An Image Backup that's Very Easy to Use?

If you would prefer to not see the DS command window on the desktop you can use this.....


@echo off
if not defined RunTask set RunTask=1 & start "DS" /min %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /c "%0" & goto :EOF
set path=C:\Snapshot
CD /d G:\Images
start "" /min /wait snapshot.exe C: C_full.sna -R -L0 -o -T -W
IF EXIST snap_02.sna (DEL snap_02.sna)
IF EXIST snap_01.sna (REN snap_01.sna snap_02.sna)
REN C_full.sna snap_01.sna

 

Brian, not to hijack Wendi's thread but this may be relevant. As I was the one who experienced the difficulties with your customized DS Recovery ISO in restoring my DS backup I feel that I neet to say this... I have since reflected on that failed experiment (quite a few times) and here is what I now think may have been the problem...

As you may recall, my HP laptop uses a HDD - mSSD RAID (Intel RST) configuration. No WinPE boot disk was ever able to see the hard drive upon bootup (and I tried several). I have since found the reason for this to be that they all lack the necessary Intel RST driver for my laptop and adding the driver 'opens the door' for WinPE to see my HDD! So could it be that the Intel RST driver was the missing ingredient in your DS DOS ISO?

Cruise

----
Ps. What continues to confuse me re this incident (and your DS DOS ISO) is that IFD without any add-on (driver) has no problem seeing my HDD.

 

Cruise,

The main thing I learned from our saga, which was a lot of fun, was not to buy a HD like yours. I've kept notes on our various ISO builds but I haven't looked at them since as auto restoring a DS image from DOS requires a lot of experimentation to create a suitable ISO. Too much work. Easier auto restore methods are available.

 

Brian, while I'm sure you are correct in that "easier auto restore methods are availiable", afaik they are not applicable if your system just boots to a BSOD, or perhaps not even that far!

 

Cruise, point taken.

 

If you don't have a Win7 DVD you can make a System Repair Disk. The same comments apply if your system is 64-bit. You will need snapshot64.exe as the System Repair Disk will be 64-bit.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/create-a-system-repair-disc

Boot the disk
choose US keyboard
Troubleshoot
Advanced options
System Image Recovery
Cancel on Re-image your Computer
Next
Advanced
Install a Driver
click OK on Add Drivers (but move the Add Drivers window to the very edge of your monitor before clicking OK)
plug in a USB flash drive containing snapshot.exe (or snapshot64.exe)
double click Computer
Navigate to snapshot.exe on the flash drive. Right click snapshot (the Application, file extensions aren't shown) and choose Open.
click Cancel on the "Open" window
click Cancel on the "Add Drivers" window
Drag the "Re-image your Computer" window to the bottom of your monitor

Drive Snapshot is now visible and ready to use.

 

Did i miss it or did nobody recommended the Win7 built in backup and imaging ? There's really no other software needed and it's quite easy to set up a backup plan.

 

tl;dr

Install macrium reflect free for her and teach her to "create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore windows" its very easy (backup to external drive), and for everything else, microsoft skydrive or google drive should take care of it.

 

Have to agree with just using Windows' built in backup.

If she takes this route, once set up (which takes 5 minutes), all she needs to remember is to never unplug the USB drive, and to note down which F-key enters the HP recovery environment at startup. No boot disks or anything else to worry about. If ever the USB disk runs out of space, she will get a message prompting her to delete old backups.

Plus you get the the nice integration of system restore/previous versions/image restore.

I tried Syncback etc for my mother, but it was more trouble than it was worth - drive letters changing each time she plugged in a USB stick etc. Reverted her to Windows backup and now she has months of file backups, and I imagine several weeks worth of image backups.

 

gambla,

This lady needs an imaging solution that runs on a schedule without user input. That can be done with Win7 imaging but Win7 imaging has shortcomings that aren't present in Drive Snapshot.

The images aren't compressed and are roughly double the size of images created by other imaging software.
The images can't be Validated/Verified.

There are other shortcomings but not relevant in this lady's situation.

 

Very true - both limitations are (imho) major drawbacks of W7's built-in imaging.

 

As you said, scheduling is also built in. You may be right with some shortcomings, but i'd measure simplicity (correct word?) against additional software if free or paid. But i just want to add this to the topic, so we'll find the best solution for her.

