Acronis (the company) - Where have you gone?
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 beyond sub-par.
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 cannot make these claims any longer.
Your reputation in the industry has been tarnished and bruised. You’re production quality releases have been a joke, and your customer service is legendary in the industry as somewhat of a joke.
I cannot recommend your products to my clients, my industry, much less my friends any longer.
Please; to save your reputation as a provider of backup, storage, and utility computing services – take another look at your development process, your Quality Assurance Process, and even more important: your customer service (which stinks).
As a provider of over 50 Acronis Enterprise Licenses, I’m off to greener pastures. It is such a shame to see such a wonderful product go downhill so fast; especially in the age of Fortune 100/500/Industry tightening their belts and re-evaluating providers.
If a company cannot rely upon its disaster recovery provider in its time of need, you can imagine how fast this will spread within the industry. It takes one well-connected geek to spread his vitriol within his sphere-of-influence to sink a disaster-recovery provider; especially in the days of companies not wanting to renew contracts.
Think about it. Re-evaluate your development ideas and your Quality Assurance. Pace your time-to-market strategy.
Or don’t..
Jesse:
Thanks for the info. I do use TI Home 2009 but I don't love it.
I recently played with the free version of Paragon and was disappointed. I used it three times to create a full image of a Win 2000 sp4 machine's C: (system partition). The image was saved on the same hard drive but on a second partition.
All 3 backup processes finished but in 2 of the 3 the validation resulted in errors. I did not attempt any restores. I sort of gave up on it. Maybe I need to try it again, I see a dim future for TI.
For fun you need to try Easeus Todo Image Backup version 1.0. It is free and has exactly zero extra features. It does however create image backups of drives or partitions, allows image mounting, verifies without errors (at least for me), and restores to a blank drive that is instantly bootable without having to fiddle with drive letters or anything else.
It supports a user created bootable Linux CD that doesn't do backups but does restore them. I then made a Bart PE CD for the Todo program that can also do backups. Creating the CD so it works was tricky but not hard to do.
Todo has an on line forum where Todo people actually answer all questions within one day, wow, what a concept.
Who knows, maybe Todo will become a winner. The free Easeus partition manager is free and works fine.
Fungus
Fungus, thanks for sharing your experience with Easeua ToDo. I also tried Paragon a while back now and didn't like it although I don't recall why, compared to True Image. Have you tried Macrium Reflect? It has been mentioned by others recently.
VP of research and development?
How about addressing the user community as a whole instead of in the background? People have been voicing their disappointment and anger for months and have been shown little to no signs that Acronis cares.
D&D:
Yes I did try Macrium, about a month or so ago. I was impressed with how it looked and worked, not to mention having a free version. I put a few GB of files on an empty partition that is part of my system (C) drive. (I have a desktop with XP pro sp3 with two sata hard drives).
Next I did a full Macrium partition image backup of that small partition. I validated it and then I deleted the files on that partition.
Next I started a restore of that small partition, I used the Linux Macrium boot cd for the restore.
The restore went very smoothly and said it was finished. I then booted back to xp and imagine my surprise when my computer refused to boot.
The problem turned out to be scrambled drive letters, and wrong active partition, even though I did not restore a system partition. My C drive was now E and most all my drives were renamed including CD/DVD drives.
I booted a Bart CD based on my XP, opened drive manager, and changed the important drive names such as my C boot drive. I couldn't change the CD drive name because I was booted from it. After getting C back to being C, I booted XP and from there went to drive mgr and finished fixing wrong drive letters.
Finally I checked the restored files and they were correctly restored to the correct partition.
The restore was done correctly but ...
I am thinking that my problem was having an older mobo, with early bios, that wants all hard drives to be IDE even though I can tell the bios that I do have sata drives. The bios shows the sata drives as the third pair of available drives. That would imply drive letters E & F. I'd like to test Macrium on a newer mobo and see what happens.
Summary: Macrium gets an "A", up until it juggles drive letters. I have an older W-2000 system (all IDE), maybe I'll try it there.
Fungus
Interesting thread. I too have been a TI user since at least 2002. I still use the absolutely rock solid TI 8.0 which works fast and reliably, having migrated to larger drives and restored images numerous times on Windows 98, 2000 professional, and since 2005 on Windows XP Pro. I skipped Vista, and will likely go to Windows 7 on my next laptop.
However, have read this forum for years, and must say, even though I have TI9.0 and TI2009, I'm afraid (and don't see the need) to update to them on my XP boxes. Increasingly I've seen more negative forum comments after TI 9 to the present, and also the need to upgrade instead of patching existing products in the field. Scaring me even more is the inability of many folks to uninstall and go back successfully after trying out later TI versions. I can understand new hardware/os issues which impact TI operation, but an uninstall should ALWAYS work, IMO.
I tried Paragon, while it seemed to work, but the GUI seems a bit unintuitive, and backup is slower than TI. I next tried Terabyte's IFW,IFL and IFD. It's fast, reliable, no frills, and Linux boot cd detects anything I attach, whether usb, flashdrives, all my external drives etc. So, Terabyte is my secondary backup program, and will be primary for Windows 7, unless Acronis reliability improves in later releases. However, on XP, TI is still my primary, though it's 5 years old now.
VP of research and development?How about addressing the user community as a whole instead of in the background? People have been voicing their disappointment and anger for months and have been shown little to no signs that Acronis cares.
