Alternative to True Image (nervous nellie)

You´re welcome, I got the link from Comodo forum.
If you continue to read the text you will see this:

 

Yes, indeed. Sorry about that.
Well the features look good at the Paragon website, it even backups and restores the MBR, like Acronis and that is good for FDISR, maybe even for RollbackRx/EazFix.
So I keep it in reserve, if Acronis starts acting crazy.

 

Damn, lost a post..

fogot to ask:

Which raid drivers will work with Shadow protect?

 

As ShadowProtect uses Window PE for its recovery environment, your hardware support is vast (anything with a windows driver for XP/2k3 will work). There is one known exception to this - the nvidia nforce storage controller drivers have problems loading under winpe. We're working on this.

 

I thought I'd give you guys a heads up, that if you don't receive any responses from me over the next couple of weeks, it's not because I'm ignoring you. Yesterday I was diagnosed with spinal meningitis. It's a rather nasty condition. I've spent the last few days at the bottom of a haystack of blankets, weak as a kitten. Hopefully I'll kick this one quickly.

 

Get well soon - take care

 

Sounds dreadful. Be careful. Look after yourself. Get well.

 

Hope you make a full and swift recovery. Best wishes

 

I'm trying to understand what happens to my 2 partition disk (ie. C: (system) and D: (data)) when I restore the standard MBR ?

Does it check how many partitions you have on the disk and then write that correctly to the standard MBR, or does a standard MBR only have a single partition (ie. C ?

I'm thinking of getting IFW/IFD and want to know

a) how to back up the existing MBR to the image when backing up a partition ?
b) how to restore the MBR from the image when restoring the partition from the image ?

Is this possible with IFW/IFD ?

 

Also, does IFD include the pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys in the image ?

 

@defenestration (love the nick )

MBR:
Does IFD and IFW image and then restore the MBR with each process?

Neither program backs up or restores the MBR, only the partition itself.

They both have a restore option where they can write a standard MBR to
the target drive if you tell them to, although this normally isn't
necessary. It's also not something that you'd want to do if you already
have something other than a standard MBR already installed there - such
as a boot manager which itself occupies the MBR.

The IFW/IFD manual contains information on that restore option if you
need it.

Pagefile and Hiberfil:
If using PHYLock they are skipped (the data part) but the files still
exist.
The files are shown in the image "directory" but don't take up any space in the image itself

If _not_ using PHYlock (EG when using IFD) these files are stored in the image

I believe you should use Phylock with IFW everytime for stability of image and restore.

Go to KB here: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/ and poke around, if all else fails RTM. The manual looks a little complex ( and according to a prominent poster here from Belgium cant give names, LOL , is part of the user unfriendliness problem) but as you watch the vids and use the tools it will all unfold

I promise if I can do it anyone can
Also go here: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/webnews.html
Click on the tool you want to know about and do a search: heaps of v,useful info there from the real world.

HTH

 

Do you mean writing a standard MBR with for example fdisk /mbr?
That doesn't write a partition table, only the boot code. If you want to backup your MBR, as supplement to IFD/IFW, I suggest mbrtool.

 

Thanks for clearing that up Guys!

I assume then that IFD (like fdisk /mbr or fixmbr c also only writes the boot code in the MBR when writing a standard MBR. That's what was confusing me - I wasn't sure if the standard MBR contained only the boot code, or the boot code + the partition table.

I checked with David from Terabyte about how to backup the MBR when backing up a partition (ie. not the complete disk), along with the ability to restore the backed up MBR from the image when restoring a partition, and he mentioned this is not possible at the moment. However, the new version of IFW/IFD will support this

I'm sold on it, and am going to purchase the BING+IFW/IFD combo. BTW, if you purchase IFW now you get the new major upgrade (version 2, I presume) for free, which is worthwhile as the price for IFW/IFD/IFL is rising to approx. $50 when v2 is released.

Ref: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/webnews.html

 

Somebody tried the new Paragon DiskManager 8?
It's backup/image and Partition soft in one. Seams pretty nice.

