Acronis (the company) - Where have you gone?

Wow Alain. Your look at all these posts and all these threads and decide to only address Jesse and not the whole community? Jesse hit the nail on the head but he was not the first to do it. You need to address the entire community. The only thing support is doing by ducking, bobing and weaving is making us trust Acronis even less.

Back to the thread ... I have used Echo Server (the whole Echo line) to successfully back up and restore both Windows 7 and Server 2008. The only real issue I have encountered with Echo is the infamous Sector 63 error when using external USB hard drives as backup media. That issue was another one that I do not believe has been fully resolved.

Anyway ... Alain has Acronis ever considered continuing development of the Echo series and making it absolutely bulletproof? It would give your customers something to fall back on while this whole ABR 10 nightmare gets resolved. It has to be close. As stated the only issue that has not been nailed down is the Sector 63 error. Sure other minor problem exist with it but it is a whole lot closer to perfection then is ABR 10. Just a thought...

A simple question, I think, concerning what I call "selective cloning of data and/or applications". (I have checked kmnowledge base stuff).
I am using ATI V. 11.0 on my old Windows 2000 system, putting backup disk images out on an external HD. When necessary, I have had success in retrieving/restoring specific files/folders to original and/or new locations on the W2000 system.
The Question: If and when I install ATI V.11.0 (or later) on my newer PC which uses Windows XP (and which will replace the W2000 system), and make the .tib files created by W2000 available to the XP system, will I still be able to retrieve/restore specific folders/files to the XP system? Note that I do not expect to use Windows 7 for a while, due to application incompatibilities.

Jim Becher:

Are you aware an update has sneaked in under the radar for Echo?

Build 8398.

Colin

Mr Gentilhomme,
If you provided me with an email address I would be happy to send you a long detailed email of our frustrations with Acronis over the last year. I have dealt with several software companies through the years and have NEVER had the trouble that I have experienced with Acronis Support/Sales/Management. We haven't been able to backup or restore without issues for a long time. I have emailed Acronis 128 times this year, not to mention the many phone calls that haven't been returned. Emails go back and forth with long periods of no response. Often when the response arrives it's a garbage response just wasting time on both ends. Get in touch with me if you're interested in fixing customer relations on our end.
Thank You.

I must mirror JESSE'S comments...up to the last version of true image 2010...everything has worked fine...but the latest update did not install properly...then when attemting to uninstall for a clean reinstall on my WINDOWS 7 system it would not completely uninstall....HAVE SENT @ EMAILS TO COMPANY...only response was to the inital email...an automatic one...SINCE THEN NOTHING...NOT A PEEP IN OVER A WEEK...This is not the ACRONIS I remember...but got to say customer service ****. Even the CLEANUP program that is available does NOT work with windows 7. IN the mean time my system is at risk...with only the windows backup, Find myselft wondering what reliable companies are available with this service.

Has this company ever heard of beta testing? I'm done with their software. Spent most of the day on chat sessions to resolve the ""Not enough server storage is available to process the command" error. Got that problem resolved finally, but now Acronis won't run at all, and am getting the "Failed to open (initialize) the computer" error. I refuse to waste any more time fixing problems with their software. I've requested my money back.

HI,

BELOW IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW A GREAT PRODUCT IS BECOMING A POOR PRODUCT.

  THE NOW INFAMOUS "NOT ENOUGH SERVER STORAGE ERROR"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After installing Acronis True Image 2010, the network connections were destroyed with the "NOT ENOUGH SERVER STORAGE ERROR".  I've run Acronis True Image 2009 previously and no problem. THE ONLY CHANGEPOINT WAS INSTALLING ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE 2010.

IT LOOKS LIKE ACRONIS DOES NOT WANT TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY TO FIX THIS BUG AND ADMINISTRATORS MUST GO TO A WEB SITE CALLED ' PCHELL.COM' TO GET A REGISTRY FIX!!! QUITE IRONIC ADMINS HAVE TO GO TO "PCHELL" TO GET THE ANSWERS!

