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Product Description

TRUE IMAGE HOME 2009 (WIN 2000 XP VISTA)

Customer Reviews:

• Don't plan on trying to uninstall this product . . . it won't.
  I downloaded the trial version of Acronis True Image Home 2009 and used it for a couple of weeks, including the creation of a mirrored copy of my hard drive on a Maxtor external drive. Unfortunately the software doesn't provide sufficient cautionary information to prevent data loss. I selected "Create a Copy of My Hard Drive" and it did just that . . . overwriting all of my other data on the external drive. About 60 GB of music, photos, and personal data files.
  
  I didn't blame Acronis for that one, since after reviewing the instructions again, I noticed a small statement about all data being overwritten when you copy a hard drive contents to another drive. It should definitely have asked me "Are you sure you want to overwrite the contents of this drive?", but it didn't. My bad, I guess.
  
  Anyway, I found a new copy of an earlier version of True Image Home and purchased it for about 60% of what the new version would have cost. When I went to install it, Windows XP threw up a message saying (approximately this) "The following software can not be automaticall installed, since you have a newer version of the software installed at this time. Uninstall the newer version and retry the install."
  
  I used Windows "ADD REMOVE PROGRAMS" and then rebooted. Same message. I then used the Acronis LIVE CHAT and they provided links to a Windows XP UnInstall Utility that was supposed to remove a traces of the True Image Home 2009. No such luck. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to install the older software, including manual modification of my Windows Registery, I have given up and purchased other software.
  
  Long story short, I wouldn't wish this software on my worst enemy.
  ...more info
• Backs up fine, just can't restore. Disaster invitation!
  Hi,
  I just tried to do a restore and Acronis True Image can't find the SATA drives on my Intel chipset. All my data is locked up in some funky Acronis format and I can not restore it.
  
  They need a clear and conspicuous disclaimer that you can't restore to SATA drives on Intel. This is absolutely inexcusable for a company alleging to sell a "disaster recovery" product. It's like buying an automotive service contract and then finding that they have never heard of General Motors. This is preposterous!
  
  Unless they can mail me a CD with a product which does both backup and recovery, I am going to demand my $$$ back.
  
  Read the irate reviews on the tech web sites before considering this product or, better yet, avoid it altogether.
  
  ...more info
• Very poor product and even worse support.
  I have been in the industry for 30 years as programmer, system admin, educator, etc. The obtuseness of this product is astounding!
  
  You cannot get support for the product. Their product forums do not seem to be monitored by company personnel. The support logon/register page on their web site has errors which prevent you from doing such. Essentially, no way to get support.
  
  I spent 6 hours just trying to figure out how to get an image on say Friday night of each week, followed by incrementals the other 6 nights. Keep 3-4 sets of these and then a new one would overwrite previous ones. No way to figure it out. The interface is completely non-sense and ambiguous. Cannot make sense out of the online help nor the PDF user guide. Each spends dozens of pages telling you how good the product is and what it "can" do. But never tells you how to do it. For example, not one work on how to recover in event of disaster. Figuring out the backup setup is so ambiguous it is frustrating. YOu don't know if you are getting an image, or incremental - or when or how.
  
  A terrible user interface and product. It may indeed do what it states it can do - but there is no way to figure out how. And if I can't, after being in this industry for 30+ years, what chance do you have?
  
  Very dissapointed....more info
• Hard Drive Clone mostly successful
  I am using Windows Vista Premium 64-bit. NOTE: The FREE TRIAL bootable disc clone function is disabled. I was able to create the bootable CD but it would not clone. The Windows version got hung up when trying to clone a 640GB hard drive. The drives were identical (same make, model & size). BE CAREFUL when selecting source and destination drives. The drives do not display in the same order each time you run the software. The bootable version display has even less information to help determine which drive is which. This is only a problem if you have two or more drives that are the same size. I created a bootable CD-R but that did not work because I had removed the SATA DVD drive and replaced it with two Plextor IDE drives (w/PCI card). I added the SATA DVD drive back in and got the bootable CD to work. The clone was successful using the bootable CD. Before I did that I also tried to create bootable removable media. That did not work but I did not figure out why. I changed the BIOS setting first, to boot from removable media, but that did not cure the problem. I used this software for cloning only and did not test any other functions. I prefer GoodSync for backup & restore. Note that the free Maxtor MaxBlast software appears to be the same as Acronis TrueImage for hard drive setup but it will only work if you have at least one Maxtor or Seagate drive installed....more info
• acronis 2009
  It works
  
