Acronis/Ghost discussion

UPDATE: Today I created a couple of different types of images. Like I said earlier I got the bootable media to work so I could look at it more closely. The best feature of the bootable media is the ability to create backups from the boot disk. Unlike older Ghost versions, Symantec Ghost and Livestate Recovery only allow restoring with their bootable media which is their downfall and I have complained when losing that feature. Giving the user the option of imaging with or without Windows is important as some machines don't hot-image very well.

So I created an iimage of:
1. A PIII Gateway PC
2. 10 gb VMware Partition
3. P4 Dell Precision 330

I created images on the Dell's 2nd HD and for the PIII Gateway a USB Hard Drive. I did the USB image to see if I had the same problems using USB HD's as the Backup destination like other user's in the forum. On the Gateway which was USB 1.1, I did initially have a failure in Windows, but succeeded with the boot disk backup.

All images verified successful and I could mount all the images and browse their contents. As a note I found it best to create images with the boot disk rather than in Windows. I felt that the image creation process would have the best chance of succeeding without Windows in the way. I personally would only turn to the Windows hot-imaging strategy if I had to backup a machine that I couldn't bring down for maintenance. Tomorrow I will start restoring some of these images to both same and different hardware so I keep all posted on this.

 

Re: Testing Acronis TI 9.1 WS w\ Universal Restore Option Part I

Cat-21,

I'm following your tests with great interest. Just to clear up a few matters...
Using the Ghost 9 plugin with Reatogo/BartPE, one can create .v2i images. From the Ghost 10 Recovery Environment one can't create .v2i images but .gho images can be created using the included Ghost 8.2.

But I agree, Symantec don't want you to be able to create .v2i images from the Recovery Environment.

 

Re: Testing Acronis TI 9.1 WS w\ Universal Restore Option Part I

I forgot version 10, yeah. They smartened-up and added it as well as the legacy Ghost 8 version which I love and is my favorite for that go-to reliable image. I rarely had a .gho type image ever fail me. I will be posting when I start restoring tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a universal in if possible. I'm on vacation making a few extra bucks and I am enjoying this project as I'm getting to test some of the latest imaging products on this task so it's cool. I will tell you in today's market IT departments are focused on backup and DR after 9-11 and Katrina. If your skill set is up to date in the area of backup, recovery and imaging technologies career-wise it's a sound move if you ask me.

 

Re: Testing Acronis TI 9.1 WS w\ Universal Restore Option Part I

Just to compete my Ghost thoughts. From the Ghost 9 Recovery Environment there is a crippled Ghost 8.0 which will only allow restore and not image. But in the Ghost 10 Recovery Environment, Ghost 8.2 isn't crippled and allows both.

 

Re: Testing Acronis TI 9.1 WS w\ Universal Restore Option Part I

At our company we switched to "Drive Snapshot"

Sure, the UI is not what ghost, livestate or TI can offer, but it's so flexible, and most of all, stable.

The only *real* function missing in it is a kind of universal restore.

I wish there was a standalone product to change HALs and inject drivers.

I know how to do it manually but it's tough and takes time.

 

Re: Testing Acronis TI 9.1 WS w\ Universal Restore Option Part I

I really like Drive SnapShot. It's as fast and has similar compression to the medium compression Ghost and TI choices. Running from batch files and network is nice.

Are you impressed too? I haven't seen many people using it.

 

Re: Testing Acronis TI 9.1 WS w\ Universal Restore Option Part I

If you have AutoIT running in BartPE maybe that could make changing HAL and injecting drivers easier. Just a quick thought.
--
www.autoitscript.com

 

Re: Testing Acronis TI 9.1 WS w\ Universal Restore Option Part I

The basic technology for creating an image of adrive while Win is running is sort of old hat now and being used by a number of vendors. What makes one priduct more worth having than another is first and foremost the reliability and the breadth of hardware supported (without these the product worthless to you) and after those, the features, conveniences, bells and whistles. It is in the first two areas the diff prods on the market seem tohave the most probs. In the world of PCs, where innovation tends to run counter to standards and compatibility, it's sometimes a wonder that any of this stuff works at all.

 

Re: Testing Acronis TI 9.1 WS w\ Universal Restore Option Part I

UPDATE: Starting my restore project and the bumps in the road have begun. I tried to restore my image from some USB Drives and "no-go". I got the infamous "E00070020 Archive Corrupted" error message your all speaking off. I have read some enclosures work, so I will keep testing. I moved the image to the secondary internal drive and the restore has also failed with "E000101F4 Failed to read sector #XXXXXX and choices to retry, ignore or quit. Retry or ignore produce "E00070020 Archive Corrupted" errors. I'm going to restore the image with Ghost, redo the image to the internal drive without moving it and restore again without USB in the picture at any time. Keep y'all posted.

 

Re: Testing Acronis TI 9.1 WS w\ Universal Restore Option Part I

Can you elaborate - I'd like to know about this

 

Anyone want to share more info on what you need to do