windows 7 preferred backup solution

[SC Tom]

SC Tom wrote:


On 6/11/2010 3:35 PM, Percival P. Cassidy wrote:

[snip]

I don't recall the price of Acronis.

Thank you everyone for all the good feedback. (sig fixed)

Since I own a prior version of Acronis True Image, I'll
probably just upgrade. Sounds like the reports I'd heard about
troubles are unfounded.

I appreciate the responses.

-- -=Elden=- http://www.moondog.org

For what it's worth, I use Acronis Free Edition for
Western-Digital drives, and have had no problem restoring an
image of a Windows 7 drive. It's a basic version of Acronis 2009
without scheduling or incremental imaging. I boot from the
created CD and create my images on an external WD drive, and have
restored Win7 from an image twice- once to test it, and once
because the HDD in my notebook crashed. Both times I was able to
restore the image to a different drive and boot right up like
nothing had ever happened. If I ever decide to go with
incremental backups, or scheduling capabilities, I will definitely
purchase the full version of ATI. And you can upgrade
for only $29.99 from here:
https://store.acronis.com/325/purl-...&tracking=geUA1499431,gaUA1499431,&quantity=1



Where do I find a free edition of Acronis? All I see is a free
trial version. -- Crash

"Something there is that doesn't love a wall, that wants it down." ~
Robert Frost ~

You have to either an external or internal drive made by one of the three
companies that supply the free editions:

WD version of ATI:
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en


Seagate/Maxtor Disc Wizard by ATI:
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD



Seagate doesn't come right out and say it's ATI Free like WD does,
but I installed it and ran it on my S.O.'s PC since she has Maxtor
drives in hers, and it worked just fine. I've used the WD version on
both Windows 7 and XP machines, but have only used Disc Wizard on an
XP one.

Are these really brand specific? I have an internal WD drive and an
external Seagate drive. Which should I use to backup my internal WD
drive to me external Seagate drive?
--
Crash

"It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission."
~ Grace Hopper (RADM, USNR) ~

My guess (and it's just a guess) is that in your situation it wouldn't
matter.
I don't run mine from within Windows, though. Once it is installed (either
version), there's an option to create a bootable CD and run the program from
it. On my notebook (which has a Hitachi drive), I plug in my external drive
(WD My Book) and boot from the CD. It takes a few seconds while starting up
to "search for a qualifying drive" then boots right into the ATI GUI. From
there I create the image. I don't know if it truly makes any difference or
not, but I figure that way, nothing is in use in the OS, so I'm not risking
backing up partial data from a file that's in use. By running it that way, I
can start it up when I get up, then go eat breakfast, read the paper, and
shave and shower, and it's done. It's not interfering with my "computer
time" at all. It takes about an hour to make and verify an image of a 320GB
dive with ~50GB used. That's just about as easy as it gets for me, and I
love it!

 

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Are these really brand specific? I have an internal WD drive and an
external Seagate drive. Which should I use to backup my internal WD
drive to me external Seagate drive?

Yes, I believe they are brand specific, at least wrt the drive *to*
which you are copying. E.g., the Seagate version that comes with one of
their drives assumes that you are going to copy from your existing drive
to the new Seagate one. I don't know whether it will copy *from* another
maker's drive, because I've bought nothing but Seagate for years; all
the dead drives I have here are WD.

I think I tried the WD version, but it told me that it couldn't find a
WD drive.

It so happened that one of the current NewEgg super deals is Acronis
True Image Home 2010 Amaray Case [Is this some special edition??] for
$9.99 ater $20 MIR and with free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ex-_-SecurityUtilitiesSoftware-_-32200012-L0G

But read the negative reviews on NewEgg -- of all editions of ATI 3020.

Perce

 

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Since I own a prior version of Acronis True Image, I'll probably just
upgrade. Sounds like the reports I'd heard about troubles are unfounded.

I appreciate the responses.

It so happened that one of the current NewEgg super deals is Acronis
True Image Home 2010 Amaray Case [Is this some special edition??] for
$9.99 after $20 MIR and with free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ex-_-SecurityUtilitiesSoftware-_-32200012-L0G

But read the negative reviews on NewEgg -- of all editions of ATI 2010.

