ShadowProtect v4 has been released!

ShadowProtect v4 has been released!


Flash tour:
http://www.shadowprotect.com/Portals/72729/4-flash/sp40tour.html

More info:
http://storagecraft.com/shadow_protect_desktop.php

 

Thanks! Bought 2 copies @ renewal rates... $45 per individual copy

 

Where did you find that price? I haven't been able to find anything about renewals anywhere.

 

http://forum.storagecraft.com/Community/forums/storage/8/14120/Readme.rtf

 

Thanks, with one of my licenses I could benefit from the yearly maintenance and download it without any problems. I only use the recovery CD, and after making my first backup with V4, unfortunately I can only say that the time from 6 minutes with V3.5.2 increased to 8 minutes with V4. Still fast, but for my use I think I'll stick to V3.5.2.

 

When you click to purchase and login using your existing account info, the option to upgrade an existing purchase is there. I had several licenses from version 2 & 3 and they were all eligible for the lower price (I only did two as that's all I need anymore.)

 

Yeah, I ran a test last night (I only cold image too) and it ran a bit longer. Not significant, maybe 2 or 3 minutes, but it was longer. No big deal as an excellent competitor runs 40 to 45 minutes longer for the same task. I still have my 3.5.2 disk too but don't plan to use it...

 

May I ask why some of you guys use only the ShadowProtect CD?

I mean the biggest advantage is its extremly reliable incremental imaging.

Panagiotis

 

I don't install or run any program on my PC that runs all the time except for 2 or 3 security related apps. Plus, since it's a laptop, I like to pare down the amount of drive usage to a minimum. I don't have many (if any) programs the size of ShadowProtect installed. Even my digital photos are stored elsewhere. Plus, I just don't need up to the minute backups. A single time or two a month is enough.

 

I see, but it seems like having a Ferrari and drive it with 10km/h.

Have you ever tried Drive Snapshot 1.40?
It feats exactly at your usage habbits and you'll not have to use external media for imaging or restoring.

Panagiotis

 

Yeah, I'm not using nearly all ShadowProtect can offer but it's reliable and blazingly fast. It's much, much faster at creating and restoring images than anything else I've ever tried.

I have looked at several other imaging apps (all the popular ones) but never DS. I was always put off by the vague-ness (is that a word?) of the restore disk creation. For a long time, it was floppy only which is a dead end. Does DS now allow a user to create a bootable restore CD?

 

For me, there's not enough new and shinny features to entice me to use Shadow Protect and ditch Drive Snapshot. I'm all for complete imaging software, which includes the ability to restore to different hardware, but this isn't the solution for me, especially when you consider the price tag.

 

Shadowprotect is reliable and fast but not faster than IFW or DriveSnapshot (I'm talking about the full images).
But nothing beats Shadowprotect on incrementals.

If you already have a PE disc, simply add snapshot.exe in a flashdisk or better where your image resides and run it.
The power of DriveSnapshot is portability- nothing is installed and can run from every Windows or Windows PE (no plugin needed)....the reason that I said it feats you perfectly.

Panagiotis

 

Eaxctly! I don't make incrementals, so I don't take that into consideration. DriveSnapshot is great, because it is (completely) portable. Add TBOSDTS for restoring to different hardware and you're all set.

 

Sorry to be getting a bit off topic. But to repond... Looked a little more at DS. To switch @ this point would not gain me anything since I already have SP Desktop and getting the DS executable into another app (be it a PE disc or whatever) is not a direction I want to go. Kinda relates to my comment elsewhere on this board that I am looking for simple. One disc (or one app if you will) is simple. Now if DS could create a bootable CD (which if I read it right, it can't do), then it might hold more fascination for me.

 

There are ways to accomplish this. Please PM me, open a new thread, or comment on an ongoing one, and I will gladly discuss this with you. Even if you do not intend to switch, knowledge is never a bad thing.

 

You've pretty much listed the same reasons for my using exclusively the recovery CD. I can see why incrementals would be ideal for someone running a business, and last but not least I don't know how incrementals would play with my virtual sessions.

A word about other programs: I doubt that there could be a program faster than SP, but even if there is one, to change simply to reduce the time from 6 minutes to 4 it wouldn't be worth the trouble IMO. I have performed more than 50 restorations without a single issue. On the other hand I wasn't expecting SP V4 to get slower even though the recovery CD loads faster than older versions.

 

The only problem I've got with SP Desktop is with the incremental/differential(?).
I've already, in the past, made an incremental update that wound up sitting there with it's own date etc..
When I went to test restore it I couldn't because it only copied new files and did not attach itself to the full image that I had designated.
Someday I hope to figure that part out.
Other than that SP is completely reliable for me.
Hugger

 

Hi Pete. For those of us that only use the Recovery Environment of SP, would you recommend that we upgrade to version 4? Why or why not? I've noticed that some in this thread have suggested that imaging and/or restoring times have increased by as much as 33%. Do you happen to know what the added features are in the Recover Environment?

 

Looking at the new features in SP v4, it again appears to be geared more towards business users than home users. Take for example HSR, home users will hardly ever use it.

Having extensively tested v3.5, SP is an excellent software but is insanely expensive, especially if you want to buy more than one license. It is also strictly a disk imaging software and does not backup file and folders.

Those home users who want SP like reliability, with fast incrementals should check out Macrium Reflect. It is cheap (price wise, especially the 4 license deal), does file and folder backups, fast incrementals and since it does not track sector changes in real time, like SP, so after a dirty shutdown, the next incremental is the usual fast one.

However, I have nothing against SP. Those who can afford it and plan to use all its features, like HSR etc, should go for it.

 

I really don't know if one could really quantify the imaging/restoring times increase by as much as 33%. It could be machine related, and so far I have only done a backup as a test with XP Pro on a netbook (using the first option, Win 7 environment).

 

macrium reflect seems really good so far. just trying it on my machine atm.
the other good thing is that it supports windows server os's so for that low price i will be able to use it on my home server when i get around to buying the hardware.