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Thinking of Upgrading -- I have questions

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I have version 2016 and am considering upgrading to 2020

1) Will 2020 import my backup setup/job/configuration or whatever it's called?
2) Why do they suggest I need professional help installing?
3) Will the 2020 version do everything the 2016 version does?
4) What advances to I get by upgrading? (I don't care about the cloud}

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Jim, it is recommended to uninstall your ATI 2016 before upgrading to ATI 2020 (this is covered in the ATI 2020 User Guide in the section on Installing).  Doing an uninstall will normally leave the ProgramData\Acronis folders behind which includes the Scripts folder that holds the configuration data for your tasks, so ATI 2020 should pick this up.

Professional help is for those users who lack the confidence to upgrade for themselves and are willing to pay for that service!  Most users shouldn't need that service.

ATI 2020 is significantly different than your ATI 2016 but at the core still does the same basic functions you are used to having, i.e. Backup, Recovery & Cloning along with the rescue media builder, Sync option etc.

The significant difference is Acronis Active Protection against ransomware attack that was first introduced in a version of 2017 then made standard in 2018 and later versions.  A further key change is the introduction of Active Cloning which now is able to use the same Microsoft VSS snapshot service that Backups use when performed within Windows.  Finally, last but not least is the changing over from using .tib backup archive files for Disk backups to now using .tibx files as Acronis have been using in their premium business Backup products for some time.  This change only applies to new Disk backup tasks created by ATI 2020 - any tasks brought forward from ATI 2016 will continue using the same .tib files as before.

One final change is that from around 2017 period, Acronis now gives up to a year of support from the date of public release of a new version, i.e. from August 20th for 2020, and for a period of 30-days after the next new version is released to the public (so somewhere around September 2020).

Wow!  I can't imagine a more complete & perfect reply. 

I googled around some since I posted that message so I have one more question.

I saw somewhere if you only get the Standard (I think it was called) version you won't be eligible for updates.

I'm sure I'm updating to the lowest version, does this mean I won't get fixes?

Jim, ATI comes in several flavours. 

Standard = Perpetual license which gives you all updates / new builds for the duration that that version is current and supported, but doesn't allow upgrades to new versions.

Subscription which allows access to the same as standard but including upgrades to new versions that are released during the period of the subscription.  The key point for subscription licenses is very simply that all major functionality ceases when the subscription ends apart from the ability to recover a backup created previously - it cannot be used to create new backups etc.

Well, I've come back with another question.

Does v2020 still use the globally unique identifier (GUID) of the drive used for the backup task like v2016. It makes me tear my hair out.  I swap backup drives with some regularity and store the alternate at the bank.  And I occasionally buy a new drive.  Because of this I have to keep creating a new setup each time.

Jim, in essence, yes it does and still doesn't play nicely if swapping destination drives for a task.  I believe that it uses the unique ID for the partition on the drive rather than the drive itself, but it should only be necessary to reselect the destination on the new drive for the task or else use the Move option.

Thanks