FDISR and Imaging

Discussion in 'FirstDefense-ISR Forum' started by MerleOne, Sep 13, 2007.

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  1. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

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    Hi,

    I recently acquired a license of FDISR. It took me several days to create the secondary snapshot, because I had first to make room on all the partitions of my HDD in order to free space to increase C:

    Now I have a primary snapshot and a secondary snapshot, both of them fully functional with no identified problem (so far...). The secondary snapshot is 10Gb big, and I think I may still have room for a compressed archive.

    The secondary snapshot and this upcoming archive take a lot of space. If I want to make an image, using any imaging tool such as drive snapshot, O&O DiskImage or Acronis, I understand I first have to disable pre-boot. In that case, I'd like to be sure that after reboot, I will use the primary snapshot.

    Then I'd like to exclude the secondary snapshot and the archive : I am not sure which folder to exclude from the image : is it $ISR, a set of subfolder of $ISR ?

    Thanks for helping !
     
  2. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    HI Merleone

    Welcome to the world of FDISR. First you don't need to disable preboot, to image your system. The preboot actually is no longer in the MBR. In any event imaging tools such as Acronis, and Shadowprotect make it easy to restore the MBR and track 0.

    I wouldn't recommend trying to exclude any of the FDISR folders from your image. If you restore, it could leave you with a mess. I'd recommend instead (assuming you only have one drive) getting an external hard drive, and store images and archives there. Then you can strip down the secondary, to bare bones, and just use it as a place to boot for recovery in FDISR.

    Pete
     
  3. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    MerleOne, welcome to the club.
    You can create ARCHIVES with FDISR to backup your snapshots, using the copy/update function and that's what most FDISR-users do instead of using rollback snapshots to save space on their harddisk[C:]

    You can create IMAGES with most popular Image Backup softwares to backup your harddisk[C:]. Working with a computer without backup is stupid.

    What you can't do is storing these ARCHIVES and IMAGES on the same harddisk[C:], you have to store both on a second harddisk (internal or external) and an external harddisk is the best and safest choice. Don't use DVD's and certainly not for ARCHIVES. Use DVD's only as second backup, not as main backup, that's too risky.

    Suppose your harddisk[C:] is corrupted or damaged. This means that you don't have access to your ARCHIVES and IMAGES anymore. In other words : you can't restore your computer, because you stored both on an inaccessible harddisk[C:]. You will lose everything this way. Isn't that logical ? :)

    PS: if you buy an external harddisk don't buy it too small, having elbowroom is always usefull in the future.
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2007
  4. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

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    Thanks ErikAlbert and Peter2150 for these replies and tips.

    I have finally decided to stay with only 2 snapshots on my system, and rely for now on the archival mechanism.

    On this subject, I also would appreciate a clarification : is incremental copy possible when copying a snapshot to an archive. It seems that it is not the case, but I'd like to be sure.

    And while I am at it, it there a difference between exporting a snapshot or copying a snapshot to an archive ? It seems only the location and the ability to see it from FDISR manager are the only ones ?

    Last : how to compress a snapshot/an archive. I guess it's in the manual, I will look again...
     
  5. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    The concept of incremental really doesn't apply. The archive will be made to look like the snapshot.

    On exporting, it's sort of more for going to say a DVD. No reason normally to use it.

    Pete
     
  6. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    MerleOne,
    For archiving, you have to do one thing first :
    1. Open FDISR
    2. Click on "Tools"
    3. Click on "Options"
    4. Click on "Archives"-tab
    5. Mark "Specify alternate archive location
    6. Click the "Change"-button and browse to the location, where you want to save your archives.
    This is normally your external harddisk or another internal harddisk.
    Example ---> E:\FirstDefense Archives
    If "E:" is your external harddisk and "FirstDefense Archives" is a folder on your external harddisk, than all archives will be stored automatically in that folder.
    7. Click on "OK"-button

    After that, FDISR knows where your archives are stored and when your external harddisk is ON, you will see these archives in the main screen of FDISR under the folder "Archived Snapshots".

    You only have to do this ONE time.
    =================================
    Creating archives is easy :
    Copy/Update from snapshot to <new archive> and give it a name.
    If you want to update an existing archive, do again :
    Copy/update from snapshot to ArchiveName and your archive will be updated and this is very fast, usually seconds or a few minuts.
    If you have two snapshots, you have also two archives. That's it.
     
  7. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    MerleOne,
    You don't need import/export, copy/update from snapshot to archive is much easier.
    Import/Export are used to archive snapshots to a specific location, other than the folder defined in Tools/Option/Archives.
    In theory there is no difference, but import/export are usually used for archiving/restoring on DVD.
    Forget about DVD's, because you won't be able to update archives.

    Regarding compressed snapshots :
    When you copy/update FDISR shows three options in the "Destination Snapshot"-screen :
    1. <new snapshot> That's how you create normal snapshots.
    2. <new compressed snapshot> That's how you create compressed snapshots.
    3. <new archives> That's how you create archives

    Take a good look at all these screens, they explain alot.

    Archives are always compressed automatically.
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2007
  8. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

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    Thanks again ErikAlbert and Peter2150 !

    I think I found a small difference between archive and export : I had exported a snapshot in a set of several pieces, each around 1450MB (3 of them fill a DVD). I then wished to update this exported archive from the same snapshot, but it completely rewrote the full archive, erasing all the *.001, *.002, ... files.
     
  9. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    That may be true. I've never used export.
     
  10. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    Yes, now I remember this numbering, when I tested import/export more than a year ago, but that doesn't make any difference.
    New users, use usually import/export as backup, because they don't know yet that copy/update is normally used for this and Copy/Update doesn't sound like "Archive" or "Backup" and you won't find it in the menus either.
    Normally you start learning FDISR with a simple work snapshot and a rollback snapshot, because that is the best way and two of these snapshots is enough for Immediate System Recovery.
    You don't really need archives in the beginning, that is the next step in the learning process.
     
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