Independent Restore Imaging

I don't see how it is restrictive at all, as it does fully work as it is supposed to. You do not have to install Windows or ShadowProtect on the receiving partition/hard drive. This is not how ShadowProtect works at all, and that wouldn't even make sense. Believe me this is from experience, as I have used SP & the HIR function successfully.

You install ShadowProtect in Windows on the system that you will be creating an image of. Then you boot to the ShadowProtect Recovery Environtment Boot CD, and create an image of that system. If you do this, you will be able to restore the image that you are creating, to a blank hard drive on completely different hardware, using HIR. HIR will install basic drivers for the new hardware, after it finishes restoring your image to it.

If you were to NOT install ShadowProtect in Windows on the system that you were creating an image of, then you would not be able to restore that image to different hardware(HIR would not work, and the OS would not boot after restoring it). You would only be able to restore that image to the same hardware that the image came from(if you want the OS to boot). This is why I recommend to always install SP in Windows, before you create an image of the system.

--Note that you do not need to input your license key for SP in the Windows installation, if you are installing it for HIR. The trial version on Windows is enough for HIR, as you only need your license key so that you can download the SP Recovery Environment Boot CD from their website.--

ShadowProtect comes with a lot of basic drivers, designed for all kinds of systems. With HIR enabled when you do the restore, SP will decide on its own, which drivers are the best match for your hardware. If by some chance it is unable to find drivers that match your system, you have the option of adding in your own set of drivers. I don't think anything about this software is inconvenient or restrictive.

After it gets your OS to boot using these basic drivers, you must install all the proper drivers for your hardware on your own from within the OS. I hope this clears things up for you, as somebody told you some incorrect information about ShadowProtect.

 

I always use the SP recovery CD, to create an image and to restore of course, I don't have SP installed in both of my computers. The only reason I would install SP is to mount an image and recover some files. Given the fact that a restore is usually between 5-8 minutes, and I keep all of my private data on USB drives, I basically don't even need to mount images, as they are most of the time only of Windows and programs.

 

I did not know this piece of information about SP. Thanks.

I guess, if this is a problem for someone then they should better go with Paragon, as I am sure Paragon allows you to take a cold-image of your current hard drive and restore it to a different hard drive.

 

Now I'm a bit confused myself: what does different hardware mean? A totally different computer and new hard drive or just a new hard drive? As I understand it, if the hard drive fails on my computer and change it to a new one, does it qualify as a normal restore (what I always believed) or HIR?

 

SP would allow you to do this exact same thing. You could still restore the image to different hardware, even if you did not have SP installed on the original OS. Your OS just would not be bootable on the new hardware. The HIR function would not have worked, and so basic drivers for the new hardware would not have been installed.

If you did get into this situation, you could just use another tool to add in the drivers to make the OS boot. One example of such a tool, is TBOSDT (TeraByte OS Deployment Tool Suite), like Brian K mentioned earlier.

 

You misunderstood again,this has only to do with HIR,which is just the topic of this thread.

 

Different hardware means a different motherboard, and therefore a different storage controller, which means you would need different drivers.

If your HDD failed and you replaced it, you could do a regular restore of your image to that hard drive. You would just have to make sure that the replacement drive has a large enough capacity to restore your image onto it.

 

No, my post was about HIR, but yes, I see I mentioned it later after the i.e but failed to add this to the actual question. My Bad....

 

Thanks, now everything is clear, and it makes sense that SP should be installed in Windows in order to restore to a different computer.

 

Sorry, I think I need to do a proper job of explaining myself. I was saying that Paragon allows you to take an image of your system from the boot disk and restore it on a new computer with HIR (make everything bootable etc), even if it was not installed on the original system. So, it is different in this case from SP.

[I am almost 90% sure the above is true, someone can correct me if I am wrong, as I only used this HIR feature of Paragon just once and I am sure the program was not installed on the original system.]

 

I just did some research on this feature in Paragon, and I haven't been able to find anything about needing to install it on the original system. So I assume that what you said in your post is correct. Just so you know, in Paragon the feature that is the near equivalent to HIR is known as Adaptive Restore using the P2P Adjust Wizard.

BTW, was the Paragon boot disc that you used the default recovery disc based on Linux, or the advanced recovery disc based on WinPE? And which Paragon software did you use... Drive Backup 9 Pro, Drive Backup 10 Pro, Backup & Recovery Suite 10..??

