ATI vs. FDISR in space

I'm still planning tests for ATI, FDISR and ATI&FDISR. The more I test the better and of course, some of these experiments don't really happen when you work normally with ATI and/or FDISR, but I like to put softwares in extreme situations and certainly with this type of softwares, which often have to save your computer in case of disasters, where Windows fails.
I had enough BSOD's in my newbie time. LOL

Some of these experiments are real thrillers and that makes it more exciting than anything else on my computer.
Most of these experiments are more a matter of waiting... than working and you can't do several experiments together, because they require a different situation and you have to create that situation first and that is the boring part. 5-20 minutes doesn't sound long, except when you have to wait that long.

I won't buy FDISR yet, because I would like to test RollbackRx, Deepfreeze, ... and ShadowUser/Surfer first.
The only disadvantage of FD-ISR I see upto now is the huge space it needs on your system partition.
On the other hand, I think you can use the FDISR-Archive to create more than 10 snapshots and you can also use it to minimize the space on your system partition, when your harddisk is rather small.
So there is a way out to avoid this space problem, you only need a better planning to solve this. Even ATI requires planning.

 

Here is another scenario for you ErikAlbert.

Alot of us like computer gaming and have games installed on our machines.The problem is that they can take up alot of gigs- mine take up 6 gigs.So what you do is create a new snapshot and call it gaming and boot into it to test it.Then reboot into your primary, remove all games, and then refresh all snapshots except the gaming one.Now, not only is your C/partition alot smaller in size, but all your other snapshots as well and you've gained valuable hard drive space while still being able to boot into your gaming snapshot and play.Backup with a gaming archive on another partition for addition or subtraction.

 

The trouble is : I don't play any games. I don't even know where to get them.
There must be something wrong with me, because most people like games. I never liked them.
I'm willing to do this experiment, but you have to help me with mentioning JUST ENOUGH links and game names to do this experiment. Do I have to play these games also or isn't that necessary to do this experiment?

 

No ErikAlbert, we don't have to add that to your experiments.It was just to show you the possibilities with this software.If your C/partition is 12 gigs and 6 gigs of that is games, the gaming snapshot is 12 gigs but all the rest of your snapshots once the games are removed are only 6 gigs now.So if creating the gaming snapshot takes you from 4 snapshots to 5, you've lost 12 gigs of space but removing the games in your primary and updating the other 3, you've gain back 24 gigs.See!.What you could also do if you haven't done it yet is create another snapshot called testing and use it just for testing instead of using your primary all the time.Strip this new snapshot down of it's current security applications and then make a backup archive of it.Now you can test various setups first and if you like, then install again in primary and update relevent snapshots.If you don't like them and want to test more, just update with the archive and your back to the stripped down version.

 

Peter,
I'm still not convinced that the restore of an image backup with FDISR on it, is a SAFE operation.
I had troubles again with the MBR today after a restore of an image with FDISR on it OVER an existing partition with FDISR on it. It worked fine on a previous day, but not today.
I'm also not satisfied with the fact, that I had to fix the MBR yesterday.

My assumption is that ATI has to restore an image, including the MBR and what happened yesterday was abnormal.
Yesterday, I restored an image without FDISR on it OVER an existing partition with FDISR on it. During that restore ATI didn't overwrite the MBR and that's why I still got a FDISR Pre-boot screen and that is wrong.
If ATI had overwritten the MBR during that restore, I wouldn't have a FDISR Pre-boot screen anymore and that is correct.

Restore means for me, that I get an exact copy of the backup on my harddisk including the MBR. With or without FDISR doesn't matter.
If I restore an image without FDISR on it, I get the normal MBR from the .tib-file without the FDISR Pre-boot Screen
and that didn't happen yesterday.
If I restore an image with FDISR, I get a FDISR-MBR from the .tib-file with a FDISR Pre-boot Screen.
What is on harddisk during the restore doesn't matter either, because everything on it is supposed to be overwritten with the contents of the .tib-file.

I don't even understand why ATI has an option to restore the MBR separately. The MBR should be included in the .tib-file.

 

I have been asking questions about this in the Acronis forums and I'm going to test this all over again with the answer I got, before I use another software.
Whatever happens I will tell you about it. I have to start all over again.
This is too important for me. ATI has to work in any situation. Period.
No problem with sharing the results of my experiments, I'm glad to give something back to Wilders.

 

Can you format a system partition? I've tried this once, Windows doesn't allow you to do this, but you can format a non-system partition.

 

It's not clear to me whether ErikAlbert is backing up and restoring just the system partition on a multipartition disk or the entire physical disk but, up until recent builds, ATI wouldn't backup and restore the MBR unless you backup the entire physical disk, and Acronis never really made that obvious to new users. IMO, that was an egregious oversight on Acronis' part, causing newbies to post 3 or 4 times a week with their tales of woe to the Acronis forum, week in and week out.

Now there is an explicit option you can check off in the ATI restore dialog to have it restore the MBR. It's still not clear to me exactly when it does and doesn't back up the MBR now -- no use looking in the user manual because the successively released builds of ATI come out and change more frequently than the user manual does. However, I've decided to spend some time again with ATI and have reinstalled it just on my laptop to study and catch up on how things may have improved over the last year with ATI 9.

For reliability and simplicity and based on personal experience with both, I also vote IFW/IFD as the way to go, even with FD-ISR and, in my case, BootIt NG installed.

 

Well, I don't think it's THE problem. ATI alone is excellent, but not so good in combination with FDISR. I have to start all over again with the new info I got from Acronis Forum and see what happens then.

