Trying out FD ISR

[djg05]

I have been playing around with FD ISR 205 and Rescue to see what all the fuss is about. I am sure I must be missing something because I can't see the advantage, especially with Rescue.

To start with when you install you have to copy/update the system and on my m/c, admittedly getting old, takes 15 minutes. Partition is 12Gb with 4Gb used. I use ATI and that only takes 3 minutes to do the same.

So now you come to restoring and that is just a matter of rebooting, 2 to 3 minutes as against 15 for ATI, but then having recovered your system you then have to spend 15 minutes again to update the primary and reboot to primary. Then in rescue there is no option to store on another drive.

Have I got it right or have I missed something?

[Peter2150]

Originally Posted by djg05

I have been playing around with FD ISR 205 and Rescue to see what all the fuss is about. I am sure I must be missing something because I can't see the advantage, especially with Rescue.

To start with when you install you have to copy/update the system and on my m/c, admittedly getting old, takes 15 minutes. Partition is 12Gb with 4Gb used. I use ATI and that only takes 3 minutes to do the same.

So now you come to restoring and that is just a matter of rebooting, 2 to 3 minutes as against 15 for ATI, but then having recovered your system you then have to spend 15 minutes again to update the primary and reboot to primary. Then in rescue there is no option to store on another drive.

Have I got it right or have I missed something?

In your case, David probably not. But with a larger partition, and a lot of programs, it becomes diffierent. My Primary snapshot(or my c: partition) is around 23gb. First snapshot would take about 30 minutes to build on my machine, but after that refreshes only take one or two minutes. Thats where the difference can come in.

Pete

[djg05]

Originally Posted by Peter2150

In your case, David probably not. But with a larger partition, and a lot of programs, it becomes diffierent. My Primary snapshot(or my c: partition) is around 23gb. First snapshot would take about 30 minutes to build on my machine, but after that refreshes only take one or two minutes. Thats where the difference can come in.

Pete

Thanks Pete - good reply since it comes with money saving

You are of course using 205 and I can see that is more versatile, but would you have the same benefit with Rescue?

[Peter2150]

Originally Posted by djg05

Thanks Pete - good reply since it comes with money saving

You are of course using 205 and I can see that is more versatile, but would you have the same benefit with Rescue?

Funny you ask. Back when I started with FDISR, I hadn't gotten into imaging in the same way. Imaged but was afraid to restore. At that time FDISR, didn't have the archives. I used FDISR with one snapshot for a long time, and it saved my bacon on countless occasions. Seems like I was using FDISR-Rescue back them.

So to answer, in many ways yes.

Pete

[wideglide36]

Originally Posted by Peter2150

In your case, David probably not. But with a larger partition, and a lot of programs, it becomes diffierent. My Primary snapshot(or my c: partition) is around 23gb. First snapshot would take about 30 minutes to build on my machine, but after that refreshes only take one or two minutes. Thats where the difference can come in.

Pete

Pete,

I also have a primary snapshot of around 23gb.

How do I refresh my primary snapshot, and will it only take a few minutes like your set up?

I only see an update option that makes a copy of the entire snapshot. I only want to copy what has changed since I made the first snapshot.

I'm probably making this harder than what it is.

Thanks, and I hope I'm not hijacking this thread.

Apologies to djg05 if I am.

John

[TonyW]

Originally Posted by wideglide36

How do I refresh my primary snapshot, and will it only take a few minutes like your set up?

I only see an update option that makes a copy of the entire snapshot. I only want to copy what has changed since I made the first snapshot.

The first time FD-ISR is installed, it creates the Primary snapshot. The Copy/Update function will create the Secondary snapshot, which will take some time depending on how big the Primary snapshot is. Once the Secondary is created, both snapshots are identical at that point in time.

Say you install some software in the Primary snapshot, try it out but then don't like it. Rather than go through the uninstall procedure, you can boot into the Secondary snapshot, copy/update to the Primary then boot back to the Primary. It'll be like it was before you installed the software with no traces of that program left.

The copy/update in this instance will take much less time than the first snapshot creation as it's only updating what has been changed.

[wideglide36]

Originally Posted by TonyW

The first time FD-ISR is installed, it creates the Primary snapshot. The Copy/Update function will create the Secondary snapshot, which will take some time depending on how big the Primary snapshot is. Once the Secondary is created, both snapshots are identical at that point in time.

Say you install some software in the Primary snapshot, try it out but then don't like it. Rather than go through the uninstall procedure, you can boot into the Secondary snapshot, copy/update to the Primary then boot back to the Primary. It'll be like it was before you installed the software with no traces of that program left.

The copy/update in this instance will take much less time than the first snapshot creation as it's only updating what has been changed.

TonyW,

Thanks. I will give that a try.

I just thought you refreshed a snapshot through a wizard feature. I didn't realize that you needed to boot to another snapshot in order to refresh.

Thanks again,

John

[TonyW]

Originally Posted by wideglide36

I just thought you refreshed a snapshot through a wizard feature. I didn't realize that you needed to boot to another snapshot in order to refresh.

You can't refresh a snapshot while still in it hence the need to boot to another snapshot. In other words, you can't refresh A with B while still in A - you need to boot to B then refresh A with B.