  I had to buy this as my old acronis will not handle the latest hardware such as graphics cards and motherboards -
  the updates on the old acronis only get you so far
  
  the screens are fussy and badly laid out, but i have used acronis a lot so the appearance is just an annoyance, and its the fact that the product works really well that made me buy it
  
  I use it with xp so i dont know how good it is with vista
  
  I still couldnt live without acronis and its saved me lots of times
  ...more info
• When it fails, its catastrophic. Tech support -- NOT
  When this program fails, you may lose your entire system. (See the review at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2336019,00.asp where he had a similar problem.) It could all be solved if tech support would respond AT ALL to you, and they don't. If it works, its a wonderful program. When it doesn't, it can eat your data and ruin ALL of your system. The benefits are NOT worth the risks. ...more info
• I should have listened
  I purchased Acronis True Image Home 2009. I read the reviews that complain about the bad customer service and thought that is just them and that it would never happen to me. I was wrong! When the program works properly it's probably a good program but if you regularly need Technial Assistance or are at all unlucky then I say there must be a better choice for you. I chose this because it is their newest version from Acronis and there were some very good reviews on the Internet. I did expect some small issues but got more than I anticipated. When I loaded the software my 19 in 1 Card Reader disappeared and I didn't realize that the program was involved. It is a new computer so I spent a lot of time on the phone with Dell and searching their knowledge base. It turns out that Acronis was aware of this problem but didn't bother to inform people who purchased the program from them even though they have our email addresses. It turns out there were a slew of problems that were repaired by a 87 MB download. I made 3 attempts to back up my hard drive and 2 failed because half way through the program couldn't see the CD Burner anymore. During the month or so that I have had this software I have sent 3 emails to the Tech Team using the forms on their website and none of them have been answered. To be fair, I didn't mark them as urgent but I think they still should have been answered in a week. I used their Chat Line for Tech support. One time the person was very polite reassuring and interested in helping me. He helped me after I tried to download the repair update 3 times. He gave me a new location to download the file and it worked. The second time I used the Chat Line (while I was attempting to back up my system and the Acronis Software was unable to complete the back up because it said the disk was full but in reality it couldn't see the CD Burner even though we were on the 9th disk) the person I chatted with seemed very distracted and informed me about the number of disks that it would take to back up my system and that it didn't sound very safe. I have no idea what that meant because that is exactly what the Acronis True Image Home Software is meant to do. After an hour, he said the software doesn't see the CD Burner and his great solution was reboot the computer and then it SHOULD be able to see the burner again. Remember, I was half way through the back up with a pile of CD's that were about to become garbage. I should consider myself lucky because the last time the program stopped being able to write to the disk I was on Disk 13 and he could have wasted 1 hour and 5 minutes of my time.
  GOOD LUCK!!...more info
• Couldn't even load the trial without it failing
  Tried twice but I'm not going to put a lot of time into forcing the trial to work just to see if I want to purchase it.
  
  Acronis True Image has stopped working
  
  A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close
  the program and notify you if a solution is available....more info
• Not sure why others are having problems....
  ATI has always worked perfectly for me...I've used it (and previous versions) for more than five years, restoring HD partitions several times with complete success. You DO have to understand what a partition is and a little something about incremental backups, but it is really quite simple to use. In my opinion, though, you are wasting your time if you are making backups to removable media (like tapes or CDs). Make your backups to a USB drive, a network drive, or to an internal drive on a separate IDE/SATA port. This is the only backup solution I've found that works in the background without a significant drain on system resources. (Of course, it's always best to make your backup without any other processes running, but this isn't always practical.) I also use this on several multiple-OS boot systems and it backs up the non-Windows partitions just fine. Easy to restore just a single partition or single folders/files. Recommended....more info
• Failed to work during last three attempts large hard drives
  Acronis True Image Home 2009 works well on smaller hard drives -- or drives up to 100 GB -- but fails on larger drives I tested above 500GB.
  
