New AIP Versions

My point was : can't you "cold-image" with just the regular IFD/IFL boot media, or is Win PE mandatory to cold-image RB HDD ?

 

IFD is DOS and very, very old and is very, very cumbersome.

IFL is Linux and which is not the cup of tea for many people.

IFW is Windows, which lots of people are comfortable and is very easy to use.

One can easily add their Windows operating system drivers for the machines they are using, as they are already available in their Windows operating system, and also the Network drivers too.

Many thanks,

KOR!

 

I use IFL, which is only a cold imaging tool...however you can use IFW from a custom WinPE much like you can with DS.

 

Thus, my point to Aaron about comparing apples with apples and/or comparing oranges with oranges!

Best regards,

KOR!

 

MerleOne,

You can - and I prefer to - do cold imaging with IFL (and IFD but it lacks many of the features of IFL and was slower in my personal testing). It is the only method of imaging you can do with IFL and IFD. I prefer this to making a WinPE with IFW, etc. IFL has been the most solid imager I have used, and is my primary one second only to DS.

 

Hi Napoleon,

Can you please post the instructions for building a WinPE rescue disk for DS?

Many thanks in advance!

Best regards,

KOR!

 

Actually, I was wondering if napoleon knew of another way to cold-image with IFW other than Terabyte's WAIK method (which I can't use as I don't have or want .NET Framework on my system).

I never actually posted instructions for creating a WinPE for DS. I have suggested using the Free
UBCD4Win (or any other WinPE). Once booted into a WinPE environment, you simply navigate to wherever DS (snapshot.exe) exists and run it.

Aaron

 

I didn't...Aaron pointed out that since DS is so portable (you can download the standalone executable) you can use an existing WinPE disk. This is what I did:

1. Copy the Drive Snaphot .exe file to my external hard drive where I store my images
2. Boot from any WinPE CD you might have (Todo, Active@, O&O, etc.) that has command prompt functionality
3. From the command prompt, naviagte to the external drive and launch the Drive Snapshot .exe file
4. Image away!

Hope that helps!

 

Where do you get .NET Framework from?

Didn't you built a WinPE rescue disk for Macruim Reflect with WAIK for Cold Imaging?

The same way you do, to built a WinPE rescue disk for IFW with WAIK for Cold Imaging.

Nothing more or nothing less.

KOR!

 

True enough, WinPE with optional drivers is more flexible, but since you don't really have to know linux to use IFL, I find it more straightforward to use this standard tool (IFL). Of course, for some configs this might not be enough.

And I'd like to report a recent story I had with such tools. A colleague of mine came to me with an old laptop, whose hdd was failing (many bad sectors at the end of the HDD) and wouldn't boot windows. I wanted to backup as much data as possible before trying to fix the sectors. I tried *every* WinPE bootCD I had, 3.0, 3.1, from various publishers, including the official MSFT one (Emergency Recovery Console, provided by our sysadmins). They all failed to boot properly, just because of the bad sectors. I finally tried a Paragon Recovery Kit, Linux based, and it booted like a charm, I was able to recovery virtually every data file, and then I repaired the sectors. After that, WinPE CDs accepted to boot and I was able to fix the system.

So it's sometimes useful to have some linux based tools, and you don't need to manage linux to use most fo them (believe me, I don't know how to use a linux system).

 

MerleOne,

Same here. I always find a need for Linux-based rescue CD's, even though WinPE has come a long way. Acronis first introduced me to this, as well as Paragon.

 

Dearest MerleOne,

Very true. And for this reason I love Terabyte. For less than $30 USD, they give you:

1. Three licenses for Image for Linux.
2. Three licenses for Image for DOS.
3. Three licenses for Image for Windows.
4. As many rescue disks, one wants to built for Image for Linux.
5. As many rescue disks, one wants to built for Image for DOS.
6. As many WinPE rescue disks, one wants to built for Image for Windows.

