VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Ed Fisher]

First off. I have no connection or interest in this company, but am a big fan. I used to use a program called "GHOST" but later moved to Acronis True Image for the convenience. (it was simply easier to use)

If you don't know what ACRONIS can do, it's this. It can make an exact IMAGE of your computer's hard drive. THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS SIMPLY MAKING A COPY. With an "image" you have the operating system and your programs and an EXACT COPY that can be stored, duplicated, and returned to the computer (or a new hard drive if the old one crashes) when needed. The beauty of this is that when (particularly with a PC) things get all scrambled or a new piece of software caused conflicts or problems you can "return" your computer to the way it was before all of this happened.

Now, true, Windows has "System Restore" but that only affects the operating system and leaves your data alone. Which could be a good thing. But if you have a virus or things are truly "screwed," System Restore usually is helpless against malicious software and, at best, seems to be a "hit or miss' proposition. And, of course, if the hard drive crashes..everything is lost.

For example, you want to try out some new software. An editing program, etc. If you decide you don't like it, or it creates problems, a simply "uninstall" typically doesn't get rid of all of it.

But with Acronis and a backup before you install it. You can return the computer to EXACTLY the state it was before all of that happened.

I think this is particularly important if you use your computer as a money making TOOL like most of us do and can't afford to screw it up.

You can also set up Acronis to backup every day if you like, then if something goes wrong, you can return it to the way the computer was "last Thursday"...or any day you choose.

But what about your data? I learned years ago to try to keep my operating system and it's associated programs on one drive and my data on a different one (driver or partition). That way I can always return my operating system back to a healthier time without messing with my data. It all depends on your particular needs.

But I have built systems where I was determined to try for "software perfection" and would step by step add software with an Acronis backup before each program install, to make sure that if ANYTHING went wrong, I could simply ERASE that mistake and start over.

The bottom line is...there is no better feeling than having a computer that is slow, having issues, or generally making you crazy with errors (or WORSE)....then to pull up a program that 15 minutes later gives your computer a "fresh soul" where everything works the way is did in the beginning.

Of course, it's also great as a general data backup as well, since the images can be "mounted" by the software to act like an additional hard drive so that you have access to your data should you need to retrieve it after a crash.

I've noted online that the program is anywhere form 24-39 dollars depending on where you find it. But for those of us who can honestly say "Acrois has saved my Life"(more than once)...it's cheap insurance.

NUFF SAID.
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"I reserve the right to be completely wrong."

[vkuehn]

I, too, am a fan and user of Acronis. I first obtained it for free. It comes with Western Digital drives, but if you use that free version it is picky, it will only write the image to a WD drive! In recent years I have become something of an agnostic on hard-drive brands, so I just standardize on WD.

I keep an unbelievable large amount of CRAP on my hard drive. To do typical, tradition back-up schemes takes hours and hours, thus you put it off and first thing you know it has been months and months since your last full back-up.

But I bought a larger replacement drive several years ago and did a full-disk image and learned Acronis can do the entire disk to disk transfer in an hour so so. So why not have a fleet of maybe three hard drives, and do a full image copy once a month. Then the day you wake up and realize a virus has locked you up, or a hard drive "throws a rod" as we old time auto mechanics are fond of saying, grab the most recent "image", throw it into the machine, and all you have lost is whatever has happened in the last month.

(Before George Whittam racks my knuckles with the school teacher's ruler.... Yes, do a daily back-up of your critical voice files. That doesn't take hours and hours.