Free Acronis True Image 7.0

http://www.acronis.com/mag/vnu-ati7
Signup, check email for confirmation, click link in email, check email again for serial number & save to file. Use the link in the registration to login and "redownload" your product. Approx 21 MB download. FREE!

 

I couldn't find the Users Guide for 7.0 at Acronis but Google provided a link:

http://www1.acronis.com/pdf/trueimage7.0_ug.en.pdf#search="true imag e 7.0 users guide"

Right-click and Save target as

Christer

 

JohnB,
after a quick look in the manuals, I believe that 7.0 is two generations older than 9.0 but is basically the same. Following the links in the E-mails, you are taken to the upgrade page and it is not all that simple to find you FREE copy of ATI 7.0. They are making you eligible for an upgrade to 9.0 which is cheaper than a full version of 9.0.

I don't like that ATI 7.0 would create a hidden partition on my HDD. It would do that either from free space or nicking it from existing partitions. If I do a clean install with the usage of ATI 7.0 in mind, I can leave a portion of the HDD unallocated and let ATI 7.0 make it a hidden partition and I would make sure that it ended up at the end of the HDD. I would never let it mess with partitions on an existing installation.

On Norton Ghost 2003, a lot of things can affect transfer rates. It depends on the hardware combination (chipset, HDD firmware, ...) and file systems (source and target) but on my system, NG 2003 creates an image of the system partition (~4.5 GB) in 3.5 minutes and it restores in slightly less time. The target partition is on a different HDD (from C: on HDD0 to G: on HDD1).

Christer

 

Agreed!
My 500 celerons (10 GB partition) ghost in 6 minutes & restore is about the same. My P4 w/ HT & sata2 (30 GB partition) ghosts in just over 2 minutes & restore is faster.

I grabbed the Acronis only if I would ever need if for clients' system.

 

How much of the 10GB and 30GB respectively is used space?

My computer runs an Athlon 1GHz/266MHz CPU, 512MB PC133 and two Hitachi 7K250 ATA100. The system partition is 12GB with 4.5GB used and Ghost 2003 only processes used space. Create in 3½ minutes and restore in slightly less.

I have come to the conclusion that the transfer rate is not proportional to the CPU speed. A 2GHz CPU doesn't mean that it will take ½ the time compared to a 1GHz CPU. It will only be somewhat faster. It also depends on which tracks are read and written to, inner or outer. This and a lot of other parameters makes it difficult to compare the performance of Ghost on different systems.

However, 3-4 minutes compared to 25-30 minutes for the approximately same used space IS a difference.

Christer

 

OK, my newer desktop has an xp partition w/ programs, approx 3.5-4 GB used of 20 GB total. Ghost is very fast w/ the imaging & restore, about 2.5 minutes tops.

The same partition on the celeron takes 2-3 times a long each way. Same space used on 10 GB parftitions.

The BIG noticable difference comes from the sata2 drive on my newer system, which is way way faster than the ide drives in the other systems. Even my P4 3.02 GHz w/ HT laptop, 4 GB used on a 10 GB partition takes twice as long as the sata2.

 

I came to think of the fact that Ghost 2003 excludes one session files, such as the pagefile. That means that of my ~4.5GB used space, only ~3.75GB is processed and that works out to approximately 1000MB/min.

A friend of mine runs a 2.8GHz P4 and 160GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA as system drive with Seagate 7200.7+ PATA as backup drive (in a moblie rack for backwards compatibility with other drives). If I remember correctly, his system is approximately the same as mine but maybe, if both drives were SATA, the transfer rate would increase?

Christer

 

Another thought:

The ATA100 interface can handle 6000MB/min which means that Ghost is not even close to saturating it. That makes me believe that it has nothing to do with the SATA inteface itself but rather the firmware.

Christer

 

Jim,
when I searched Acronis for a 7.0 manual, the most antiquated they have is the one for 8.0. I downloaded it and found that information (on the hidden partition) for 8.0. Later, I went google on it and found a link to the manual for 7.0 and it is the same for that version. I don't know about 9.0 but an educated (?) guess is NO, it is not different for later versions.

Christer

 

Thanks for the information, John!

After my "quick read" of the manual, I thought that there was no other way to get to an image and restore it if Windows does not boot.

There was something about either a bootable CD or multiple floppies (six of them) and that indicates that it runs WinPE which rules out the simple boot to DOS that I like about trusted old Ghost 2003.

Christer

 

JohnB
Does acronis support different file types, e.g. .IMG, etc., or does it use a proprietary format?

 

Thanks, John, for the additional information.

I will have to read up on the manual if I am going to use ATI 7.0. Maybe I will make a test installation to see how it works but unless I am 100% sure that the creation of a hidden partition can be avoided, I will not do it on my own computer. I could clone (using Ghost 2003 ) my HDD0 to another HDD that I have in a drawer and do the test installation on the clone. Then ATI 7.0 can do whatever it wants to ... ... !

A short note on speeds:

I have a few BackUp HDDs, one of them is a 80 GB Hitachi 7K250, partitioned 40 GB/40 GB. Each partition held a previous image of equal size.

Creating an image to H:, the front partition, was at 984 MB/min and to I:, the rear partition, it was at 918 MB/min - an 7% reduction "½ way down the platters" but ...
... an integrity check of the image on H: was at 2203 MB/min and on I: it was at 2378 MB/min - an 8% increase!

Christer