Acronis True Image 2021 with Video installation Guide

Acronis True Image 2021 is a software product produced by Acronis that provides data protection for personal users including, backup, archive, access and recovery for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android operating systems. As disk imaging software, True Image can restore the previously captured image to another disk, replicating the structure and contents to the new disk, also allowing disk cloning and partition resizing, even if the new disk is of a different capacity. The backups are in a proprietary format which saves using a .tib filename format. Acronis was launched in 2003 and in December 2014 claimed to have over 5 million consumer and 500,000 businesses users.

Overview

Editions

Several editions of Acronis True Image are available. Acronis True Image Cloud is a subscription-based software plus service offering that allows both local and online backup with unlimited cloud backup, and offers backup for a selection of mobile phones and tablets.^[7] Successive versions of Acronis True Image are the local backup editions. Both editions are available at retail outlets.^[8]

Until release 9 there were versions of Acronis True Image for personal and business users, with business versions named Acronis True Image Server.^[9] Later server backup software was renamed “Acronis Backup”.^[10]

Operation

Acronis True Image can make two types of backups: file backup, backing up user-specified files and directories, and full system images, which are exact snapshots of an entire disk partition. The program can back up a system hard drive while the OS is running. Acronis True Image can browse the contents of backups and restore them partially or entirely. It can also mount a disk backup as a virtual disk, readable in the same way as any disk drive.

Although backups can be restored when the system is running, a major purpose of backup is to restore the system when it fails to start. Acronis True Image can install Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (ASRM), a computer program that helps restore backups at boot time. Acronis True Image can also create a copy of Acronis Rescue Media, a bootable DVD that contains a copy of Acronis True Image and can restore backups to a computer not bootable in the normal way, so long as a good boot drive (existing or new) is available.

The Acronis True Image Cloud version allows cloud users to also back up their mobile devices. iPhone and Android smartphones are supported, in addition to iPad and Windows tablets. This edition also brings back the “Try and Decide” option which lets users perform potentially risky actions such as the installation of un-trusted software with the option of returning to the system function before the action if any problems occur.^[11]

Acronis True Image Cloud allows multiple devices to be backed up, managed and archived on the Acronis Cloud from the online dashboard.^[12]

One complaint from Acronis users is the inability to disable taskbar popups marketing upgrades and new products from the developer. ^[13] The notification will grab focus (ie. will interrupt a full screen game or movie) and each advertisement must be disabled individually. The company currently offers no way to permanently turn off these advertisements. ^[14]

Supported file systems

Acronis True Image supports multiple file systems including NTFS, FAT32, ext2, ext3, ext4, HFS+, APFS, ReiserFS, and Linux Swap.^[15]

In addition to backing up supported file systems, Acronis True Image provides raw sector backup and restore options independent of file system, thereby supporting a file system that is corrupt, or not supported. This creates a complete image of all sectors on the partition, whether they contain data or not; the image will not be compressed, and will be the same size as the partition.^[16]

History

Acronis began in 2001 as a division of SWsoft^[6] and in 2003 became a separate company and continued to release the Acronis True Image software. The True Image name was applied to all platforms from Home to Corporate until 2010, when Acronis business backup software was renamed, with True Image being the home version.