  In one case, TI 2009 deleted several programs after restoring from an image.
  
  Shadow Protect Desktop 3.3 is a much better product.
  ...more info
• Works Great!
  Works as advertised. I used both the Acronis and Norton trial versions, and the Acronis was more intuitive than Norton. I purchased the Acronis, and have since used it 3 times! First time because Dell support messed up my machine, 2nd time because my machine was going slow so I wanted to revert back to a "faster" time, and third when I had to recover files within a folder. All three times is worked great! I backup to an FTP Server on my NAS, but the first few I backed up to a USB harddrive. All worked fine. The reason I am writing this now is because it just helped me out of a jam (the third restore) and thought I would let others know how great this was!
  
  ...more info
• Acronis Saved My Cookies...
  I use Carbonite and would not be without it, but I think a mirror image is nice for a few bucks, too. Something happened in Win XP that would not allow me to log in and I didn't even have a password setup. I couldn't get in in safe mode either. I tried a boot utility on cd but that didn't work. I put in my Acronis disk and selected cd in multiple boot. I plugged in my ext. drive and restored my mirror backup that was 3 weeks old. Carbonite restored my recent data files. All I can say is that Acronis came through for me and the restore was only around 15 minutes (52GB). I ran another mirror image backup today which took around 20 minites. What can I say? I guess you love it or hate it. I have had to restore from all the pgm disks before, re-download, try to find ser. numbers, etc... For me Acronis wins hands down....more info
• Disappointing product
  Like several of the other posts, I was really looking forward to knowing all of my files - and programs - would be safely tucked away in case something happened.
  
  ..then something DID happen.
  
  Restoration was not possible, and tech support was non-existent. Thankfully, I had read about another product (Mozy) that keeps everything at their site, encrypted, etc. I'm sitting here, after re-loading Windows, etc - and thankful that I had this second option picked.
  
  Good luck....more info
• A Law Unto Itself: The Nature of the Backup Beast
  Unfortunately, this is about as good as it gets... and I've been looking for better. Disk imaging software by its very nature must be able to operate both with and independently from the resident operating system - meaning there is plenty of opportunity for conflicts.
  
  I've been using Acronis True Image in various versions for 5 years. While I haven't had disasterous problems with 2009 *yet*, I expect that the same type of issues from the past will still be relevant as operating systems and BIOS evolve. I've looked at a number of other products, and despite all the historical issues with True Image, I haven't found anything definitively superior to it. It has saved me several times from corruption due to bad HD sectors, numerous times from wacky software that I regretted installing and Windows System Restore could not undo, and twice from complete HD failure. That said, over the years True Image has been itself a source of *scary* moments.
  
  Pros: Disk imaging for TOTAL disk restoration capabilities, full and incremental backup, selective directory/file type data backup, editing capability of the backup image, back-up image mounting as a logical drive for easy viewing and cut & paste from image to other drives with Windows Explorer, live backup (use computer while backing), recovery manager in conjunction with Acronis Secure Zone (restoration of operating system drive while still having use of computer), bootable CD with backup and recovery capabilities. Highly likely to work with proven technology systems (a computer system at least a year old).
  
  Cons: Most of the features are not available when using True Image from the bootable CD (basically just backup and restoration), the occasional tendency to damage the master boot record or delete the C:\ drive (I just hate it when that happens), clashing with upgrades to BIOS/Operating system or other FAT32-based software. Try and Decide feature doesn't work when reboot is required. While HD to HD backup/restorations generally work well, I've had less luck using DVD/USB media. Highly likely to have problems with leading-edge technology systems.
  
  I can't suggest strongly enough that BEFORE you install True Image to your computer's HD you should attempt to make a back up by simply using the bootable True Image CD. If you can't make a back up from the bootable CD, things may go badly should you choose to install True Image on your computer (read all the other sad/angry reviews). If you do install, be diligent about the updates from Acronis. Also, be cautious about changing settings in or upgrading the BIOS.
  
