Does this look familiar?

I will second that opinion of Raxco Support.

Acadia

 

After seeing the advise to contact Raxco, I contacted them with my concern. A couple of minutes later I received an notice of new mail. I checked my email and found an email from Raxco acknowledging my correspondence with them, and an email from Cleverbridge apologizing for failing to include my activation code earlier and providing the code.

I don't know if contacting Raxco put the rush on Cleverbridge or if the timing was coincidence.

Either way, they're back in my good graces.

 

Nice to see support quick to respond, just started my trial/testing and if all goes well I see a possible new permanent part of my set up.

 

@ Pandlouk: you sound a bit pessimistic too ?

I agree the differential/incremental option might be nice, but doesn't anchoring provide a similar pathway.?

As to size of images: meh: storage cheap. Time is sort of an issue with moving snapshots around.
I have found simple scheduling to make a huge difference in time issues
Updating my network archives is still super quick.

Being able to boot to completely different set-ups is still a nice option for me.

I appreciate this is a sort of "retrograde" option perhaps in light of some newer tools, but FDISR has just been so solid.

I trust that Raxco has examined the business plan and sees opportunity.
Its not as though FDISR is some flaky disc warping, OS destoying, in immediate need of 400 upgrades type of tool.

@Peter

OK
I still cant trust one solution for my setups and combination of SP and FDISR has been fitting really well.

Costs of my original FDISR, Shadow Protect and IFW has amortised itself well and truly.
The softs I have never regretted: FDISR, BootIT/IFW, SP.
( heh: Still play with BootIT as required but a bit less integral now)

I wonder if/ hope that Raxco reps will drop in here and give a little update ?

PS: even if RAxco folds this edition sooner rather than later: if experience is anything to go buy any users could feel secure for years to come ??

 

Why? did something go wrong last week? or did you just run out of space, or other reasons?

 

I threw a brick at my own glass house. I always tell people to be patient when it comes to using a pc but the speed of AX64 just really appealed to me. But I have kept all of my FirstDefense snapshots just in case I change my mind.

Acadia

 

With The AX64, If I set automatic hourly backups, does it do incrementals? or full? and is my 500GB hard drive large enough to have this function enabled 27/7

 

AX64 only does incrementals, nothing else... ever, that's why the speed (even the BASELINE is an INCREMENTAL of nothing). If the AUTOMATIC hourly function is enabled, it begins with 1-hr snaps and at the 4-hour point starts consolidating those snaps into each other... same after 8-hours, then 12-hours, then daily, then weekly, etc.

During the consolidation (MERGING) process, it eliminates any irrelevant storage associated with the snap its being merged into... i.e., if you did an installation and it's included in snap <n>, then removed that installation prior to snap <n+1>, when the MERGE occurs merging snap <n> into snap <+1>, the irrelevant storage (your installation) is removed permanently during the MERGE.

MANUAL snapshots are never merged except at your request.

 

All sizing is relative. AX64 compresses down to about 60% (typical for a OS System volume) of the original USED protected volume size. Each incremental (MANUAL or AUTOMATIC) is pretty small and irrelevant INCREMENTAL data is removed during the automatic MERGING process (when running in AUTOMATIC mode).

If you're protecting a 200gB partition that has about 100gB in use, the BASELINE snapshot will be about 60gB and each incremental taken since the last will only be 60% of the size of the difference between the last incremental and the current incremental. In this case, a 500gB snapshot storage device will last a long, long time.

If the snapshot list gets too long to manage, the BASELINE snap can actually be manually merged forward in time, slowly eliminating unneeded snapshots. When I do this, I merge the smaller snapshots forward first with the final merge being the BASELINE into the fully merged snaps (this process will take the longest)... the end result, a new BASELINE.

 

So as not to pullute this group too much with FD-ISR irrelevant queries, additional AX64 TM inquiries should probably best be made in the AX64 TM thread...

 

Froggie, I was going to comment on moving the AX64 questions to the appropriate thread but you beat me to it. Now ... I have a question for YOU about one of your above comments, meet me on the other thread.

Acadia

 

Aye, aye... Cap'n!

 

Yes, I do sound a bit pessimistic, but for different reasons... For example since it supports windows 8.x I would have expected it to support gpt configurations too....

Anchoring, does not provide the same thing unless they change the limit of anchored paths.

As to archives. For me is not only space limitation. It's more about the time needed to create the archives... If a user wants to have 5 different archives he'll have to wait a long time to do it (depending on the hdds, ssds configuration anywhere between 2-8 hours), but if it supported differencials he would need at most half an hour for doing the exact same thing.

Panagiotis

 

Hi Pandlouk

I'm personally not seeing the question of the archives as a "big issue".
It is time demanding only at the beginning when you build the archives.

I have four snapshots : two with XP and two with WIN7. I built eight archives (two for each snapshot) called "WIN7-1-1 DD-MM-YYYY" , "WIN7-1-2 DD-MM-YYYY" etc. My archives are located on an external HD (2 TB) in a dedicated partition. Update of an archive, performed manually, takes few minutes (4 to 8 ) and is done while I am working in another snapshot i.e. no burden or time consuming at all.
I'm planning to allocate more space on drive C to test a WIN8-1 snapshot.

In addition I I'm performing full back up of partition C (which includes the four snapshots) once a week using SP and Macrium free.

Again all this activity is done while working on my PC or during break time, no burden at all.

Samy

 

I agree with Samy.
My FD snapshots are 'programs only' = about 28GB for W7 Pro 64bit.

Updating the primary to secondary (SATA 3 SSD) is about 53 seconds, mostly for reading the directories to decide what needs to be added, copied or deleted.

I also update archives alternately on 2 other SSDs within the PC just before I have updates to programs to do and on 3 external drives in rotation about once a month.

I don't see the need for hourly backups of the 'system' when nothing's really changing because I keep all my 'data' on a separate SSD and it's backed up once or twice a day depending on what I've been doing.

I keep track of the system backups in a spreadsheet listing all critical 'programs' and Windows updates should I need to restore, but generally the secondary is good enough if I want to get rid of a trial or beta test that I don't like. That might take 1.5 minutes to restore.

It took(takes) about 13 minutes to create each archive on 5 other drives but only about a minute to two minutes to update them depending on how old they are and the type of drive and connection.

I only use Macrium Pro to create images after an update to Macrium and they take about 25 minutes with high compression (50%) and including verification. I keep images made with different Macrium versions on the 3 external drives along with the appropriate recovery media on CDs.

I only depend on Macrium to restore a working image of W7 + FD for a drive failure or a new drive and FD to restore the latest 'I'm happy with these programs' system.

An example is when I was beta testing Thunderbird V28. I updated my primary to secondary and 1 archive, installed TB28, didn't like the results, restored from secondary in 1 minute 45 seconds (lots to get rid of), didn't need the archive but it was there if TB28 really trashed my main drive and I had to restore Macrium, etc. etc.

And finally, I only use Macrium for images because I've tested it by buying a new drive and restoring to it and I have that tested image and recovery media (2 copies), I don't see the need for multiple imaging programs. An imaging program is only a convenience to avoid re-installing W7 + FD prior to recovery from an FD archive and possible installing newer updates for some programs.

 

The fact of the matter is that we now have two EXCELLENT programs to do ISR even though they are completely different technology-wise. Even after two weeks of AX64 I am finding myself still tempted to return to FirstDefense; I miss the pre-Boot screen that always gave me a warm, cozy feeling and ... I miss my little froggie croaking . But the speed of this AX64 is insanely vicious ... I love it.

But keeping my old FD snapshots just "in case",
Acadia

 

Hi Acadia,

You can easily have AX64 as boot menu on bootup!

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

Oh, yeah, I know that and even checked it out. Maybe just a bit "over my head" but I may have to check it out again, thanks.
Acadia

 

You are welcome. It is very simple and all you need an ISO of AX64 Recovery Media.

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

Aladdin, I am dragging this next question of mine over to the AX64 thread which is more appropriate, catch you there, thanks.

Acadia

 

Hi Acadia

I understand your excitement regarding the speed of AX64.
But for me the speed is relevant when it is "time consuming" only.
As I mentioned in my previous thread, with FirstDefense I have the possibility to be (working) in one snapshot , for example one of both WIN7 and updating an archive of one of the XP snapshot, I am just moving the GUI of FD to the system tray and that's all. Time consuming almost zero.
On the other hand, having two archives for each snapshot I can use my snapshots as "virtual machine" for testing programs.
By this means, I have three levels of recovery. For example, one of my XP snapshots is dedicated for my son games. He is installing, testing different games. If after a week he is happy with a new installed game, I'm updating the elder archive (from both XP-games ones), leaving the second archive (the newer one) as backup in case that after an additional week he is not happy with the new game.
As mentioned above I can update this XP-game archive while working within one of my two a WIN7 snapshots. No burden and no time consuming.

Acadia, some four years ago you mentioned in one thread in this forum that this program is "a gem", and in fact it is. I am using it for six years and no one big issue, except one small probleme where Peter recommended me to uninstall the programe and re-install it. It is solid rock.
When I will have more time I will add two snapshots with WIN8.1 as per Pandlouk guidance.

This bring me to wonder what may be the "marketing success" of Rasco InstantRecovery programe. The lonely advantage over FD is the living support, but for $70 is a bit too expensive.
IMHO Rasco has to intervene in this forum to elaborate all the advantages of it's new programe. Looking to the number of members who ask/wrote in this forum - about 100+ members. i.e. members who worked with and loved so much this programe. I suppose that most of them will be willing to pay a reasonable amount (not $70) to have this gem with full support for additional future WIN OS (WIN9, 10?)

This was my two cents reflection.

Thanks and Happy New Year to all members of this unique forum
Samy

 

Hi Peter

many thanks for your clarifications.
I was under the wrong impression that the lonely users for this programe are in this forum since it is the place where the support continue to be provided.
Regarding the price I agree and my intention for for the referred discount.

My question (intervene) is there is a way to use existing FD archives to update snapshots of the new programe or do we have to re-install everything from scratch?

Thanks

 

I agree with you. for every user that already has and continues to use the FD-ISR is not a big issue; we already know the time and the space needed to create and update the archives and even if it bothered some of us (I am one of those) we learned to "live" with it.
But when a potential buyer will compare it with AX64, Rollback or even any other imaging app. the speed and the space needed are the first things that he'll notice. If someone does not need to have his system up and running in 5 seconds after a crash, or does not need it's multi-boot capabilities, I don't think that he will prefer InstantRestore over them... at least, I wouldn't...

Panagiotis