RE: My lunch with Microsoft

[Philip White <pdwhite@xxxxxxx>]

Acronis is an excellent disk/file backup utility. It also has the 
ability to create very good mirror images. One enormous plus is to 
be able to open backup images as if they were file folders and extract 
files; This is a great saver of time and labor.

Since hardware and disk formats are constantly being revised, it 
becomes necessary to have utilities that can deal with these changes 
appropriately. This was especially noticeable during the transition 
to EFI disk partitioning.
It pays to have current versions of system utilities; however it does 
not follow that they need to be upgraded every year. Just upgrade when 
you discover that the features of the version you have can no longer 
cope with your system environment.
The yearly renewal thing is little more than a racket.
Phil



From: xywrite-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  on behalf of Harry Binswanger 
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2019 12:16:47 PM
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: My lunch with Microsoft
 
Jordan,

Yes, I'm trying Acronis now. I miss the convenience of the drive duplicator. 
I just had an idea though, if I set up a RAID mirroring drive, couldn't  I 
put *that* into the drive duplicator? I believe modern Windows OS's have 
RAID capability built in; I'd just need an enclosure that will attach by 
USB or Thunderbolt (my Lenovo has Thunderbolt).

NB-Xy is on hold while the folks at NB work on NB 13. But I will nudge them. 
Steve has said that he will get the status line to work right, since its 
flakiness has been a barrier to testing.

Regards,

Harry
Harry,

Probably all the programs in this category have their proponents and their detractors.  That includes
Acronis, but over the years and several program versions, it has served me well.  The one function
for which I still need to see a "proof of concept" is the (relatively more recent) module or feature to
restore an image to *different hardware.*  Several programs now claim to be able to do this, but it's
complicated, and no mean feat to have a Windows 7 or later boot partition survive this transplant
and remain bootable.  I have a couple cases where I need to pull this off, either for myself or for
someone else.  It looks like there is a learning curve, and a fair amount of trial and error involved. 

Acronis may offer a good shot at this, and I already have it.  Laplink PC Mover has been around for
quite some time, though with rather mixed reviews on this.  O & O Diskimage is another one, and
I'm sure there must be others.  Ideally, I don't want to have to go to Microsoft to reauthorize -- or
whatever they call it.  These programs don't seem to mention any need for that.  But it could be
something they chose not to discuss, for good reason.  

By the way, I trust you will keep us updated on any developments regarding "Xy 5."  That subject
has been rather quiet here for some time.  

   Jordan

--------------------------------------------

On Sat, 2/23/19, Harry Binswanger  wrote:

 Subject: RE: My lunch with Microsoft
 To: xywrite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
 Date: Saturday, February 23, 2019, 7:13 AM


 FWIW, EaseUS (free version) still has a very bad interface
 and I consider the program unusable. I will look into Acronis.