  One of the biggest flaws of True Image is the lack of disk recovery tools to undo the damage that True Image itself can cause. At the very least, become familiar with the FIXMBR (fix master boot record) command from Windows' Recovery Consol. I highly recommend purchasing a partition manager and recovery suite should True Image go berserk and delete a valuable HD partition and then refuse to restore the backup image because of corruption (although I've had that message a number of times, in reality the backup was not corrupt, the real culprit was an incompatibility between True Image and the BIOS). Disk Director, another Acronis product, has worked well for me in such emergencies by recovering the partition True Image deleted.
  
  While True Image has many very nice features (and I've used practically all of them), I didn't install it to my most recent computer build. I'm only using the backup/restore features available from the bootable CD. Virtually every horror story in other reviews has happened to me at least once. The only method for using True Image that hasn't ever caused problems for me is booting from the CD into True Image Safe Mode. Systems tested include several custom built boxes with Intel and Gigabyte motherboards, Intel processors, and several Dell computers; Windows XP 32-bit service packs 2 and 3.
  
  Finally, as an alternative to Acronis True Image, you might want to look at "Active@ Boot Disk" software (free trial version available). The interface is excellent, it has many nice utility features, but only does full backup (no incremental, so I continue to use True Image).
  ...more info
• Great Backup Solution
  Acronis makes a great backup program. It's pretty easy to use, and it works with both USB and networked external storage. The only hiccup I came across was trying to restore from a USB-connected external WD Passport hard drive. It took a few reboots and some patience to get the program to recognize the drive. After that, the restore went very smoothly. Scheduling backups is super easy, as is choosing which files to exclude from your backup. I download a lot of disposable videos that I don't keep from week to week, so I don't need those backed up all the time. Lastly, accessing your backups through the Acronis application while the computer is running is very handy. If you don't want to do a full restore, you can restore folders or even single files. All in all, a great buy. Totally worth it....more info
• very intuitive
  This prodcut is great, I dont understand how people rates it so low, The program is so intuitive that even a kid could use it, thats the reason that is difficult to find support, because you dont need any.
  
  Compared to Norton Ghost Acronis is lighter, I doesnt consumes much ram or procesor like ghost do, the real difference between Norton and Acronis is that Norton is from Symantec, that produces all kind of security software, and Acronis concentrates all the resources in backup and recovery software for desktops, workstations, servers and multiple operating systems.
  
  
  If you dont buy this product based on the one star ratings, you are not going to find anything better because Acronis doesnt have much competition....more info
• Very Poor Navigation and Instructions
  While the software appears to be creating the backups as instructed, the user interface is very poorly designed and executed. For one example, when you want to create an incremental backup, instead of listing for selection only the files actually on the backup hard drive, it appears to list all the files you've ever created (obviously from a file it creates internally). This makes it very difficult to select the files to append to. This is just one small example. The point is, there is really minimal user interface necessary (so it should have been simplet to design), but it appears the Acronis spent almost no time trying to figure out how to make it easy on the users. ...more info
• Don't buy this
  There is little to like and a lot to dislike about this program. It insists on making you operate its way, and tries to force you to schedule everything, schedule, schedule, schedule. "Do it our way, and do it when we damned well tell you to do it."
  
  For example, when you just want to do a quick backup, it has all sorts of calender nonsense, even though it's just a backup. It won't use your name for the backup, so you end up with backup1, backup2, backup3, etc., with no easy clue as to when it was made and what is in the backup. It does not have conventional menus to get you where you need to go, you have to fumble around and try to find something that looks like it might be what you want. But few of the usual options are available. In other words, the programmers are so convinced that you are stupid and have no idea what you want, that they have made it essentially useless.
  
  There there is the fact that it takes up a whopping 123 mb on your disk, and forces you to load a "service" that runs all the time, slowing down and clogging up your machine (and perhaps conflicting with a program you really need). Yet another program by programmers who apparently believe that your only purpose in having a computer is running their "wonderful" software.
  
  My son has a previous version of this software that I've used on his machine, and although I didn't like it much, at least it was functional. I can't say the same about 2009.
  
  I've uninstalled it, I haven't decided whether to throw it away or donate it. It's certainly not something I'm willing to use.
  
