Roxio BackOnTrack Suite

Oh boy, am I glad not to have RBRx on my computer, I would go crazy if that would happen to me. RBRx seems to have problems on every level, obvious not for every user. Lots of users seems to be very happy with RBRx or they don't want to report the problems or don't consider them as problems.

 

Read this whitepaper on defraging and rollback rx

https://supportcenteronline.com/ics...9c7f87d1d71ecc37af&accountID=4073&deptID=4443

I have a watercooled pc overclocked to 4gig, 4gig of memory, xp x64 and raid 0 with 3 snapshots, it's fine with small amount of snapshots and it fine with a perfectionist such as me. The performance loss is neglible and i am tweaker tuned mad. I have just 9 services running and that sure makes a difference.

 

The defragger in Rollback is for it's own files. It defrags the images and such, but doesn't touch the other files.

 

correct , defragging the windows is fine as i work in one windows sometimes for quite awhile and my raid so fast it dont take long to defrag. it useful to have a big partition with less data ideally. ok so i have gaps in my data but it defragged chunks of data.

 

I would really like to use this but don't have a good experience with Roxio products. A quick glance at the support forums on their site also does not fill one with joy and confidence. I don't have a second pc to play around with so I'm a bit hesitant about installing system level software that takes over the boot process.

If any brave soul has tried this product and successfully taken multiple snapshots+backups and done a successful disaster recovery of the entire pc from the recovery cd, please please let us know!

 

If you don't have an actual good recovery solution for your system and data, don't even try it. You must be able to restore your system and data, otherwise you can lose alot.
I could do the testing, but I'm not interested, I can't use it at all, because it looks like RollbackRx and is certainly not a replacement for FDISR.

 

Yea, Rollback's defrager is a joke,a bad one.
I have it turned off in rollback and keep a minimmum amount of snapshots now.
Rollback has now been restoring without problems,I believe the built-in defrager was the culprit that resulted in corrupt snapshots.
Untill I can afford a new better restore software i'll keep Rollback 8.0 for now.
I won't install 8.1
I may look into this Roxio BackOnTrack Suite.

 

that's right.

 

yes, it does permit defrags.

 

well, i haven't done a snapshot restore yet and even BOTS allow to backup files and image drives I don't use those because I'm only interested in Instant Restore, this is the Windows System Restore's replacement.

Something I don't like about BOTS is that you can't get rid of old manual snapshots in an easy way, I have no idea how to do this yet.

Does anyone read the manual? I was afraid to upload it because it may be "ilegal" in some way.

Best regards.

w.

 

1. Will it let me take multiple snapshots?
2. Can it be set to take a snapshot on every boot and how long does a snapshot take and how much space? I'm trying to determine if snapshots can be a regular process.
3. Does it disable System Restore or can both be used?

 

1. yes
2. no, it can be set to take a scheduled snapshot every 1-99 days, manual snapshots can be taken anytime.
3. both can be used, but this is from the manual:

Your Windows operating system includes a program called System Restore that offers some of the same features as Instant Restore. Instant Restore works best when System Restore is turned off. A BackOnTrack message will appear occasionally asking if you would like to turn off System Restore. You can also turn it off manually by following the steps below.

I don't use SR.

Best regards.

w.

 

Can all folders on C drive be designated 'system data', in order to force instant restore for the whole drive? I'd feel more comfortable finding folders to exclude from restoring rather than trying to make sure I've selected all the important ones.

 

It seems to me that you can't remove snapshots, otherwise you would have found it already.
BOTS must have some kind of system to remove them automatically when they are getting too old or something like that, which is of course not a very smart decision of Roxio.
Users are the boss and they decide when a snapshot has to be removed or not, not Roxio.
My snapshots in FDISR are never too old and two of them are permanent, the rest is removed by me.

 

Very true... Apparently, wdc hasn't found any reference to this important functionality in the user-guide (manual), and that is rather shocking!

 

Say that again. Normally wdc doesn't even have to read the manual for this. The remove command should be visible on a menu, just like create, copy, ... in other words "easy-to-find". Those menus are easy to find by clicking or right clicking.
If you have too many snapshots or space problems or you don't need them anymore or your backup takes too long, ... all very good reasons to remove snapshots manually. An automatic removal can also remove snapshots you still need.