THUS ADMIN'S ARE GOING THROUGH 'HELL' TO FIX THE BUG WHEN ACRONIS SHOULD BE FIXING IT AS A SOFTWARE UPDATE. THIS IS A POOR STANCE FROM ACRONIS NOT TO ACKNOWLEDGE TO FIX! PASSING THE BUCK TO MICROSOFT IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE AND POOR!

UNFORTUNATELY, ADMIN'S HAVE TO CREATE A LANMAN SERVER STACK IRPStack DWORD (X).  WHERE 'X' IS A VALUE FROM 16-50.

NOTE - ON WWW.PCHELL.COM LOTS OF ADMIN'S ARE STATING ACRONIS HAS CAUSED THE PROBLEM AFTER INSTALLING TRUE IMAGE 2010 AND SOME ADMIN'S HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL TO FIX AND OTHERS NOT.  HOWEVER, AT LEAST WWW.PCHELL.COM AND WWW.WINHLP.COM   GIVES SUPPORT ON THE ISSUE AS OPPOSED TO ACRONIS.

I SHALL NOT BE PURCHASING THE NEXT ACRONIS UPGRADE DUE TO THE POOR STANCE ACRONIS IS TAKING ON THIS ISSUE, UNLESS THEY STEP UP TO THE PLATE TO FIX IT. I'M READING A LOT OF OTHER 'LOYAL' CUSTOMERS HAVE BECOME DISENCHANTED BY THE LACK OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO FIX THIS PROBLEM AND BECOME 'EX-CUSTOMERS'.

TRUE IMAGE 9 WORKED, TRUE IMAGE 10 WORKED, TRUE IMAGE 2010 DOES NOT WORK  ON WINXP PRO FOR PRESERVING NETWORK CONNECTIONS.  

IT IS SHAMEFULLY POOR TO PASS THE BUCK TO MICROSOFT AND LET CUSTOMERS 'FEND FOR THEMSELVES!.'

IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE YOUR PRODUCT THEN FIX THE PROBLEM, OTHERWISE LOOSE CUSTOMERS.

Carl,

Your keyboard seems to have a stuck scancode or two. You might need to purchase a new keyboard.

I absolutely agree with Jesse Wheeler's comments about your product degradation. True Image has deteriorated significantly starting with v9. I have been unable to create a valid backup image without major battles since version 8, regardless of OS or platform (I have used XP Pro, XP Pro-64 and Vista - no success). In a recent hard drive migration, I wasted 3 days trying to get your product to migrate my image, even with interaction with your tech support via email. Out of frustration, I finally loaded the OS on the new (destination) drive, then attached the old hard drive to the PC and used xcopy32 in a batch file to migrate the user files. This, of course, required a large amount of work reloading all apps... but still took less time than what I wasted trying to get True Image to work. The purpose of products like yours is to save time and make things easier and safer. I now use Nero's backup program which works flawlessly with all OSs and with al hard drive solutions I have tried. Despite all the patches and other tripe sent to me by your tech support, the True Image product is still a boat-anchor for me. I have requested a refund for my v11 upgrade multiple times, with no response. You should be ashamed with what you have done to what was once a great product. By the way, I hold a Masters in Computer Science, and have worked in the industry since 1981. Very frustrated.

Alexander,

Not sure if you are still reading this thread. It seems like every case I create with Acronis support goes this way:

1. Try uninstalling and reinstalling the program from scratch.
2. Try installing some utility that doesn't fix the issue
3. That part of the program isn't supposed to work, or work that way.
4. Someone from Acronis support sends me emails every 3 days asking me to respond to the case saying it is "Resolved" even though I don't believe it is.

The latest example is nonstop Backup working with Universal restore. I purchased True Image 2010 (been using TI since 9.0) specifically to update from 2009 specifically for the nonstop backup and Universal Restore features. of the plus pack.

