If you’ve followed my blog for a time, you know that I’m a huge fan of online backup for my data. We don’t own a computer that doesn’t have Carbonite on it to back up data. If any of my computers ever crash, I’ll be able to recover all my data just by going to Carbonite.

However, getting back and reinstalling all my programs would be a major issue. It would take me days, if not weeks, to get my computer back to what I was using previously. Unfortunately, that might not even be possible as some programs I use may no longer be available.

Enter stage left: Acronis True Image. The picture above (click on it if you want to see a larger image) shows my incremental backup from this morning. How is True Image different from data backup? True Image creates a mirror image of a computer and stores it on an external drive or in the cloud (if you buy the plan which includes cloud storage). Using the program, you create a Restore USB drive. If my computer’s hard drive ever crashes, I would simply replace the drive, boot to my recovery usb and then restore from my external drive. The same is true if one of my computers ever got hit with Ransomware. In that case, I would simply reformat my hard drive and reinstall everything from the Acronis True Image backup.

Should everyone use True Image? Probably not. However, if you run a small business or have any other reason why having your computer crash would be a disaster, then you should definitely start using True Image. (That’s in addition to having Carbonite to back up your Data files.)

If you decide to get True Image and purchase it through the link below, I’ll be happy to help you get going with it. Just let me know if you have any questions. Find True Image here: