AcronisTrue Image 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 Androidoperating 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. Successive versions of Acronis True Image are the local backup editions. Both editions are available at retail outlets. Until release 9 there were versions of Acronis True Image for personal and business users, with business versions named Acronis True Image Server. Later server backup software was renamed "Acronis Backup".
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, 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 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. Acronis True Image Cloud allows multiple devices to be backed up, managed and archived on the Acronis Cloud from the online dashboard. One complaint from Acronis users is the inability to disable taskbar popups marketing upgrades and new products from the developer. The notification will grab focus and each advertisement must be disabled individually. The company currently offers no way to permanently turn off these advertisements.
Supported file systems
Acronis True Image supports multiple file systems including NTFS, FAT32, ext2, ext3, ext4, HFS+, APFS, ReiserFS, and Linux Swap. 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.
History
Acronis began in 2001 as a division of SWsoft 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.
Versions
File format
Acronis True Image guarantees backward compatibility for image files created with a single previous version, that is, images created with an immediate previous version can be successfully restored. Backups are created to be compatible between different editions of Acronis True Image within the same version, e.g., between former Acronis True Image Echo Workstation and Acronis True Image Echo Enterprise Server, or between Linux and Windows versions. Compatibility is not guaranteed between products that are not within the same version. Guaranteed cross-version compatibility is documented. In some cases it is possible to extract the.tib file using free offzip utility with commandline "offzip.exe -R -o -a -1 -z 15 <.tib> <.bin>", which produces uncompressed binary image. The command scans all TIB compressed sections and extracts them into one image file.
Format conversion
by virtualization company VMware supports converting.tib files created by former Acronis True Image Echo 9.1 and 9.5, and Acronis True Image Home 10 and 11 into a virtual machine. However, after VMware Converter failed to recognize Acronis True Image 2013.tibs, VMware said "unfortunately VMware Converter doesn't support current Acronis True Image versions". Acronis True Image has an option to convert backups between its proprietary.tib and Microsoft's VHD backup format, more widely supported, and documented under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise.
Partnerships
Acronis has licensed custom versions of Acronis True Image to some hard disk manufacturers, including Western Digital's Acronis True Image WD Edition, Intel Data Migration Software to migrate from an existing hard drive to an Intel SSD, and Seagate DiscWizard. Such editions are free to download and use, but only with that manufacturer's hard drives.