I spent a few hours over a couple of days trying to get it working with your support people. Finally they tell me it isn't supposed to work. Now I get emails every week asking me to respond to the ticket with "RESOLVED" unless I'm not satisified. So I respond and say I'm not satisfied and tell whomever the rep why. They tell me basically, "That's the way it is". And ask me to respond RESOLVED again. It's pretty ridiculous.

Unless something changes soon.. I will be purchasing another backup program for next year.

Agree with this Thread

I have many problems with this software

I must say your products used to be the cream-of-the-crop and best-of-breed when it came to backup and recovery. It was a given that things would work: as expected, as documented, and in a reliable fashion. They have not failed me in a significant fashion for the vast majority as I have been an Acronis user.

However, this reputation has been significantly tarnished as of late. The last two versions of your Enterprise, Mid-Market, and Home products have been "far" beyond sub-par.

Also agree
I have used your products since 2001 (a year after you became a recognized company) and have always been impressed and relied on them for my backup needs.

I used to sell this stuff to clients like crazy

I cannot make these claims any longer.

Sad day when such a great company fell so low on it standards..

Customer service in the now is the worst ever i have every gotten period ... from any company

I have tarnished my own reputation offering your products, i find my self making many excuses, these days i dont even bother when people ask i tell then stay away from this crap...

Meanwile i have spend thosands of dollars for software thats works maybe 35-40%of they time with allkind of radom errors ..
ABR10 december build VE

Jerry
Vertrue corp

Such potenial, very, very poor excution
Stop outsourcing hiring the people that use to run this company get back on track.. what every say or you think , the truth is simple you are lossing years of loyal customers based on your action of last year or so...

do the ROI and see it truth but the people inside your org allready now this

Your attempt save a $ have cost more that it was worth

Hello all,

Let me comment this situation.

CARL, Thank you very much for your feedback. I know that this can be inconvenient for you to set up IRP StackSize value. But this issue is not related to Acronis. There's nothing to fix here at all, because Microsoft Lanman Server has a fixed limit on the quantity of filters it supports. Since Acronis product installs some filters to work, the total number of filters can exceed the server's limit. There are many products which install the filters in the same way.

mogulman, I'm sorry for the delayed response. Let me assist you with this situation.

The latest example is nonstop Backup working with Universal restore. I purchased True Image 2010 (been using TI since 9.0) specifically to update from 2009 specifically for the nonstop backup and Universal Restore features. of the plus pack.

I'm not sure what do you mean here - Universal Restore is the option which allows you to restore on dissimilar hardware. This option is used for recovery only. And surely it should work with Non Stop Backup.

I do not want to delay the issue you experience, so let's speed the process up - please just write a PM to me with all reference numbers, I will pick them up and contact you with the details.

Regarding that letters with RESOLVED - this is just an automatic process which sends you a follow up for cases when we requested some information or put the case to wait for your reply. I'm sorry if this caused the inconvenience to you..

Jerry, I have found other thread from you yesterday and asked to clarify the details there. Could you please provide me with more detailed description? 

We are looking forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.

Thank you.

Alex,
1st of many problems, this server only has 1 disk
2nd i have 2000 server that wont backup with the angent it just times out
Also

New vm

Log Entry Details
Type: Error
Date and time: 1/21/2010 9:38:25 AM
Backup plan: [None]
Task: MyRecover_DC
Managed entity type: [None]
Managed entity: [None]
Machine: omadevvh4.vertrue.com
Code: 7,503,892(0x728014)
Module: 114
Owner: _Acronis@VERTRUE
Message:
Failed to recover virtual machine 'vmtestdc(Kerberos)' defined by 'vm:847D4304-8C33-4EE8-B70C-AA7F5038594A?type=mshyperv'.
Additional info:
--------------------
Error code: 32788
Module: 114
LineInfo: 28314c961de7d1a2
Fields: $module : C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\DiskBundle.dll
Message: Failed to recover virtual machine 'vmtestdc(Kerberos)' defined by 'vm:847D4304-8C33-4EE8-B70C-AA7F5038594A?type=mshyperv'.
--------------------
Error code: 24
Module: 83
LineInfo: 84451868dc60e45a
Fields:
Message: Virtual hard disk '3' cannot be found or accessed. "only 1 disk" whyasking for disk3