You took the words "right outta my mouth". And I would add that he should "reach out" to his support staff as well ... to show them the door.
But I must admit that the guy has guts to "show himself" in here.
Fungus, I tried Macrium only on a Win 7 system a few times and after the restore using the boot CD, it always needed the "repair" from the Win 7 install dvd - but it always worked after that. No biggie, but at least it always worked.
I would think VP Alain Gentilhomme may not be who he says he is.
I haven't seen too many Frenchmen with the name 'Alan Gentleman', also he doesn't have an Acronis tag as if you look carefully the moderators and others do.
Hi Ronktok:
I have recently played with the 30 day trialware of Terabyte Windows imaging. The backup went well as did the verify. Since I was able to create a boot CD, I did. The trialware allows me to build a DOS version of the boot CD. It is frightening to use, there I found some ancient DOS screens with serious difficulties and confusion involved in dealing with them.
There is also a bug in the area where the user is to identify the target of a restore. That screen doesn't show however it assumes you want to delete the source and asks if you really want to. I said "no" and backed up one screen, that is where I was finally able to see the destination choice screen.
I did the DOS restore and the hard drive refused to boot. I searched for a Linux boot CD and a Bart CD. These seem to be available to paid licensed users only. I then restored directly from the Windows version of the software. It restored, but the drive wouldn't boot. I examined it and found that the partition created in the restore was a Logical partition, there was no Basic partition present and no active partition. The files were present but no happiness.
Maybe I should spend more time with it but I shouldn't have to. Average users would simply ask for a refund at this point. I don't mind fiddling but I also want software to work without me having to make guesses. I suppose this is why I bought TI.
Thanks for your input,
Fungus
Hi Fungus:
Sorry to hear of your issues with the Terabyte product. Either you take notes or have an excellent memory of steps you've taken with several backup programs. I do think the trial versions are sometimes out of date, at least that was my experience with Paragon products.
You said after the Dos bootcd failed you used the Windows version. Wouldn't you need to restore outside Windows at this point by booting to a cd? Furthermore, I believe there's only a bootcd for Dos and Linux, with the Linux included with the paid version. Otherwise you would need to build a Bart PE to use Windows GUI.
I purchased the combo product of the BING (BootitNextGeneration) and IFW,IFD w/IFL(inux) after testing the IFW product on a test laptop. Have not had reason to use BING utility yet, but have had good results with the IFL linux bootcd, both for storing and restoring the active boot partition. It booted fine. The speed using the IFL for store and restore is actually comparable to TI 8.0 speeds. I briefly tried the IFD bootcd to store and it was very slow so abandoned it. It didn't seem to cache read/writes effectively.
ronktok
As far as the original comment goes it certainly seems that Acronis has lost its way
I have used TI since TI 7- currently up to TI2010 (with Win 7)
I can't fault TI for my uses which are quite simple.
Manually backup a single partition drive and restore it as needed. I boot off a WinPE USB with a TI plugin. Works every time to backup and restore and has never failed me to date.
My data is backed up with Karen's Replicator to ensure it is kept in native format, not stuffed in a proprietary container
If you to any support forum you go to see a large list of problems- that is what the forums are for and I usually go to such forums before I buy a product. If you go to Paragon you see complaints about non booting, unfinished restores etc but it seems to me that the noise level is getting much louder here (and I wasn't aware of the commercial versions issues)
Acronis has made TI more complex with what is obviously a limited QA system. It has struck more trouble and the problems are getting more complex as the software promises to make everything easy and simple"One Click Restore".
Backup strategies are about what level of risk you are prepared to take in respect of the data and systems you have and wish/need to keep. Unfortunately they have constantly underplayed the residual risks left with using TI. There is not a mention of doing a trial restore to a spare drive to ensure the programme will work when needed.
If it wasn't for the dedicated band of people such as GroverH, Mudcrab and DwnDirty the help at these forums would very limited
The programme works for me. I hope its not too late to recover its position in the marketplace as I would like to use a programme that is supported and developed as computer systems change. I have not seen any evidence Acronis are listening.
Hello,
I am not happy with the Acronis products either.
I have used the products of Acronis for a long time, but it was mistake to buy several licences of TI 2010.
No support and the products appear to me like Beta-versions.
At best I would recommend these product to my greatest enemies ...
simplicissimus:
I'm quoting you now: "At best I would recommend these product (TI) to my greatest enemies ...".
I'm still laughing, thank you for a great summary of this thread.
Fungus
PS: At least TI worked for me the first time I ran it. The only other image product that also did that was Todo. I've tried 3 or 4 others with less than satisfactory results.
Partition imaging must be a difficult process to fully debug.
So Fungus,
can you recommend Paragon Backup and Recovery 10, did you try out it, too?
Micky:
As I mentioned earlier in this thread: "I recently played with the free version of Paragon and was disappointed. I used it three times to create a full image of a Win 2000 sp4 machine's C: (system partition). The image was saved on the same hard drive but on a second partition.
All 3 backup processes finished but in 2 of the 3 the validation resulted in errors. I did not attempt any restores. I sort of gave up on it. Maybe I need to try it again, I see a dim future for TI."
When I see a validation error I begin to have doubts.
I don't know anything about Recovery 10.
