I downloaded and installed Acronis True Image WD Edition from the WDC website (here: ATI-WD Edition ). It appears to have installed fine. I can open the program. When I try to create a bootable rescue media, the dialogue hangs for about 20 minutes. Then it finally comes back and I can get it to start the disk creation process. The ‘processing…’ window has been up for 4 hours now with the green progress bar just a smidge away from the end. I’m fairly certain the CD I have in the drive is good. It shows up okay in Explorer and I’ve not had any issues with other CDs in this batch.
I guess my question is, how long does it take? The fact that the initial dialogue took so long makes me reluctant to just abort (and create a coaster out of the disk). Is this just Acronis’ way of saying ‘look, if you want the free WD edition, you must pay in time. If you want reasonable speed, give us some money’?
I have installed their paid edition on another computer (way back before WD offered the free edition) and I don’t recall this happening with that version, albeit it was 2008 or 2009.
This WD version is based on Acronis 2009 and it hasn’t been updated that often by WD. If you have a valid version of Acronis 2009 check your account there they may have an update ISO of the boot CD that will work for you. Acronis does have a try and buy deal. EaseUS, Paragon and Macrium all have free stripped down versions. I don’t know what OS you are using either.
Acronis wants more for an upgrade than what I’d pay to buy the 2012 Acronis leftovers at the office supply stores in my area. That’s why I went to WD to get a ‘free’ version. I didn’t realize it was 4 years old but, hey, if it works, then it doesn’t matter how old it is.
It took about 5 hours, but the boot disk was finally created and I can boot into Acronis from it. I ran an image create/validate and the time for that seems reasonable (about 12 minutes via USB3.0 port). So it appears there’s just something funny about the routine to create a bootable disk.
I’m actually using the WD version on a Windows 7 Home Prem. 64 bit machine. I have a paid version on an old XP machine that’s never failed me and that I’ve never upgraded.
Thanks for posting back about how long it took to make the disk. Keep your eye on Give Away Of The Day earlier this week they had EaseUS Todo Backup as a give away and Paragon Backup a while ago. I’ve got a few goodies there.
