> From: john boris [mailto:jbori...@gmail.com]
>
> I thought I would give an update on my backup search. I finally tested
> Acronis. It is $49 and the Open Source in me still wants to spin up a BackupPC
> instance but time becomes the deciding factor. Anyway Acronis does work
> okay but if you select to have the instant backup enabled it tends to become
> a hog on my system which is no slouch. I have 6gb of RAM on Windows 7 but
> when I have that option enabled I had too many weird things happen. So I
> might stick with Acronsi since $49 is well worth the time savings.
I agree - they're not great at *everything* but I like to configure systems to
backup once a day. I wouldn't expect "live" backup to work well.
A very critical component for you to think about is restores. Do you have
rescue media? Does your rescue media actually *work*? I find usually the
default rescue media works, but sometimes there's a missing network driver, or
SATA driver or something. You can contact acronis support and they will
provide you with alternate rescue media if needed.
If you buy a single license, they are apparently $49, but I normally buy the
"family" pack of 3, which I think is $80.
Sometimes I like to create a backup of systems in their pristine condition.
Directly out of the box, before I've installed windows updates or anything
else. Create a backup before you install acronis. For this, if you buy the
Plus Pack, you get rescue media that is fully featured, and able to perform
backups as well as restores. I like to build up a single system, without
anything system-specific in it. No licensed software or anything, just the
company "golden" image. Create the golden image with the Plus Pack media. And
then install things like Office and Acronis, which require license keys. Later
when you get another system, you restore the golden image, and then install
things like Office and Acronis, which require *different* license keys.
Another thing - I recommend these excludes:
C:\$Recycle.Bin\
C:\Users\username\Exclude From Backups\
(users need someplace they know is excluded)
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\*.ost
And anything else the user likes to exclude
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