Keriver 1-Click Restore Free - size of snapshots?

I just discovered Keriver 1-Click Restore Free version. http://www.keriver.com/oneclick_free.html

I was looking for something to replace Rollback RX and Comodo Time Machine because they have both damaged my system at one time or another.

For regular backups I use Macrium Reflect Free version.

People say this Keriver 1-Click Restore is a snapshot app and an imagine app.. which is it.. or is it both? Can it work like Rollback Rx and work like Macrium Reflect?

If it does work like Rollback Rx, how large are the snapshots? The reason I'm asking are because normally snapshots from apps like Rollback Rx and Comodo Time Machine are very small and an image back up as from Marcium Reflect is very large.

I'm looking for something that gives me the small snapshots.

 

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1753206&postcount=12

 

Ah, so their use of the word " Snapshots" is highly misleading. Mostly, system restore type apps use this terminology. It's not a snapshot tool, only an "imaging" tool. No wonder I was confused. They really should change their terminology to the correct terms. Just because of this, I think I'll stick with Macrium Reflect. I don't see how I could trust them if they can't even get their terminology right. Thanks.

 

Keriver 1-Click Restore It's a great and easy to use backup software

 

I think you are making too much of an issue there. "Snapshot" has been used interchangeably and if you really want to nitpick its usage, "Snapshot" is in the name of a prominent disk-imaging program, "Drive Snapshot", which was released to the public a few years before RollBack Rx, EAZ-Fix or CTM even appeared on the scene!

TS

 

Comodo Time Machine, Rollback Rx are snapshot technologies.

Keriver and Macrium, Paragon, Clonezilla, Acronis are imaging technologies.

The difference between snapshot and imaging is great. Snapshots are quick to take - 1 second, a bit longer to restore - from 1 second to 10 minutes (depends on the prog though), size is smaller then Image. For snapshot you always need resident a Time Machine.

Imaging is much longer to take (about 15 minutes) and about the same time to restore. (I take this times for Comodo Time Machine, Clonezilla, Reflect, Acronis, Paragon, Win-7 inbuilt imaging when used them on one comp). For imaging you don't always need your prog resident.

The safest though longest is imaging into external drive.

The quickest though less safe is using snapshots. - But for me that's real fun.

 

Solarlynx,

Nice explanation of imaging and snapshotting differences!
Let me add a method to divide them based on how they internally work:

- Imaging programs make a copy of the drive and store it in a safe place (normally to a separate drive)
- Snapshot programs force the OS to never overwrite the existing data, even if it's been deleted or modified by the user. This allows to later restore that old data.

 

Yeah, you said it better!
I also add that Snapshot programs keep their snapshots in the system partition, hiding from the os. That's why Time Machines must be always resident.

 

About snapshots/images and maybe some interresting things of Keriver
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=294436&page=3&highlight=keriver
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=322137&highlight=keriver
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=323007&highlight=keriver

 

I have used Keriver 1 click free, and it works fine, although it is much slower than other imaging apps in creating an image, it does have good compression which plays a part in its overall speed of image creation. For instance, my Win 7 Pro partition has only about 6.5GB of data in it...with IFL I can image this with Standard compression in about 3:17 which is fast...and with Keriver 1 click, it takes about 12 minutes, and compresses to about 50%.

The time is not a big deal, but it is a significant difference between that and IFL, but Keriver is quality and that is the bottom line, to have a quality image to restore. 1 click also offer incrementals which will allow faster imaging after the baseline is created, but I do not use incrementals personally.

I also tried Keriver Image, the full version, still takes about 12 minutes to image my 6.5Gb of system data, but is a full image program. I only trialled it, mainly to try the bootcd, because I do only cold imaging and the Keriver Image bootcd is nice, and full version allowing backup and restore etc.

In any case, this is just my personal experience with 1 click and with the full Keriver Image program. they are very good software, slow but reliable and that is what you want is reliable. It appears as reliable as IFW/IFL but just slower.

 

And also the developer is working on a new release version which would be compatible with win8. And it's never gonna be abandonware. The developer assured me that if he ever decides to leave Keriver products(which is not gonna happen in near future) he will make it open source before leaving.

 

My respects to Keriver.

 

Same here. Total respect.

