IFW/IFD - It has let me down.

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Genady Prishnikov, Dec 1, 2006.

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  1. Genady Prishnikov

    Genady Prishnikov Registered Member

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    I have used Powerquest Drive Image 2002 for a LONG time. Then, I was sold over by the simplicity and boot CDs of IFW (Image For Windows). However, last night I had to do a restore of one of my PQ Drive Images. It would not boot. None of my images from Drive Image 2002 would boot. I checked these often to make sure they were "ready' in an emergency. The only thing different is I had installed and created an image using IFW. I find it an odd coincidence - I had been so high on IFW/IFD. The only thing I can figure is that someway, somehow, IFW touches the MBR. The bottom line was that after installing and creating an image with IFW, I was no longer able to quickly boot into a solid image created with PQ Drive Image 2002.

    I did a quick fresh install of XP, installed Powerquest Drive Image 2002 as the only program and quickly, and easily, restored the image I wanted - I was back in business. No problems. My ONLY software change had been the IFW image creation and verification.

    Anyone have any explanations - that make sense?
     
    Genady Prishnikov, Dec 1, 2006
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  2. Longboard

    Longboard Registered Member

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    Genady
    No it doesn't, unless you have done something to make it so.

    You have BING installed?
    Any other boot managers?

    Where do you keep all these images?
    I'm sure you did it right, but where did you restore to? ie which partition

    Had you installed any other tools that play with the mbr: possibly the most likely issue

    Does PQ image the mbr? and restore it?
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2006
    Longboard, Dec 1, 2006
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  3. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    The only explanation I'd have is it wasn't IFW. None of the imaging programs I use which includes IFD/IFW, Drive Snapshot, Acronis, and Shadow Protect. None of them do a thing to the disk that I am aware of when imaging. So I would have to suspect that it was somehow a PQ Drive Image problem.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Dec 1, 2006
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  4. Longboard

    Longboard Registered Member

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    AS above;
    Ifw is just a locking tool (phylock) and imager: nothing more.
    There must be something else??
    Can you elaborate a bit please.
    Regards
     
    Longboard, Dec 1, 2006
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  5. wilbertnl

    wilbertnl Registered Member

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    Even if you are absolutely right about this, even then...

    It's PQ that fails to restore your system to a functional state.
    PQ should be able to restore when you install a brandnew harddrive, that doesn't have a MBR initiallized at all, would you not agree?
     
    wilbertnl, Dec 1, 2006
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  6. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    As an additional comment. I started a restore once with Drive Snapshot from my USB drive using the DOS commands. I aborted it after an hour with only 20% completed. Needless to say at that stage I had a useless hard drive. IFD restored an image and all was well.

    I think its safe to say if an image doesn't restore, the problem is with the image/program that made and is restoring the image.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Dec 1, 2006
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  7. wilbertnl

    wilbertnl Registered Member

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    By the way, I agree that IFW/IFD impress for their simplicity and compact file size.
    There is another program that is totally awesome: drivesnapshot.
    One small executable does it all: take image/differential image, explore image, restore image, restore MBR.

    Restore is done from a DOS floppy/CD, it reads files from NTFS, you need to feel comfortable with typing commands to restore.
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2006
    wilbertnl, Dec 1, 2006
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  8. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Works wonderfully well in the BartPe environment, and has to be the easiest to get into bart.
     
    Peter2150, Dec 1, 2006
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