Frustrated: ATI 2019 Tools Don't Seem To Work
First time ATI user. Backups for Entire PC are working both from the rescue USB and from the desktop program in Windows 10. None of the other tools seem to work as expected.
Tried to create Startup Recover Manager. It told me that it successfully assigned F11. Upon boot, no prompt for F11, and when F11 is pressed (repeatedly) nothing happens, windows boots normally. Read help files and watched videos - not behaving as expected.
Tried to create a Secure Zone. First on removable 1.5 TB external drive. Once I hit proceed, I get the window that says it's setting it up, something like "Pass 1 of 3, calculating time remaining", THEN I get a pop up that says restart your computer now, if you cancel, the whole thing will be canceled. This Pop UP appears while the progress dialog for creating the partition is still in "pass 1 of 3, calculating time remaining". If I cancel, well, it cancels. If I hit restart now, when I boot back into Windows, nothing happens - no secure partition has been created.
Repeated the same procedure on the 1 TB internal HD, and the exact same thing happened.
So neither of those features appear to work for me. I'm a newb with this software and am pretty sure PEBCAK, but I need some guidance.
I want to use Try & Decide. Before I start it says "Note backup of the system partition and boot media were not created. We strongly recommend you do that before proceeding." I have no idea what that means. I backup the Entire PC regularly. What backup is it asking me to perform?
Again, I know it's me, I'm acclimating to the software - but this is highly frustrating. I've been through the help files and watched several Acronis sponsored videos as well as user videos on Acronis. Got my first computer in 1986, so it's not like I need to find the "any key" to continue.
If anyone can give me some pointers, I sure would appreciate it. I've owned the software for two week, and all I have to show is backups.
Thanks in advance for any friendly guidance.
Thank you for the reply Steve. If I abandon the attempts to use the ancillary products, maybe you can help me understand the following - it's a terminology issue.
You say " Make regular backup images, especially before any significant changes to your computer, then you have a means of reverting back to the prior state."
Which function most reliably does that? The Entire PC or Disks and Partitions Function? If my goal is to install software, then abandon that installation and revert back to before I installed it, would it be restoring the Disk and Partion, or the Entire PC that I would want?
Which function most reliably does that? The Entire PC or Disks and Partitions Function? If my goal is to install software, then abandon that installation and revert back to before I installed it, would it be restoring the Disk and Partion, or the Entire PC that I would want?
I do not use the 'Entire PC' option for making backup images. If your computer only has a single disk drive then this is the same as doing Disks & Partitions backups, but if you have more than one disk drive, it ties all your disk backups into a single backup pot.
My preference is to use Disk & Partitions backups, where I keep separate backup images for each individual disk drive, and sometimes, separate backups for individual partitions, depending on what is stored on the same and frequency of change etc.
To set my comments in context, I try where-ever possible to separate key data on my computer, i.e. my C: drive only holds my Windows 10 OS and installed applications.
I store my documents on a separate drive or partition, the same with things like music, photos etc.
Some of this data changes frequently whereas other data has infrequent changes, so my backup schedule tries to reflect this.
For your operating scenario of installing / testing / abandoning software, then keeping this to just your C: OS drive / partition, and not having any user data involved as far as possible, will achieve two things: You can make disk / partitions backups of that C: OS drive / partition before and after such testing according to the results achieved. The size of your backup images will be kept as small as possible by not including volumes of user data / documents etc. The further advantage is that recovering back to a prior state becomes a easier, faster process, as you should be able to just restore the one C: OS partition.
One further approach you may want to consider would be to setup a dual-boot system, i.e. one with 2 separate copies of the same edition of Windows, where the main copy of Windows is mainly left alone in terms of any software testing, but the second copy of Windows is where you do all your software testing. The advantage of this approach is that you can restore the backup of the second Windows OS from the first OS using ATI running within Windows.
This is one reason I also keep a dual-boot system with 2 copies of Windows 10 running in separate partitions, backed up separately and able to be recovered from each other if needed. (see image below - there are actually 3 OS's installed - 2 x Win 10 plus Ubuntu linux)
Thank you sir for clarifying (demystifying) several issues. I'm not inclined to use dual boot as my experience with it is rather limited and "test and check" would take some time. That said, I tend to keep most data on external media and try to reserve the HD for the OS and programs.
Since that's the case, it appears that in my case there is little difference between "Entire PC" and "Disks and Partitions". I will use your advice and simply make backups of the C disk and it's partitions (recovery and EFI).
I actually tested the Entire PC restore and ATI is a little wonkey - I backed up Entire PC, then installed a test program to see if I could restore my system to its state prior to installation of said program. ATI did the same thing that it did in my original post in trying the Secure Zone - it looks like it was calculating, then popped up a window that said restart or cancel before it was done calculating. Following the screen prompt and rebooting resulted in "Recovery Not Successful".
So I booted from the rescue media thumb drive, and ran restore - it successfully restored to the point I expected.
All of that said, while I hate playing doomsday scenarios for the purposes of testing, you have at least given me a starting point by eliminating the Entire PC variable.
So, I thank you for your guidance thus far. I expect I'll be back as I have yet to fully grasp the various rescue media options.
Peace,
Kaz
Return ATI and get Macrium Reflect 7.x. They have a free version that does only full images and a paid version that also does file and folder backups. I gave up on ATI years ago. Macrium Reflect just plain works and their support is second to none.
Robert Gregory wrote:Return ATI and get Macrium Reflect 7.x.
Macrium Reflect is a good product, but it does not have al the capabilities of ATI. (Backup via FTP is important to me, but, admittedly, I'm in the minority there.)
Each product has its quirks. Each has its own way of doing things. Some better; some worse.
Macrium Reflect is a good product, but it does not have al the capabilities of ATI.
Well as far as I can tell, the only thing that really works is the drive image bit. Try and Decide doesn't work, the windows interface is SUPER sluggish. Even restoring an image from the Windows interface is rife with problems requiring me to restore from a USB Boot.
Further, the documentation is stodgy because they use terms that aren't well explained.
Startup and Recovery Manager, Secure Zone... not reliable, at least with the Windows interface. My validations take an extraordinary amount of time, relative to the time it takes to back up (Incremental).
Point is, I came here to see if I was the problem (PEBKAC). It appears that it's not me. So when you say that Macrium doesn't have the "capabilities" of ATI, in MY experience, nothing works as advertised except the main features of backing up and restoring, and THOSE features only work well outside of the Windows interface.
That said, if FTP were important to me, and ATI was able to execute that reliably, I could understand a person endorsing the product. I mean, if it works for you, well... there you have it.
I'm not a delighted user, but I've been able to test ATI from the perspective of installing trial software, and then reverting to the pre-installed state. It takes forever.
If anyone sees anything in what I've written that inspires a "hey, that ain't right, check this.." I appreciate any and all feedback.
Peace