 

I use SavePart
Free and simple

 

I asked because the image feature seams to be quiet interesting and perhaps an alternative to ATI and ADD with only 23 MB.

 

Would be interesting to test

 

Hello How did you know its 23MB? I cant find a download atm

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/3489/screenshot00006nz6.png

--------------

I cant seem to find a download link

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/7546/screenshot00007mr7.png

Id like to give it a shot

Thanks

 

I didn't downloaded it (no link), that's the reason i asked if somebody is using a payed version. I catched the size on some internet page which reported about that tool. Will have a look if i find it again.

 

Well if theres no demo you cant expect too much reviews about it. unless there are many people who want to buy right away without even trying first.

 

I have been using Powerquest Drive Image 2002, for following reasons:

-do not need to use a floppy or CD for recovery if Windows is operational.
-can create floppy rescue disks (and bootable CD rescue disks which are a little more complex to create but more reliable than floppies)
-resuce disks can backup and restore
-no .NET Framework
-no Product Activation
-no Symantec
-good GUI with easy to use Image Explorer to recover individual files
-100% reliability for me since I started using it

Cons:

-this version no longer supported and may be hard to find if you don't have it
-may not work in all systems
-I just use it to image (onto HDD)/restore (from HDD) the system partition and it doesn't create/restore these images while Windows is running..it automatically reboots into DOS for creating and restoring images
-slow creating images compared to ATI or Drive Snapshot, etc...if I someday switch to something else with my current system it will be for this reason only. I usually walk away and do something else while creating an image, since it takes about 8 minutes to create an image whereas ATI or Drive Snapshot or R-Drive Image can do it in under 2 minutes. I sure wish I could speed up image creation though...have a fast system and SATA HDD and using the fastest options but still slow. Maybe even slower on this new system (Athlon 64 3700+, 1GB RAM, SATA HDD) than on my older (Celeron 1.3, 512 MB RAM, PATA HDD) system.

Update: I am currently trying R-Drive Image http://www.drive-image.com/ which works somewhat similarly but much faster.

 

Here's my two bobs worth, email below was sent in may 2006 concerning corrupt images, it was never resolved and Iv'e just tried TI10, you wont believe this, It dont work and amazingly it reports, no, how did you guess, a corrupt image, im sorry for the sarcasm, no im not, good money wasted and I will not be buying TI 10 unless there support team work very closely with me to resolve. Contents of emails below

We just released a new build 3625 of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home.
Please use the following link in order to dowqnload the update.
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/updates/


Please verify the image integrity by means of Validate Backup Archive in Acronis True Image 9.0 after you create an image. If the image is not corrupted you will be able to restore the image.

If you have any more questions you are always welcome to ask.

