Acronis TrueImage 6.0 PC911 Review

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Date: August 20th, 2002
URL: http://www.acronis.com/products/ti/
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Rating: Excellent!
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I remember way back when I was still living in Germany, my little sister was crazy about David Hasselhoff. She
had several of his albums (shudder), and Knight Rider was mandatory TV viewing. Back then, Hasselhoff was big
in Europe, yet here in the US nobody had ever heard of him. Acronis' (who originated in Russia) TrueImage drive
imaging software has been in a similar situation - well-known in Europe but virtually unknown in the US - but
with one major difference: its performance does not induce violent retching.
What does it do?
In a nutshell, Acronis TrueImage 6.0 (TI6) is drive imaging software, plain and simple. It enables you to create
an image of partitions on your hard drive as a backup in case of disaster, and allows you to restore the image
when disaster has struck, e.g. you accidentally wiped out a partition, your hard drive crashed, or your little sister
deleted all your data to make room for David Hasselhoff MP3s.
Acronis TrueImage 6.0 runs on Windows 95/98, ME, NT4, 2000, and XP. It supports FAT16/32 and NTFS, as well
as the Linux Ext2, Ext3, and ReiserFS file systems.
OK, that sounds good, but there are already two other programs out there, namely Symantec's Norton Ghost and
PowerQuest's Drive Image that do the same thing, so what makes Acronis TrueImage 6.0 even worth your
attention? Let's take a look at some of its features.
Features
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The most amazing feature of TI6 can create an image of a system partition that is currently in use. Yes, ladies
and gentlemen, you heard correctly, no more booting into DOS in order to image your Windows system partition.
This feature alone puts it ahead of DI and Ghost because it makes TI6 great for everyday backups while you are
in Windows. Now there are no more excuses not to image your hard drive because you can do all your drive
imaging from within Windows. The only time you have to reboot into DOS is when you need to restore an active
system partition. Non-sytem partitions can be restored in Windows.
The great part about restoring a system partition is that if you start the process in Windows, the program will
inform you that you have to boot into DOS, but it offers to do it for you. Clicking that option reboots your PC into
DOS and starts TI6 without the need for a TI6 boot disk! The way this is accomplished is by replacing the Master
Boot Record (MBR) with one that loads a Linux RAM-disk and Linux kernel with the Acronis TrueImage 6.0
application. When the program is finished, the original MBR is restored and the computer is rebooted back into its
usual mode.
The only time you need a TI6 boot disk is when your system partition is funked up beyond all recognition. For
that situation, TI6 prompts you to create a bootable rescue disk during the initial program installation. The nice
thing here is that you get the choice to create either a set of three floppies, or a bootable CD if you have a
burner. The CD is great for laptops without floppy drive, also because it boots much much quicker than three
floppies. But that's not all: to put the cherry on the pie, the rescue disk already has built-in support for SCSI, CD
burners, DVD burners, and network adapters! You do not have to supply or choose drivers to include on the disk,
or mess with the boot files on the disk, just to find out that something doesn't work like it can easily happen with
Ghost or Drive Image.
Again, Linux is the secret behind the magic. The bootable CD contains a Linux kernel with network and SCSI
drivers and the Acronis TrueImage 6.0 application. Using Linux allows Acronis to offer much better hardware
support than ever possible in DOS. It also supports the majority of USB 1.0/2.0 and PCMCIA devices. While
FireWire is not yet supported since the FireWire support in Linux is still experimental, it is expected to follow with
the new Linux kernel release.
Another outstanding feature of TI6 is its ease of use. I call it hands-down the easiest drive imaging software due
to its great wizard interface with detailed instructions and explanations in each window. Drive Image and
especially Norton Ghost can be very intimidating to beginner to intermediate users, but not TI6. Every operation
is wizard driven utilizing a comfortable XP-style interface both in Windows as well as in non-Windows mode,
asking the user simple questions while supplying detailed explanantions on the possible choices. This makes the
well-written and nicely laid out manual almost superfluous.
But enough of all this dry theory. Let's take a look at Acronis TrueImage 6.0 in action.
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PC911 > REVIEWS > SOFTWARE > ACRONIS TRUEIMAGE 6.0
Starting TI6, you will be greeted with the wizard interface, giving you three options to choose from.
After selecting to create an image, you choose which partition or hard drive to image.
Now choose the type of storage medium for the image file. Fixed hard drive or network drive allows storing the
file on a local or network drive, choosing removable drive allows storing the image file on CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R,
or even floppies.
Choose the image file location and name.
Select the desired compression rate. Moving the slider will update the estimated file size and imaging time to
give you a rough idea.
Select if and how you wish to split the image file.
