RichmondTech
Member
- Reaction score
- 6
- Location
- Richmond, VA
We're all familiar with recovery discs that come from the computer manufacturers. 2-3 DVDs that can take a machine back to the day you purchased it. The good thing about them is that they seem to just work, even if you have to replace a defective hard drive with a bigger or smaller drive. It's all automated and the only thing you have to do is swap out the discs when it tells you to. The bad thing about them is that after the system restore is done you have to do all of the updates, uninstall any garbage programs that came preloaded, install new apps, etc.
I have a client that has a number of computers in the office. He has it set to where his agents don't store anything on the computers, so if anything starts acting up he just wipes the machine. Great that he gets rid of the problem fairly quickly, but then he has to get the machines printing again, and probably doesn't do the updates which leaves him open for problems to happen sooner than later. I was looking for a solution that would allow me to make images a few times a year prior to any bad things happening to reduce downtime. Just like an OEMs set of restore discs, but updated and customized.
I have experience with clonezilla in backing up images to an external hard drive and then restoring, but that requires a replacement drive to be the same size or bigger. I've used EaseUS to copy from one drive to another, but you have the extra step of resizing the partitions. I came across Acronis True Image w/ Universal Restore and that seems to be a good solution. Does anyone have any experience with this? Looks like you can pick it up for about $90. Does that license allow technicians to use it on multiple computers? Will it make a set of customized restore discs based on what you have on the hard drive?
I have a client that has a number of computers in the office. He has it set to where his agents don't store anything on the computers, so if anything starts acting up he just wipes the machine. Great that he gets rid of the problem fairly quickly, but then he has to get the machines printing again, and probably doesn't do the updates which leaves him open for problems to happen sooner than later. I was looking for a solution that would allow me to make images a few times a year prior to any bad things happening to reduce downtime. Just like an OEMs set of restore discs, but updated and customized.
I have experience with clonezilla in backing up images to an external hard drive and then restoring, but that requires a replacement drive to be the same size or bigger. I've used EaseUS to copy from one drive to another, but you have the extra step of resizing the partitions. I came across Acronis True Image w/ Universal Restore and that seems to be a good solution. Does anyone have any experience with this? Looks like you can pick it up for about $90. Does that license allow technicians to use it on multiple computers? Will it make a set of customized restore discs based on what you have on the hard drive?
