Acronis True Image 8 verses Norton Ghost 9

Has anyone had the oppertunity to compare these two backup solutions?
I'm very interested to know which one is more reliable and just works better.

Thanks
Rockit

 

I use Acronis true image 8.0 and find it works fine. You can full backup from within windows or boot from a bootable startup CD that you have the option to make, and do a full backup from there. This also gives you firewire/USB1.1/2.0 access to external devices such as external drives as well as access to a network if you have one. As I understand it, Ghost 9 now does virtually the same. Ghost 2003 had limitations, but v9 has caught up. I will be experimenting with Ghost 9 shortly, but at present can only go on the readily available documentation to compare it to Acronnis 8.0.

 

Found a discussion in the Wilders security forum that may be of use. The thread doesn't generally like Ghost 9. I guess you can't trust everything you read in forums! (WindowsBBS excepted )

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=259906#post259906

 

Thanks Paul !!
Very interesting read.

The reason I'm asking is I've been getting corupt images from True Image.
I tried booting off the CD and making the image and that worked fine?
Then made serveral more from within windows and they also seem to be fine?
Is there a way to have True Image check the image it creates automaticly?

Thanks Again
Rockit

 

I have used TI7 and when the image is created within Windows I just used the 'verify image' tool within the GUI. I know its not automatic but it does read the image again (sorry if it is something more than this you are asking about )

I have Acronis and Ghost 2003 but am in a dilemma about both of them. Ghost takes a 'long' time to image to the partition on my external hard drive and it is not even doing my full HD. I find it is quite hit and miss when telling it the way I want the image as it only seems to work one way with my external drive whereas TI had no problems at all in creating the image - quick and stress free.

I must admit I have uninstalled both of them until I make my mind up as I was alarmed when I checked my Task Manager to discover just how much resources Ghost was using in the background and I was not even using it (in fact I hadn't used it for over a month!!)

Acronis have spoiled their 'image' somewhat by releasign v8 a short time after we had purchased v7 and this version had not been fully 'fixed' with patches! Although creating the image was simple and quick (unlike Ghost) I did use it a lot more but did not like the 3 services it runs in the background even if you don't use the 'incremental' image facility. I also read their foum on Wilders and am worried when there are so many corrupted restore images when needed most!

Presently I am trying to decide on one really good back up program but as posted there are too many flaws reported to have 'confidence' in one

 

Ghost saved my bacon

I am using Ghost as part of Systemworks Pro 2004 and it saved my bacon when the update to SP2 went wrong and left me with a computer that was continually rebooting,it was the first time i have used it to restore an image but i would not be without it now.

 

Personally I prefer TruImage (or DriveImage) over Ghost, JMHO. And that's pretty much all there is to it... use the one you prefer that gives you the results you want.

miniB... the services TruImage is running can be stopped and set to 'manual' as long as you don't use the scheduler or want to make incremental backups. I do my images manually and replace the oldest with the newest. HTH

B

 

Thanks Mr. B I will try this when I re-install TI. I was trying to resolve a problem with my computer and had uninstalled some software but now everything is back to the way it should be I think I will elect TI over Ghost as I don't dread using TI and did back up a lot more when I used it.

I do like the option to explore the image and select individual files I just got very worried when others had posted about corrupted images when they went to restore!!!

Ghost took so long and was not straight forward when using the external drive that I only used it when I had a lot of time to let it work!

 

Hi All,
It seems that I shall have to spend a few $$$ and buy Ghost, TI ******* me up, and is headed for the recycle bin!
Cleaned up XP Home with AdAware, Spybot, and then used TI to make an image of 'C' to a second HD which verified OK, then burnt a DVD of that image, which also verified OK.
Installed XP SP2 from a Microsoft CD and all seemed well for a few hours until I found that Benign wasn't working and the system suddenly slowed down, and did not want to go into hibernation.
Restored 'C' using the HD IMAGE - TI said restored OK but the reboot failed, frozen on XP splash screen. Last Good no good, into Safe Mode to try System Restore - didn't restore.
Desperate now, tried a restore of 'C' using the Acronis CD to boot, and tried to restore from the DVD image. TI would not recognise its own image on the DVD as a *.tib file!!! I ended up doing a repair installation of XP.