For me, I'll stick with TI-2009 for now. I only use the basics: Full Backup images from Win XP and/or a TI boot CD (Linux or Bart), verify, and restores from boot CD disks. I do not do schedules, incrementals, or anything else with TI.
If you have a simple computer, try Todo from Easeus. It works but has no extra features. Macrium would be my next choice.
Fungus
Hi Ronktok:
After reading your post again I decided to give the "trial" version of Terabyte another test. I used my older Win 2000 sp4 machine having a single IDE drive, divided in 2 partitions: C and F.
Next I installed a 2nd hard drive on the 2nd IDE position. This new drive was partitioned and formatted via Win 2000 but had no data on it. I booted so that BIOS knew about the new drive, and booted W2000 so that I knew the computer was aware of the new drive.
I then booted the Terabyte DOS CD and carefully read each menu as I created a full image of my C partition and saved it to my F partition of drive-1. This worked and seemed to go fairly quickly.
Now, without verifying or rebooting, I started a Terabyte DOS restore of the new image I just created to the new blank hard drive. I was careful to read each menu screen because there are some places to easily make mistakes.
The same "destination" bug showed up again. This is where I should tell Terabyte what the destination of the restore is. TB assumes I'm restoring to the default first drive and at least warns me. I have to say "no" before TB allows me to see a menu where I can select a destination (drive 2). I was able to do this and even though I chose the "auto" method, TB forced me to use the "manual" mode of choosing options such as "active?", MBR restore?, etc. Not user friendly.
The actual restore was fast and without problems. When finished (TB doesn't offer an "exit" from the DOS program), I shutdown, removed drive-1, jumpered drive-2 to be the master, and booted. It was perfect, it booted and ran just like it should. I love it when this happens.
A note: In the DOS CD, there are several placed where the keyboard arrows refuse to let the user move to options that might be required to change. For example; I couldn't key on the image name, I had to type it in. There are several other placed with the same problem. Fortunately the defaults were good enough. Maybe there is a secret that I've forgotten or never knew.
The Terabyte web site says that there is both a Linux and a Bart version of their boot CD. I think they are only for registered users. I would certainly hope that these disks are more friendly than the DOS version is.
I'm happier with TB now. My first experience resulted in restored files, but in Logical Partitions. This is not at all friendly for booting Windows. I have no clue as to how that happened.
Fungus
Also a longtime user and fan since v8. I was amazed at all the extra features Acronis TrueImage had compared to old Ghost. I am so disappointed at how broken the recent versions are.
Marc - Yes I'm talkng with the support staff as well but not to show them the door
Except that wasn't me who suggested that...
You have a PR issue that is over spilling into reviews on sites like Amazon.com. It's not limited to just this forum.
I also have been using the product for a number of years. With each new version the bloat has gone up from 24Mb in 8 to nearly 114 the current version. Of all the "rubbish" added I still am looking for and use a imaging product.
Some years ago I gave up using Norton programs for just the same problem of bloting, bugs and poor support. In the last year I found they have learnt with there security programs and I moved back from other security products to Norton. The size of the whole package was less than any one of the three I was using before. The boot up speed went up, conflicts down as was resource usage etc.
Even MS have learnt and introduced now what Vista should have been but with Acronis we still appear to have greater and greater bloat. My issues with my old security programs was enough to try the new Norton then abandon nearly 8 months of paid subscriptions with the old and switch. I am really thinking of doing the same with Acronis unless they also learn. What I need is the core reliable program, if the other bits are worth it let users down load and install them as add on’s or extra programs.
Alain Gentilhomme
I suggest you take a look at TI Home forum topics 3828, 5475 and 5846. There have been a total of 165 responses (none from Acronis) and 7762 views on these topics which identify fundamental problems with your 2010 code. In the absence of any communication or actions from Acronis, many of us users have concluded that your company doesn't feel that our issues are important. The poor quality of your support (we compare you to other software vendors) exacerbates the concerns. The fact you only reacted to a posting that talks about the loss of commercial business your product quality is causing, served to reinforce the belief that individual users are far down on your priority list. A suggestion: make fixing the code a top priority and make TI 8 available again for those who want and can use it until the BSOD and 6029 problems are resolved. Or, at least tell us what is being done to correct these flaws.
For the time being I plan on using my "OLD" version of True Image to do "Safety" backups and
restores.
An additional problem concerns the OS Selector portion of DD, specifically the lack of support of
windows 7. ( I must thank MudCrab for HIS support! ).
I would like to know if any users here have tried any other Boot Managers and what their
results have been. Right now I am looking into BootIT NG.
As for Mr. Gentilhomme I would hope he would send a copy of this thread to EVERYONE who has
anything to do with the "NEW" products and tell them that their companys future is one the line!
Dear Mr Gentilhomme
I realize that I had inc0rrectly posted this in the wrong Forum but having found this one I am now feeling at home with so many disgrunteled users as myself.
Technicall Support in most instances has been most helpful but the Administration not so.
As you will read a comminication with the Manager from the 16/9/09 is still not resolvedand keeing tracks of case numbers is a nightmare
I currently have 4 unresolvedrproblems but I am unable to commicate these as I can no longer find the Technical email support form
On the last occasion all I got was
QUOTE I can understand the error you received. I'm providing you a link for further details on error related to the mounting an image.
http://kb.acronis.com/content/1877 UNQUOTE
1877: Acronis True Image Cannot Mount Backup Archiveset of links
WHICH WAS A MANUAL QUOTE
No speifics just find one that might work. Why not specific solutions rather than manual quotes?
