It's best to avoid Acronis. Don't be fooled by how slick the product looks
on paper. In practice, it's worse than useless. There are other products
in this product space which aren't as full featured (in theory) but which
are more reliable and better supported.

I used their stand-alone Bootable Rescue Utility CD (as opposed to their OS-level application) to make TIB backup images at nine intermediate stages of installation (from XP SP3 to adding hot-fixes to adding hardware drivers to adding software).

This worked out (thank heavens), as, after spending nearly 100 hours trying to ask fairly simple questions (about TI 2009 Home's functionality in general, and about a still unresolved bug present in their 3rd and most recent Build 9709 involving the Backup "Progress Window" not displaying progress, or estimating remaining time) … I have decided to (for my sanity) just give up trying to email these ludicrous clowns.

It's been a huge joke (on me, and my time and effort) from the beginning. Ironically, my one single experience with their "live-chat" support (with an albeit fairly simple question) yielded much better results, and responsiveness on the part of the Rep.

Where shall I begin… 40 days is very typical before any email inquiry is even answered at all. You are dealing with people who either cannot understand the English language (even when communications rigorously stated in the most clear and thorough terms), and/or do not read what you write, and/or do not address what you are talking about, and/or make bullshit and contradictory statements that have no bearing on reality, their software, or their user's manual, and/or slyly pass you off to another Rep when/if you make repeated attempts to nail them down on the subject matter of your inquiries. These people specialize in attempting to sound learned and competent – yet every single one of them revealed themselves to be ignoramuses, clowns, plain outright liars – or just brain-dead lackeys who in the end could not (or, perhaps, due to perhaps a "sweat-shop" atmosphere in their Moscow headquarters,
cannot) end up giving a shit about what you are talking about, what *they* are talking about (no matter how erroneous or flawed in nature it may be), and in sum,
whether the inquiring customer *ever* actually gets a coherent answer to (even) very coherently presented and detailed inquiries on the part of the customer. Then they will slip you an email that states that – if you do not respond to their email within a mere 48 hours – they will close and dispose of your pending issues … !!!

Take it from one who knows – attempting to deal coherently with these over-worked and under-endowed jive turkeys is a sure prescription for insanity. They will take forever to respond, waste your time immensely, try to blame you and your system, and then will try to slyly weasel out of the whole matter entirely as if they had actually performed some useful function (or will pass you off to yet another clown).

Abandon all hope, those who enter there! The joke is on you. (At least, we presume) they get paid for wasting your time. After spending at least 100 hours composing detailed emails inquiring about $50 product, I finally saw the "writing on the wall").

These (to be pitied) slaven bastards have (deservedly) lost any/all credibility (for good) with me. After all, if you cannot even believe in their personal competence or integrity, ther really is no rational point to wasting your time inquiring of them or in believing any/all of what they may communicate to you. You are wasting your time!!!

Just be thankful that *you* are not an immigrant worker in their Moscow, Russia email support "sweat shop", trying to schlep-it through another day in what (by all appearances seems to be) a brain-dead, techno-garbage, boiler-room of misery.

I mean these words sincerely, and with empathy for these unfortunate employees.

The world is devolving into a nightmare of incompetence and indifference … *~<|:-0
.