During this repair I found that the failures to boot were caused by my Olitec (Conexant chip) pci modem which has been transferred from machine to machine for more than four years, in spite of the Logo testing warnings. Apparently SP2 is more severe on this warning, because everytime I clicked on 'Install anyway' the machine shutdown and rebooted.

After all was sorted I slipstreamed an XP installation. Unfortunately, Sonic Record Now 7.0 DeLuxe would not burn a bootable CD, and after making four coasters I gave up, downloaded the demo of Nero 6, and burnt a bootable CD no problem, and first time.
So, Ghost and Nero here I come!!

Roger

 

Roger,
Thats what happined to me !! Only Ghost is the one that failed and I had to do a system repair from the Windows XP Pro CD.. I must say that so far all the backups I've made and that checked out as good have restored with no problem with True Image. Just curious about the new Ghost but Symantec has had a terrible record of making Bloatware and I've had allot of problems with their software before.. I guess It's whatever works for you.

Later
Rockit

 

Another thread from another newsgroup. A few yahoos and one of our members (I think?) on this site as well, but an interesting read.

TI 8.0.xxx still gets my vote.

http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?act=ST&f=2&t=16963

 

Another Good Link Paul..

The Drive Snapshot disk imager program looks interesting. It sure is small compared to the other Ghosting software out there. Has anyone used this program? It would be cool to see how a less than 2 meg program would work creating backups.

Heres the link...

http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/

 

I saw the original Drive Image 7 (Power Quest before the bloat) advertised last night. The GUI is similar to Acronis but I wondered if it is any more 'reliable' that Ghost of TI. I am going to have to re-install one of my backup programs this week. I am very reluctant about Ghost as it really does add complications to my backing up and uses needless resources when I am not using it. I could not believe how much it was using in the background!

I have been able to image, verify & mount the TI image but have never used the 'restore' feature. After reading this thread plus the one on Wilders even though there have been corrupted images reported I am inclined to think I will re-install TI7 and stop the services running when I don't need them.

I will make sure and use Windows Explorer to copy over my files an programs as if the horrible day came for a re-install at least I have all my original install discs but at the end of the day I don't think there is an option not to 'employ' a thrid party backup software.

 

DriveImage7 works well and I prefer it over Ghost. I recently started using TrueImage and prefer it over DriveImage. DriveImage does work well, I was really disappointed when PowerQuest was aquired by Symantec.
Pick your poison...

B

 

R-Drive Image

Yet another drive image program..
The more I try and research this the more confused I get??

Cheers
Rockit

http://www.drive-image.com/

 

RockIt I am confused too I have Ghost 2003 (don't think this will be re-installed) I have TI v7 (disappointed they did not fix this version fully before moving on to v8) I do like TI as it is so easy to use (well to image with as I haven't used the restore apart from picking some files out of an image)
The only big disappointment with Acronis is the fact that in a few months they are likely to be on V9/10 so when is the best time to upgrade?

I was thinking of PowerQuest's Drive Image (agree did not like Symantec buying this out ) while it was still available but it would be v7 without any update/progress as computer's evolve apart from having to take a bloated Symantec version.

I am now back to my original tools to stay with TI and only upgrade if anything significant in the way it works is introduced. It is disappointing to have only had a porgram several months and a new version is introduced without an upgrade swap I really thing Acronis did not win any votes by this move although the actual software is easy to work with.

 

DI v. 7.0 uses a technology called V2i, which at that time of release was the fastest on the market. Although it's a good program, it has been usurped (IMHO) by it's competitors namely, Acronis True Image which has many more features.

Upto now, Symantec has done very little to improve upon Ghost. The latest version of Ghost (v9.0) which they just recently includes many new features. However, they're merely playing catch-up, as their competitors have eroded their market share with features such as USB support.

I use an older version of Norton Ghost which is very fast & effective but it is not compatible with NTFS volumes. I plan to purchase TI 7.0 once my new HDD arrives.

 

I doubt it. Acronis TI v 8.0 was recently released about a month ago.

http://www.acronis.com/

Save your pennies and stick with 7.0; I hear from some v8.0 users that it was not much of an improvement and not worth upgrading.

 

alboy--Do I understand that Ghost permits spanning multiple CD-R's or DVD, so you can image everything on the drive using either of those storage media?
And of course recover the whole integrated image from the multiple discs?

 

Depends entirely upon which version of Ghost you're talking about.