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While it still does a ‘complete’ backup for those occasions when Windows refuses to boot and on one occasion I have had to use this feature. Far more often you use the feature that allows you to restore a file that has been overwritten by a later version and that can save you hours of work in itself.

Like most I have programs (not Apps) that were downloaded and get used regularly but the source has changed and so could not be restored.

The actual time it takes to make a backup has certain parts that do not vary one such is the 40 minutes it takes before the files and folders start to be copied. Another factor in the timing is where you are coping to; my subscription allows me to backup 1GB of data to The Cloud. I do not use this as my upload speed is very slow. So on my main PC I use an external drive connected via USB2 which is around ¼ the speed of USB3. I know this as my much more recent ‘new’ second-hand PC has USB3.

I cannot comment on the Ransonware side of things as that is all handled in the background and while I see the occasional ‘two new vulnerabilities found’ message, Acronis deals with them.

For many years the ‘remaining time’ figure is wildly out to begin with, getting closer as the backup progresses from 1 day plus at the start to around 3 hours after around 2½ hours to correct with only around ½ hour to go. While this will vary it is mentioned so the new user will not worry that it will take forever.

The amount of data over my two drives is compressed on the fly is 286 + 213 = 499GB the fastest transfer to a USB 2 external drive is around 200Mbps but it can drop to almost nothing. The USB3 figure is up to 800Mbps so around four times quicker, but even then there is still the 40 minutes at the front end.

Acronis is sold on a yearly subscription and should you let your subscription end you will not be able to make new backups but you can still restore old backups.

The big question is how much is your data worth and how long would it take to get back up and running, with Acronis only a few hours, without it days, weeks or maybe never.

For a single PC it costs from £34.99 from the link below. For multiple PC’s the cost per PC is slightly less, lots more details on the link.

https://www.acronis.com/en-gb/products/true-image/purchasing/