Cannot mouint or unmount images )
)>> IN versions 11 and 2010
Cannot restore image)
At the moment I am very frustrated why not live up to your Company Mission
QUOTE
, Our mission is to create customer success. Our management team welcomes our comments and suggestions on how we can improve the overall support we provide to you. UNQUOTE
I have had contact in respect of help but my reply email was blocked
QUOTE
Sent: 11/18/2009 1:00 PM
To: customerservice@acronis.com
Cc: Managers@acronis.com
Subject: Re: Compatibilityof V 11 with Win 7 N 00404392 [ ref:00D3Zcb.50057VtwO:ref ]
Urgent
Sorry to bother you Sumit but this email to a colleague has just been
returned by Mailer Daemon
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<customerservice@acronis.com>
(reason: 550 5.7.1 Recipient not authorized, your IP has been found on a
block list) Why should my IP be blocked ?
This concerns me could you look into it and if authorised to do so
please pass it on Thank you
Barrie
Copy sent Subject: Re: Case 00290169] Login remind request [
ref:00D3Zcb.500576A0F:ref Date: 18/11/2009 16:56:57 GMT Standard Time
Dear Sam
Thank you for this
I did draft a reply but I cannot find it in my to send or sent file so my
apologies if you did not receive it.
The context of my reply was as I lived in the Uk I did not feel it was
feasible or necessary to call but requested as I have done many times before
all I require is the courtesy of a reply from the Managers
Thank your for you help
Barrie
There seems to be some crossed wires as Sumit also has become involved
Regards,
Sumit Reddy
Support Professional
Acronis Customer Central
UNQUOTE
I WILL COPY THIS AND SEND BY SNAIL MAIL WITHIN 7 DAYS UNLESS I HAVE HAD A REPLY
A VERY DISGRUNTLED CUSTOMER AND NOT VERYSHORT OF BEING EX !!
Please feel free to contact me at BWEP@aol.com
BWEP
MY ORIGINAL POSTING
As a relative new user of Acronhis products Ver !1 now upgraded to Ver 2010 which I now feel was a retrograde step
I have heartfelt feeling for many of the posts particuarily this
Quote
I am at the point where I'm not sure I want to continue with the product because of the problems in posting here Unquote
I have had nothing but problems not with posts but the product. Yes the Technical Service is ggod but I should not have needed to do so. I can honestly say I have never experienced so many problems with any of the products that Ii have used
I am presntlybusy on google looing for the Backup Software Top Ten
The Management doed not seem to excist
I wrote on the Sept 16 th in respnse to the ACRONIS MISSION
Quote, Our mission is to create customer success. Our management team welcomes our comments and suggestions on how we can improve the overall support we provide to you. Unquote
MY Reply.
The lack of courtesy of your not reply to my earlier email and copy emails makes mockery of the following
Quote, Our mission is to create customer success. Our management team welcomes our comments and suggestions on how we can improve the overall support we provide to you. Unquote
Below is my third reply to your Customer Services ( For the sake of brvity this
Would you please confirm that you have received my previous emails
and reply to this,
.It is not a lot to ask
Barrie Peaple
I asked a question regarding support
Reply
Quote
You also asked me why you were not able to take support for your product ATIH 11.
I want to inform you that our support policy is only for our customers who are facing an issue related to our latest, and one version old version of our products. Customers like you are entitled for support only if you buy a PPI. Unquoe
Note I was offered to upgrade Ver 11 to 2010 free of Charge
YET I took this from FAQ,s
Q: I use an older product. Can I get support for this?
A: Acronis support professionals provide support for the current version and one previous version.
Which makes mockery of the FAQ reply and would contrvene thetrades Descriptions /actin the UK where I am writing from
I intend to challenfe this on the basis of The FAQ statement
I seem to be spending time seeking help to my problems than using the machine
From a Colleague and fellow sufferer who incidently introduced me to Acroniis !!
Quote
Re Acronis what a good product, but what a pathetic company, I have emailed them three times, asking re a free 2010 upgrade, with no reply at all. Unquote
This was sent as a previous upgrade hade been sent on request
I am presently continuing my dialogue with Acronis but it is becoming rather .rather FRAUGHT TO SAY THE LEAST !!
i will keep you THE Board posted and if Acronis personnel do monitor this perhaps I might receive a reply fron the Mamgers . Did I hear somone say" pigs might fly ?"
A very frustrated user ( for the time being }
BWEP
Ps Is there anyway to change the format or afacility to edit ? Thank you
MY apologies for any errors and ommissions
Here are two ideas that we can implement today that may make this forum more effective as well as make acronis support both more effective and visible. I am NOT sure if a Forum MOD has even seen either of these posts.
It would be most helpful if the active members of this forum comment within each post as to their merits (or lack thereof).
With the concept vetted, we can then ask or favorite acronis employee(s) and/or forum mods to help us make these fairly simple ideas a reality.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/6156
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/6004
I would like to know if any users here have tried any other Boot Managers and what
their results have been. Right now I am looking into BootIT NG.
