New FD-ISR user - Can anyone help with these questions?

Hey Silver the first lines of your last post is not mine ,its from Erik Albert!

 

I have and use that one but not 100% certain it's an ironclad answer but it DOES perform and perform well enough on this end.

SP, while i'm sure a very nice new creation with great results discourages me that they focus more intently on commercial interest which means the rest of us get the crumbs usually. But sometimes even the crumbs of one app proves better than enough then the more popularly acceptable ones.

 

Well Pete, if they need to make up for lost revenue from cracked ShadowSurfer it would do them great service to bring aboard ALL users and not just commercial interests alone. That can take on the appearance they are bios against other interested users in which case they will LOSE interest and encouragements that would better suit their bottom line then showing signs of favoritism, after all, we are all in this together and not just considered EXPENDABLE.

 

Since KarenReplicator (KR) was on my list of softwares-to-try (KR has a good reputation) and was mentioned in this thread,
I compared ShadowProtect (SP) with KR, doing a full backup of my Data Partition.

SP = 21 minuts = 31.6 GB (normal compression)
KR = 22 minuts = 33.7 GB (no compression)

So there is certainly not a big difference in time and required space.
KR requires of course more space, because it simply copy/pastes all files of data partition [D:] to backup partition [E:] and that's it. KR doesn't create an image.

I was impressed by KR's speed, only 1 minut more than SP, I expected alot more. People usually claim that file backup is much slower than image backup, but not in this case.
My data partition has nothing but folders and files, so an IMAGE isn't really required.

I'm not going to use KR, because SP does the same job and I don't see any advantage to use two softwares for the same job. My backup of data partition looks exactly the same as my backup of system partition, only the source and target are different and I like that.

 

Impressive results for KR Erik. Thankyou for the testing.

Difference between the two programs though is that KR is free and SP is too expensive for many of us. That together with the strict application of the activation process really put me off SP however good it is.

I understand though that they are really not targetting the single user market due to support costs. This would certainly be an issue with less knowledgable users who are not familiar with imaging.

 

I don't know what KR does with MBR for instance, if you backup your system partition. It only seems to backup folders and files. So I wouldn't be surprised if KR doesn't backup the MBR at all and that could cause a problem in certain situations.

 

Yes of course. KR does only seem suitable for Data etc. Sad that ATI/Paragon/SP or similar are needed for the system partition.

Worth trying anyway.

 

Hey Erik Albert, Karen Replicator was never intended and coded to do the same job like Shadow Protect,its like comparing a Steak with Dogshit. KR is just a simple file backup/sync app.So your testing leads to nothing but confusion.To make myself clear once again,because i image from the recovery disk[SP is not installed] i cant make incrementals to my system and data part. So my workaround is to image the system part. C once in a while(after an important,chance,install etc.) My data part. D is constantly updated,refreshed with KR.If horror strikes then i recover an image with SP(6 min.) and bring the recovered image current with a FDISR archive on a ext. disk.As always my data part. is uncluttered and current after recovery because i excluded this part. D from imaging.In your case you are imaging the whole disk and that takes a whole lot of time,so my workaround can serve you well to cut on backup/recovery times. everything i said here is with imaging from the recovery environment in mind,if you image from within the windows install then thats another story.FYI SP doesnot work on my system.

 

Dude, relax. He was just comparing copy speed in basic file copying use. Try to unconfuse yourself.

Yeah..you get infected once, you keep passing it around to the other archives.
I was thinking : FD-ISR for snapshots and Deepfreeze to protect the whole disk. If trouble, thaw and restore the snapshots?
Ex:
1. Partition Disk 0 into: C(system)|D(snapshot storage).
2. Deepfreeze C. Then make snapshot to store on D
3. Surf pron or claim you were trying out new software.
4. Let's see, C can't be infected unless you're thawed - which means you're most likely trying out something that requires a reboot. If you did and got infected...restore clean snapshot from D?
Sounds like I might have to do this.

If my Documents folder is pointed @ another partition and I don't anchor the my document folder, will the folder be included in the snapshot?

Here's the thing about ISR...if I could just get VMconverter to work, I can clone my system over and over and run it as a VM. Would that just kick ISR's ass all over the place?

Any ways, Erik, you rock my world. Thanks to the rest of you for this thread.

 

If you decide to store your personal data on another partition, it means that FDISR will ignore that other partition.
FDISR works only on partition [C:] and ignores any other partition.
So anchoring or not anchoring doesn't count anymore, because you can only anchor folders/files on the partition [C:], not on other partitions.

