I don't bother with differential or incremental. I only have 40 GB of data on my C drive. it only takes 6-7 minutes to create a full disk image with IFL. so depending on how much data you have, a full disk image could work for you.
I like to have daily differential images going back two weeks. And older full images. Admittedly we mainly restore today's or yesterday's image to fix a problem but once I had to restore an image created a week beforehand to fix a problem. I hadn't noticed there was a problem in that week so the last 6 images didn't fix the problem.
clubhouse, I'll 'tackle' that question based on my experience with the 'Terabyte Trio' (IFW/IFD/IFL) and AX64. As you suggest, the AX64 is simplicity personified, but I found Shadow Defender conflicts with AX64 (and I love SD!), and even if I didn't use SD I found AX64 to be buggy insofar as its restore reliability (quite a few others have also experienced this). IFW/IFD/IFL main 'claim to fame' is that they are totally reliable and isn't that what it's all about? Yes, at first their screens and options presented are intimidating, but the default screen selections work for me. After you work with the programs for a while you may find that some of those optional selections can further 'tweak' your backup and restore operations. Finally, I love Terabyte's recovery flexibility, in that you can restore its image (.tbi) files by booting into either a Windows, DOS, or Linux environment (that's a huge advantage over any other image-backup software)! TS
Which boot media do you guys use? TBWinRE Image for Linux (IFL) Image for DOS (IFD) TBWinPE Bart PE Page 57 & 58 of the User Manual
I use IFL boot USB, and IFW in a Win8.1SE boot USB. The IFL boot USB is amazing. It can boot from all sorts of hardware: from latest 64bit core i7, to the ancient 32bit, non-PAE CPU of Pentium M 1.6G Hz. I had to download a standalone x486 version of Debian based Clonezilla Boot USB that support non PAE 32bit CPU in order to boot from the Pentium M. All other flavors of Clonezilla does not support that old CPU. IFL took only 11.4 min to complete the backup of a freshly installed Windows 7 Enterprise, Office 2013 SP1, Acrobat XI and Photoshop CC of about 17GB OS drive on my ancient Thinkpad R51 with the Pentium M CPU, using normal compression. Clonezilla took 42min to complete the same task, although the resulted image file is a bit smaller than the IFL tbi file (8.5GB clonezilla image vs 8.9GB of tbi). Very impressed.
IFL has always been the fastest for me at creating images and restoring them. since you get all 3 (IFW/IFD/IFL) it's worth trying them all to see what speed you get. I use IFL from a USB key so that's faster than a CD and pretty convenient as well.
Stigg, For backups, most of us use this compression... Enhanced Speed - A It's the fastest and only sacrifices a small increase in image size. For restores to a SSD, use Write Changed Sectors Only.
I have the same experience: IFL is normally the faster than IFW and IFD, usually by 10-20% faster. Another amazing thing for IFL is it support backup to USB3.0 port and portable HDD. The Win8.1SE somehow could not see the USB3.0 portable HDD.
You are welcome! Invest your time a bit learning it now, I am sure you'll be impressed by its reliability later.. Good luck..
Thanks Brian. I somewhat understand what you are trying to say by saying that I need to have a naming convention to make it work, but I am still not understanding what I have change in the naming convention to differentiate between a differential backup and an incremental backup. I will study what you posted further to try and understand.
Tony, Not really. It is still an image restore. All sectors on the target partition are read and only changed sectors are restored. The restore time is the same as a normal restore. In testing, I've restored a 15 GB image and only 100 MB was actually written to the target partition.
I'm actually about to backup in readiness to restore to a 256Gb SSD. I have one drive with three partitions (BootItBM and two Win7 installations). The HDD is 600GB but only contains around 160GB of data. Will the backup and restore be as simple as selecting 'Compact' before the backup, then 'Scale to Fit' upon restoring?