...On the last occasion all I got was
QUOTE I can understand the error you received. I'm providing you a link for further details on error related to the mounting an image.http://kb.acronis.com/content/1877 UNQUOTE
1877: Acronis True Image Cannot Mount Backup Archiveset of links
WHICH WAS A MANUAL QUOTE
No speifics just find one that might work. Why not specific solutions rather than manual quotes?
Cannot mouint or unmount images )
)>> IN versions 11 and 2010
Cannot restore image)
At the moment I am very frustrated why not live up to your Company Mission
...
Try the mount method I suggest in my recent post:
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/6202
It works in ATI2009. Maybe it will work for your setup too. :-)
Alain
A transposition error; it should be 5486 which deals with XP Pro crashes caused by 6029. Perhaps the new version solves the problem? I applaud your actions--"research" problem causes and "develop" corrections.
This thread is kinda negative, so I thought that I would post a positive comment. Last week I had a very positive experience using the online chat with a rep named Manoj Singh. He was quite knowledgeable, courteous and professional, and he went to great lengths to successfully resolve my issue.
I did email a reply to him and suggest that Acronis needs to prominently display their online chat feature at the top of their support pages. In fact, the entire support section of their web site could use a complete rework to make it far more user friendly. That would go a long way towards helping customers.
Thank you for this
Very much appreciated.
I will try and post back
Regards
BWEP
Here are two ideas that we can implement today that may make this forum more effective as well as make acronis support both more effective and visible. I am NOT sure if a Forum MOD has even seen either of these postsQuestion
That being the case it should be rectified by a Forum Mwmber taking the responsibility to do so.It would be most helpful if the active members of this forum comment within each post as to their merits (or lack thereof).
Question
do you mean experience?With the concept vetted, we can then ask or favorite acronis employee(s) and/or forum mods to help us make these fairly simple ideas a reality
Question
How do you propose to compile and post this register ?.
Thank you
BWEP
Hi Alain,
Thanks for the quick reply.
Yes, DD is Disk Director.
After chasing down your referances I came across:
1826: Acronis Disk Director Product Line Development
Created - Feb 5, 2009; Updated - Mar 26, 2009; Access Level - Public
It seems Acronis has been aware of the Windows 7 issues for quite some time
AND have yet to resolve them.
I have been buying and using Acronis products for YEARS and up to this point
used your company as a sterling example of what a good company with good
products looks like. I have guided many people over to make purchases with you.
HOWEVER, I can not do that at this time. I REALLY hope all the problems can be
resolved and I can again hold your company up as a Great example...
Jerry
DELETED AS IT WAS DUPLICATED AFTER EDITING
BWEP
This thread is kinda negative, so I thought that I would post a positive comment. Last week I had a very positive experience using the online chat with a rep named Manoj Singh. He was quite knowledgeable, courteous and professional, and he went to great lengths to successfully resolve my issue.I did email a reply to him and suggest that Acronis needs to prominently display their online chat feature at the top of their support pages. In fact, the entire support section of their web site could use a complete rework to make it far more user friendly. That would go a long way towards helping customers.
Okay if you are in the US but not so if you are like me in the Uk unless you want to spenda fortune
Re your second paragraph I quite agree.
Also the facility to ask for Technical support by email seems to be missing from the support page.
if you know where it is please feel free to email me at BWEP@aol.com
Also if you go into your account registered products support a pop up with a query Pay Request?
Thank you
BWEP
I have used True Image for the past five years. Never have I had problems like these. I am now using Windows 7 X64 (native) and TIH just won't have it. I have created backups successfully but cannot restore ANY image. TIH crashes every time I select an image to restore. All versions of TIH 2010 crash including boot CD versions. THIS PROGRAM IS SUPPOSED TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF MY DATA? Acronis needs to re-think how they're handling the release of this product. This isn't a spreadsheet program, folks. It's a backup of my whole f*****g system!
Hello David,
I would like to inform you that this issue was reported by other Forum community members and it is already escalated to our Experts and Development Teams. They're currently investigating this issue and would fix it as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Thanks Michael. Based on what I've read and seen, I won't hold my breath for more than a week. (See MOD Dmitry's now-famous-2-week-late-absurd-reply in topic 5475)
Barrie you said/asked:
"That being the case it should be rectified by a Forum Mwmber taking the responsibility to do so."
"do you mean experience?"
"How do you propose to compile and post this register ?"
My replies are:
tthere are several thousands topics to this forum I do not think
it is reasonable for me assume that a forum mod has seen two
topics which are now aged into older pages.
if forum members (regardless of activity/experience) would
open these to topics and comment as to the merits (or lack thereof)
then in over a few days the topics will not only have spent time
in pages 1/2 of the forum but may have "enough" comments that
the idea is vetted/"ready" for acronis consideration.
As for how to compile and a list of our favorite acronis employees or forum mods
I might begin with those who have responded either here or in recent posts.
The topics needing vetting are:
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/6156
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/6004
Att: Alain Gentilhomme
Sir:
I am glad to see you are occasionally visiting this forum.
1. Perhaps when you troll your Acronis forum, my suggestions in this link might be beneficial to you as the forum has a void in navigational aids--especially for those who visit often--such as your volunteer contributorss.
Use Firefox bookmarks to quickly navigate around the forum.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/5933
2. I just upgraded from Home 2009 to Home 2010 and am glad to see that Acronis finally returned to their senses and placed their help file back in a prominent place. Hiding it behind the alt key wasted so much support manpower (and that of forum volunteers) where they had to respond to user posting trying to find out where the information was located. Hiding it made no sense whatsoever even if they were trying to duplicate the effects of Vista.
