Acronis Online Backup
An online backup solution that not only backs up your data files, but also does a drive image. A drive image allows you to backup your entire operating system.. A file backup cannot reliably restore your PC.
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Pros
- Integrated Online Backup and Drive Imaging Software
- Recovers both your data and operating system
- Good value for money
Cons
- PC based gui takes some learning to make full use of the features
- No iPhone access
- Does not offer unlimited backup (limited to 25 Gigs)
Conclusion
- Fantastic value for the sophisticated user
- Integration of local drive image with data backups for online backups is unique
- Visit the site to learn about more pricing options
Detailed Review
The Acronis Drive Imaging and PC backup has been around for quite some time. New from Acronis is the
online backup solution. The online backup solution integrates beautifully with their drive imaging software - Acronis Drive Image.
When you combine drive imaging with online backup you get almost a complete package that protecting not only your data but also the ability to restore an enitre operating system (like Windows, or Mac) along with all the installed applications like Microsoft Office.
This in our opinion is the unique value for the Acronis solution.
General Features
We have split the features into several categories to compare it easily with other online backup providers:
Backup Space
Acronis provides upto 250 GB of backup space. While not technically 'unlimited', as a typical home or business user, you will be hard pressed to use up this space.
Security
The acronis online backup encrypts your data with 256Bit encryption. This is considered defense grade encryption and virtually ubreakable even by the smartest hackers on the planet. Now that is peace of mind ?.
This level of encryption is now getting to be standard - most of Acronis' competition also offer it.
Backup features
It is very important to backup all the important files on your system. This is why access to files that you are currently working on (locked files) is critical. The acronis backup client that runs on your computer will also backup locked files. The backup process runs quietly in the background, picking up all the locked files for backup as well.
Versioning
is another feature you should consider. Acronis supports several backup versions of the same file, allowing you to rollback to a prior version with ease.
Automatic / Scheduled Backups
Automatic and scheduled backups are essential as backup options. Backup scheduling allows you to specify a specific time or certain times of the day when the backup process is to be run. Automatic backup relies on certain events when to launch the backup process - for instance the backup process will be automatically started when the computer is idle for 20 minutes.
Reovery / Restore features
Acronis supports remote access to your data. You can access the backed up data from your computer from anywhere in the world as long as you have a working internet connection. Why is this useful ? Lets say you are traveling to Europe and you want to get a quick access to your tax return that you scanned. This will be a snap. just hop on to the nearest cybercafe, logon to the secure acronis site using any web browser, and retrieve your files. Simple!
In addition one of the unique features of Acronis is the ability to support both PC based backups and online backups from within the same software.
Unique feature to Acronis
The ability to do a drive image and online backup from the same software is one of the unique features of Acronis.
So what exactly is Drive Imaging versus a backup ?
A drive image takes a picture of your hard drive (usually several gigabytes) and stores it in a single file usually several gigabytes large. The drive image can be restored exactly to your hard drive and once restored, it will be exactly as before you took the image. A drive image differs from individual file backup in that in a drive image you cannot select individual files, rather a whole drive (or partition is backed up).
So why is a drive image useful ?
Unlike backups of data files (photos, music files, word documents and such), an operating system like windows cannot be restored the same way. Even if you restore, it is not fool proof. An operating system consists of all the programs that run windows itself - including all the drivers and software that run each of the individual components of your computer like your dvd drive or the built in camera on your computer. Unfortunately, once the operating system is installed, it is pretty much unique to your computer. That means you cannot just copy the drivers for your computer from another computer even if it is made by the same manufacturer.
Imagine the amount of effort you will have to go through just to reinstall your operating system from scratch. Now add to that all the additional software that you installed. For most people this is really an uphill task taking days and days of work - assuming you even know where you stored the disks that originally came with the computer.
This is where a drive image comes in handy. The drive image stores the computers disk as an image. All the software components are stored in the drive image. Once you have a drive image, you can recover the entire operating system to its original state.
Pricing
Acronis Online backup is conveniently priced for $4.95 a month for 250GB. Although not technically "unlimited", this space is more than plenty for most home users. How many times have you used 250GB on your hard drive, if you have not, then clearly you do not need all that disk space. When you throw in the fact that the data is compressed, there is plenty of space for the money.
Conclusion
Since Acronis went the way of a single user interface for
drive imaging and online backups - you do not have to buy anything more. You can backup to external drives / DVDs or to online backup all within the same software. In addition you can backup your entire operating system. If you want to use other competitors products to backup your operating system, you will have to buy additional drive imaging software like Acronis Home or Norton Ghost.
So in our opinion, this is one of the best values out there if you are a sophisticated user.
