ShadowProtect Desktop v4.0.1 released

Program download: http://www.storagecraft.com/software_update.php

ISO download: http://www.storagecraft.com/release/sprelease.asp

 

Features/Enhancements:

•The Restore Wizard in the Recovery Environment has been enhanced to reduce confusion.

•Several enhancements have been made to VirtualBoot. VirtualBoot now supports x86/x64 VirtualBox versions 3.1.0 - 3.2.6. VirtualBoot will now prompt for an automated update of more compatible VirtualBoot plugin files (VBoxHDDXSP.dll, SBImageAPI.dll, and SBImageAPI.dll.conf) in cases where an older, or incompatible, plugin is found installed in the VirtualBox directory. Such incompatibilities can occur when users upgrade from one supported version of VirtualBox to a newer supported version of VirtualBox (which perhaps requires a different version of these plugin files). VirtualBoot now creates VMs which use VirtualBox-native .VDI files (written by VirtualBox itself) to store the VM's disk writes, rather than .SPWB files (which were not crash proof). These .VDI files are much more crash resistant, and hence this reduces or eliminates situations where the VirtualBoot-created VM is unbootable after situations where the host has crashed or the VirtualBoot processes (VirtualBox.exe or VBoxSVC.exe) have crashed. It is still recommended that users, who are using VirtualBoot for failover scenarios, continue incremental backups within the VM in order to protect any new data. Also, now that VirtualBoot uses .VDI files to store the VM's disk writes, you will notice that when you power off the VM, VirtualBox gives you the option to "Restore current snapshot to 'VirtualBoot'." YOU SHOULD *NOT* CHECK THIS BOX! Checking this box will cause the VM to discard all writes made within the VM since its creation. If you do intend to revert the VM back to its creation state, then it's okay to check this box.

•The product help links now refer to online help. For those who wish to have local help, it is still available, and is found on the Recovery Environment CD.

 

Issues Resolved:

•Resolved a rare crash of the ShadowProtect interface/GUI (ShadowProtect.exe) on startup

•Resolved an issue with the calculated time remining value in the Legacy Recovery Environment

•Fixed the search functionality within the ShadowProtect help

•Fixed an issue where the ShadowProtect backup job email notification showed the same time for both the job start and job end times

•Resolved an issue with VirtualBoot incompatibilities with VirtualBox 3.1.8 and 3.2.0. The VirtualBoot feature in ShadowProtect 4.0.1 is now compatible with VirtualBox versions 3.1.0, 3.1.2, 3.1.4, 3.1.6, 3.1.8, 3.2.0, 3.2.4, and 3.2.6.

•In ImageManager Enterprise, fixed an issue with activation on OEM versions of Windows

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, resolved and issue where a finalized VHD HeadStart Restore job would not boot

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, resolved and issue where a cancelled HeadStart Restore jobs would show error status

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, resolved an issue where the last applied point-in-time for HeadStart Restore jobs displayed incorrectly

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, trying to finalize a HeadStart Restore job before the base image file has been applied displayed an error message. It will now display the finalize dialog

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, file create/delete notifications were occasionally processed for the wrong directory. This would cause error messages to be logged for nonexistent files

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, replication status messages were not always updated correctly, such as FTP replication would sometimes show 100% from the time the send began

•In ImageManager Enterprise, Trial Expired message would display if a user did not have a license and tried a licensed feature

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, Machine Name was not displayed for image chains whose base was created by ShadowProtect 3.2 or earlier

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, chains that had not collapsed for over a month would create the -cd and -cm files but not the -cw files prior to the last -cm file

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, replication will check for files to be sent every time a new file is verified instead of only when files to be sent are verified. This came about because when only sending collapse files, if a transfer was interrupted it would not retry until the next collapse file was verified, usually a day later

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, using local replication and swapping the destination drive required the ImageManager service to be restarted to recognize the drive had changed. Instead of restarting the service, disabling (stop button) and re-enabling (start button) on the Replication tab will re-sync ImageManager with the contents of the new drive

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, installing an upgrade to ImageManager 4.0 will now retain the previous ImageManager.mdb file to avoid forcing a reverify of all files

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, fixed HeadStart Restore Job Settings form to roll back changes when creating a new job fails

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, fixed empty agent status bar that sometimes appears on startup

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, fixed licensing issues

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, removed Infragistics DLLs

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, change login page to force password change on first login

