Replies

I have to agree with Bertie91. As long as the program does the most important job of providing a back-up then the rest is just gravy. I for one hope I never need to use the restore feature.

The arguments are very strong for Acronis. And the price is very good. However, I’m not sure about how or why I need or want the plus pack.

On another note.

I’m pretty much sold on Acronis. At the risk of opening another can of worms, I’d like to present this for discussion. Where do I buy it? Of course I can buy direct from the Acronis web site. Very safe and guaranteed at a reasonable price (most likely how I will buy it). However, out of curiosity I checked other sources. And e-Bay is always an option. Several sellers are offering Acronis at very low pricing (from $3.00 to $10) for a download version with serial number for activation. It s a risk of getting only a trial version or pirate version with a useless serial number. My question is…How bad can the risk be? If these are bogus offers wouldn’t Acronis contact E-bay to have the offers removed? Again strictly out of curiosity I also checked pirate web sites and discovered that Acronis appears to be very vigilant to catch and blacklist any serial number that might be out there. By the way I feel much more confident with Acronis knowing they are very vigilant about trying to curb bogus copies of their software. At this point its only an academic discussion since I’ll most likely buy direct. However, I will look for coupon codes or deals.

Thanks to all who have offered their opinions and comments.

Try Shadow Protect – and then wonder why anyone recommends Acronis! (not that I’m biased, or anything…)

We’re also talking nearly $90.00! ????

Thanks, but no thanks.

Wow! It looks like Acronis is by far the most popular and I will most likely go with that since it’s so highly recommended by the likes of Fred, Ted and others. As Tim Sullivan mentioned, maybe I should wait for the 2011 version. I wonder if updates are free or available at reduced price for current users? Also I never thought about looking for rebates or coupons. Thanks for the tip, Tim.

I may try the freebies just out of curiosity but I think it’s a done deal for me to get Acronis! I tend to agree with Joe about the Try & Decide feature. However, it certainly is better than just loading a new program and hoping it does not hose your system.

Thanks to all who gave their opinions.

did you see the “twin” to the Acronis thread?

http://lounge.windowssecrets.com/index.php?showtopic=776749

this one is free in its basic version.

No I did not. But I will check it out.

Thanks,

Norm

Norm,

I use Acronis True Image Home 2010 with the plus pack. I do not have my data partitioned from the main drive as I do not believe I have enough data to justify a seperate partition. My “C” drive occupies all but 7 GB (Page file) of my 320 GB hd. I have approx 35 GB used. Acronis just images the used portion. This thread is a very good,although somewhat lengthy discussion of my imaging methods, which did save my bacon recently.

Ted,

Thanks. I read your reference thread and went to the Acronis web site. It looks very impressive. And the price is not bad. However, I would like to look at some of the free back-up imaging programs and see what they are capable of. You see, many years ago my wife and I agreed to keep a very short string on computer spending and only spend when absolutely necessary. If I can’t find one that looks good I’ll get Acronis.

I’ll start a new thread and ask others what they might recommend or suggest.

I do make a new image about once per month. It takes about 1/2 hour and I believe it’s time well spent.

Hey Ted,

I’m curious, what imagining program are you using and are you imaging to a DVD (re-writable or one time write only) or another hard drive? Also do you just image your OS or do you combine your data at the same time? Maybe I should be a bit more attentive to backing up my OS. Your recent fiasco is something I think we have all experienced at least once.

Thanks,

Norm

I think Clint’s reply makes the most sense. I suppose it depends on how important your OS is compared to your data. In my case I only use restore point as a system or OS backup. But I keep an external hard drive and two sets of CD’s as data backups. I usually do a data back-up about 2 to 4 weeks apart.

