Acronis True Image Home 2010

It’s always important to back up the documents, pictures and other files on your computer, although it’s not something many people get around to doing properly.

Besides its backup features, Acronis True Image also works well if you want to create a complete copy of your computer’s hard disk to move it to a new computer.

This is a must in case you should ever need to run the old operating system again or in case you need to restore a new PC to full working health.

Once you have installed what you want, use the program to make a backup (which it calls an ‘image’) and keep it somewhere safe.

Although the user can choose to make a full backup, the program can also perform a partial backup. It also offers a choice of where to save your data: as a partition on the existing hard disk, on an external hard disk or over a home network.

The help menu contains lots of good information to help users decide what sort of backup they require. It’s worth reading this, although it’s quite thorough.

From then on the process was simple. To create an image of an entire disk we chose the Disk and Partition Backup. This takes up lots of disk space, but it enables the user to recover the system in minutes in case of severe damage or hardware failure.

Another option, if you are only concerned about certain files and folders, is the My Data setting, which works with an online backup storage facility.

This transfers your files over the internet and holds them securely on the company’s computers. This optional service offers 2GB of free storage for 90 days, after which it costs £4 a month with an additional 60p per month for each additional 5GB of storage.

A very useful feature is Nonstop Backup that will back up changes to the computer every five minutes. Alternatively the Scheduler allows the user to set backups at defined intervals. Acronis is currently offering a 30-day free trial of the software from its website.