Other notes there more
but this is start I have paid for your best support option..
Sales was great until the product was purchased
Full support for 2008 R2 not there..
CSV volume support not there was told it would be

Many problems with restores backups
Never got this fuction...
• Unlimited migrations licenses for virtualization
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server Virtual Edition includes an unlimited number of migrations licenses that enables your organization to move existing physical servers to new virtual machines.

I emailed a problem to Acronis and it took a little over 6 weeks to get a response and all it said was unload and re-install. Actually within 24 hours of having the problem I found a fix in the forum here. About a year ago I had a similar experience with a problem I emailed via the Acronis help.

Then the funny part Acronis sends me emails about daily now wanting to help, well waaaay too late fellows.

Just to put this thread in some perspective, I'm new to Acronis and had a technical support issue (cockpit error/user confusion)...used the chat service and got the information I needed within about 10 minutes.

This is certainly within industry norms for a simple problem. What's unusual is the follow-up questionnaire they sent out -- Acronis are clearly *very* concerned about improving their customer support and fixing their reputation.

Of course, deeper product problems are harder to solve and I'm sure there's been a ton of very bitter frustration with the Windows 7 transition. But it's important to acknowledge that they are trying...and to understand that really fixing support and quality issues takes some time.

FWIW -- no, I don't work for Acronis or their PR firm ;-)

I've been a long time user of TrueImage (both TI8 and TI9) but haven't felt I would benefit from upgrading until the release of Windows 7. I'm now considering upgrading to TI2010.

Browsing through this forum I can see that there are concerns about the problems in TI2010.
I know that major issues can arise when software needs to be changed to cope with a new version of an Operating System. It seems that TrueImage is experiencing its fair share of such issues.

Back when TI8 and TI9 were current versions the frequency of build releases was fairly often.
Of course, not every user was happy since the bugs they wanted fixing might not be done whilst other bugs were fixed in a released build.
However, some users benefited and all users could see that progress was being made.
I felt having frequent builds was a good policy.

I understand that it put extra stress on Acronis to manage, develop and QA test builds more often.
However, it's been two months since the release of the last build and, given the user base concerns, I would have expected a further build release by now.

I hope Acronis isn't restricted to some immutable schedule or build release policy that is delaying resolving the concerns of at least some users.

Of course, the alternative explanation that the delay is due to some significant design flaws in the Windows 7 implementation of TI2010 is an even worse scenario.

>However, this reputation has been significantly tarnished as of late. The last two versions of your Enterprise, Mid-Market, and Home products have been beyond sub-par.

Hear hear. I'm currently re-visiting our imaging and backup strategy and I'm afraid due to poor quality of the products, Acronis is probably going off the list.

Cheers, Rob.

>I know that this can be inconvenient for you to set up IRP StackSize value. But this issue is not related to Acronis. There's nothing to fix here at all, because Microsoft Lanman Server has a fixed limit on the quantity of filters it supports. Since Acronis product installs some filters to work, the total number of filters can exceed the server's limit. There are many products which install the filters in the same way.

Can't you SEE why this response is SO wrong??? Whilst we may accept what the problem is, TI installation should have either a) increased the IRP StackSize to a suitable value or b) at least thrown up a warning with a link to a KB article.

I cannot begin to think how many support calls/Google searches this specific issue caused. I cannot believe that getting the developer to implement the above would have cost more to you than all the time you paid your support staff.

Aside from this, the old adage "it takes years to establish a trusting relationship and seconds to destroy it"...

Rob.

The best way to improve the Acronis support experience would be to stop it. Having no support would be better than what you get now, like over a month to respond to an email request and then responding with useless nonsense. At least it would be less annoying.