 

Indeed. Total respect to a software author who respects the users of his products!

Both K1CR and KI are excellent imaging apps!

 

I agree for sure Keriver has earned total respect, and it is well deserved as Amit and CGuard has stated. Solid products and I do hope Mr. Zhao ( I think that is his name) continues to have good success. He has an excellent reputation, and I miss hearing from him here at Wilders.

He is very easy to deal with from my experience and a few emails I have had with him. An honest man, and that can be difficult to find these days.

 

Yes he is Mr. River Zhao. And he still replies to emails. Whenever I send an email I get an appropriate reply straight from him within 2 hours. Very good support even for the free product.

 

I wish I had your luck with Keriver support. I have a license for Keriver Image. I emailed a question to Keriver support on September 15 and have yet to get a response. Last week I bought a Dell XPS 8500 and installed Keriver Image v5.2. Every time I restore an image, I get a long, complicated error message followed by one which says the image restored successfully. Also, when I attempted to activate my license key on this new PC, it wasn't accepted. The license is supposed to be valid on as many computers as a person has at home.

I sent two emails on October 14 to Keriver support asking about the error message I'm getting and for them to reset my license activations. I'm still waiting for a response.

 

Sorry to hear of that Karen. The few times I emailed him about a year ago, it took a few days before I rec'd any response, but I took that as normal.

I hope you hear something from him soon, I am sure you will. The error message you saw, did you or were you able to take note of the message? I wonder if the problem may be your new system, possibly the new style UEFI type BIOS replacement or something that maybe KI does not fully support, but glad to hear you were able to restore an image.

I have used KI before. I like it, a bit slow, but very solid. I do wonder if Mr. Zhao will continue its development. I hope so. Please let us know how things work out. Have a good night.

 

When I bought a Keriver Image license last year, emails were answered promptly. I was assured I could use my license on multiple computers so long as they were in one home and plenty of activations would be available to me.

I did copy the long error message (which I received every time I did a restoration using Keriver Image) in one of my emails to Keriver support.

My Dell XPS 8500 has been very finicky about what imaging software will work on it. Acronis True Image 2011, which works on my HP PCs with Windows 7, doesn't work on my Dell. True Image 2013 does function, at least when making and restoring full images. True Image's Nonstop Backup feature, regardless of the version used, has never worked successfully in any of my PCs. Norton Ghost 15 failed miserably on my new Dell. Macrium Reflect works so well on it that I bought a license.

 

Hi Karen

I looked into the specs of the XPS 8500 from Dell. One thing that caught my eye is according to Dell, there are several USB 3.0 ports, along with USB 2.0 ports. I also read several threads about folks having problems with USB 3.0 being properly supported by some drive imaging apps such as yourself, even stating that in some cases Win7 built in imaging backup does not work properly with USB 3.0 in some cases.

Just a thought here, as I do not have all the info, but Macrium is one of the products that do have full USB 3.0 support, but then again Acronis is said to have support for this also beginning with TI 2011, so not sure why you also had trouble with Acronis features also. Ghost 15 should also have USB 3.0 support, yet you had trouble with that.

It is a head scratcher for sure. It just seemed to me that I have read over time, several articles regarding USB 3.0 problems with both imaging apps and Win7 OS. Not saying this is your problem, just trying to assist in figuring out what the issue may be with your new Dell XPS and why the listed imaging apps will not or do not work properly with your machine.

By now I would have thought USB 3.0 was supported across most apps for imaging, but it appears in your case, even if they do support 3.0, even then some do not work. Good to hear that Macrium works well Certainly sounds like some sort of hardware issue causing others not to function properly. It should not be a 64 bit issue as far as I can tell. Do you have the message you were given in regards to Keriver Image error you sent to Keriver support?

If you recall the error message, maybe post it here and maybe others can chime and help to try and figure out the source of the problem and how it may be effecting certain imaging apps you have tried. Just a thought. But the more I think of it, the less USB 3.0 sounds like the issue...but potentially it could be hardware related due to lack of support of the software you have tried finding so far only Macrium is working.

Computing can often be a futile attempt at grasping straws in these cases, running into various unexpected issues and errors, especially with all the various hard/soft configs, etc. in many new machines, I would think it would be very difficult for companies to keep up with it all. I am baffled at why Keriver has yet to contact you though especially in regards to the license issue. I hope you hear something from Mr. Zhao soon.

