Acronis True Image vs BounceBack Ultimate - USB bootable drives 1

[davegmail]

Acronis True Image vs BounceBack Ultimate - USB bootable drives - powerful recovery.

Could anyone look into USB bootable drive backups with an Acronis technique? There seems to be a few links I found with Google, but somewhat unclear to me on how it would work. By comparison, BounceBack seems very powerful & simple? (Mac ver too)

http://www.cmsproducts.com/products/backup_software/bounceback/default.html

"BounceBack Ultimate hard drive backup software enables you to back up your entire PC or laptop hard drive, including the Operating System, data files, applications, pictures, video, financial documents and settings.

Using our patent pending Instant PC Recovery mode, you can start your PC or laptop directly from an external USB backup hard drive in the event of an operating system malfunction or even a failed hard drive."

Thanks for any feedback, Dave

 

[kjv1611]

As for the BounceBack product, it sounds like it MIGHT be okay, but I'd be cautious, given the review ("expert" and user) at

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1585184,00.asp

I'd imagine that to get Acronis to work would be something like this:
1. Create the bootable restore Disk ISO image.
2. Make your USB Thumb drive bootable like a 3.5 inch floppy.
3. Mount the ISO image of the Restore Disk ISO using Image software such as Magic Disk.
4. Make sure you have "show hidden files" checked in Windows Explorer.
5. Copy ALL files from the ISO image to your thumb drive.
6. Try rebooting your machine, and you may have to test different boot options to boot from a USB drive. If an older machine, you probably won't be able to. If a newer machine, you probably will be able to. You can find out for sure, if necessary, through trial and error.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Also, if you're looking for an alternative to Acronis for backing up partitions/systems, you could look at Image for Windows by Terabyte Unlimited. From all reviews, and at least one user here, it's an awesome product. I'm about to be using it myself, actually. Hopefully I'll get to fully test it a within the next two weeks.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[BadBigBen]

At work I have a bootable USB stick with about 10 +- a few, ISO images, that I select using GRUB...

e.g. Acronis Enterprise ISO, PartedMagic, Dr.Web LiveCD, just to name a few. After GRUB loads, I choose my weapon and GRUB loads the ISO and I go from there...

this is the Linux way to do it:

HOWTO: Boot from USB Flash Drive using Grub

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=992426

tomorrow when I am back at work, I can post the links the Windows way..

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[cdogg]

davegmail,
We should probably clear this up first... Are you talking about a USB "flash" drive or a USB hard drive?

I haven't used the latest version of Acronis Trueimage, but I've had a lot of success with it in the past backing up to DVD and hard drive.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[kjv1611]

BadBigBen, that sounds like a real winner scenerio for computers that will boot from USB. I'll have to take a shot at it sometime... if I don't forget.

Thanks for the link.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[BadBigBen]

KJV1611,

here are the further links that I used to make the 16GB USB Flashdrive a multiboot drive...

Grub4Dos

http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

grub4dos, .iso images and (hd32) or (0xFF) mapping, Post here ONLY reports of working setups!

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=5041

have fun experimenting....


this has helped with the above as well:

Grub4dos Guide - Map Command

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/map.htm

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[kjv1611]

Thanks for the additional references. This sounds like one of the many "must haves" for the geek-type for sure!

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me