Backup is something far too few people take seriously. Even when you point out that all the data they have could disappear forever, they still think backing up is unnecessary.
Those of us who grew up in the bad old days - when we applauded any computer that did not crash by lunch time - know how dangerous it can be not to make copies of important data.
This is the market the Acronis True Image 8.0 disk-imaging, backup and recovery software was built for. The product was developed for small and medium-sized businesses by San Francisco-based Acronis, which makes and sells corporate storage management systems.
Unlike traditional file-oriented backup software, True Image creates an exact duplicate image of a user's live disk drives, including the operating system, all configuration files, programs, updates and databases at the so-called drive sector level.
It supports Windows and a number of non-Windows operating platforms, including Linux and Novell NetWare. The software also works transparently while creating a live backup.
Acronis says its backup and recovery software is easy to use, 'wizard-driven' and 'intuitive'. All this is true, but how great a programmer do you have to be to make this sort of thing intuitive?
At present, we tend to backup our data by putting it all on yet another hard disk drive. We can also 'burn' or transfer really important documents on to a CD. But with small notebook computers now equipped with up to 80-gigabyte hard disk drives, backing up one of those to a CD would be silly.