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, added password hint to login page

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, fixed HeadStart Restore Finalize dialog to hide ‘Restore latest’ option when no points in time are available

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, changed HeadStart Restore to allow finalizing a job with one unfinalized target and one failed target

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, fixed auto-login to save correct password when password is changed

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, changed client to compare interface versions instead of product versions

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, fixed HeadStart Restore to correctly display deleted images

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, fixed pie chart to handle inconsistent used space sometimes reported by NAS devices

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, updated Technical Support hyperlink on About pages

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, fixed taskbar icon so it always appears

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, updated help file

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, disabled publisher evidence generation to resolve client UI startup hang on some machines

•In ImageManager Standard/Enterprise, added client configuration setting to auto-connect to localhost when run the first time

 

Thank you prius04. Do you know if there's an upgrade price option to v4? I'm an existing v3.5 customer but I couldn't find an upgrade offer anywhere. Storagecraft seems to want the full $89.99 amount for v4.01.

 

Yes, the upgrade price (assuming you don't have the maintenance option or it expired) is one-half the normal price. Try hitting the following link and entering your serial number:

https://upgrade.storagecraft.com/uc/start.jsp

 

with this new version do you need to use the recovery disk to restore a windows image? , i mean like you can restore a image with acronis whit out the need of disk you just need to reboot and acronis start recovery the c drive

 

Thank you again prius, I got it

 

As long as the target partition/disk is different than the one SP is installed on, I think it should be okay.

 

If I'm not mistaken, according to Nate (from SC), it's possible to set up booting without the CD. He outlines the procedure in the following thread.

http://forum.storagecraft.com/Community/forums/p/2664/12948.aspx#12948

 

Windows Bootloader is capable of booting any WIM file you like from any location. The best way to do it is through the command prompt and by following the technet instructions from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721886(WS.10).aspx :

Is much easier than it looks at a first glance.

ps. Boot from WIM is the name that microsoft used for this example, you can replace it with whatever you like.
Panagiotis

 

yes, and the best explanation I've ever come across, because it's the only one that makes complete sense to me. BTW, I just tried it and it seems to work fine. The option in the Boot Configuration Utility is "Install .WIM file". It adds an entry to the boot menu: "Ramdisk Options", that when selected boots you into the recovery environment just as if you were booted off the recovery cd. prius, you are proving to be a great source of info on this product

 

Thanks,

installed over the top .

 

Hello everyone,

I am now reading more into back-up. I have come across this product however there is a question that keeps bugging me regarding ShadowProtect Desktop(not sure if it can be posted it this thread, if not, could a mod make a separate thread?).

I have read this thread:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=180742

Here is my question:
I have SP installed on my current system, let's call it PC1. I purchase a new PC, which is called PC2. I want to have SP on PC2. I deactivate SP on PC1 and install it on PC2. I purchase a Laptop, which is called Laptop1. I want SP on my Laptop. I deactivate SP on PC2 and install it on Laptop1. I purchase a new Laptop, which is called Laptop2. I want SP on Laptop2. I deactivate SP on Laptop1 and install it on Laptop2.

In the above described event, will I run into activation problems e.g. having to send emails to support explaining the situation? Even though I deactivated SP before installing it onto a new machine?

I look forward hearing from you.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi murderlove,

see this Storagecraft KB article. In my experience, the two times I've run into activation snags, Storagecraft support has helped me resolve them within 24 hrs of emailiong them.

*EDIT*

something from that article I never knew before:

 

That's right, it works fine here... I noticed that it shortened the time needed to load StorageCraft Recovery Environment from ~2-3 minutes to 20-30 sec! and I don't need CD now. Great!
Thanks for the link prius

 

Does anybody know how to change this "Ramdisk Options" value?
I have tried this procedure in CMD:
bcdedit /set {GUID} Description "ShadowProtect System Recovery"

... and it works but (is visible) only under Windows - in cmd console i see:

Code:

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {xxxx-x2-1xx1df-xxx4-fxxxxx18f631}
device                  ramdisk=[C:]\Windows\BOOT.WIM,{ramdiskoptions}
path                    \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
description             ShadowProtect System Recovery
osdevice                ramdisk=[C:]\Windows\BOOT.WIM,{ramdiskoptions}
systemroot              \windows
detecthal               Yes
winpe                   Yes

But after restart there is still "Ramdisk Options" value in boot menu