Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)True Image 2010 worked reliably for me, including 2 actual bootable hard-drive restorations. I've been using Acronis True Image in several versions over the years, and the previous 2009 edition was the nadir of their product line. For me at least, Acronis has redeemed themselves after the erratic and dangerous-to-your-data behavior of their last edition.
Pros: Disk imaging for TOTAL disk restoration capabilities, full and incremental backup, selective directory/file type data backup, editing capability of the backup image, back-up image mounting as a logical drive for easy viewing and cut & paste from image to other drives with Windows Explorer, live backup (use computer while backing), recovery manager in conjunction with Acronis Secure Zone (restoration of operating system drive while still having use of computer), bootable CD with backup and recovery capabilities, bootable from image of disk.
Cons: None that I could find so far. I am suspicious that uninstalling may be an issue, as it was in the past.
Major improvements from the past:
1) The Try & Decide feature now works even if a reboot is required for the newly installed application or system change. The Acronis Try & Decide can truly undo a change in its entirety, even if critical files are over-written, something window's System Restore could never do. But, System Restore could survive a reboot, which in the past Acronis couldn't. Now, all situations are covered by True Image 2010, and I have been able to fearlessly change, upgrade, or install on my system and effortlessly reverse the changes if I don't like the results.
2) USB/multi-boot support is robust. In the past, forgetting to remove a flash drive while using True Image could result in dangerously wacky behavior such as corrupting the master boot record or deleting the C:\ drive. Having a complex computer system, say USB drives and multiple operating systems, was a recipe for disaster. Legacy FAT32 application software also clashed if the Acronis Secure Zone was installed. All these past issues appear to be resolved. I did a backup and fully-bootable disk-image restoration for a Windows XP/Windows 7RC-64-bit multi-boot system using an external USB 2.0 hard drive for storing the images, with other USB flash drives plugged in, and 2 internal SATA hard disks in 4 partitions.
What I didn't test: I didn't make backups to DVD media; Acronis states it is possible make images spanning several DVDs.
Other Thoughts: A reasonable person might wonder why anyone such as myself would give Acronis another chance after the problems of the recent past. There are 2 things about this addition of True Image that I find very valuable compared to other imaging software I've tried: 1) The Try & Decide feature was always useful, but with the improvement to survive reboots it's now the single most important feature for me; I like to try a lot of new configurations, and completely undoing experiments can be easily accomplished. 2) I have use of the computer while backing up, which makes it unobtrusive to do frequent backups.
Backup speed on my system is about 3 gigabytes/minute, so a drive with 120 gigs of data took about 40 minutes to image (and I could still surf the net during the process). Restoring a drive goes at 3 gigs/minutes based upon compressed image size, so a 9 gig image took 3 minutes to restore to the uncompressed size of 20 gigs.
Now, some general words of caution for would be users who are new to the disk imaging game. This type of software works with and independently from the host operating system. By its very nature it is a law unto itself, and the operating system can't really protect you from rogue behavior. The potential for trashing your system is very real. That's why I did extensive testing of True Image 2010 on a fully cloned system. I can't suggest strongly enough that BEFORE you install True Image to your computer's HD you should attempt to make a back up by simply using the bootable True Image CD in your optical drive. If you can't make a back up from the bootable CD, things may go badly should you choose to install True Image 2010 on your computer. Since this sofware interacts directly with the BIOS, be cautious about BIOS upgrades. Keep current with upgrades from Acronis. Finally, it's just a plain good idea to have partition management software (such as Acronis Disk Director or Active @ BootDisk) available for emergency use to recover deleted partitions. Sorry to make it all sound so scary, but any disk imaging software (acronis or not) is powerful stuff. And when things go wrong, the results can be quite bad.
My system as tested: Dual boot Windows XP Pro SP3 32-bit/Windows 7 RC 64-bit; Acronis True Image Home 2010 software installed to 64-bit Windows 7 RC partition; Acronis Secure Zone (FAT32) partition installed; Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard w/Intel P45 + ICH10R Chipset and Award BIOS version F7; Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 processor.
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Acronis True Image Home 2010 provides home users with reliable and timeless backup and recovery of systems, applications, settings, and personal files. From an intuitive graphical interface, users can easily define where, locally or online, and how often to back up a PC. In addition, Acronis Nonstop Backup delivers continuous system and data protection, preventing data loss. Acronis True Image Home 2010 meets home user needs with a simple, yet comprehensive, backup and disaster recovery solution. The variety of backup and restore capabilities, including disk imaging, file backup, local or online backup, and continuous data protection provide ultimate protection for private systems and data. This unique consumer software offers a full set of advanced features in an affordable and easy-to-use solution.
