Will Windows 7 Backup affect the likes of Acronis and Ghost?

Faustus · 12 Nov 2009 at 21:46

Does anyone else think as I do that backup application software like Acronis and Ghost are going to be affected by Windows 7 Backup? I have used Acronis for years and it's a very good application, I have also purchased many upgrades. However, having used W7 image backup I'm not going to be purchasing any more upgrades to Acronis for the time being.

I know that some people will say that Acronis and Ghost offer more flexibility and I wouldn't argue with that. However, the most reliable backups are full image backups and they are also the quickest and easiest to do. There are loads of data only backup applications on the market and many free ones at that. I have used W7 to do a backup and restore and found it to be quick and 100% reliable.

Fegruson · 12 Nov 2009 at 23:30

No.

Far too slow, Microsoft aren't in the business for back-ups. Acronis are really.

I do use Windows back up, but it is incredibly slow. But for the sake of; 'little old lady, goes t the shop, busy a PC, puts on her photo's', then it is sufficient, providing that an OEM doesn't bundle any other back up software.

I work in desktop support, so speak to customers directly, they either use Norton 360, as it is heavily sold in certain stores, or use the Windows built in back-up.

AbsenceJam · 13 Nov 2009 at 02:41

Too slow, not flexible enough, has to be restored to same size partition or larger. It's a shame because Acronis is a POS but it does work the best.

Aod · 13 Nov 2009 at 04:46

AbsenceJam said:
Too slow, not flexible enough, has to be restored to same size partition or larger. It's a shame because Acronis is a POS but it does work the best.

whats wrong with Acronis? i've only used it a few times but i've never had a problem with it.

robcat101 · 13 Nov 2009 at 06:33

Aod said:
whats wrong with Acronis? i've only used it a few times but i've never had a problem with it.

I've used Acronis for a few years now and always been really impressed. I started with TI10 but found that a little unpredictable with Vista - so I upgraded to TI11 which redressed these problems. Recently I wanted to upgrade to W7 and a SSD and found that TI11 would not recognise the SSD. Also it is not noted as compatible with W7 according to the Acronis site. I also read that there is an issue with the way TI aligns the partitions on SSD's (even with the new TI2010) - depending on what you read this may or may not affect performance/wear of the SSD so this is actually a bit of an oversight from Acronis. So I was a bit reluctant to spend another £30 on another TI upgrade.

W7 disk image however is free and I think it works perfectly (including mainaining partition alignment). On my system it seems almost as quick as TI and since I only ever do full image backups I don't need any of the "bells and whistles" like try & decide etc.

So to answer the OP, I do think W7 image backup will have an impact on TI/Ghost. There are still going to be people who want the additional features, but people who just want to make the occaisonal image backup will be happy with W7.

Saundie · 13 Nov 2009 at 06:47

Windows 7 backup can be run only from inside the OS, so for any instance where you want to make an image of the system without running Windows will require Ghost or Acronis. As Fegruson said, it's fine for end users who wouldn't otherwise bother with a backup, but it's not enough to replace standalone imaging tools.

m4cc45 · 13 Nov 2009 at 07:35

For my system I still use Ghost. Mainly because it's so damn quick. 40GB can be imaged (with decent compression - making the image file 11GB on fast) in around 15 minutes. Acronis took a couple of hours to do that when I last checked it out and didn't back up the boot block - though this could have been a setting I've missed but surely, by default, it should do this (O/S it was backing up was Vista x64).

M.

Faustus · 13 Nov 2009 at 22:15

AbsenceJam said:
Too slow, not flexible enough, has to be restored to same size partition or larger. It's a shame because Acronis is a POS but it does work the best.

Yes but I did say for basic full image backups e.g. from C: drive to external HD back to same C: drive if or when needed.

Not sure about your slow argument either - yes the initial backup took about 50 minutes for a 100 gig but after that subsequent backups take just a few minutes. As I said previously I too use Acronis but I would now consider W7 as my main backup strategy as I only ever want and use full image backups