SOLVED Acronis or Windows 10 Back Up

[Norton]

This topic will be dear to the heart. "Trouble"
I downloaded a free download from Acronis many years back 2011-2012? it's Acronis WD Edition build 14,164.
I had an external USB WD drive used for imaging. When I used the program for the first time, I created a clone of my C:\ Drive. However, Acronis overwrote my existing images on the USB drive. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed and didn't like how Acronis operated. Yesterday I revisited the program as I explored its features I found that overwrite existing files was checked, I unchecked the settings "Overwrite Files and gave it a whirl, this time I created "Back UP" to my external drive and it worked slick. The feature I like is that I can easily view all of the backed up folders and their contents, unlike Windows back ups or images.
I may continue to use Acronis for back ups but I have one unanswered question.

Are Acronis "Back Ups the same as, or as good as a Windows 10 system images?
I remember Trouble saying in another post that he doesn't like to use cloned drives as a back up.

All my hard drives are WD so there's no problem using Acronis program, even the new 2 TB USB HD that I recently purchased for imaging and back ups is a WD drive. The Acronis program I currently have is an older version but it appears to be the full program and works well with Windows 10 although I haven't attempted a restore as yet.

What would you guys prefer to use? Opinions would be appreciated.

 

[Trouble]

Wow.... 36 hours and no comments.

I'm pretty sure you already know my feelings on your topic.
I'm not a fan of the native tools that Microsoft provides for backup and or disk imaging.
Not wanting to provoke an argument, but..... I've always found them a bit kludgy and somewhat finicky but hey... that's not the business they're in. They make Operating Systems and even some of those might be described similarly.

I remember Trouble saying in another post that he doesn't like to use cloned drives as a back up.

It's not that I don't like it... it's just that I've never considered cloning as a backup solution at all.
I've always thought of disk cloning as a realtime, onetime kind of operation where I am swapping an existing disk (regardless of its' contents) to another drive.
The idea of cloning a disk and then setting that disk or the clone aside and calling it a "backup" always seemed to me like a terrible waste of resources. It's a bit for bit copy with no compression involved and so you end up with two identical hard drives, with one sitting on a shelf.... why??

Acronis True Image is a feature rich, robust and complete backup solution.
You can image an entire disk, individual partitions or simply backup files and folders and schedule those to perform incremental or differential subsequent backups. You can mount those .tib files and explore them and recover (copy and paste) individual files or folders, as well as disk cloning and some other features and functions which I rarely use.

Is it 100%, both fool and bullet proof? Probably not but it has saved me enough times that it has won my personal customer loyalty.
Personally, I think their Cloud solution is less than optimal but if I wanted or needed a cloud solution I'd probably go with Carbonite or CrashPlan as that's the business that they're in.

 

[Norton]

Trouble Now I have identified the default settings (Overite existing data) with Acronis and unchecked the option, I love it.
Last night I set up (partitioned) my new USB external WD 2TB drive. One partition contains a MBR bootable clone of my C:/ drive;. another partition will contain my regular backup images. I'm very happy with the way the old program Acronis WD Edition interacts with Windows 10. I may even upgrade to a newer version of Acronis as this version doesn't. allow incremental backups.
Thanks again for your guidance and recommendation of Acronis as an alternative for backups.

 

[Ian]

My thoughts are very similar to @Trouble's - I've used Acronis True Image and found it to be a very useful investment. I create a weekly backup across the network to a NAS and it takes no time at all . Acronis manages old copies and notifies me of any problems, but I still check the backups work every so often.

I'm running 2014 version and it seems to run flawlessly with Windows 10. I only update it every other year, as I've found that there's often no compatibility problems as long as the software isn't too old.

I frequently have to mount old .tib backups to grab an old file - it's no hassle at all to do selective recoveries, which is a big plus.

 

[Trouble]

I use 2014 on my main machine, 2015 on my wife's machine and 2016 on the machine I install my Tech Previews on.
Personally I prefer 2014 and even though I own an upgrade license for it (for 2016), I'll keep using it as long as it works on Windows 10.
I just find the interface more intuitive. It took me a while to adjust to the 2015 / 2016 interface changes.

 

[Norton]

Unfortunately, my WD version has no support from Acronis, It was a one time free offer too good to refuse. when they discontinued their support for the current version back in 2011-2012? I think you guys have just convinced me to go for the 2014 version if it's still available. I thought I read somewhere recently that 2016 comes with a license for up to 3 PC's? Perfect!
Thanks!
@Norton

 

[Joann]

My computer club has been recommending another free program to create a backup image of your computer. http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

 

[Trouble]

Yep..... I've heard a lot of good things about Macrium products.
A lot of people seem to love them.

 

[clifford_cooley]

I'd like to add that Acronis is different than the proprietary cloning software that vendors have based on Acronis.

 

[Norton]

Joann Thanks for your input.
@Norton