Acronis True Image 2015 REVIEWERS GUIDE
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION... 3 What is Acronis True Image 2015?... 3 System Requirements... 4 INSTALLATION... 5 Downloading and Installing Acronis True Image 2015... 5 Activating the software... 5 BACKUP... 6 Basic Concepts... 6 How to create your first backup... 6 RECOVERY... 9 Files and Folders... 9 Complete PC... 9 ACRONIS CLOUD... 11 Accessing your backups in the Acronis cloud... 11 2
INTRODUCTION Welcome to Acronis True Image 2015, the brand new data protection solution from our award-winning True Image family. Backed by the Acronis AnyData Engine, Acronis True Image 2015 provides fast and secure full system image backup, bare-metal disaster recovery, and secure access to information stored safely in the Acronis Cloud. Enjoy total peace-of-mind knowing that your entire PC or Mac system is protected, secure, and completely recoverable anytime and anywhere. What is Acronis True Image 2015? Acronis True Image 2015 is the only application that provides dual protection for your entire computer system (including the operating system, applications, configurations, and data). You can store full system backups both locally and safely offsite in the Acronis Cloud. Both options also offer compression and encryption features. With Acronis True Image 2015, you protect your entire computer in two easy steps: 1. Create a complete backup of your machine: Our full system image backup captures your entire hard drive, including operating system, recovery partitions, applications, and all your personal data. You can store your system image backup locally or safely offsite in the Acronis cloud. 2. Create Acronis Bootable Rescue Media: This is a removable drive with boot files that you will need in case your computer fails to start. Acronis Bootable Rescue Media allows you to boot into the Acronis environment and roll back your system using your full system image backup. 3
System Requirements A. Supported Operating Systems Windows XP SP3 Windows Vista SP2 (all editions) Windows 7 SP1 (all editions) Windows 8 (all editions) Windows Home Server 2011 B. Supported File Systems (backup source or destination) NTFS FAT32 Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 * ReiserFS * Linux SWAP * * The Ext2/Ext3/Ext4, ReiserFS, and Linux SWAP file systems are supported only for disk or partition backup/recovery operations C. System Requirements 1GB RAM Processor Pentium 1 GHz or faster 1.5 GB of free space on a hard disk D. Supported storage media Internal drives (HDD, SSD, RAID) FTP servers CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R (including double-layer DVD+R), DVD+RW, DVD- RAM, BD-R, BD-RE USB 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0, FireWire (IEEE-1394) and PC card storage devices 4
INSTALLATION Downloading and Installing Acronis True Image 2015 1. Download the Acronis True Image 2015 installer via any web browser: www.acronis.com/download/pc 2. Run the installation file. Installation is a simple, straight-forward process. Please wait until it is finished. 3. Start the application. 4. (Optional) Create an account at Acronis.com and register your serial number. Activating the software Upon first launching of the application, a window appears asking for your serial number. Please enter the serial number provided to you. A green check should appear, indicating that the serial number is valid. You product is now activated. 5
BACKUP Basic Concepts Creating a full system image backup simply means making a copy of your entire system (including the OS, your applications, all your data, and all your settings). This full system image backup can be used for: Recovering your entire system in the event of system loss or failure (this process is called disaster recovery). Recovering specific files or folders that have been accidentally deleted or corrupted. Having a protected copy of your data available at all times. How to create your first backup After activating and starting the product, the following screen appears: For your first backup, the application will pre-select all of your computer s internal disks (for example, Entire PC ). The only thing you need to provide is a backup destination. 6
For the backup destination, select one of the following options: An external drive: If your system has a connected external drive, the application will suggest it as a backup destination; Acronis cloud: If you have already created an Acronis account and logged into the console, you will be able to select the Acronis cloud as a backup destination. Alternatively, you will need to create account 1 ; Custom destination: Select this for all other destinations. 1 We will create Acronis account for you using email address you provide us 7
There are a set of additional backup settings that allow you to create a custom and personalized backup plan. The most popular settings are include backup scheduling and backup encryption. It is extremely easy to customize these two settings, which are both very important: applying encryption and running a custom backup schedule ensures that your backup data archives are completely secure and always up to date. By default, backup scheduling is turned off. Once your backup is configured, simply start your backup by clicking the Backup Now button (highlighted in green). Congratulations! Your first backup is now being created. Please note, this may take a significant amount of time, especially if you are backing up to the Acronis cloud. Depending on your network, this first full system backup may even last several days. Once this initial system image is created, further backups can be incremental (which run much faster). 8
RECOVERY Acronis can help you retrieve a lost file/folder, recover an individual disk/partition, or restore your entire computer system! Files and Folders Did you know that file recovery is the most popular recovery operation chosen by our users? That is why the Restore Files button is conveniently located on our main window! To recover individual files or folders: 1. Click the Recover Files button found at the bottom of the main backup screen. 2. In the window that appears, browse through the contents of your backup archive and select the files/folders that you wish to restore. 3. Click the Next button. 4. In the window that appears, confirm your recovery destination. 5. Click the Recover Now button to finish the process. If your backup is stored in the Acronis cloud, you will be redirected to the Acronis cloud web interface where you can browse and select the files/folders to recover. Complete PC You can perform a full system recovery using Acronis True Image, or from Acronis Bootable Rescue Media. If your system is still bootable and you have a backup of your Entire PC, you can start the recovery directly from the application: 1. Launch Acronis True Image. 2. Click on the Backup tab. 3. Select an archive from which you would like to recover. 4. Click Recover PC 5. On the opened screen select the date and time to which you would like to recover. 6. Click Recover Now 9
Your machine will be recovered to the selected state. If your system fails to start, you can boot from Acronis Bootable Rescue Media and restore your machine in several clicks: Connect the bootable media to your machine Arrange the boot order in BIOS so as to make your rescue media device (CD, DVD or USB stick) the first boot device. Reboot your machine. Once booted from the rescue media, select True Image. Select My disks below Recover on the Home screen. Select the system disk or partition backup to be used for recovery. Click next. If the backup is not displayed, click Browse and specify path to the backup manually. Select disks and partitions you would like to recover. Click next. Carefully read the summary of operations at the Finish step. Click proceed. Once operation is finished, you system should be up and running. If you store your backups on the Acronis cloud and you work from a laptop, there is no need to attach your system to a wired network now Acronis Bootable Rescue Media supports Wi-Fi! 10
ACRONIS CLOUD The Acronis cloud is a secure offsite datacenter dedicated to storing your backups safely. By sending your data offsite, you are ensuring that your backups are well protected against hardware failure, house fires, flood, theft, and other disasters. Regardless of your location, you can recover everything your need from your entire system or an individual file. There is no need to carry around your external drive or physical backup storage. Note: Acronis cloud provides universal storage. If you are using Acronis True Image for Mac, you can use the same cloud account to store files and backups from both platforms, Windows and/or Mac. Accessing your backups in the Acronis cloud In most cases, you can perform backup and recovery operations directly from the application regardless of where your data is stored either locally or in the Acronis Cloud. You can also access your cloud backups via a regular web browser, which can be quite useful in the following scenarios: You need to download or restore certain files while working on a different machine You need to share a specific file with another person You need to manually clean up space You need to completely remove your data from the Acronis cloud To access your cloud backups via a web browser, simply go to the Acronis website and log in to your account. 11