RestoreIT 7 So Why No Interest

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by EASTER, Oct 17, 2007.

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  1. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    I am opening this topic after doing a Wilder's search for RestoreIT 7 and only catching very enemic returns/reports on whether it is equal to some of the more popular ISR's which carrys a lot more discussion load compared to this one.

    So what's happened with RestoreIt anyway? It seems to me that RollbackRx with it's recent new introduction into also imaging a system has taken a page straight from RestoreIT who appears to have introduced that concept first.

    At any rate, any thoughts, opinions, or ideas on whether it's satisfactory and useful enough to serve as both a ISR and imaging/restore solution.

    Any comparisons from those of you who have trusted it?

    Thanks
     
  2. rendez2k

    rendez2k Registered Member

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    Well this puts me off straight away:

     
  3. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Easter

    Every time I read about RestoreIT, I stop when it comes to the part about hidden partitions. I personally just don't want anything to do with the hidden partition approach, so I go no further. Also FDISR and SP are working so reliably, I just can't get to interested in anything else, least not yet.

    Pete
     
  4. L Bainbridge

    L Bainbridge Registered Member

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    I have used RestoreIt7 for a couple of years on my laptop as it was the best solution for that PC.
    It has always worked flawlessy.
    The rationale for using it was that I didn't have the space for FD-ISR (small HD) & needed restores 'on the road' without using an external USB which I would have needed for FD-ISR.
    Rollback really didn't like the laptop at all & despite working hard with HDS I never got beyond 40 (!!) sweeps of the login screen before the PC would boot to Windows XP which meant by the time I'd got to Windows I'd forgotten why I'd turned the PC on in the 1st place :D

    Pros: self-contained 'Imaging' & rapid restores in one package with capacity for external back ups as well.
    File-level back up for specific files.
    Has Rollback style preboot system with ability to choose snapshot to restore to.
    Seems very stable and quickly creates snapshot.

    Cons:
    Not exactly instant system restore - rapid, yes- instant no- certainly compared to Rollback & FD-ISR
    Hidden partition - not a problem in practice but I know lots of folks are a bit sniffy about this. (BTW - Drive Clone Pro - replacement for RestoreIt 7 does away with hidden partition)
    Interface looks a bit 'Fisher-Price'

    It doesn't offer the flexibility or rapidity of rollback/ FD-ISR but it's a nice prog.
     
  5. wilbertnl

    wilbertnl Registered Member

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    Hello there,

    RestoreIt basically is discontinued in favor of Farstone's DriveClone.
    RestoreIt 8 is actually developed and went into a closed beta test. But before releasing RestoreIt 8, it was noticed by the sales department that RestoreIt 8 would duplicate the exact same features from DriveClone 3.

    I would like to correct Peter with regards to the hidden partition. The hidden partition was prone to serious problems and it disappeared in the latest releases of RestoreIt 7. Instead of using the hidden partition, information is now stored in hidden files, which makes it easier to maintain, resize, etc.
     
  6. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Fair enough. I was right in not liking them, but wrong about it being there. Of course the only reason I thought it was there was the website said it was. Minor detail.
     
  7. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    Before i get to wilbertnl i like thank you L Bainbridge for sharing BOTH pro & cons to RestoreIT 7.

    For the record and out of pure curiosity today i went ahead and stepped over with trying out DriveClone. Now i done this on a FD-ISR snapshot but i Omitted installing the snapshot features under (Custom) knowing full well a conflict would become evident.

    As an imaging app only (and for files), i took the first step of backing up a large directory of files and yes, it is IMO, markedly slow in that respect. I then entertained the idea of doing an image "BUT" i was completely astounded at the "LIST" of FarStone's running processes :eek:

    I guess i'm just of the mind that for any app, even an imaging program, too many runners in that list make for reasonable suspicion that resources are going to being heavily taxed as well as memory intensive activity, and apps i like to favor tend to be well-balanced with fewest enough processes. I also noted at least 3 drivers (Tiny Watcher Log) after reboot.

    That daunted me right off jump street so i uninstalled it but then still had to do some manual cleaning duties left in the registry.

    Now i don't doubt RestoreIT 7 is a reasonably efficient imaging/snapshot proggy, if i read it right, but this latest DriveClone scared me away, simply put.


    Now then in answer to wilbertnl

    Ordinarily the "hidden partition" feature thats being implimented in many top imaging programs doesn't really hinder my confidence in the same way as Pete perhaps, although it's my understanding we can opt to wave that bit anyway, but then you mention that RestoreIT 7 of recent done away with that approach, which i can only summise is a logical choice given if there were serious issues with it before.

    I suppose i'll review these and my internet notes again and i do really want to give RestoreIT 7 a try, if nothing else, just to see how it does perform. Which by the way i'll need to use another drive without FD-ISR, because i want to test the ability (not so much speed) of the snapshot feature in it, i certainly hope to goodness that RestoreIT 7 doesn't load up my system with processes like DriveClone did. I have a strong bias against any program that needs to flood the list of running processes just to perform it's craft.

    Thanks all.

    EASTER
     
  8. wilbertnl

    wilbertnl Registered Member

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    I do like RestoreIt 7, but I disabled the file backup feature and I also disabled scheduled snapshots. I take snapshots manually.
    If you have more than one partition, it's possible to store the recovery storage on a different partition (preserves space in the system partition).
     
  9. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    Hello again wilbertnl and thanks for the support.

    I do expect that there is some positive aspect of RestoreIT 7 and i know there must be some worthwhile advantages with using it.

    Also like i already mentioned at the top of (the hour :cool: ) in this this topic, RestoreIT 7 seems to have come out with this concept ahead of RollbackRX 8.1 to begin with, so it behooves one to expect FarStone has implimented enough bug fixes and improvements at this juncture to make it more customer worthy for a desktop/laptop user.

    And yes, i intend to store the recovery image on another HD as well as give the DVD burning abilities a go at it.

    This is not a topic to compare RestoreIT 7 with any other ISR/Imaging combo app which there is only one other anyway (rollbackrx) that i know of, but rather draw some inspiration and hopefully confidence to the strengths of this program as well as determine if it can serve as an All-In-One recovery solution as advertised without some drawback to fear of.

    Thanks a' much

    EASTER
     
  10. wilbertnl

    wilbertnl Registered Member

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    For me the most valuable feature of Rollback RX is that it enables me to maintain parallel snapshots.
    With that I mean that I'm able to setup a system with for example Trendmicro antivirus and NOD32 antivirus in two snapshots and switch by simple rebooting.
    FD-ISR offers the same functionality. Rollback RX is conceptual different, though.

    Farstone DriveClone3 lets you restore to a previous state Which is great for disaster recovery. My experience is that Farstone is reliable and it doesn't affect the system performance (with file backup disabled).
    But I miss the parallel configurations for software testing/evaluation.
     
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