This is the third in a series about the fantastic Acronis True Image Home 2009 PC Backup & Recovery. The first post was Recover Data From A Computer That Won’t Boot and the second was Backup your system, Windows, Linux and others with Acronis. In this one I will install Acronis True Image Home 2009 and describe some of it’s features.
So, let’s install it to LapDancer (my HP Pavilion dv7 laptop). I have started the computer and am running Windows 7 which is very similar to Windows Vista only MUCH BETTER.
1. Put the PC Backup and Recovery disk in the CD drive. It will start up and you will be at a menu that has the following options. Acronis True Image Home 2009; Media Add-ons for Acronis True Image Home 2009; Adobe Reader; User’s Guide; and Quit.
2. Click on Acronis True Image Home 2009.
3. The next screen allows you to "Check for updates", "Install Acronis True Image Home", read the User’s Guide or get Technical Support. I’ll click on "Check for Updates" first.
4. I now have the option to "Download and install the latest version of Acronis True Image Home" so let’s click on that.
5. Now I can select "Trial version" or "Full version". I’ll select the "Full version" and have to enter my "Serial Number" then click "OK".
6. After all that I got an "Error while connecting to update server" so I’ll back up one step and just install it by clicking on "Install Acronis True Image Homes".
7. The Welcome screen comes up and I’ll click "Next".
8. Read the License Agreement and click "accept" and "Next".
9. Now I will enter that long, very long, serial number again and click "Next".
10. Next I have the choice of "Typical", "Custom" or "Complete". I’m going to chose "Complete.
11. Now I have a choice to "Install for all users…" or "Install for the current user only". I’ll chose "current user" and click "Next".
12. It now has enough information and all I have to do is check it and click "Proceed"
13. Installation is complete so I’ll close the window.
14. It says I have to restart the computer so I’ll remove the CD and restart LapDancer, then we will be on our way to see what’s all here.
There is a "Acronis True Image Home" icon on the desktop so we will get on our way. The first thing that comes up is a window called "Acronis One-Click Protection". This allows me to create a backup of my system volume and Master Boot Record. Since I just did that while I was writing my last post I’ll skip it this time. You will probably want to create the backup.
I’m now in the main window and have a left and right panel. In the left panel, are the main categories. They are Welcome, Home, Backup and Restore, Tasks and Log, Protection State, Try & Decide, Utilities, and Search.
I’ll start with the "Home" section which is the default. Welcome is part of the "Home" tab. Here we have another way to get to the tabs that are in the left panel and in addition there is "System Information", "Protection Tools", "One-Click Protection", "Cleanup Utilities", "Search" and "Help". Let’s look at system information first. Here it shows you the disk space you have used/available, something called "Acronis Secure Zone" displaying a disk, and information telling about your backup status.
Protection Tools allows you to create a bootable rescue media, start the "Acronis Startup Recovery Manager", and "Manage Acronis Secure Zone".
Cleanup Utilities has a "Drive Cleanser", "File Shredder" and "System Clean-up". These all appear to be deleting information so I’ll go on to the next feature.
The "Backup and Restore" section allows you to "Create an image of the entire disk or a partition", "Specify files and folders you want to backup", "Create a backup of your current system state", "Backup e-mail accounts and address book", and "Backup application settings".
The "Task and event log" has a calendar and shows your scheduled task, those that failed and those that were successful.
The "Utility" section allows you to "Clone disk – You can copy partitions of a selected disk to another disk", and "Add new disk – You can add a new hard disk drive to your system".
That covers the main features that I can see. All in all, this is the best Backup and Recovery program I have ever used. I’m sure I’ll be using it for a long, long time. I highly recommend you give it a try. I see on the Acronis website you can download a trial version and it cost $49.99 to buy it. Their home page starts off showing the "Server" version so make sure to click on the "Home and Office" to see the correct version.
Well, this ends the Acronis True Image Home 2009 PC Backup & Recovery series. If you would like download a trial version of Acronis True Image Home 2010 Backup & Recovery you can do so using the following link.
Acronis True Image Home 2010 Trial Download
I hope you found it interesting. Please take the time to add a comment below and let me know what you think.
Have A Great Day
Bob Jones