You still have access to your personal data via each snapshot, but nothing more than that and your personal data is not included anymore in any of your snapshots or archives.

Regarding your other questions, I never used any of these softwares, so I can't help you there.

 

K,
thanks Alby.

 

this is a good thread and should be in sticky.

i'll review again this thread when i install FDISR in my new laptop.

btw, is this the right procedure....

- uninstall all bloatware (only 5 bloatware...no need clean install)
- run ccleaner to clean registry
- uninstall ccleaner
- install FDISR
- run FDISR (i'll review again this thread)
- after i make my primary and secondary (no bloatware with FDISR installed) snapshot i'll install KAV7 or NOD32 and make another snapshot as my 3rd snapshot (no bloatware+FDISR+KAVorNOD)....my 3rd snapshot is my rollback snapshot.

also which FDISR should i download workstation or server? (im using vista)
thanks guys.

 

FDISR workstation will be enough. The latest version is 3.20 build 202.
Keep in mind that FDISR is quite space consuming. So keep a good eye on the volume of your harddisk, when you are creating snapshots.
We can give you hints to reduce the required space, if you give us some numbers : capacity of harddisk, volume of system and volume of personal data (= folder "My Documents" ). External harddisk available ?

 

the capacity of my new laptop is 250GB without external harddisk....also there's two drive C & D (as far as i know). I think I will consume 50GB for my personal documents and software....10GB for personal docs/pics/video.

also i created thread in other forum, can somebody advise if FDISR works with this combo (KAV7 or NOD32)+Vista Firewall+Netgear Router Firewall?

 

Works perfect here with XP SP2. Give it a try.

 

In that case space won't be a problem, I have only 70gb for Windows + FDISR + All Applications and I can go upto 10 snapshots, which is the maximum of bootable snapshots in FDISR.
My personal data is stored on my second internal harddisk.

Assuming that you have everything on one harddisk, I recommend to anchor the folder "My Documents" in FDISR, otherwise your personal data will be stored in each snapshot.

The latest version 3.20 build 202 is compatible with winVISTA.
So make sure you have that version, because older versions are NOT compatible with winVISTA.
In theory you have to assume that all softwares work with FDISR. Sometimes we have problems with certain security softwares.
If you have any problem write a post in this forum and we will see what we can do. You also can contact the support service of the company, where you bought FDISR.

Since you are a new user you better keep in contact with this forum for awhile and if you don't understand something, just ask. This forum has many experienced FDISR-users.

 

thanks erik.

Yup i'll ask more question after i install FDISR this week. after reading first page of this thread it give me a lot of information how to use FDISR.

Btw, i have some concern regarding this message from HorizonDataSysInc. website hope you can give me some insight. If this problem still exist 'til now I might use NOD32 instead of KAV7.


Is FirstDefense-ISR compatible with my anti-virus software?
FirstDefense-ISR is fully compatible with most modern anti-virus applications.

We have found that Kaspersky Labs Anti-Virus adds a data attribute to the user's source files. This modification of the user's source files is against our integrity checks and thus Kaspersky Labs Anti-virus should not be installed for FirstDefense-ISR to fully protect your system. We have notified Kaspersky Labs, since any application performing file integrity checks may cause problems.

 

thanks peter.

how long it takes you when you copy/update with FDISR with/without KAV ? whats the capacity of your harddisk?

 

Whether it was intended for that purpose (which it was), or not as ErikAlbert so eloquently and often has pointed out ( and the manual) LoL

I also Copy/Update to ARCHIVE and not to snapshot which has freed up all 10 snapshots to be individually different in any config/appearance as a user deems fit for them. And thats the Wonder of this program, it opens up several avenues to explore everything from your creativity to testing programs & configurations without the fright of losing something of importance to your work.

As it stands, i keep a compliment of 2 duplicate ARCHIVES for every snapshot i've created, and keep at least one of those off the extra storage partition in event of Hard Drive failure. I've even transferred some lite one's up to 3.7Gb onto DVD although they are not exactly my chosen media type.

ErikAlbert is recently brought to attention something i completely have overlooked in the storaging of ARCHIVES & SNAPSHOTS, and thats placing them onto .ISO files.

 

Sorry if I missed it, but I don't see how to compress an existing snapshot, or to make it so that it is compressed at creation. I just don't see where the option resides.

Thanks !