Image For Windows

I found it.

Thanks Brian.

 

Hi Brian
do you use PHYLock or windows VSS ?
which is more safe and trusty?
thanks

 

mantra,

I use PHYLock. It works for me and it has no file exclusions (apart from PageFile and Hibernation file), unlike VSS. Maybe losing the excluded files when you restore a VSS created backup isn't important but I just like the idea of backing up and restoring "everything".

 

I've never been able to get PHYLock to work.
It just times out.

 

I had that once, for a few weeks, and I never found the cause. Does this help?

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=551

 

I don't get any errors, Brian.
It just times out to whatever the maximum wait time is (default: 10 minutes) and then, I assume it uses VSS after that.

 

Try reducing the Write Free Time (ms) from 4250 to 3000 or 2000. If that doesn't help, use VSS.

If you let it time out to 10 minutes, PHYLock commences without a Write Free Time. It doesn't sound like a good option to me.

 

I might try that one day

I might try that when I feel like experimenting.
VSS has worked flawlessly for me in the past with IFW and Reflect. Not sure if it is worth messing around with.

 

Can you look in C:\Windows\System32\config

Do you have any .regtrans-ms or .blf files (file extensions)?

When I was testing VSS I noted a lot of these files. A few hundred MB. I've no idea why they occurred. Deleting them didn't create any problems.

 

No, I don't have anything like that in there.

 

I just remembered they are Protected OS files so to see them you have to remove the tick from "Hide protected OS files" in folder options.

If you don't feel comfortable doing this you can use TBOSDT.

Run TBOSDT Pro and type these lines (Press Enter after each line)
C:
CD \Windows\System32\config
list files *.regtrans-ms
list files *.blf

I just checked and I only have 8 .regtrans-ms and 4 .blf

 

Yeah, they are there.

 

Many?

 

12 .regtrans-ms
6 .blf

 

That's OK. You don't have the issue I experienced. Thanks.

 

I'm so thankful for that.

 

How do you clear the IFW Notify log?
I have tried deleting IFW.LOG in C:\Program Files (x86)\TeraByte Unlimited\Image for Windows\V2, but IFW Notify still displays all my logs.

I don't need to see so many logs. It is pointless to me looking back at months of logs that the images for have already been deleted.

 

Hi Pete! I believe you'll find using the Macrium WinRE Recovery Environment to offer the exact same Windows I/O structure (and speed) as a WinPE IFW build would give you. I can't think of anything in the two environments that differ in any way as it relates to I/O performance under Windows.

But I'm sure Brian will have a better perspective on this as he's run them all a thousand times

 

It's "fast" due primarily to the Linux disk level I/O facility which has always been fast. Macrium could never use that due to the design involved with their current product but has used it in the past for simple restores.

 

Pete,

I mainly use TBWinRE for restores and have a few questions, if you don't mind.

Did you use the same options for both the IFL and IFW restores? Was it a Full image or an Incremental/Differential?

What version of WinPE is Macrium using? It could make a difference since some include better/different drivers by default.

What version of Windows is it?

Is the backup image located on the USB drive? If it is, is the drive 2.0 or 3.0? If USB 3.0, IFL has those drivers included. WinPE/RE will if based on Windows 8+ or if they're added to Windows 7-base (and function).

As for building the TBWinRE boot media (available for Windows 7+) it generally just takes a couple minutes (less on a fast system). You could create it and see if you notice a difference on your system. I tend to mostly use TBWinRE based on Windows 8.1 or 10 as they seem the fastest and most universal.

 

Not sure about that. On all 5 of my computers, the speed of full backup/restore using Acronis boot USB (based on WinPE 5 x64) has been a lot faster than using IFL boot USB.

 

Since I turned primarily to Macrium Reflect in past half year for imaging/restores, I still maintain IFL (which has been my primary for last few years) for redundant parallel usage in tandem with Macrium (belt & suspenders) imaging for very important things like before and after my household Win10 upgrades and clean installs.

 

Not very universal for me. When I create a boot medium using WinRE in a UEFI Windows 8.1/10 Dell laptop, and then try to use it in a Windows 7 machine, the keyboard and mouse don´t work.