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Acronis True Image

 
Wikipedia: Acronis True Image
Acronis True Image
Acronis True Image logo.png
Acronis True Image.png
Acronis True Image Home 2009
Stable release Home version: 2010(2009)[1] / 2009-09-15; 53 days ago[1]
Operating system Windows 2000, XP, Vista,
Windows 7
[2]
Platform Windows and Linux for live imaging.
Recovery CD runs on any x86 machine.
Available in English, French and German [3]
Development status Active
Type Disk cloning software
License Commercial proprietary
Website Acronis True Image Home
Acronis True Image Home running from the Live CD

Acronis True Image is a disk imaging software, developed by Acronis, that creates backups and recovers PC systems. The software allows a user to create an image of a disk while it is running Microsoft Windows or offline by booting from CD/DVD, USB flash drives, PXE, or other bootable media. As a disk imaging software, True Image can restore the previously captured image to another disk, replicating the structure and contents to the new disk, also allowing disk cloning and partition resizing, as well if the new disk is of different capacity.

Contents

History

True Image is known for its simple, wizard driven interface,[4] and receives positive reviews from both editors and users alike.[5]

The first version of True Image was launched into the market of drive backup software in 2002 and could create a drive image that was running without shutting down to DOS mode.

The other features were an ability to write an image to DVDs, a drive image creation within Windows and support for a wide range of storage options.

The latest version of Acronis True Image 2010 along with its hard drive cloning and disk image features is added with a new option of online backup, which saves user’s backups to a secure remote location.

Operation

As a disk imaging software, True Image offers functionality such as restoring data or creating a drive image without rebooting the system. In case of operating system error or hard disk failure, the PC can be booted to the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager, which returns the system to a previous point in time. True Image creates exact backups of a hard drive sector-by-sector, therefore providing faster restore of user’s operating systems, data, settings, applications, etc. The program can back up a system hard drive while the OS is running. It recovers a computer after the system crash and boots it by pressing the F11 key. Acronis True Image offers several different options for system recovery, including the retrieval of lost files or other chunks of data, as well as entire system recovery due to corruption or failure. The following is a quick list of methods:

  • True Image can access files within an existing image file by mounting the image file as if it were a disk, in either read-only or read-write mode. This enables the user to quickly copy data files from the image file back to the local system. A virtual device driver must be installed in the operating system in order to use the mounting feature, but this driver is installed during the original installation of True Image. Separately, files can be read from and, in read-write mode, written to the image, which effectively creates an incremental file, and has the advantage of leaving the original image files untouched by saving the changes in a new file.
  • True Image offers a bootable media wizard, which creates a recovery environment to CD or other media, and is used to boot the machine to a proprietary environment for quick recovery. While this method also provides the ability to recover lost data, the primary focus is restoring the complete system back to a given point in time in case of complete failure.
  • The Acronis Secure Zone is a bootable, hidden partition option created and managed by True Image. This space, which is not accessible to the user or other applications such as malware, is used to store the backup image files. The Secure Zone can be created as bootable, enabling the user to boot directly into the recovery environment by pressing the F11 key, very useful when the machine doesn't contain a CD drive or other access to external media.
  • The recent version of True Image 2010 offers an online backup feature, providing optional off-site data protection and recovery.

