Acronis True Image 2020 Review & Tutorial

 

 

 

PROS	CONS
The Active Protection feature	Price
Performance	You can't delete folder when try to create folders for the destination.
Friendly User Interface
Useful tools

 

 

 

Create backup frequently it's very important task for any user that takes seriously his data.

As IT Pro backups it's one of the most important tasks in my work. One of the responsibility is to protect the data of the company that work. So it's crucial to have a plan and monitoring every day the backup tasks for any issue.

But also i am a user with a personal laptop in my house that wants to keep my files (photos,videos,important files that i have work a lot ) safe without need to be an expert and takes me lot of time.

I would like to have a software that needs a few steps until automate the protection of  my laptop.

Nobody wants to lost personal data or months of work because the Laptop broken or lost it. 

In July 2014 i went a walk with my wife after we left from our offices. I remember that we went for a coffee. When i was return in my card i realize that someone broker into my car and stole my laptop.

I remember the first think that i though was that what happened in my car alarm? After that i remembered that i didn't have any backup from my laptop.

I don't want again to have this experience.

Except my own experience all these years as IT Pro in my work i saw lot of users to loose years of data because they never thought to has at least one backup of his files in an external disk or in the Cloud.

As System Administrator, Freelancer, IT Pro, Owner of a Small Company with 2,3 users you are responsible to keep your work safe from any damage.

Acronis True Image 2020 it's a good Backup Tool  that can keep safe your data daily without loose it.

The links to Acronis True Image 2020 in this review are affiliate links, so if you learned something useful and are interested in the tool, feel free to buy through it and support the site.

 

What is Acronis True Image 2020

Acronis True Image Backup 2020 it's a Backup product that can provide data protection for Laptops ,Workstations and mobile devices  ,data archive , clone disk ,file sync between Laptop or Workstations  and protection from malware infection.

Why do you need a Backup Tool

Forget the PC and the data. As human we want to protect the  important things in our life's. But sometimes forget how important are all the work that has been done because we think that Laptop can't be damage.

 

1. Protect your files from any hardware damage

 Nobody wants to loose all the files from his laptop because one day your hard disk failed. I remember years ago a user from my work brings his personal laptop and complaints that suddenly it's not opening. After try to resolve it told me that  he left the laptop without hibernate in his card while driving. Probably the hard disk failed from a lot of vibrations. 

Guess!!! The user never keeps a back and lost personal work files from years.

2. Protect your files from any virus damage

Today with so many virus , malwares , spams it's very easy to infect and has catastrophic results in your data. You know that this is not fair but this is the real life and it's not fair lot of times.

Base on Symantec Internet Security Threat Report 2019 Ransomware attacks increase by 12% and in Mobile by 33%. 

 

Protect your files from any accidental deletion or change

We are humans and we do wrongs. How many times you have forget to save a document? From my experience i know that lot of users delete files accidentally. It's normal when happens once a time. 

But the files that can be deleted accidentally maybe it is very important.

Here comes a Backup to protect you and have the ability to restore it in few minutes

 

Who is Acronis True Image Not For

 

Acronis True Image 2020 it's a very good tool but it's not for all. If you fall in one of the following categories it's better to avoid this Backup Tool

For those that search only for free tools

If you are user that interesting only for a free backup tool because you don't have important files in your Workstation or Laptop and you don't care if you loose it  then you will not find any value in this tool.

If you are belong in this category then i recommend to use Windows Backup Feature and you can find instructions in 

• Backup and Restore in Windows 10 (Microsoft.com)
• How to make a full backup of your Windows 10 PC (Windowscentral.com)

For those that aren't interesting to protect his works

Users that don't believe that backups are important and they don't use it at all then probably they will not found any value here.

 

For those which has a Laptop/PC in his home only for the kids

Users which are parents and has one Laptop only for his kids and it doesn't need to protect anything there.

