raid restore success - eaz-fix snapshots all back

@markymoo:

That is very interesting and encouraging.

That also is interesting.

Could you elaborate a bit
Afaicr we went through some of these gymnastics in previous threads with RBack v7 and the only utilities that had any success with RBack snapshots was DriveSnapshot.

RAw image with IFW or BING had success but I cant really remember.

There was tremendous interest here re RB but there seemed to be so many issues and some that have not gone away. There are a lot of very unique aspects of installing, imaging defrag uninstall etc etc

Forgive my ignorance but are you referring to 'raw' imaging here.
How is that compressed if it is a true sector by sector copy?
Dont some raw imaging tools create massive images?
Power Quest Drive Image used to do this by scanning each sector but only copying used sectors: same now?
DriveImage XML from runtime will run off BarPE but only copies full size images in raw format.
(will work with RAID see http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm)

Dont most full sector image tools start from sector 63?
Doesn't RB insert itself prior to sector 63?
AM I terminally confused?

Have you done a restore with these images from DS and IFW.
You previously stated a 'fully functional recovery with all EasiFix snapshots intact.
Normal boot?
MBR intact?

How exactly did you restore the IFW image?

It is of conceptual interest to me that HDS cannot provide a utility that will image RB/EasiFix to restore from offline with ALL snaps yet you seem to have easily proven just such a reliable method.

PS I may have missed something: does RB/EazFix now support raid?

 

Hi Longboard - Good Questions

I had originally backed up the 100gb partition to a usb external drive so slower backup. I tried again with DS and same settings but this time to an internal sata and it took 16mins to backup and 6 mins for verify with 17.6gb image size.

Rollback/Eaz-Fix protects the MBR not to mention other parts of your drive. Whatever you use to backup from within windows you will only be able to backup from sector 63 and not the MBR. Even if you backup the MBR it wont be the real MBR installed by Eaz-Fix but the one you see before Eaz-Fix was installed. The real MBR is protected. It's necessary to backup outside windows to see all the drive unprotected to capture all snapshots.

I backed up from BartPE with IFW(19.5Gb image size) and restored from BartPE. Its a newer version since old threads. It took 26 mins to restore and it wrote the MBR but when back in windows Eaz-Fix wasn't installed even though MBR code to restore was selected. I got better success previously.

There's some more Eaz-Fix code in sector 22-25 and a partition jump to somewhere else outside of the MBR and the old MBR is kept at sector 23. This is why just backing up mbr sector 0 isn't enough. This is probably the reason IFW dont work fully because it only backs up sector 0 and not sector 0 to 63. Another utility can be used to back up the entire MBR. I need to do another test to comfirm. Drive Snapshot is faster backup and restore and has 100% success so i'm inclined to use that. So naturally RB inserts itself before sector 63.

You can also use compression when you backup in RAW mode so the images arent huge but smaller. I used DriveImage XML, another good program but doesn't beat the speed of DS.

So restore success 100% with DS for all snapshots from BartPe. It took 21mins to restore. Using BartPE was faster as the proper drivers meant could read & write faster. I also tried smartdrv in dos with ntfs4dos and theres a udma driver to speed up for dos but had no use for my hardware.

Using a 50Gg partition would be 2x faster of course. Having 3 snapshots with one readonly frozen with returnil would ensure the snapshot would never grew bigger which would ensure fixed size for smaller partition.

I'm sure if HDS wanted you to backup all snapshots they could implement it from within windows in there program.

I going to try to make a VistaPE as it boots up faster and it supports more hardware.

Yes it supports RAID. So does Image for Dos. No drivers to load up it makes some direct bios calls i believe.

 

Yes I thought this would be the case.
IFW does not image the mbr
I think this is due to IFW being designed to work with BING and the EMBR of BING
IFW will restore a standard MBR if requested when doing restore, this will not include RBack (BING will do the same.)

I am really impressed and excited that DS can image a full primary ( bootable partition) and include the RBack MBR mods and file/sector indexing for the RBack snapshots. Even more impressed if a frozen Returnil snap is also restored.

I did have a license for Rback in early 2006.

My bad: : I think this has been addressed and noted previously with DS but I may have been taken up with Terabyte utilities then; regard them still as my backbone tools. Just not worth it trying to include RBACK utility as I had by then moved to FDISR.