Easy and Fast Backup and RecoveryAcronis True Image Home 2010 provides home users reliable and timeless backup and recovery of their operating system, applications, settings, and personal files.
Friendly, Windows-style User InterfaceFrom an intuitive graphical interface, you can easily define where, locally or online, and how often to backup a PC based on your needs.
Acronis Online Backup to a secure locationOptional Acronis online storage services are available to automatically backup valuable data or files over the Internet to a secure location.
Continuous data protectionIn addition, Acronis Nonstop Backup provides continuous system and data protection, preventing data loss.
Features and Benefits
Acronis True Image Home 2010 meets home-user needs with a simple, yet comprehensive, backup and disaster recovery solution. This is a unique consumer software, providing a full set of advanced features in an affordable and easy-to-use solution.
Get Ready for Windows 7Planning on moving your system over to Windows 7? Make a full backup image of your system before beginning the upgrade or migration process. If something goes wrong during the installation, simply restore your full system from the backup. Once Windows 7 is up and running, use the full backup image to move files and folders into the new operating system.
Virtual Hard Disk SupportConvert Acronis' backup images (.tib) into virtual hard-disk files(.vhd) and vice versa, providing compatibility for Microsoft Windows 7 backup.
New Powerful SchedulerIn addition to the scheduling tools found in previous versions, the new scheduler expands the amount of scheduling options available. Use the new calendar view to build schedules and tasks. Suspend and enable tasks, specify dates to run tasks, and copy tasks to new dates.
Continuous Data ProtectionAcronis Nonstop Backup automatically creates incremental backups every five minutes allowing users to roll back their system, files, and folders to any point in time in the past.
Acronis Online Backup CapabilityOptional Acronis online storage services are available to automatically backup valuable data or files over the Internet to a secure location.
Boot from Windows 7 imageWindows 7 Ultimate users can boot from a backup image (.tib file) containing a backup of their system partition. This will allow the ability to test a backed up system without actual restoration. If the operating system boots from the .tib file, then it will boot when the need arises for a system recovery.
Core Features and Technologies
Backup
Live Backups: Keep working right through your backup for maximum convenience.
File Backup: Backup individual files, folders or file categories.
Disk Imaging: Backup and restore the entire system on-the-fly.
Incremental and differential backups: Acronis True Image Home 2010 gives you alternatives to performing full backups. You can also choose incremental and differential backup types. Both capture the changes made since the last backup, and with Acronis data compression, both save disk space.
Exclude files and folders: Back up only the data you want in order to save disk space.
Image Encryption with AES: Protect your backup data by encrypting with industry-standard security tools.
Set&Forget Backups: Configure once and perform backups automatically.
Smart Scheduling: Run backups automatically at preset or elapsed time, when the user is idle, on user long/logout, on system startup/shutdown, or in coordination with other events.
Reserve Backup Copy: Store multiple copies of the backup in another pre-defined location in a pre-selected format.
System Protection
One-Click Protection: Create a backup strategy of the system and implement it with just one click.
Acronis Secure Zone: Protect your system by saving an image to a special partition on your hard disk where it can be accessed when the system needs to be restored.
Try&Decide: Safe environment for risk-free testing of new software or visiting Web sites with potentially dangerous content.
Privacy tools: Thorough system cleaning and reliable data destruction of files, partitions, or volumes.
Recovery
Acronis Startup Recovery Manager: Boot and restore a system without using an additional boot medium.
Recovery of the entire PC
Recovery of individual files and folders
Selection or exclusion of files and folders
Acronis Startup Recovery Manager: Boot and restore a system after a failure. Start the recovery process simply by selecting the F11 key, even if your operating system has failed.
Mount images in read/write mode
Create bootable media using BartPE
User Interface
Windows-style interface: The new, sleek interface of this product works on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 operating systems.
Supported Systems
Storage Media
Hard-Disk Drives
Networked Storage Devices
FTP servers
CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, BD-R (NEW! Blu-ray)
ZIP, REV, and other removable media
PATA (IDE), SATA, SCSI, SAS (NEW), IEEE1394 (FireWire), USB 1/2.0 drives
Supported Operating Systems
Windows 7 all Editions (x32/x64)
Windows Vista all Editions (x32/x64 SP2)
Windows XP (x32 SP3/x64 SP2)
Windows XP Professional (x32 SP3/x64 SP2)
Supported File Systems
FAT16/32, NTFS
Raw Images support
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