Dedicated FirstDefense Forum

I don't think development is frozen. Leapfrog's version was updated a few days ago, and Raxco last issued an update this summer.

 

And I was informed by the head of Raxco Tech Support just two weeks ago that they are already working on their next build.

Acadia

 

By the way Acadia, I've dumped RestoreIt, and am testing FD now.

 

Why? Is there something that you did not like about RestoreIt? I have never used it but it sounds interesting (but complicated).

Acadia

 

It's a good and interesting program to work with, but my issue with it was the ever increasing incremental backup size.

When the program is installed, it creates a hidden partition, and in my case, was working with over 2.8GB space for the backup points. I had three backup points created over the course of 2 days, and the most recent backup point kept increasing in size to a point where the main program interface was showing 30% used. Even having just one incremental backup point soon escalated in size.

I realise one can customise the size of the partition at installation thereby create more space for the program to do its job, but I chose recommended in this case. However, that isn't the point as I couldn't understand why the incremental backup point was doing this. It certainly doesn't log everything as a restore after creating a document didn't bring that up again - one would have to create a backup point after creating that document to ensure it was restored. Perhaps it's logging system files, I dunno. I wonder if GoBack does the same as I'm aware that continuously monitors changes.

In any event, it wasn't really what I was after in terms of being able to rollback to an earlier version, which FD seems to be more in line with that as one can work with a set number of snapshots.

 

Tony, a word of warning; I LOVE FirstDefense, it is the best program for me that I have ever owned, BUT, it uses more disk space than any backup program that I have ever used. That is not a problem for me, I have tons and tons of free disk space, but if you do not like the amount of disk space that either RestoreIt or Goback uses, then you will NOT like Firstdefense; it uses much more! Each and every snapshot will be the same size as your c:drive. If you have 5gigs on your hard drive used up in your c:drive, and you make a Snapshot, you now have 10gigs used up. Make a second Snapshot, now you 15gigs used up. I have the maximum of TEN Snapshots; my slightly over 4gig c:drive now takes almost 45 gigs of my hard drive space, again, not a problem for me because I have the space and love the protection and flexibility that FD gives to me.

You would not have the same problem with Goback that you described with RestoreIt. Goback claims a certain amount of disk space but that is it; it never goes beyond that amount. Older info constanly gets deleted as newer info comes into the Goback history bin. This works nice but it limits the amount of time that you can "go back". With Firstdefense you can go back YEARS if you want to ... AND if you have the disk space.

 

I mean, non-English versions of windows are not supported...

-RE

 

It isn't the amount of disk space that I'm concerned with. As far as FD goes, it isn't really a problem as (a) one knows how much is used up per snapshot, and (b) the figures are static until updated. My beef with RestoreIt is that the current backup point was continually increasing in size; if the incremental backup point was made and remained static then I think it would be more manageable (earlier backup points remained static - it's the latest one created that increases in size, and I noticed this over a full day without making any other backups). Unless I'm missing the point somewhere.

 

Anyone else have more info on this steady incremental size increase ?
BTW..is it true that FD will not dump snapshots during a defrag ?

 

You can defrag to your heart's content with FD installed, and you do not have to disable it. The Snapshots are not affected in any adverse way during defrag; they just get defragged along with the rest of your hard drive, I asked tech support about this once.

Acadia

 

That's cool...

 

Rainwalker, I just remembered one thing, make sure whatever defrag program you are using does not move the Master Boot Record:

http://www.raxco.com/support/windows/fdisr/fdisr_faqs.cfm

The MBR is mentioned a couple of times on this faq. It is no longer quite the problem that is used to be, but still worth a read. Note: this has nothing to do with Snapshots being deleted or dumped.

Acadia

 

Oops, Peter is right, it is the bin and not the MBR that gets moved.

Acadia

 

I'm trialling restoreIT instead. That's too bad, b/c I bought perfectdisk a week ago and I would have been willing to give that FDISR thing a spin. Oh well...

-RE

 

Let us know how you like RestoreIt, sounds interesting.

Acadia

 

I am also unable to use FDISR.
Would like very much to know of Reve Etrange opinion about RestoreIt, too!
Rui

 

Installation is not smoothless. I got some BSODs (XP-SP2), although I made sure to disable PG, regdefend, outpost and co. On a couple of occasion, I've had to reboot the machine twice in a row to get it work.
I firstly went for the typical install, which unfortunately didn't do what I want: it created a smallish hidden partition at then end of my drive, while I wanted it to take all the free space there. Ok, I guess it's my bad, though I expected to get a prompt or a confirmation for such critical things. Anyway, as I want to save a full backup on this partition, I've had to uninstall and re-install the whole thing (in custom mode this time), with again some more BSODs. Can make you feel a bit nervous (yeah I got backups, but don't want now to make sure they work). The crashes may be due to some incompatiblity with other low-level softs eg. (pre-symantec) powerquest softs.
Anyway, I managed to make a full backup on the RIT partition, took 2hr for a 80GB partition. In order to do so RIT needs to restart the machine in what it calls Realtime mode. This is actually the core functionalities of RIT available at boot time, before the OS is loaded (sounds logical). That Realtime thing let you press the spacebar during a couple of sec at boot time, even if you have not planned any operation, so that you can get back to a previous backup (you can select which one of coutse).
Don't let the +100pages manual daunt you, it is full of screenshots and with a single centered, narrow column. Well, I mean it's no rocket science, there are full backups either stored on a file system or in the RIT hidden partition, and you make incremental backups on top of that. With the pro version, you can clone partitions or create an image of your whole drive on umpteen DVD or on an external drive. There's also a file-level backup module, which lets you configure what files and dirs you want to monitor, and thru hooks RIT knows when you modify something and automatically make backups of these files. You can specify what extensions you want to monitor (doc, xls, ppt etc). That's not my cup of tea so I disabled it, but it's up to you. There's also a backup previewer that let you browser your backups at the file level, but I haven't had time to play with this one yet.
The UI is not that great, though not bad either. RIT doesn't seem to slow anything down, though I've no hard measures to back that. And remember, I've disabled file-level monitoring. If the system remains stable for some days, I'll try to restore a backup, but again I'm not so confident in my ol' powerquest drive image (trialled TI9 and had to uninstall it for the reasons we all know), so I wouldn't want to end up with toasters and a to-be-formatted HD.

-RE

 

Can you comment on the incremental backups please? In particular in reference to the latest incremental backup point, and if it gradually increases in size.

 

Hi Reve Etrange

Thank you very much for sharing your experience with RestoreIt!
After reading what you have posted I guess I wiil not be trailing it.
By the way, if this information is useful to you, I am using Image For DOS as my imaging/system recovery tool.
It works flawlessly, according to my experience.
After trying Norton Ghost 2003 and Acronis True Image I have found -at last - an imaging tool that gives me peace of mind!...
You can find it at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com
There is also Image for Windows from Terabyte, but I have never tried it.
Please note that both these two applications cannot restore files on an individual basis - you can only restore the full image!
You can also try DriveSnapshot at
http://www.drivesnapshot.com
Its author (Tom Ehlert) claims that Drive Snapshot is capable of restoring single files from a previously recorded image.
Hope this information is useful!
Best regards
Rui

 

Pete

I have not timed accurately Image for Dos imaging and verifying operations. Anyway, my 120 GB C: drive takes less than three hours to get imaged (including verification). I suggest you download the trial version and give it a try , in order to compare times.
Let me know if you need any further assistance, as well as your opinion about IFD, if you are really going to to try it!
Best regards

Rui