Windows 7: Acronis True Image Home 2011 - DON'T BUY IT

Actually, there was a reason I'm not using Acronis 2013 here. I actually purchased 2013 for another office and I didn't much care for some of the changes they made.

Did someone post "6 month old OS"??? Win 7's been around since 2010!

Anyway, to my horror I found the RAID array irrevocably corrupted. At least for my level of IT chops it was.

One thing I maybe should have tried with the Win 7 OEM CD was INSTALL>UPGRADE, instead of only trying the OS repair feature. Maybe I could have fixed the MBR without blowing out the files but I'll never know. Still doesn't change the fact that Disk 0 was showing up as NON-RAID. Don't think the CD could have fixed that. First I got "NTLDR missing", and then later I got both disks to show up as RAID 0 again, but then it was a "disk read failure" error. Don't like that one.

So I made a new array. Made it a mirror this time.

So I re-installed Win 7 from the CD, on a formatted 80G partition, and then after up and running, I recovered from my Acronis .tib disk image WITHOUT checking the "Recover MBR/ track 0" box.

After restoring the original system partition from Acronis .tib file, I got "server execution failed explorer.exe" trying to open any window or menu item in the primary user's login. USERS>DOCUMENTS, etc., all that stuff had been on the DATA logical partition, still not restored. Control panel would not open.

I logged on as a different user with Admin rights (glad I made a backdoor in), then created a second partition in Disk Mgmt. Recovered the second .tib (data) disk image to that.

Still got "server execution failed explorer.exe" logging in as her because the drive letter had changed after backup. Once I changed the partition drive letter, it's finally over. The PC's back.

FYI the way I usually leverage Acronis is CLONE, along with letting nonstop backup run. This was the first time (and do you think LAST? I do) that I used partition backup. I will only use "clone disk" from here on.

I obviously have a call logged with Acronis Support (customerservice at Acronis dot com) but I would love a real answer as to why this happened. When I checked the backups after they were done, I did not execute any recovery operation. I booted from the recovery CD I had made (Acronis) and browsed to the backups just to make sure they were selectable. Then I canceled. But I would guess it was there, during that part, when the stupid program broke the MBR of the PC. I can't believe that simply copying the partition f__ed it up. But I guess it's possible.

Another issue I had, with 2012 and 2013 versions, the Linux Version rescue discs did not work on my UEFI BIOS systems (two Z77 boards, one an ASUS and the other a Gigabyte). With the 2012 version it would boot but the screen was total garbage and not readable. The 2013 version would boot but there was no mouse/keyboard control.

I had to create a WinPE/Acronis rescue disc to work with these two motherboards.

Hi there
I've been using Acronis for YEARS but ATM 2011 was (and IS a dog). Skip ATM 2012 as well. ATM 2013 is much better (works for W8 as well, GPT disks and UEFI protected boot backups too).

However you need to know EXACTLY what you are backing up these days -- it's not so simple merely taking a "bog standard" bootable image backup any more (although of course it should be).

GPT, Boot mechanisms, boot partitions. UEFI, protected boot etc add a whole slew of new variables into the equation.

Cheers
jimbo

[QUOTE=jimbo45;2328950
However you need to know EXACTLY what you are backing up these days -- it's not so simple merely taking a "bog standard" bootable image backup any more (although of course it should be).
[/QUOTE]
For an MBR boot "bog standard" using Windows inbuilt or (free/paid) Macrium Reflect is fine. I believe Macrium is fine with UEFI (not sure about the free version). I haven't bother with RAID so maybe this falls outside bog standard?

[QUOTE=mjf;2329262]Hi there
Can't help you here as I don't have any RAID devices. For HOME computers these days using RAID is probably overkill unless you are running an Internet server or something with a whole load of users.

Bog standard HDD's are reliable now so why waste time with RAID --it doesn't enhance performance and doesn't IMO bring anything to the table.

If you are running Fault tolerant data servers that need to be up and running 24 hrs a day then another issue. Home user computers even with a decent home LAN this is grossly overkill now.

At Home SSD's are the way to go for FAST Disk I/O and general system performance.


Cheers
jimbo

Acronis True Image Home 2011 with Plus Pack is supposed to recognize GPT drives, but it doesn't for me. I've read that version 2013 with Plus Pack is supposed to but there's a lot of internet noise that 2013 doesn't support GPT even though it's supposed to. I can't get Windows 7 HP backup to work with my GPT drive even though that's supposed to work too.

Can't believe what that manufacturers say.

I'm hoping the 2011 with Plus Pack version works on Windows 8.

Sometimes a small business owner is going to limit spending, and that's what I was up against when I was dealing with this Acronis TI Home 2011 paid version. She paid for it - she didn't want to pay again. And I had good luck with it previously. But if anyone is listening, take away one thing from all my blah blah blah - Use CLONE DISK, and clone each partition separately. DO NOT use PARTITION BACKUP. I suspect that her RAID array was toasted when I booted from the rescue disk (should call it the KILL DISK) and checked to see if the backups were valid (selectable with no MBR error message.) Note that I CANCELED immediately once I saw that it was possible to select and restore from the partition backups I made. This should not have killed the RAID array. I am pretty PO'd, still.

Also I emailed Acronis support with a plainly panic stricken RESPONSE NEEDED ASAP, CRITICAL FAULT - I AM DOWN etc. and it took them four or five days to get back to me. So bunk them.

And I totally disagree that RAID is overkill for a desktop PC, home or business. Unless you are an internet shopper or online gamer who does no work and your whole experience is cloud-based, I think RAID is a MUST. A mirror setup at the very least is a bare minimum. I have to rescue these folks when they crash. I'm am not looking to inflate my billable hours thru repetitive, mundane tasks like restoring stuff bit by bit. I want an image - Poof, you're back. Oh why thank you so much, that's nice of you to say - no I'm not a hero, just doing my job (Ha!)

If you build your own PC's and you don't build hardware-based fault tolerance into them, that's like... oh I dunno, only printing one copy of a very critical document and then going on a trip far away where you will need to refer to it often. Risky. Technically you can get it again, but it would be far less stressful to have an xtra if it got trashed.

I assume you are still talking data backup? I'd love some tips on hardware fault tolerance apart from having more than one computer. Don't products like SyncToy, SyncBackFree give good backup security?
This is aside from ~ weekly system imaging.