 

 

System Requirements

Let's see which are the System Requirement for the Acronis True Image 2020 before setup

• Processor Pentium 1 GHz
• 1 GB RAM
• 3.5 GB of free space on a hard disk
• CD-RW/DVD-RW drive or USB drive for bootable media creation (about 600 MB of free space is required)

 

Which Operating System Support

• Windows 10 (all editions, including November 2019 Update, except for Windows IoT edition and Windows 10 LTSB) 
• Windows 8.1 (except for Windows Embedded editions)
• Windows 8 (except for Windows Embedded editions)
• Windows 7 SP1 (all editions)
• Windows Home Server 2011

 

 

How to Setup Acronis True Image 2020

The setup of Acronis True Image 2020 it's very easy.

• Download the file from https://www.acronis.com/en-us/homecomputing/thanks/acronis-true-image-2020/
• Run the file and click Install

 

• Wait few minutes to finish the installation and click Start Application

 

• Wait until open it

 

• Check the I accept .... Click OK

 

• Click Start Trial in case that you want to try it first. Unless type your serial number after purchase the product and click Activate.

• Either use it as Trial or purchase it you must create an account before proceed.

 

• After create the account click Skip. We don't want to do it anyting until start the application

 

What you can find in Acronis True Image 2020

Lot of Backup Tools it's a single program only to take Backups. Acronis True Image 2020 it's more than a Backup Tool. They have expand the Tool with more functionalities like Active Protection and multiple other small Tools like System Clean up , Drive Cleaner that i will explain.

Now let me show what are inside the tool and most important how can use it to protect your Workstation or Laptop.

When you open Acronis True Image 2020 you will find a menu in the left side.

 

How to Backup the Computer

 

When you open Acronis True Image 2020 the first Windows is the option to create your Backups

Before start you must decide where you want to save your backups (NAS,External Disk,Cloud) which will be the destination

• Click on the Change Source 

 

• Select what you want to Backup. Of course i select Entire computer

 

• Now click on Select Destination

 

• You can see different options. Select one of the option which is available for your.
• If you have External Disk click on Your External Drive
• I have a NAS which identify automatically. So i select the NAS

 

• Add my credentials and Test the Connection. If the test is success click Connect.

 

• Create the folder that you want to takes Backups.
• Here is one of the Pros that wrote in the table. If you create a folder accidentally you can't delete from here. You must go from the Windows Explorer to deleted.
• Click OK

 

 

BACKUPS

As default option is the Backup that you can see the Backup which created above.

From the right side you can select and change different settings

Backup scheme allow you to optimize backup storage space usage and delete automatically the obsolete backup versions.

You can select from different Backup schemes that will explain which is the Backup method.

 

For example if you select Incremental scheme the method is Incremental which means that only first time will take full backup and after will take only the changes.

Most of the times i use the Create only incremental version after the initial full version 

 

Schedule is when the backup you want to run. Decide the frequency and the time.

 

You have the Notification Tab which can create notifications for the insufficient disk space and receive it in your email.

 

Exclusions use it to exclude files or folders that you want to take it backup. Most of the times i don't change anything. I leave it with the default exclusions.

 

Advanced Tab has lot of options that you can change but i will explain the most important.

Whenever decide to keep my backup in the cloud the first action is to encrypt my backup. Why? You never know where your backup is and what can happened when we talk about Cloud. It's safer from your physical NAS or External disk because has the risk of the hardware damage but it's in your home and nobody has the opportunity to see your data or expose it.  

 

Sometimes it's a good action to validate your backups for any error. You don't want to fail your backup when you want to restore files.

 

My favorite option is the Performance. You can keep the backup operation priority low when wants your backups to be taken in working hours.  So you don't have performance issues while working.

 

 

ARCHIVE

Archive is a feature that you can use it when you have lot of very old files but you don't want to deleted. Then you can archive all these files in other location (External Drive,NAS,Cloud) to free space your disk.

• If you want to use it just click Analyze Home Folder 

 

• Select the files want to archive

 

• Select the destination.

 

• Be sure that you have internet connection and you are sign in on the Acronis True Image 2020 
• Of course you can encrypt your archive but remeber that must be done before the first archive. After you can't

 

• Click Archive.

