FDISR Archives

[WWS]

What's the purpose of having an archive here on the interface? (see attachment)
You can't import, export or boot to it. You can only copy, update or remove it. And it takes up room on C drive.

[Acadia]

I have never made an Archive Snapshot, but FirstDefense lets you put the Archives onto another hard drive, which FD will not allow with the regular Snapshots. The advantage is obvious: if your hard drive should fail and need replacing, you can later restore one of the Archives and you have your old system back.

Acadia

[WWS]

Yes, that's right, Arcadia.
From the Tools drop down list, I can "export" an archive to the 2nd HDD or removable media and from there I can "import" back to put that archive to use if my primary hard drive should fail. It will also serve as a backup if at that time my Image Program should fail to restore. Therefore it's useful.
It's the one on the interface that I question it's purpose.This one is created from the Actions drop down list-->copy/update.

[Peter2150]

It will only show up there if the drive it's on is active, and listed as the archive directory.

I have archives on two drives, and if the drives are off they don't show. Even if both drives are on the only one that shows is the one listed in Tools>options>archives

Pete

PS and no I wouldn't bother keeping an archive on my c drive.

[crofttk]

In addition to what others posted above, the other advantages I find are that:

1) Archiving produces a compressed image. In my case, I usually see a reduction to about 2/3 the uncompressed size and

2) Aside from what was mentioned above, moving a snapshot off of C: drive allows me to do my normal backups (Dantz Retrospect) more frequently, i.e., I only keep a daily copy of the Primary Snapshot on C:, but I keep 3-day, 1 week, and monthly snapshots as archives on an external USB drive.

I did have to fall back to my 3-day snapshot once, so I simply imported it to my daily copy snapshot, booted into it, and then copied what I booted into to the Primary slot, booted into that and I was back in business.

[Peter2150]

Hi Crofttk

I would highly recommend you keep one secondary snapshot on your c: drive as well as the primary. That way if something hoses your system you just reboot into the secondary. I also use Dantz Retrospect and there is no problem. It is just bigger.

One example of why: I installed a kav beta last week, and the result was a boot, crash, boot crash cycle. I had trouble getting into safe mode. Retrospect for this is almost useless, or at best time consuming. With a bootable snapshot on the drive, it was a 5 minute exercise.

Pete

[crofttk]

Originally Posted by Peter2150

Hi Crofttk

I would highly recommend you keep one secondary snapshot on your c: drive as well as the primary...

Thanks, Peter. Sorry if I wasn't clear but that's exactly what I was referring to as "a daily copy of the Primary Snapshot", which I do indeed keep on my system drive. That's saved my bacon before, indeed.

[Peter2150]

Yeah, after FDISR saves your bacon a few times, and in only 5 minutes or so, it becomes a love affair.