I wouldn't really even be in this thread except HDS stirring things up by crapping on FDISR.

I truly did then and still now can see the amazing uses for RBack snaps. I know plenty of users here have had really impressive success with RBack

I was really impressed when NicM ran his unhooking tests under RBAck
http://membres.lycos.fr/nicmtests/Unhookers/unhooking_tests.htm

I found DS then to be a little awkward to configure and run 2 years ago: guess I'll go and look again.
If only RBack could be more stable for me.

Regards.

 

As an RB v7.2.1 user (which is the very same program as EAZ-Fix, version for version), naturally I'm extremely interested in creating and restoring disk-images which preserves the operational integrity of RB and all of its snapshots. Based on what I've read and summized, DS is not the only imaging program that is capable of doing that. Others report repeated success with Acronis and Paragon when using Sector by Sector mode (similar to DS' Maintenance mode).

The only advantage (to me) of DS over the others mentioned is that it seems to accomplish said backups faster and produces smaller image files compared to the others mentioned. Of course, the main drawback in using DS is in its complex and error-prone restore process when using its DOS recovery disk to restore a system partition.

 

ShadowProtect has a good option 'Restore Disk Hidden Track'. This replaces sectors 0 to 63. I was saying Eaz-Fiz has some more code at sectors 22-25 so this is why using this option puts back the custom boot code of Eaz-Fix, but it still doesn't capture the real MBR Eaz-Fix has installed. Any program trying to read it gets the original instead. To prove this open up your shadowprotect image near to the start and at hex 400 there is standard MBR. This is why it looks to work to a degree but not capturing sector 0 might not make it work 100%. I can't test how well it works with ShadowProtect. It probably only capture the baseline snapshot and not the rest or they maybe faulty.

Here is the captured bootcodes to compare.

http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/31988/2001129801503619562_rs.jpg

 

@markymoo,

Getting back to using DS to image an EAZ-Fix or Rollback Rx installation with snapshots, have you compared creating a Maintenance Mode image from within Windows to creating the same image using DS' boot (DOS) disk?

appster

 

@Longboard

Try Rollback RX 8.1 trial. Theres quite alot of improvements. I came in late, used 7 for awhile then jumped to 8 quick. If you have a daily external backup of your system partition then theres no problem if you come unstuck. I leave my pc on 24/7 and no problem so far. Not had to resort to my backup yet.

Everybody like to backup within windows but until HDS comes out with a full snapshot image in there program then we have to resort to backups using programs like Drive Snapshot. Sometimes better faster convenient alternatives to booting up a recovery cd is having another hard drive in place either external or internal or a usb stick that boots up an xp with your recovery program.

When you have RB snaps on your pc, it always good to have the option to flip back and forth at a moments notice. So for me just having this convenience makes all the difference.

ShadowProtect outside of windows will definately restore all RB snapshots as well so if DS not ideal then use ShadowProtect. A plugin for BartPE could be made to run it.

 

@appster

If you backing up outside of windows then any backup program like the ones you mentioned and more that do a sector backup could be used. If you stuck on a fav backup program that dont capture sectors 0 to 63 then it be a simple case to have a batch program run mbrwiz http://mbrwizard.com/ to backup those sectors and store them somewhere safe and another batch to restore those sectors after you restore the backup. Maybe this is too much work for the majority as going to the effort to backup outside of windows is an effort already ;/

It not possible to backup in dos with DS only restore. The ntfs dos utils that can write to a ntfs partition write to it slow. It alot faster backing up in a Windows PE environment as the right drivers can be used for your hardware.

 

@markymoo,
I'm not sure you answered my question, but that's probably my fault so let me rephrase the question... Is it your experience that creating a DS image (Maintenance Mode) from within DS' WinXP environment (not BartPE) captures all necessary sectors to ensure a faithful system restore including all EAZ/Rollback snapshots?

 

...and do I get you right that one can use mbrwizard in combine with imaging sw where sys partition only is imaged in win and that way restore to the current snapshot with all RBrx/EF:s snapshots intact? If so I gather that it has to be a sector by sector image which i beleive also is possible with ifw not only DS...

