ShadowProtect?

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by bgoodman4, Apr 30, 2009.

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  1. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I have a few questions about ShadowProtect that I hope someone can help me with.

    First, is there anywhere I can find a detailed breakdown of the programs features? The publishers website (or is it the resellers) is very skimpy on details.

    One of the things I am looking for is confirmation that snaps can be made as frequently as you like and then you can have them collapsed into one snap at your discretion. It is possible that I am confusing this function with that from another program and if this is the case if someone can let me know which program that is I would appreciate it.

    Also, I seem to recall reading somewhere on the forum that snapshots take only a min (or less) to make and a restore takes about 10 min. Again I may be confused as to the program these times refer to.

    Thanks in advance.
     
    bgoodman4, Apr 30, 2009
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  2. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    It is Shadowprotect. What you are thinking about is the Continous Incrementals. You can take them as frequently as 15 minutes, and even taking them every 30 minutes, the average time for the incrementals to run is 7-10 seconds. They are automatically collapsed to a daily at the end of the day, and a weekly at the end of the week and a monthly at the end of the month. All automatically.
    Defragging in between will cause the next image to be quite a bit bigger.


    My restore time on a 28gig partition is about 8 minutes.

    Any other questions fire away, but don't ask me for a feature comparison with other programs.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Apr 30, 2009
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  3. Hugger

    Hugger Registered Member

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    Peter,
    I have a question.
    I have a game on an image, let's say the date is 4/10/09.
    But I have to use an image from 3/15/09 for the next few weeks.
    Is there a way for me to copy the game to the earlier image?
    Thanks.
    Hugger
     
    Hugger, May 1, 2009
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  4. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Thank you Pete, much appreciated.

    Is the collapse function time table controllable of does it preset?
     
    bgoodman4, May 1, 2009
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  5. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    If you can identify specific files yes. In essence you mount the drive writeable, copy the files to the mounted image, and then when you dismount, it creates an incremental with the change.

    Don't believe though that you could say install a new program in that image using this technique.
     
    Peter2150, May 1, 2009
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  6. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Yes, you define when the collapse happens. I run incrementals thru out the business day, and then at the end of the day, do the collapse. All automatically.

    You can also specify how long the intra day incrementals are kept. Neat thing is if you need a file out of one of them you can mount the image from a specific time point and retrieve it, or you can restore the system from that point.
     
    Peter2150, May 1, 2009
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  7. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Excellent, thanks.

    I am having a new PC built and plan to use this program to protect the data & OS, and just wanted to make sure what I recalled (and hoped) was the case was correct. Sounds like a gem.
     
    bgoodman4, May 1, 2009
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  8. Aaron Here

    Aaron Here Registered Member

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    Pete,

    Do you capture your continuous incrementals (and collapses) on an internal drive or an external drive that's connected all day long? I was just wondering how you secure that backup drive when you 'close down your operations' and leave.

    Aaron
     
    Aaron Here, May 1, 2009
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  9. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    It's an internal drive, but securing isn't an issue, since it's in my apartment.
     
    Peter2150, May 1, 2009
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  10. Aaron Here

    Aaron Here Registered Member

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    Should I take that to mean that the risk of someone taking (stealing) your PC from your apartment is extremely low?
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2009
    Aaron Here, May 1, 2009
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  11. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Yes. Very unusual, in that neighbors look out for each other. Very few issues.
     
    Peter2150, May 1, 2009
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  12. Aaron Here

    Aaron Here Registered Member

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    I envy you as that's a great situation for sure, but I'm conservative enough to want to keep a backup off-site (e.g., an online host).
    .
     
    Aaron Here, May 1, 2009
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  13. Montecristo

    Montecristo Registered Member

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    I agree. You can mount the drive, move files around, and then save the changes. Pretty easy to do. However, you can't install something into a mounted image. You have to install outside of ShadowProtect and then save a new image/incremental.

    My restore time on a 10G partition is about 4 minutes.
     
    Montecristo, May 1, 2009
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  14. AaLF

    AaLF Registered Member

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    Shadowprotect reviews read good. I think I'll have a go.

    The PC has a 40gb partition with 27gb used. I would like to back up to another HDD.

    Incrementals seem the way to go and the back up will be once per day.

    The question is:

    "How many gB in the 2nd HDD should I set aside for the backups?"
     
    AaLF, Jun 21, 2009
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  15. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    The answer to that lies in how long you want to store them. Other than continuous incrementals which I let run for about a month, and then restart, I don't use incrementals. Yes, they save space, but as they build up, the time to back up and restore, slowly gets longer.

    Disk space is cheaper then my time, so I do full images.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jun 21, 2009
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  16. AaLF

    AaLF Registered Member

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    Hello Pete,

    I get your point about incrementals.

    Tell me about full back ups.

    27GB - 30GB to back up. Daily. Keep a back up for 10 days..

    Does 27Gb equate to 27Gb x 10 = 300Gb+ HDD storage reqd??
     
    AaLF, Jun 21, 2009
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  17. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    On my system, my C: drive is currently 33GB, and the images are 24gb plus or minus, so yes it would be 240Gb.

    Now what I actually do is I know where all my "data" doc's, spreadsheets, outlook data, everything of that nature is and I sync it off to another drive, and do that daily. So I could restore last weeks image, and the resync the data back. This way I image the system less frequently. Sometimes only if there is a major change or update to the system.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jun 21, 2009
    #17
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