The website also offers support for Home (Acronis® AdvantageSM Home) at $9.99 per year but there is no way to purchase it and no one seems to know how to purchase it.

Acronis has gone from bad to awful over the several years I have been a customer. I no longer recommened your products.

Just wait until your 30 days of free support are up.

I logged [Case 00460241] BOOT CD doesn't work on 12/23/2009 and got the standard

"We are sending you this letter to assure you that your message has been received, and a new case 00460241 was created. ..." message

But no response in 5 weeks.

Truly, TI 2009, 2010 have taken a huge step backward in quality from earlier versions. The initial release of TIH 2009 barely worked at all. Lots of bugs with basic functionality - it seemed that no QA had occurred at all. I wondered whether the QA guy knew he was leaving the company and didn't bother running any tests.

oliver costich wrote:

The website also offers support for Home (Acronis® AdvantageSM Home) at $9.99 per year but there is no way to purchase it and no one seems to know how to purchase it.

Somewhat strangely, Acronis have decided to offer that service only to people who buy the upgrade version.

I can sort of see the marketing thought behind this 'weirdness', but if I were (and obviously I'm not) the Vice Honcho -In - Charge, I'd have offered the service to all purchasers with a substantial discount for customers who were upgrading froma previous version.

oliver costich wrote:

The best way to improve the Acronis support experience would be to stop it. Having no support would be better than what you get now, like over a month to respond to an email request and then responding with useless nonsense. At least it would be less annoying.

Rather radical but I can see where you are coming from :-)

Cheers, Rob.

it seemed that no QA had occurred at all. I wondered whether the QA guy knew he was leaving the company and didn't bother running any tests

It does seem like that doesn't it. Strangely, the other company I have similar problems with (Infragistics) also suffer from poor quality control. The end users (developers) have screamed out to sort out quality first and foremost before adding features.

Cheers, Rob.

I think the no support is what we already have and yea- stop the follow up emails 6 weeks after the fact! Do they really think we sit around for 6 weeks waiting for a response and all that time do not backup? Maybe they really think that and that may be a sign of why the quality is what it is?

Actually there is a free version that does good images, I have received responses in hours (free version), I believe it is based out of Italy? The only problem was the rescue disk wouldn't work. Even they suggested to build a BART rescue and they had a piece to add to it. I just have never tried to build a BART, but if bored maybe I will take the time? It was a fine basic imaging product.

I think it was todobackup or reflect, one of them was really slow?

Windows 7 also has it's own inbuilt image system. Whilst a little crude feature and user interface wide, for home systems whereby you want to take a image "just in case", it works well.

If Acronis are not careful, their reason for existing will disappear. The march of virtualisation with snapshot technology removes 99% of cases for using images on clients.

Cheers, Rob.

yes, basically we are annoyed as we had a product that we used for years, were familiar with and followed with upgrade releases.

now it does not work for the majority, and acronis are just ignoring this publically in an attempt to just keep sales up, while trying to fix it behind the scenes.

lots of good similar products out there, which do work, and are effectively supported.....market share must be diminishing

norrie macleod wrote:

yes, basically we are annoyed as we had a product that we used for years, were familiar with and followed with upgrade releases.

now it does not work for the majority, and acronis are just ignoring this publically in an attempt to just keep sales up, while trying to fix it behind the scenes.

lots of good similar products out there, which do work, and are effectively supported.....market share must be diminishing

Whivh alternative products do you think are better and have better support?

Hello all,

Thank you for the feedback, I will be happy to answer.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you experienced. We are doing our best to improve the situation. We are training our support engineers and employing additional staff. 

We are working to release a new build of Acronis True Image Home 2010, the exact date of the release is unknown. This build is of the highest priority for a substantial part of our human resources.

Jerry Odom,

The issue is not Acronis-specific, please see this Microsoft article  for more information.  IRPStackSize is a variable value. 

This article can be also applied to the later versions of Window OS's. We also have the appropriate article in our Knowledge base. 