 

@appster

Sorry i thought you was talking from outside windows within BartPe as we already had discussed why it failed in windows. Restoring in dos is slow. It faster to restore from a BartPE cd. You really need to get BartPE working. If not then i sort you out with the dos commands. I'm currently doing aload of testing. I got some good news. I reveal all in next post. I'm surprised you struggling after all the great help in this thread. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=183952&highlight=maintenance mode

 

The problem lies whatever you use to backup in windows how ever good it is, it will not capture the right sectors 0-63 because they hidden by Rollback Rx either intentional or not. By doing it outside of windows you can. Even if you get RAW(sector by sector) imaging s/w, some don't restore those sectors. IFW will not restore the MBR only the partition sector. If you tell it to restore one it put a default one which is useless as it won't boot Eaz-Fix. It needs to restore the Eaz-Fix/Rollback code which it never captured. I have suggested mbrwiz but realised it was wrong one as it only backs up sector 0.

 

Yes, BartPE has been a big struggle for me. As an aside, Sunday I borrowed a Paragon HDM Boot CD from a friend and I plan to use it to perform a sector-by-sector backup and restore of my system partition (with Rollback installed). Another friend of mine is in the process of upgrading his Acronis True Image v10 to v11 (which now supports sector-by-sector backups). When he does, I will borrow his Acronis Boot CD to see if it can successfully backup and restore a Rollback-protected system partition.

 

Ok i now successful in capturing and restoring all Eaz-Fix(Rollback) snapshots with 'Image for Windows' using BartPE. IFW doesn't backup the boot code like DS but i describe how to do that below. It don't support differential backups which is not important for me in this case. IFW looks to have a superior verify than DS and it's not much slower than DS.

You will need Image for Windows - full working evaluation http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/imagew.html and of course BartPE. There is also a BartPE plugin for it too you need to get here. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/thirdparty/ifw_plugin.zip

To restore the boot code i use this, Sector Inspector(i meant to mention this instead of mbrwizard before) as it works from within windows and so BartPe. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...2a-a586-4079-9489-c3ea14573fc4&displaylang=en
Install it. You just need the 1 file from it, secinspect.exe. copy it to a safe place onto a drive you be able to access when you in BartPE. When in BartPe you system drive you backup wont be 0 anymore like in windows but is usually 1. You better check this.

Backup
Loadup BartPe, press F8 on startup to select cd, quicker than having to change to cd in bios. Run IFW and backup your C: partition. You won't need to use PHYLock as you have full access to the partition. Keep options on default except for Validate and RAW and keep this backup safe.

Open up a dos box and goto the location of secinspect.exe you acquired. To backup the mbr and all 64 sectors of it type this:

secinspect -backup physicaldrive1 drive.dsk 0 63

If your system partition is on a different drive to 1 then change the 1 to your right drive. If you type secinspect it list all the drives and partitions so you know which one but it should be 1 usually. Make sure you know absolutely. You can run the above command in a batch file and make ifw and the necessary options all in the batch for auto. The sectors will be saved to the file drive.dsk in the same folder. Keep them together.

The good news is the same backup you make for the entire MBR can be used in the future even if you take more snapshots. If you upgrade your Eaz-Fix/Rollback software or change the partition size then you have to make another. Just run the command and it overwrite the drive.dsk previously.

For when you come to restore in future...
In BartPE run IFW and select your backup file and don't select any options to restore, use the default ones. Once restored to your C: shutdown IFW and stay in BartPe we going to restore the MBR. Open up a dos box and goto where secinspect.exe and drive.dsk should be with it in same folder and run this command either by type or batch.

secinspect -restore physicaldrive1 drive.dsk 0

Make sure you use the command physicaldrive1. Replace the 1 to your right drive usually 1. Don't use this command secinspect -restore c: drive.dsk 0 or it put it on the partition boot sector instead. Ok to confirm. There's no 63 after the 0 in the command because it knows there 63 sectors in the backup file you did. It restores all of them.

Reboot and load up your windows. All Eaz-Fix/Rollback snapshots are back and working 100%

This method will also work for other image programs like ShadowProtect that do RAW backup mode but don't restore the full MBR. It can only it can't be got at. The backup and restore of the MBR will always have to be done outside of windows. Theres no way round this. It's on the disk somewhere but don't know of a permenant place for all drives. It's fine as you do it only odd time and restore it in a batch file when you restore your image..