 

Peter,
This is how you can restore a system partition with the MBR on the .tib-file.
A restore with or without FD-ISR will be done properly, if you follow this procedure and
the "FDISR Pre-boot Screen" will show up or not show up, dependent of the contents of the .tib-file, with or without FDISR.
No wonder that some people had problems with ATI and FDISR.

Not really an example of my motto "Simplicity is always brilliant", but it worked 4 times already without problems.
I have to live with this for the rest of my life, because I paid already for ATI and I'm not planning to buy another image backup software.
It takes 15 screens to restore a system partition with MBR, using Acronis True Image. Pffft.
Hold your breath, here it comes.

01. Main Screen "Acronis True Imege Home - Pick a Task"
a. Click "Recovery"

02. Screen "Restore Data Wizard"
a. Click "Next"

03. Screen "Archive Selection"
a. Choose the approperiate .tib-file
b. Click "Next"

04. Screen "Restoration Type Selection"
a. Mark "Restore disks and partitions" (default)
b. Click "Next"

05. Screen "Partition or disk to restore.
a. Mark "System Partition [C:]"
b. Click "Next"

06. Screen "Restored Partition Location"
a. Mark "System Partition [C:]"
b. Click "Next"

07. Screen "Restored Partition Type"
a. Mark "Active" (default)
b. Click "Next"

08. Screen "Restored Partition Size"
a. Click "Next"

09. Screen "Logical Drive Letter"
a. Mark "Yes, I want to assign a logical drive letter to the restored partition" (default)
b. Choose "C:" (default)
c. Click "Next"

10. Screen "Next Selection"
a. Mark "Yes, I want to restore another partition or harddisk drive"
b. Click "Next"

11. Screen "Partition or Disk to Restore"
a. Mark "MBR and Track 0"
b. Click "Next"

12. Screen "Disk Selection"
a. Choose "Disk 1"
b. Click "Next"

13. Screen "Next Selection"
a. Mark "No, I do not"
b. Click "Next"

14. Screen "Choose Restore Options"
a. Mark "Use default options"
b. Click "Next"

15. Screen for starting the restore.
a. Click "Proceed"

Good luck !!!

 

Thanks Peter, keep me posted as well. As long there is PROGRESS and I can get rid of my problems, I don't mind working hard.

 

I will try it again, but I've already used this floppy and it acts weird.
It shows a screen, that disappears immediately, so you can't see what happens.
But I will try it again, because I might have tried this floppy in the wrong sequence. So I will tell you about it after testing it.

 

Peter,
This MBR-floppy contains a readme.txt :

1. I have to boot in DOS.
2. Then run this command at the DOS prompt : MBRtool -reset
3. Reboot the system

Not really a fantastic solution as an alternative for the ATI-solution.
Furthermore, I can't use that solution for restoring an image without FDISR;
when my actual syspartition contains FDISR.
Do you still want me to test this?

 

Too late the test is already executed. Here is my report about using the MBR-floppy to fix the MBR.

In order to create a system partition with FDISR, but without FDISR Pre-boot Screen,
I had to do this first, to create that situation :
1. I restored a system partition without FDISR, but with MBR
2. I restored a system partition with FDISR, but without MBR
After that I had a system partition with FDISR, but no FDISR Pre-boot screen, which was NOT correct of course.

I also had to do two other things :
1. Change the CMOS to make my floppy drive as first bootable disk, which is normally my CD-drive.
2. Create a MS-DOS Startup Disk (another floppy), because I had to reboot in DOS mode according the instructions.
mentioned in the readme.txt on the MBR-floppy.
After that I could start fixing the MBR.

Fixing the MBR :
1. I reboot my computer and got in DOS-mode, with the DOS-prompt "A:>"
2. I type the command "MBRtool -reset" + ENTER and I got these messages :
"Restoring original MBR
Created MyMBR.bin
MBR restored"
3. I reboot with CTRL+ALT+DEL to leave DOS-MODE
4. So I expected this time a FDISR Pre-boot Screen, because the MBR was restored,
but that didn't happen, it just started in Windows and that was it.
5. So I reboot back to make sure there was no FDISR Pre-boot Screen, but again no pre-boot screen.

In order to get back in business, I restored the same system partition with FDISR and with MBR
and everything was back to normal, including the appearance of the FDISR Pre-boot Screen with F1,
that allowed me to choose my snapshot to start Windows.

Now it's your turn.

 

Could you give me the click path, where I can find the management console and what I have to change, because I'm not that familiar with FDISR yet.

 

Peter,
Here are the results of the "Enable Pre-boot Test".

In order to create a system partition with FDISR, but without FDISR Pre-boot Screen,
I had to do this first, to create that situation :
1. I restored a system partition without FDISR, but with MBR
2. I restored a system partition with FDISR, but without MBR
After that I had a system partition with FDISR, but no FDISR Pre-boot screen, which was NOT correct of course.

Fixing the MBR :
1. RightClick on FDISR-icon in system tray.
2. Click "Manage FirstDefense-ISR"
3. Click "Actions"
4. Click "Enabe Pre-boot"
5. Close FD-ISR
6. Reboot
7. FDISR Preboot Screen appears with F1 and I'm able to choose a snapshot to start Windows.

So this simple method REALLY WORKS !!!
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Of course there is still a problem if I create this situation :
1. My actual system partition contains FDISR.
2. I restore a system partition without FDISR and without MBR.
After that I get a system partition without FDISR, but I still get a FDISR Pre-boot screen and when I hit F1, I get a red error message.

To fix this :
I have to restore a system partition without FDISR and with MBR.
So this method requires the long procedure of ATI, because FDISR doesn't exist anymore.