Image backup using Drive SnapShot?

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

The same here, i'm curious if that BATCH file suggested solved the capacity issue. Although i use Paragon which is no secret, i really am excited with DriveSnapshot for many reasons and including having to enter DOS with bootfloppy. As a throwback to Win 98 days, with some imaging programs like this one (DS) it's quite nice to know the image restores without problems. Plus for some odd reason, DS seems uncanny in it's speed which is a plus. But i think the best about it for me is that the program carries very little overhead compared to a lot of the others, and is likely the reason for it's responsiveness.

Very glad to see this Topic, and thanks for all the helpful hints/methods that make it work.

Regards EASTER

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

EASTER,

For what it's worth, here is my batch file.

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

Perhaps we could start a 'favourite batch file' thread .

I quite like this one-liner:

snapshot c: F:\$disk-$type-$weekday -L2000 -T -W -R -hF:\C-full.hsh

which generates a filename containing the first two letters of the day of the week. I use Windows scheduler to run this once a day and I automatically get a rolling set of 7 differentials for the past week with the newest over-writing the oldest .

Graham

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

The amended batch file seems to work for me now. I put everything on one line and I made an image of C drive which was completed in less than 9 minutes. Snapshot reported that the occupied space on C drive for which it created the image was 12.699MB.

My one line batch file is:

My F drive in this case is an external drive.

For differential backups I use this batch file:

I use nexstar's idea regarding scheduling (which I saw in another thread on this Forum. )

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

Very Useful and my sincere thanks for sharing it. So we're to expect that with this batch file code, the very most recent image absorbs the other differentials into a SINGLE .sna file? If so, thanks ever so much for being so neighborly with it.

EASTER

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

nexstar,

Do you image hidden partitions? I've noticed that the image of a hidden partition is not compressed. Unlike images of visible partitions which are compressed.

Also I can't see how to write a batch file to image a partition without a drive letter. Any ideas?



PS I just created an image of a hidden partition and it is compressed. This must have been fixed since I tested last year.

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

I've never had the need to try that, but it is good to know that it works anyway, thanks .

Don't forget that, by definition, a differential consists of all the changes that have taken place since the full backup was made. So each of the daily backups will be enough, together with the original full backup, to restore the drive.

The downside to the differential as opposed to an incremental is the time it takes to create it and how large it might get. With DS running in the background, I have never had any system slowdown issues as it seems very well behaved. The '-T' flag carries out a verification of the image. This could be skipped to speed things up if required.

If the differentials start to get too big then you can just make a fresh full image and start over again, not forgetting that DS only needs the hash file to be present to make the differential so the full image can be removed to save space.

Graham

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

I have to agree with that satisfaction in DS. It's so simple yet so very dependable and i yet to see any problems, aside from my having to reacquaint myself again to command-line instructions, but then it's only a sentence or two then all is ready for activity.

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

lucas1985,

I tried DriveImage XML again. It's really slow. It took five times longer than Drive SnapShot to create an image. On the otherhand, Drive SnapShot is the fastest imaging app that I've used.

DriveImage XML can't create or restore an image of a hidden partition from Windows. I doubt that would bother many people.

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

DriveSnapshot is quicker than my favorite PARAGON DRIVE BACKUP PRO

Plus it creates a virtual drive to BROWSE or even copy any files from it's .SNA

It's a very convenient PLUS as in +, in a software world stuffed with marathon issues where with little and at times no immediate solutions to surprise conflicts which encourages my overwhelming support & allegiance to it.

A very well thought out and in-house tested imaging program no doubt.

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

All very true, but it's most unfortunate that the author of DS doesn't devote some of his obvious programming skills toward creating a user-friendly (menu-driven) DOS restore disk!

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

I agree. And even stranger, there is no mention of the BartPE plugin anywhere in the DS website. Sections of the website are in need of updating and a few typos need to be corrected. It's sloppy.

Although it's a good product, DS is priced higher than Acronis True Image, Norton Save and Restore 2 and the TeraByte bundle. These are well known products. No wonder DS remains relatively unknown.

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

That makes Drive SnapShot a speed demon

Agreed.

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

Let's bombard them with our polite but anxious request. I agree, a better DOS restore disk would complete this fabulous imaging giant, or should that be miniature giant.

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

I see Pete.

Wonder if that developer really knows what he has in DriveSnapshot and the abundant but loyal following peeps put into this program.

Well, maybe one day right?

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

Just a few months ago, when I first started 'playing' with DS, I sent an email to the author, Tom Ehlert, about the difficulty I (and I'm sure many others) have in using his cryptic DOS diskette to restore a system partition. I asked if there was any chance he would consider re-writing it so that it was menu-driven (at the same time I suggested that doing that would likely result in greater sales of DS). He sent me a brief reply to the effect that he had no plans to do that and suggested that I simply read his instructions at:
http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/restdos.htm

Seems to me that his ego is greater than his common-sense!

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

Why would you need to do a rebuild? As it runs from anywhere, I just tend to keep a copy with the backups.

Graham

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

Pete,

Maybe you used an old version but from BartPE the Snapshot GUI is exactly the same as what you see from Windows. It's a "5 click restore". Easy.

I was interested in times too. So here they are. I imaged my C: drive using several apps.

Drive Snapshot___________time 2:29________image size 4.34 GB

ShadowProtect___________time 2:31________image size 4.67 GB (standard compression)
ShadowProtect___________time 3:01________image size 4.46 GB (high compression)

Ghost 12________________time 2:38________image size 4.66 GB (medium compression)
Ghost 12________________time 6:15________image size 3.99 GB (high compression)

My conclusions. Drive Snapshot is the fastest imaging app considering the level of compression. Ghost 12 has the best compression but at the expense of time.

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

I can't explain this. I just tried to image a hidden partition again and the image is not compressed. But it was a few days ago.

 

Re: Image backup using Drive SnapShop?

Pete, I wasn't implying 2:29 was faster than 2:31. The image size for Snapshot was smaller than ShadowProtect for the same time. For ShadowProtect to create an image of 4.34 GB (if it had a higher compression level) would obviously be in excess of 3 minutes.

All very interesting but since we usually run our backups from a schedule the extra few seconds aren't noticed.