Roxio BackOnTrack Suite

So does FD-ISR/Rollback replace the bootloader with their own pre-boot environment? From the discussion above, it seems that BOTS simply adds itself as another entry in the Windows loader (boot.ini or using bcdedit in Vista).

So if the Vista bootloader gets corrupted, how will the pc be able to boot to the instant restore environment - or does that always require a separate rescue cd?

A few other questions I have -

- Can the rescue (instant or the disaster recovery) be done from the bootup screen and rescue cd's both?

- during rescue, can I load images from a network drive?

The basic (only?) difference between this and FD-ISR seems to be that FD-ISR would save the snapshot as a complete image while this one seems to do it based on incremental changes, so its not possible to load different images. Is that right?

 

As far as I'm aware of reading.. you can restore from a network drive
at the moment I'm in the process of defragging my drive with PerfectDisk 8 to see how this impacts BOT's performance, one other thing I noticed is Saving States is getting slower and slower as I install programs, and as to installing programs its taking significantly longer to install certain software also Afet i have finished defragging I'll run a Disk Cleaner to see what junk is left behing by these installs and the size of them, I did say that the BOT GUI reported the saved staes as only 270MB but when I ran Windows Disk Cleanup it actually told me these were infact more than 820MB I've also turned off the Windows Boot Manager timer, and I'm going to test how quick it lets me access that shortly, by F8 or the Home Key.

 

ISR-softwares have "snapshots" and "archives", not "images" to restore your system quickly. Most ISR-softwares don't even have "archives", only FDISR has "archives".

"Images" are related to Image Backup softwares and they restore your system slow.

There are two kinds of snapshots "incremental" snapshots (point-in-time) and "full" snapshots.
Only FDISR has "full" snapshot, all the other ISR-softwares have

1. no snapshots at all (Deepfreeze, Returnil, ShadowUser, ShadowDefender, PowerShadow)
This group doesn't have archives either and they have no other possibilities, than just a boot-to-restore.
They are the most simple group of ISR-softwares, that's why they work quicker, because they only have to do ONE thing and they use also a different method to do that ONE thing : keeping your harddisk unchanged.
ShadowUser is the only exception in that row, because it has more possibilities than the rest.

2. incremental snapshots (RollbackRx, BackOnTrack)
The question is :
- does this group has "archives of snapshots" = quick restore ?
- does this group has "images of snapshots" = slow restore ?
- does this group has nothing at all.
Another important question : "Can incremental snapshots be used as "full" permanent snapshots ?"
I know that incremental snapshots can't have multiple OS like FDISR, but can you create permanent snapshots with a total different contents for one OS, because that would make a difference for me also ?
AFAIK incremental snapshots were always used as throw-away snapshots after the tests were finished, I don't need those.

FDISR has "full" snapshots and "archives" and no "images". You can also create incremental snapshots with FDISR, but that would be much slower, because creating new snapshots in FDISR is much slower than for instance in RollbackRx. The fact that FDISR has no images is not a problem. I use ShadowProtect for that purpose.

The "Disaster Recovery" and "File Backup" of BOTS are old news and have many substitutes, BOTS is just an all-in-one software with only one advantage : the price is cheaper. That's all.
Only the "Instant Restore" of BOTS is interesting compared with other ISR-softwares.
The question is are all these 3 components reliable ?
My BackOnTrack = FDISR as "Instant Restore", ShadowProtect as "Disaster Recovery" and Karen's Replicator as "File Backup".

Until now, I didn't see anything that makes BOTS better than FDISR and NO I'm not a FDISR-fan.
I don't even work with software names, I work with functions, features, possibilities now and in the future.
I don't consider speed and less space as an advantage in softwares, that is mainly a hardware issue.
If I ever find a better software than FDISR, I ditch FDISR immediately, that shows how much I like FDISR.

 

Boy oh boy, therein is the only coop-de-gras feature that is yet to been realized by Leapfrog and i for one certainly wish they would have released a version with this IMAGING option in addition to all it's other MARVELS!

There is absolutely no way they could lose but have everything to gain by implimenting it. I dunno the future of Leapfrog and/or if they still retain some rights to FD-ISR, but they would be doing themselves (and ALL CUSTOMERS)a huge favor and seal their place in Windows history if they added such a feature.

Can you imagine not only archiving snapshots but also making/creating IMAGES with FD-ISR and using recovery from either of them? That would have to be considered the end-all of preservation of data/systems from servers to desktop users bar none.

DriveClone attempts this but IMO is way too bloated with resource hits, i noticed several running processes when trialing it just for the snapshot feature so that ended that for me. I'm more of modular app type, and the way Leapfrog codes, i know they could design a worthy program just like mentioned if they will, question is, will they ever?

 

I always complained about the frozen development of FDISR, since I bought it.
An IMAGING feature would have improved FDISR and make it more attractive to users, but Leapfrog didn't. On demand schedules and multiple frozen snapshots would have improved FDISR also, but Leapfrog didn't. The wishlist of FDISR was long enough to improve FDISR, but Leapfrog didn't.

