Microsoft’s OneCare began a movement of appending backup to protection suites before it came to an end. It adds up: if a malevolent menace damages your computer beyond repair, being able to restore your data from backup is the best security. Others followed, adding backup faculties of variable quality to their suites. Acronis Backup and Security 2010, which is available for $69.99 for 3 licenses and storage of 5GB of data online, achieves the same end after starting from the inverse direction. It begins with totally comprehensive backup and then further contributes a complete security suite supplied by BitDefender. The backup system was impressive, but the security disappointed.
The Premium Edition comes with 250GB of storage and retails at $89.99. A complete installation of Acronis Online Backup with identical 250GB of storage costs $49.95 annually. Add the $49.95 for the suite offered by BitDefender, and $49.00 for a complete copy of Acronis True Image home and you are left with products equaling a value of $150, a bargain by any standard.
The protection suite element is an edition of BitDefender Internet Security 2010 that has been rebranded: it’s identical to BitDefender Total Security 2010, except for BitDefender’s backup and warm up modules. The component that makes for the backup, the Acronis True Image Home 2010, is put onto the computer as an entirely distinguished program, and has Acronis Backup incorporated into it. Because the suite is efficaciously 3 separate products, its enormous download size of more than 350MB is not a surprise. However, Norton 360 Version 4.0, which also provides local and online backup incorporated into a security suite is only 100MB.
The installation process took around 15 minutes, and this process included both a reboot and an initial update. By inhibiting System Restore and evaluating the amount of free size before and subsequent to installation, it was determined that Acronis fills more than 1 gigabyte of disk space, over 4 times as much as Norton 360 does.
Installation on a system infested with malware resulted in severe problems. It would not install at all on 3 of the systems, with the installer crashing, quitting or blue screening the computer. 2 systems, although able to complete the installation process, were not able to update. It was initially advised by Acronis that the BitDefender Rescue CD be used to clean problem systems up, but after that route was attempted the scan could still not be completed. The free BitDefender Online Scanner resulted in the same trouble. In order to fix the systems causing problems it was necessary to spend a considerable amount of time on the telephone with a technician controlling them remotely.
Website: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/backup-security/