Acronis True Image

Question

I've noticed quite a number of postings regarding problems with ALL the Alienware computers (mostly the AlienFX/mio board) after the reloading of Windows or other corruption issues. This is just a friendly piece of information.....GET ACRONIS True Image. I think it cost me $50 bucks....It will save you hours of headaches by totally restoring your disk image in the event of a problem. It has saved me atleast 3 times.....Most recently, for me, here in Pennsylvania we had a series of quick power outages. Something just didn't seem right with my Area 51 ALX. No problem.....20 minute total disk image restore. Since I use my computer for work, all documents and things like quicken info etc. are backed up a third and fourth place was well. So, no matter how long it had been since my last Acronis back-up, my data is just another mouse click away. Since I have space for 6 hard drive, I dedicated one for Acronis back-ups only. Best $50 bucks you will ever spend (on your computer).

Tesla1856 · Answer

GET ACRONIS True Image. I think it cost me $50 bucks....It will save you hours of headaches by totally restoring your disk image in the event of a problem.

Definitely agree.

http://en.community.dell.com/search/searchresults.aspx?q=Tesla1856%20acronis&ctypes=forum&groups=85&sort=default&wps=5

I picked up my copy of Acronis True-Image 2010 for less than that long ago. Still works fine and I use it all the time (for backups, maintenance, repairs, etc). Just used it on a new Dell UEFI based system (in Legacy mode) ... easy SSD upgrade to boot drive. Took about 15 minutes total.

I suggest you turn on "Verify Image after creation".

lynne4270 · Answer

Tesla 1856: Just a question about True-image and UEFI. When you set the bios to Legacy in the F2 screen, Did you lose the ability to see the hard drive so as to clone it to a SSD? I tried doing that with Acronis True-image 10 and never could get it to work. I figured I must be doing something wrong. I ended up having a tech at one of the computer stores do it and he said he was using True-image 2013.

Tesla1856 · Answer

Tesla 1856: Just a question about True-image and UEFI. When you set the bios to Legacy in the F2 screen, Did you lose the ability to see the hard drive so as to clone it to a SSD? I tried doing that with Acronis True-image 10 and never could get it to work. I figured I must be doing something wrong. I ended up having a tech at one of the computer stores do it and he said he was using True-image 2013.

Well, first, Acronis-10 is not even Win-7 compatible (that is from Vista days). I used Acronis-2010 on a new Dell Precision Workstation m6600 laptop. It shipped with a spinning drive in Legacy UEFI Mode. I installed Samsung 830 256gb SSD.

I booted Windows, installed Acronis, cloned drive, and rebooted. After it finished, I re-configged BIOS to set the SSD as boot drive. The original 7200rpm HDD became a data drive (there is room for both).

Here are my notes:

Acronis 2010 worked fine. You use Custom/Advanced and you can play with partition sizes before cloning. Even though it's older software, it worked on this newer UEFI based laptop. BIOS settings were RAID (actually single-disc RAID or non-RAID disc mode) and Legacy UEFI.

AHCI should also work, but I didn't feel like messing with it. You still get UEFI type BIOS post speed. Cut boot time in half (from power switch on, login, task-tray items loaded, and to usable desktop) 30 seconds. Transfer speeds on SATA-3 are crazy fast ...514/401 IOPS 61177/23950

lynne4270 · Answer

Thanks for that info. I tried using the True-image 10 because that is what Kingston sent with the 240gb SSD for cloning the hard drive. I would have went with a Samsung SSD, but it was on a promotional deal from Dell and Samsung wasn't available at the time. Yes the transfer speeds on SATA-3 are crazy fast. From power up to e-mail is about 35 to 40  seconds. I will never go back to a platter type drive except for storage.

Tesla1856 · Answer

Well, Samsung was bundling a special version of Norton Ghost for a while, but now I think they have a private utility.

The versions of popular software utilities that the drive manufacturers are bundling with their drives are feature limited, operate only on certain drive makes, and might only work outside of Windows, etc. They are not a true representation of the real software.

Not just booting/shutdown but overall machine is more responsive.

lynne4270 · Answer

Agree with the speed all around. I do a lot of photo work with CS5 and I can batch process 100 pictures in one 4th the time is used to take me with the platter type drive. Will be installing a SSD in my niece's computer and will going with the 256GB Samsung 840 pro. I heard that was the best one out there right now. She has a HP computer that doesn't use UEFI so I don't think I will have the problems I had with my Alienware Aurora R4, I hope not anyway.

Tesla1856 · Answer

and will going with the 256GB Samsung 840 pro. I heard that was the best one out there right now.

Agreed. That's what I would buy for next one because I installed three Samsung 830 256gb MLC in three different machines without a single problem or failure after heavy use. I like the 840 Pro over normal 840 because it still has the MLC memory like the original 830. Second choice would probably be pro-class Intel.

I also like Samsung's SSD Magician Windows software but I think Intel has something similar (SSD Toolbox or something).

lara_blake · Answer

I agree with you.Turning on  'Verify Image after creation'. is really working Thanks to you and Acronis True image also.

gameengineer · Answer

I have Acronis True Image 2010 as well and this is the first time I haven't gotten it to work. I've an Alienware m18x R2 and replaced the original HDD with a Sumsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD drive. Installed Win7 x64 the Acronis TI CD and proceeded to Backup the SSD (C: and Active drive) onto another HDD that is installed. powered down, replaced the 250GB with the 500GB and booted to the ATI CD and did a restore. I tried all ways including restoring each of the two partitions (Primary and Recovery) manually, one at a time. I selected the checkbox to make the Primary partition Active when I restored the first (main) partition. I tried restoring the MBR and Track 0 and not restoring.

The issue: It never boots to the newly restored drive.

I even tried booting with my Win7 install CD with F8 to get to the repair screen and ultimately a command prompt. I ran diskpart and manually set disk 0, Partition 1 of the 500GB SSD to "active" but it still did not boot.

I am very close to giving up and just installing everything manually on the new drive but I really don't want to.

Any suggestions?

-Steve

Tesla1856 · Answer

I used to use Acronis-2010 before switching to Macrium Reflect (free).

I never had a problem with it. I always Imaged whole machine (or at least whole C: drive) with VERIFY ON. Imaged with installed copy and "bare metal restored" with bootable CD.

Acronis-2010 only supports Win-7. It's for Legacy BIOS systems. However, I think I did manage to get it to work with a few UEFI systems as long as they were in Legacy mode.

Yeah, clean install is nice too. Will you do Windows-7/64bit or Windows-10?

AAA737flyer · Answer

Acronis 2010 is not fully compatible with SSD's. It wasn't until 2012 I believe, that Acronis put out a version that took into consideration SSD's architect.

An SSD requires an empty block of data between data blocks whereas an HHD does not. Acronis 2012 will automatically place an empty block of data between data blocks when cloning and restoring data.

Acronis 2017 has come a long way since 2010 and its UI is very friendly.

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Acronis True Image

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