Acronis

Paddyw01 · 26 Aug 2009 at 12:02

Hey guys,

I've been recommended Acronis as backup software. Customer reviews on other websites are very mixed though. About 30-40% of people have rated it one star, so I'd like to have a few opinions from you guys. Is it any good? Do any of you use it? Any problems?

Thanks

RJC · 26 Aug 2009 at 12:13

Use it all the time for back-up and restore, never had any major problems.

Using Acronis 10.

Admiral Huddy · 26 Aug 2009 at 12:17

Personally i don't rate it. I've installed it on a couple of customers PCs in the past and just played up all the time. Strange because it wasn't the same for everyone. I changed them to use SyncbackSe which does a far better job and i use this too. Lovely piece of software and only half the price. Only downside it doesn't take an image of the hard drive like Acronis does but that's not that important.. I take an image of the OS from windows once a month.

Paddyw01 · 26 Aug 2009 at 12:53

ARGHH that's what I hate! Conflicting opinions

Makes it worse due to the fact people on here know more about computers than most.

Huddy, how did it play up on your customer's PC's?

I guess that once my trial of Acronis ends, I'll give SyncbackSE a go.

God all I wanted was a program that can do full and incremental backups of files I choose when I choose to, and there seems to be so many different opinions

Caged · 26 Aug 2009 at 13:04

I'm guessing that the Windows backup software doesn't do enough for you? People are very quick to ignore what already comes with their system.

Ascendancy · 26 Aug 2009 at 13:08

I've been using it for years, to image my system partition and to restore it, and I've never had any problems with it. I would recommend it to anyone.

Oxide™ · 26 Aug 2009 at 13:37

It's great, I use Acronis to image my 60Gb c:\ partition weekly. Have had to restore twice when I shafted the partition and it was as good as new.

Also use SyncBackPro to mirror all my important data to an external drive but it doesn't support imaging.

I would give Acronis a big thumbs up for its imaging ability

Paddyw01 · 26 Aug 2009 at 13:39

Caged said:
I'm guessing that the Windows backup software doesn't do enough for you? People are very quick to ignore what already comes with their system.

I've been using that for a while but for some reason, the last time I backed up some of my files using it, my whole computer froze right when it was verifying the data. I had to physically reset my machine as everything was frozen, including ctrl+alt+del.
I'm just looking at other options now, as I don't want my system to lockup.

Ascendancy said:
I've been using it for years, to image my system partition and to restore it, and I've never had any problems with it. I would recommend it to anyone.

Acronis not Windows backup right?

Oxide™ said:
It's great, I use Acronis to image my 60Gb c:\ partition weekly. Have had to restore twice when I shafted the partition and it was as good as new.

Also use SyncBackPro to mirror all my important data to an external drive but it doesn't support imaging.

I would give Acronis a big thumbs up for its imaging ability

How long have you used it for?

derkaderka · 26 Aug 2009 at 13:44

I have used acronis for years (in work) from version 8 upwards

I stupidly got them to buy the latest corp version ( 10 )

They have totally screwed up what was a wonderful piece of software

Acronis 9.7 8206 , is the best version I have found to use , version 10 sucks donkey testicles

Oxide™ · 26 Aug 2009 at 13:49

Paddyw01 said:
How long have you used it for?

Not long on my home pc, around 6 months ago when I decided I should probably invest in backing up my stuff and not wing it, but used version 8 at my previous job all the time with no issues (well the occasional schedule didn't run was all)

Paddyw01 · 26 Aug 2009 at 14:05

Oxide™ said:
Not long on my home pc, around 6 months ago when I decided I should probably invest in backing up my stuff and not wing it, but used version 8 at my previous job all the time with no issues (well the occasional schedule didn't run was all)

Yeah tell me about it. I've left my backups last and we're talking close to 1tb worth of films, music, photos documents etc...

derkaderka said:
I have used acronis for years (in work) from version 8 upwards

I stupidly got them to buy the latest corp version ( 10 )

They have totally screwed up what was a wonderful piece of software

Acronis 9.7 8206 , is the best version I have found to use , version 10 sucks donkey testicles

Well I'm trying out version 10 Home Edition and it seems to do what it says on the tin. Why do you think it's so bad?

