What have you heard from Acronis?
It can be assumed that since you sent a complaint to Acronis and are
now posting it here, there was a response to help clear your issues.
Or have you posted here without giving any chance for Acronis to
answer?
Acronis has a very good reputation even with their latest versions.
Perhaps there is something wrong that Acronis may help resolve?
Your options may be limited since it seems you chose to actually test
the evaluation product so late that a resolution before trial expired
was nearly impossible.
--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar http://www.dts-l.org
"Richard A. Landkamer" <ralandka@pdq.net> wrote in message
news:%23DyJOxhKIHA.5328@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
To Whom It May Concern:
I am sharing with this list an accounting of my experiences in testing
and "removing" the "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11 Home" Backup
product on my computer, which are described in detail in the following
2 forwarded e-mails that I have sent to
support@acronis.com.
Does anyone on this list know of any Backup product other than Norton
Ghost that will create a true Image Copy Backup of Windows XP Pro SP2,
and which takes all of its Image Copy Backups under a basic DOS System
where there are no open and constantly changing System Files? To my
knowledge, only Norton Ghost takes all of its Image Copy Backups under
a basic DOS System where there are no open and constantly changing
System Files. If there is any other Backup Utility that takes its
backups in this manner, then I would like to evaluate this product.
Thank you.
Richard A. Landkamer
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard A. Landkamer
To:
support@acronis.com
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 1:25 PM
Subject: Update RE: My previous evaluation of your "Acronis [alleged]
True Image 11 Home" Backup product
To:
support@acronis.com
I sent you my previous evaluation of your "Acronis [alleged] True
Image 11 Home" Backup product before I actually attempted to
Remove/Uninstall this bloatware product from my computer, which
brought on a whole new set of problems. In short, it took me over an
hour to manually remove most of what I could easily find of this
product on my computer after the Remove process for this product in
Windows XP Pro "Add or Remove Programs" appears to have removed
nothing except the entry for this product in Windows XP Pro "Add or
Remove Programs".
I made the following three attempts to Remove your "Acronis [alleged]
True Image 11 Home" Backup product from my computer:
In the first attempt, I simply clicked on "Remove" for this product in
Windows XP Pro "Add or Remove Programs. After about 20 minutes of
doing nothing, I clicked on Cancel in the running Remove process, the
latter of which actually did work after running a few minutes. I then
decided to use the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility to "Remove" your
"Acronis [alleged] True Image 11 Home" Backup product from my
computer. This took less that 30 seconds. Subsequent investigation
disclosed that the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility only removed the
entry for this product in Windows XP Pro "Add or Remove Programs".
For my second attempt, I first had to reinstall your "Acronis
[alleged] True Image 11 Home" Backup product from my original download
of this product. This reinstall took about 15 minutes. When it came
time to Remove this product from my computer, I turned off ZoneAlarm
Internet Security Suite, which I did not do the first time. I then
clicked on "Remove" for this product in Windows XP Pro "Add or Remove
Programs. This time the Removal process did not hang, and ended
"normally" after running a few minutes. Unfortunately, the results
were identical to when I previously used the Windows Installer Clean
Up Utility to "Remove" your "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11 Home"
Backup product from my computer.
My third attempt was to spend over an hour manually removing most of I
could easily find of your "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11 Home"
Backup product on my computer. I began by searching for files that
had "Acronis" as part of their name, and attempting to delete these
files. I quickly found several modules that could not be deleted,
since they were being used. I then used the Windows Process Explorer
Utility, which is described at
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx>,
and found two running Processes with Acronis on their name. I killed
these two running Acronis processes, but I still could not delete
these Acronis modules. I then used the Windows AutoRuns Utility,
which is described at
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx>,
to delete everything that I could find related to the Acronis modules
that I could not delete and/or the above running Acronis processes
that I had found.
When I originally installed my old 2003 Version of Norton Ghost, which
I referred to in my following forwarded previous posting, Norton Ghost
came as part of a bundled product called Norton SystemWorks 2004.
This latter product has several other utilities, including Norton
WinDoctor under Norton Utilities. I used Norton WinDoctor to delete
around 200 entries that this utility found in the Windows XP Pro
Registry for this Acronis product after I had deleted many of the
Acronis files that I referred to in the previous paragraph. This is
in addition to the Start Up entries in the Registry that I deleted
with the above Windows AutoRuns Utility.
I then rebooted my computer, after which I was able to delete the
Acronis modules that I could not previously delete. According to the
Windows AutoRuns Utility, I still have some Acronis modules and
drivers in C:\Windows\System 32 - which I will probably get around to
researching and deleting eventually.
Bottom line in this whole miserable experience: Not only could I not
get the "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11 Home" Backup product to
Restore my Hard Drive from two Acronis Disaster Recovery Backups that
I took to DVD-RWS, but I subsequently discovered that this Acronis
bloatware product is obviously not intended to ever be
Removed/Uninstalled from anyone's computer after it has been
installed. Beware!
Richard A. Landkamer
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard A. Landkamer
To:
support@acronis.com
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 2:11 AM
Subject: Re: Evaluation period of Acronis True Image 10.0 comes to the
end
To:
support@acronis.com
Actually it was Acronis True Image 11 Home at
<http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/features-backup.html>
that I tested. Unfortunately, your product failed my testing.
