If you choose applications by the length of their feature lists, then Acronis TrueImage 2013 is the obvious first choice for disk and file backup, synchronization, disk management, and a host of other functions. If you choose a disk imaging and backup application by its proven ability to save and restore your data without doing potentially dangerous things to your system, then you may want to go elsewhere. Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite, our Editors' Choice, is probably a safer option.
I could fill a whole review with a list of the things that TrueImage 2013 can do. First, it can backup whole drives, individual partitions, individual files or folders, and it can back them up to a disk in or connected to your system, or to Acronis' own cloud-based storage?250GB of online storage free with the application, more if you buy it. Next, it can synchronize folders on your local disk, or folders on two or more computers, and create shared synchronizations so that multiple users can have updated copies of the same files. Third, it can clone partitions from one disk to another, build bootable rescue media, securely delete files and other data from your disks, create new partitions, and add a driver to your disk so that older operating systems can access disks larger than 2TB. What else? Well, it can modify your hard disk by adding a rescue environment that you can boot from by pressing F11 while starting up. Last but not least, it can create a hidden partition called the "Acronis Secure Zone" that it uses for backups and recovery functions.
Test Results
So what's not to like in this smorgasbord of features?
The central disk backup and imaging worked perfectly in my tests. A clear, wizard-based interface made it easy for me to create an image of my boot drive that TrueImage stored on a USB-connected hard disk. The only glitch I noticed was that the program first told me that the job would take a mere 30 minutes, but when I looked again, it raised the estimate to almost three hours, and actually needed slightly less than two hours.
I had no trouble restoring the entire image to my disk or "mounting" the backed-up image as if it were the actual drive so that I could copy files from it. TrueImage is slower than our Editor's Choice for imaging software, ShadowProtect Desktop, but it was equally adept at backing up and restoring. But note that ShadowProtect Desktop only handles imaging, while Acronis TrueImage offers a number of other services, too.
TrueImage's folder-synchronization features also worked perfectly, both between folders on my hard disk and between those on my home and office machines. Its disk management features worked smoothly, too. The whole interface is spacious, appealing, and informative, complete with easy-to-follow tutorials accessible from the main window.
Hold Ups
For me, the main problem with TrueImage 2013 is that it includes features that I'm convinced are potentially dangerous to be included in consumer-level software, and the program doesn't even hint that these features have built-in dangers. I'm referring to Acronis Secure Zone and the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager, both of which make non-standard changes to the deepest and most crucial parts of your disk structure. If something goes wrong with those parts of your disk, and Acronis's own software isn't available to fix it, or if it fails to fix it, then anyone who isn't an expert in disk structure is going to be in deep trouble, because other third-party disk tools aren't designed to deal with the non-standard modifications made by Acronis.
I tested both the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and the Acronis Secure Zone?after making sure I had a complete disk backup made by ShadowProtect Desktop?and they worked.
Let me note that I've had problems with Acronis's non-standard technology in three earlier generations of its software, and after those experiences, I'm simply not willing to trust my data to a disk that has Acronis's modifications on it. You can read about those earlier problems in my reviews of Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.0, Acronis True Image 11 Home, and Acronis True Image Home 2009.
Acronis has fixed most of the interface problems I pointed out in a review of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, but some minor problems remain. For example, if you use TrueImage's File Backup feature, you'll have to sort out for yourself the confusions built into Windows 7's Libraries feature. Inside the Libraries/Documents folder, Acronis's folder-selection menu lists two folders named "My Music," two folders named "My Pictures," and two folders named "My Videos." These correspond to the separate public and user-specific libraries on the disk, which Windows typically displays as if they were a single library, but you have no easy way to figure out which is which, or which one to back up.
TrueImage for Disk Experts
All in all, I'm impressed with the cornucopia of features in Acronis TrueImage 2013, and everything about it worked perfectly in my informal testing. But I can't give a strong recommendation to a consumer-level application that makes non-standard modifications to a hard disk. If you know what you're doing when you use TrueImage 2013, it will get the job done, but if you aren't experienced with the low-level, high-tech disk repair tools that you'll need if any of Acronis's advanced features go wrong?as they have repeatedly gone wrong for me?then I think you should approach it with caution.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/fn4-5Me4H7A/0,2817,2411663,00.asp
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