Do you really trust True Image backups?

I guess I should check this forum more often. I tried uninstalling 10 and then back to 9 workstation, but had errors regarding overwriting .dlls that were newer -- led me to believe that the uninstall of 10 wasn't very complete. So I don't know if I can even install 8. But will give it a try this weekend and let you and others know.

Also will run checksums on the hardward copies of these files.

 

I'll give it a shot this weekend and let you know.

 

why do you think you have to have "all" logical drives archived in a single file ?
you can archive individually - no need for large images

 

when did ver 9 and 10 stop working ? I know some people have had problems but to claim that both versions don't work is a little extreme.

 

I agree with the above. Sitting and waiting like a DJ for a DVD disk to finish writing is a pain; backing up to USB hard drives is so much easier. Also, I trust True Image based on my successful use of the product.

 

I agree that writing direct to DVD is not a good idea but then simply writing to an external USB has its own problems.

Firstly for whatever reason Acronis does not always work as well with USB as some other imaging programs - basically it can be slow.

Having your only images on an external USB is only slightly better than having them on the main machine - a thief is hardly likely to steal a pc and leave a USB behind - a fire will burn the USB as well.

So although DVD has had a bad press I still think that they can be very useful for off site storage. Rather than burn direct, however, I would make the image to another drive and then burn the image ( should take no more than 6 or 7 minutes with a modern drive). Also burning this way will almost certainly produce a better burn than using Acronis to burn direct.

So yes I do trust Acronis - but I also have images on external USB, network drives and off site on DVD.

 

Whilst I accept this might be your experience - it is not necessarily everone elses. I am more than happy with my daily backup of a small work-data partition which takes less than two minutes.

You are of course assuming that a user does not make use of the portable nature of a USB drive and take it home with them - I do. It's a bit like suggesting that those who use a second internal drive in a removable caddy are bound to have them stolen. It doesn't follow.

Absolutely agree. This is where the strength of optical media come in - as a second copy of the main image for insurance purposes.

F.

 

Can't argue with your points Foghorne but would add:

(1) I have had very little trouble with USB and ATI but I keep reading about those who have. I don't have to use Bart but many do.
(2) I wasn't really only thinking about people taking USB drives with them - I have a couple of freecoms which fit in my pocket but when I come back to my office my USBs have to be there to be used. Those who rotate hard drives will, no doubt, probably still keep both drives in the office/home. DVDs (even Taiyo Yuden) are so cheap now that to burn a disk or even disks every day and then send it them office site means that system and data are always off site. In my business I do this even though I have drives and DVDs in a fireproof safe.

 

Hi Long View

Lets hope that the reports of those with troubles are a relection of them being reporting in a help forum, and as such are a disproportionate sample of what happens in reality. None of my customers who use USBs with ATI 9 have reported any difficulties.

But now you are scaring me Perhaps they just haven't noticed

F.

 

My experience from around 2004 has been that TI7 was rock solid. Several clones of other drives and backups went flawlessly. Any time I needed a file orit was restored in perfect condition. Then I Upgraded from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 on a new and larger drive This is where everthing went down hill. I've started a thread on the details.

I don't have the trust in TI that I once had. I was told by tech support that the DVD images need to be copied back onto the hard drive for TI to work. OMG! Copying that many gig's of data back to the HD?? Honestly I don't remember having to do that in TI7 on Win98.

TI10 says to use DVD-RW disks. I used DVD-R disks in TI7. I wonder why DVD-R is not listed.

So I'm looking at my overall backup strategy and giving ViceVersa Pro a look.

Mike

 

I am under the impression that you have to have the archive in one place to mount it so if the DVD archive spans disks you need to copy them.

Why anybody would recommend an RW over a +/-R for data storage is beyond me.

Your problem somewhat supports my contention that backing up data files to large container files where a small flaw can render all files unreadable is not the way to handle data files.

I am presently trying SyncBack Free since it seems to do all I want which is to copy my plain files to a similar folder structure on a different disk. I will then back it up at suitable intervals to another device.

There is one potential weakness possibly in this strategy that I need to check out. If I have file A and I do some work on it and save it. I then open file A the next day and find that what I did was wrong. Assuming no Undo command in the application, I go to my backup location. File A was updated in the backup location when my scheduled backup job was run in the night. So now I have a backup but it has the same problem as my original. In other words I don't have versions of files. Now this may not be a problem but I need to check it out.

 

Playing around with various DVD brands I have found a couple which are only good for making coasters. I have found DVDs which will not restore using TI
but can be mounted and most of the data extracted. I no longer use DVDs for system or data images but feel it is useful to know that with a series of Data image DVDs you would be very unlucky not be able to extract all of the data even if it meant some from one DVD and some from another.

Do I really trust TI backups ? the answer is still yes. I must have restored a hundred images in recent weeks - none failed.