Perce

 

[Percival P. Cassidy]

It so happened that one of the current NewEgg super deals is Acronis
True Image Home 2010 Amaray Case [Is this some special edition??] for
$9.99 after $20 MIR and with free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ex-_-SecurityUtilitiesSoftware-_-32200012-L0G


But read the negative reviews on NewEgg -- of all editions of ATI 3020.

^^^^^^
Ooops! Make that "ATI 2010." Too much blood in the caffeine stream.

Perce

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

SC Tom wrote:

My guess (and it's just a guess) is that in your situation it
wouldn't matter. I don't run mine from within Windows, though. Once
it is installed (either version), there's an option to create a
bootable CD and run the program from it. On my notebook (which has a
Hitachi drive), I plug in my external drive (WD My Book) and boot
from the CD. It takes a few seconds while starting up to "search for
a qualifying drive" then boots right into the ATI GUI. From there I
create the image. I don't know if it truly makes any difference or
not, but I figure that way, nothing is in use in the OS, so I'm not
risking backing up partial data from a file that's in use. By running
it that way, I can start it up when I get up, then go eat breakfast,
read the paper, and shave and shower, and it's done. It's not
interfering with my "computer time" at all. It takes about an hour to
make and verify an image of a 320GB dive with ~50GB used. That's
just about as easy as it gets for me, and I love it!

That is my policy, as well. I don't want to do anything with the system
drive while it is in use. This applies to both backup programs and
partitioning programs. In fact, once the CD is created, I uninstall
the program from the main system so there's less to back up.

 

[SC Tom]

Since I own a prior version of Acronis True Image, I'll probably just
upgrade. Sounds like the reports I'd heard about troubles are unfounded.

I appreciate the responses.

It so happened that one of the current NewEgg super deals is Acronis True
Image Home 2010 Amaray Case [Is this some special edition??] for $9.99
after $20 MIR and with free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ex-_-SecurityUtilitiesSoftware-_-32200012-L0G

But read the negative reviews on NewEgg -- of all editions of ATI 2010.

Perce

After reading the "3 eggs or less" reviews, that's why I run mine from the
bootable CD. Although I haven't had any problems within Windows, the one
time I ran it from there took forever. Much faster and easier booting from
the CD and creating the image from it. Granted, incremental scheduled images
can't be made like that, but if someone is making an image on a regular
basis, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. In a business setting, maybe, but
for the average home user, I'd think once a week would be plenty, IMHAWO. .
..

 

[SC Tom]

SC Tom wrote:



That is my policy, as well. I don't want to do anything with the system
drive while it is in use. This applies to both backup programs and
partitioning programs. In fact, once the CD is created, I uninstall
the program from the main system so there's less to back up.

Ditto!!

 

[~~Alan~~]

A year or two ago when I researched it, Acronis True Image came highly
recommended when it came to Windows backup solutions.

Anyone here have experience with that on Windows 7, good or bad?

I heard that it initially had issues with Windows 7. But I presume that
Acronis has fixed those by now.


-=Elden=-
http://www.moondog.org

My preference is Symantec Ghost v15. Ghost is not the disk imaging product
it used to be but rather a full backup solution with fulls, incremental, and
differentials.

A few days ago, I started to boot my system and it blue screened, accusing
mrtrate.sys as
the (possible) culprit. I really could not find much information about this
and I really did not have the time or the patience to research the crash.
It was 6 in the morning and I had to go to work.

But! TGFB (Thank Goodness for Backups). For the past 4 years or so, I've
been using Symantec Ghost (v10 with my XP system and v15 with my Win7
systems). Ghost starts off by creating a full system backup and then
differentials after that until the next cycle begins.

In my case, I booted from the Ghost CD and performed a full restore from the
last full and then the differentials stored on an external USB drive, and
2.5 hours later, my system is back. The bootable CD allowed me, with a
Command Line prompt, to copy any files created after my last backup, to a
USB drive before the restore.

My advise, if you have a backup solution, make sure you can restore from it
with as little intervention or pain as possible.

I am also a customer of Carbonite just in case my system and backup fail.

~alan

 

[Al Dykes]

Since I own a prior version of Acronis True Image, I'll probably just
upgrade. Sounds like the reports I'd heard about troubles are unfounded.

I appreciate the responses.

