EAZ-fix/Rollback RX and disk imaging

The test results are in

I tested EAZ-fix with several disk imaging tools like Norton Ghost 2002, Farstone DriveClone 2.1, Acronis TrueImage 9.0 home and the free EAZ-clone.
It's very interesting to learn that the regular imaging software report about 1.7 GB data on disk, while EAZ-clone reports 2.9 GB.
None of the regular images could be restored without problems, like missing AV software or not starting AV sofware.
Only with EAZ-clone I was able to restore from an image without any error popping up. I switched to a couple snapshots and started Word without problems. EAZ-clone seems to support EAZ-fix without flaws.

EAZ-clone is free, by the way.
It's also an ancient DOS program, which needs a FAT32 partition to write the image, also some network cards are supported to write over the network.
EAZ-clone is slow, it took 25 minutes to write/restore an image with 2.9 GB data. But maybe that can be improved with a UDMA driver.

I read in the forum that the pagefile.sys could be a problem, I have that on a different partition. Maybe that is an advantage.

Well, I hope that my test is helpful for EAZ-clone/Rollback RX users.

 

Personally, I wouldn't like it when a non-backup software forces me to use a specific backup software.

 

I notice that some forum members are content with EAZ-fix/Rolback RX, and the provided information might help them.

 

I checked by rebooting to the EAZ-clone CD while my USB drive was powered on.
The USB drive shows up in the list of harddisks.
That would be a yes, then.

 

I didn't test this yet, but since Paragon Exact Image is able to create sector-by-sector images, I assume that this disk imaging software is also supporting EAX-fix/Rollback RX snapshots.
http://www.exact-image.com/

I did create an image with the demo of Paragon Exact Image, and it shows about the same size as the image of EAZ-clone. That is promising.
Unfortunately, the demo doesn't let me restore the image, so I can't yet verify that it supports EAZ-fix allright.

 

I asked EF support about EF & RB being look-a-likes. They responded confirming that EF & RB are one and the same products marketed under different labels by 'cooperating partners'. They also said the same was true of the respective Clone products (so based on wilbertnl's findings, the Clone products have been updated since I last looked at HDS Clone - as it did not support external drives in May)!

 

Your results are very interesting indeed...

The fact that EAZ (HDS) Clone reported 2.9GB vs 1.7GB with your imaging prog (I assume that's BNG), seems to indicate that the EAZ/HDS Cloning product will clone their hidden (proprietary) partition (as well as the Windows partitions), whereas imaging products don't even see that hidden partition.

 

I tested with the mentioned applications.
If I understand the infomation right, then EAX-Fix stores it's snapshot information in disk sectors without marking them as used. That is why regular imaging software that only looks for used sectors is not compatible.

 

In the psast I treid Rollback and imaging with terabyte. Imaging and restore was without any errors but the image taken by IFW / IFD or BINg was that of my baseline snapshot rather than current snapshot- no matter what I did.

 

As I've reported in past threads, I discovered that the Rollback snapshot captured when creating an image with ATI depends on the operating environment in which ATI Backup is run. If run from within Windows, ATI captures RB's current snapshot. If run from ATI's Boot CD (Linux OS), it captures RB's baseline snapshot.

I can't comment on IFD/IFW/BIMG because when it comes to imaging products, I'm a staunch ATI user.

 

The EAZ-clone I downloaded: http://www.k62.net/download/eazclone060710.iso.
Dated July 10th, 2006.

 

That's definitely a newer version than HDS Clone, which for some strange reason is no longer available on the HDS (Rollback) site!

 

Wilbert, I burnt the ISO with nero no problem then rebooted using the disk.



I have two sata 11 drives intenally and one eSata 11 Vantec external encloser connected via sata cable.

It would appear that EAZ-Clone doesn't work with Sata drive

John

 

I also noticed that the freeware "Folder Mover" is no longer available either on the HDS site. Weird changes over there.

 

EAZ-FIX has it on their site for download.

http://www.eazsolution.com/download.php

John

 

I know, but that wasn't my point. I'm wondering why HDS removed it ?

 

I haven't seen Chris12923 around these parts for quite a while... That's really too bad because he had insight into what was happening at HDS - which he always shared with us.

 

I certainly don't know anything about all these companies, that's why I keep myself away from RollbackRx and its clones.
I don't trust this situation and I have already a solution : FDISR (+ ATI).

 

John,

I'm working on improvements of EAZclone (hope to earn that way a free registration for EAZ-fix).
I already accomplished 75% performance improvement with EAZclone.
I will put the SATA issue on the todo list.

 

A while ago I sent him, with his approval, a virus to test Viguard antivirus sofware.
I hope it didn't kill him...

 

It would be outstanding if it indeed supported SATA and USB2 (external) drives!

 

Hello Wilbert,

Afraid that might be to late for me - I need to make a decision before the end of August if I want the rebate on FD.

However, you could convince the EAZ-FIX people that there's an old bugger in NZ that wants a free copy (only joking).

John.