Shadow Protect and FD-ISR

Hi all,

I have read the various Posts about Shadow Protect and FD-ISR, and I was duly impressed.
I downloaded the trial of SD. I required to understand the functionality of SD's restore and rescue disk capabilities.

Well!! I was able to create a backup, buit all attempts to restore the backup failed miserably. Well, never mind, I will try the "rescue capability" of SD, I thought.

Now, I might have missed something in the host of reading, but could not find anything relating to any form of recovery. OK! Try support! 48 hours has passed now, and no response from the Support.

Is anyone else using this Application?

Regards,

Marserobert

 

Hi Pete,
Thanks a lot: I am on to it, now.


Regards

Marserobert

 

Hi Pete,

I visited the Site that you recommended and filled in all the details. Shortly after, I received an email with a link to download the product.

The download was some 300Mb. On the first attempt the download reached 183 Mb when the SD Server cut the connection. So, I tried again, thinking the fault might be me. Same story, 183 Mb and "Zappo."

So, I will have to look elsewhere for some other product.

Anyway, thanks for your help, Pete.

Marserobert

 

Keep trying. It is worth it. Best imaging program out there.

 

Hi Peter and Silver,

Do you rate this image software higher than Acronis?

I have just tried again for the 3rd time, that is about 300 Mb of wasted download capacity - is it really worth the hassle? Shadow Protect's Support people appear to be on par with that of the Acronis people - they haven't answered 3 of my emails and this in itself does not enhance my confidence.

Regards

Marserobert

Oh One other dumb thing. What browser are you using. When I download from them if I use IE, i get speeds of 57-60kbs and timeouts. If I use Opera I get speeds of 160-200kbs and no problems.

 

The restore failed because you were attempting to restore you system volume while you were actually booted to that system volume. As the manual clearly states, you have to boot the recovery environment CD if you want to restore your system volume.

As to the download issues, I will report this. I was told that these issues were resolved but apparently there are still problems. I apologize.

 

Hi grnxnm,

On downloading the trial version from SD's Site, the Application did not have any recovery disk? Perhaps, I might be wrong!!

As Peter suggested, I tried again, some time later, and found that the provided link did not work. In the first place, I sent SD support 2 emails requesting advice - no response. I then used the link suggested by Peter - three attempts at downloading the product resulted in 540 Mb of wasted bandwidth - and not one email of apology from SD. Had I not seen your email, I would have written SD off as a waste of time and effort.

It doesn't say much for the people at SD, when I have to rely on the decent people here at Wilders to keep the interest afloat.

Anyway, thanks for your information.

Marserobert

 

As far as I remember, you download an ISO file and you have to burn that ISO-file on a CD.
That is your SP Recovery CD and at the same time your SP Installation CD to install SP under Windows.
Maybe v3.0 isn't the same as v2.0, that is always possible.

 

@marse.robert

Given your experience, you should probably move on to a different solution. I have a feeling that ShadowProtect is not the right solution for you.

 

IMO, a solution with as many possibilities as SP offers can't be anything BUT a "right solution". Even with all my own personal experiences & results of unwavering devotion to the current Imaging Apps which i regularly turn to that have yet to let me down, i believe and hold very highly to this philosophy. Simply put, a LAYERED APPROACH

Multiple apparatus comes in handy in a real pinch, ask any fireman or policeman who put their life on the line. I know that this is not exactly a common analogy shared, but in the PC Windows field, it's a very reasonable safeguard in event of a software malfunction that DOES happen at the most inopportune times you might expect.

. My time is coming for SP on this end, because it's simply undeniable given all the positive reports received in this forum so far. And this great forum is the ONLY resource some of us have as to the INTEGRITY of a product, and especially a product with such importance as a dependable & swift backup and restore solution, because after everything is said & done, a users backup image is the F.I.N.A.L line of preservation of data, including mechanical/electrical hard drive failure.

Thanks grnxnm

 

Hi grnxnm,

At this moment in time, I am not happy with the combination of applications that are currently on my computers. Furthermore, one of the reasons that I am a member of Wilders is the diversity of expertise held by other members of this Forum.