And, all the above with PHYLock for proper Hot Imaging, not VSS and the only program which does Hot Imaging of Rollback Rx with all snapshots intact.

No other program can even come close to it, especially when one keeps the price in mind.

Best regards,

KOR!

 

Oh, my mistake, I thought you were actually using IFW. While I have found IFD and IFL to be totally reliable, I find both of them to be very much slower at creating/verifying a cold-image as compared to the likes of AIP and DS!

Aaron

 

IFL, for me, is still the fastest...just goes to show what works for one doesn't always work for the other. That's why when someone posts about what the best imager or defragger is, it's such an open-ended question.

 

KOR, you're a 'walking commercial' for Terabyte - they ought to hire you!

 

LOL!

Best regards,

KOR!

 

Its actually $38.94 (wherever did they come up with that figure?) for IFW which includes licenses for Windows, Linux and DOS.

Aside from the compatibility with Rollback RX why is Phylock so much better than VSS on XP+ systems? I tried finding an argument supporting Phylock over VSS on the Terabyte website, but everything I could find seems like it was written prior to VSS inclusion in desktop OS. As far as I can tell Phylock does the same thing as VSS which is the take a snapshot of the system and backup the snapshot.

Something I don't care for with IFW is its inability to schedule differential backups. The fact that I have to refer it to a specific full backup makes it impractical to schedule differentials. Also, IFW does not seem to include an option to set the number of backup sets to retain. Unless someone knows how to set these options... Right now there's too much manual intervention required for my liking.

Also, IFW does not yet appear to support EFI boards.

Yes, its a very granular tool and a great bang for the buck especially considering is server OS support, but to me it falls a bit short for most users, especially your average end user.

I'm happy to hear you out if you have answers to my concerns.

 

At Bidsdujour.com it is always less than $30 USD.

I paid $100 for Macrium Reflect about six months ago, and now I have to pay $60 for upgrade.

Go figure!

 

Here is the link at Bitsdujour.com for $29.21 USD:

http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/image-for-windows/

 

I hear you. At some point Terabyte will upgrade to V3 and users will have to $ to upgrade. I'm hopeful V3 will being some usability improvements and scheduling improvements to make it more end user friendly.

 

Would love to pay them some very little money for upgrade to v3 for three licenses. At 50% upgrade it will be less than $15 USD for three licenses. With v2.62a, I have WinPE v3.1

I paid $100 for Macrium Reflect about six months ago and they gave me WinPE 2.1, where as everyone at that time was giving WinPE v3.1


Now, I have to pay $60 for upgrade to WinPE v3.1, which should have been given to me six months ago, when I made the original purchase.

Go figure!

 

WinPE v2.1 is based on Windows Vista. When was Windows Vista out?

WinPE v3.1 is based on Windows 7. When was Windows 7 out?

Go figure!

 

I cannot argue the value of IFW, however I view backups as insurance. Since IFW does not include proper scheduling of differentials, I would have to schedule all full backups which are time consuming and take up vastly more space, so they will be done less frequently.

Also, since there's no built in backup set storage limits, I now have to keep an eye on my backup storage to make sure it doesn't get full.

Just these two things alone will cause enough manual intervention to want me to pay more for a backup app that controls it all. Reflect V5 does it and so does Symantec BESR. These two I've tried and can verify they work.

I cannot comment about the others as I have no experience. Well, I did try ATI once last year (on a test box) and got 3 BSOD within a few days of installing the trial. Promptly removed it and never had a BSOD since.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows#Windows_Vista

 

claykin,

TeraByte provide scripts to do scheduled differential backups. I've written my own which I find simpler. The TeraByte ones are here under Additional Items...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-image-for-windows.htm#addon

These scripts contain storage control methods. I could go months (if I wanted to) without looking at my Base or differential backups. Scheduled differential images are done twice daily. After a month, my differential images can still be as small as 40 MB.