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Universal Restore; where is it?

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A few days ago I purchased True Image 2010 Home edition with the Plus pack online and after downloading the software I am "almost" positive that the Universal Restore option was there in the menu section. Now I cannot find the Universal Restore option anywhere. I deleted the programs and downloaded the latest versions and still nothing.

I must admit that after buying the software a week ago I have spent the majority of the time struggling with the creation of boot media (BartPE/WinPE) and not being able to create either; even with the bootable media builder I was having trouble but the was only that I had a usb keyboard and I could not start the bootable rescue disk with it.

So was I dreaming when I thought that there was an option for a Universal Restore?

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Do you have the licence number for the plus pack?

Perhaps if you register it under your Acronis account, the PP download tab (in your account) will become available.

If you didn't get a serial number, then it's possible you didn't buy the PP after all.

Check your email spam folder, sometimes Acronis or Cleverbridge emails end up in the spam box.

Did you select the 'Special Offer' purchase whereby the PP is free or the standalone purchase?

I just went to the Online Shop and clicked on the Special Offer BUY button and indeed it shows a copy of TI2010 and then Plus Pack with the US$29.99 crossed out and the word FREE in the subtotal.

Your boot media problem, are you still ahving a problem in making the CD or do you now have the problem the CD won't boot your PC?

Thanks for the comments bodgy and to your questions: Yes I have registered both the True Image 2010 Home and the Plus Pack and I bought them under the special offer of the Plus pack is free when buying the True Image 2010 Home.

There is no mention of the Universal Restore module in the tabs for either of the registered product downloads in my account.

I have practically given up trying to make a BartPE or WinPE disk but as I said before I did finally succeed with the bootable media builder although I have yet to test whether the back up has been successful or not as I want it put on to a new machine.

John,

So you have the TI 2010 installer and you have the PP installer and the corresponding serial numbers.

If that statement is correct, then once you've installed TI2010 and then PP (in that order), they become an integrated product, so you'll only see a short cut for 2010. If you click on the Help/About it should now say 2010 Plus Pack.

John Shannon wrote:
A few days ago I purchased True Image 2010 Home edition with the Plus pack online and after downloading the software I am "almost" positive that the Universal Restore option was there in the menu section. Now I cannot find the Universal Restore option anywhere.
So was I dreaming when I thought that there was an option for a Universal Restore?

I have the same problem regarding the Plus Pack. I downloaded True Image 2010 Home as an upgrade to my TI 11, on February 28, and the information was clearly there, right under the “Upgrade” and “Free Trial” buttons:

“With FREE Plus Pack add-on. Offer Valid until Feb. 28.”

Now, I cannot find anything that seems related to the Plus Pack and this, of course, is causing me some grief, as I needed to urgently migrate my system to a new machine I just bought.
What am I missing? Help, please!

Sorry Colin, been too busy to reply but I do not see where your questions are taking this thread!

The only reason I posted was for help on the question about the Universal Restore Option as I wish to migrate my backup to a new machine. The manual mentions it on page 25 (3.12./3.12.1) and I am positive that I had it installed originally.

Anyway I have requested a refund as I find this software useless for my needs. It is inconsistant, not well documented and you need a degree in computer sciences to get anywhere with it (Microsoft, all is forgiven).

I am running XP home ed. with SP3 installed

John Shannon wrote:
I am positive that I had it installed originally.

That's precisely what my questions thus far were about. As I understood you, the PP has been installed but you couldn't find any trace of it.

I was saying that if that is so, you can; 1) Double check by looking at the TI About box as it should now say 2010 Plus Pack, and 2) It si now to some extent transparent it's use.

Once we can establish that the PP has correctly installed itself, onward we could have marched - or not :) .

As an alternative and assuming you have the XP install CD, a standard clone could have been tried and then the install CD used to correct the unknown hardware problem, though the PP way is once working less tortuous.