Rich Trefz,

I have submitted a request to the appropriate manager, a support engineer will take care of your request shortly.  

Please do not hesitate to ask additional questions if the provided information is not clear or you need a further assistance. 

Thank you.

oliver costich wrote:

Whivh alternative products do you think are better and have better support?

Ahh that's the rub - there isn't an obvious candidate out there.

Cheers, Rob.

The issue is not Acronis-specific, please see this Microsoft article for more information. IRPStackSize is a variable value.

You are MISSING the fundamental point I was trying to make but that's not surprising.

I am on the free month trial of shadowcopy from storagecraft, after reading/checking their forums for technical assistance/any problems with windows 7 working fine for me here, no issues 

--

The direct link has been removed

--

Oleg wrote:

 Hello all,

Thank you for the feedback, I will be happy to answer.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you experienced. We are doing our best to improve the situation. We are training our support engineers and employing additional staff. 

We are working to release a new build of Acronis True Image Home 2010, the exact date of the release is unknown. This build is of the highest priority for a substantial part of our human resources.

Jerry Odom,

I may recommend you to use our Live Chat service in order to receive immediate support. To get the access to Live chat service you should go to this page, under Contact us click on the Start here button, select Have questions. From the pop up select Technical issue with product. Select FULL Version selection \Select product from drop down box.  Choose Live chat.

Rob Nicholson,

The issue is not Acronis-specific, please see this Microsoft article  for more information.  IRPStackSize is a variable value. 

This article can be also applied to the later versions of Window OS's. We also have the appropriate article in our Knowledge base. 

Rich Trefz,

I have submitted a request to the appropriate manager, a support engineer will take care of your request shortly.  

Please do not hesitate to ask additional questions if the provided information is not clear or you need a further assistance. 

Thank you. 

Acronis claims to have an annual support option but can't tell you how to buy it. Every time I ask, I get a response that says they don't know about it and ask for a screen capture of the page where that support option is shown. I send it and never get a response. I have recommended Acronis to many other people but no more. I have had to move to another partition manager because DD10 fails to work on newer hardware, even from the bootable CD. I guess it's time to find another backup solution. What a shame. PS Sorry for the double quote but it's a problem in the forum system. I have tried to delete it, and even started the reply over but it insists on showing the quote twice.

oliver costich wrote:

PS Sorry for the double quote but it's a problem in the forum system. I have tried to delete it, and even started the reply over but it insists on showing the quote twice.

This happens because, I suspect, you clicked on preview. This has been mentioned to the forum web personages previously.

You have to manually delete the extra quote after posting, which is tiresome.

Hello,

Thank you for the feedback.

Oliver,

You could purchase the annual support together with the Acronis True Image Home 2010 Upgrade license. We discarded selling Acronis Advantage Home, this option is not available anymore. The option has already been removed from a shopping cart. The Acronis Advantage Home licenses that are already sold are 100% valid. This means that the Acronis Advantage Home owners are entitled for support till the subscription expires.

Oliver, as I can see in our database, our staff provided you with a solution. I am sending you the details via Private Messages on how to make it more convenient for you. 

Colin,

Thank you very much for your help, your suggestions are useful as usual. 

Please do not hesitate to ask additional questions if the provided information is not clear or you need a further assistance. 

Thank you.

I'm new to the Board, but I thought I'd add my two cents to this discussion.

I had always heard that Acronis was a superior back-up and imaging product. When I installed it almost a year ago, it functioned flawlessly. All of my back-ups worked as scheduled, and when I used the clone function, it too worked flawlessly.

