Deciding upon FD-ISR

[trip_out]

Hi there,

At the moment I'm thinking of whether FD-ISR would be good for me, as I've just received a upgrade offer reminder for ATI. Not sure whether I should go for it or whether there are better alternatives (to achieve what I need).

OK, at the moment I run two installs of Windows. One for general (including work), and one for music production. These images are backed up using ATI. What I have started to think about is seperating this into several installs. One for general usage, including games (yes I have a few :)). One for work (without games and any other distractions). One solid one for music, and another install for music testing.

Now it seems to me that FD-ISR would be good because...

I could have a freeze for my music production setup. You don't know how good that would be just to have a solid known install that one can rely upon every time.

I'd love and extra freeze for my work setup (why oh why is there this limit!!), but a snapshot is good.

The other two snapshots are self explanitory I think.

But the thing is I'm still a little undecided. $69 is quite a lot of money (or $99 if I plum for the Perfect disk bundle). And I am also looking to buy some other security s/w too :(. I could pretty much achieve a similar setup with ATI and separate partitions. Yes it is not so immediate, but the principle is there. Plus I'd be able to make sure that the Music System is at the start of the disk (proven to be quite important actually). I could use deep freeze in conjunction with ATI maybe.

Oh and I'm not so convinced about the huge partition I'm going to need - looking at my main system right now shows 30GB (granted this isn't need on all, but still! - I like having Half-Life on there, and Battlefield, oh and I'm learning (good) chess with Chessmaster)

Oh, and another thing, if I want to share (anchor) say 'My Docs' across snapshots, can I make it available to only certain snapshots? I don't want say my freeze snapshot accessing My Docs, or overwriting it.

I just don't know, so am interested in your input - sorry for the disjointed rambling ;)

Many thanks,
Andy.

[ErikAlbert]

Trip_out,
FDISR is good for you, but it takes time to learn it and how to use it.

If you like to recover your system very fast, you better use FDISR than ATI.
You only need to reboot in FDISR and you are back in business.
Restoring an image with ATI takes alot longer.
If you don't need such a fast recovery, keep on using ATI for system recovery.

If you need different work environments, you better use FDISR instead of partitioning your harddisk.
Each snapshot acts like a pseudo-partition within the real partition [C:] and you don't need to re-size snapshots.

All snapshots are independent and can be :
- created at any time, if you need them.
- removed if you don't need them anymore.
- archived if you want to save them for later usage and restored of course.
- renamed.

FDISR requires alot of space and that is normal when you need different work snapshots and/or rollback snapshots.
The normal usage of FDISR is two snapshots : one work snapshot and one rollback snapshot.
Personally I have one off-line recovery snapshot and one on-line frozen snapshot.
That's because FDISR allows improvisation, if the user has enough imagination.
There are only technical rules in FDISR, the rest is upto you.

I don't anchor, because I stored my personal files, emails and email-address-books on another partition.

I hope these disjointed answers help your disjointed rambling questions. ;D ;)

Now I have to leave, because my shrink and two male nurses want me back in my cell. >:(

[trip_out]

Thanks for the info.

I think I will get ATI10 for now on their upgrade offer (as it runs out soon). Thinking about it I will need an emergency imaging solution for a full (including MBR) backup. I also want to use it to do scheduled backups of folders and non system drives where I have very important data.

I definitely will get FD-ISR, but I think I might wait till v2 is out of beta. I don't want to pay twice for something, and I dare say that I will almost certainly want to upgrade (especially if they allow ANY snapshot to be freezable :)). I might crack earlier and buy it as FD-ISR (v1) is mature and stable - which is far better than bleeding edge (hmm maybe I shouldn't buy ATI10 then, ah well ::))

Now I've just got to decide upon a new firewall (Outpost, LnS, Comodo?) and maybe some HIPS (DefenseWall, GesWall, Prevx?) - I'm getting a bit more secure as I had a trojan slip through my over confidence in NOD32.

Thanks,

Andy.

[Rilla927]

{QUOTE-> Hi there,

At the moment I'm thinking of whether FD-ISR would be good for me, as I've just received a upgrade offer reminder for ATI. Not sure whether I should go for it or whether there are better alternatives (to achieve what I need). <-QUOTE} FD-ISR is much flexible than a image program but you should have both and I see you have ATI already.

{QUOTE-> OK, at the moment I run two installs of Windows. One for general (including work), and one for music production. These images are backed up using ATI. What I have started to think about is seperating this into several installs. One for general usage, including games (yes I have a few :)). One for work (without games and any other distractions). One solid one for music, and another install for music testing. <-QUOTE} FD could do this easily for you. It is unimaginable what you can do with this program.

{QUOTE-> But the thing is I'm still a little undecided. $69 is quite a lot of money (or $99 if I plum for the Perfect disk bundle). And I am also looking to buy some other security s/w too :(. I could pretty much achieve a similar setup with ATI and separate partitions. Yes it is not so immediate, but the principle is there. Plus I'd be able to make sure that the Music System is at the start of the disk (proven to be quite important actually). I could use deep freeze in conjunction with ATI maybe. <-QUOTE} Believe me the money is worth every penny for FD.

You could achieve this with ATI but it's more work and you wouldn't have the flexibilities FD has. FD isn't hard to use. Once you get it on your system you will see. Give it a shot, cuz if you don't, you will sadly be missing out. FD-ISR truely is the best investment I have ever made. The great thing about too is if you have any questions you have this forum with a lot of experienced FD users that can answer your questions.

{QUOTE-> Oh, and another thing, if I want to share (anchor) say 'My Docs' across snapshots, can I make it available to only certain snapshots? I don't want say my freeze snapshot accessing My Docs, or overwriting it. <-QUOTE} Yes, you can. Anchored data is not frozen in a Freeze snapshot.

Give it a whirl and set everything up to your liking;)

[Rilla927]

{QUOTE-> Thanks for the info.

I think I will get ATI10 for now on their upgrade offer (as it runs out soon). Thinking about it I will need an emergency imaging solution for a full (including MBR) backup. I also want to use it to do scheduled backups of folders and non system drives where I have very important data. <-QUOTE} FD-ISR can make a copy of the MBR when you install it.

{QUOTE-> I definitely will get FD-ISR, but I think I might wait till v2 is out of beta. I don't want to pay twice for something, and I dare say that I will almost certainly want to upgrade (especially if they allow ANY snapshot to be freezable :)). I might crack earlier and buy it as FD-ISR (v1) is mature and stable - which is far better than bleeding edge (hmm maybe I shouldn't buy ATI10 then, ah well ::)) <-QUOTE} If you buy the Upgrade Assurance when you purchase the prgram you will get the new version when it comes out. FD-ISR and Perfect Disk is the only programs I purchase the Upgrade Assurance for because it's worth it. FD and PD work great together.

[trip_out]

Hmm - sounds like a good plan.