So you'd suggest Version 9.7, but are there any other backup programs out there all of you would recommend? This is more difficult than choosing the right present for your other half

lol.

Ascendancy · 26 Aug 2009 at 14:56

Paddyw01 said:
Acronis not Windows backup right?

Yeah, Acronis.

Steve M · 26 Aug 2009 at 16:18

Well i got Acronis True Image home 2009 yesterday. Used Norton Ghost for years but thought i'd give this a try. Installed fine, made an image of my C: drive fine and then as a test i restored the image i'd made...which was fine. It works. Not sure what else i can add.

Admiral Huddy · 26 Aug 2009 at 16:27

Paddyw01 said:
ARGHH that's what I hate! Conflicting opinions Makes it worse due to the fact people on here know more about computers than most.

Huddy, how did it play up on your customer's PC's?

I guess that once my trial of Acronis ends, I'll give SyncbackSE a go.

God all I wanted was a program that can do full and incremental backups of files I choose when I choose to, and there seems to be so many different opinions

One day it just took hours to perform a simple backup. The customer was complaining. I never got to the reason why but I had the PC in the workshop for days doing various tests. It seemed to go-wrong when the differential backup looped back to perform a full backup again.

I removed it and installed SyncBackSe trial and the client has happy with that.. and hasn't had any problems since. The another customer complained of the same problem so it had to be a bug.

What I like about SyncBackSe is that you manipulate how you want. It can be as simple or as complicated as you like. I use it also for syncing my laptop with my main machine all under one licence which was around £20.

Paddyw01 · 27 Aug 2009 at 16:47

I've been playing around with Acronis for a while now, and have just finished a full backup of my music (which took over 3 hours), and now I can't add to that archive!

Basically, I've created a backup archive of my music, and I want to backup the data I added to my music folder since then (incremental I believe it's called) into the same folder (makes logical sense doesn't it), and I can't add to that archive! It keeps creating a new archive, and it seems to be a whole new backup. Oh and yes I have added extra music into my music folder, so it should be backing up that new music into the original backup.

For crying out loud, I just want a simple backup solution that will create an initial, full, new backup with the option of adding to the SAME backup when I choose to. Help!?!?!

ultrakipper · 28 Aug 2009 at 07:16

Used it for for a couple of years , It works well.

derkaderka · 28 Aug 2009 at 08:29

Paddyw01 said:
Yeah tell me about it. I've left my backups last and we're talking close to 1tb worth of films, music, photos documents etc...

Well I'm trying out version 10 Home Edition and it seems to do what it says on the tin. Why do you think it's so bad?

So you'd suggest Version 9.7, but are there any other backup programs out there all of you would recommend? This is more difficult than choosing the right present for your other half lol.

Your using the HOME edition
Iam using the CORPORATE edition , they are different

Your trying to manage 1 PC , Iam trying to manage several hundred , theres a big difference.

Paddw01
Thats the way acronis works (if you RTFM) you create 1 full image
Then if you want to do an incremental of this full image , it creates a new file
with the files that have changed since the first full image.

Superficial · 28 Aug 2009 at 10:05

I have used Acroniss TI 11 home and 2009 on various machines for years.

my opinion is based on problem solving experiences:

1) substational backups (talking gigs here) are only reliable when done through an ethernet cable to an external device unless your doing them locally to a separate partition etc- tend to get lots of 'drive not ready' type errors using wireless.

2) turn 'perform backup next time the computer is on if missed' - this screws with the schedule and if last nights and todays backups clash you'll see loads of queues forming.

3) never had many problems with imaging - its pretty good.

swinnie · 28 Aug 2009 at 10:11

I just use Acronis as an imaging tool, using the 'live CD' part. I have never installed the program for longer than it takes to create the CD.

I use Robocopy to backup my files, have one script that does my main computer, external drives and my laptop.

Sootie · 28 Aug 2009 at 10:31

Used Acronis for quite a few years - no problems (yet) and highly recommended. Tend to back up to external drive rather than over network.