Looking for a GoBack like replacment

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by bgoodman4, Jan 23, 2009.

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  1. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Before anyone suggest I search for one of the many threads covering rollback programs let me say I have been looking at these already and had pretty much settled on RollBack Rx. The thing is that there are 3 specific functions in GoBack that seem to be missing from all of the alternatives I have looked at. One is the file version recovery ability and the second is the sporadic rollback periods. That is, in GoBack you will not only get rollbacks at (say) 1 hour ago, 2 hours ago, etc, but 10 min ago, 39 min ago, before system boot, etc. That is, basically any time in the last hour that any more or less significant change took place on the drive. In addition GoBack has an advanced disk drive restore that will provide a log of all events that took place on the drive so that you can pinpoint almost exactly where you want to rollback to. This function stood me well today as I needed to roll back to a point between 2 specific events. I wanted to rollback to a time after I had uninstalled a couple of programs but before I installed a new one. The time span was apx 10 min (probably a bit less actually). Clearly hourly incremental backups will not enable me to do this (or the other things noted above).

    I have been using GoBack since Roxio days and have stuck with the last stand alone version from Symantec. I need to find an alternate and hopefully I will not have to use multiple programs to achieve all of the functions that I had with GoBack. If there are no alternates that will do it all could I trouble you for a few suggestions that might work well with RollBack Rx. Thanks
     
  2. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Why are you switching if GoBack works for you?
     
  3. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

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    Re: Looking for a GoBack like replacement

    I'd choose either FD-ISR if it's still available and if I have room enough on my system partition (there is a dedicated thread here on wilders).

    Other solution, very close to Goback, but better IMHO : DriveClonePro 6 from Farstone. I am using it currently and I like it very much so far. It allows instant snapshot & recovery (well almost instant), image and file backup, full & incremental.
     
  4. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Peter, I am switching because the version I am using of GoBack is from 2003 and Symantech has messed with more current versions enough that it is now a problem to work with. In addition GoBack now comes bundled with other Symantec products that I do not want. I actually upgraded a while back and after fighting with the software for a few days uninstalled it. As to why now, I have a new laptop and the old version of GoBack will not run on it as its a Vista and my version of GoBack is a no go.

    MerleOne, thank you for you suggestion, I will take a look at FD-ISR if I can find it.
     
  5. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Gotcha. FD-ISR rescue is available from HorizonDataSys

    Pete
     
  6. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    MerleOne and Peter, I took a look at FD-ISR but from what I can see it is not automatic. It requires the user to initiate a snapshot which is not what I am looking for. RollBack Rx will snapshot hourly as well as on demand, this would be fine if I were anticipating a problem and had the foresight to do a snapshot but most problems tend to be unanticipated. What I am looking for is some program that will take snapshots more frequently than hourly and preferably only when something significant happens on the drive. In addition I am looking for file version recovery capability as well. If I am wrong about this please correct me.

    EDIT: I just took another look at RollBack RX and the publishers page says the program can rollback minutes,,,I will have to figure out how that aspect works. May be the solution I had settled on before starting this thread is in fact the correct one for me after all.

    Edit 2: here is the solution as provided by RollBack Rx, its good but not perfect as it will not save versions of files. For that I suspect I will need a 2nd program but it looks pretty good

    Any suggestions for a data wide file version saving program?
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2009
  7. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

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    In the past Rollback RX was very unstable. I skipped the last upgrade and stopped using it a long time ago. Recent users may have another view.

    DriveClonePro 6 is quite robust and flexible for the moment (since one month ago). I use it on a vista notebook and an XP Desktop.

    However, there is a small drawback : HDD performance suffers, and your system may seem slower (for most - if not all - instant recovery software).
     
  8. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Thank you for your comments again MerleOne, one of the reasons I selected RollBack Rx was because of the many favourable comments by other forum members. I will keep your suggestion in mind and test drive RollBack Rx, if it is unstable I will look at the program you have suggested.

    By the way, I do drive images nightly using Acronis True Image so the program I am looking for is to be a supplement to that.
     
  9. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    You just complicated the matter, combining Rollback and Acronis may not give you what you want.
     
  10. wilbertnl

    wilbertnl Registered Member

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    Would UPgrading to Windows XP be an option?
     
  11. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I have Acronis now and use it for my long term system and data archives, I have been using GoBack for short term rollback operations, that is for the time frame between the last TI image and whenever a problem occurs so that I have zero data loss. Acronis and RollBack Rx will cover me for both long term and moderately short term (outside of 1 hour) but I would like to cover the time frame inside of the hour as well. As I said I want to assure zero data loss. I do 3D graphics work and an hour can represent a lot of effort - sometimes effort that may be difficult to replicate. A version saver would be great because I often want to go back to a file and work it in a 2nd or 3rd direction.

    Now, between Acronis and GoBack I am covered, since I want to replace GoBack I am trying to find a single program that will do what GoBack does (but more reliably as well as a program I can use going forward) or, failing a single program, I want to put together a combination of programs (or services such as an on-line backup service) that will cover it all (except for what Acronis does of course).

    Ya, I don't want much, I just want it all.
     
