SOLVED What are your thoughts on Acronis True Image?

[BigDru]

My hard drive has a SMART code 301 and i need to back up my files and replace my HDD. I came across acronis and was wondering what your thoughts are on this software. It seems like its a Windows version of the Apple Timemachine.

Im a 0$/month university student and need to know, "Is it worth the 50$"?

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

 

[\dev\goat]

how bout something that costs 0 dollars
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

edit: i've used this several times and it works great. you can make a drive image and restore it to the new drive later. or you can just plug the new drive in, copy the old drive directly to the new one, and then reboot/unplug old drive. will be good as new

 

[Know Nuttin]

I use Paragon free, it works well for what I need it for. In any case, I would suggest you stop using the drive and do a backup asap.

 

[SteveLord]

Acronis is a good product. I use it here at work for ~10min eSATA backups/restores that have never failed me. I haven't explored any features beyond that which could justify it's price tag.

Regardless, we're talking about your data here. Whether it be free or 50 bucks......it is worth it.

 

[manu2b]

Acronis is a good product. I use it here at work for ~10min eSATA backups/restores that have never failed me. I haven't explored any features beyond that which could justify it's price tag.

Regardless, we're talking about your data here. Whether it be free or 50 bucks......it is worth it.

^+1

 

[WeThePpl]

I would choose Acronis over Ghost, if you want a good program to buy. Ghost has a hard time with bad hard drives and cloning a good image. It is really picky about errors that it finds. I would look into some of the free programs you can get online. Some of them you can burn an iso an store it locally. \dev\goat has a good solution, cheap too

 

[Dermen]

What brand HDD do you have? Western Digital and Seagate both offer a free version of Acronis for their customers. Windows 7 (maybe Vista?) have built in backup as well.

I've used both without any problems.

 

[BigDru]

What brand HDD do you have? Western Digital and Seagate both offer a free version of Acronis for their customers.

My HDD is the Toshiba MK6465GSX (640 GB)
http://storage.toshiba.eu/cms/en/hdd/computing/product_detail.jsp?productid=340

If my replacement HDD is from one of these companies, will i be able to use it in the way i need to??

Windows 7 (maybe Vista?) have built in backup as well.

I've used both without any problems.

I have windows 7 on it.


I was wondering what would happen to my W7 if i were to use a cloning software (like driveimage xml; ghost; or any of the others mentioned). Would it still show up as a registered version?

 

[noxqzs]

I was wondering what would happen to my W7 if i were to use a cloning software (like driveimage xml; ghost; or any of the others mentioned). Would it still show up as a registered version?

Out of all the cloning software I have used, the machine or Windows do not see any difference other than increased storage after the process is done. The OS should stay activated.

 

[Dermen]

My HDD is the Toshiba MK6465GSX (640 GB)
http://storage.toshiba.eu/cms/en/hdd/computing/product_detail.jsp?productid=340

If my replacement HDD is from one of these companies, will i be able to use it in the way i need to??



I have windows 7 on it.


I was wondering what would happen to my W7 if i were to use a cloning software (like driveimage xml; ghost; or any of the others mentioned). Would it still show up as a registered version?

Last time I used the WD version of Acronis as long as you had a WD HDD in the system you could use it on other drives as well.

Win7 backup doesn't do direct clones, so you would have to first save a backup and then restore the backup to the new disk. You can't save a backup onto the partition you are backing up or on the new disk so you need a 3rd HDD to save it to or a partition on your Toshiba HDD that won't be backed up.

 

[realmadrid12]

Any of the above tools work, but if the drive is really starting to fail I HIGHLY recommend this tool: http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

As long as it does not have any hardware errors I promise you will get everything it can off that drive

 

[BigDru]

So my original Disk is a dynamic disk and acronis doesn't support Dynamic Disk Cloning. Anyone know of software that does?

Im going to try EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition and let you guys know how it goes.

 

[gangaskan]

i've been using clonezilla, and have used acronis, however, recently i've been on the FOG server kick


acronis is great for live OS backups. just keep that in mind. clonezilla is awesome if you dont mind shutting your pc down to run it.

 

[BigDru]

So i tried out a variety of different options including one not mentioned: HDClone Professional. Looks like the best and only thing that actually worked was the Windows 7 system image. I recommend that to anyone who has a SMART 301 . Your welcome to continue the discussion, but for my purposes I consider this thread solved!