FDISR is still so good, that no other ISR-software can beat it, even the recent ones. Unfortunately FDISR is terminated and will die within 5 years.
That's why I'm looking for another ISR-software already or at least companies that have ISR-softwares in full development.
Unfortunately, they all look like RollbackRx or they are just boot-to-restore solutions.
So I have to wait, wait and wait ... alot can happen in the software world during 5 years.

 

Hmmmm.... I'm not sure if it's a bug, but this program sticks everything you delete into its restore points, regardless if the location you delete from is labelled as a system folder or data folder. I checked the properties on my restore points and it was 4.7GB. A little search and I found a mirror of the recycle bin and it contained the three 1.4GB avi files that I deleted. When I deleted them from there, they were just recycled with different names. This is not good.

 

I threw out BOTS its restore function took a day and an age, so much for the claim restore in seconds As for the Windows Boot Manager, removing the timer countdown, also removed F8 functionallity it just wouldnt work with any F-Keys on startup thereafter Windows just booted up as normal with no oppertunity to enter BOTS at all. Oh well back to the drawing board on whether to keep with FDISR or install Rollback Again.

But amazingly having said all of that.. my system did boot quicker and the drive settled down to a Idle state remarkably quickly with BOTS installed.. compared to not having it installed or with Rollback.. If anyone can explain why this would be, I'll be listening

 

Never heard of restore points in FDISR's own program ,maybe its way over my head. Are you talking about Windows restore points,its quite useless to have this on,i disabled it with start using FDISR.

 

I don't understand this either, maybe he is talking about his incremental snapshots as restore points.

 

Thank you.

 

roxio support finally sent me an answer to the question "how can I manually delete a snapshot in BOTS", this is that answer:

Thank you for contacting Roxio Technical Support

Please select the snapshot and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

If the information provided does not resolve your issue simply update your webticket with a detailed explanation with the steps you have tried and any error messages you receive.


Regards,

Roxio Technical Support
http://roxio.com/support

Unfortunately I did that and NOTHING happens!, maybe this could be due the fact that I'm using a spanish language keyboard but who knows, anyone using BOTS could you try to delete a snapshot using the solution provided by Roxio? (select the snapshot and press the Delete key on your keyboard).

another thing: several times when i try to delete any file in my C drive i get an error message saying: "this file can't be deleted: system can't find the file" but the file is deleted anyway and don't go to the recycle bin, is deleted for good and this has made me lost some big files that i'd like to get back from recycle bin, if this happen once more i will uninstall BOTS, i don't feel safe using it since this.

best regards.


w.

 

After reading all these posts I think the only safe way to test this is in a VM. Unfortunately that does not let me test how the rescue will work on a real system with different hardware issues.

Vista is perfect for this because I can install a 30 day trial in a VM without any key.

Having the delete key work without a delete button or a mention in the help file sounds like really careless programming.

 

Didn't work for me either.

I haven't had that particular problem, but if you search through your snapshot folder for a file of that size, you'll probably find it. On my system, everything that goes in the recycle bin is sent to the recycle bin mirror in the snapshot folder.

 

After reading all this, I think the support already knew in advance that the DEL-key wouldn't work, just a cheap excuse to make you write a ticket and pass the problem to the programmers.
I can hardly believe that the DEL-key has been programmed to delete snapshots, this function is normally provided on menus, not with keys.

Seems to me that BOTS looks more like a beta version, than a final version. Those errors in basic functions are not supposed to happen, if BOTS was tested properly before it was launched.
Keep in mind that BOTS is supposed to save your system and has to be reliable all the way. I would have ditched BOTS already and tell Roxio that this software isn't ready yet with a list of bugs.
If BOTS was a game, I wouldn't care, but BOTS is an ISR-software + Image Backup + File Backup, 3 important functions that will save your system, when it's in trouble, that's dead serious.

 

I will uninstall BOTS, the problem with file deletion happened again and it's too risky to ignore it.

I guess I will activate windows system restore until I find another solution.

Best regards.

w.

 

just to correct myself, Goback was developed by WildFile first of all, then it was bought By Adaptec, then by Roxio, then by Symantec, now it's dead I think.

regards.

w.

 

I would have done the same. Deletion is a basic function and it doesn't properly, that is one very good reason to ditch BOTS.
It takes also alot of time to test such an all-in-one software (ISR+IB+FB) and 15 days isn't much, if you have to do this in your freetime. The only thing you can do, is keeping an eye on BOTS for 6-12 months and see what happens.

There aren't many alternatives either, if you want multiple snapshots, just RBRx+clones and FDISR+clones, which is doomed to extinct.
All the rest are simple boot-to-restore ISR-softwares, including the upcoming "FDISR Rescue", without any further possibilities, except ShadowUser and very maybe ShadowDefender, but I'm not interested in this group of ISR-softwares.
I'm also waiting for another software to replace FDISR within 5-10 years.