Everything changed, recently, when my weekly full back-ups started developing errors. I searched the knowledge base and tried the various recommended "fixes" for my problem. Nothing worked. So, I bit the bullet and paid my $9.95 for per-incident tech support. I called the 703 (not toll-free) number, and spoke with an off-shore tech support agent. He had no clue what was wrong, and simply read to me the same recommendations in the knowledge base articles I had found on my own. When I told him that I had already tried those steps, he escalated me to Tier 2 tech support. When I didn't receive a return call or e-mail from Tier 2 tech support after a few days, I called and was told it was being worked-on, and I would receive a call within 24 hours. No call came. Acronis and I did this "dance" for about 10 days...me calling and them assuring me I'd receive a call within 24 hours. After about 10 days I called and got the same song-and-dance. At that point I told the tech support operator that I was going to start blogging and writing about how HORRIBLE Acronis tech support was. I guess I must have gotten someone's attention, because, miraculously, I received an e-mail within 24 hours. Of course, the e-mail blamed my system for the errors, and offered no realistic fixes.

Frustrated with Acronis' inability to help me solve my problem, I did hours of research on the 'net and found what I thought "might" help me solve the problem and, sure enough, it appears the problem might be resolved. I'll know in a week or two after my weekly backups have run successfully (hopefully).

I used to tell people that Acronis was "the bomb" when it came to back-up and imaging software. No more. I'll continue to use it for the time being, but I've already started researching alternatives. I'll gladly make a switch when I find something that will do what I want.

Shame on you, Acronis, for allowing mediocre tech support to drag down what was once a superior product.

ScottB wrote:

I'm new to the Board, but I thought I'd add my two cents to this discussion.

I had always heard that Acronis was a superior back-up and imaging product. When I installed it almost a year ago, it functioned flawlessly. All of my back-ups worked as scheduled, and when I used the clone function, it too worked flawlessly.

Everything changed, recently, when my weekly full back-ups started developing errors. I searched the knowledge base and tried the various recommended "fixes" for my problem. Nothing worked. So, I bit the bullet and paid my $9.95 for per-incident tech support. I called the 703 (not toll-free) number, and spoke with an off-shore tech support agent. He had no clue what was wrong, and simply read to me the same recommendations in the knowledge base articles I had found on my own. When I told him that I had already tried those steps, he escalated me to Tier 2 tech support. When I didn't receive a return call or e-mail from Tier 2 tech support after a few days, I called and was told it was being worked-on, and I would receive a call within 24 hours. No call came. Acronis and I did this "dance" for about 10 days...me calling and them assuring me I'd receive a call within 24 hours. After about 10 days I called and got the same song-and-dance. At that point I told the tech support operator that I was going to start blogging and writing about how HORRIBLE Acronis tech support was. I guess I must have gotten someone's attention, because, miraculously, I received an e-mail within 24 hours. Of course, the e-mail blamed my system for the errors, and offered no realistic fixes.

Frustrated with Acronis' inability to help me solve my problem, I did hours of research on the 'net and found what I thought "might" help me solve the problem and, sure enough, it appears the problem might be resolved. I'll know in a week or two after my weekly backups have run successfully (hopefully).

I used to tell people that Acronis was "the bomb" when it came to back-up and imaging software. No more. I'll continue to use it for the time being, but I've already started researching alternatives. I'll gladly make a switch when I find something that will do what I want.

Shame on you, Acronis, for allowing mediocre tech support to drag down what was once a superior product.

I'm in the same position and couldn't have said it much better. I am in the process of looking at the alternatives:

Macrium Reflect (free and pay versions)

EASEUS todo (free)

Paragon - various programs that do image backup and restore including a free one

O&O Disk Image 5

All are available for trial

PS Anyone else think the the forums were far better when Wider Security hosted them? This one sucks.

Hello all,

Thank you for posting your question, I will be happy to help.

Oleg,

Why all this private messaging?

Would not the answer to a problem be better served to
allow everyone to see and either use or review.

We ( the customers ) need to have answers that WORK!

Thanks for all the help you have offered...

Jerry

>PS Anyone else think the the forums were far better when Wider Security hosted them? This one sucks.

They are painfully slow for me and yes, whatever platform Wilders ran on was superior. If it was PHPbb then that's the reason - excellent forum software.

The functionality is okay I guess and the "New/Last Post" links at the top are useful.

Cheers, Rob.

>Why all this private messaging?

