Acronis True Image 2014 test drive

As a longtime Acronis user it just took me a second to accept the invite to test the 2014 release of True Image backup software.

For those who don’t know it True Image is a backup software solution that you can use to safely backup your files or entire partitions both locally or, with recent releases, also online using Acronis Cloud (5GB included with the product, other plans available)

While Windows includes it’s own backup solution, i can’t even compare it with the flexibility i get from True Image, using incremental backups i can backup my machine in about 5 minutes after initial full backup which takes indeed more than one hour (but i do it about every two months…)

I have lost the count of how many times this software saved my day, last was about two months ago, and each time i do some “risky” installation, a quick backup with True Image is the rule now, consider me “over conservative” but wasting time re-installing stuff because of a failure its something i hate doing and believe me or not, i rarely repave my machine.

About my experience with True Image 2014: I was running 2013 version and I run the setup without removing the previous version, setup properly took care of update without any problem, old backups configuration have been maintained and i backed up my machine in quite about the same “canonical” 5/8 minutes. Just to test compatibility i tried to open previous backups from True Image 2014 and everything went smooth.

Each time i install a new version i always update the USB key i use to boot my machine in case of a full restore, just in case.

Apart some UI changes which tend to keep the program “as easy as possible” relegating advanced features as “options”

i haven’t seen big differences compared to 2013 version, probably new features are on Cloud backup that i don’t use due to my poor upload bandwidth that it will take me days to backup and entire partition online.

I’ll keep using version 2014 in forthcoming months as my backup solution and rest assured I’ll keep you informed if something fails (which i really hope won’t happen and I have no reason to think it should indeed…)

Did i ever said that i also clone my machine into VHDs that i can later boot each time i need to install alpha/beta or stuff that will deliberately compromise your Windows installation using Backup Conversion tool? (love it!)

If you’re looking for a compete backup solution that’s fast, realiable and (why not?) cheap I always recommend, and I’ll keep recommending, Acronis product. I know that there are many alternatives out there but when i was in pain with a non booting machine, Acronis always saved me, and that’s what I finally need from a software like that.