Acronis True Image 2010 vs Windows 7 Backup & Restore

Hi all,

When I was asking around about deleting lenovo default partitions, fellow board member Aikimox sugguested me to backup with Acronis my hardisk sector by sector before trying anything rash.

Now I am done with my venture, I am wondering how Acronis True Image 2010 compares to the Backup and Restore feature built into Windows 7 itself.

I have been relying on Windows 7 built in backup function to backup an image my my system partition and all the files in my data partition. I use Task Scheduler to do this on a weekly basis. Fortunately, I haven't had the need of a full system restore yet, so I don't know about how effective the restore is.

My question is, basically:
1. what extra functions do I get using Acronis?
2. for the functions common among the two, which one does a better job (performance-wise, does it work, etc.)?
3. Acronis installs extra system service and startup entries, and it monitors the files all the time. In general, I don't want to add extra resident process unless they are really useful and meaningful - so I wonder if Acronis would justify as so?

Thank you so very much!

Campion

 

Bump up~ Would anyone comment please?

 

I've never used acronis, however I've used backup and restore extensively. From mucking around, to installing xp for testing and going back to 7 for more testing, I've restored back with backup and restore a lot, and I can say it works flawlessly every time. It's a very good backup solution, and the best thing is, it's FREE and already included with windows. I honestly wouldn't consider anything else.

 

@talin...so you do a complete backup with the Win7 inbuilt backup tool and then store in an external HDD? And you have experienced no problems in re-installing/ restoring from there. Right?

 

I always back up to optical disc, more reliable (in my opinion). Restores have always gone flawlessly. Since I knew the exact layout of my hard drive, I could see everytime it was restored back exactly. Plus I would always format and erase my hard drive before doing a restore, so that was another indicator that it works fine.

 

OK. Thanks. You answered just in the nick of time. I was about to do a backup, but on a HDD. I'll do it on an optical disk now.

 

Lol, can't easily answer your question since I never use Windows tools, but I did use Acronis occasionally and found it very fast and effective.
I'll try the W7 built-in tools and give you the feedback.

 

Thank you all! I'm still pondering whether Acronis is a good value on top of Windows 7. I just found out I can mount the windows 7 .vhd system image with GizmoDrive and extract individual files. This both saves installing a virtual machine & match up to another feature in Acronis.

@Aikimox thank you for taking the time. I'll be longing for more opinions!

 

I used ATI before and I can say that it's one of the best tools available.
ATI is much more powerful and flexible than Windows 7 Backup & Restore, you can even create a hidden partition to emergency recovery (when your Windows cannot boot up, and you don't have a bootable CD/DVD), which very familiar to ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery. The main disadvantage of it is it's not free.

 

But seriously, what's the point? Windows Backup and Restore does what it's meant to, and does it well. It backs up your entire drive, no it can't back up individual partitions (if I understand it correctly), but who cares? If you want to back up individual files/folders, that's what DVD's and windows integrated burning is for. In this case I just have to say, if you don't need to spend money on a 3rd party utility, when you get the necessary functionality for free, than why spend money you don't have to?

 

My personal data is store in several places, so the only thing would need to backed up is Windows installation. Imagine when your Windows installation corrupts (cause of viruses, for example), you can restore it to a healthy state in less than 10 minutes. Backing up only Windows installation will need much less disk space, time to backup and restore. That's some of advantages of ATI over Windows 7 Backup and Restore.

 

Well, I'm not sure what you mean by backing up only the windows installation, and how it can tell which are windows necessary files, and which are not. Personally, I wouldn't want a program deciding for me which files on my C: drive should and should not be backed up.
It's all a matter of preference though.

 

One of my first thing to do with a fresh Windows Installation is moving all other things (Documents, Download folder, etc) to another drive. Then C: drive contains only Windows installation, programs and configs. . ATI is also smart enough to exclude hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys from being backed up, then I have a small, easy-to-update backup.

 

Oh I see. Well I know windows backup and restore ignores those files as well. I see what you mean. I personally backup my personal data to optical disc, and let backup and restore backup my c: drive, so it's the same end effect.

 

I've given it a try, it's just a normal backup, nothing more.
Slow, HDD utilization is annoyingly high when it's running. Plus, when I tried canceling it, it just ignored my request, very windows-like.
The only useful feature for me so far from all disk management tools of W7 is the partition resizing without restarts. Bravo windoze! Where's my Ubuntu DVD? ....

 

Well, I'm sorry that happened to you. Never happened to me though. Enjoy your ubuntu. But if you want to blow off windows completely, because of one bad experience with backup and restore, well, that's your choice.

 

I just need a dual boot for work. W7 stays till games are naturally supported in linux,... in other words, for eons...

 

Lol true. Wine still has a long way to go, though it's been in developement already for what, 15 years?