 

• After finish the archive you can open you data from the Acronis True Image 2020.

 

• Or from Windows Explorer

 

 

SYNC

In case that you want to sync your files in anonther Workstation you can use this feature.

To be honest i never use it because i have another ways to do the Sync and most of the time i don't need it. 

Just to remember in this case you must have install the Acronis True Image 2020 in both Laptops\Workstations.

 

 

ACTIVE PROTECTION

One of my  favorite feature of Acronis True Image 2020 is the Active Protection.

It protects your Laptop or Workstation from a Ransomware infection and cryptomining. 

 

I know that most of you maybe already has an Antivirus Protection. But a second layer of Protection it's not bad. Probably when it fits your environment requirements.

Active Protection it's a technology that monitoring all the processes of your System in real-time. When active protection detect a third party process that try to inject malicious code or try to encrypt your files then it informs you if you want to allow this process to do the changes.

Unfortunately i don't have finish but i working in a ransomware simulation to verify if the active protection is working. When i will finish i will publish it here.

At this time you can see in my Laptop monitoring 3 processes .

 

If i click on Monitored i can see why monitoring these processes.

The reason is that aren't has a trusted certificate.

 

Acronis True Image 2020 Tools & Utilities

 

Acronis True Image 2020 except from the Backup feature has small tools that you would like to use it.

To be honest i don't have use all of them but only these which are useful for me. So i will not explain all of the Tools today because i would like to be genius and write about what i have already use it and if it worth it or not.

One of the tool that worth it to use it is the Rescue Media Builder. Why? Because you can safe your time and your money in case that your Laptop or Workstation can't boot or start.

Then you can use the Rescue Media Builder that you have create to recover your PC automatically and boot it.

Note that this maybe not work for all the scenario's but for most of them.

 For example In case that your hard disk failed this it's not work

Rescue Media Builder

• Click in Rescue Media Builder
• Select Advance or Simple. For those that they aren't power users just click Simple.
• In this case i select Advance to see what are the options that you have

 

• Click Win-PE Based Media

 

• Select Windows Recovery Environment.

 

• If you have the drivers of your Laptop or Workstation you can add here. To be honest never add the drivers. Just click Next

 

• Select one of the options. If you have your External disk just select Plugin your external drive.
• Because i don't have plugin any external disk and take the Backups in NAS i use the ISO file and when finish i copy to the NAS.

 

• Click Next and wait until finish.

 

• Note that will take some time.

 

 

System Clean Up

System Clean up is a tool that can delete temporary files from your pc to free space of your hdd and sometimes boost the performance.

I say boost the performance without means that all times it will happened. One of the most common scenario that can be happened is when you have thousand of temporary files.

• If you want to use it just click on the System Clean up 

 

• Expand the System Components to see what will be delete.
• Maybe you don't understand all of them but i will recommend to uncheck the User credentials and Hard Disk Free Space.You don't want to add all your passwords again.

 

• Or if you use it frequently click in Click here 

 

• Click in User Credential and unchecked the Enable.
• Do the same for any other component that you don't want to delete when Clean up.
• Then Click OK

 

• Click Clean up

Another one tool that i believe can be useful is the Acronis Univesal Restore but i don't have use it. This tool can restore all your pc exactly as it in unsimilar hardware which means in different workstation or laptop without issues.

Most of the times when try to restore an image of one PC in another then failed because the hardware is different. With this tool maybe can resolve this problem.

 

Conclusion
 

Acronis True Image 2020 it's a very useful tool for Workstations and Laptops and keep safe and in same time give you the ability to restore your PC without loose your files , your time and your money.

It's not cheap but can replace multiple other tools that use it to backup your photos, tools for backup your mobile, tools to have a rescue media builder in case of failed to boot.

Also the most important is that all of them you can have it in the same place without need every time to search in different places.

If you are serious about your data and how can be protected then you must to spend some cash on Acronis True Image Subscription