Any opinions on these two image mirroring products? Reading the reviews for both on Amazon, they are really mixed. Neither gets more than three stars.
Anybody used either? Or better yet, both to judge which is better? If so, what version?
With either, can I burn a disaster recovery CD that would boot to the program, to restore everything if necessary.
Can these also copy the entire drive, Registry, files etc to a new HDD so that it would work the same? Or even to a new computer if it has the same OS?
I think I know the answer, but could the image be sent to an external HDD so I could boot and run from that?
I doubt it, but if not, can I get a new internal HDD, put it in a case and connect with USB and boot and run from that if the original HDD dies or gets flaky?
I think both work very well from everything I’ve heard. Last I checked Norton Ghost was still stuck in the past and you had to reboot and run it outside of Windows.
Acronis TrueImage will run while the computer is in use, it will slow a slow PC down even more, but at least you don’t need to reboot to run a backup. I administer a small network where TrueImage is used to back up 6 drives, it’s always worked when I need it to. And I’ve restored a couple machines from “bare metal” to be sure it works.
You can make a bootable recovery CD with TrueImage. And yes, a USB drive is fine and will work with the bootable recovery CD. It really does about everything you could hope for.
Some of the latest ones are able to adapt to different hardware as well so in an emergency you could reload a backup onto a different box while the original box was under repair.
That page lands on the description for the server version but its also available as a $10 upgrade on the standard versions.
I’ll throw in another endorsement for Acronis with the Universal Restore feature. To test it for my IT department, I imaged a 2003 server (complete with SCSI and RAID controllers) and restored the image onto a bog-standard laptop. It booted right up into Windows.
It obviously wasn’t the fastest configuration, and some minor things like the sound driver were missing, but it proved that Universal Restore can reconcile some dramatic differences in hardware.
This ability is extremely valuable if a server dies and you can’t replace it with an identical model.
From past experience, anything is likely to be better than a Norton product.
(Oddly enough, way back when, I met Peter Norton, and he was a real good guy. And his products were really good, efficient, & useful. But they have gone way downhill since he sold the company.)
I use Norton for my dev box. I like it and it has saved my butt at least once.
1. Anybody used either? Or better yet, both to judge which is better? If so, what version? I only have experience with Ghost.
2. With either, can I burn a disaster recovery CD that would boot to the program, to restore everything if necessary. Ghost will allow you to create a recovery disk if you need to, but there is no need unless you have special drivers that aren’t on the Ghost boot disk.
3. Can these also copy the entire drive, Registry, files etc to a new HDD so that it would work the same? Or even to a new computer if it has the same OS? Ghost should let you restore the entire disk image, and should work as long as you have the same hardware - keep in mind that the drivers will be looking for a specific type of machine.
4. I think I know the answer, but could the image be sent to an external HDD so I could boot and run from that? I don’t know.
5. I doubt it, but if not, can I get a new internal HDD, put it in a case and connect with USB and boot and run from that if the original HDD dies or gets flaky? If I understand the question, yes. You could get a new internal hard drive and install it. You would then boot from the Ghost CD. It would restore your image from the USB device where the image is stored onto the new hard drive.
** 6. Any other such programs anybody can recommend? **Ghost is all I use.
Question for Acronis users: Can I back up and restore my server with it? Norton will not load on the latest Windows Server software.
I love Acronis True Image. It’s worked amazingly well for me for years, and saved me hours of headaches and I sleep happy knowing that I have a recent Acronis backup.
I haven’t used Ghost.
Yes. Even better, you can activate the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager, which writes to the MBR so that you can boot straight to the recovery screen without the need for a rescue CD. The most irritating thing about recovery used to be that you had to go looking for a bootable CD (or find another computer to create one) to begin recovery. Not anymore. Boot straight to recovery screen (F11), plug-in external USB drive, restore. The whole process completes in 15-20mins for me.
Yes. You can backup based on files/folders, or backup an entire partition, or backup an entire disk (including all partition info), or create a backup to migrate to a new HDD using Clone Disk or Add New Drive options. It also does a bit-by-bit backup if you want.
See #2. Additionally, yes you could boot from the Acronis Rescue CD/USB and connect the external HDD.
I’m not sure what you mean exactly, but you can boot from a Rescue CD/USB and restore to a new HDD. Not sure if you can restore to a USB drive, I haven’t tested that.
Additional features in Acronis:
Browse within a backup in Windows or through the Recovery CD/USB or Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. This allows you to copy/paste an individual file/folder from the backup image without actually having to restore the backup at all.
Try and Decide Option: This allows you to test software before you make it permanent on your machine. Kinda like a time-machine, you can go back in time if you don’t like the newly installed software. It basically creates a sandbox within which all changes are made when you enable this feature. At the end of your try and decide, you can either commit all changes or revert to the original state of your drive
One click Backup. I don’t really use this feature.
Acronis Secure Zone. Create a secure zone on a separate partition or internal drive to store the backup image. No need for external USB backups. Restore straight from your existing drive. Dangerous if you choose a partition on the same physical disk and there’s a hardware failure of the disk. Great for if you have a second internal drive.
Ability to convert Windows Virtual Hard Drive (.vhd) backup files to Acronis format or vice-versa.
Acronis True Image has my highest recommendation, but here are some other options (free):
I use Ghost as my backup. I did a “set it and forget it” and it faithfully backs up my desktop to an external USB driver on schedule. It’s saved my ass more than once.