Rollback Rx

My one gripe with RestoreIt was that the current incremental backup used to steadily increase in size. If you make another incremental backup, that starts to increase in size leaving the others stopped at the figure where they were at.

 

I think it's been discontinued anyway. Symantec bought out PowerQuest anyhow.

 

So those Word docs that I worked on between 8 and 10 P.M., they automatically become part of the Snapshot that I was in, I DO NOT have to save them?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Acadia

 

Something has gone very wrong with my installation of Rollback. First it was Firefox that stopped working in snapshots. Then other programs wont load all of a sudden. The only snapshot where it works as it should is the baseline.
I will uninstall it and wait for another build and see if it gets better or get back to it when I do a reformat sometime...

 

Retrospect uses VSS and/or St. Bernard Open File Manager to backup open files. This might conflict with the Rollback Rx drivers that prevent low level disk access.

I prefer to have more snapshots. If I manually create snapshots I might forget to create one when I need it.

 

Me too, more flexibility. I currently have the maximum allowable 10 bootable Snapshots in FirstDefense, plus five Archived Snaps. But then again, FirstDefense makes sense, is logical, and easy to keep track of!

Acadia

 

Hi Acadia,

I think to true question with Rollback Rx is not how it works but does it works? For me the answer is : Yes, absolutely.

As for snapshots, if you are happy now with only 10 snapshot with FirstDefense, what would it be if you will have access to 30 000 snapshots with Rollback Rx

Atomas31

 

I think I understand your query, but not 100%. In FD we have the option to use data anchoring to preserve documents across snapshots. I think RB has something similar with regards to synchronising files if the following piece from their manual is anything to go by.

 

Hi,

I just got to the horizon datasys website and it looks like they have added a live support (probably online at Vancouver business time)... For those who have technical and specific questions, that could be interesting ;-)

Best regards,
Atomas31

 

Acadia,

I don't find Rollback Rx snapshot very difficult. You can schedule them and name them like e.g. hourly or create them manually.

I'll try to explain how I think snapshots in Rollback Rx work.

• You install Windows XP SP1
• When installing Rollback Rx it installs low level disk drivers to have exclusive control over your harddisk. It needs this to protect it's snapshot.
• Rollback Rx creates a baseline index which has pointers to all the files on the disk.
• Current system size (Space used by this snapshot)= 2GB
• Space used by other snapshots=0 (there is no other snapshots)
• You install XP SP2 = 500MB. Normally SP2 would replace older files with a newer version. Rollback Rx prevents this because the older files are stored in a snapshot and stores newer files in unused disk sectors. The older files are still linked to their baseline snapshot index.
• You create a new snapshot: SP2. Snapshots creates a new index with pointers to all the disk sectors that contain files that have changed since the previous snapshot. If you now create a disk image using Ghost or TI it would only contain the baseline snapshot, because the other files are only visible to Rollback Rx.
• New system size: 2 GB baseline snapshot + 0.5 GB SP2 snapshot = 2.5 GB
• You perform a windows update. Windows update replaces existing files. These files are protected by Rollback Rx, because they are contained within a snapshot. The new files are written to unused disk sectors.
• After rebooting your system no longer works after the windows update and you boot to the Rollback Rx subsytem to restore the SP2 snapshot.
• Rollback Rx creates a new snapshot to prevent data loss. This means that all the files installed with Windows Update are stored in a new snapshot. Storing in a snapshot, means that Rollback Rx created a new index with pointers to the files installed by Windows update. Rollback Rx restores the SP2 snapshot and all the files installed by Windows Update are no longer visible.
• Your were working on a Word document during Windows update. This document has been replaced by the SP2 snapshot. You use snapshot manager to restore the word document from the windows update snapshot that was created before restoring to the SP2 snapshot.
• You decide SP2 is working great and you're updating your baseline. The previous baseline index is replaced with the orignal baseline index + sp2 index. This means you lose the possibility to restore all the files in SP1 that were updated by SP2, because the SP1 files were stored in the baseline snapshot and the newer SP2 files were stored in the SP2 snapshot. If SP2 has replaced 300 MB of files already contained in the baseline you now have 300 MB more system disk space available.
• You have solved the Windows Update problem and create a new snapshot before installing windows update.
• After you decide the update is working you decide to delete the previous Windows update snapshot.

 

No, my main question was this: You create a Snapshot at 8 P.M., it is your latest and most up to date Snapshot. You are not finished yet, and keep working at your pc creating a couple of Word docs around 10 P.M. You turn your pc off and go to bed without creating any more Snapshots; the last Snapshot that you made was the one at 8:00. The next morning you turn you pc on and the word docs are still there. Where they part of the Snapshot that you made at 8:00 even though the Word docs were created at 10:00? This is where I'm getting confused, where were those Word docs being stored, in which Snapshot, or weren't they in ANY Snapshot, just waiting to be stored somewhere?

Acadia

 

If you create a snapshot at 08.00 PM this is the last snapshot. Newly created documents are stored on disk but not assigned to any snapshots, unless you create a new snapshot. This means they can be overwritten or deleted without the ability to restore them from a previous snapshot.

 

If it's anything like the SecondCopy program I've seen on my Dad's computer (the one I mentioned earlier) changes could be being made to the snapshot you create, such as after editing Word files. It has to, otherwise it wouldn't know what to copy for the next snapshot. Quite how I have no idea though.

 

That's what I needed to know, thank you. That looks like the main difference between RB and FD that I was failing to grasp. In FD you are ALWAYS in a Snapshot, no saving, updating, or creating required. In RB the work you are currently doing is NOT in any Snapshot until you create your next Snapshot, number 3217.

Acadia

 

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this and the related thread.
I finally decided to take my head out of the sand, as it were, and try to understand more about the workings of Rollback so I can hopefully get the results that I had taken for granted when I first started playing around with it. However I still don't dare to try to use it after more than one glass of wine or two glasses of iced tea.

Now I need to tackle FDISR!

Rob

 

lol
wine will get you inte the mood

FYI I have installed and uninstalled Rollback and gone back to FDISR without any problems. I had some problems with Rollback, but they are propably related to my system and I am communicating to Rollback staff about it, hopefully they can help me so I can get it back on my system

 

But any work you do in a FD snapshot isn't in any other snapshot until you either create a snapshot or update an existing one, unless you have that work anchored across all snapshots. Isn't that right?

 

Sorry, but where's the screenshot?

 

I believe you've got it down pat. Any work that you do in FD does not need to be saved, it will always be in whatever snapshot that you were in at the time, as if you were simply working in your c:drive and did not even have FD installed. If you want to protect that "work" from damage or whatever, then you update another Snapshot using your current Snapshot. One of the basic principals of using FD is that whenever you use one Snapshot to update another, they are now identical; two identical c:drives. Then there is indeed the Data Anchoring feature if you want to use it, that is yet another separate way of saving things.

Acadia

 

I thought I had that clear with regards to FD.

Let's see if we can break down as to what happens with RB, mainly so I can understand!, and we might need those who use this software to confirm.

Upon installation, program makes a snapshot, the baseline. You create another, say 'test'. You automatically end up in 'test'. You edit some Word documents, and save them. Switching off computer and booting next day returns you to 'test'. (I think)

If you restore to the first snapshot (the baseline), you lose any work saved in 'test' (unless you use the synch feature). But what happens if you then restore to 'test' from the baseline? Will the saved Word docs still be there? I realise that if one had created snapshot 'test2' from 'test', the documents would have been saved anyway.

 

Acadia

 

Sorry, shouldn't I have said that?