When you’re finished, just close the
Windows Explorer window, and that’s it. This is a
great way to quickly access the contents of an
archive if you need, for example, to quickly copy a
file or folder that you’ve accidentally deleted but
have backed up, without even having to launch
True Image. The only thing that Explore Backup
Archive has in common with the Mount Image
operation, is that if either is left open when you
shut down or reboot your computer, when Windows
restarts, the image files that were loaded into
Windows Explorer will be gone.
The last thing you need when the
clock is ticking and you’re working under pressure,
is for Windows to decide to take a permanent
vacation on you. Unchanged from Version 9.0, True
Image 10.0 Home’s Snap Restore allows you
to bring Windows back to life on a crashed system
and go back to work while your system continues to
restore in the background. Sounds incredible? Here’s
how it works:
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●
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When you restore
a disk/partition image using Snap Restore, it finds
the sectors in the image containing Windows and
other system files, and restores these sectors
first. As a result, Windows is restored and can be
started immediately. |
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● |
Once Windows is
started, Snap Restore writes out special drivers
that intercept system queries to files, to the hard
drive. When the user opens or launches applications,
those drivers receive the system queries and restore
the sectors that are necessary for you to run those
applications. System requested sectors will
always have the highest priority, however. |
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● |
At the same
time, Snap Restore continues with the complete
sector-by-sector image restoration of the system in
the background. The image will be fully restored
even if the user performs no actions at all.
|
Requirements and limitations of using
Snap Restore:
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●
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Snap Restore can
only be launched from the Acronis Startup Recovery
Manger, or True Image bootable rescue media. |
|
● |
Any image files
used for recovery with Snap Restore must reside in
the Acronis Secure Zone. You cannot use Snap Restore
with image files in other locations, or from
removable media. |
|
● |
Snap Restore
won't work if the image used for recovery doesn't
contain the OS. The system disk must be
included in the image file. |
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● |
Snap Restore
always restores the entire system disk. If you've
formatted your drive into several
partitions—one for Windows, the other for programs,
and the other for data, all of those partitions
must be included in the image file you'll be
using with Snap Restore. If you've backed up the
partition with Windows to one image file, and the
other partitions to another image file, and run Snap
Restore your partitions containing your programs
won't be restored. |
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● |
You cannot use
Snap Restore with file archive images containing
individual files and folders—only disk and partition
images. |
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● |
Snap Restore is
not supported under Windows Vista. |
System performance and application
responsiveness under Snap Restore will vary
depending on your hardware, and the type and number
of applications you are trying to run while Snap
Restore is working in the background. On a
modestly-configured system, you probably won’t
notice much of an impact if you’re working on a
document, spreadsheet and presentation that’s part
of a project you’ve got to get finished soon. On the
other hand, editing a complex Photoshop image while
listening to your iTunes collection, burning a DVD,
going through the hundred or so E-Mail messages in
your inbox while attempting to sneak in a quick
game, might be an entirely different story
altogether—even on a box with a speedy set of
Raptor hard drives, 2 GB of RAM and multi-core
CPU.
If you use a third-party disk
defragmentation utility like Diskeeper or
PerfectDisk, and you have a defragmentation job
scheduled, I would strongly recommend that
you temporarily suspend or disable them as soon as
Snap Restore gets you back into Windows. Ditto any
scheduled backup jobs with True Image—especially
if they’re set to run when Windows starts if the
schedule is missed for any reason. If your situation
was desperate enough for you to turn to Snap Restore
to begin with, you’ve probably had enough excitement
for the evening. No point in frazzling your nerves
with any more “surprises.”
Other Features
Like its predecessor, True Image
10.0 Home also has wizards that can help you
Clone or Add a New Disk to your
PC. When cloning a disk, True Image can
automatically resize the partition for you if the
new disk is larger—or you can do it manually and
configure all of the parameters yourself if you want
more control over the process (thanks to the wizard
it’s not as difficult as it may sound). You can
choose to keep the data intact on the old hard drive
(good to fall back on in the event that you have a
problem with your new drive). Or you can have
True Image wipe the old hard drive if you plan
to sell it. If you’re upgrading to a single
hard disk, you can clone it without even opening
your case if you have an eSATA connection or
a device like the
USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE Cable.
If you’re new to computers and adding
an additional hard drive to your PC is your first
upgrade (congratulations by the way, on what
will hopefully become a very enjoyable pastime for
you), you’ll find True Image’s Add Disk
wizard much friendlier than the Windows Disk
Management snap-in under Computer Management.
Even if you’re an experienced user, the Acronis
Wizard is nicer to use than Disk Management.
Gamers and power users who rely on
their backups for protection, rather than Window
XP’s System Restore, usually turn it off to regain
the disk space and system resources it uses. System
Restore files are notorious for their
excessive disk fragmentation—mostly because the
files are created every time you add or remove a new
program, or once a day at system start up. And the
older files are eventually replaced with newer ones
in a never-ending cycle.
As long as you perform your own
backups on a regular basis, why waste your favorite
defrag utility’s time and energy on a bunch of
temporary checkpoint files? Acronis was probably
thinking along the same lines when they introduced
the convenient System Restore Management Wizard
back in Version 9.0 that allows you to disable and
enable System restore on one or multiple drive
volumes with just a few mouse clicks, rather than
wading through several layers of menus under the
Start menu.
Final Observations and Conclusion
Acronis has done a better job than
most software publishers in retaining tried-and-true
features that just work without getting in
your way, while avoiding “trendy” new features that
often turn the best utilities into bloated
kludge-ware.
If you have one or more of the
supported applications installed, then the
Application Backup presets can be quite useful.
But, to really make it a success, Acronis will
have to be aggressive in keeping the list of
applications updated, either through their website
(which would be preferable); or through updated
True Image 10.0 builds (which would be
the least preferable as it takes much longer to test
and roll out a new build). Few iTunes users, for
example are using iTunes 6.0, because you
can’t download the latest media from the iTunes
store unless you have the newer version 7.x
installed.
On a more minor note, although you
can finally print out topics from True
Image 10.0 Home’s help, it still isn’t
keyword searchable as the standard Windows help file
used in all other programs and utilities. Firefox
2.0’s online help doesn’t use standard Windows
help files either—but you can still perform keyword
searches in it just the same. If I’m looking for a
particular topic under True Image’s help, I
find it much quicker and convenient to type it in
search box, than having to manually sift through a
topics list until I find exactly what I want. So,
Acronis—next build, searchable online help? Please?
True Image
continues to be a powerful and flexible yet
easy-to-use backup utility for computer users at all
levels who don’t want to play Russian Roulette
with their data—and have better things to do than go
through the usual time-consuming
format-and-reinstall routine to bring Windows back
from the dead—like actually using their PCs
for work or play.
I’ve been using True Image for
over three years now. In all that time, it’s
never let me down. If you can’t say the same for
your backup utility, then maybe it’s time you took a
look at Acronis True Image 10.0 Home—the
“Swiss Army Knife” of backup utilities for disaster
recovery and data protection.
