Shadow Protect V 5.0.1 problems

Just a 'heads up':

I bought a Western Digital Passport drive which is USB3.

1)
SP failed to make a back up when the drive was connected to a USB3 port.
SP succeeded if the drive was connected to a USB2 port.
SP V5 was supposed to handle USB3 devices. It doesn't, at least not a WD Passport. 'Other back up software' works properly with the drive connected to USB3.

2)
SP fails to "Connect" when there's a RAM disk present. A RAM disk is a virtual disk that exists in 'memory' (although a real disk image may be associated with it). I wouldn't attempt to use SP to back up a RAM disk, but SP should deal with these correctly and ignore them, not just fail with a totally useless message.
---------------
I bought SP to provide an easy 'Bare Metal Restore' should my system drive fail. I've also bought extended maintenance.
I had, and still have, and use regularly, 'other back up software' (FD-ISR), which doesn't have 'BMR'.
Without SP, I'd have to use 'Plan B':
A) install Windows,
B) install the 'other back up software' and
C) restore a snapshot.

As it turns out, I've wasted more time today with these SP problems than it would take to use 'Plan B'.

 

I use SP, FDISR - SP backs up to my USB3 connected external drive or esata connected.


I did have a restore failure but used an older paragon image and FDISR archives to restore. At the moment I am using SP each day for a up todate BMR image just in case - as I have managed to make windows8 unbootable a couple of times

I don't use a ram disk so can't comment on that

 

I had no problems when using E-Sata, just the 1TB WD Passport when on USB3.

FD-ISR created an archive on USB3, I don't understand why SP can't. If they're using their own 'driver' for DDA (direct disk access) then they need to fix it. It managed to create a 4GB 'snapshot' at the beginning then 'failed' and 'destroyed' the 'snapshot'.

What brand of drive are you using successfully with SP & USB3?

I wasn't actually using the RAMdisks, I'd installed the app just to try them out, but all my internal drives are SSDs so I didn't notice any speed improvement. They're gone now, but SP shouldn't have choked on them.

 

I have black / red Western Digital 3TB 3.5 inch drives and a sharkoon usb3 bare drive caddy - I use the bare drives as last resort archive

 

So then maybe it's an SP problem with just the WD Passport on USB3.
SP successfully writes images to an internal SSD and to external HDDs in e-Sata docking stations and to the docking station in the case which is Sata3.
I just wanted to eliminate having docking stations with power bricks.

J

 

Hhmm
Irritating for u and Interesting

Wot Did SP support say ??

 

I discovered the issues on Saturday and SC's support e-mail response says that they'll respond in 2 Business Days, so I expect to get a response Tuesday/Wednesday this week.

I'll post once I get a reply.

I felt it appropriate to post on Wilders ASAP just in case someone else was having the same issues but hadn't found the solutions.

Of course 'my' issues pale in comparison to the failure of the 5.x.x Recovery Media to work, described in another thread here. That's a very scary issue.

J

 

Hello JW Clements,

I was reading over your original post and just wanted to drop in some quick advice.

You mentioned that you were having trouble with a USB 3.0 Western Digital driver. I know that the StorageCraft ShadowProtect 5.x backup and recovery software includes a HUGE library of hardware drivers. Loading up every single driver, or discovering every manufacturers driver when all manufacturers don't follow the same standards would be a nightmare. For this reason, you can always load your USB 3.0 device driver by hand using the ShadowProtect 5.x software just to be sure that the correct driver is loaded. What you are describing (that the WD drive works with USB 2.0 but not with USB 3.0) seems a lot like your USB 3.0 driver isn't installed.

The USB 3.0 driver library can be found on your CD in the \Additional_Drivers\Physical\USB folder.

Cheers!

 

How big is the drive? What sort of volume is it GPT / MBR?

This may also have some bearing

 

Hi Steve,
I was able to create an FD-ISR archive to the drive when connected by the same USB3 port so I don't think it's a USB3 driver problem. I could also copy/paste GBs of files to the drive using Explorer. And when checking via Windows Device Manager, it says I have the latest driver. I also checked the WD site and there's nothing mentioned about an available driver update.

I can't load a special driver by hand since I don't have an SP CD that you mentioned.

I had a response from SC and have run their diagnostics tool and sent the output to them, late today, and just had a phone call.... so maybe it'll get resolved.

It was interesting that they suggested enabling Write Caching through the SP UI and that introduced another problem, SP no longer failed and returned to the UI, it just hung there, as in 'forever'. I had to reboot.

J

 

It's 1TB formatted with an MBR not a GPT, with 3 partitions, 1 for data, 1 for FD archives and 1 for SP back ups.

 

I've posted this in the other thread but felt I should post in this one too.

StorageCraft Tech Support resolved everything.

An extremely pleasant and understanding support tech (initials JS) reviewed my SP diagnostics logs and suggested that I check the Gigabyte site for motherboard chipset updates that might solve the problem.

I did, and found a BIOS update covering USB3 plus an updated Etron USB3 chipset driver.

Once those were installed, SP backed up through USB3 as fast as it does to an internal SSD and to a hot swap HDD.

It wasn't an SP problem at all, I was the problem for not thinking to check for those updates.

So I'll extend my support agreement for another year, to say thank$ and to have SC available when I again need help.

J

 

JW,

So glad the issue was resolved, and not just because I work for StorageCraft. I really want to provide honest technical advice without the "hard sell". This topic popped up on my radar and so I took the opportunity to chime in. Now that I've registered with Wilders I will try to help out and be a productive part of the community where I can.

If anyone else has any questions about StorageCraft's products, please feel free to PM me.

Cheers!