| A BIG Thumbs-Up to Acronis TrueImage After using Norton Ghost (and Plextor's CDRESQ) for many years... I was disappointed to learn that Ghost does not support SCSI RAID in hardware (software either).
In my case... the Adaptec 3210-S RAID controller uses the Intel I2O busmaster controller... and as such there is NO legacy support (drivers) for it what-so-ever!!!
After contacting Acronis techsupport... I was thrilled to learn that TrueImage uses a linux bootloader which easily provides full support for 32 bit hardware.
Unfortunately, Ghost uses DOS and is therefore completely useless to me... now.
So... I bought TI and I'm trying it out for the first time right now. All I can say is AWESOME!
Install was easy. Setting it up is very easy. Creating boot floppies for SCSI was automatic and required NO special user intervention. And the best part is that these newly created floppies found the controller and arrays without any complaints at all. EVEN XP PRO SETUP DISKETTES CAN'T DO THAT!!!
I just finished imaging two raid-0 arrays using a boot floppy, and imaging to SCSI CDR to test a worst case crash scenario. SUPER easy!
Another point of interest... TI DOES support TCP/IP LAN (even routed!), USB, Firewire etc... though they don't talk about it much.
Looks like Acronis is a company that really has their act together. A very nice product that is well thought out and employed.
Kudos Acronis! |
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 jmacd27Premium
join:2001-05-13
Toronto, ON | I just started using Acronis as well. I had just recently reinstalled my XP to get rid of some partitions I had. Once I got XP back up and running, I installed all updates, patches from MS. I also changed all the personal settings how I like them, and applied all the usual registry tweaks that suit my needs.
I created a recovery boot CDR from the Acronis program then a image of my C drive and stored it on my separate D hard drive. I also created a copy on multiple CDR's to store separately.
I then formated my fresh install of windows. I used the recovery CD that Acronis created, pointed it to the image it created on my D drive and told it to use that image for recovery. Five minutes later, my windows was back to exactly how it was before I formatted. This software has impressed me and will be kept on my system permanently.
»www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/
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Everyone needs to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer!! |
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 dpPremium,MVM
join:2000-12-08
Greensburg, PA
kudos:7 | reply to head_spaz
Thanks for sharing your experience with TI 6.0. It's no longer just DriveImage and Ghost. TrueImage is a great product as is the company itself. It has recently been given the Editors Choice award by PC Magazine and the 'Kick Ass Product' award by Maximum PC.
One thing it lacks is builtin image verification but there is a stand-alone utility that you can download at »www.acronis.com/files/support/CheckImage.exe to perform this function.
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Write your questions down on the back of a $20 dollar bill and send them to me |
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 John2gQui Tacet ConsentitPremium
join:2001-08-10
England | Even without the built in checker, it still is a "Kick Ass" product  |
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 howie1Premium
join:2003-04-08
Antarctica
kudos:4 | reply to head_spaz
There is no mention of RAID hardware support for TI6, only TI6 Server. Are you referring to the server edition ($499)?
»www.acronis.com/products/trueimageserver/ |
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 reiko2Premium
join:2001-05-16
Cleveland, OH | reply to head_spaz
Another nice thing is how fast tech support responds- unlike Drive Image- and with actual answers to your questions. I switched- and I'm glad I did- reiko2 |
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dpPremium,MVM
join:2000-12-08
Greensburg, PA
kudos:7 | reply to howie1
said by howie1:
There is no mention of RAID hardware support for TI6, only TI6 Server. Are you referring to the server edition ($499)?
»www.acronis.com/products/trueimageserver/
Not sure Howie but the following is what's listed new in TI 6.0 and it's talking about RAID controllers.
Acronis TrueImage 6.0
Build # 335 (English):
Release date: April 26, 2003
Changes:
Fixed incompatibility with Yamaha CD writers
Fixed incompatibility with Highpoint ATA RAID controllers (stripe only)
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Write your questions down on the back of a $20 dollar bill and send them to me |
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howie1Premium
join:2003-04-08
Antarctica
kudos:4 | Thanks, dp... I just found it interesting that there's no mention of RAID on the TrueImage 6 page, but it is quite prominently mentioned on the TrueImage Server Edition page. |
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| reply to head_spaz
The standard 44 dollar download version DOES indeed support SCSI RAID. (thanks to the linux bootloader).
From Acronis tech support:
Please be aware that Acronis True Image uses Linux kernel with it's own drivers when being started via rescue media. Acronis True Image rescue mode supports all levels (RAID 0,1,2,3,4,5) of SCSI RAID controllers, and also Promise and Highpoint IDE controllers in stripe mode (RAID 0) only. Other RAID controller models and modes support will be implemented in future version. When running under Windows Acronis True Image supports all the hard drives detected by the operating system.
Acronis True Image rescue mode also supports LAN (but the current version requires DHCP server, as static IP-address will be supported in the future version only) and external USB or FireWire drives. Removable media (floppies, CD-R/W, DVD-R/W and DVD+R/W) is also supported, but not LPT devices.
I'm really impressed with this product. They took a powerful and complex tool... and made it very simple.
Even elegant!
Here's a small thing that I think is worth mentioning.
It takes four floppies to boot the system with their linux bootloader... and if you inadvertantly give it the wrong floppy disk out of sequence... it doesn't have a conniption fit and crash... it simply asks for the correct disk. I know... I'm easily amused... but lately too many companies are rushing their products to market and overlooking the simple BUT IMPORTANT stuff. I like a company that's thorough and pays attention to the details.
All in all... a fine product!
In contrast we have Symantec... who has gone WAY downhill in that respect. I think symantec has become the perfect icon of yester-tech.
(yes... TI can create a CD boot disk for you instead of using floppies).
[text was edited by author 2003-05-20 12:09:04] |
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howie1Premium
join:2003-04-08
Antarctica
kudos:4 | I did a TI backup today and one nice thing I noticed is that when I restored, directories that remained fragmented after restoring using Ghost 2003, were completely defragmented with TrueImage 6. It is hard to fault this product and I noticed using a "1" compression level gave me imaging speeds that rival Ghost. The ability to image your system drive in Windows and the boot CD maker are a bonus, making this an almost "must have" utility. Nice job, Acronis! |
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 KeizerI'M Your HuckleberryPremium,MVM
join:2003-01-20 | reply to head_spaz
Hmmmmm....maybe I should try this imaging software over Ghost. Ghost makes me nervous! Keizer |
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dpPremium,MVM
join:2000-12-08
Greensburg, PA
kudos:7 | said by Keizer:
Hmmmmm....maybe I should try this imaging software over Ghost. Ghost makes me nervous! Keizer
It's a 'no brainer' for ease of operation. I believe they still have a promotion going on for Ghost users. You can get it for $10. You have to have Ghost installed though but once TI is on, you don't have to keep Ghost installed.
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Write your questions down on the back of a $20 dollar bill and send them to me |
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| reply to head_spaz
Acronis tell me the image verification feature will be added "this summer" so it's not far away The small CheckImage.exe file does the job fine for now though.
Fedorov. |
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| reply to head_spaz
Ghost droolz, TruImage rulz !!!
Been using it for over a year now and never made a coaster or lost an image. In fact, I have a program that times out every 14 days and shuts down on XP. I just reimage the XP partition and reinstall the program.
Oh, did I mention that I hate XP!!!!
Just a thought!
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If you're not livin' on the edge, you're takin' up too much space ! |
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