 

SP differ in the way as to how Paragon work (which is a huge +) in that can only restore to different hardware if the destination disk have SP on it.
On the + side with SP you can install the trial and it work just fine with HIR.

 

No, you mean the source disk, not the destination disk. And the reason the trial works just fine with HIR is because you also need the Recovery Environment Boot iso. You cannot get the iso unless you have a legitimate license key. You must provide your key on their website, in order to download the boot iso.

 

I have Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2009 Pro and used the WinPE recovery disk. Keep in mind that the 2009 or the 9 versions are limited to Vista only. While the newer 10 versions work with all windows (Win2k and above).

With Paragon you get to use it on one system, so if your have hardware failure you can move it to a new system, provided you only use it on one system at a time.

 

If you're using XP, then I propose doing the following, which will work without the need for H.I.R. backup software:

1. Restore the system image from any imaging program to your new hardware.
2. Follow the steps listed at http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives...erboard-without-getting-blue-screen-of-death/ under "b) After moving the hard drive".

How successful is the Fix_HDC program (referenced in the previous link)?

Source: http://ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12079.
Note: Fix_IDE is no longer included in the newest version of Ultimate Boot CD for Windows, due to the claimed superiority of Fix_HDC.

 

Well I have to agree that is a stupid requirement if true and I would love to have it confirmed or denied before I do too much more with SP.

Can someone clarify this issue please?

 

THank you, I am greatly relieved.

 

I am talking about the 30-day free trial version of ShadowProtect Desktop. If you want to use the HIR feature, you must install ShadowProtect Desktop onto the system that you will be creating an image of. You do not need an activated version with a license key to be installed onto this system. Installing the free trial version of it(not the full evaluation) will do just fine. You can download the free trial from their website and install that. However, this DOES NOT mean that you do not need a license key at all.

You still DO need to have/purchase a valid license key in order to be able to use HIR. This is because you can only use this feature from ShadowProtect Recovery Environment Boot CD. To get the iso for the CD, you just go to this page and enter your license key into the box. This will allow you to download it from their website.

The link that you provided is for enterprises to request an evaluation of the full version of ShadowProtect Desktop. You do not need the full version to be installed on the system that you're making an image of, if you are going to use HIR. Installing the free trial version of it will do fine.

 

Hi Nineine,

Link provided bij Peter is de evaluation version for desktop,its the complete iso file which consist of the install trial version + recovery environment.
Sure if you install it on your desktop you have to buy a license after the trial period expire.

 

You have to buy a license ANYWAY, otherwise you cannot get the Recovery Environment. That link he provided is for enterprise evaluation only, not personal use. And it is an evaluation, so can't use it forever. So that link is irrelevant.

But the whole point of installing it on the desktop IN THIS CASE, is to be able to use the HIR feature of the boot CD. You don't need to worry about when the trial expires for the HIR feature. Your just installing it on the OS because the Recovery Environment needs it to be there when it will be doing an HIR restore of the image of that OS.

Lets say you install the trial of ShadowProtect Desktop on your Windows OS today, and then create an image of the OS using the SP boot CD. Then you store that image on an external hard drive for 3 months. Then your computer explodes, and you buy a new computer. The SP Boot CD will still be able to restore your OS image to that new computer using the HIR feature. The day that the trial would have expired(2 months earlier) is irrelevant, because it is sitting inside an image.

Bottom line: The trial version of SP is installed on an OS, that is contained inside of an image. That trial of SP does not know that it is expired. It will not know it has expired, until you restore this image to a system and boot to it. At that point your mission has been accomplished, and you can uninstall the trial version of SP.

 

Good explanation though, but about this evaluation thing,if you get the ISO file from Storagecraft after filling out the form,(peters link)its certainly the desktop variant because i did it myself 2,5 years ago for trialling it at the time.
Did you fill out the form ? And what was it ?

 

I didn't fill it out. It says it is for enterprises, not personal use. So I didn't even bother. Plus I have a license for SP, so I don't need the evaluation.

What did you receive from them when you filled it out. Did you get a license to evaluate it, or how did it work? How long was your evaluation for? I assume you gave them fake info, since it's for enterprise use?

 

I received iso file for desktop evaluation,as earlier stated it also has recovery environment in it.

There is no need for a licence key to get the recovery environment,just fill out the form and see what happen.

Yes i admit its a bit confusing at the request page but read the capital letters on the top of the page and follow Peters advice as to ignore the RED.

You don't need it but its otherwise a completely legal request if you need the eval. version.