Where can I find an older version?
I used to have an older version of Acronis. I used it purely for cloning - my preferred backup method- and it worked. It worked by rebooting and cloning the source outside of Windows. Better still, I could tell it to shut down my machine after it had finished. This was perfect for me because I used to run my backups overnight.
Then I replaced my motherboard and chip and, long story short, I was forced to do a clean re-install, and this in turn meant I had to re-buy and re-download Acronis. This version insists on doing its business within Windows, won't let me tell it to shutdown afterwards, and far worse, doesn't actually work. When I try to reboot using the target drive as my new system drive, all I get is a blank screen and a LOT of disc activity, which goes on apparently forever. Or would if I let it.
How/where can I find an earlier version of Acronis? One that works outside of Windows: one that shuts down when it's done: and one that actually, you know, clones the drive.
Thank you.
Thank you Ian, but the solution I'm looking for requires cloning. Looks like acronis don't feel the need to support their customers. I won't forget.
All versions of ATI support cloning, including ATI 2020.
Cloning can be performed either from within Windows or else by booting the Acronis Rescue Media to do the same.
See the following reference documents:
KB 63252: Acronis True Image 2020: how to back up files or disks
KB 63226: Acronis True Image 2020: how to create bootable media and
KB 56634: Acronis True Image: how to clone a disk
KB 61665: Acronis True Image 2019 and 2020: Active Cloning in Windows
Thank you, but it'd be simpler to use an earlier version which doesn't require another bootable drive.
Sorry but what do you mean by requiring another bootable drive here?
The rescue media has remained the same for as long as I can remember.
You can create it on CD or DVD (depending on the version) or else on a USB stick (2GB up to 32GB in size).
You can also make an external HDD into a combination 'Survival Kit' (rescue media boot) drive where a 2GB FAT32 partition is created at the start of the HDD and the rescue media written to that partition (using WinPE for the boot OS), where you can use the same drive to boot then make backups or do recovery etc.
It is also possible to use a third-party tool such as EasyBCD to add a Windows BCD entry to allow a computer to boot from an Acronis ISO file on the local drive.
The final option, is that you can use the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager feature which when enabled provides a boot option for pressing the F11 key to launch the offline Acronis application.
Like Steve Smith, I am (still) confused. The recovery media for ATI 2020 supports cloning. My preference, and that of Steve, rather than doing a clone to do a backup and then restore to the new disk. While I have used cloning without issue several times (both from with recovery media and from within Windows), there are more risks that things can go amiss when doing cloning rather than backup and restore.
If you really want to get the recovery media for an earlier version, you can download it from your Acronis account - that will be a Linux rather than Windows PE or Windows RE and may not fully support your hardware.
Ian