Customer Reviews
Not WORTH It 
2008-08-12
I bought it so I could back up my Dell Vostro 1000 Hard Drive running XP.
OS and Drivers was all I needed to backup for a restore if needed.
When I went too use it it told me my System Files maynot be backed up correrctly.
It's suppose to be a True Image of the entire HD and you get this message something is up.
It tells me the Name "TRUE IMAGE" is very misleading.
I should've bought Norton's Ghost instead.
My advice stay away erntirely...
Get TI 9.0 
2006-03-27
I bought TI 8.0 and had trouble with it working on my new Dell XPS200 with XP Media Center (1/2006). When I tested it to see if my image was there to restore from, I wasn't able to see the DVD drive. Acronis has a wonderful technical support forum which helped me. They first sent me the latest build for 8.0 which didn't work. They then sent me the 9.0 version which DID work. I had to register on the forum and register my copy of TI8.0 for their verification. It took me about a week and a half to work through the issues but, overall, I thought the resolution process was pretty smooth.
I HAD bought the software with the intention of cloning the disk and keeping the source in reserve for the time that the new disk becomes slow and buggy with internet garbage. The cloning feature couldn't have been easier! I made the new disk the master, the old disk I put into a storage shell with a USB connection and ran the cloning software. The cloning process took about 10 minutes!
For some reason, TI 8.0 wouldn't work for me, so I would recommend TI 9.0. I can't recommend 8.0 but I give Acronis TI four stars for the product's ease of use (when it works right) and their great technical support.
Lastly, the technical requirements for burning images is to have special formatting/burning software. I did research and NERO makes compatible software. I didn't want to buy more software and the burning software that comes with Dell (SonicNow?) is compatible too.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with True Image.
Works great...fast, no problems here. 
2006-02-19
I have had numerous, numerous hard disk failures, both sudden and slow, over 20 years of computing. WAY too many.
I think I finally have the product I need to totally protect myself. I use Acronis to autobackup to an external drive every week. I also use it to make a backup to DVD a few times a year. I keep those DVD's in my safe deposit box at the bank in case of a fire or theft at my home.
I just don't see how ANYONE could have a problem using this product. It's simple. To test, I used it to create a boot disk, then restored my entire system from both the DVD's and the external drive. Absolutely no problems.
Yes, you do need DVD-burning software. But it came with your drive, so don't freak out. You simply format the disk and Acronis will work great. It's no different than when we used to have to format floppy discs back in the day.
Don't believe all the complainers. I've tried this and several other similar products and this was far superior in all respects. (No, I have no relationship to the company.) I have not needed them for support however, but their online support info seems fine. (I rarely have to call for support for any product any more, frankly.)
Kind of bummed that there's a 9.0 out now, but that always happens.
My next goal is to buy two external USB drives (the Ximeta Netdisk Mini). Each week, I will clone my PC's hard disk automatically onto one of the drives, then take it to work on Monday morning and exchange it for the other drive. That way, I'll always have a clone of my drive in two locations.
Why will I go to so much trouble? Because another hard disk failure is right around the corner.
Buy it, use it with confidence.
Saved my image, saved my life 2006-01-15
When Dell told me my harddrive was about to die, I evaluated image backup software and ended up getting this one. I am semi-technical (I can read a manual) but know nothing about DOS.
Making an exact image of my current harddrive onto an external drive was a simple wizard process. The drivers for my Western Digital drive were part of the backup process.
I had about 37GB of data in total. It successfully backed up and 3 hours later I had my exact image on my new harddrive, which seemed nothing short of miraculous to me.
The only difference I see so far is that the Windows clock had a wrong time/date. Everything else really does seem like an exact image. Sure you are saying duh that's what this software is for, but I really expected to have major problems just because this is a completely new thing.
One thing Acronis doesn't tell you is you should first copy the CD contents onto another CD to do the backup image. I thought I just could stick their CD into my drive and go from there.
I highly recommend printing out their user manual which is online or having a second computer if possible connected to the Internet in case you have questions.
The people on Acronis' forum were really helpful in making me comfortable that this would be ok. FYI I have Windows XP SP2.
I am thrilled to have picked Acronis True Image 8.0. I hope if you need it it works as well for you!
Don't count on it in an emergency. 2006-01-06
True Image works great, unless it fails. The program has saved me several times, but that was when it was working properly. I recently learned that if you encounter a problem, you're on your own. Acronis now outsources their support to people who have big trouble communicating and understanding technical issues. Worse yet, the only option available is email--there is no way to actually talk to anyone. I've been in the computing field for over 25 years, and Acronis has the worst level of support I've ever encountered from a software company. Believe me, if anything goes wrong, you're on your own. You definitely don't want to find yourself in a situation where you've lost your data and the recovery program isn't working properly. There are real problems with True Image which can show up at the most inopportune times. That applies to all versions, including the latest one. So if you want a backup program you can count on, and a company you can turn to when you need them most, you definitely don't want True Image by Acronis.