The problem is that this is a free support area so I never really expect a response from Acronis who want you to pay for support. This is not totally unreasonable if the paid-for support was any good. I sometimes find that peer support is actually more accurate and faster...

Acronis appear to have outsourced support and are now reaping the benefits (!) of such a move. In all my years of working in IT, it's VERY rare that out-sourced support (no matter where it is in the world) works as well as in-house support.

It would be nice if paid-for-support was conducted in a paid-support area so we all benefit from the discussion and solution. KB articles are often a poor subsititute for reading a thread. Very often the KB articles are out of date or don't exist at all.

However, supporting our own software I can appreciate why this is unlikely to happen. Firstly, the phrase "Doing your dirty washing in public" applies. Secondly, some of the information supplied in a support call is private/sensitive.

Cheers, Rob.

Oleg: Private message sent. I hope to hear back from you (or someone else at Acronis) soon!

Thanks.

Hello all,

Thank you for posting.

Jerry,

The current thread goes to other than technical investigation level, I assumed that the technical side is out of interest. We are communicating with Scott via PMs, and, certainly, we will post the results and the troubleshooting steps.

OK --- now I don't know what to do!

I downloaded the trial version of ATI2010 Home and although I did a perfect backup of a Windows 7 environment on a VM to a remote NAS, I was unable to do a restore.

I posted a question on this forum and also contacted Acronis support.

Within a day, I got a response and, following that response I had no problem restoring the backup to a newly created virtual machine.

I was just about to buy several licenses for myself as well as begin recommending the program to my small business customers. This morning, I came across this particular thread with all the gripes and I'm struggling to determine how real are these issues.

I have no idea how many customers use Acronis and so I can't tell whether the group of people on this thread is just an almost infinitely tiny percentage of their customer base that likes to complain, whether the issues described here are indeed real corner cases or whether this group accurately portrays the wider view.

I've responded to Oleg via PM, and am hoping that this situation can be resolved...

Hello all,

Thank you for posting, I will be happy to help.

Actually, the point of my post was to observe that you guys did indeed provide great support and I'm up and running fine. For some reason there was an issue with restoring via FTP but since I got SMB working properly, I have had no problems.

I've bought two licenses and one of my clients is buying two more today.

D

Oleg: I haven't had a chance to make the change. Hopefully this week.

Thanks!

Years ago (I think 2005) I purchased ATI 8. What a great decision. It was only 25 mb and saved my computer from disasters at least 3 times. It worked great to restore images and the instructions were intuitive for me as I used the program. I used the Secure Zone on my C drive and never had a problem. Recently, the hard drive was getting a bit crowded so I decided to upgrade to AT 2010 and backup to an external hd. You know what is coming next, don't you? OMG what a disaster. One that could not be recovered from. First, I made a bootable cd from the software in the program and when I tested it, it corrupted my operating system so bad, the tech support rep basically gave up on trying to repair the system with the Windows installation CD. I decided to format the system and reinstall windows. Thinking it might have been my fault I reinstalled AT and called support who happily helped me create a cd with the bootable media from my registered product and make a new image. They held me by the hand as we tested the cd's ability to restore and guess what? It obliterated my operating system again. It even corrupted my external hd. I had to format that too. You know how many hours it takes to format and reinstall and update windows. Well, I did it again. Did I give up yet? No! One more time, I called tech support. Every time I called I got a different guy with a different theory of what went wrong. I even spoke to the supervisor. I can't even remember all the solutions they tried. The last guy went through all the steps together with me and.........for the third time ATI 2010 corrupted the os.
Obviously, I went back to ATI 8 and guess what? It works perfect! Duh. I asked for a refund and they gave it back. Now they are pestering me from 3 different reps who send me emails every other day asking me to say the issue is resolved. No way to unsubscribe. I even wrote back, explained that I got a refund and asked to be taken off the list. No good. Still getting emails from Acronis.
So now what? I recommended AT many times over the years. If they went back and made it like AT 8 then I would do so again.