I've got Acronis on 3 machines...all Dell T3500s. 2 seem to be OK, but the other has a problem. When I clone the drive, all updates after 2/24/2015, Windows 7 and all other programs... are lost on both the source and target drive. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Acronis... no change. Anyone else ever see this? Any ideas to save me troubleshooting time? TIA
Follow up... No problem with Acronis. I had burned a Linux boot disk for Acronis from a desktop and another from a laptop.... Both Dell Precisions and both on W7 Pro... but the 2 disks don't interchange. I know laptops are often quirky. I should have caught it right off. FWIW...
I got steered away from Acronis and into Macrium Reflect in terms of cloning and disc imaging. FWIW...
I have recently found out (the hard way of course) that images and backups (both Acronis and Macrium Reflect), even if tagged as "successful" by the third party software provider, can be very chippy when attempting to restore them back to your internal HDD.
i had success with Macrium, a few years ago, the one time i was forced to do/use it... i'm now trying AOMEI as a 2nd backup program [i don't want to rely on only one image/program] any other image backup programs, that you've had success with, that i can try...? thanks marc
Probably the most useful thing that in retrospect I had done was to backup my program files, pictures, documents, downloads, etc. directly to an external backup 4TB HD (not using a third party program, just copied over). In the end, both Acronis and Macrium images proved unstable, and I ended up re-installing programs anyway. Hopefully, with a brand new 4TB internal HDD, the images are not corrupted and would rebuild my PC with minimal hassle if that had to be done. Fingers crossed.
What makes things "interesting" is the CryptoLocker Ransomware (malware) has been seen to encrypt files attached via USB. Ditto for Dropbox files. So the only fool proof form of backup is a backup that is not attached to your machine or on a network, and you probably want something kept offsite for the really critical stuff in case of fire/flood/theft. Leave a backup with friends/family and replace it every few months to cover the worse case scenario, then at least you won't lose everything. I still do the incremental image backups via USB because that will cover a whole lot of situations when you're not hit by Ransomware. I'm using AOMEI Backupper Pro and the Windows 7 in built recommended backup. Copy and paste will work for a lot of files, and I've used this for C:\Users folders. You can always reinstall the operating system and programs so I also figure this is an additional safeguard in case your image/cloning software runs into difficulties. If your hardware fails (not just the hard drive but the motherboard) my understanding is that a system image is not guaranteed to work on the new hardware. So you'll still need to reinstall a bunch of stuff on the new hardware, including OS, programs, type in the product codes to activate, etc. In this situation, copy and paste backups might be invaluable. Not sure if a clone would work on a new machine, but I certainly wouldn't be too confident about this. BTW, here is a useful guide to CryptoLocker Ransomware:- http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/cryptolocker-ransomware-information
Same here... I am using Acronis True Image 2014. I used to do a nightly full backup to a second internal hard drive, and I did a full restore on a couple of occasions when I screwed up my OS. Now I use an external drive via USB 3 which I keep powered down when I am not running the backup. I also back up key files to USB thumbdrives monthly and keep those in my car as offsite storage. I run CryptoPrevent in the hopes that it will block CryptoLocker if I were to get exposed. There is a new exploit out now that infects the BIOS chip, and I have heard that some exploits can transmit themselves ultrasonically through the speakers of one computer to the microphone of another even if the two computer have no direct connection. Now THAT's freaky! I'm totally paranoid...
Even network access servers are not safe from ransomware. Synology NAS was hit by the SynoLocker ransomware in 2014:- http://www.anandtech.com/show/8337/synology-advises-users-of-synolocker-ransomware Check out Hitman Pro Alert. This anti exploit software does not try to detect this malware based on its static properties, but detects crypto-ransomware based on its file system behavior:- http://www.surfright.nl/en/cryptoguard Sleep well!!
Have been using Casper for years - I do a full disk copy. Twice now I have saved my bacon by being able to just swap Harddrives and reboot. I swap two different backup drives and have another which I update very infrequently - some ransomware does not activate until a period after infection. Ransomware is a particular concern.