact the manual action might change the directory of the current common root.

SO....this at least gives an idea about manual/automatic checking....but clearly there exists SOME such set of carefully crafted rules that would guarantee consistency and ease of use....I am retired, but if asked, I would certainly consider taking on the project to design such a system that would be guaranteed to work correctly in regard to checking and unchecking.

Self extracting .tib files would be handy

Also, is there a way to specify what compression application to use? (zipx, rar, ISO, etc...). Standard zip and tib are OK, but would be nice to have a choice.

wishlist:

a linux home version

discount for use TI on more then one (virtual) PC

saving non stop backups from n machines on one volume

Wishlist:

1. Stop advertising windows 7 compatability, and remove true image 2010 from sale until the program actually works with windows 7

I'm serious, legally it is false advertisment

2. Provide support. This means admitting in the first instance that there is a problem with windows 7 compatibility.

Acronis TI 2010 + win7 x32 and x64 work 100% fine for me. I've backed up, I've restored with no issues whatsoever.

Norrie

I too (and probably also, Acronis itself) wish that ATI had less problems and that in future it will have less problems.

In my particular case, I have no important problems of ATI Home 2010 major problems that are related to my Windows 7 environment. Perhaps (I am not sure about it), because my Windows 7 environment is relatively simple and because my PC is brand new (and has never seen another version of Windows or another version of ATI).

When I write, that I have no Windows 7 related major problem, this does not imply at all that I am happy with the quality of ATI - I am not happy with it.

If you do not mind: could you describe your own PC / Windows 7 environment in order to help other ATI users to understand in which circumstances ATI Home 2010 has problems with Windows 7?

My own PC environment can be described as follows:
- Windows 7 Ultimate, 64 bit, German langfuage
- ATI Home 2010, Build 6'053, German language
- A new PC (bought just before Christmas), that has never seen any other Windows Version nor any other ATI Version/Build/Install
- I just have one OS instance on my PC - I do not even have the Windows XP option of Windows 7 installed
- Both my Firewall and my Anti Virus Software are from Microsoft.
- My first disk (a Western Digital VeloCiraptor) consists just of two Partitions. C: with the OS and H: with my data files (plus a small additional hidden partition).
- In addition, I have two Large internal Western Digital disks of 2 TB each. One for my photo files and the other one to store my Backups
- In addition, I also have external USB 2.0 disks to store additional copies of my Backups (I sztore these disks in the safe of my bank).
----
I have read a lot of posts blaming Acronis Support. I believe that Acronis deserves to get blamed for the poor quality of ATI Home 2010. But as a former/retired System Software developper of mission-critical IBM Mainframe Software, I got the impression that the major problem is the quality of the ATI Software itself. When the Software has not a good quality, the Support organization can not change it and gets burried in avalanches of problems.

Why has ATI Home 2010 a poor quality? I am not an nisider and do not know. Did the best Acronis developpers left the Company? Or did Acronis Managers insisted to get so many additional functions in a timeframe that did not allow for a high quality? Or.....

My only wish is that it actually worked properly. I've got a support ticket open and waiting to hear back.

When can we expect a new build witch solves all the problems discussed in this forum?

I'm also very disappointed with the last version of TI and, in fact, I'm seriously considering to move to other solutions.

Please, concentrate your efforts in improving the quality of the software and not in adding more features.

I would appreciate a lot if you include the most recently & commonly used storage divers into the recovery CD, like Marvell SAS and SATA used by P6T ASUS motherboards (among others).

You could also consider to provide an user friendly method to add custom drivers to the Acronis Linux boot disk. For example as optional step included in the Rescue Wizard where the user could provide the path to a folder with all the desired storage drivers. An additional step or option for network adapter drivers could also be considered. The Bart PE workaround is not a good solution. Requires too much time and it's not easy.

Ivo Camilleri wrote:

 Why oh why does the Operation progress window not include the name of the process that is running? There should be a simple way of knowing which process is running when you click on status from the Acronis True Image Home 2009 task bar icon in Windows 7.

I'd like to second this request; a great idea. Sometimes I'm not sure which timed backup is running. This would solve that problem quickly.

I'd like to recommend a pretty basic enhancement: when I go into my "Tasks & Logs" tab I'd like to be able to sort the "Last Run Time" column by the actual date. When I currently sort it the sort is done by the day of the week... so instead of an actual date sort I get the backup I did on Sunday, Jan 24th followed by Thu, Dec. 10, then Thu, Jan 28th.

Given the increasing popularity of whole disk encryption, there should be an Acronis feature to install an additional option in boot.ini to load the Acronis recovery manager (e.g. from the recovery CD) AFTER the en/decryption driver has loaded and become active.
Currently, users have the choice either of 1) a FULL raw encrypted backup, or 2) an incremental unencrypted backup within Windows, which cannot be restored to the hard drive with Acronis recovery manager, since booting from CD does NOT activate the en/decryption driver on the hard drive.

Since Aconis built one of the two utilities to realign WD Advanced Format drives, how about a general utility to check and realign partitions of SSDs if needed.

Also build partition aligment selection options into the restoration process - for instance when copying an older drive partition onto a new SSD.

What desperately needs to be added is access to my Acronis Online Backup when running from the True Image 2010 Recovery CD.

If I've been doing all of my backup up to the online service, I have no way to do a bare iron recovery unless I've kept a local backup of a functioning windows installation with TI 2010 already installed.

This also means that home Linux users (such as myself) who do all of their backup and restore operations from the recovery CD are unable to make use of the Acronis Online Backup service at all.

Hello all,

We really appreciate your feedback about our software and support level. We're constantly monitoring this thread and passing your wishes to the appropriate departments.

We'll surely implement the most of your suggestions in the future builds/versions of Acronis software.

Thank you.