version recommendation: stability over speed or features and SnapAPI / scheduler updates
Hi all,
Can one purchase ATI Home licence and use it on any version: Home v10, v11, or v12 (2009)?
I could be entirely wrong, but I get the impression that TIv10 (latest build) seems to have a reputation of 'old faithful' at the expense of not having as many features, or the speed of later versions.
This is essentially what I'm after. Something that is stable, tried/tested, but doesn't exactly have all the features of the newer versions or speed/hardware support. The reason being the location is fairly remote. I'm trying to avoid potential problems which are usually associated with 'latest and greatest'. It's only for a single computer, so I think I have the right product here...
I guess I could simply ask, which version would be recommended given the following:
- a simple office computer using windows XP (SP3)
- a standard SATA disk (which is not operating RAID or AHCI, simply standard "IDE compatible mode").
- a full backup once a month, incrementals daily to an external USB drive. Data is around 40GB and grows maybe 5-10MB a day. It's basically database operations, but the configuration of associated software and printers makes imaging the best solution.
- needs stability over any speed/feature benefit.
I've read praises for v10 (#4942) on the (now closed) wilderssecurity forums and from the look of the demo I found, it looks to be suited/do everything that's needed.
GroverH's posts, which I've seen quite frequently & come somewhat as an 'authoritative source', show he/she is still using v10 4942 but with updated snapapi and scheduler: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=216809 (reply #3)
There are some threads I found regarding the issue of updating the SnapAPI module (http://kb.acronis.com/content/1514) and also the Scheduler (http://kb.acronis.com/content/1518) which I found interesting.
- How important would the SnapAPI update be? is it a case of if it's not broken, don't fix it, or can it be applied as a preventative measure? after seeing what SnapAPI is responsible for (!!), I figured it would be best to ask the community.
- I see the scheduler update is something like, "If you restore from a back up, you need to recreate the task otherwise it won't run due to the NT signature issue". So the scheduler update isn't critical per se, as long as you don't need to actually restore from a back up, and if you do, simply remember to re-create the backup tasks?
Would there be any other 'updates' to the v10 #4942 build to consider?
Thanks all for any assistance!
Thanks for the reply.
Can you elaborate on the bit about 10, that "it won't have the drivers necessary to be able to restore on some newer hardware." - if I can see the USB and SATA HDD whilst booted from the recovery CD, i should be in the clear, right?
The bit about updates was in relation to these 'patches', as i see there's one for the scheduler and the SnapAPI driver update which gets mentioned quite a bit over in the wilders archive. I am wondering how many people install them, if they're critical/necessary/recommended only if there's issues or good to have to just prevent problems within that same build number.
Thanks again
Hi Ozzy you may be in the clear for a while. As in anything as technology moves on then the old software will may be not able to see or recognise it. I use TI11 at the mo but have TI2009 which does not work at all - oustanding probs - so newer isn't always better either. TI11 works just fine for what I do which is full backups using the cd.
The snapapi is something that I installed but it made no difference, no one has told me what it is for but I am guessing it is to do with backing up a system from within windows which I never do - always use the boot cd which is quicker and never fails for me.
Many people here are not from a computer background as in they were not IT pro's but I am. I hated PC's from about 1986 before they were known as PC's and nothing has changed my opinion in the last 20 years. They are still crap mainly because microsoft are rubbish and they still use 8086 chip technology which is way old.
My rant over lol but i guess you know what i mean!
Thanks bin.
I am seriously considering getting them to do a manual backup with the boot CD as my understanding is it's most reliable from an overall point of view. It's a complete-read operation isn't it, in terms of the source disk, right? That is it writes to the backup location (in this case USB external drive), but nothing is modified from the source drive (important so if they make a boo-boo in the back up, it won't affect the machine's 'live' drive).
At the same time, scheduling it to complete from within windows so they only have to plug in a drive at a certain time is tempting.
RE hardware drivers. Restores are done by booting into linux either from the harddisk or from the bootcd. The linux drivers need to work with your hardware or you won't be able to restore. Best way to tell is to do a backup and the put in a spare disk in place of your source drive and do an actual restore. Short of that, do everything but the last step, the last proceed with restore, This will assure you that the prog can see your drives and let you know which ones you're selecting as source and target for restore.
Doing backup from within windows isn't often a problem. It's cloning and restoring that brings the woes -- that's when the linux comes into play.
If you decide to schedule task, I recommend that you create the tasks in ATI but execute them via the Windows Task Scheduler -- you can search for that on the old forums and get the steps. Once it's set-up, you can pretty much forget about it and it'll run reliably.
Well, ive tried out both. backing up from Boot CD and windows, as well as restoring from boot CD. it all works without issue as far as i can tell :-o
Right-o, I think I'll leave the 'updates' alone for now, and stick to the v10 base-installation.
Scott, will do. In fact, I'll check it out right now. Any particular reason? is the scheduler known for falling asleep on the job? :o
Edit: Actually, i'm going to KISS here. at the moment, they do a manual backup process which they follow to the letter (pity that the back up doesn't include anything but some data files). In saying that, there's nothing inherently wrong with the Acronis task manager itself if the back ups are manually ran? i.e. user initiated? Because I might just leave this to the old-hand way... 4 clicks will get them from the desktop to running a backup and that's darn good for me.
The Win scheduler is much more fleixible. You can set up multiple sechedules, specify daily weekly monthly. It can wake a machine from
standby (S2 or S3).
You probably want to set up two tasks; one for monthly and one for daily incs but you can consider your options.
For ATI 10:
Command to use in windows task scheduler to run an Acronis ATI 10 script:
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\TrueImage\TrueImageService.exe" /script:"[drive:path\scriptname.tis]"
With the windows scheduler, it can wake the computer from standy and invoke the task.
ATI scripts are in
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImage\Scripts" and end in tis so the parameter will look like this but
with a diff name for the file:
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\TrueImage\TrueImageService.exe" /script:"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Acronis\TrueImage\Scripts\A4C70618-7072-4864-AC49-689976BFFDD0.tib.tis"
YOu can find the right script by creating/editing one, then going to the directory and looking for the tis file with the correct date and
time stamp.
YOu may have already taken this into account but if you create a BAckup Location and backup to there, ATI will automatically manage deleting old files when you reach the size, file number you set. And, if you are backing up to a Backup Location (as defined inthe user guide), then you can specify, when you create the backup task, how many incs before ATI creates a new full.
I eventually found that post i think youre referring to within the thread, "Launching ATI from Windows Task Scheduler". I will keep this in mind as I'm familiar with the windows task scheduler. Thanks a lot!