Disk partition backup
Also known as a disk partition image, it is a file or several files containing an exact copy of the disk partition from which this backup was created, including a working operating system (if it was on the disk partition from which the image originates), installed programs, user settings, and data.
Disk backup
Also known as a disk image, it is a file or several files containing an exact copy of the hard drive from which this backup was created, including a working operating system (if it was on the drive from which the backup originates), installed programs, user settings, and data. Other commonly used terms for a disk backup include: disk image, drive image, disk image file.
Which software should I use?
To create a disk partition backup, it is best to use software designed for this purpose. A disk partition backup is usually stored as one or several files. Different disk partition backup software uses different formats. A disk partition backup created by Acronis True Image has the *.tib extension. A disk partition backup is not created by storing individual files in the backup file; instead, the sectors of the disk partition are stored.
What do I need a disk backup for?
A disk partition backup allows you to return the contents of the partition to its original state (the state it was in when this backup was created). If you have a working backup of the system partition, you can restore it when needed and bring a failed system back into operation, for example.
For creating disk backups, we recommend using software that supports bare metal restore, such as Acronis True Image. Some tools for creating and restoring disk partition backups allow you to restore a backup only if you have a working Windows installation with the relevant partition backup and recovery software installed. This is highly unfortunate when the system crashes and you need to get it running again as quickly as possible. You will first have to install Windows, then the recovery software, and then perform the recovery. Acronis True Image allows you to restore a disk partition backup using Acronis bootable media even when the operating system has crashed, there is no system on the disk partition, or the disk partition is completely empty. The disk partition can even be formatted; nevertheless, you can restore the system within minutes using Acronis bootable media.
| Features | Software | |||
| Acronis True Image |
Acronis Backup |
Acronis Disk Director |
Acronis Disk Director (Workstation, Server, Technician license) |
|
| Which environment the product is suitable for | ||||
| For households | Yes | Yes | ||
| For organizations of all sizes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Which types of machines are supported | ||||
| Computers running Windows OS (Windows 7, 8, 10) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Computers running Mac OS (Apple computers) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Physical Windows and Linux servers | Yes | Yes | ||
| Virtual machines (VMware, Hyper-V, RHEV, Citrix, KVM) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Cloud machines (Azure, Amazon EC2) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Mobile devices based on iOS and Android | Yes | Yes | ||
| What can be backed up | ||||
| Backups of entire machines (disk, volume, partition images) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Data backups (files and directories) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Database backups (Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, AD, Oracle) | Yes | |||
| How backups are managed | ||||
| Backup is managed directly from the backed-up machine | Yes | |||
| Backup and recovery are managed centrally, from one location | Yes | |||
| Remote installation of agents on backed-up machines | Yes | |||
| Backup can be started manually at any time | Yes | Yes | ||
| Backup can be scheduled to run automatically | Yes | Yes | ||
| Backed-up machines can be organized into groups | Yes | |||
| Backup can be managed by subordinate administrators | Yes | |||
| Ability to set up email backup notifications | Yes | |||
| Backup options | ||||
| Full, incremental, and differential backups | Yes | Yes | ||
| Always incremental scheme, GFS scheme, custom scheme | Yes | Yes | ||
| Backups can be encrypted with a custom password (AES 256 standard) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Backups are automatically compressed | Yes | Yes | ||
| Backups can be deduplicated | Yes | |||
| Backups can be stored in multiple repositories simultaneously | Yes | |||
| Where backups can be stored | ||||
| Local drives, external drives, USB drives | Yes | Yes | ||
| Network storage including NAS | Yes | Yes | ||
| Tape drives and tape libraries | Yes | |||
| FTP servers | Yes | |||
| SFTP servers | Yes | |||
| Acronis cloud storage (for an additional fee) | Yes | Yes | ||
| How recovery from backups can be performed | ||||
| From the operating system – if the machine is working | Yes | Yes | ||
| From bootable media that can be created (CD/DVD, USB) | Yes | Yes | ||
| A machine without a working OS can also be restored | Yes | Yes | ||
| Recovery can be performed to hardware-dissimilar machine | Yes | Yes | ||
| Recovery can be started remotely from central management | Yes | |||
| Recovery can also be performed to a larger or smaller drive | Yes | Yes | ||
| Partition sizes can be changed during recovery | Yes | Yes | ||
| Can be restored from HDD to SSD and vice versa | Yes | Yes | ||
| What can be restored from a backup | ||||
| Entire disk, volume, partition | Yes | Yes | ||
| Required data (files and directories) from both data and image backups | Yes | Yes | ||
| Entire databases or individual parts of databases | Yes | |||
| Virtual environment backup | ||||
| Machines can be replicated to a standby ESXi host | Yes | |||
| Backups can be automatically converted into ready-to-run virtual machines | Yes | |||
| Backups can be started as virtual machines | Yes | |||
| Backups can be restored as ready-to-run virtual machines | Yes | |||
| Backups can be restored inside virtual machines | Yes | |||
| Virtual machines can be backed up without an agent inside (Hyper-V and VMware) | Yes | |||
| Virtual machines can be backed up with agents inside virtual machines | Yes | |||
| Support for granular recovery of virtual machines | Yes | |||
| Hard disk operations | ||||
| Support for both HDD and SSD drives | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MBR disks can be cloned using the Disk to Disk method | Yes | Yes | ||
| MBR and GPT disks can be cloned using the Disk to Backup to Disk method | Yes | Yes | ||
| Ability to create new disk partitions | Yes | Yes | ||
| Ability to delete a disk partition | Yes | Yes | ||
| Ability to enlarge or shrink a disk partition without data loss | Yes | Yes | ||
| Ability to format disk partitions | Yes | Yes | ||
| Ability to merge disk partitions without data loss | Yes | Yes | ||