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Will Acronis True Image 2017...

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I have a few questions about True Image before I take the plunge and buy it.  Motivating my switch is that my old Norton Ghost software is insufficient and clunky as it has no direct capability to backup to the cloud.  Moreover, I am concerned about the possibility of ransomware destroying files on my wife's computer as her data would be impossible to replace.  Because of her needs, there are a couple imperative features.  Any help verifying that True Image fits the bill is greatly appreciated.

 

1.  I see that True Image 2017 can backup to cloud drives, but can it back up to cloud services WITHOUT mounting a cloud drive as a visible disk?  A mounted disk could be manipulated and, therefore, would not be a secure backup solution.  The ideal solution would use login credentials to access the service as needed and upload, then disconnect from the cloud such that something like ransomware would be unable to destroy the backups.

2.  Can True Image use any cloud service or does it have to use Acronis' subscription service?  If using another cloud service (Google Drive or OneDrive), can those services be used without having to mount a visible disk on the local machine?

3.  Can any form of backup be initiated remotely?  Are there restrictions on remote backup such as backup destinations, file vs. whole PC backups, etc.?  I want to be able to backup both files and the whole PC remotely and to a cloud service.

4.  Can the Acronis subscription drive space be expanded immediately and on the fly?  So if performing a backup and spilling over 500GB (for example), could I instantly expand to 1TB and pay the difference or will the backup fail until I logon and increase the size?  Another way to put this, can I pre-authorize up-charging my card if I need the space?

 

Thank you for your time and help!

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pizzathehut wrote:

1.  I see that True Image 2017 can backup to cloud drives, but can it back up to cloud services WITHOUT mounting a cloud drive as a visible disk?  A mounted disk could be manipulated and, therefore, would not be a secure backup solution.  The ideal solution would use login credentials to access the service as needed and upload, then disconnect from the cloud such that something like ransomware would be unable to destroy the backups.

A1. There is no mounted or visible cloud drive used by the Acronis software, but on the subject of ransomware or malware in general, if your (or wifes) source data is infected with malware, then this will be backed up to the cloud just as it would to any other target backup drive.  Acronis uses a background service with user credentials to perform the cloud backup and will run as scheduled within your backup task.

pizzathehut wrote:

2.  Can True Image use any cloud service or does it have to use Acronis' subscription service?  If using another cloud service (Google Drive or OneDrive), can those services be used without having to mount a visible disk on the local machine?

A2. ATIH does not support other cloud services directly, though you could write backups to a local drive folder that is then mirrored to a third-party cloud, but the backup file sizes may pose an issue depending on your cloud subscription to the other service, and the local drive folder is fully visible.

pizzathehut wrote:

3.  Can any form of backup be initiated remotely?  Are there restrictions on remote backup such as backup destinations, file vs. whole PC backups, etc.?  I want to be able to backup both files and the whole PC remotely and to a cloud service.

A3. Yes, Acronis provides a Cloud Dashboard that can be used to trigger remote backup tasks.  The key restrictions would be that the target drive for the backup should be available for the action to succeed.

pizzathehut wrote:

4.  Can the Acronis subscription drive space be expanded immediately and on the fly?  So if performing a backup and spilling over 500GB (for example), could I instantly expand to 1TB and pay the difference or will the backup fail until I logon and increase the size?  Another way to put this, can I pre-authorize up-charging my card if I need the space?

A4. You would need to speak directly with Acronis presales for an answer to this question - you would normally buy a subscription for a defined amount of cloud storage, I am not aware of any offering that Acronis may have to pre-authorise an automatic upgrade to a higher tier of storage on passing a defined threshold value.