Acronis Phone Call

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I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this, but I just had a telephone call from a fella at Acronis, whose first words were if he could call me “Al.” He was wanting to tell me about a special promo email that he was gonna send me offering a special discount to “upgrade” my TrueImage to the Workstation product. In all the years that I’ve been a computer user, I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve been solicited by telephone. I have no intention of upgrading a working backup strategy to something possibly unnecessarily more expensive, but I must admit, I’ve never looked to compare what additional function the workstation product provides. Just a heads up….

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Al,
Sounds very strange to me. Suspicious too.
How did he get your phone number?

You know I have been a registered user of four or more Acronis products for many years and also a Beta tester for them for a long time. I have never received any solicitation by phone. I don’t recall EVER giving them my phone number either.

I think I would bounce this question off the people at Acronis to see what their response is. Send it to support@acronis.com.

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I went back to the site later and checked my profile. I do have my phone number in there and now that I think of it, I guess I do give my phone number to most trusted software companies I buy from. The call turns out to be a little humorous – the caller was a little klutzy. When I answered the phone, he wanted to know if this is Albert. When I said “speaking” (I try never to say “yes” on the phone, but that’s another story!) his next question was “may I call you Al?” Now, the guy never has said who he is or from whence he’s calling and he’s wanting to chummy up with me. After I got him to tell me who he is and what he wants, I said I would check his email, thanked him for calling and goodbye.

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You could have said[indent]

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I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al

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[/indent](Paul Simon)

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Cranked up visions of a Chevy Chase / Paul Simon video

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I love that video!

YouTube – You Can Call Me Al

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I’ve forgotten about that video –

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Hi Al,
I, as well, have received a phone call from a ‘Representative of Acronis’ – almost a year ago. I was at work when the call came in and he left his message on my answering machine. Needless to say I never returned any call to him and thought ‘that’s odd’ at the time. But no harm done and I haven’t been bothered since.
I guess not being retired (yet) has it’s minor benefits.

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Al,
I guess I’m on their “DO NOT call list”!

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Al,

Rest easy….. I too got one of those phone calls today along with the promo e-mail to upgrade to True Image Workstation 9.1 + Universal Restore at 35% off the regular price. I am considering making the upgrade since it does offer the ultimate security for restoration. The big advantage of using the Workstation version along with the Universal Restore addon is that you can restore an image to ANY PC. A practical example would be if your current machine needed a motherboard replacement, or even worse, the machine was destroyed in a fire or stolen. With True Image Home, the image would be virtually useless but with the above combination, you could replace the motherboard or even the entire machine and restore the backup image without issue.

The cost for Workstation + Universal restore is about double of that of the Home version. So, the question is, how much is your data and time worth compared to the cost of the upgrade? From what I understand, the Workstation version works in a very similar, if not identical, manner as the Home version. Doubtless there is a learning curve involved in regard to the Universal Restore, but it surely isn’t that difficult.

Jeff

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Jeff

So you are saying that with the standard Acronis TrueImage product which does image backups of hard disks it is necessary to have the same machine (or a clone) to restore the image back to the same or an identical disk?

And there was me thinking that a disk image was a disk image, and had no dependency at all on the rest of the computer, bar the odd disk driver…

John

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John,

If you have a different PC then I think you would be able to restore the disk image, but may not be able to boot from it.

StuartR

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[indent]

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John asks:
So you are saying that with the standard Acronis TrueImage product which does image backups of hard disks it is necessary to have the same machine (or a clone) to restore the image back to the same or an identical disk?

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[/indent]
Exactly!! Should you have to replace your motherboard, the backup image cannot be used to restore the image thereafter. Some, and they are few, claim to have been able to succeed in restoring an image to a machine with a different motherboard or even another machine with a long and convoluted process. But the overwhelming majority have failed. In fact, you can’t even access any data located in “C:Documents and Settingsusername….” in an backup image file from another machine. The problem is at least partly due to the motherboard drivers, chipset, etc. This is one of the huge advantages of the True Image Workstation version with the Universal Restore addon. It circumvents that caveat and allows an image to be restored to ANY machine if need be. And just in case you are wondering…. the Universal Restore addon is compatible ONLY with the Workstation version of True Image; not the Home version.