No Colin I did not say I could not find the Plus Pack after installing it. What I could not find was the universal restore module. I have pasted the description as follows -

(Acronis is pleased to announce the release of Plus Pack for Acronis True Image Home 2010.
For a complete description of the product visit: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/.
Plus Pack features
• Support of dynamic/GPT disks — operations with dynamic/GPT disks expand the range of hard drive configurations supported by Acronis True Image Home. Dynamic disks offer greater flexibility for volume management and may provide benefits in computers with more than one hard drive. GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a new hard disk partitioning scheme providing advantages over the old MBR partitioning scheme. It was introduced as a part of the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) initiative.
• Universal Restore — Now users of Acronis True Image Home can use the proprietary Universal Restore technology that provides an efficient solution for hardware-independent system recovery by replacing the crucial Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass storage device drivers. This may come in handy, for example, after replacing the failed motherboard or when deciding to migrate from a desktop to a laptop.
Acronis WinPE ISO builder — This tool allows adding Acronis True Image Home plug-in to WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Environment) distributions based on any of the following kernels: WinPE 1.5, 2.x, 3.0. To be able to create or modify PE 2.x and 3.0 images, you must have Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) installed. Running Acronis True Image Home in the preinstallation environment may provide better compatibility with your computer.s hardware because the preinstallation environment uses Windows drivers)

The only thing on the Plus Pack tab is WinPE and turning to my true image account page there is no link to downlong Universal Restore.

I have now contacted Customer Services three times; first on the 23rd of Feb second time the 26th Feb and also today. They have yet to respond!

I do not have an original XP Disk only OEM burnt version and when I tried to find the correct files it said they were not there. I have wasted over a week trying this software and once they (Acronis) refund I will never look at any of their software again, that I can promise.

bodgy wrote:
As I understood you, the PP has been installed but you couldn't find any trace of it.
I was saying that if that is so, you can; 1) Double check by looking at the TI About box as it should now say 2010 Plus Pack, and 2) It si now to some extent transparent it's use.

Hello Colin,

To make this story short, at this point in time I have my free Plus Pack installed with no known issues except this:

The presence of PP is not very obvious, but it is there. In my case, I did find out it was actually there when I tried my created bootable disc. After the PP was installed, it appears mentioned on the screen generated by the boot disc.

Also, the Universal Restore utility is only encountered when you continue in the path of a “trial” recovery ( without going the final step). At one point you encounter the option to select (or not) the Universal Restore function.

Fine! But I would still say: Why not make these things more obvious? I suspect that a lot of people (me included) waste substantial time and become unnecessarily impatient looking around for any signs that PP and UR are actually there. Couldn’t Acronis do any better?

A different and no less unsettling issue is whether UR will be good for the average Acronis user.

As far as I am concerned, I don’t like to make too many assumptions about issues like this one. You need to be sure that you can rely on what PP and UR are supposed to accomplish, and after reading the parts of the manual that John mentions above regarding the Universal Restore function, and still another one further down, on page 103 (11.4) I must confess that I don’t find them much enlightening, at least with my very limited knowledge of computer science… There seems to be too many grey areas and too many “iffy” and “well, but” situations.

I got the Pack for free during a promotional campaign, but with all that uncertainty, I wonder if it is worth paying the regular price of thirty bucks.

Should I just forget about this TI 2010 and go back to my good old TI 11? Never had a problem with it, really! And I don’t find 2010 faster or more user friendly than TI 11. Actually, the only issue I had with TI 11 was the “Time remaining” indicator, while performing a backup. But, hey, I already did three full backups with 2010 and, sorry to say, the time calculator does not seem much more reliable than the malfunctioning clock on the older version!

Still wondering…

Hi LinYu,

After reading your comments I did a trial recovery with the simple boot rescue disk and what do you know, there was the option to use the universal restore but I would guess that I would not get very far without either the bartpe or winpe disks created. One thing I did notice while doing the trial run was that True Image boot disk didn't recognize the named drive that the backup was on. Another problem was that I have a Lan and the other computer could not use the shared printer. So, I have spent over 10 days on this software and haven't even tried out whether the backup even works but I am not about to hold my breathe to that end.

Still no reply from "customer services", maybe they are hoping I will just go away.