3. More often than occasionally, TrueImage users needs to be able to download an ISO file because of missing driver support for the user's hard drive. Sometimes this is for the current release and other times the request is for a prior version.
Currently, this often times requires the intervention of an Acronis support person to validate and finalize the request. This is an unnecessary waste of manpower which could be better utilized to answer other important questions. Why can't this type request be automated? Why not have a special support request just for this function where the user could input their registered serial number and be supplied with a download link. It should not be necessary for any intervention by support personnel. It would save time for everyone.
4. When a user logs into the Acronis site or into the Acronis forum, why couldn't the site software query the users computer and advise the user if a new build or version number is available for their Acronis software. If Mozilla's Firefox can do this and even tell you if your Firefox extensions are out of date, why can't the same software be used to assist Acronis users to be aware of upgrade status of their backup software? Much of the software today has this already built into their product. Acronis could benefit from this addition.
5. There is a great need for KB articles especially those with "How to" information. There really is a clamoring for this type information. Look at my guides. http://forum.acronis.com/forum/3426
Since this was posted here, it has over 6800 views which is more than any other thread on your forum. In my opinion, the need for this type information is what is generating the views. Acronis is failing their customers by not providing this information in a timely manner. While there is an extensive KB archive, more of it needs to be written by support personnel and less references to a massive number of prior postings which may or may not help.
I have used TI Home from version 8, 9, 10, 11, 2009 and just installed 2010 to begin my learning process all over. All of these versions have worked successfully for me with very few problems. It is my wish that the product could be written in such an efficient that a majority of these complaints would never exist. It seems too little attention to details plus too little beta testing.
Thank you for listening.
Good comments Grover
I agree completely
Also as a general comment the help files should provide solutions where possible
For example the help file in TI2010 says
"Be careful! Disk letters in standalone Acronis True Image Home might sometimes differ from the way Windows identifies drives. For example, the D: drive identified in the standalone Acronis True Image Home might correspond to the E: drive in Windows."
This has been the topic of many postings over the years but Be Careful is no solution
The guide needs to add that the user should give their drives or partitions unique names so they can be identified. A name should include the size of the drive or partition so the risk of inadvertently over writing the wrong one is reduced.
Yes, GroverH .... "right on the money"!
Thank you for your response.
My reference on drivers related to when the
1. Purchased program does not see the user hard drives when either in Window or when booted from the Rescue Cd. The first response is usually for support to supply a different version of the installation file; or, if a REscue CD is needed, to point to an available ISO or provide a link to an available ISO if an iso is not listed in their registered software such as for version 11 and below.
I understand your response. One possibility does exist which would make obtaining the iso from their registration page a great deal easier. On the forum, under the "My Account" info, could a link be placed there that would point directly into the registered software section of that particular person. They already logged in with the email address and if that user has registered their software, this new link could place them directly into the page which displays their serial numbers and available downloads. Navigating the forum into the proper page for downloading is not easy even for the us regulars. Proving a direct download link to the registered owner qualified downloads would just be so much easier--especially for those forum member who visit only infrequently.
I also believe having a forum direct link in the support area where an incident report is created would also be helpful. There is a support link at the top of the forum page but that just gets you into the general area and still several clicks away from find what you want. The user is already logged in. Why must the user jump through hoops! The best way I can describe getting support is that it is not "user friendly".
Last but not least, I agree that the software should do self-checking and let user know when a new version is available. We will make that feature available in the next release.
That's good news. Hopefully, the checking will also recognize the serial number as being legitimate and provide an immediate link to those who qualify.
I would also like to thank you for providing a visible presence that someone is aware of what is happening on the forum. Sometimes hearing a complaint direct from customers has more meaning than when an acronis employee is doing the reporting.
Hello all,
I have used True Image for the past five years. Never have I had problems like these. I am now using Windows 7 X64 (native) and TIH just won't have it. I have created backups successfully but cannot restore ANY image. TIH crashes every time I select an image to restore. All versions of TIH 2010 crash including boot CD versions.
David Farentino and others with the same issue, our Development Team need as much information as possible about such issues. Could you please collect the following informaiton:
1) Acronis System report:
- Download the file from http://download.acronis.com/support/AcronisInfo.exe;
- Run the downloaded file
- Send us the files created.
The gathered information will be put in adv_report.zip in the same folder, where the AcronisInfo was saved.
Running AcronisInfo may take up to 5 minutes.
2) Crash dump:
- Reproduce the issue (application crash);
- Do not close the "Application has stopped working" window;
- Run Task Manager (press Ctrl-Shift-Esc buttons);
- Go to "Processes" tab and right-click on the crashed process;
- Select "Create Dump File" item from the menu;
- Pick up the .DMP file created and send it to us;
- Open Start->Run (or press Windows-R buttons) type "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive" string without quotes and hit Enter key
- After that you will see a folder (or a few folders), the name of which starts with "Report"
- Please send us Report.wer file from the last created folder
Please note that you may add the two collected files into rar or zip archive file.3)
3) Detailed information about your backup:
- Backup location (where your backup is located: CD, local disk, ftp, etc)
- Have you set up password-protection for this particular backup?