I tested two "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11 Home" Backups to Ativa
DVD+RW 4.7 GB Disks on a new DVD-RW Drive that I recently purchased.
The System Information name of this drive is listed as "Name TSSTcorp
CD/DVDW SH-S182D". The sales receipt that I got lists this drive
somewhat differently as "DVDRW+- 18X Samsung Drive". Both times I
used "High" compression, since this was one of the options available
to me. The first backup was just a regular complete backup. The
second backup was a Sector by Sector backup if I recall your Acronis
terminology correctly. I encountered no difficulty in making these
backups, which I also put through your "Verify" process with no
errors.
However, when I attempted to Restore these alleged "True Image"
Backups to my Hard Drive, both times I got a pop up window informing
me that these Backups were "corrupted", and could not be restored. So
what good is an alleged ""True Image" Backup of any kind if it cannot
subsequently be Restored? Also, just what does your alleged "Verify"
process attempt to verify???
For the past few years, I have been using an old 2003 Version of
Norton Ghost for my Image Copy Backups. Incidentally, before I tested
your "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11 Home" Backup product, I took two
Image Copy Backups of my C: Hard Drive with this old 2003 Version of
Norton Ghost. The first backup was to my D: Drive, which is a
separate internal removable device of 120 Gig. (My C: Drive is 80
Gig.) The second backup was to my above new DVD-RW Drive. I expected
my old 2003 Version of Norton Ghost to give me some kind of device
error on this new DVD-RW Drive, but that did not happen. I was even
able to Restore my C: Drive with my 1st test Backup to this new DVD-RW
Drive with this old 2003 Version of Norton Ghost, and I used High
compression in this Backup. If an old 2003 Version of Norton Ghost
can do this, then surely your latest "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11
Home" Backup product should have been able to do the same. I was
hoping to be able to replace my old 2003 Version of Norton Ghost with
some version of Acronis, but it now appears that I will have to
upgrade to the current version of Norton Ghost instead.
I believe that there is a fundamental design flaw in your Acronis
Backup products. Before I tested your "Acronis [alleged] True Image
11 Home" Backup product, I never thought that you would attempt to
take an alleged "True Image" Backup of any version of Windows XP while
actually running Windows XP with all of its open and constantly
changing System Files, particularly in the Windows XP Pro SP2 System
Restore System. I think that you are attempting to do the impossible.
As I presume you are aware, Norton Ghost takes all of its Backups only
under a basic DOS System where there are no open and constantly
changing System Files. I find it difficult to believe that any other
kind of Image Copy Backup could possibly work and not be corrupted.
Another problem that I had with your "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11
Home" Backup product was that I could not get it to recognize my
internal removable D: Drive as a Backup Device for Disaster Recovery
purposes. I was able to take some kind of logical Backup to my
internal removable D: Drive with your "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11
Home" Backup product, but I could not use this Backup as an Image Copy
that can be Restored in a Disaster Recovery situation. My old 2003
Version of Norton Ghost can Restore any of its Image Copy Backups on
my internal removable D: Drive. Why can't your "Acronis [alleged]
True Image 11 Home" Backup product do the same?
For some additional background information, you might want to look at
a recent issue that I have opened in the Microsoft Sysinternals Forum
at <http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=12723>. You
will note that Microsoft's own RootkitRevealer Utility hangs on
"Scanning C:\System Volume Information\catalog.wci" every time that I
attempt to run RootkitRevealer. Since both RootkitRevealer and the
System Restore System are Microsoft products, I think that Microsoft
should be able to fix this problem. To date, Microsoft has not
responded to my November 11, 2007, posting at:
<http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=12723>.
At least your "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11 Home" Backup product
did not hang attempting to Backup any files in my Windows XP Pro SP2
System Restore System. Or does Acronis even attempt to Backup any of
these constantly changing System Files???
In conclusion, if Acronis ever develops a real True Image Backup that
can actually be Restored, let me know. I think that you will only be
able to do this if you take your Backups under a basic DOS System
where there are no open and constantly changing System Files.
Richard A. Landkamer
----- Original Message -----
From: <support@acronis.com>
To: "Richard Landkamer" <ralandka@pdq.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 12:03 AM
Subject: Evaluation period of Acronis True Image 10.0 comes to the end
> Hello Richard Landkamer,
>
> Your evaluation period for Acronis True Image 10.0
> will expire tomorrow and we wanted to take this opportunity to thank
> you
> for letting Acronis Inc. be your computing partner. We invite you to
> visit the Acronis online
> store at http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/sales/online/ , where
> you
> can place your order for the full version of this software. If you
> prefer to buy from a local reseller, you can find a list of U.S. and
> Canadian resellers on our Web site http://www.acronis.com/ .
>
> Please feel free to contact us at support@acronis.com if you have
> any questions.
>
> Once again, thank you for your confidence and consideration.
>
> Happy computing!
>
>
> You received this message because you downloaded a trial copy of
> Acronis True Image 10.0.
>
>
> The Acronis Team
> http://www.acronis.com/
>
> Compute with confidence...