14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to computer disasters, loss of important data and lack of means to recover it are the two crucial elements that best envisage the situation. Desktops in general and notebooks in particular have become the shelter of one's truly important stuff, storing everything from the everyday entertainment to necessary documents.
Acronis needs absolutely no introduction. Everybody knows the benefits of a system drive backup image, uses it or has at least heard of it. Either way, Acronis has released a new version of its famous True Image product, a godsend for some, a nightmare for others, judging by the posts on the Internet. After all, choosing a product over another is just a matter of using what works for you and your computer.
True Image Home 2009 is on the flatbed today, an application designed to put its back to work in order to provide the user with the best and most flexible options for creating any sort of backup, regardless if the operating system is Windows or Linux, as long as the hardware configuration is Intel/AMD-based. And this means practically any computer running under the aforementioned OSes. Supported file systems range from Windows' FAT16/32 and NTFS to Linux's Ext2/Ext3, ReiserFS and Linux SWAP.
The list of options you can count on includes full/incremental/differential drive and file backups, restore backup, disk cloning, system cleanup, search function, image mounting, file shredder, disk editor and more. Pricing for this computer backup and restore gem garnished with additional tools to make your drive restoring chore as clean a task as possible is set for $49.99 and you get 15 days of a fully functional evaluation version to try before you buy. Do not try to use the bootable disc beyond this period because it will not work.
A shiny, new, clear and user-friendly interface will welcome the user. The most important options run down in the left hand side of the screen but these are not all because some extra tools are camped in the upper part, under Operations and Tools menus. All the options can be accessed from the left hand rundown but this section of the application offers a quick jump to the most essential of them and access to Options panel, which lets you configure the software in terms of appearance, notifications, backup/restoration options and tasks.
For an overall look at the options provided by the software, Home menu is where you want to go. It makes available all the menus running down in the left part of the screen and gives a brief description as to what each can be used for.
Everybody knows that Acronis is specially designed for backup and restore functions but it also comes with something on the side in order to make working with your computer as safe as possible, regardless of the aftermath that may ensue from any wrongdoing. Thus, you can test new software without any risk by using the Try&Decide feature, a component built to create a virtual environment where you can do your business without affecting the real system.
Backup and Restore
For starters, under Backup and Restore menu, Acronis shelters a set of choices dedicated to covering any backup needs of a user, from creating an image of an entire disk or partition, specific files and folders, system state (only system data is backed up and no personal profiles are included), email accounts and address book (Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Windows Mail), as well as application settings.
Creating an image for a disk or partition is no painful job, as Acronis makes sure that you are accompanied by the right details at each step you take towards successfully completing the operation. The Backup Wizard presents all the steps you can go through (both required and optional) in the right hand part and starts by displaying all available partitions with their type (primary, logical), total capacity (NTFS, FAT16/32) and amount of free space. All information proves useful when choosing where to store the image. Also, it is there you pick your choice on the volume you want to create an image for and decide whether you want a sector-by-sector backup (copies both used and unused space).
Selecting the target drive where you want to store the resulting image is as easy as the previous step. You are presented with an Explorer-like window from where you can choose to save it locally or go with more exotic alternatives and pick a LAN computer or an FTP location. Regardless of the target drive, optional steps are the same and you get to schedule the task, select a backup method (full, incremental or differential). Additional backup-related options available include setting the compression level, CPU priority for the task, enable e-mail notification, customize error handling.
For those of you who need more than one backup for some data, the software comes to the rescue offering the possibility of storing the same image in two different locations. The feature is available only for data backup and is available in the “Backup Options” of the Optional Steps list.
If you are toying with multiple backups, Acronis provides a very simple way to differentiate them by letting you add a comment on the archive. This way, you can include multiple details in order to recognize it.
All other backups (system state, e-mail, application settings, and data) follow the exact same steps and the only difference consists in the actual information to be saved. However, there are some restrictions, as in the case of application settings, which do not include all apps available on the system, but only a supported range. As you can see from the images, the program can deal with the most popular programs, such as Adobe Reader, iTunes, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Total Commander, WinAmp or Windows Media Player. But it is not limited to these. Unfortunately, we could not find a complete list of supported apps, so you're going to access the menu and see for yourself what it can backup from the software installed on your system.
As you may already know, Acronis can be used for both online (Windows is running) and offline backup jobs, but in the case of the latter, only creating an image of an entire disk/partition and of user-defined data is available. Also, offline jobs do not offer dual backup possibility.
Image restoration procedure goes with the same ease and lack of effort. Only it is a reverse process. You will have to browse for the backup archive (“exotic” locations are present), although Acronis neatly displays all backup archive created together with some extra details on them like type of backup, date of creation, description, rating and storage path. Management options include validation of the archive, removing it, updating it or validate it.
The flexibility of the application is amazing when it comes to restoring an archive. Settings available allow changing the destination location, partition type (primary – active or logical) and resize the restored drive by making it smaller. All these are made available for both online and offline operations.
An extremely useful option for the matter is the possibility to browse the backup archive and look into its contents. This can be achieved in two ways: either by exploring the file or mounting it as a virtual drive. The latter's advantage is that you can modify the archive and delete files or add new ones. The only condition for this to happen is to mount the image in read/write mode. Actually, this is the major difference between exploring and mounting an archive.
When modifying a mounted backup image, the application will store all the changes as an incremental backup in the same location as the modified archive. In order to restore the modified image, you'll need both the original and the incremental backup files.
Testing
We tested the application on three different computers: two desktops of an older generation and an HP Compaq 6820s laptop with all its original software and boot configuration intact. If the desktops were not even close to a challenge for Acronis, the laptop definitely played hard to get. We used a large capacity iPod for storing the image as the system drive was pretty large (about 42GB) and Acronis neatly stacked all the archive splits on the drive automatically, with no help from us.
Sure, we could have defined a top size for each split but left it all on default in order to see how the application managed. After an imaging process that took about four hours, the archives were orderly piled on the removable drive. We also ran a validation of the file just to be sure that everything was okay and the operation was indeed a success.
It was a success up to the point when it came down to restoring the image because although another four hours of waiting and the software's reassurance that the process went well, the image was not restored properly. In fact, the after-restore damage was so great that the entire system drive that was supposed to be recovered was labeled by Windows as unallocated space. And that wasn't just Windows' opinion, as ulterior Linux boots concurred on the matter. The fix: a clean system re-install.
However, the operation was not all catastrophic. As mentioned above, the backup image created had been validated by Acronis as usable. Thanks to its image mounting capabilities, we could access all the data and recover all thought to be lost files on the system drive. So, as a precaution measure, I would advise verifying the integrity of the backup image yourselves and see whether it is all good by mounting it as a virtual drive and perusing the data before actually starting a havoc among the backed up files.
A second test with a second image of the system drive and another restoration procedure resulted in the same failure and system re-installation, confirming the first endeavor. At further insistence from our part, the application did not even let us choose the destination path for the restore image, as it grayed out all choices leaving us no option.
All these tests were conducted offline, using the Acronis bootable media. But pulling this online ensued with the same effect. The good part is that, after installing the operating system from scratch and with absolutely no trace of HP elements on the system drive, Acronis managed to redeem itself. The new image created could be used for restoration purposes with no glitches and issues, rendering a spic-and-span system ready for more testing abuse.
Although I could not nail the glitch preventing Acronis from restoring the system drive of the laptop to its initial state, I have a feeling that the OEM installed had a huge contribution to the failure. Given that backup and restoration operations worked like a charm once Vista was re-instated from scratch, I do not believe that Acronis is much to be blamed. The first image created was valid and retrieval of data could be performed with no trouble.
The Good
Users can tamper with the archives by mounting them in read/write mode and making any modifications they want. For simple browsing the archive to see its content, the explore function is available.
Backups can be scheduled to take place regularly and users can define the type of the operation to be performed (full backup, incremental or differential). For a complete clone of the drive, it gives the option of creating a sector-by-sector image that contains both used and unused space.
Compression is available on three levels: Normal, High and Maximum, and for each, the application calculates the size of the resulting archive.
In the case of file and folder backup, Acronis allows dual backup procedure, which stores the same image in two different locations for better security.
The Bad
But there is still the major glitch with restoring that image after the system re-install. Although the application was accurate in detecting the drive to be restored, partition settings were not available for modification.
On the HP laptop, Acronis failed to provide the NIC driver required to store backup images on a LAN computer or in an FTP location.
The Truth
Backup and restore features provided are more than enough for a home user and the ease of use is absolutely fantastic. It offers the possibility of managing the backup archive by making whatever changes through mounting as a virtual drive in read/write mode and validating it to make sure it is ready to use.
All tasks can be scheduled at a user defined time and date, at system startup, user logon or periodically. Backup method includes all types (full, incremental and differential).
Save for the HP incident, our experience with the application was flawless in terms of maneuverability, flexibility and quality of the tasks. It brings extraordinary features for extraordinary results. There is little to impute to the application and if so, it depends entirely on the system and its configuration. But in the end, it proved to be the kind of application that pulls you out of a jam.
Acronis True Image Home 2009 makes for the perfect tool when it comes to backing up your data, be it under the form of a system drive, an entire disk or partition, email or application settings.