Enter an optional password to protect the image file from unauthorized access. A useful security measure, but
not exactly encryption-level protection.
Until now, no operations have been performed yet. Push Proceed to initiate the actual imaging process.
See the current progress and remaining time.
As you can see, a very simple process with a very user-friendly interface.
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Restoring an image is just as simple. After choosing the option to restore an image you choose the image file.
Then choose the partition or drive in the image file to restore.
Select the destination partition, where to restore the image to.
Select the partition type. While this can be an advanced topic, the program by default chooses the original
partition type. If you are simply restoring a partition to its original place, go with the default.
You get the option of changing the file system of the partition during restoration. NTFS is not an option in this
dialog, however, the program of course supports NTFS partitions and images/restores NTFS partitions nicely.
You can also change the partition size and location.
Optional (Windows NT/2000/XP only): Assign a drive letter, or let the OS assign it for you later.
Have more than one partition or drive to restore? No problem. Restore as many as you like in one process.
Ready to restore? Push Proceed to start the actual restoration process.
Pretty simple, isn't it?
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The third option is to explore an image file, which allows you to browse the contents of a file and restore one or
more files instead of the entire partition. TI6 lets you mount the image file as a logical drive in read-only mode
(you cannot update a file in the image without recreating the image) and assigns it a drive letter, allowing you to
navigate it in Windows Explorer without the need for separate image file browsing software and copy files from it
to your hard drive. The way TI6 does this is by installing a device driver in the device manager that Windows
uses to connect to the drive.
Drive H: in the example below is the logical drive for the image file that was taken of the Windows 98 partition on
C: as you can see by the identical size.
Simply right-click and unplug the drive when you're done browsing and it disappears from Windows Explorer.
What's the catch?
There are a few drawbacks to the program that need to be mentioned as well.
First of all, I find it a bit unsettling that there is no option to verify the integrity of the image file. You create the
image and hope for the best, but you won't know whether the image is bad until you try to restore it. However, it
is possible to mount the finished image as a drive to verify that it works, and the software does verify the
partition before the imaging process.
Also disappointing is that there are no scheduling options. As the software is so well suited for everyday backups,
it should offer a way to schedule nightly images for complete hands-off backups.
Another nice touch would have been to include the capability to clone a drive directly to another drive, e.g. when
replacing hard drives. TI6 requires you to make an image first.
While the software includes the ability to resize and move partitions, it does not offer the option to create a new
partition when creating a new image file.
It is also obvious that this software is aimed at the beginner to intermediate home or small office user. The
software does not offer advanced enterprise-style functionality such as network management, SID changing, etc.
which can be found in Norton Ghost Enterprise Edition or PowerQuest DeployCenter.
Lastly, the only form of support currently available in the US is via e-mail. Acronis guarantees a 48 hour
turnaround for registered users, but there is no other more direct contact form such as a message board or
phone support. In Europe, phone support is offered on a pay-per-minute basis.
Other Observations
My PC runs 24/7 and always has dozens of applications open. Therefore it is always a hassle to boot into DOS to
do a drive image, resulting in less frequent images than necessary. Having the option to run images while in
Windows is awesome and will certainly cause me to make images much more often.
Norton Ghost and Drive Image have irritated me in the past with the ornery process of creating a proper boot
disk. Trying to configure it with the proper SCSI and network adapter drivers can eat up hours and lead to
frustration. Having the bootable TI6 CD that comes with everything makes it so much more pleasant.
I have also run into problems in the past with Norton Ghost and Drive Image where one would not read the
contents of a hard drive, would lock up when selecting the SCSI CD burner, restored images acted funky, etc. I
never reached a satisfying comfort level with either program. TI6 however has been working like a charm. For
this review I spent several days creating and restoring countless images on and between 4 different PCs using
multiple OSs and file systems. The program worked perfectly - no lockups, no drive read problems, no corrupt
images - just complete drive image bliss.
Conclusion
This program has really impressed me. It's been a while since a computer-related product has gotten me this
excited. Great features, ease of use, and flawless performance make this quality program an awesome absolute
must-have utility. On top of that it is cheaper than Ghost or Drive Image. What else can you ask for? Being a
new contender in the US market you'd think it will be hard to compete with the established leaders Symantec and
PowerQuest in this category, but TI6 is guaranteed to give them a serious run for their money. I seriously think
that a few releases later TI6 will kick Ghost and Drive Image's ass up and down the aisles at Fry's. It is very
refreshing to see a great new program like TI6 appear. I strongly recommend Acronis TrueImage 6.0 to our
readers, especially beginning users that are new to drive imaging software. I give Acronis TrueImage 6.0 the
PC911 kick-ass product of the year award for being such an outstanding piece of software.
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Submitted by: Alex "crayzgerman" Byron