After all the replies to my post, I manually down loaded down loaded Firefox 3.6.8 AGAIN. Was using Firefox 3.6.7. Same darn results as yesterday. Task tray icons blinked and came back as Generic folders,also
desk top icons for Advanced Systems Care, Ccleaner, Glary Utilites,Smart Defrag, and Revo Uninstaller changed to blank looking folders.
My computer is a HP desktop Pavilion, AMD cpu dual core Athlon x2,4 gb ram, Nvidia GF210 w/512 mb ram video card, Windows 7 Home Premium, dual boot w/Ubuntu 10.04,also use Secunia PSI & Win Patrol Plus.
I keep ALL MY STUFF up todate & patched.

TBYRD,

Sorry to hear you’re having trouble. But you can be sure it’s not FF that is at fault. Too many people are using it with no ill affects. Your system has some conflict. Try going to msconfig and dis-able as many startup files as possible. Then if it works, begin to enable each one until symptoms appear. This will be very time consuming.

I just got notice to download version 3.6.7 about a week ago!

A few weeks ago, my daughter had the same problem and I found that somehow ‘use proxy server’ had been turned on. If you don’t have a proxy server, make sure that setting is off:

Go to Tools > Internet Options > Connections tab > Click LAN Settings > Uncheck “Use a proxy server for your LAN”

Hmm…I recently worked on a computer with the identical problem. It took me two days to stumble upon the solution. Me thinks something is triggering the ‘use proxy server’.

If I was currently using MSE I probably would know this, but, unfortunately i need to ask;
Is MSE on demand or full time???
Does Avira-Antivirus conflict with MSE???
Michael

Mike,

I never used MSE. However, Avira is a resident anti-virus program that is loaded on your computer. It does not intefer with any web based protection program. Keep in mind that Avira is strictly an anti-virus program with no bells or whistles. I addition to Avira use AdBlock Plus and SpyBot Search and Destroy. With this combination I have never been infected but they have caught many potential infections. Hope this helps.

Norm

PS…I just looked up MSE. I sounds very good and has good reviews. However, I would not mix the two programs. Keep in mind that Avira is strictly an anti-virus program with no bells or whistles. MSE requires MS Genuine Advantage. That in itself is not a problem but I don’t like restrictions. Will MSE work with Firefox or must I use IE? Avira has no OS or system restrictions.

Trevor,

Another way is to use the Registry Editor. It’s a bit risky but I have used it several times myself. Go to regedit and search for the program name and then delete each instance that shows up. Needless to say make a back-up first. Only do this if you have total confidence that you know any deletions won’t affect your system.

Mike,

All of the above is good info, but if you want a third party free anti-virus program I highly recommend Avira-Antivirus Free Personnal Antivirus. It’s very good and has saved my computer many times. I always install it when I fix computers for friends and relatives.

I feel your pain. I’m not legally blind or anything but view-ability is a big thing with me. Are you having the same problems with Internet Explorer? It may not be a favorite but if it solves your problem….

Another solution might be a larger screen. Since I started using a 22″ TV/Monitor I can never go back to anything less. Have you tried the High-Contrast themes in Windows?

Try Googling “How to get a large menu size in Firefox” and see what comes up. Although I did not read the articles it seems others don’t want what you’re looking for. Ironic isn’t it.

Anyways good luck. And take a serious look at a large screen (maybe 25″ or bigger).

Do you think that the text is small because of the “Shrink to Fit” setting? You can toggle that in the Page Setup dialog or, if you can use Print Preview in the Roadrunner Printable view, from the toolbar.

If it is not the “Shrink to Fit” setting, then perhaps that particular font is corrupted. Normally, screen and print fonts are the same, but occasionally you get a rogue printer font that is used only for printing. You could check the WindowsFonts folder for one named Times and, if found, move it out to another folder temporarily to see whether that makes a difference.

Usually the “Shrink to Fit” does not come into play, but notwithstanding the problem does not manifest itself in IE. I’ll try the font idea you brought up, but I would think that a corrupt font would manifest itself in Word and other programs.

5 minutes later…Ok I tried changing to Ariel font and guess what? It worked perfect. Sometimes the simple solution is the staring me in the face. I didn’t remove the Times New Roman yet to see it is corrupt but I will in the near future. Thanks for your help.