- What version of Acronis True Image Home was used for creating the image (and it's build, which you can find in the Help -> About dialog)
Then submit a request for technical support. I will find your case and forward it to the responsible person. We will do our best to investigate the problem and provide you with a solution.
Thank you.
This thread is kinda negative, so I thought that I would post a positive comment. Last week I had a very positive experience using the online chat with a rep named Manoj Singh. He was quite knowledgeable, courteous and professional, and he went to great lengths to successfully resolve my issue.I did email a reply to him and suggest that Acronis needs to prominently display their online chat feature at the top of their support pages. In fact, the entire support section of their web site could use a complete rework to make it far more user friendly. That would go a long way towards helping customers.
Okay if you are in the US but not so if you are like me in the Uk unless you want to spenda fortune
Re your second paragraph I quite agree.
Also the facility to ask for Technical support by email seems to be missing from the support page.
if you know where it is please feel free to email me at BWEP@aol.comAlso if you go into your account registered products support a pop up with a query Pay Request?
Thank you
BWEP
I did an online chat with Manoj, not a phone call. I didn't dig around on the Acronis site for any email tech support link, but I will email you with the link if I find it. When I go into my account, I merely get a list of my registered products (just 1 product, ATI2009), but I don't get any popup with a pay request.
to Alain Gentilhomme
Dear Alain,
I am a (hopefully not former) user of TI since version 6.
I USED to use DriveImage, a FANTASTIC program.
Norton/symantec took it over, it became bloated, useless, and I began looking for other software. I came upon TrueImage, and have used it since
Now, circa. year 2009, you could replace the word DRIVE image, above, with TI, and it became bloated, etc, and I began looking for other software....
I HOPE your new involvement in these discussions will HOPEFULLY CHANGE my declining opinion of TI.
I have 25+ years of computer experience. That is NOT for braggng purposes; it's just to show I've BEEN through many software packages that have come and GONE, due to the same thing that is happening with TI
OK, what do I NEED in a package? Ability to BACKUP, and more importantly, RESTORE, and with a LEAN program. (I WOULD like encryption also). TI 11 is on several of my systems, and does great.
I UPGRADED to 2009 and 2010, and as of yet do NOT use these programs due to the mentioned bugs, i won't reiterate them.
I ALSO have my whole hard drive encrypted, and I do testing of TI in this encrypted environment; up through TI 11, it worked great, and many of posts of mine in wilder forums reflect what I was doing with this.
I don't have many recent posts, as I'm exhausted from continually trying broken software
What I need in a package?
1. ability to manually START a backup, and select what I want.
2. ability to turn OFF all the background tasks, scheduler, monitor, etc, etc, as these take up my processing time; I just want to click "START PROGRAM", and all the neccessary files for starting the backup will then begin to run;
and when I am FINISHED the bckup, they will turn themselves off
(currently, I hvae TrueImageMonitor, Scheduler, etc, etc.,) running in background, and these at times interfere with my dismounting of USB drives, etc.
3. ability to ENCRYPT that bckup during operation (2010 has this, but as noted, I have not tested this)
4. ability to boot, from CD, for disaster recovery
with exception of encryption, TI 11 DID this. SHORT, SWEET, SIMPLE, CLEAN.
THAT is what DriveImage (precursor to Ghost) did.
But, now, it is impossible to do this with the newer programs. I can't even install the program without it screwing up my USB drive dismounts (I can't hibernate; reported it to dmitry; but I never ahd time to do the testing he requested)
Anyway, I just spent 45 minutes reading the threads in this forum; I HOPE it was not a waste of time; I read them in the hope that acronis will START PAYING attention to all the dedicated people in these forums who break their backs to MAKE this product work, JUST because they want a program that DOES work.
I hope you keep listening, and I hope you really are sincere about turning this around
Hello all,
I have used True Image for the past five years. Never have I had problems like these. I am now using Windows 7 X64 (native) and TIH just won't have it. I have created backups successfully but cannot restore ANY image. TIH crashes every time I select an image to restore. All versions of TIH 2010 crash including boot CD versions.David Farentino and other with the same issue, our Development Team need as much information as possible about such issues. Could you please collect the following informaiton:
1) Acronis System report:
- Download the file from http://download.acronis.com/support/AcronisInfo.exe;
- Run the downloaded file
- Send us the files created.
The gathered information will be put in adv_report.zip in the same folder, where the AcronisInfo was saved.
Running AcronisInfo may take up to 5 minutes.2) Crash dump:
- Reproduce the issue (application crash);
- Do not close the "Application has stopped working" window;
- Run Task Manager (press Ctrl-Shift-Esc buttons);
- Go to "Processes" tab and right-click on the crashed process;
- Select "Create Dump File" item from the menu;
- Pick up the .DMP file created and send it to us;
- Open Start->Run (or press Windows-R buttons) type "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive" string without quotes and hit Enter key
- After that you will see a folder (or a few folders), the name of which starts with "Report"
- Please send us Report.wer file from the last created folder
Please note that you may add the two collected files into rar or zip archive file.3)3) Detailed information about your backup backup:
- Backup location (where your backup is located: CD, local disk, ftp, etc)
- Have you set up password-protection for this particular backup?
- What version of Acronis True Image Home was used for creating the image (and it's build, which you can find in the Help -> About dialog)Then submit a request for technical support. I will find your case and forward it to the responsible person. We will do our best to investigate the problem and provide you with a solution.