 

gambla,

I appreciate your comment and if she didn't already own Drive Snapshot then Windows imaging would be appropriate.

I have a fast system with Win8. I just ran a test comparing Windows imaging with Image for Windows. The results are imaging time (min:sec) and image size.

Image for Windows...... 2:10 13.1 GB
Windows imaging......... 5:10 25.1 GB

The other shortcomings of Windows imaging.....

It doesn't image FAT/FAT32/Linux partitions. Since most (? all) Dell computers have a OEM Diagnostic partition (FAT16) this won't be included in the image and if you have to restore the image to a new HD (due to HD failure), the Dell Diagnostic partition will be missing.

There is no option for resizing the restored partition.

You can't restore into a smaller partition (eg if you want to transfer your OS to a SSD).

You can't move the backup image to another folder as the restore process won't find it.

 

Wow, am I to understand that an IFW compressed image backup takes that much less time than a Windows uncompressed backup?

Brian, in a like test how would DS compare to IFW (time & size)?

Cruise

 

Cruise, I just ran DS.

Drive Snapshot...... 2:30 11.3 GB

So it is compressing higher than IFW and that costs it a little more time. But an excellent result.

 

I think we're forgetting the original post. This lady has only been using computers for one year. She had to be taught how to use Windows and Internet Explorer.

FAT partitions don't matter since she almost certainly won't be restoring to a new drive. Likewise she's unlikely to ever resize a partition, nor restore to a smaller partition, nor move an image to another folder. She almost certainly doesn't even know what a partition is...

I'm not familiar with Drive Snapshot, but unlike Windows Backup the interface probably doesn't conform to MS guidelines, and the wording of commands won't either. MS thinks this stuff through to make the interface easy to understand for the beginner.

With Windows Backup she also gets two bites at the cherry, having both file and sector backup.

Ask yourself - which software do you think she is most likely to encounter a problem with either making or restoring a backup? Honestly?

 

She will be able to create backup images on a schedule. She won't even know it is happening and she won't have to learn anything about the process. What could be easier for someone whose computer skills are minimal?

 

I mentioned earlier that the other shortcomings aren't relevant to this lady. But the absence of Validate/Verify is very relevant. You don't know the integrity of your image. I would never use Windows imaging unless no other imaging app was available as you don't want to wait until restore time to discover your image won't restore.

 

Windows Backup will do that too. Does a dos window pop up very time Drive Snapshot runs? What happens when her USB disk fills up? What happens if Drive Snapshot needs to be updated due to a bug or incompatibility with a windows update? And what happens should she need to restore - will she need a boot disk?

 

I suggest that the proprietary nature of third party software is much more likely to result in inability to restore than an issue with the image itself. Regarding verification, I've always assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that Windows/VSS/NTFS is error correcting and will likely take care of disk errors itself.

 

taotoo,

Wendi will take care of any unforeseen issues. I don't expect any. If an image restore is needed, Wendi will perform the restore.

 

toatoo you are spot-on about the purpose of this thread and you make some very good points. The person closest to the woman in need is of course Wendi, so rather than debating the virtues of one solution vs. another why not wait until she pops-in again and let's listen to her take on all of this.

Cruise

 

While the last thing I want to do is perpetuate the debate as to the best backup solution for Wendi's friend, it may be constructive to report that when I first bought my W7 laptop (about a year ago) I created 2 successive backups using W7's imager. Since I had then yet to install any apps on my new laptop I thought what better time to try restoring my system. To my disappointment it failed with an error message which I no longer remember. When my 2nd restore attempt also failed that's when I decided to look for a 3rd party imager.

TS

 

Thats exactly why I use 2 different imaging programs as well as RollBack Rx (and upload all critical files to an on-line service daily). If one recovery option fails hopefully one of the other options will succeed. I learnt the hard way with Acronis True Image that even a verified image may not be restorable.

Sorry for diverting from the thread Wendi.

 

Fair enough points by everyone. Regarding a Windows image failing to restore - probably what she needs most is a file backup, and any file backup that doesn't use a proprietary format will likely restore fine - worst case scenario the files will at least be salvageable in some way. Windows offers file backup. Relying on just an image, particularly one generated by third party software seems like it's asking for trouble. I'll butt out now and good luck to getting her sorted out.