In any case, best wishes and very glad to hear you found Macrium is working without errors.

Jim

 

I received an email from Mr. Zhao a short while ago. I reinstalled Keriver Image v5.2 on my Dell XPS 8500 and this time my license key was accepted. When I created a (verified) backup image and attempted to restore it, I received the same error message as before:

.\imagefile_read.cpp(651)-thread_read.thread read: |Count >
COMPRESS_UNIT_SECTORS || Begin ! = curr_list - > start!

When I closed out of this message, it said the restoration is successful (which appears to be the case). It's hard to feel confident, however, in any imaging program which gives you such an error message. I'm hoping Mr. Zhao will be able to shed some light on the problem.

FWIW, this was the first time (on any of my 3 PCs) Keriver Image's recovery CD recognized my external hard drive when connected by USB 3.0. There doesn't seem to be any consistency as to when Keriver, Acronis, Macrium Reflect, [insert name of imaging program here] will, or will not, recognize external hard drives connected via USB 3.0. Macrium Reflect's recovery CD works with USB 3.0 on my Dell PC, but not one of my HP PCs.

 

Hi Karen

I am glad to hear you heard back from Mr. Zhao and at least got the license issue solved. The message that you posted that happens with Keriver, would this by chance be the result of choosing a restore 'Sector by Sector' when you are in the recovery mode? I had typically thought a sector by sector restore is to be used in the case of when one creates an image of ALL sectors, or a RAW style image in comparison to creating an image of just occupied sectors. I recall using Keriver to restore an image, and I stumbled at the 'sector by sector' option right before restore, but I did not choose that option as I never image all sectors, just those occupied. The restore was fine, then I thought I best look into this, and according to Keriver Image docs, it stated:

"If you select 'Restore Sector by Sector', the Restore Wizard will performs a sector-by-sector restore of the partition. This bypasses use of native file system functions.

If a file system is not supported or is corrupted, Keriver Image can restore data using a sector-by-sector approach to overcome disabling errors."

So in any case, it sounded to me that the option was not just for RAW or ALL sector type images, but it could be used either way, but not necessary with supported file systems. I just wondered though if one chooses to restore sector by sector, if it is when the message you posted may appear? It does not appear as much an error message as it does a program command to initialize the restore function. It was just a thought, but I suspect if you do not ever remember seeing this message while doing a restore, then I can see how it would make one wonder *if* the restore did indeed work properly.

As for the USB 3.0 issue, it sure sounds like it can be a fickle environment with any imaging app, and is also what I have read about the 3.0 problems. Also odd is that while Macrium works fine on your XPS, it does not work fine on your other systems. New technology is great, that is when it is actually consistent and works on the intended platform. It would appear to me that the USB 3.0 issue is still very much alive and causing some oddities, hopefully those will be worked out.

Thank you for letting us know how things are going and for taking the time to post the message. I wish I could help you more, but the inconsistent behavior in handling USB 3.0 escapes me as to why it seems unstable with imaging, whether it is proper read/write issues, or simply lack of overall support with these apps. Hard to say.

I am curious to hear what Mr. Zhao has to say in regards to your message, and if it is indeed an error or a command implemented for some reason as it reads the image data. My thought was the sector by sector option may have generated it, but according to Keriver docs, it would not appear to matter as the approach simply restores without regard to the file system.

Have a good night

Jim

 

Obviously the author hasn't been working on this for ages since he seems to not response on people's questions..

Also.. the name "snapshot" on 1-click restoration solutions is VERY MISLEADING, as someone earlier said.
It's taking either full image backups or incremential/differential,
this has nothing to do with real snapshot software,like Rollback RX.

The idea would have been great,to store the snapshots on external drive and use external drive for recovery console, since these are missing from Rollback RX,and if your HD dies where it's installed,so does your snapshots.

Oh well, I would have bought the pro version if it really was a snapshot software...

Thanks anyways.

 

Just started using this.Can i use windows defrag as normal while i have this

 

Yes, you can do this without doubt Keriver prepares image of system and saves it on other (nonsystem) disk what is default and aobligatory option. BTW...file of images can be also defragmented as the other "normal" files.