  12. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I thought of that but still, my version of GoBack is from 2004 and it is getting a bit long in the tooth. Something more current,,,and not supported by Symantec (HA! as if Symantec actually supports its software) ,,,,would be a step in the right direction I think.
     
  13. Basic

    Basic Registered Member

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    I wish you good luck in your endeavor. I used goback on 98se and xp. Since up/downgrading to vista 64 I have been unable to find a application that does what goback did.

    Rollback rx or one of it's clones is ok. It is just not as versatile. I got so used to being able to go back to a certain time or event and having a detailed log of those times and events that rollback rx is just very unsatisfactory in comparison.
     
  14. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

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    If it's data files you wanna save, I suggest you look at the excellent AJC Backup. As soon as your file is saved, it is differentially archived with previous versions. But you have to test it before, it might not work with all applications and it may depend of the size of your saved project files.

    Goto : http://www.ajcsoft.com/index.php
     
  15. ratchet

    ratchet Registered Member

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    Kind of sounds like DriveClonePro 6 Is what I've been looking for. I presently have a one year free license for AyRecovery and I have Norton Ghost, however, because of boot sequence (I think) you can't really recover with an image program without jumping through a bunch of hoops. EAZ-FIX, Rollback and their clone AyGhost (but it's $100) can make an image but I'm not sure how you would use it to restore an operating system. Since you can burn (make) recovery media with DCP 6, I would think all of its feature would be compatible/useable. I'm thinking if that ever goes below $50 I'll jump on it.
     
  16. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I had looked at this program a week or so ago and decided it was not going to do what I wanted (but I cannot remember why). Since then I have tried a program called History Explorer and it is just about perfect for file version archiving as far as I am concerned. Very nice clean interface and very easy to use. If I have to use multiple programs to get everything I want I think this would be the one for file versioning. If anyone is interested more info and a 30 day free trial can be found at http://www.exendo.se/history-explorer-simple-version-control.html
     
  17. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Thanks for this, I will take a closer look at it. I did take a quick peek and I see it has file versioning but it, like most other programs of this sort, will only auto backup at best once per hour rather than as the system changes. I suspect I may have to live with this from the looks of it.
     
  18. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

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    History Extenter has a very nice GUI. Too bad it relies on .NET, which I won't install ever !

    AJC Backup has a much more basic GUI, but there is one very strong point : the way files are saved : AJC uses a proprietary compression technique, somewhat similar to the one in Winrar (solid mode) where only differences are saved. I have for instance 100 versions of the same excel files that takes barely the space of the original (thanks to compression). Quite interesting if one want to save space.
     
  19. Jobshoppe

    Jobshoppe Registered Member

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    I am looking at the same issue as bgoodman4 with the same solution, i.e. Rollback rx and Acronis TI. I have read elsewhere some suggestions that it is difficult to do an ATI restore with Rollback rx installed. Is that right or is there a way around it?
     
  20. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I am using two of AJC's programs. They are excellent. Also the author provides excellent support. Only delay is the time zone difference.

    Pete
     
  21. Chris12923

    Chris12923 Registered Member

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    Last edited: Jan 25, 2009
  22. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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  23. Chris12923

    Chris12923 Registered Member

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    http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/dropbox-review-invites-and-7-questions-with-the-founder/

    "3) Security is a big concern for many people — how is data secured in transit and on the data store? The more geeky the explanation the better!

    Drew: We have our own protocol that runs over “https” that combines binary diffing and compression, so no file data or metadata is *ever* sent over the wire in plaintext form. On the back end, we encrypt all file data using AES-256 before storing it on S3 (this is in addition to the security that Amazon provides.) We are working on a way for people to provide their own private keys or passphrases for people who choose to do so as long as we can preserve the simplicity of the user experience. What some people might find unusual about our team is all of us have been using Linux since the 90’s and so the usual server-side security precautions, etc. are second nature to us."
     
  24. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    MerleOne, I will have to take another look at AJC based on your comment, I guess I have .NET installed as History Explorer works on my PC. May I ask why you would not install it?

    Jobshoppe has raised a concern regarding using Acronis and RollBack Rx together, does anyone know if this is an issue or not? (EDIT: Jobshoppe, I have posted a request for info on this subject on the Acronis forum, you might want to keep an eye on the replies there).

    Finally (for the moment), I took a look at DropBox and it looks very interesting for transferring files and maintaining versions but I don't like the idea that the folders that are being watched have to be in a central folder. This means that I would have to reorganize the way I structured my filing cabinet (so to speak). In addition some of the folders that I want watched are nec for certain applications to run, for example I use Opera as my browser and I would like to keep up to date backups/versions of certain files in the profile folder (wand passwords, and bookmarks for example), These files must remain where they are and so moving them to a central dropbox folder is not possible.
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2009
  25. rwatts

    rwatts Registered Member

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    You might also want to take a look at AutoVer which I've been using for some time now and seems to work very well.

    It also uses .Net but I don't personally have an issue with that. It also now seems to be unsupported judging by the web site but v1.2.2 does everything I need and so I don't really need any support :) .

    It is very flexible, supports versioning if required and, by user configuration of the version filename, allows you to decide how many versions are kept.

    It is one of those 'set it and forget it' pieces of software that just gets on with the job.

    Robert
     
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