Included Tools

Acronis True Image includes several system configuration tools. While most of these are available in (and included with) a standard Windows install, True Image makes them all available in a single place and ties them together nicely with their interface. These tools include:

• Backup Scheduling – run backups on a predetermined schedule or whenever you logon on logoff of Windows


• Bootable Restore Media Creation – create a bootable CD, floppy, or USB disk; for computers without a CD burner, you can create an ISO to burn on another machine


• System Restore Configuration – for managing the space Windows allocates for restore points


• Add New Hard Disk – allows you to create and format partitions on a new hard drive and assign drive letters

The advantage of using these tools through True Image is simply you get a wizard interface for each, so you do not have to understand exactly what you are doing as the Windows interface expects.

Bootable Recovery Media Creation

Additional and Add-On Tools

As I mentioned in the preface, I would be evaluating the program using the perspective of a typical personal computer user, however I am going to take this space to discuss the enterprise level features of Acronis True Image as well as additional products available.

Enterprise level tools: (note: these are available in the Acronis True Image Workstation version, but not in the Home version)

• System Administrator control panel to monitor and schedule jobs on remote computers


• Remote deployment of Acronis applications


• Image Mounting – view and the contents of a disk image created with Acronis True Image without restoring it

Additional Acronis products which “build” off of True Image:

• Universal Restore – restore system images to different model machines without worrying about driver conflicts


• Snap Deploy – easily create and restore system images to machines in accordance with your own “standard load” (also works with Universal Restore)

While the home user will most likely not need these features, but system builders and system administrators would find them very useful.

Documentation

An often overlooked, yet crucial, part of any software product is its documentation. After all, an application is only as useful to the user so far as to how they know how to use it.

Acronis True Image’s documentation is accessible via the Help menu (obviously) which opens a connection to the web and downloads the documentation in PDF format. The PDF has a table of contents which links to their respective topics for easy navigation. The topics are covered well, however I found the explanations provided by selecting the different options when going through the wizards to be just as good or better. Additionally, when progressing through a task wizard, there is a help button available on each step to access the appropriate documentation.

While I understand why the documentation is in PDF format (there is a Linux version as well and I imagine the functionality is the same), I thought having a typical Windows CHM help file would have been a nicer touch. CHM’s are the standard for Windows help files and what most users are familiar with (however most users should be familiar and comfortable with PDF’s as well). One benifit to having the documentation in PDF form on the web is you can easily get and review it to help your purchasing decision.

Overall, the documentation is good, but as mentioned above, the descriptions the actual task wizards give are often times better.

Final Thoughts

Everybody knows (or should know) performing frequent backups are crucial. Inevitably, some data will be accidentally deleted or your hard drive will fail and you need to be ready, or you will regret it. For this reason, I would highly recommend Acronis True Image to individuals who do not currently have a solid backup process in place. The time of this writing the cost is $50, however this will seem like peanuts when disaster strikes.

Considering how easy Acronis True Image is to use (I only read the documentation for the purposes of the review, as I found everything pretty intuitive) and how little time it takes to make and schedule a thorough backup process, I believe the price is well worth what you get. Even better, you can download a fully functional time limited trial of True Image from Acronis’ website, so you really have nothing to lose by giving it a shot.

In closing, if you take nothing else from this review, I hope I have stressed to those who do not have backups how important they are. There are a myriad number of tools to backup your data. Acronis True Image is simply a great solution for those who do not want to spend time writing, testing and updating command line scripts.