[wideglide36]

Originally Posted by TonyW

You can't refresh a snapshot while still in it hence the need to boot to another snapshot. In other words, you can't refresh A with B while still in A - you need to boot to B then refresh A with B.

Thanks Tony.

I think I understand now.

John

[djg05]

Originally Posted by wideglide36

Pete,


Thanks, and I hope I'm not hijacking this thread.

Apologies to djg05 if I am.

John

No worries John

[djg05]

Originally Posted by TonyW

The first time FD-ISR is installed, it creates the Primary snapshot. The Copy/Update function will create the Secondary snapshot, which will take some time depending on how big the Primary snapshot is. Once the Secondary is created, both snapshots are identical at that point in time.

Say you install some software in the Primary snapshot, try it out but then don't like it. Rather than go through the uninstall procedure, you can boot into the Secondary snapshot, copy/update to the Primary then boot back to the Primary. It'll be like it was before you installed the software with no traces of that program left.

The copy/update in this instance will take much less time than the first snapshot creation as it's only updating what has been changed.

That is different to my understanding of it. I thought I would have to wait another 15 minutes to do the copy. I will have to try it again.

[wideglide36]

Originally Posted by djg05

No worries John

Good to know.

Like you, I am also trying out FD-ISR and I always have lots of questions.

My philosophy has been and still is: If it aint broke don't fix it.

I installed FD-ISR and made the secondary snapshot so that I then had two full snapshots. I only intended to actually boot to a different snapshot if I had problems.

I also use Acronis TI the same way. I have been making images with ATI for about a year now without actually restoring one.

Woosy I know, but "If it ain't broke don't fix it".

Anyhow, I seem to be drifting a bit here so I'll stop rambling.

Good luck to you,

John

[TonyW]

Originally Posted by djg05

I thought I would have to wait another 15 minutes to do the copy.

No, subsequent updates of the snapshot take much less time depending on what is being copied/updated.

[TonyW]

Originally Posted by wideglide36

I have been making images with ATI for about a year now without actually restoring one.

As Peter routinely says, it's advisable to check the restore actually works. There's no point creating an image without checking the restore process.

[ErikAlbert]

Once I've read a post at the Acronis forum of an user that always did a regular backup and verification. One day he needed a restore, it didn't work and he lost everything. I learned alot from reading disaster posts.

[Hairy Coo]

This is an interesting thread,because two obviously experienced users are finding FDISR less straightforward,than possibly expected.

I have changed my opinion about FDISR and generally think its brilliant.

However it has a steep learning curve even for quite straightforward operations,but once its mastered,the possibilities are huge.

Great for the hobbyist who enjoys problem solving

The private market is probably mainly composed of customers of quite a low standard.

They installed and most wouldnt have a clue what to do next,the basic manual wasnt very helpfull

So what do they do-they BOUGHT something else The End

[tradetime]

I would not consider myself particularly tech savvy, I was not brought up with computers and have no formal training in them, I have learned what I need to get by since I cannot work without them, but I found fd-isr pretty straight forward. Did get some good guidance on here form the likes of Peter and Erik and a few others, but once you play with it for a little while and learn to trust it, it's about as straightforward as they come.

[beethoven]

same here - while I notice that there are heaps of functions and options that I may not have discovered or tested yet, the basic functions of creating a snapshot or archive, updating those and booting into a different snapshot are easy. I had serious problems with Shadowprotect and felt quite uncomfortable dealing with a restore there - never had that issue with FD_ISR

[EASTER]

FD-ISR is always been a very useful addition to any computer. Something goes awry in your normal system and you can at-once turn to it's (Duplicate) (Clone) of a "clean" "working" system before some misfortune disrupted your good machine, whatever that was.

A fall back measure like this really should have been basic equipment all along with Windows O/S's, since System Restore is proven very limited in scope in comparison. I like to think of FD-ISR as close to an image backup as a user can safely depend on to get back up and running as before.

[Hairy Coo]

A question please,

I have indexing services turned off throughout Windows to increase performance.

Does this effect the indexing in FDISR and make copy/update slower?

thanks

[EASTER]

Originally Posted by Hairy Coo

A question please,

I have indexing services turned off throughout Windows to increase performance.

Does this effect the indexing in FDISR and make copy/update slower?

thanks

Very good question of curiosity. First thing i always do on reinstall among many others is remove indexing service under the computer icon in My Computer.

I never noticed any slowdowns in the hundreds of times i do this but i'll let others respond to their own results. With FD-ISR, it didn't seem to affect the indexing speed of it when Copy/Update was in progress, but who knows. FD-ISR still updates very fast for me in spite of it.

[Hairy Coo]

Thanks,Easter-so possibly FD has its own indexing.

[stapp]

I also have the indexing service turned off, haven't noticed any problems with speed of copy/updates.

[Huupi]

turned indexing of already before i installed FDISR,maybe there is a slowdown but as compared with other users my copy/updates are in the same league,at least fast enough.

[starfish_001]

Originally Posted by Hairy Coo

Thanks,Easter-so possibly FD has its own indexing.

indeed http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showp...8&postcount=12