so, what's the verdict as of mid Nov. for ATI 2015?
Now that I've read almost every post in the ATI 2015 forum, I'm still unsure what to do.
I've used ATI for several years and recently had the 2013 family pack on 1 XP, 1 Win 7 and 1 Vista machine- and on all, it worked fine. I junked the XP and just got a nice Dell XPS loaded with the Intel I7 CPU, a 256 SSD boot disk, a 2 T HDD, 24 gigs of RAM, a 2 gig video card and 64 bit Win 8.1. I had read countless complaints about Win 8.1 but decided to get it based on the recommendation of a friend who was an IT guy. So far, I'm liking Win 8.1- can't see what the fuss about it was. I'm now used to the new Start window and this machine is super fast.
Any way, so now this new Dell doesn't have any back up software other than the simple one that Windows offers. I was intending to get the upgrade to ATI 2015 just for this machine and leave the other 2 with ATI 2013.
I can live without the power features that many people here need- as long as the program does backups and restores successfully. Some people complain their machines slow way down- but on a high end machine like this new one, I'd be surprised I'd even notice any slow down, unless the program is poorly programmed.
Specifically, my main concern is that I'm not sure how to create a boot disk since it's probably an UEFI (something I never heard of until I read messages here) rather than BIOS system- I intend to check out the Dell forum to ask about getting access in order to have it look for the CD or flash drive to boot from the restore disk.
So, most of the complaints were dated in September and some in October. Have these problems been resolved? Such as the one about the boot disk not seeing USB mice and keyboards? What other SIGNIFICANT failures of basic features are still out there not solved?
Joe
The startup recovery manager is something you ask ATI to install on your disk. It will be one of the boot choices when you start your system up. It is intended to let you do some repairs to what should be a running system.
It doesn't actually back up your files.
You can choose to install/setup the optional Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. However, I recommend against it. You're better off using the ATI Rescue Media if ever you need to restore.
The user created TI Recovery CD is a necessity. If your disk fails, or Windows won't boot, the TI bootable CD is your only method of restoring your system from a backup.
Also, ANY restore of your system partition is best and most reliable done when bootede from the recovery CD.
I concur with MVP Tuttle. The Startup Recovery manager is more of a nuisance than a help and it is of NO use if disk fails.
Yikes, either I'm getting Alzheimers' or this is getting complicated. Acronis can install a "startup recovery manager" and/or it can create a "rescue media"?
Is that startup recovery manager similar to or the same as the recovery disk that Windows 8.1 can create?
I presume that the rescue media for ATI 2015 is the same or similar to the rescue media I made on earlier versions of ATI- and which will boot up because I told the BIOS to try booting from the disk first rather than drive C--- so that much I get.
But, what then is the Acronis startup recovery manager and how does that differ from the Windows produced recovery disk?
Also, I just got some advanced advice from Colin about UEFI but I didn't quite grasp it--- I still need to know how to get into the BIOS of this new 64 bit Windows 8.1 system- it boots up so fast and there is no longer any messages on the screen, so I don't know which key to press and that might not be fast enough--- at first I see the Windows Start thing inside a circle- maybe that's the time to try pressing function keys. I'll check out the Dell forum and ask about this.
But, I'm so confused now- I had thought that with UEFI - that there is no BIOS- if I misunderstood that--- what is it that no longer exists with UEFI? (and I presume this advanced PC with all the bells and whistles has UEFI what that is)
sorry to wear you guys out!
thanks,
Joe
Yikes, either I'm getting Alzheimers' or this is getting complicated. Acronis can install a "startup recovery manager" and/or it can create a "rescue media"?
Correct, it can do both at the same time.
Is that startup recovery manager similar to or the same as the recovery disk that Windows 8.1 can create?
Quite different. The Acronis recovery medium allows you to boot the computer, and run Acronis True Image so that you can restore your image on a blank disk. The Acronis Startup Recovery manager does the same, but the code is installed on your system disk. If the system disk dies, you will need to use the recovery medium.
[/quote]
I presume that the rescue media for ATI 2015 is the same or similar to the rescue media I made on earlier versions of ATI- and which will boot up because I told the BIOS to try booting from the disk first rather than drive C--- so that much I get.
[/quote]
Yes.
But, what then is the Acronis startup recovery manager and how does that differ from the Windows produced recovery disk?
See above.
Also, I just got some advanced advice from Colin about UEFI but I didn't quite grasp it--- I still need to know how to get into the BIOS of this new 64 bit Windows 8.1 system- it boots up so fast and there is no longer any messages on the screen, so I don't know which key to press and that might not be fast enough--- at first I see the Windows Start thing inside a circle- maybe that's the time to try pressing function keys. I'll check out the Dell forum and ask about this.