  ...more info
• Hard to Restore Disk Images
  Acronis True Image Home 2009 is an excellent backup & recovery system for PC's. Unfortunately at least 90% of the people who have computers would not be able to or not have the time to figure out how to use the best features of the program.
  I had an old computer with Windows XP so I decided to test True Image on it by creating an image of the entire internal hard drive on an external hard drive. Then using True Image I erased important Windows files so that the computer would not restart. Creating the image on the external drive was very easy but it took me all day to figure out how to get it back on the internal hard drive.
  When Windows won't start you simply put the original Acronis CD in the CD drive on your computer. Since it is a bootable CD restarting the computer boots up the Acronis operating system and True Image starts up. The only problem is without Windows, True Image can't find your external hard drive or any back up files.
  The complicated solution is to re-install Windows as it originally was when you purchased your computer (hopefully you have a Windows CD for that and you know how to do it). Then you re-install True Image on the operating Windows computer. Then you start True Image and if you can figure out the confusing procedures True Image will shut down your computer, restart itself from the Acronis bootable CD that you hopefully left in your CD drive, erase your entire hard drive, and reload the backup image that you have on your external hard drive. This actually works perfectly.
  Now, a few weeks later, I find out that there is an add-on program on the Acronis bootable CD. If you use that you can make another bootable CD that apparently is capable of finding backup files on an external hard drive without Windows. Trouble is I got rid of my old computer and I'm not about to erase Windows files on my new one to see how well it works.
  
  ...more info
• Glorified Shareware...Major Flaws...Look for another solution...
  I was initially impressed...I liked the interface, the scheduling capability, the ease of use...the fact it did not seem to bog down my machine...even during a backup. However, later encountered difficulties.
  
  MAKE SURE, as others have said, to get all the updates, immediately...was unable to see my removable media drives after install (in any program)...good news is I had read about the updates before I even bought the product...and those quickly resolved my issue...why the product doesn't automatically go for all updates during install is beyond me.
  
  At first made several types of backups...docs, image copy, etc...worked pretty slick. However, when I went to backup my email...IT DELETED MY EMAIL out of Outlook...the folders were even gone...very scary... the "good news" is that the restore worked...sorta... Out of about 200 emails about 3 of them got corrupted...there may be more completely missing, I don't know. I got into a mind numbing chat session with Acronis tech support...had the feeling there was a language barrier....had to restate simple things over and over... After about an hour...they opened a ticket for me...asked me to send a bunch of system info...which I did. It's been about 3 weeks...and not a word...not even a "we're working on it" ...no acknowledgement whatsoever... I sent several requests for an update...no response. As a previous review said...Acronis Tech Support is totally non existent!
  
  I have "the feeling" my image/drive backups are good...but will only know if I have to restore. It does give me a little piece of mind...but I also take other measures (e.g. copy photos and docs to external drive via explorer)
  
  It's really too bad...looks like they have the foundation for a decent product...but apparently lack the commitment to make it great. Probably concerned with a quick buck over a legacy product.
  
  If this were shareware, I could understand ...but it's not...It's not worth its price...If it worked, I'd gladly pay twice the price...
  
  P.S. Sometimes when I read reviews where people claim they are not getting support, I give the benefit of the doubt to the vendor...I figure that they maybe are not supplying the needed info...that they are asking for a solution to a fringe feature...or splitting hairs... Don't make the mistake here... based on my experience, you will not get support from this company-even for problems with its core functionality....more info
• The Acid Test
  The true test of this sort of software is: does it actually restore a computer to its working state. Recently I had to use it for just that purpose and my backup worked perfectly rendering my computer absolutely as it was before it crashed.
  
  Buy this product and use it with confidence....more info
• Customer support non-existant.
  I was pretty happy with True Image 10 until I had a problem.
  
  Although they have a link for e-mail support on their website, and although they sent me a confirmation of my request for assistance, two months later they still have not answered me. I have tried phoning, using numbers I found on their website, but I just get recordings whatever option I choose. I left a message including the words 'please help' but have received no response.
  
  I am looking for another backup utility. I DEFINITELY WOULD NOT RECOMMEND PURCHASE OF THIS SOFTWARE!!! I would give it zero starts if I could.
  