It so happened that one of the current NewEgg super deals is Acronis True
Image Home 2010 Amaray Case [Is this some special edition??] for $9.99
after $20 MIR and with free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ex-_-SecurityUtilitiesSoftware-_-32200012-L0G

But read the negative reviews on NewEgg -- of all editions of ATI 2010.

Perce

After reading the "3 eggs or less" reviews, that's why I run mine from the
bootable CD. Although I haven't had any problems within Windows, the one
time I ran it from there took forever. Much faster and easier booting from
the CD and creating the image from it. Granted, incremental scheduled images
can't be made like that, but if someone is making an image on a regular
basis, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. In a business setting, maybe, but
for the average home user, I'd think once a week would be plenty, IMHAWO. .
.

I too boot the CD and do a stand-alone backup. I backup prior to
"patch Tuesdays" if nothing else.

Back in the day I used NTbackup on production file servers and did
full backups while users could hit the machine. Don't try this unless
you know your server applications.

I rebuilt several failed C drives from bare iron with those backups
with zero problems. I'm sure TI does at least as good a job of using
the appropriate OS services to do backups of locked files.

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

Ditto!!

Catch-22. I downloaded both and created CD's. I tried the Seagate
version first. It wouldn't run because it couldn't find a Seagate drive.
My Seagate drive is a USB connected external drive. I installed the
optional USB drivers when creating the bootable CD, but the Acronis
utility apparently looks for a qualifying disk before those are loaded.

Next I tried the WD version. It booted up and ran and I was able to
create an image file, which I saved to my Seagate USB drive. But what is
going to happen if I replace my internal drive with something other than
WD? I doubt that the WD Acronis will restore the image I have saved.

So much for free Acronis. Fortunately, I still have free Windows backup,
free Macrium backup, and free Paragon backup.

 

[CrackerJack]

I have made/restored backups of slaved WD drives with the Seagate version. Same for the Seagate version. For either
the WD or seaget version all that is required is at least one drive in your system is a WD or Seagate respectively.

I know for a fact I can not restore an immage made from Acronis true Image using the Seagate version. As long as you
restore with the software that made the backup you should be ok.

Your mileage may vary. cheers

 

[Roy Smith]

Windows 7 (all versions?) comes complete with a very good backup / restore
program.

I used it to install a larger hard drive in my laptop and it worked as
well as Acronis.

But it has limitations. For starters if you want to save the restore files
on a networked drive, you need to be running Win7 Professional or higher.
Second, if you store your backup files on a networked drive, then you can
only save the most recent full disk image.

 

[Roy Smith]

IIRC, I've been using ATI since 2006 and I've been quite satisfied with it
including Win 7 Pro (64-bit) the last 6 months. Make sure you use Acronis
True Image 2010 for Win 7, don't know if you'll have problems from earlier
versions. FWIW, I went from Win XP to Win 7.

If you try to install an earlier version of ATI you get a compatibility
warning message. Once I got that, I just went ahead and bought the upgrade
for ATI 2010 so I don't know for certain if it would actually run on Win 7.

 

[Roy Smith]

SC Tom wrote:


On 6/11/2010 3:35 PM, Percival P. Cassidy wrote:

[snip]

I don't recall the price of Acronis.

Thank you everyone for all the good feedback. (sig fixed)

Since I own a prior version of Acronis True Image, I'll
probably just upgrade. Sounds like the reports I'd heard about
troubles are unfounded.

I appreciate the responses.

-- -=Elden=- http://www.moondog.org

For what it's worth, I use Acronis Free Edition for
Western-Digital drives, and have had no problem restoring an
image of a Windows 7 drive. It's a basic version of Acronis 2009
without scheduling or incremental imaging. I boot from the
created CD and create my images on an external WD drive, and have
restored Win7 from an image twice- once to test it, and once
because the HDD in my notebook crashed. Both times I was able to
restore the image to a different drive and boot right up like
nothing had ever happened. If I ever decide to go with
incremental backups, or scheduling capabilities, I will definitely
purchase the full version of ATI. And you can upgrade
for only $29.99 from here:
https://store.acronis.com/325/purl-...&tracking=geUA1499431,gaUA1499431,&quantity=1



Where do I find a free edition of Acronis? All I see is a free
trial version. -- Crash

"Something there is that doesn't love a wall, that wants it down." ~
Robert Frost ~

You have to either an external or internal drive made by one of the three
companies that supply the free editions:

WD version of ATI:
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en


Seagate/Maxtor Disc Wizard by ATI:
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD



Seagate doesn't come right out and say it's ATI Free like WD does,
but I installed it and ran it on my S.O.'s PC since she has Maxtor
drives in hers, and it worked just fine. I've used the WD version on
both Windows 7 and XP machines, but have only used Disc Wizard on an
XP one.

