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Published on July 29, 2012 By BigDogBigFeet In Personal Computing

So, I licensed Acronis Home Backup and Recovery 2012.  Their software is AWFUL.  It always 100% of the time says when I start it that a new version is available.  It always 100% of the time fails to install saying I have the latest version.  It always 100% of the time says the registration server is unavailable.

When I contacted their customer support they of course said I have to pay for support.  Even though they have simply turned off their servers and are not allowing me to connect.  If I login to their website that works.  I have absolutely no issues connecting to other web sites or downloading and installing from other websites.. just Acronis.

My question for them was straight forward "your software won't allow me to update do I need to renew my license"?  They said I needed to pay per incident for support to get this sort of question answered.

So, I want to nuke their lying software.  Their blatant attempt to extort monies from me just to fix a problem they are maintaining.  By the way they use an offshore outsourced contracted customer support center.  Is it any wonder their deliberate file server problem costs me money to fix? 

Notice how Acronis (in the US) in all of this is completely unaware and it is impossible to contact them.  Short of getting their corporate address, mailing them a letter, and only to get non-functional lip service from them.  No thanks.

Their software is also brain dead in its operation.  I ran a full backup and set it to weekly auto incremental backup.  I let it complete.  When I opened their BS product again (some few minutes later) it immediately started auto running a second full backup requiring another 2 hour to complete.  I of course killed this redundent unscheduled backup.

So, is their a genuinely GOOD backup software that actually works and is NOT using offshore contracted support?  I think from now on whenever I choose to buy something like software that will be a number one consideration for me.


Comments (Page 1)
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on Jul 29, 2012

Anyone know how to tell Revo Pro how to find Acronis True Image Home and deinstall it?  It does not even show up in Revo for me.

on Jul 29, 2012

BDBF, Install the latest version of ccleaner. It'll do it for you. You can dl here:  http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Sounds like you had a borked installation of Acronis.

 

 

 

Stay tuned... I'll be publishing about EaseUS Todo Backup Workstation 4.5, and will probably have some licenses to give out.

I'm checking it out now, so in the near future I'll be publishing. Looks very easy and so far does everything Acronis does. Also, had no probs finding it.

on Jul 29, 2012

Ya that worked Doc.  I also cleaned the registry with my registry cleaner and rebooted.

on Jul 29, 2012

CCleaner will do that for you as well... it's under tools, but should have come up as part of the uninstall. 

Glad to have been of help.

on Jul 29, 2012

What sort of back-up are you looking for? Cloud? Local?

I back-up incrementally every day to a removable HD using Backup4All (http://www.backup4all.com/). I've used it for years and really like it. It stores the files in ZIP format - so I don't absolutely need to use Backup4All to open the archives if that ever becomes a problem. It keeps a register of files so I can restore any iteration very easily.

Mine is set-up to back-up each morning at 6am and has never skipped a beat.

Highly recommend it.

on Jul 29, 2012

I have had acronis for a while, but since switching to an SSD, (I know that should have nothing to do with it), Acronis always tells me the backup failed, and the log says it couldn't open the data stream. Both on 7 and Vista.

 

I now use EaseUs To Do.

 

BTW, I make full disc image backups.

on Jul 29, 2012

Well I have an external HD USB3 1TB drive I use for backup.  My idea was make a full backup then weekly incremental to conserve some space.  My 1 TB main HD has about 600GB of files on it right now.

For some reason I went ahead and re-downloaded the latest version of Acronis True Image Home and now it finally no longer says registration server is not active and I was able to activate it.  I can say I have little confidence in the product given this same repetitive problem(its happened twice before it went on for over a month this time) of failing to connect to the registration server and refusing to update.  This forces me to de-install their product losing my backup just to fix the problem.  

How much you guys wanna bet this same crap problem will suddenly re-appear within 1 - 2 weeks from now.  Acronis's so called customer support of insisting on pay per incident gives them absolutely no incentive to ensure the product is problem free and is the exact reason why this product suddenly develops this error.

So, I am most certainly looking to replace this product.  However, I want to know what sort of backup a suitable replacement product provides since I am using it for my main drive and the replacement product must have real customer support.

on Jul 29, 2012

BDBF, you can read about what I was talking about here:  http://www.todo-backup.com/business/workstation-backup.htm

Or you can read about ToDo Backup 4.6 here: http://www.todo-backup.com/products/features/

They have a sale going on until 7/31 at 50%, and a lot of free Emsisoft programs thrown in free for ToDo backup. Or you can wait a bit for my review and a chance for a free 1 yr. license. 

Both have "Snapshot" which is a disk image, but is different from data backup (incremental). You can download and read the pdf's for all their products here:  http://www.todo-backup.com/support/documents.htm

 

Hope this helps you.

on Jul 29, 2012

DrJBHL
Stay tuned... I'll be publishing about EaseUS Todo Backup Workstation 4.5, and will probably have some licenses to give out.
You're favorite redneck is using the free version......

on Jul 29, 2012

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Acronis. It's the best out there. If you paid for it and you want help, stop the 'frustration rant' and tell me exactly what you did.... and don't start and end with; "I downloaded, installed and the piece of shit doesn't work".

Your call.

on Jul 29, 2012

RND - you should still be using pencil and paper..........

on Jul 29, 2012

http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html 

Price is right ....and it works.  Not for imaging but for backup redundancies, etc ....

on Jul 29, 2012

yrag thanks for the offer for now the software is working again.  The problem always starts the same.  A new version will become available.  Just before that time when I start it, it will have a red bar at the bottom that will say Registration Server is not available.  There will be an error log noting HTML errors and it being unable to connect to the registration server.

If I make any attempt to update the currently installed version I have it will always fail and say that I already have the latest version installed even though I don't.  The only way I have ever gotten this software to update is to de-install the old version, clean out the registry then do a fresh install of the latest version.  That works.  This has been happening since I have gotten this software.

When it happens again, which it will, I'll post.  I originally installed this software in February 2012 when I first licensed it and this same error happens every time a new version becomes available.

on Jul 29, 2012

First of all, this is where you get the latest version:  https://www.acronis.com/my/index.html

Prior to new version install, un-install whatever you have installed now and re-boot. Un-installing does not delete prior backups unless they're in the default folders!! Than run: http://kb.acronis.com/content/24545 and re-boot.

Now install latest version.

Second: as soon as you input serial number and it completes installation it will activate. In the upper right corner under the question mark, click 'Check for updates' when it does, un-check " Automatically check for updates on startup' 

Setting up tasks and scheduling can be daunting, but it's not rocket science. When you get that far, let me know what you want to do and I'll tell you how to do it.

 

on Jul 29, 2012

Additionally:

The software comes with an extensive and comprehensive manual......read the fuckin' thing.

You can Google almost any problem and it will pop an HTML page(s) of info from Acronis.

Last, but not least, they have a forum filled with clueless users such as yourself. Fortunately, they have people that are very good as to how Acronis works and how to get out of it what you want, I'm one of them.....

http://forum.acronis.com/

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