I happened to read Peter's encouraging report about Shadow Protect and considered that I might try the Application.

I downloaded the trial version of Shadow Protect and found that it would not restore. I spent some time reading the instructions but could not find anything in the download that would provide a rescue disk. Some members here are telling me that in that download there isn't a facility for a rescue disk! Is this correct?

I then went through Shadow Protect's purchasing process to buy the product "blindly" based on Peter's report. I then considered that the purchase might also not contain a rescue facility.
At this point, Pete provided a link for the 300 Mb download, and the rest is history.

Very simply, the initial download was not completely functional (no rescue facility). A link provided by Shadow Protect for a 300mb download failed - and yet, I was still prepared to make a purchase.

Would you explain your comment about my level of experience, and why should I look elsewhere for a solution?

Regards,

Marserobert

 

Yes, it is much faster, and the support is much better. I am surprised at their response in your case. They have been great with me.

Silver

 

You are misquoting me. I never mentioned your "level" of experience. I was referring to the negative experience you have had to this point, and suggested that you look elsewhere. There's no need for you to put up with issues like that if you can find a workable solution elsewhere.

Your issues seem to be:

1) You tried to restore a system volume while you were booted to that system volume. This isn't actually possible. You have to boot to an alternate environment in order to accomplish this, such as ShadowProtect's bootable Recovery Environment CD. Unfortunately, StorageCraft can't simply hand out free copies of that ISO as we have to pay Microsoft a royalty for each distribution, and therefore we make people submit an extra "full evaluation" request form if they wish to gain access to the ISO.

2) Your next issue is that you have problems downloading the ISO image. I understand IE has problems, as a download agent, and that you may be better served using a different browers, such as Opera perhaps.

3) You haven't received responses to the queries you've sent to StorageCraft (although, this puzzles me because I actually heard about your first issue not on Wilders but from a support guy as he was discussing it with someone else, so obviously your message got through but perhaps you didn't get the response - maybe it's in your spam inbox if you're filtering email).

Given these frustrations, I suggested you just move on.

Again, I did not, ever, mention your "level of experience." I apologize if you misunderstood me, or misread my statement. I was simply trying to curtail your pain.

 

Hi grnxnm,
No problems! I am afraid with this type of communication and without any non verbal cues, we somtimes will get the "wrong end of the stick."

My problem is that I really wanted this Application. In the pursuit of this, Peter has also helped.

Today, I received a very polite email from the people at SD who allowed me to download another evaluation copy. On this occasion, I stripped my OS down to a very pristine copy of Windows and downloaded Opera.

Under this umbrella, I proceeded with the download, and at 125 Mb of download the server was cut. This leaves me with two options: purchase the product on Peter's recommendation, or cut my losses and move on!

Well, I really do want this Application and I intend to sleep on the whole issue and make a decision, later.
If I choose to purchase, will I get the whole "shooting match" and will the download work?

I do hope there is no hard feelings over this episode?

Regards,

Marserobert

 

I'll tell the IT guys, again, that the downloads are still failing, with IE or Opera. I can't do much more, personally, than that. Sorry.

 

Having the same trouble downloading Shadow Protect.
The download stops at 6 percent using Firefox and DSL2.

Now the download link has expired because the allotted
amount of downloads is used up. Used up trying get a complete download.


Aloha,

Daniel

 

How about putting Shadow Protect in stores like Staples or Walmart and the like. That way it would much easier to simply walk the purchase to the checkout counter and go home knowing everything expected is complete in-box, with only exception of the normal legalities which are satisfied thru internet or email registration. Maybe mailing Postal First-Class the registration too?

 

We have added a download manager for those who download the ShadowProtect ISO files. This should alleviate problems users have had with various browsers. I believe the download manager has been added for the trial/eval downloads, and will soon be added for store (purchased) downloads.

 

Sounds like a Winner!

I'll surely be watching/waiting for that first shipment coming to a store near me.