Thank you.
Submitting a System Report was the first thing I did before ever posting on these forums. The Crash Dump cannot be reproduced because I have uninstalled all traces of TIH. While I appreciate being able to provide Acronis with information about why their program doesn't function, I wonder why this type of information wasn't gathered before release. That is the kind of dynamic more fit for beta testers. So, I have chosen to move on to another disk imaging resource until Acronis fixes what is broken.
Acronis Management
I ran across this topic looking for another fix to 2010. I don't want to beat up on anyone, but things have went down hill as Acronis has added functionally. Perhaps they should go back and offer a stripped down version much like V8?? Also, V11 was stable.
I have beta tested all but the TI 2010. I was on vacation for that period of time. On other testing I have found errors that were corrected. Had ideas that were implemented. At least one version went production with an error I found and I believe the team agreed it was an error. It had to do with validation of differential. For a differential, all you need is the first full and the last differential. You do not nee any differential between the full and last differential. However that version went production requiring all differential. There is no nee to keep all differential as they take up unnecessary space. I don't know how that works in 2010 as I gave up, even though I have 2009 I have never loaded it. I stuck with V11 for that time period. I only went to 2010 as I am soon going to upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit.
Here is a prime example of a problem that should have been caught in beta testing and would have if I had precipitated this time. That is the problem with DD 10 and TI2010. Build 6053 of 2010 fixed that problem, I believe that build just came out? After a person finally figures out what to do (which is the worst part), they must unload both, do a boot after each unload, then I did a cleanup utility of Acronis (may not be required but a good idea), another boot, then reload each with a boot after each reload.
Unlike what sonme may do before I even loaded 2010 I did image with V11 which I have proven works from a total disk lost. Then I finely got 2010 working, built restart CD and did backup with 2010, then a complete restore from boot CD. It worked!
The reason people get upset, they don't want to go through all those unloads and reloads, this was an error that should have been caught. I am not trying to be mean, just trying to explain how thing look from this side. I use to be on your side, I was the Data Center Manager for the State of Kansas for for 30 years, well part of that time was system software programmer on mainframes.
Really Acronis might consider a stripped down rock solid imaging only version. Give people a choice of functionally. That stripped down version would be much easier to maintain by your staff.
Amen, Jerrold.
Thanksgiving has come and gone
Time to reconsider what we expect of our software vendors-Acronis in particular.
Personally, I bought TI11 thinking it was an upgrade to my trusty TI8 and would allow me to do drive copies via a USB HDD. To my horror this idea failed and I now sit with a licensed copy gathering dust. Not only did it not complete the task, but any attempt to use it failed on a newer IDE/SATA motherboard that works just fine.
I continue to use TI 8 for rebuilds of both the laptop and desktop machines via external drives-no issues in both directions. This tells me that in the move to Boston Acronis lost something very important QA/QC and development went away for a number of users. For that matter the reality is that your "support staff" has always been horribly slow to answer questions posed both online and via e-mail.
Save yourselves from the ultimate disaster-complete failure and restore the quality you had in the past. I for one am testing several alternate programs, whose authors are actually willing and able to communicate in a timely manner. It is also important for this user group to understand that no 2 machines are identical unless in an enterprise environment and controlled by a server and staff. That is NOT the general case here in the real world. I am an IT person with a number of clients who have differing needs, hardware and skill levels. You need to take that into consideration when developing a product.
Just my many years in the business speaking
Jesse, Thank you for your post can you tell where Acronis ( the company ) have gone? I tried their chat supportand they kept me infront of the monitor for hours then a message pops telling me get lost and try loging in at later time ( may be untill the figure out how fix ATI 2010), I tried the email support but have not heard from them.
I have been using ATI for about six years and every product upgrade is better than the old one untill 2010 I really can't understand why the launch it, it has a lot of compatability issues not with other software but with thier own products.
I recomended acronis products to some of my friends and most of them shifted from Norton Ghost to ATI, this is acronis forum otherwise I wanted to recomend one product to use nistead of Acronis.
...On the last occasion all I got was
QUOTE I can understand the error you received. I'm providing you a link for further details on error related to the mounting an image.http://kb.acronis.com/content/1877 UNQUOTE
1877: Acronis True Image Cannot Mount Backup Archiveset of links
WHICH WAS A MANUAL QUOTE
No speifics just find one that might work. Why not specific solutions rather than manual quotes?
Cannot mouint or unmount images )
)>> IN versions 11 and 2010
Cannot restore image)
At the moment I am very frustrated why not live up to your Company Mission
...Try the mount method I suggest in my recent post:
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/6202
It works in ATI2009. Maybe it will work for your setup too. :-)
Thank you for this GTP
The problem has been resolved with help from Technical Services
The fact that that the Mount function was successful in Vista was the clue to the problem.
I was unaware that the Win 7 default for Auto run was set at OFF this has now been turned ON . With Mount selected the appropriate disc/drive letter is successfully completed and Windows Explorer is available via the auto run window and open and all fiies and folders is selected
The back up can then be opened in the destination drive
The relevent disk/drive also shows when clicking on My Computer and on opening the appropriate allocated drive letter the backup is available.
Technical services advised that the Mount data in the manual will be reviewed to enable easier/better and a cleare r understanding of what to do.
Regards
Bwep