Are these really brand specific? I have an internal WD drive and an
external Seagate drive. Which should I use to backup my internal WD
drive to me external Seagate drive?

Since you have both it really won't matter. These free versions of Acronis
have the limitation in that you have to have a drive from the respective
manufacturer installed on your PC. Since you have both Seagate and Western
Digital you can use either one you choose.

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

Since you have both it really won't matter. These free versions of
Acronis have the limitation in that you have to have a drive from the
respective manufacturer installed on your PC. Since you have both
Seagate and Western Digital you can use either one you choose.

(Copied from elsewhere in this tree

Catch-22. I downloaded both and created CD's. I tried the Seagate
version first. It wouldn't run because it couldn't find a Seagate drive.
My Seagate drive is a USB connected external drive. I installed the
optional USB drivers when creating the bootable CD, but the Acronis
utility apparently looks for a qualifying disk before those are loaded.

Next I tried the WD version. It booted up and ran and I was able to
create an image file, which I saved to my Seagate USB drive. But what is
going to happen if I replace my internal drive with something other than
WD? I doubt that the WD Acronis will restore the image I have saved.

 

[Char Jackson]

(Copied from elsewhere in this tree

Catch-22. I downloaded both and created CD's. I tried the Seagate
version first. It wouldn't run because it couldn't find a Seagate drive.
My Seagate drive is a USB connected external drive. I installed the
optional USB drivers when creating the bootable CD, but the Acronis
utility apparently looks for a qualifying disk before those are loaded.

Next I tried the WD version. It booted up and ran and I was able to
create an image file, which I saved to my Seagate USB drive. But what is
going to happen if I replace my internal drive with something other than
WD? I doubt that the WD Acronis will restore the image I have saved.

How can you trust a backup that you haven't tried to restore?
Instead of asking what will happen, you owe it to yourself to try it
and find out what will happen. The time to do it is now, not after
you've had a 'data emergency'.

 

[Jeff]

I've been having good luck with Macrium Reflect on W7. It is available
in a 64-bit version and is free. It allows you to create a recovery CD
(a stripped-down Linux image) to recover backed-up data to a bare drive.
Did I mention that it was free?

Not that there is anything wrong with Acronis except that it is
definitely far from free.

I too have excellent results with the 64 bit free Macrium - both backup
and restore - and it is faster than both the trial full Acronis and the
free Acronis versions I got from Seagate and and WD (I have both
drives). Maybe it is because it is a 64 bit version? Don't know because
I only tried the 64 bit version.

For me, the only thing the free Macrium lacks is the absence of
incremental backups - which are also lacking in the free versions of
Acronis I got from the drive manufacturer. I may end up getting the full
package when the next have a sale. (Do they?)

Jeff

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

How can you trust a backup that you haven't tried to restore?
Instead of asking what will happen, you owe it to yourself to try it
and find out what will happen. The time to do it is now, not after
you've had a 'data emergency'.

How can I do that without replacing the WD hard drive with different brand?

 

[Char Jackson]

How can I do that without replacing the WD hard drive with different brand?

I suppose you can answer your initial question by simply disconnecting
the WD drive and attempting to do a restore. My assumption is that the
'qualifying drive' check is performed before the 'target drive'
question gets asked. Beyond that, if you have an old non-WD spare
drive laying around, you could temporarily use it in place of the WD
to see if the restore image works.

 

[Char Jackson]

On 6/11/2010 6:14 PM, John McGaw wrote:

Far from free? $9.99 isn't that far from free. Or if you don't have
the promo code, it's still only $19.99 after a $20 MIR.

For me, the only thing the free Macrium lacks is the absence of
incremental backups - which are also lacking in the free versions of
Acronis I got from the drive manufacturer. I may end up getting the full
package when the next have a sale. (Do they?)

See above, there's a $20 rebate going on, plus an additional $10 promo
discount via Newegg, although the promo may have expired by now. So
it's either $19.99 or $9.99.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832200012