New Drive Snapshot build released.

fs2com,

What were the 4-5 partitions called in DS?

I've always seen identical results with Restore Partition Structure and Restore MBR.

 

Hi Brian.. I should have taken a screenshot of it, but the other day I'm in a hurry mode...
so after I right click and choose restore mbr and notice everything looks fine I get on with it...

Next time I got the same situation I will screenshot it and investigate more

edit :
Come to think of it... Maybe the wrong step is from the first time I made the image...
I don't know the right way since I usually use macrium...

So I got 3 partition (sys reserve, system and data) since I just need the system drive,
then when making image I just click the system partition...
Then later when restoring if I click restore partition structure it messed up with a lot of partition...
after I click restore mbr the partition is correct which is 3 partition... which is I find it quite odd... since I left out the third partition when making the image...

Is my method is correct to using DS like the above?

 

fs2com,

You just wanted to restore the OS image back into its own partition. It wouldn't matter if you had backed up 1 or 3 partitions, you only wanted to restore 1 partition. There is no need to "Restore Partition Structure" or "Restore MBR" because those items are already on the HD. You already have a partition table and boot code. Ignore both choices.

It's only when you have an empty HD without partitions or boot code that those choices are needed. Choose either as I think they are the same. When you backup a partition the MBR gets backed up as well and that's what you see when you select either choice. You can see partitions that weren't backed up although they contain no data until an image is restored.
The MBR= boot code, disk signature and partition table.

Sorry, I forgot you were using an empty HD. Your experience differs from what I've seen.

 

Oh I'd like to add that the command line has many options not available in the GUI, you may get a list using typing in a cmd windows
'snapshot -? | more', and also 'snapshot --? | more' to get info on the -- commands.

 

Thanks Brian for the explanation... yes I think I've been spoiled by the easiness of macrium which we can drag and drop, changing the size with dragging, etc... for DS the smaller image file size and the portability is quite amazing not to mention the speed of the process.
I just had to explore a little bit more to get used to the program I guess

Thanks MerleOne, will surely check those out too

 

A new build, released today (Dec 15 2014), is available here. As usual no relevant info is provided.

Cruise

 

Thanks for the heads up on the new build Drive Snapshot v1.43.0.17413

 

There may have been a bug-fix to the Dec 15 builds as I just discovered that newer builds (17448/17449) were released on Dec 18!

Cruise

 

I do not understand how such a small program as drive snapshot can do back ups when it is compared to the size of acronis etc.

 

By applying the KISS principle David. Keep in mind that Acronis can do so much more (not that I need any of it)!

And DS is not just a tiny miracle in size, it is also portable by design - so you can keep a copy of snapshot.exe on any Windows volume and run it from there!

Cruise

 

@Cruise. Yes but it is only about 400kb isn't it. But then i do not understand how programs are written

 

The latest versions of snapshot64.exe and snapshot.exe are 350 and 375 Kb respectively (in all of its years of development it hasn't grown to 400 Kb yet).

"The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided."

 

There is also a portable one? Oh I see you said there is sorry

 

Cruise, thanks for the 'heads up' on the DS update - a new build released just 3-days after the prior build does indeed smack of a bug fix. And I would agree that DS is the epitome of applying the Kiss principle in programming.

David, snapshot.exe is totally portable (as Cruise stated)!

Wendi

 

I would like to start using Drive Snapshot - after many years in which I had drifted to other backup software, including most recently AX Time Machine.

In fact I searched and unearthed a thread that I started in 2007 in which I had asked how to schedule backups using DS. See https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/image-backup-using-drive-snapshot.187031/

Since 2007 I changed my PC and OS and now I use Windows 8.1. As the developer's website continues to offer sparse information about scheduling backups, I would be grateful to know if there is something that I should bear in mind when creating backups using DS. In particular how could I create a batch file to perform automated backups, and what frequency for such backups may be advisable?

Some additional information: I intend to store my backups to an external hard disk and my data is held on C drive along with the OS installation.

 

This is some sort of project in your area of interest... I know not the status.

 

Thank you for the heads up. Drive Snap appears to be not available for the time being.

 

If you haven't already done so, you can fire off a PM (Personal Message) to @markymoo and inquire about the current status.

 

Hi Izettso,

As markymoo's Drive Snap is not available, I think you would benefit from the following thread wherein Brian K developed easy-to-use DOS scripts to automate scheduled backups with Drive Snapshot.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/an-image-backup-thats-very-easy-to-use.343430

Hth,
Wendi

 

Thank you Wendi. I had a quick look and that thread is indeed useful.

 

It's really too bad that markymoo ran into what seems to be a formidable (Win7) snag in developing DriveSnap.

Re Brian K - he has been of (big) help to me as well in automating DS and IFW operations.

 

I have managed to get image backups working using the following command:

@Echo off
set path="C:\Program Files (x86)\Snapshot"
CD /d M:\Images
snapshot.exe C: M:\Images\$computername-$disk-full.sna -R -L0 -T -W -Go
IF EXIST [mycomputername]-C-full_02.sna (DEL [mycomputername]-C-full_02.sna)
IF EXIST [mycomputername]-C-full_01.sna (REN USER-HP-C-full_01.sna [mycomputername]-C-full_02.sna)
REN USER-HP-C-full.sna [mycomputername]-C-full_01.sna

(replace "[mycomputername]" with my actual computer name)

I tried to send the verification results to a text file by adding ">>results.txt" at the end of the fourth line, but all I get is an empty (0 bytes) text file. I recall that this redirection used to work back in 2007 (see my earlier posting in this thread). Has anything changed in the program since then that does not make it possible to redirect the verification result to a text file?

 

Glad to see you now have it all (well almost all) sorted out.

 

Thank you, again, for pointing me in the right direction. Apart from the creation of a verification results text file, I should try to schedule the backups and I hope that this will be straightforward.

 

I'm curious about using DS with Win8.1 installed in UEFI mode. Restoring an entire drive image (4 partitions) to the same HD, no problems. But restoring that same image to a new, blank HD produced a non booting OS. Error code:0xc000000e. An Automatic Repair failed. A Startup Repair from a Win8.1 UFD failed (after 10 minutes).

Anyone?