Acronis Disk Director 11 Home vs Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Workstation
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Review: Acronis Disk Director 11 Home vs Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Workstation

Figuring out what disk management and partitioning software you want to use can be confusing. The secret in choosing correctly lies in knowing what you are looking for. The features of Acronis Disk Director 11 Home and Advanced Workstation differ depending on whether you need disk management for home or for enterprise use. For example, as a business you may need to move or manage partitions on workstations without losing data. Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Workstation gives admins the ability to manage workstation hard drives easily.

Acronis Disk Director is one of the most effective partitioning and disk-management tools on the market, and every year the application is updated and renewed with a few important additional features.

There are actually two versions of the Acronis Disk Director - the home version and the advanced workstation. Users are often confused by this, as both perform similar functions. Still Acronis Disk Director 11 Home is made for general consumers who need hard drive and partition management options for their home computer or laptop; whereas the Advanced Workstation is made for business use where several computers or workstations are connected to each other. Let's better define the differences between each of these applications.
15% off Acronis Disk Director 11 Home
Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Workstation
Acronis Disk Director 11 Home interface
Acronis Disk Director 11 Home interface
Acronis Disk Director 11 Home

This is the home version to a feature-rich disk management application system. It allows any user to maximize disk space and protect all data at any given moment. It also includes tools that allow users to recover data from partitions, copy partitions and install multiple OS systems on a single computer. Check this tutorial for step-by-step instructions how to install several OS using Acronis OS Selector. Among the most important tools offered include:

- Acronis OS selector - allows users to select the OS system they want to use when more than one operating system is installed.
- Hard drive and partition recovery tools.
- Tools that resize, split and merge partitions.
- Clone disk capabilities to make hard drive replacement easier.
- Dynamic disk support
- Bootable CD options that allow you to boot the partition from a USB or CD/DVD.

Acronis Disk Director 11 Home is feature-rich, however, it is only made for end consumers using their home computer. This version is not appropriate for business use, as many features allowing administrators to control different workstations, create backups of server information and configure the backup and store options for remote computers are not available in this version.

Is Acronis Disk Director 11 Home Appropriate for My Small Business?

Acronis Disk Director Home version is made for the home computer use who only has basic hard drive management needs. It allows you to create and copy special partitions for your home computer and data needs, thereby always giving you hard drive and operating system options that can keep your data organized and safer.

The interface is easy to use even by the most non-tech savvy person. However, there are advanced features that are just a little too easy to access, so new users should view the video use tutorials to make sure they create their disk partitions and management tasks efficiently without losing any information. Check Acronis video tutorials.

What about my Business Needs?

When you run a business and have more than one workstation or computer then you should use the Acronis upgraded version, which is Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Workstation (comes in both workstation and server versions).
Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Workstation interface
Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Workstation interface
What is Acronis Director 11 Advanced Workstation?

This is a disk management tool made for partition management, OS systems, and allows admins to manage disks and volumes of both, local devices and computers as well as remote access devices from one centrally located console.

Why use this version instead of the home version?

The advanced version offers a more comprehensive set of tools that organize hard drive and volumes for a business network, offering more flexibility for network administrators when it comes to recovering and managing partitions and partition information.

This is a better choice for businesses needing advanced backup and disk management tools that protect their servers and workstations. These Acronis business tools offer:

- Efficiency in reorganizing partitions and in moving data.
- Boot selection options for different operating systems installed on a hard drive.
- Management for virtual machine data.
- Flexibility to resize, move, merge and change hard drive sizes.
- Easy and attractive interface allowing options to be chosen quickly.
- Dynamic Disk Support to provide greater functionality for admins needing to backup information from different disks.

The new Acronis Director 11 Advanced Workstation offers several interesting features this year. It allows IT personnel to carry out management operations from one centrally located area without needing to go to a specific workstation, or physically access a remotely located computer.

- Easy classifying options that allow IT personnel to format and label all volumes; and assign specific letters to active hard drive partitions.
- Recover lost partitions with existing backups.
- Disk Editor - Gives you sector level editing capabilities.
- Command Line Interface allows you to create scripts for different application tasks.

Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Server

This version is made for businesses that manage a server, and helps IT personnel backup, manage partitions and data on the server. It supports Windows Server 2008, and 2003. However, it also supports servers with personal OS systems installed, such as Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Workstations

For businesses that have more than one workstation (computer) but not necessarily a server, then Acronis Disk Director 11 Workstation option should be used. It also offers the same business features as the server version but made specifically for each workstation.

Note: Whether using the Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced Server or Workstation version, each Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced license is made for only one server and the workstation license is only allowed for one workstation.

Trial

Although most network administrators are familiar with Acronis, many are reluctant to buy it outright, without knowing how the application works. For this reason, the company has made all the Acronis Disk Director versions available in a trial or demo version. However, note that trial versions have limited functionality and you should consider this when making a purchasing decision.

Bottom Line

Acronis Disk Director products are made for both home and business use. Consumers who want backup and disk management options for their home computer can select Acronis Disk Director 11 Home version. But when running a business, you need either the workstation or server version, and in some cases both (depending on the size of your enterprise).
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