It does give one something to ponder, no?

Jeff

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See http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread….5288#post995288[/url].
Hopefully. Acronis will answer.

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The question/issue has been asked several times on the Acronis True Image Forum and satisfactorily answered, which is what I posted here. You CANNOT restore a backup image to a machine where the motherboard has been replaced with a different brand/model nor on a different machine which has different hardware, particularly the motherboard. Again, some have tried it and very few have had any manner of success whatsoever, and that after implementing some unorthodox workarounds. To be able to restore an image in those types of situations you need True Image Workstation with the Universal Restore addon.

Jeff

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Jeff,

I think there is a very simple mis-understanding here.

You can RESTORE the disk image, after changing your motherboard.
If the image you have restored happens to be your boot disk then you probably won’t be able to BOOT from the newly restored disk..
If the disk you have restored is a data disk then this should work fine.

StuartR

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Stuart,

There is no simple misunderstanding on my part. The presumption is that the backup image is a backup of one’s system and not just extraneous data. Secondly, the purpose of restoration is typically to recover from a critical system failure and not just select data files. Thirdly, once again assuming that the backup image(s) are system backups and not data, not only will the restored image not boot, thus making the restored system unusable, but all data stored in “Documents and Settings” will be inaccessible thus preventing recovery of it as well, which for most is where the most important files are stored; e.g., documents, pictures, music, outlook.pst files, etc.

The caveat is the inability to boot from a restored system which has had major hardware changes, e.g., a motherboard. As I’ve already mentioned, some have spent hours trying to correct the boot issue and have had in some rare cases, limited success. But the vast majority of users will not have the knowledge to even attempt correcting the boot problem and consequently will have to do a full reinstall. Acronis True Image Workstation w/ the Universal Restore addon is the only practical solution in such a situation; different motherboard or a totally new machine.

Lastly, the Universal Restore addon only works with True Image Workstation and not with True Image Home. If someone ever comes up with a workable resolution to this particular problem, no doubt they will be guaranteed riches of great quantity.

Jeff

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If Universal restore allows a you to boot a system with a new mb, then all it is doing is hiding a system repair from you. For any MS OS using a HAL (hardware abstraction layer) with TI or any other imaging solution if you restore the image to a PC with a different MB you need to repair your installation. I’ve restored images to completely different PCs at work using Ghost where the OS is Win2k & XP . Then running a repair allowed me to use the restored system.

Joe

--Joe

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Joe,

Yes, some have had success doing a “repair” but many haven’t. The point is, for the average user restoring an image on a system with a new mb or a totally new system results in a major problem. All I’m doing is relating the “facts” about what happens when restoring a backup image on either of those situations. If YOU can workaround the problems it creates, then you are in the minority.

Jeff

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Based on what Acronis says Universal Restore does it is no different from one of the things a repair install can do. Steps one thru three are just putting the image to disk.

“Step 4: Acronis Universal Restore detects the hardware and installs drivers
The product detects the machine type and installs appropriate drivers for Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)
The product detects hard disk controllers (SCSI and IDE)
Or

The product prompts you for driver locations.”

See How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP. How is it any different?

I’d suggest that those who have not had success doing a repair have not done it properly. Also, I’d suggest that if you look at the Acronis TI Home part of the site you’d swear you could do this. I’d bet that the so called average user would think they could recover their system even if they had to replace the mb. IMO, Acronis is disingenuous at best and maybe dishonest in what they imply.

Joe

--Joe

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He started making the “cheese more binding” back here: post 607,984…

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Al,
I also got a telephone call. The fellow did not try and sell me anything, but asked if I was having any problems with my TI 10 (home). He said to give him a call If I did experience any problems, though the promised e-mailed contact info has not arrived. This was a first such call I ever got from a software vendor. A little unusual, but harmless. I attributed it to an energetic new hire trying to make a new job work out.

Paul

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