Afterthought:
In ShadowProtect theres a cool option for restore. If you select 'Restore MBR and 'Restore Disk Hidden Track' it will do all for you without needing to do the method i described. Make sure you backed up using the option Include Free Space. BadKarma - Ignore this Advice - ReadOn.

 

Interesting, but this is getting to be way too much of a hassle (at least for me)! Based on what you (or anyone else) knows for sure, which disk-image programs do a 'RAW' backup AND also restores the 'full MBR'?

 

Right you not impressed with that method...

Ok after more experimenting...I think i'm confident i cracked it! I have managed to backup within XP Eaz-Fix running with 3 snapshots and then loadup BartPE and restore the image back with all snapshots working. You heard it right backup all snapshots within windows and restore all snapshots back outside windows. So you dont have to go offline to backup all snapshots.

The answer is Image for Windows with PSYLOCK activated in RAW mode. Default Options combined with my MBR restore and a whole day testing different ways. All snapshots checkout 100% and the sizes report accurate. I wasn't convinced DS maintenance mode was all sectors after this result. It could be PSYLOCK has more access to the drive. My thoughts the drive is protected the way Eaz-Fix works but it looks like PSYLOCK cuts through. Of course IFW didn't backup the MBR but i used the MBR restore method i described in the last post to put the Eaz-Fix bootcode back in.

Trying a restore method with DS in maintenance mode and my mbr method came up with failure and automatically runs checkdisk and then attempts to repair the partition but comes up with numerous errors such as invalid record table and repairs it all so you can boot into xp and looks ok on the surface but that is false as Eaz-Fix snapshots and partition didn't work right. IFW wins.

So try IFW instead

 

markymoo, in this thread's first post you said

and now you are saying that DS' Maintenance Mode Backup/Restore failed... I am now totally confused.

 

@appster

I was referring to DS failing within windows and not being able to match the backup power of IFW in XP even in maintenance mode. This is a superior way don't you see. You backing up all snapshots in windows without having to go to outside of windows like the way i started this thread. It seperate testing method. It's fine we know it works outside of windows. That DS can backup and restore fine in BartPE and restore in Dos 100%. If you read carefully i was testing it within XP and inserting the bootblock after, this is where it fails and IFW succeeds probably due to PSYLOCK.

You can benefit this way now. You don't need BartPe even. You can backup in windows and use the very easy Image for Dos menu to restore as it works with IFW images. Good hardware support, drivers built in so to speak.

 

@All

I forgot to mention you will need to get PSYLOCK also and install it and reboot. You see it when you install IFW.

If you forget to put the MBR in after you restore then Eaz-Fix/Rollback won't be running when you come to reboot windows. If you do that then XP will write to the drive over snapshots, into places Eaz-Fix isn't protecting and the partition is ruined, bad snapshots. So you have restore the image all over again.

It may even work with ShadowProtect. I know ShadowProtect uses Microsoft VSS to backup and restore. I can't test this as i don't have ShadowProtect WinPe Recovery. If someone like to test this. Backup in windows with ShadowProtect including freespace. Then in ShadowProtect recovery environment, backup the entire 0-63 MBR using secinspect. I think it's uses WinPe. Restore the image back. Don't bother to write back the MBR and Disk Hidden Track because it be a waste of time. When you backed up in windows it won't of been the right one. Use my MBR recovery method instead and then reboot to check out the snapshots.

 

@Peter

As i said many times in this thread and you aware from older threads. Eaz-Fix intercepts anything that reads the bootblock and throws it the original one. Eaz-Fix most likely boot it after its own. So in windows its a no with Eaz-Fix running otherwise yes in plain xp and outside yes. If you ran ShadowProtect on a BartPe it would be able to back it up of course. If somehow in windows you knew where the Eaz-Fix MBR bootcode hung out on your drive you could inject it into your backup image over the original MBR without leaving windows. So you wouldn't have to restore it later on. Your image is complete. As we always restore outside of windows anyways theres no loss replacing it at that time.

The risk is low because as i stated earlier you learn to keep just your system files on C and your data on D. You have a backup image of system files. The risk is minimal.

Thanks

I been informed theres a Image for Windows 2.0 out. It does differential images and aren't limited to 2 GB and more features. Does anyone know of it?