 

yes, they can. altough you can't designate the entire C drive as "system data" by right clicking on it, you have to do this right clicking on each folder (subfolders are marked "system folders" automatically).

 

well, about deleting snapshots, there are news:

you can delete snapshots manually depending on the age of them, by default you can delete manually and scheduled snapshots older than 10 days but this number can be changed between 1 and 999.

also you can tell BOTS to automatically delete scheduled snapshots older than 60 days (default, values may vary between 1 and 999 again).

see the attached picture for clarification, "free disk space" button leads to windows disk cleanup and the "options" button there leads to BOTS snapshots cleanup option window.

Hope this helps.

Best regards.

w.

http://s1.subirimagenes.com/imagen-de-Dibujo-1625563.html

 

So there is no direct remove command in the menu, you have to remove snapshots indirectly by manupulating the number of days, which is not really convenient. I'm not going to count the days on my fingers, I might even miscount and delete too many snapshots.

 

yes, this is a problem, maybe the next version will bring this feature.

Best regards.

w.

ps. just made the question to roxio's support, let's just wait and see what they say.

 

Well done. I'm also curious to what they have to say.

 

I imagine it would check the registry for the location so you can probably have it on another partition/drive.

This is basically a souped up System Restore with a restore option during boot (something MS should've implemented). It's similar to Recovery Commander from Avanquest/VCOM but appears to save more program data. Recovery Commander doesn't have a WinPE bootloader option either, only a boot disk (which can restore the registry hives from Windows Sysem Restore points as well).

 

Ok.. Here what I found when I installed Roxio's BackonTrack on my Vista Machine..

1: I installed this on a clean state system.. with just a few drivers added.. i.e updates from Microsoft Etc..

2: At first look I found no visible evidence of BackOnTrack actually being installed on my system, other that the program folder in the programs menu..then I got a popup from the taskbar telling me that drive state had been saved.. so far so good I guess

3: Next I rebooted again to see if there would be any Pre-Boot screen.. as like with FDISR and Rollback Rx.. What I did see was nothing like this.. but a Dual Boot Screen with 2 startup options..1: Windows Vista or 2: BackOnTrack..and was given 5 seconds to make my choice otherwise Windows would load as normal. I find this a little dissapointing.

4: The next thing I found rather disturbing was the fact that even though I thouroughly defragmented my drive ( 2 Times) to get a Zero fragmentation when installing BackOnTrack, When i ran Windows Defrag after installing Office 2007, instead of Windows telling me my drive was in good condition ( as it has with previous installs) this time I get a yellow exclamation mark indicating my drive performance could be improved, and that I should defrag ASAP Either BackOnTrack has caused some serious fragmentation, or this is something Windows and BackOnTrack has an issue with

5: The Snapshots (or Save State in this case) take considerably longer also than Rollback.. mine took about 15-20 seconds or maybe longer depending on what you just installed... but yet again this is also much quicker than FDISR

6: Having Installed the following... Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise...Microsoft Works 8.5... Microsoft Encarta with Student 2007.. Britannica Encyclopaedia Ultimate Refernce Suite 2008..and Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 I noticed BackOnTrack reported the total Save State snapshots were just 270MB in size

7: On a more possitive note.. I find Zero performance impact on my machine and Windows Boots Beautifully in less than 30 seconds, although I have yet to further install other software, but compared to Rollback Rx the Startup time is significantly quicker

Other than the Dual Boot screen issue, which I find could have been replaced with something more eye pleasing.. the 5 seconds in question to boot into Windows isnt that bad..(Although as I say personally I would have prefered to be without it)

8: Unfortunately at this time I cannot comment on the Restore capeabilities as to daye I have had no reason to use it. However I may just install several more of my Applications, and put it through its paces to find out how this performs.. With the Addition of Total Backup facility to a Seperate Drive or Disk.. or just the Restoration of a single file or folder this could be the Next Thing in System Restore Giants..

 

It's the standard Vista boot loader. Nothing wrong with that. If your boot loader gets fragged you can either replace it with the repair function of the Vista install cd or burn the boot ISO from the Instant Restore folder. It will enable you to use restore and *may* (not sure about this) replace the Vista boot loader as well.

Wait 'til you uninstall. That's when the program files will be stored in your restore points.

You can open System Properties (Advanced->Startup & Recovery) to remove the countdown and you won't even see the menu unless you press F8.