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Backing up an image on a home network

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I have been a user of Acronis True Image Home 2012 buld 7133 for many years. I have three computers on a home network but only have a single licence for my Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit machine, my main computer.

I would like to back up my other two computers on an external USB Drive on my main computer but not sure if this is possible or even legal?

If possible and legal how is this done, in laymans terms, had the application a long time but only use it now and again so really don't know it well enough to use expertly.

It's my guess that I would need licences for the other two computers but not comfortable in buying Acronis True Images 2016 unless my old backup is preserved.

Can you offer me some advise on this issue.

Thanks in advance.

 

Clive Dodd

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Clive, the license terms for Acronis products suggest that they are licensed on a per computer basis, i.e. if you have a single computer license for your ATIH 2012 product, then legally you can only use it on the one system. 

You can create the Acronis bootable Rescue Media and use this in offline mode, i.e. outside of Windows 7, and you could use this media to backup your other two computers to your external USB drive.  Using it in this way would not invoke any activation checks etc so, whilst strictly not within the terms of the license agreement, this is an intended purpose for the rescue media to enable you to backup and restore you computer.

The further issue that you need to be aware of is that of backup archive compatibility.  ATIH 2016 only guarantees backward archive compatibility to the 2013 version archives, thus you would need to retain your 2012 Rescue media to access your old backup archives.  These may work with 2016 or they may not. 

See KB document: 1689: Backup Archive Compatibility Across Different Product Versions which will show you a table of compatibility for different Acronis products and versions.

You should also be aware that Acronis are now conducting a Beta program for ATIH 2017 which is expected to be released in the Autumn period.

Hello Steve,

Thanks for the reply, I thought that was the case, but glad I checked it out. I want to be legal on all counts so I think the best thing for me to do is when I am able is to purchase three licences on ATIH 2016. ATIH 2012 has saved my bacon a couple of times for which I am grateful. My pastime is Flight Simulation which is very disk heavy and the thought of having to re-install everything is an absolute nightmare so very happy with Acronis.

 

Thanks for the reply and now I had better get saving.

 

Clive