Versions

  • Acronis True Image Home 6.0. The version supports creation of disk image on recordable DVD media and external USB drives.
  • Acronis True Image Home 7.0 offers an innovative wizard-driven interface, which is driving a user through the whole process of backup. Moreover, this version supports a disk cloning feature, allowing cloning hard drive to another one directly, saving PC resources and time.
  • Acronis True Image Home 8.0 includes options of saving disk image on a remote computer o laptop, and an ability to choose of restore a single or multiple files by exploring an image file.
  • Acronis True Image Home 9.0 includes the SecureZone, which allows backup an image to a hidden drive partition, making it inaccessible to viruses and most hackers. Another feature, Startup Recovery Manager, helps to configure user’s system, letting boot it up and restore itself without a separate boot disk.
  • Acronis True Image Home 10.0 releases new abilities to backup and restore directly to the network share and FTP. It also can save archives of Outlook and Outlook Express, including a user’s Windows Address Book.
  • Acronis True Image Home 11 This version provides users with more options, such as File Shredder that destroys individual files so they can't be resurrected and Try&Decide feature, allowing user to create a temporary, safe place on a hard drive where any changes of the system can be performed.
  • Acronis True Image Home 2009 provides a one-click protection that allows a user to backup a computer or laptop a click away. The other features, such as Windows Vista style and an option of full text search, let the inexperienced users perform drive imaging and disk cloning operations easily.
  • Acronis True Image Home 2010. The latest version of True image includes new options of Acronis Nonstop Backup, which provides continuous backup process, Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) and Microsoft Windows 7 support. This version offers Acronis Online Backup, an optional feature, allowing to backup important data to an online vault.

Acronis True Image 2010

This is the current version of True Image Home. Along with its hard drive cloning and imaging features, new options include Virtual Hard Disk and Microsoft Windows 7 support, Acronis Nonstop Backup and an ability of online backup, as well. The improved scheduling option allows specifying dates of a tasks running and copying them to the planning calendar.

New features

New Features Description
Acronis Nonstop Backup Continuous backup process. This feature creates backups automatically every five minutes, so that users can spin back their data, settings and system files to any time point in the past.
Support for Microsoft Windows 7 This feature brings more functionality over built-in back up capacities of Microsoft Windows 7. It helps a user who is planning on upgrading the OS over to Windows 7 migrate all files and data by creating an exact image of the previous system.
Virtual HD Support The function converts backup images of True Image (.tib format) into .vhd, which is a virtual hard disk file of Microsoft Virtual PC and vice versa. Using this feature, users can run their systems as virtual machines.
Acronis Online Backup An additional option lets users save their backups to a remote secure destination. This service allows choosing the files to backup from the installed True Image 2010 and then they are copied right to the online vault. Acronis states the highest government level of security.

Compatibility

Acronis True Image provides backward compatibility for image files (in .tib and .vhd formats) created with a single previous version, that is, images created with an immediate previous version can be successfully restored.

Supported storage media and systems

Operating systems
  • Windows XP SP3
  • Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
  • Windows Vista SP2 (all editions)
  • Windows 7 (all editions)
Storage media
  • Hard disk drives
  • Networked storage devices
  • FTP servers
  • CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R (including double-layer DVD+R), DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, BD-R, BD-RE
  • USB 1.0 / 2.0, FireWire (IEEE-1394) and PC card storage devices
  • ZIP, Jaz and other removable media

Supported filesystems

File systems supported by software:[2]

In addition to the officially supported filesystems, Acronis True Image also provides raw sector backup and restore options for all other filesystems. 'Raw' mode provides support for a file system that is corrupt, or that isn't officially supported, by capturing a complete image of all sectors on the disk. This method results in a larger image file as it isn't able to compress, resize, or selectively restore files on the unrecognized filesystem.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Acronis Latest Product Updates
  2. ^ a b "Acronis True Image 2010 Home Datasheet" (PDF). http://de1.download.acronis.com/sl/iwmHDhrk4l73nyxjvGxkC(e)f874wEN(GCW9RZv6E0Q/p/pdf/TrueImage2010_DataSheet.en.pdf. 
  3. ^ Acronis True Image Home 2010
  4. ^ Patrick, Stephen. "Acronis True Image 10 (home) - PC Review". Pocket Lint. http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/reviews/review.phtml/2105/3129/acronis-true-image-pc-software.phtml. Retrieved 2007-05-19. 
  5. ^ "Acronis True Image Reviewer's Comments". Top Ten Reviews. http://data-backup-software-review.toptenreviews.com/acronis-true-image-review.html. Retrieved 2008-05-27. 
  6. ^ FAQ: Linux file systems and Linux operating system support

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