Final consensus

Discussion in 'FirstDefense-ISR Forum' started by Acadia, Jul 13, 2007.

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  1. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    So before I purchase it, the opinion of the majority (no matter how small of a majority) of this knowledgeable group (that is meant with true sincerity ) is that the best (defined as being most reliable) imaging program to use WITH FD-ISR is ShadowProtect; not Acronis, Ghost, Terabyte, etc., but ShadowProtect, is this correct? Thank you all much.

    Acadia
     
  2. sukarof

    sukarof Registered Member

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    Personally I find Terabyte Image for Windows and Shadowprotect equally reliable. I´ve been using IFW/IFD for a year and done many images and restores, with and without verification both on XP and Vista, and it have never shown anything that even remotely reminds of a glitch regarding FDISR (or any other software for that matter). Of course I have not done any torture tests, but it is one of the very few software that I have full confidence in.

    I only used SP for the trial period, but during that time it seemed as rock solid as IFW.
    I probably will buy SP once it hit version 3 because of the incremental capability.
     
  3. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    sukarof, thank you. If I remember correctly, there is an issue with the MBR with terabyte. If I am wrong, I'm sure the others will correct me. THANK YOU!

    Acadia
     
  4. TonyW

    TonyW Registered Member

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    I wouldn't know which is the best imaging program as I've never used one. Now there's a shock for you! :D
     
  5. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I don't suppose I really have to answer here do I?
     
  6. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    :thumb:

    Acadia
     
  7. Longboard

    Longboard Registered Member

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    @Acadia: sukarof took ( most of ) the words out of my mouth:
    There is no "issue" with the mbr in Terabyte; it just doesn't do an automatic back up.

    It will rewrite a standard mbr if you manage to screw yours up: do you really want to image a screwed mbr? :) Personally I find that a very useful safety net !

    Said it before: the Terabyte package and the free tools is a truly great piece of kit.

    There is no doubt that ShadowProtect is a great tool.
    V3 may be another killer app: not sure if it will manage and format partitions or have direct boot control? ;)

    You wont go wrong with either.

    regards
     
  8. danny9

    danny9 Departed Friend

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    I'm like you in this matter.
    Use TI now but am looking forward to SP3 to give it a whirl.
    If it works as good as everyone says I will be purchasing it also.:)
     
  9. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

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    I find the most reliable imaging program i have is acronis trueimage. I use it on 4 computers and its always run flawlessly. Unless you had/have any problems with it i highly recommend it.
     
  10. Huupi

    Huupi Registered Member

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    So you are a lucky one,i have used ATI in the past but it can't cope with the Sata controller on my workstation,not even from the recoverydisk,this was a year ago, maybe things changed thereafter.
     
  11. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

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    Was it version 10 that you used back then? If not you should give the latest build of v10 a trial.
     
  12. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    Yes, ShadowProtect is THE Image Backup software you need with a ready-to-use Recovery CD and is most probably the fastest of all popular Image Backup softwares at this moment and very reliable.

    Hardware : external harddisk
    Software : ShadowProtect Desktop + FirstDefense-ISR + Harddisk Zero Tool.
    = Total Recovery solution.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2007
  13. yankinNcrankin

    yankinNcrankin Registered Member

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    How fast does shadow protect create or copy 1 Gig of data? When using the recovery CD how fast does it load its environment so you can start the recovery process? I use Norton Ghost 2003 with FDISR and its extremely reliable and super fast CD load into PC-DOS, unlike Acronis' linux environment way too slow when loading from CD, also I never could get the latest version of AT to work on my DELL box xps200. I could create the image but when it was time to restore I would be able to get only so far into the wizard and then the part where it says to select the partition you would want to restore the image to and nothing would show no partition to select nothing so I cancel. Anyways that was a while ago and my probvlem was never solved or answered but its somewhere in here.
    Edited Side note: Norton Ghost 2003 came free with my purchase of PartitionMagic and works well with my externals, USB Drives, and Firewire, Copys my OS XpProS2 2Gigs worth in under 40 sec. Restore time for complete overwrite under 35 sec.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2007
  14. lucas1985

    lucas1985 Retired Moderator

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    Really? Where can it be downloaded?
    Thanks.
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2007
  15. Huupi

    Huupi Registered Member

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    Back then it was ATI 9 dont know which build it was,but at the moment SP is my imaging app of choice.
     
  16. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi YankinCrankin

    Partly going to depend on your machine. I can image or restore 24gig of data in about 5 to 6 minutes, either in windows or the recovery environment, which is also windows.

    Time to load the Recovery environment which is currently winpe, is about the same time as a normal boot for me.

    Pete
     
  17. yankinNcrankin

    yankinNcrankin Registered Member

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    Sounds all good but I personally never do restores from a windows enviornment, especially if windows have been compromised just my preference to restore in DOS, thats if I ever get a problem with FDISR which has never happened yet.
     
  18. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    :cool:

    Acadia
     
  19. Long View

    Long View Registered Member

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    Acronis works for me - with FD-ISR, DeepFreeze 6 and Returnil.
    As I don't own stock in any of these companies nor suffer from primitive association gratification syndrome I normally just use any combination of softwares that work on my systems and kinda ignore what the major believe - just use what works for you.
     
  20. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Whats the difference. Oh, maybe you don't realise, the Winpe environment is windows booted from the CD. Your hard drive is inert. It is much faster, and supports more hardware, by being a windows environment.

    Pete
     
  21. yankinNcrankin

    yankinNcrankin Registered Member

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    Correct I didn't realize. So its much faster to load that CD of Windows enviornment than it is for DOS to load ? Lets get funky and keep it real get your stop watch out and give me specifics. :rolleyes:
    Side note: DOS enviornment specifically used to restore images created by Ghost 2003. When you say WinPE supports more hardware meaning what? I have used Ghost 2003 on various machines from HP, Dell, Sony Vaio, Gateway,E-machines to name a few never ran across any hardware yet that Ghost 2003 couldn' run on. Always thought DOS enviornment was a bit more ideal when it came to restoring images, even though its possible and there are other enviornments and methods that can be used to get the same end results.
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2007
  22. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

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    The best advise would be to give a try in the various programs and decide by yourself.

    A program that works for one it can give problems to another and viceversa.
    Test the various apps, see what is better and faster on your machine, and use the one that you feel more comfortable with.;)
     
  23. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I'll play later, and give you some times if I can.

    Pete
     
  24. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Okay Yankincrankin

    As promised. Drive has 21.2 gig of data

    Shadowprotect

    Time to boot CD to program:.....................2:54
    Time to create backup image....................5:48
    Time to Verify:.......................................6:28
    Time to restore:.....................................6:31

    Total time:............................................20:42

    Restore is perfect


    Ghost 2003

    Time to boot CD to program................00:15 (clear winner here)
    Time to image...................................28:47
    Time to verify....................................5:48
    Time to restore..................................11:29

    Total time ........................................46:49 (clear losser)

    Restore not perfect

    1. It created a new mbr which I didn't want.
    2. It shrunk the partition size way down which I also didn't want.



    Restored the SP image back, and all was again back as it had been.

    Pete
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2007
  25. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    Acadia,

    1. Archive your 20 snapshots with FDISR, which is probably done already.
    2. Install only Windows and FirstDefense-ISR (only primary snapshot)
    3. Backup your harddisk : Windows + FirstDefense-ISR (= very small image)
    Any popular Image Backup software can do that job.

    In case you have to restore :
    1. Restore the image, containing Windows + FirstDefense-ISR
    2. Restore 10 of the most important snapshots in new snapshots.
     
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