Image of main drive

Which Acronis product do you mean? The one I tried got virtually all "abysmal" user reviews.(I didn't check them before purchase.) I had about all the proplems mentioned, including unable to install and XP crashes needing reinstall. I hired an expert for the reinstall, and he couldn't make Acronis work. I had to pay to get their contact number so he could speak to their techs. Their English was bad and he couldn't understand much of what they said. He couldn't get Acronis installed and working. I requested a refund (I'd purchases it direct online, do not recall if I got one.) I see that CNet's comments on some Acronis backup programs note "complex."

When I see such a machine it's a sure sign there are hardware issues. There was also one with a pirated OS and that created an issue with Acronis.

We still have G4U but the three words one has to type to make a backup is challenging to today's owners. Not that we can't learn how but it's asking a lot of owners today.

Bob

Is very complete. I can boot it's CD to copy a drive in three words and restore with the same first word and swapping the last two.

Isn't that easy?

Actually, no, it isn't easy. The G4U use instructions, beginning with installation, are beyond the understanding of what I consider the average PC user. You seem to belitle those not as technically aware as yourself. This doesn't help communication, on what is a courteous form.

G4U is free and as such the documentation is made in a more technical level and may not cater to the masses. We also have seen the loss of command line skills where people freak out when we ask them to open a command line so a simple repair can be made.

I'm going to maintain that since G4U can make a backup with 3 words typed in the command line that it's likely the easiest backup I know of. Since the same 3 words are used to restore then what could be easier.

We don't even have to install it!
Bob

There are 34 "Abysmal" comments on the product. I doubt there was a plague of hardware problems. Most of them reported the same problems we ran into.
The "some expert" is MS-certified for Windows, consults for a large hospital and a number of businesses. I've confidence in his abilitiies.
As to "pirated," I purchased it online from Acronis.
Current Acronis products may be fine, but my experience is that I don't want to purchase from them again.
Thanks for the G4U suggestion (though I don't think sarcasm directed at other owners adds anything.) I will look into it.

I would have to weigh in that I've yet to experience such a failure in some hundreds of installs. As to certification, do we dare start talking about Windows issues? I did not insinuate any pirated product was at play here, but wanted to share some failures that were encountered and what we found out.

Bob

You are apparently in the employ of Acronis. You may have been lucky; the 34 "Abysmal" comments, echo my experience. The product was very soon unavailable, suggesting Acronis knew it had serious defects. We can talk about Windows issues if you like: That so many people would encounter the same problem with the same program makes it highly improbable that the fault lay with Windows. The tech who tried to make it work is, as I noted, Windows Certified, having attended the MS school. Following the exact instructions given him by the Acronis tech (which between us we managed to understand), he was unable to get the product to work, and Windows crashed in the process, as did many of those who rated the product "Abysmal." CNet reviews of other Acronis backup programs report problems. Read them. I accurately described my experience.

I hired an expert for the reinstall, and he couldn't make Acronis work

) this is the most unbelievable story i've ever heard (on Cnet).

I see that CNet's comments on some Acronis backup programs note "complex."


Could you please link me?

I didn't find Acronis complex. Maybe BEWILDERING at first. If you want complex look at G4U. Today's mouse in hand experts can't type in the 3 words it takes to clone a drive.

Of course who teaches these people today?
Bob

Whoever the expert is (and whoever the teacher is), he's not needed at all. Beside guide, there is online support center, official forum support, other users (those assumably had solved problems you meet).


i do still believe : it's soooo easy to do backup (and it's particular case "create drive image").

i'd better buy external disk or any other removable disk...

btw, how much did you pay to that guy for nothing?
(i guess this shouldn't be a "top secret").

See reply to LOL. It apparently hasn't gotten through that I was relating to a discontinued Acronis product, not those on the market today. I originally posted it as a reason I don't buy Acronis products, in reply to a suggestion that I use one of them.

I have no doubt that you are technically more brilliant than the tech I used. The idea of transferring the total system data to an ext HD never occurred to him. If it had, he might have tried an Acronis program.

I have no interest in continuing this subject. It happened, exactly as described. The MS-certified tech, after he had no success, was on the phone with an Acronis tech in Brooklyn. It was on speaker, I heard everything. The tech here followed the Acronis tech's instructions accurately. After many attempts, the Acronis tech said he could not get the product to work. I don't recall the number/name of the product, but know that its purpose was system backup. It was off CompUsa shelves very quickly, the salespeople said all they knew was that it stopped being available and was going to be replaced by a different program. That is my experience with THAT product. I've not used any other Acronis product, for obvious reasons. Also, I resented having to buy some sort of add-on service to get the phone number so the tech could call Acronis, that the tech's command of English was so poor (he was in Brooklyn, not India), that his attitude bordered rude. From start to finish, an unpleasant, and not inexpensive, experience. I couldn't bring myself to LOL.

Just checking. Did they try G4U?

I realize that seems simple to you. Not to a relative novice, I'm afraid. I want a program that is installed, that can be opened, "image HD" (or anything like it) selected, and where to? (Ext HD drive). I don't want to select partitions, The goal is to reinstall
XP from the image after a crash, without using the XP Disc, and everything that was on the main drive. Do I perhaps not understand what an image of a main drive can do?

previously but you can look at it any way you want.

Good Luck on your search . . . let us know what you find.

VAPCMD

You are right. I'll look at Ghost.
About my last sentence in the earlier post, do I understand correctly what an image of the HD can do?
Thanks

If you image one hard drive (source drive) to another hard drive (target drive) ... and plan to use the 2nd HDD for restoring the source drive later, the second drive must be pretty much left "as is" for image restoration.

If you image one hard drive (source) to another hard drive (target drive) as a compressed image ... then you have the rest of the 2nd HDD free for other data or more image backups.

So the way it looks to me ... it's preferable to image a drive to a 2nd HDD as a compressed image allowing you to make additional images as time goes on and the OS and APPs get updates and the DATA expands.
I put 2 HDDs in my PCs and put compressed images of drive 0 to drive 1 ... then copy the images to an external HDD later. That way I have the original data (drive 0) and 2 image copies of drive 0 on two other drives.

VAPCMD