The Seeker, Yes, easy as pie. Make sure you compact so the data sectors will fit on the SSD. Create and restore an Entire Drive image. In Options select .... ( I assume you have 2048 sector aligned partitions and 2048 sectors aligned selected in the TeraByte app) Scale to Fit Align to Target and the defaults http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=554
Stigg, You could adapt these batch files... Code: @echo off if not defined RunTask set RunTask=1 & start "CC, IFW base" /min %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /c "%0" & goto :EOF :: ++++++++ delete temp files before imaging ++++++++ "C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe" /auto set path=C:\Program Files (x86)\TeraByte Unlimited\Image for Windows\V2 CD /d I:\Tera\W8_single :: +++++++++ Move all .tbi files to another folder +++++++++ set hh=%time:~0,2% if "%time:~0,1%"==" " set hh=0%hh:~1,1% set timestamp=%time:~0,8% if @%timestamp:~0,1% == @ set timestamp=0%timestamp:~1,7% set timestamp=%date:.=%_%timestamp::=% echo.Timestamp :: %timestamp% MD %timestamp% MOVE *.tbi %timestamp% :: +++++++++ Create full image backup +++++++++ start /wait imagew.exe /b /uy /d:w0@0x01 /f:w8ssd /hash /comp:14 /vb if not %errorlevel% == 0 ( echo %date% %time% >> fail.log echo imagew errorlevel is %errorlevel% >> fail.log echo. >> fail.log exit ) Code: @echo off if not defined RunTask set RunTask=1 & start "evening diff" /min %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /c "%0" & goto :EOF "C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner64.exe" /auto set path=C:\Program Files (x86)\TeraByte Unlimited\Image for Windows\V2 CD /d I:\Tera\W8_single :: +++++++++++++++ Differential Image of C: drive +++++++++++++++ start /min /wait imagew.exe /b /uy /base:w8ssd /f:diff /vb /comp:14 if not %errorlevel% == 0 ( echo %date% %time% >> fail.log echo imagew errorlevel is %errorlevel% >> fail.log echo. >> fail.log exit ) IF EXIST c_15.TBI (DEL c_15.TBI) IF EXIST c_14.TBI (REN c_14.TBI c_15.TBI) IF EXIST c_13.TBI (REN c_13.TBI c_14.TBI) IF EXIST c_12.TBI (REN c_12.TBI c_13.TBI) IF EXIST c_11.TBI (REN c_11.TBI c_12.TBI) IF EXIST c_10.TBI (REN c_10.TBI c_11.TBI) IF EXIST c_09.TBI (REN c_09.TBI c_10.TBI) IF EXIST c_08.TBI (REN c_08.TBI c_09.TBI) IF EXIST c_07.TBI (REN c_07.TBI c_08.TBI) IF EXIST c_06.TBI (REN c_06.TBI c_07.TBI) IF EXIST c_05.TBI (REN c_05.TBI c_06.TBI) IF EXIST c_04.TBI (REN c_04.TBI c_05.TBI) IF EXIST c_03.TBI (REN c_03.TBI c_04.TBI) IF EXIST c_02.TBI (REN c_02.TBI c_03.TBI) IF EXIST c_01.TBI (REN c_01.TBI c_02.TBI) REN diff.TBI c_01.TBI
Thanks Brian. I haven't looked into how to use batch files yet, but I am just about to read about them in the manual.
This may be a problem. I have 2048 sectors aligned selected in the TeraByte app, but my current installation is not on 2048 sector aligned partitions.
Create a New Text Document. Paste in the above code. Save it as Full.cmd or Diff.cmd. To edit a batch file, right click and select Edit. To run a batch file just double click. Batch files can be scheduled in Task Scheduler.
It should work as long as the partitions are compacted so they will fit into the drive size available (total restore space must fit). I would also check the BIBM boot menu items and update/verify the settings before booting.
It's not a problem. As long as you have 2048 sector alignment selected during restore process it's going to work properly. The original alignment does not really matter.