  ...more info
• Nothing else needed
  Image backup is truly the only and best way to backup. Acronis knows what it's doing......more info
• Waste of Time and Money
  I bought this program after having to rebuild my hard drive (a daylong project). After facing the possibility of having to rebuild my machine again several months later, I tried to access my Acronis image 4 times before giving up and starting from scratch. What good is only having email tech support if you can't access the internet??...more info
• Works on Windows 7 with perfect result but imperfect process
  This worked quite nicely on Windows 7 beta. I did a complete disk transfer from an original slower disk to a faster WD VelociRaptor disk. The transfer included not just the files but the entire system including the programs and settings. This has a two-folded purpose. In adition to upgrading to a faster hard drive, the original disk is taken off the computer all together and preserved as an absolue "last resort" hard backup, which is virus-proof, accidental erasure-proof, and fool-proof.
  
  The process wasn't all smooth, but mostly because of my unfamiliarity with the program. First of all, I did not know the program had a "disk clone" function which would have been (supposedly) much more suitable for the kind of disk transfer I did. I basically presumptuously did the entire operation using an image backup and restore. The following is the procedure I did:
  
  (1) In the original system, created an image of the entire primary drive which is to be replaced. My system had a second hard drive as a dedicated backup drive. The image was stored in the second hard drive, which is going to remain in the system.
  
  (2) In the original system, created a recovery CD.
  
  (3) Power off the system. Disconnected the original primary drive, and connected the new hard drive exactly the same way as the original primary drive was connected. Nothing else was changed.
  
  (4) Boot up the system using the recovery CD. Once booted up, the CD provides two options, one is for loading the Acronis True Image, the other is for loading a scaled-down Windows. Click on the first option to load Acronis, not the Windows. I made a mistake right there in my first attempt because I was doing everything in a quick, saw the word "Windows" and assumed that it was for Windows version.
  
  (5) From that point on, you need to carefully follow the display menu. The whole thing isn't very clear, especially for beginners. The program had an automatic option, which I did not choose simply because I could not trust anything automatic for a complete system restore (and as a result I still don't know whether the "automatic mode" would have worked). I chose manual, and the whole process was quite confusing, but not terribly difficult. More details below.
  
  The problem is that once you choose manual, everything is indeed manual (although I have no idea how "automatic" mode would have worked because I never tried). For example, the program does not automatically scan for an existing image (this is odd, why not? Just because one wants to do the recovery manually, doesn't mean that he wants to find everything manually). Anyway, if you are doing this the first time, your frustration level shot up immediately when you don't see an image showing up. You have made so much effort to be certain that you backed up that image, and now the system tells you that there's nothing there. But calm down. The program lets you browse your system to manually locate and identify the image file. Do that, but you really need to know clearly where you have saved that image in order to perform the task. Also adding to the confusion is the fact that the drive letter displayed here is not the same as it was before in the windows. You need to recognize the backup drive by its name, not by its letter.
  
  The next is the most challenging part. In my case, the fact that my hard drive had two partitions (one is a hidden system partition) made it extremely confusing in the beginning. The problem isn't the multiple partitions itself, but that the program does not tell which one is which. In this recovery mode, all the descriptive information is gone. Instead, the program lists two partitions, one named "partition 1-1" the other named "partition C", bearing no relation to the actual partitions. So it is all up to you to guess which one is which. And because at the same time the program requires you to manually select new partitions and associated sizes on the new drive to restore the corresponding partitions, it was close to be impossible. After much frustration to the point of almost giving up, I calmed down and realized there is a quite simple solution to this problem. You could play a small trick on the program to make it identify the petitions for you. So I first pretended I was going to restore just one of the partitions (of course I couldn't actually do that without messing up the system). To my relief, the program identified that selected partition as "partition 1-1". I backtracked the selection immediately. In order to be doubly sure, I then pretended I was going to restore just the other partition, and was very glad to see that this partition was identified as "partition C".
  
  Armed with this partition identification information, I went on to make correct selections of the new partitions and sizes. The rest was very simple. The program restored the entire 50 GB in less than 30 minutes. The restored system is exactly the same as before, to the every detail, including the exact arrangement of the desktop icons. None of the programs needed reinstallation or setting up.
  
  By the way, for your information, Windows 7 has a built-in system restore based on image. Seemed a good idea, but it simply does not work. I saved an image, created a system recovery disk, replaced the hard drives, and booted up the system, exactly the way it is supposed to be. The system recognizes the new hard drive and identifies it correctly. But when you actually proceed to restore, the only thing you get is an error message: "Restoration failed. Could not find a suitable hard drive to restore to."
  
