Acronis: Backup and Recovery Software (Posted 03/02/10)
Click here for the Acronis Web Site
Based on its disk copying features, I'll bet a pound to a penny that this is a great program for backup and recovery, but I am reviewing the Disk Cloning features only since that is the part I needed when I discovered it.
Any computer technician who needs an awesomne disk copying program should get "Acronis Backup and Recovery". (If you are a computer tech, you know all about torrents, so get it from isohunt.)
This has to be one of the smartest, fastest and cooolest pieces of software I have ever encountered. It copies drives at least 4 times faster than any other disk copy software I know of. But its best feature is that it shrinks or expands the target disk partition to fit, regardless of the size of the source media. Yes, so long as the amount of data on the source drive is less than the size of the target drive, you can use Acronis to copy a 650 GB drive to a 80 GB drive without a hitch!
Final cool feature: When I went to copy a drive to a brand new unformatted drive it didn't even ask me to choose the source drive. It basically said "Duh! Obviously you're copying from the drive with stuff on it!" (No, it didn't really actually say that, it just assumed, but you get my drift, right? ROFL.) I thought that was just plain smart. As an ex programmer myself who took a great deal of pride in writing smart software, it gave me the sense that Acronis' developers have some common sense, and that's a rare quality in this day and age.
Acronis Backup and Recovery: 5 Stars! 
Special Report: So... What about Windows 7? (Posted 10/23/09)
Is it just another variation on Microsoft's typical OS abortion? Or is it something special this time?
This hurts so bad! Constant refrains over the years from our technical specialists have been "I HATE MICROSOFT!" and "VISTA SUCKS!" But no more. Yeah, Vista does suck, but Windows 7 is a winner. We ran Ubuntu Linux as our primary OS for the longest time and we rooted for Linux to unseat Windows as the OS of choice for the consumer, but we've had "7" in our hands for some time now, and we love it. So much so that we no longer run Ubuntu. In our minds, in the long war over which is the best OS available to the consumer, Microsoft wins hands down. Sorry Mac ... Sorry Linux. They did it! Windows 7 is as sleek and smooth as it is cool and flashy, not to mention robust!. It's a piece of cake to install, everything runs on it, it's easy to understand and navigate, and it does everything you would want it to do. You know the fat guy in the glasses in the Mac ads? He's chuckling into his celebratory champagne. Mac can't make fun of him anymore. He's been at the gym and he looks like "Ahnuld" in his prime and he's kicking sand in skinny Mac's face. Damn! We didn't think he could do it, but KUDOS Microsoft! You did!
Tony and Dave
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