Thank you for taking time to contact us.
--
Best regards,
Artem Khalitov

Acronis, Inc.
52 3rd Avenue
Burlington, MA 01801 USA
http://www.acronis.com

Acronis Customer Service Department
http://www.acronis.com/my/support/
> [p.beavan@ntlworld.com - Thu May 18 01:07:41 2006]:
>
> Hi,
>
> As requested here is the link to the forum
> https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=131333
>
>
> I have as advised,installed latest build and done a backup and made a
> new
> bootable disc, the PC was booted with the disc and reported the disc
> as
> sucessful, incidentally, the other image that reported corrupt was
> still
> reported corrupt by the new bootable with an error of E00070020. It is
> still
> wort noting that I have been in the same position before whereas all
> was
> reported as OK by acronis but when I tried to restore after a
> probable
> windows corruption, the image was corrupted, to me, the only real test
> is
> for me to obtain another hard drive and try the restore in It's
> entirety. I
> will advise you of the results of this in due course.
>
> Thanks for the prompt response.
>
> PS I attach logs for your perusal
> Mr P Beavan
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Acronis Customer Service Department" <support@acronis.com>
> To: <p.beavan@ntlworld.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 5:58 PM
> Subject: [Acronis #575811] Anton Sherkhonov
>
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > Thank you for taking the time to contact us and for using Acronis
> Software
> > (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/)!
> >
> > Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.
> >
> > Could you please tell me the link to the forum thread?
> >
> > It is recommended that you recreate Acronis bootable rescue media
> after
> > you update to the latest build.
> >
> > When you boot from Acronis True Image rescue media you can choose to
> check
> > image without restoration.
> > Acronis True Image -> Tools -> Validate Backup Archive.
> >
> > Thank you.
> > --
> > You are welcome to submit your comments on Acronis Customer Service.
> Your
> > feedback is very important for us. You can send your comments to
> > feedback@acronis.com or fill the form at
> > https://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/support/?ab=3.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Anton Sherkhonov
> >
> > Acronis, Inc.
> > 52 3rd Avenue
> > Burlington, MA 01801 USA
> > http://www.acronis.com/my/support/
> >
> >> [p.beavan@ntlworld.com - Tue May 16 08:51:05 2006]:
> >>
> >> Hello, I have included reply below to your comments in forum,
> please
> >> email for any other info you may require.Well, even though
> acronis
> >> verified the image, it went on to format etc and then reported
> as
> >> corrupt
> >>
> >>
> >> https://www.acronis.com/enterprise/m...s/#Product2151 Don't seem to
> >> work for me so Ive got a friend to d/load it for me and that
> will
> >> be installed tonight. In answer as to where It's being saved,
> It's
> >> on a usb external drive. Incidentally, as the image was being
> >> reported as being ok so many times, we took the drive round to a
> >> friends pc and installed the drive as eide, it still failed
> >>
> >> Thanks for the help
> >>
> >> Frosty
> >>
> >> Ps I have installed upgrade and made new image and will be checking
> >> archive firstly within windows environment, then a new boot disc
> >> will be made or can I use my existing one? I will gladly check
> boot
> >> ability but bearing in mind my forum post, I am reluctant at
> this
> >> stage to try and boot and verify unless you can assure me that i
> >> then have an option NOT to restore.
> >>
> >> Thank you
> >> Mr P Beavan AKA Frosty
> >
> > __________ NOD32 1.1541 (20060516) Information __________
> >
> > This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
> > http://www.eset.com
> >
> >
>
>


__________ NOD32 1.1547 (2006051 Information __________

This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
http://www.eset.com

 

Maybe it has already been mentioned in this long thread, sorry if it's a duplicate, but I'd really like to mention that Drive Snapshot is a minimalist yet very effective alternative to True Image, especially with the differential backup feature which is much more efficient than incremental for most users.

www.drivesnapshot.de/en/

Almost all useful features of ATI 7 are there. The virtual partition exploration is blazingly fast. There is also a very useful feature : one can exclude folders, files from the image. At restore, empty files are restored at these locations, keeping the partition structure intact. Handy if you have a partition with lots of mp3 that you want to save with a simple copy on another drive and not during the imaging.

The only drawback so far is that there has been no updates in more than one year. The soft is almost perfect, yet future VISTA users can be concerned.

Also, I think to can restore a partition to another one only if its size is bigger, no matter the actual free space of the saved partition.

Drive Snapshot also saves/restore MBR, Acronis TI 7 used to only save MBR when imaging the whole disk.

Drive Snapshot is a single "snapshot.exe" file (170 kB) and really powerful for the imaging. Restore (in recovery mode) is less easy to manage, but if you use BartCD and add your snapshot version on it, it's really easy thanks to the GUI.

The command line mode is quite efficient, and not really that difficult. I was able to manage ;-)

Regarding Image 4 windows, I also find it rock solid, except for a build now and then, but it's really the exception. Main drawback : no password protection for the image and very slow image exploration, for partial file by file restoring. Main advantage : DVD direct imaging is rock solid and the created DVD are bootable and can restore a system partition which has failed.

Actually I use both, I4W for imaging on DVD, snapshot for imaging on HDD.