Acronis True Image Home 2012 Released

There are few pieces of software in our virtual toolboxes here at Techgage that are quite as important as Acronis True Image Home. With it, we can keep regular backups of our own PCs, and also create full PC images of our benchmarking rigs that allow us to get back into action fast in the event that we need a fresh start. These are just two features of the many that are available.

The latest version, 2012, has just seen a release and with it comes a substantial new feature and some important updates. Something we don’t ever see (that I’m aware of) in disk imaging software such as Acronis is file synchronization, but to be honest, it’s an important feature to have. Under both Linux and Windows, I make good use of sync programs to keep files in more than one place, and with 2012, Acronis finally delivers that same ability to its customers.

According to the press release, you can use file synchronization between PCs, USB devices, NAS boxes and even through the cloud, via Acronis’ own True Image Online. The company states, “If a change is made in one location, it is automatically updated in others, meaning home users can access their most up-to-date data anywhere, any time. Consumers can also share data securely with their family and friends.“

This feature seems to be similar to Dropbox in some regards, where each device can access the same monitored folder and then thanks to synchronization, you can access that up-to-date data on multiple devices.

One lacking ability that older Acronis releases had was the inability to properly support 2TB+ storage devices along with the GTP partition table, but both of those things have been remedied here. In addition, 2012 also brings improved NAS support, better optimized network transfer and an improved UI.

Acronis True Image Home 2012 retails for $49.99 for 1 PC or $79.99 for 3 PCs. I’ll be taking the latest version for a spin in the near-future and might prepare a quick look. For those interested in the software, I recommend you check out our review of True Image Home 2011 as most of what’s mentioned there will apply just as well to 2012.