 

Yes, and that really is one of the virtues of DVDs you can write them and then keep a big pile of them without much trouble. As I've said, never only have one backup regardless of the media.

 

just gets hard to maintain the overview in that pile

i too do trust the images TI creates, however i do not trust the
boot-mode part of TI, it's been acting funny too many times

i never do direct imaging to dvd, more or less a gut feeling, maybe
remains of times when burning cd's had you hold your breath until
finished i'm imaging to another partition, then copy to UDF DVD-RAM

 

Hi there,

Let me ask you out of curiosity, why do you do so many images, sometimes several a day? I don't mean to be sarcastic but I always thought an imaging program is an emergency in case of disaster, but I've noticed you are not the only one using it daily.

 

I can tell you that I was very skeptical about TI 10. Then...When Windows Vista came out...I installed all my software without activating anything...tried Ghost 10; Tried Paragon 8.5...kept reading this board and got more and more nervous as time went on. When all else FAILED, I downloaded the trial version of TI 10. Installed...created the Bootable media using Linux. Backed up three different times...restored Vista twice flawlessly...and XP once. I figured that my external HDD (Seagate 200 GB in a Acomdata Enclosure) was fine! The Acomdata enclosure is firewire/USB 2 and I always use it firewire...with the Cypress Chipset. I can say that I am pretty content to rely on Acronis. I spent the better part of today, doing an permanent Vista installation on my Desktop with Office 2007, and the whole baliwick. I have already backed up to the external firrewire drive...and now I am backing up to a Verbatim DVD+R DL to see what difference the media makes. As usual, I will validate after completion. Should a time come when I need to rely on TI 10...I have it in the back of my mind that I am three for three. Another good source for input on the product is to go to www.newegg.com and bring up TI 10. The product page has reviews on the product from users...and there are lots of satisfied customers....

I am one of them now!

Bob

 

An imaging program is just a backup program.

One backs up files as needed.

I do it several times per day if I've been working on tasks that require saves more than once per day.

After woring on a project for several hours, I sure don't wanna risk waiting until the next day to create of backup.

For really critical stuff, I beck up selected files many, many times per day to a zIP drive or to optical media.

 

Same as Howard Kaikow.

Also. Last night I downloaded a program (anonomous surfing). This morning while I was waking up I restored an earlier image - to completely remove all traces of the surfing program. sometime later I did some registry cleaning and made a new image. later today I will probably be tempted to make some change to my pc or to try some new software and then again I will restore. Making an image of my operating system and programs takes 5 or 6 minutes. Restoring a little longer.

I have recntly been playing with FD-ISR which is a bit quicker but I do like having a number of recent images to be able to get out of some of the holes I dig.

My data partition gets imaged often and rarely restored - sometimes just the odd file I deleted in haste.

 

What you and Howard say makes sense, and in fact you are using it almost as a 'roll back program'. Presumably you are both mostly using the incremental/differential function on a daily basis. Is it reliable, and if I may ask what's the difference between incremental and differential?

One more question: Do you backup within Windows or using the rescue media CD? Thanks

 

See my post #4 in this thread:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=164887

I always backup within Windows and have never had any problem.

 

I only use full backups and restores ( just restored now while having breakfast - an upgrade to another program went wrong) and hate the idea of incremental or differential --- just too messy/complicated.

I use both windows and CD and have never noticed any difference. I am led to believe that CD is a better way to make a back up and sometimes I just pop the CD in and hit reboot ( I don't care what happens to the current image because in seconds its going to be destroyed) as I think it might be seconds faster.

Recently I have been playing with FD-ISR BUT always have a TI image bank just in case.

 

Thank you all for the very useful info. I usually backup outside Windows because it is less likely to run into conflicts, except the whole operation including validation lasts well over an hour, compared to 12 minutes within Windows.

I do like the idea to use TI as a roll back application.

 

without wishing to perpetuate the discussion, it seems to me for my own configuration that I need backup up often, and restore very infrequently. Therefore it makes sense for me to do automated backups from Windows (usually when I am fast asleep).

Restoration of non-system partitions is done from within Windows, restoration of system partitions always requires the use of the Acronis or PE CD or flash disk - or at least a reboot into the Linux environment.


F.

 

I back up from within windoze.I use 4 USB drives, never having more than 3 connected at the same time.

Forthe two 80GB drives, I use incremental backups.
For the larger (160GB and 200gB) drives, I use differential backup.

Incremental backs up changes since th last full or incremental backup for that archive.

Differential backs up changes since the last full backup for that archive.

I have faith in the restore/backups because I have programs that can check the critters.

ReadFile
GetFileTypeDistribution
CompareDrives

Note: On my system (windoze 2000), I do get a BSOD when restoring a drive from within windows. I believe tgat the drive actually does get restored, and the BSOD occurs when the restoration is completed. To play safe, I restore from the rescue CD.