| Acronis True Image Home 2009 | 
 enlarge | From: Acronis Inc.
Category: Software
List Price: £39.95
Buy New: £29.47
You Save: £10.48 (26%)
New (2) from £29.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 17
Platforms: Windows Xp, Windows Vista
Media: CD-ROM
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.6
EAN: 4260019571465
ASIN: B001GCTRBE
Release Date: October 31, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 intolerable installation problem December 1, 2008
The whole reference number business is intolerable. The number provided with the disk will not activate installation. You follow the instructions on the flyer that comes with the product by logging on to the Acronis site and typing in the first two blocks of the 64 digit serial number as instructed by the flyer. No matter how many times you try it will not be recognised. You then decide to type in the whole number. The number is recognised, and you are told that the product is now registered. So what? the number still won't activate the installation. You contact tech support and wait for a response. You may think, as I do, that if the number provided does not activate the installation, then the product should be returned. I returned it. Why two stars? because others have managed to get the thing working. You may too - after a frustrating experience
Effective but frustrating November 29, 2008
I found the product unecssarily frustrating, but in the end it does do the job. A lot of the problems are due to the distrust of the company with a ridiculous serial number etc. Also the lack of a decent manual (you have to download a 100+page pdf from the site) is bad.
In the past I used an image maker sector-by-sector software which was simple, but had to change as this no longer worked with Vista, but it was so easy to use compared to this, and a lot of the features I'll nevr use.
 Reliable backups - but not perfect! November 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Only a few years ago you could back up the entire contents of your PCs hard drive onto a couple of CDs. Nowadays hard drives are so large that some form of backup software is needed to make the task more manageable. This software from Acronis attempts to make that job easier for you.
As other reviewers have commented there is a very annoying and unnecessary 64 digit authorisation code for this software - some of which are faulty! This is clearly unacceptable and even Acronis' workaround has its own problems which needs a degree of patience to overcome. This has knocked a star off of my rating.
So what do you get if you persevere? Well, the programme itself gives you a lot of backup options for your money depending on how you prefer to do your backups. If you choose to use online backups then you will not need this software at all but, as anyone who uses this method knows, this option can take forever to transfer large amounts of data.
True Image Home 2009 gives you the option to backup to a number of different storage media such as Hard Drives, Network Storage Devices, FTP Servers, most CD and DVD options and ZIP, REV and other Removable Media. I would guess most home users with a large hard drive with lots of photos and music etc would find it easiest to use an external hard drive. You can then easily create a true image of your computers drive, using this software, to use should worst happen to your data.
Some external hard drives come with their own software for this purpose, and it may be that it will be good enough to meet your backup needs. So if you are thinking about a backup method it may be worth buying the drive first and seeing how you get on. Amazon has a large selection of these and around 50 will get you a reasonable storage size.
However, if you are looking to make life easy - and secure - True Image Home 2009 is worth considering. Acronis claim more than 3,000,000 users already and they have won a number of awards. You do only get a one user licence, however, so if you have multiple computers it could work out expensive to back them all up - another star off for not giving the expected three user licence. Amazon has provided a detailed Product Description, from the manufacturer, which gives more information on the products features.
Good but has major problems - Upgraders read first! November 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've been using the previous Acronis True Image for 2 years now to back up over 40Gb of work data on a daily basis. I've always found it a real gem, so I decided to get the newer "better" version and upgrade to 2009. The manual states that you can just install 2009 straight over the top of previous versions, which sounded very useful.
After installation had completed (a hideous experience that I've described below) I was pleased to see that the interface had been overhauled, and presented lots of clear and easy-to-understand options with context-sensitive help at the bottom of each page.
The one-click backup solution is useful if you don't really understand the different types of backups available (full, differential, & incremental).
The pretty interface soon lost its novelty value though, as a rediculous number of issues took hold. I've detailed some of these annoyances:
- The software uses a 64 digit serial code. How much time do Acronis think we've got to waste?!
- Nearly all serial numbers are shipped as being faulty! This is an ACKNOWLEDGED PROBLEM on Acronis' web site and you should register online instead of through the software itself. Also note that the registration URL is case-sensitive! If you don't read the pamphlet in the box I'd hate to guess how long it would take you to figure all this out!
- Following installation the software would not update online. I got two errors each time and updating failed. This is just not acceptable in this day and age where online updates are critical to maintain performance.
- After installation a reboot is required. I forgot to take out the CD and so Acronis booted into rescue mode. It was then I found out my Wireless Microsoft keyboard and mouse DID NOT WORK in rescue mode! Thank goodness I still own my old wired hardware, but not many modern PC's are even shipped with wired devices. Another totally unacceptable problem.
- My main gripe is that 2009 removed ALL my previous backup schedules! I had to go and set each one up again which is absolutely rediculous when the manual claims to "simply update" the software
- The "Search" tool is a blatant advertisement for Google Desktop and Windows Desktop Search, demanding either is installed in order for it to work.
- The backup wizard only has a NEXT button, and no BACK button. Therefore you've got to use the side panel to navigate back a step if you need to change anything. A small issue but a bit weird!
So will I keep version 2009? Well, now I've gone to the trouble of setting up all the schedules again, yes I will. I'm not impressed with it however, and if you have the previous version then I recommend sticking with it, because the new options don't warrant either the money or time to upgrade it.
 No idea how good it is, as the installation was beyond my patience. November 27, 2008
My first impression on opening the box for this software was, what? A 64 character serial number? You must be joking. Ah well, let's get on with the tedium of typing and proof reading random digits. Oh look, it doesn't work. Try again in capitals. Nope. Maybe you need to type in the dashes between numbers. Nope. Right, check carefully this time. Nope. However carefully you type it in, the serial won't be accepted. Ah, but a leaflet in the box tells you can 'save typing' by going to the acronis website. Ok, lets save some typing by, erm, typing in the 50 character long web address, finding it doesn't work, realising it's case sensitive and typing it in AGAIN, then typing in your name, email address and a password (twice), then logging onto your email, press refresh several times over an hour or so waiting for the email to arrive until you give up and go and do something less boring instead. At this point, literally two hours after starting to install the software, I gave up with it.
Apparently what's supposed to happen is Acronis then email you the serial number (very secure that) and then you're then supposed to copy the serial number they've sent you from this email and paste that into the installation screen.
I wouldn't know, as the email never arrived.
According to the leaflet in the box, somewhere in this process the 64 characters you originally needed to type in is reduced to a mere 16 characters to type in. Wait...Can anyone see a flaw in this cunning software protection? Why on earth Acronis couldn't just give me the 16 character serial to start with, I couldn't say. They obviously would rather annoy their legitimate customers than risk someone copying their software.
The leaflet also tells me that this utterly unfriendly rigmarole is to assure me that my software was legally purchased. Ah right, so presumably my copy must have spontaneously decided that I'd picked the box up in PC World and done a runner with it, vaulting the checkout on my way out the door.
The software boasts how intuitive it is. Well, the software might be fantastily intuitive, anticipating my every whim, but the installation was designed by people who obviously hate and distrust their customers. I've no desire to run the gauntlet of their helpline after this first impression as I've got better things to do than speak to support desks just to run my perfectly legal software. Very very poor.
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