ShadowProtect looks interesting, Bill. I’ll read up on it, which is to say search for complaints and see what they say. Thanks.
Michael Norman
From: xywrite-bounce@xxxxxxxx [mailto:xywrite-bounce@xxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bill Troop
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 6:28 AM
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: My Acronis experience
Hi Kari I have been burnt by Acronis many times. On Ed Mendelson''s sage advice I switched to Shadow Protect years ago. It is the only backup program that has ever worked as it should. It would be a bargain at three times the price. Try it; you're worth it! B
On Friday, 18 October 2013, Kari Eveli wrote:
Hello all,
Backing up is essential, and I have used Acronis TrueImage for many years now. There are pitfalls, but it has saved my data many times.
Some tips that have proven to be useful:
1) Some builds of the software are bad and to be avoided (e.g. ATI 12 build 7119). It is wise to check reports on the Net about builds before installing. I am currently using ATI 12 build 7133, works ok.
2) Seagate and Western Digital offer free limited edtions of the Acronis software (no automation). Check if you have Seagate or WD disk! They work well but older versions of these are not compatible with the paid Acronis edition. So never mix editions for backup and restore!
3) Setup: It is good policy to set up a daily automatic schedule for backing up. Use defaults (when setting up incremental backup), some options do not necessarily work. I have a second disk for backing up my work disk in thre background as well as an usb backup disk. I use the secure zone feature, it avoids accidental mishaps. Anyway backups must reside on a disk of their own.
4) Download or burn an ISO-linux CD for restoring. If you lose your C: drive, you will need it. Test the CD, it should boot and show your backups. Same goes for bundled editions. If your have different builds or editions, you will need as many rescue CDs.
5) A nice feature is access to older versions of a file, just mount the backup and you can grab the files you need. It even works from a context menu of a file.
6) Acronis OS Selector is useless. Do not install it. Ever.
Acronis has served me well, and I rely on it for backing up, but there are other (free) alternatives that are worth considering, if you have problems with it. Linux-based REDO backup & recovery operates from a CD and is very
straightforward (http://redobackup.org/). Paragon free edition is almost as versatile as Acronis (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/index.html) and is free.
Best regards,
Kari Eveli
LEXITEC Book Publishing (Finland)
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