You have to go to Change PC settings, Update and recovery, advanced startup, and select the device to boot on. Of course, you won't have to do that if the system disk is blank ;-)
But, I'm so confused now- I had thought that with UEFI - that there is no BIOS- if I misunderstood that--- what is it that no longer exists with UEFI? (and I presume this advanced PC with all the bells and whistles has UEFI what that is)
UEFI is a different type of architecture and replaces the traditional BIOS. It provides however similar functions for managing boot options, power, and system policies and settings.
Note, if your system won't boot from a USB stick due to the security certificate, it may also have the same problem with the Recovery Manager.
The other thing to note is if your Dell has its own 'F' key to boot into the Dell recovery environment it may clash with the True Image one which is F11. True Image one can be altered.
thanks everyone, I'm slowly making sense of this new and very exciting high end Dell, and I'm close to downloading ATI 2015, as soon as I can purchase a new USB 3 external hard drive- in the past I used a nice WD 2T drive (USB 2), and I had created the Acronis boot CDs- I even went so far as installed a new, larger hard drive on an old XP machine- so I do have some sense of how all this works....
Colin, you say that the system may not boot from a USB stick due to security certificate- in another thread, you gave a lengthy discussion of the process and you suggested to "disable secure boot in the UEFI"- is this what you meant by "security certificate"?
also, here's a question that will be helpful to me--- if I were to have a system crash and dead boot disk, and I hadn't already set up the UEFI to boot from flash drive, I can always do it when I need to restore everything from the Acronis backup? Even though the boot disk will have died, I should still be able to get into UEFI to make the change to boot to USB and to disable the secure boot?
by the way, what exactly is "secure boot"? Yuh, I can Google it, but I like hearing answers from you folks!
thanks again!
Joe
PS: I still am not getting your responses sent to my email- I have the item checked below this screen and there is something in Accounts about this and I have that checked too---- and, I find I a bit strange that under this box, instead of having the option to POST, the option is Save- kinda strange to me- I don't want to save I, I want to post it....
thanks everyone, I'm slowly making sense of this new and very exciting high end Dell, and I'm close to downloading ATI 2015, as soon as I can purchase a new USB 3 external hard drive- in the past I used a nice WD 2T drive (USB 2), and I had created the Acronis boot CDs- I even went so far as installed a new, larger hard drive on an old XP machine- so I do have some sense of how all this works....Colin, you say that the system may not boot from a USB stick due to security certificate- in another thread, you gave a lengthy discussion of the process and you suggested to "disable secure boot in the UEFI"- is this what you meant by "security certificate"?
also, here's a question that will be helpful to me--- if I were to have a system crash and dead boot disk, and I hadn't already set up the UEFI to boot from flash drive, I can always do it when I need to restore everything from the Acronis backup? Even though the boot disk will have died, I should still be able to get into UEFI to make the change to boot to USB and to disable the secure boot?
by the way, what exactly is "secure boot"? Yuh, I can Google it, but I like hearing answers from you folks!
thanks again!
Joe
PS: I still am not getting your responses sent to my email- I have the item checked below this screen and there is something in Accounts about this and I have that checked too---- and, I find I a bit strange that under this box, instead of having the option to POST, the option is Save- kinda strange to me- I don't want to save I, I want to post it....
Secure Boot is a feature of UEFI to only allow signed code to be booted to. This means in a normal situation only Windows or Linux Distribution which has a signed bootloader can be booted with it enabled.
You disable Secure Boot to allow unsigned code to be booted to. This is perfectly safe to do because you trust Acronis and the file used to create the bootable environment.
Securet Boot primary function is to stop malicious code from being launched between the time the system determines what will be booted. If you only allowed signed code, then only those environments with signed code, can be booted and thus only trusted code is launched.
Unsigned code can be trusted, but you have to disable the feature, in order to use it. Think that step as adding an self-signed ssl certificate to the certificate store of an OS.
well, I finally managed to boot up to Acronis recovery disk on my new Dell (using the F12 change boot sequence just this time method)- it has UEFI but I didn't have to disable it- apparently, the Dell version of UEFI will allow a CD or flash drive to boot if it detects either so I guess it automatically temporarily disables itself-- all I know is that it booted to Acronis, which then saw all my disks, not right away, but after I told it to browse for them
so far so good with Acronis 2015--- having read all the horror stories about ATI 2015, I have been nervous about this program
I agree with others that they should have kept Try & Decide- I have used it a lot on older PCs- and still intend to use it, thus I won't install ATI 2015 on my now backup Dell, a "Vista box" from 2007- I'll keep ATI 2013 on that- to experiment with risky software or web pages- only once did Try & Decide mess up that computer, I believe because I forgot to turn off Norton's automatic defragging- but, thanks to having a recent backup, I restored that computer- and I'm glad that happened because it gave me confidence in ATI
Joe