B&R 2010 Free - Recovery a Joke !!!!

Discussion in 'Paragon Drive Backup Product Line' started by freddyflint, Feb 6, 2011.

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  1. freddyflint

    freddyflint Registered Member

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    History:-
    When I first read about Paragon-Software B&R, I was blown away with what it claimed it could do. I had to investigate further. I downloaded the Program, registered, Installed it and away i went...

    I did a backup on the fly, without rebooting. This was Great !! no more 10year old Symantec Ghost in DOS mode...
    I even made a recovery media, and put it somewhere safe.

    -------
    Then Today, a nasty virus/malware/something.. A BSOD and no boot, or safe mode available. I thought to myself, no, a rebuild, what a waste of 24hrs.. BUT good news, I have a Backup & recovery program, and only last week did I do a backup (about 1 backup per month for me)

    I hunted around for my secretly hidden recovery media, located it, and set about to boot and restore...
    But to my surprise, It didn't work. All I got was the "white rectangle" problem as reported in a sticky above.
    I read through all the info on a fix, download another copy of B&R 2010 Free, to install on my old dust covered PC, and then spent the next 6 hours trying to get the recovery media to boot.
    Finally after trail and error, I did, but it then failed again, trying to load the graphics drivers.
    You would have thought a company that's been around for 20 odd years to better programmers than this. There is no easy way around this.
    Problems----
    -The backup files themselves are only readable by Paragon-Software
    -The linux/dos recovery media is a Joke !!!!
    -I have a Win-UBCD but I dont know of or have access to the recovery files.

    Alas I have concluded the following
    -Paragon-software backup & Recovery 2010 Free, and Backup Recovery Home edition (trail) recovery part is a Joke.
    -I am following up with Australian Authorities to find out if this product is in Breach of Consumer Laws of "false and misleading" claims.
    -Advising to anyone/everyone that they SHOULD fully TEST the product before committing to it.. I've learnt the hard way.

    ------- done thus far in case someone can help
    copied the "new" rmb.exe file into the Original Folder.
    -This avoided the "white rectangles" recovery media boot problem

    About to try Win-UBCD and executing the recovery program.
    -*- This recovery program should be 100% folder/file independent. A 23kb file that executes a "wizard" is NOT 100% independent.

    Fred
    PS Most likely this will be my last post, as I'm sure the Admin will kill my account for such a negative view on paragon-software.
     
  2. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    No , I don't think they will remove your post.

    The Linux based recovery cd works for most systems - but there will always the odd one where it doesn't.

    That is true of ALL free imaging apps - they all have linux based recov cd.s - they are different , but again , none of them has universal support for every conceivable system .

    Commonsense dictates to try out the recovery media first.

    There are several alternatives - you can make a bartpe cd - there is a thread on the forum and a plugin to do it.

    You can make a winpe 2/3 cd/flash - not difficult.

    You can use the Paragon premade winpe media - but that only comes with the paid product becuase there is a license fee to pay to MS by commercial companies.
     
  3. Cudni

    Cudni Global Moderator

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    so you had a problem on one computer (the one with bsod, no boot, no safe mode) but you then installed and attempted recovery on another computer?
     
  4. freddyflint

    freddyflint Registered Member

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    Correct. To attempt to locate the problem with the recovery media boot issues, and to access the internet.
     
  5. freddyflint

    freddyflint Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2011
    Posts:
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    All is well now. I managed to boot my 'failed' PC Hard Disk Drives (Main & backup-data) on the dusty old pc, and utilise the Restore function, and restore the backup file to 'another' drive/location.

    I would like to mention that since the B&R software operates with 'fan fare' it is weird that the restore screens are not worded well.
    I was stressing out at the time when the restore media failed, and when I very quickly read the instructions whilst going through the restore steps, I missed read, and believed that I could NOT restore to an alternative location.

    suggestion:-
    either change the screen displays to numeric (Step 1, Step2,...etc) or just screen by screen, displaying basic options with Advanced Greyed out, and the final screen with a confirmation to commit changes.

    Problem:-
    My problem with Recovery Media, was that linux started to load, then failed with "failure to load graphics" or very similar. This streamed up the screen at a high rate and was difficult to read (multiple lines in error message)

    I will look into your suggested bartpe recovery plugins, and see how I go. It is extremely baffeling that 'commercial' companies have problems with linux as you pointed out. I have a UBCD and it's boot loader is like 1meg disk space, and it loads and works fine. I have keyboard, screen, access to hard drives. What more do you need in a recovery program?
    After all It's a recovery program to restore a backup. Yes you should be able to restore a single file if needed, but in a pinch, who cares about 1 file !!! 99% of the people using a B&R program wouldn't know which SYSTEM file is damaged and needs restoring.
    (My 2 cents worth.... I'll get of my soapbox now)

    Thanks
    Fred


    Thanks
    Fred
     
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