my search for best disk imaging software

That's a very interesting outcome appster. I usually will get 24 - 28 MB/s over USB2 (in the range you got), but over Firewire (1394a) I typically see 40 - 42 MB/s -- quite a bit less than your Firewire performance (my files are usually a lot smaller, so that could account for the difference)!

In any case, the unavoidable conclusion is that USB 2 doesn't nearly measure-up to its spec in real-world use, whereas Firewire's performance is a lot more respectable.

JA

 

Hopefully, USB 3.0 will change that.

 

Some day - maybe, but for those of us who own a laptop with USB2/FW400, neither USB 3, FW800/1600, or eSATA hold any promise!

That's really a non-issue for me insofar as file-copying; however it becomes a big issue when I backup an entire partition!
I don't see how to do anything that will better my laptop's internal-to-external HDD transfer speeds, so that's why I chose an image-backup program (DS) with low overhead and efficient read/write algorithms.

 

.....e-SATA PCMCIA Card perhaps?

 

As far as I can tell, that's a total waste of money because of the PCMCIA cardbus speed-limitations!

 

Yeah....sorry. I was thinking of something like this --> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839228001&Tpk=pcmcia

 

That still requires the newer ExpressCard slot. The older CardBus slot (in my laptop) is way too slow!

 

*Hugs his eSATA WD MyBook*

 

Hi,
I also have evaluated O&O DI since V1 and found nothing but disappointment. Just to mention a few :
- When the version is updated, the bootCD cannot be recreated or downloaded, I have to pay around 10€ to get it !!
- After O&O DI3 was installed on several machines, I started to have an annoying problem : ejecting USB HDD or flashkeys randomly started to fail, causing a progressive freeze of my system, resulting in a hard powerdown. After I uninstalled DI3, the problem was gone, re-installed : problem reappeared. I spent quite some time with O&O technical support but they never really acknowledged the problem
- On one PC, where the source was the internal C: drive and the destination an external USB HDD, with just enough room for one C: image, I got a message saying "not enough space". I realized that O&O creates a huge cache file to handle hotbackup, but the cache was as big as the remaining space on the destination, leaving nothing for the actual image. This is rather stupid and I know no other imaging software that handles this so badly.

Too bad since the GUI is nice and the recovery CD also nice (but not user-updatable).

I now rely alternatively on :

• Drive Snapshot + DriveSnap
• Image for Windows V2 (and Image for Linux V2 for restoring the system disk - much faster than Image for DOS)
• Keriver V4

 

My recent USB 2.0 vs. Firewire 400 comparison {post 98} was based on simply copying large files (Brian's request). Now I wanted to checkout the real-world differences of the two interfaces when performing an image-backup. Just for kicks I first ran this test using Drive Snapshot v1.39 (my favorite image-backup program) and then with Acronis True Image v10.0 (which I used before switching to DS). In all cases I backed-up the same (15 GB) partition to the same external FW/USB drive. The resulting 'effective transfer rates' were as follows:

DS backup using USB 2.0 = 9.98 MB/sec
ATI backup using USB 2.0 = 6.11 MB/sec

DS backup using FW 400 = 15.76 MB/sec
ATI backup using FW 400 = 9.39 MB/sec

I knew beforehand that the backup rates wouldn't be nearly as fast as when simply copying files because of the backup program's overhead (compression being a big part of that), but I never suspected just how much that overhead would throttle the transfer!

I also knew beforehand that DS would beat-out ATI as that was one of the reasons I switched to DS from ATI, but this revealed the actual speed difference (at least with my equipment).

 

Appster, intriguing figures. As the backup program was the bottleneck I was surprised by the difference between USB 2 and Firewire speeds. I thought they would be much the same. But not so!

 

I'm not surprised at all - I have noticed similar differences as those reported by appster. In actual use DS is far more efficient and therefore flat-out faster than ATI, and the same is true for Firewire (1394a) when compared to USB 2.0!

 

if you really go for speed then e-Sata is something to consider.

Its more then 2 times faster then FireWire !

E-Sata speed is compareable to internal drive throughput.

Is somebody out there using this stuff ?
.

 

I have an external encloser with a SATA Drive externally connected to the internal SATA connectors. Seems like the only way to go. Check www.newegg.com for components.

 

Are all your PCI slots on the MOBO already occupied by other cards,if not then yo can use one to insert an e-sata expansioncard.

 

Now thats a great idea,,,,,,and like so many great ideas, obvious in hindsight. Thank you, I will be implementing this ASICG (that is, as soon as I can get to it).

EDIT: just occurred to me it might be nec to have something internal to the tower for this to work. Or will it work with any expansion card plugged into any card port (that fit of course)?

OOOPPPS - just noticed you said on the mother board, at first I thought it was something you plug into a card reader port. Oh well, I guess I will have to stay with what I have now, just 1 eSATA port on the back of the PC.

 

As Aaron already mentioned, many of us have notebook PCs with the older Cardbus PCMCIA interface, which simply doesn't support eSATA's throughput.

 

Hope for you that the cardbus interface is not the only controller,sure you have at least USB 1.1 and most probably USB 2.
Personally i have no problems with USB 2,its fast enough.

Processing huge data streams on servers or highend workstations,the(e) sata interface would be a godsend.

 

My centrino notebook serves me well and has both Firewire and USB2 ports, so I don't have any use for cardbus at this time.

Of course, I wish it had eSATA, but as it doesn't my Firewire cable gets a lot of use!

 

Already one port ! oke then just buy yourself external sata disks,all major brands offer it.

 

I have eSATA. It saves me a few minutes on an automated backup every couple of days. Why did I bother? Just to see the technology in action. USB 2 was fine for my usage.

 

And a good choice. I don't believe there is any one "best" imaging program, bit I really think Paragon is in the top 2 or 3 of a list of dozens. You couldn't go wrong with that choice.

 

Now just wait for USB 3,put all others to bleak childish connections.

Troughput 5 Gbit/sec. (full duplex)

Due to release 2010.

 

O&O DiskImage Express 3.5.26 Free

Haven't tried it myself but may interest some?

 

you cannot restore a system partition with that version. seems pointless them making it tbh.