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Technical Help & Discussion => Windows PCs & Software: Help, News & Discussion => Topic started by: Clive on January 12, 2011, 19:50

Title: Acronis
Post by: Clive on January 12, 2011, 19:50

I recently purchased Acronis 2010 and just got round to installing it on my Acer desktop.  I've taken two full backups, one to a partition it created and another to my Western Digital external drive.  A monthly backup should suffice but need I do both?  What exactly is a full image anyway?  Does it include software as well as files?  Incidentally the backup amounted to 24.74Gb which is probably insignificant as far as you guys are concerned.  Will I be able to install the same Acronis software to my Dell laptop or is it a monogamous beast?  Is there anything else I need to know about it?  :dunno:

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Simon on January 12, 2011, 19:56

I believe Rik is your man for this, Clive.  Backups are his forté.  ;)

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Clive on January 12, 2011, 20:02

Yes, he is going to be soooo excited!   ;D

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: sam on January 12, 2011, 20:21

unless you are mirroring the OS I'm not sure I see the point in backing up the software as well as your personal documents.

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Clive on January 12, 2011, 20:44

It's an 71.8 Gb disk and MyComputer says I have 47.8Gb free so that would suggest the backups are a mirror image.

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Rik on January 13, 2011, 10:31

Acronis creates a mirror of the complete disk, Clive. If everything is on C:, then restoring from the backup will bring back OS, apps and data as at the time of the last backup. You might want to think about doing incremental backups daily, depending on how important your data is to you.

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Simon on January 13, 2011, 10:50

So, does it double the content of the C drive?

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Rik on January 13, 2011, 10:57

It would be very unwise to store the backups on the C drive, but the compression is reasonably high, my C drive compresses from 16GB to 11.

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Simon on January 13, 2011, 11:06

So, the program itself doesn't run from the C: drive?  I'm just wondering if it might be worth looking at myself. 

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Rik on January 13, 2011, 11:08

The program runs from the C drive, it also creates a Linux boot CD for recovery. The reason it's unwise to store the backups on the same physical drive is that, if it fails, you no longer have a backup. Mine are stored on two other internal drives and three external. Yes, I believe in the possibility of bad luck. ;D

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Simon on January 13, 2011, 11:12

That's what I was getting at. If the program runs from C: drive, and C: drive gets mullered, how does the recovery run? 

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Rik on January 13, 2011, 11:21

From the CD.

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Simon on January 13, 2011, 11:30

Ah...   :blush:

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Clive on January 13, 2011, 12:40

Or presumably from any other external source such as my WD drive?  It seems to be installing OK on the laptop. 

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Rik on January 13, 2011, 12:51

Indeed, Clive.

Title: Re: Acronis
Post by: Clive on January 13, 2011, 13:10

Brilliant!  :thumbs: