Barry's rigs 'n reviews June 15, 2006
by Barry Little
Barry's rigs 'n reviews web site
Acronis True Image 9.0 Home
When you are finished using the
virtual disk(s), you should disconnect them by
running the Unmount Image Wizard under Pick a Tool.
Image files mounted as virtual disks under Acronis True
Image use system resources that can be put to
better use when they are no longer needed, and will
disappear when you turn off or reboot your PC
anyway.
Scheduling Tasks
Like many mundane yet necessary
things that must be done regularly for your own
good, regular backups are the only way to protect
your data. The only way to achieve that is to
schedule them.
Of
course, backups that don't get done aren't
very useful. The best way to insure that
they do is to schedule them.
The
Schedule Task Wizard.
Once
again, you can select either the entire
drive or individual folders. Let's select
the Files and folders option here.
Select
the folders you want to back up. Here I have
the all-important My Documents folder
where many applications will automatically
store your important files — music, photos,
that Level 20 or higher character you spent
all those hours creating in The
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion...
Enter any
files or file-types you want to exclude
here.
Choose an
existing backup file to append the changes
to here — in this case the full backup we just
did.
Choose
the type of backup and click Next.
Since I want to run this backup frequently,
either an incremental or differential backup
will work here.
You have
the option of password protecting your
backup here.
Unless
you are backing up to a server that requires
authentication, you can leave this at the
default setting. Otherwise provide your
login and password here.
Once
again, choose either the default backup
options or set them manually, if you choose.
Enter a
description for the backup (optional but
again, always helpful).
Here's
where you choose when your backup runs and
how it runs. If you just want to get the
scheduled job set up, but can't make up your
mind when you want it to run, then select Do
not start automatically. As you can see
here, aside from the more typical Daily,
Weekly, Monthly and One time only
options, you can also schedule the
backup to run when you start your PC, before
it shuts down, or before or after you log on
to it.
Here are
the Daily Parameters for my scheduled
backup.
Because
the scheduler for Acronis True Image runs as
a service under Windows, it needs a valid
user account name and password to run.
If
everything looks good, click Next to
schedule your backup.
Scheduled
backup job successfully created!
Type in a
name for your scheduled job here.
You're
good to go!
You can
click this button to kick the job off
immediately if you want.
Click
this button to create another scheduled job.
Click
this to go back and make any changes to the
selected scheduled backup job.
Click
this to change the schedule of the selected
backup job.
Click
this to delete it...
...this
to rename it.
...and
this to view the log.
You'll find all the flexibility you
need to schedule Acronis True Image backup jobs with
the Schedule Task Wizard. You can schedule
image and file archive backups to run once, daily,
weekly, monthly; when you first start your computer
up or before you shut it off, or when you log in or
out of your user account.
Cloning and Adding Hard Drives
Upgrading to a new, large-capacity
hard drive can be a real time-consuming chore: - Partition, format the new drive and install Windows
- Transfer your data from the old drive to the new drive
or from a backup
- Customize all your settings to your personal
preferences
As we can
see under Disk Management, here's the other
drive installed to be cloned. Although the
drives are of the same capacity, the procedure
is the same for cloning a smaller drive to a
new larger one.
Select
Clone Disk.
Click
Next at the opening screen of the
Disk Clone Wizard.
Here, we
have two options for the cloning process.
Automatic will clone everything from
your old hard drive to your new one, and
resize the partitions to fit your
replacement drive.
Manual
will give advanced users more control
and options for cloning their new drive.
This
shows the original drive and what the layout
of the new drive will be. Click Next to
continue.
Click
Proceed to begin the cloning process.
The drive
being cloned on boot-up. The amount of time
required for cloning your old drive will
vary, depending mostly on the size and speed
of the source and target drives, and other
variables.
Here
you'll be prompted to shut down your PC and
change any jumpers on the new drive to make
it the primary drive (if it's an EIDE/ATA
hard drive), and to remove your old drive.
Restarting Windows and firing-up Acronis True
Image's Disk Clone Wizard again, we can see
the results of the cloning process.
...also
under Disk Management...
... and
My Computer...
If not
for the different drive letters, you
wouldn't be able to tell them apart.
The Acronis True Image Clone Disk
Wizard can get the job done in less than half
the time it takes to complete all the items in this
list. You can let the Clone Disk Wizard
automatically transfer the contents of your old hard
drive to the new one, resizing the partition to
accommodate the new, larger size of the hard disk.
Or you can run the Clone Disk Wizard in manual mode
to give you more flexibility and control over the
process: Manually resize the partition on the new target drive
as desired. Leave the partitions and data on the old drive intact. Repartition and reuse the drive for backups or storing
data. Secure-wipe the drive if you plan on removing and
selling it. Two data-wiping algorithms are available: Quick
(one-pass), or the more secure Normal (multi-pass).
Computer users who find using the MMC
(Microsoft Management Console) snap-in for Disk
Management to partition and format drives
intimidating, will really appreciate the Add Hard
Drive Wizard. You can dynamically resize the
partition with the mouse (or the scroll arrows next
to each appropriate dialog box for more granular
adjustments of the partition's before-and-after
unallocated space and size). You can also choose a
number of file systems to format the drive with,
including a number of Linux variants that should
bring a smile to even the most jaded power user's
face.
Bye-bye System Restore
Regular, scheduled backups with Acronis True Image 9.0 Home pretty much makes Windows
XP's System Restore redundant. Many gamers and power
users turn it off anyway to reclaim the additional
disk space it uses and to regain system resources it
hogs while operating in the background. Anyone who
uses a third-party disk optimizer like Disk Keeper has
also probably noticed that restore point files are
one of the biggest culprits of performance-robbing
disk fragmentation. Although turning off System
Restore isn't particularly difficult, Acronis
decided to throw in another one of their neat Acronis True Image Wizards that will turn System Restore
off (or back on) for you. Just click Manage
System Restore and follow the Wizard (don't
forget to defrag your hard drive when you're done).
Conclusion
Acronis True Image 9.0 Homehas matured quite nicely over the years into a
world-class one-stop backup solution without peer,
which is invaluable and absolutely essential to
anyone who owns a computer and cares about
protecting their data. Feature-rich, fast, powerful
and easy to use, it just plain works. You
can't ask any more of a backup utility than that.
Final Score:
Summary:Highs:
Combining the power of image backups
with the flexibility of file-by-file
backups in one easy-to-use yet
surprisingly powerful backup utility, True
Image 9.0 Home has an incredibly
rich feature set with everything that
a computer user from novice to expert
needs to back up and protect their
systems. Lows:
The pain you'll feel for kicking
yourself for not buying Acronis True Image
9.0 Home the first time your hard drive crashes or Windows won't boot.
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Software de copia de seguridad de Acronis Inc.