  Given the shameful failure of Windows 7's own built-in image backup and restore, the success of Acronis is laudable....more info
• Seems To Delete Your E-Mail pst File
  Shortly after installing, my MS Outlook pst file vanished. Seems other people also experienced the same issue. Luckily Acronis was able to restore it, but it shouldn't have vanished in the first place. Also Acronis is incredibly slow. It can take 5 - 10 minutes to respond to requests. You never certain if it's still actually working on something or is just hanging. I need to find a better backup/restore solution...more info
• Reliable back up of System Partition and boot sector!
  I had been using Norton's Ghost for years on my old system. When I got a new computer I found out that Ghost was redone with new code and had bad reviews for being unable to restore the system partition. I tried Paragon's Disk Management Suite 9.0, only to have my hard drive wiped clean when a restore of the system partition locked up right in the middle of the restore.
  
  That's when I tried Acronis True Image Home 2009. Right after I installed Acronis, I let it find and install the newest version online. I then made a bootable restore disk which is simple to do. You just select this option in the menu, select your CD or DVD writable drive and it makes the disk for you.
  
  I then selected the option to restore the system disk with the boot sector. It took 35 minutes to create an image of my system partition which was drive C:\ (I had 35 GB of data on the drive) It was easy to use. I was using an external 500GB USB drive for the backup. The software automatically found this drive and selected it for the backup image.
  
  After removing some programs from my system partition, I put in the bootable restore disk and re-imaged my system drive and boot sector from the back up image. There was one place where the software asks you to select the destination disk but the choices took a couple minutes to appear. Once it appeared I selected my original drive and started the backup. This took the same amount of time as making the image. (35 minutes)
  
  I took out the bootable disk and restarted my computer and everything was restored. If this software didn't do anything else I'd still be happy. Because with out a quick system restore like this, re-installing all the software, updates, drivers and settings on a hosed system can take all day instead of 35 minutes. The one thing that I was sure to do is uncheck the feature that would automatically make a new image every week. I was not sure if it overwrites the original or makes a new file name.
  
  As far as just backing up files without the OS. I don't really care because Vista Home Premium already has a decent backup system built into the OS. ...more info
• Works well eventually, but forget about tech support!
  I emailed the tech support center on January 17th with a question because the sole function for which I bought this software (cloning my 320 GB hard drive onto a new 1.5TB drive) wasn't working. I did not receive a response until MARCH 11th! The e-mail said that the delay was due to "a greater than anticipated interest in our products."
  
  Fortunately, I eventually resolved the problem. If you run the software for cloning ONLY and it keeps crashing in the middle of the cloning process (somewhere around step 2 or step 3), fear not. Rather than going through the hassle of actually installing the software, just put the install ation CD in your CD-ROM drive and boot your computer from that drive. The program interface is almost the same, minus a few of the advanced options which really aren't relevant anyway. After literally 15 attempts, I got the whole drive cloned in just over an hour, booting from the CD itself.
  
  Software works well otherwise apart from this issue, but if you need tech support, forget it....more info
• Excellent back up software
  I upgraded from Acronis True Image 8.0 to Home 2009 recently.
  
  And then I encountered a hard drive crash.
  
  I reinstalled everything on a new hard drive, and used Acronis 2009 successfully to back up the hard drive several times.
  
  I tested out the recovery as well, as I installed SQL server and had a problem with it. So I reverted to a previous Acronis image and it worked perfectly.
  
  I also have the Acronis secure zone on my XP system, and it works flawlessly as well.
  
  Overall I am very happy with Acronis and the functionality it has provided....more info
• Impossible to reach anyone at Acronis.
  If you have any problems you will not be able to get any tech support. In fact it is highly unlikely that you will ever be able to reach anyone at Acronis. I tried repeatedly using every method possible and nothing worked. Look for another product. Definitely not recommended.
  The product will not work with external drives.
  After 2 months I finally got a response but it was not an answer to my original problem but a just a question as to whether the issue was resolved! To solve my problem I bought another product that worked fine and told this to Acronis. Their new response was another question as to whether they could consider the case resolved. These people are really unbelievable. Strongly not recommended....more info