BIOS: Technology Means Business

In the cupboard, on the bookshelf, in the drawer…somewhere not far from your computer you’re probably storing the software CD-ROMs for all of the application programs on your computer. That’s good. If something goes wrong that damages or deletes the programs, you’ll be able to reinstall them and get back to work. But, if you’re like many PC users, you haven’t safeguarded the most important thing on your PC - the data. If the data, the product of your thought and effort, gets corrupted or deleted, and there’s no backup, then you have to start your work from scratch. (The fear of this nightmare alone should be enough to have you backup all your data now!)

Most PC users are pretty casual about data protection - they are comfortable with the stability of applications, operating systems, and the PC hardware itself, so they think their data is safe. It is, relatively speaking, but why play the odds? Anyone could experience data loss, and chances are good at some point, you will. You could accidentally overwrite or delete a file; get shut-down in the middle of work on an important document by a power surge; encounter a quirk in a program that results in a ‘fatal’ software error; or even fall victim to a hard disk drive crash and lose everything. You also need to think about ‘low-tech’ problems such as fire and theft.

The best way to save your skin is to frequently backup your data. If you have a recent backup, even a hard disk drive crash is a fairly short-lived disaster. A backup doesn’t only help you recover from data loss disasters - it can come in handy if you want to revert to a prior version of a file. True Image 10 Home (£25.45/$49.99) is the latest version of Acronis’ file and system disk imaging backup and restore software for home and home office users. Building upon existing True Image Home capabilities, which allow for both the imaging of an entire system or file-based backup of individual files and folders, the updated software goes one step further and enables you to backup specific music, photo and video files, entire applications and e-mail files.

With True Image 10 Home, individuals and small office users are offered a good level of control in their ability to backup and restore the data that is most meaningful to them. In keeping with the company’s commitment to make restoring files as quick, easy and cost effective as possible, this release includes wizard-based controls that walk you step-by-step through the backup and restore processes. This approach makes using True Image 10 Home a snap. You simply have two options for backups and restores: The original disk imaging backup option enables you to create an image of your entire hard disk drive, including the operating system, applications, user settings, and all data (useful for restoring your PC to a known working state without any reinstallation), and the new application-based file backup option enables the software to backup and restore individual files that match pre-defined file extensions for music, videos, photographs, finance, e-mail and other applications.

When you backup individual files that match pre-defined file extensions, the software doesn’t trouble you to specify particular files, but instead includes all the standard file types in its backup. For example, if you specify music, the program backs up MP3s, WAVs, WMAs and other standard music files. You can, thankfully, edit the filetypes from a comprehensive list, to tailor the back-up exactly to the files you’re after. Specific applications are also catered for; so, for example, you can save all the settings for Photoshop or Excel. Most of the common applications are listed, though there are a few anomalies, such as the inclusion of Ulead’s GIF animator but not PhotoImpact.

Additional updates to Acronis True Image 10 Home include the ability to do dedicated backups of an entire Outlook (version 2000 to 2003) installation, as well as specific backups of calendar, contacts, tasks, notes, signatures, news folders, e-mail rules and user settings. You can also backup settings from specific applications, including browsers, business and productivity tools, developer tools, Instant Messenger settings and history, Windows settings, and more, as well as create rules that define how long stored images will be saved, location size quotas, and the maximum number of backups saved.

You can set policies that define when the system will create full backups only, full backups with incremental backups, and full backups with differential backups, and password protection provides extra security for laptops and other remote devices should they be hacked or stolen, yet still guarantees that the computer can self start in case of a crash or loss of data. True Image can also notify you using Microsoft’s WinPopup service or e-mail when a backup or restore operation is completed. Also new to this version is the ability to backup to an FTP (not SFTP) site, so your data can easily be archived to another building.

Supported file systems include FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, Ext2/3, and ReiserFS (Reiser4, XFS, and JFS aren’t supported), while compatible operating systems include Windows NT Server, Windows 2000 Server/Advanced Server, Windows 2003 Server, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows XP. There’s no mention on Acronis’ Web site about Windows Vista, but the company has assured BIOS that the software will run on Microsoft’s latest operating system (we’re still waiting for a Vista machine to arrive for testing). Unlike more network-focused backup applications, there’s no event tracing (i.e. no support for SNMP, windows event log, scripting or command-line operating).

There are a number of applications available that allow you to backup your files for free, such as NTBackup or Xcopy, but products like True Image 10 are crammed with features, look pretty, and make creating backups easier than ever. What’s more, with Vista and x64 support, along with its Linux bootable and BartPE recovery components, it can save the day in most situations. A few of the added features are a little less useful than others, of course, but overall Acronis True Image 10 Home is excellent value for money and comes highly recommended. [8.5]

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