Not an easy program to use 
2006-01-01
I've owned and used computers for 20 years so I don't consider myself a novice yet this program is not easy to use. Yes, you MUST have cd/dvd burning software if you wish to burn images to these media and this is not made obvious. Parts of the interface and the manual are also not easy to use and I have spent many hours reading the manual and thinking about the interface in order to get it to work. Also, there are error messages that give you no info about what has gone wrong so you have to go to the manual and study to try to find out. If you are going to use DVDs to burn to I had also to find in the back of the manual under troubleshooting that I had to be sure I was using the right type DVD for the burning software being used. I finally got it to work but I hope version 9.0 is improved.
Some of you people are real ignorant 2005-12-30
After reading a lot of reviews on this site, I must say that some of you are real ignorant. You complain that Acronis needs some special software to burn the backup images on DVD.
Well, first of all, if you have a DVD burner, you should already DVD have burning software. And the best one you can get is Nero. Now, when you want to burn a DVD in Nero, you have various formats. For instance, DVD-ROM (ISO), DVD-ROM (UDF/ISO) and yes DVD-ROM (UDF). UDF is just a format and any good bruning software should have this option.
The Acronis documentation just gives you a "heads up" not to burn in ISO format but rather in UDF.
Come on people, if you don't know the basics of computers, that's not anyone elses fault.
Acronis True Image 8.0 IS worth the investment! 2005-12-02
About a month ago, I started getting warnings that my PC was having problems with the hard drive. I do periodic backups using software that came with my PC. But, that wouldn't do. I wanted to clone my current drive in order to preserve everything. I looked at a couple of products here on Amazon.com and did some comparisons of the reviews. While my initial plan was to order a product I was already familiar with (Ghost), after reading reviewer comments I chose True Image 8.0.
I found a few of the negative comments for True Image to be somewhat helpful. Yes, there are some areas for improvement with True Image 8.0 -- i.e., being able to copy to DVD without additional expensive software. However, it was the other comments that really got my attention -- i.e., about it being easy to use and fast. These really caught my attention.
I received True Image 8.0 at just the right time -- my drive was really acting like it was ready to go at any time. It took only a couple of minutes to install. I connected my new hard drive and started True Image 8.0 clone process. WOW!! It completed copying the entire drive in less than 30 minutes. Then, I removed the bad drive and reconnected the new drive as Master and restarted my PC. It was wonderful to see that everything was totally preserved.
The True Image 8.0 software functionality is well documented. However, particularly for the cloning process, an enhancement would be a step-by-step review of ALL the steps to be taken in cloning a new Master drive -- i.e., including general steps in dealing with the hardware (both old and new). When I completed my cloning process, I received a message from True Image 8.0 that it had completed successfully. But, that is where is pretty much ended. My instincts told me I had to remove the old drive and reconnect the new one as Master, but my instincts have gotten me into trouble in the past.
All-in-all, True Image 8.0 saved the day and I am TOTALLY HAPPY with what this product can do.
It Will do 2005-11-26
Acronis true image worked ok for me but its a shame i had to purchase incd seperatly to be able to burn to dvds. But at least it does work. I did try norton ghost before but had no joy as when i tried to restore it didnt work.
My advise is if you want to create a backup of a harddrive/partision to another harddrive/partision or cd/rw-cd(that is better than nothin!) then buy this software BUT do remember ya will need nero incd to burn to dvd.
Note if you are going to use cd's remember a backup image is BIG! buy lots of cd's!
Garbage. Avoid this crap. 2005-11-21
I'm an experienced PC user and this is the first time I've felt to post a negative comment about software. True Image 8.0 is the WORST commercial software I have ever purchased.
I'm not some adventurer using esoteric hardware, or some cheapskate using a junk-yard computer. My computers are all genuine IBM, and my peripherals are all top notch. So, the True Image nightmare is not the fault of my system.
Anyway, the facts: True Image can make an image to my external hard drive, but cannot READ that external drive during a test restore (and, yes, I tried several brands of external HDD's for this event). That's garbage.
Ok, so how about DVD's as a fallback? Nope. It could not burn DVD's, I kept getting an error message. I Googled this problem and it seems common.
Well, that's two strikes and it's out. AVOID THIS unless you like either throwing money away, or like creating a false sense of security about your data which will bite you in the butt when the chips are down...this software sets you up for the very software nightmare that you buy it to protect against.
I would have given it ZERO stars but 1 star is the minimum.
