Realcopy-Disk imager

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by timcan, Mar 30, 2013.

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  1. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    If no restore is available does that mean restore is strictly by recovery CD

    Pet
     
  2. Jim1cor13

    Jim1cor13 Registered Member

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    Hi Pete :)

    As far as I am aware, according to Waj that stated on their site: http://realcopy.com/2013/11/beta-announcement/

    "Sadly, we have removed the ‘Fast Rollback’ feature due to restore issues it causes with SSDs. This was the ability to quickly jump backwards to a previous snapshot. This feature won’t be missed for long as we will be replacing it with the same one featured in AX64 Timemachine - the ability to jump forwards and backwards between snapshots."

    So I suspect for now, their recovery disc will be the manner of restore until they implement AX64TM integrated fast restore into Real Copy if I am reading it properly. I am sure Waj will clarify restore options. The older version allowed restore of entire image OR turning on the 'fast rollback' feature during the restore procedure which rolled back changes only at the block level, then the PC would reboot and restore before windows booted. Not sure yet if the latest version still offers restore on restart, but they have for now removed the fast rollback feature.

    Another comment in their feature list states the following:

    *Rescue media for bare metal restores:

    If you have no operating system or your computer won’t boot then build rescue media on either USB or DVD drives. It is a fully featured WinPE environment modelled on the familiar Realcopy UI with full functionality of backup / recovery / mounting and the ability to load driver, map shares and configure network address. Additional tools are ran from the command prompt.
    ---

    So I assume for now, one must use the recovery PE disc for restore for 'bare metal' in case there is no OS. Perhaps with the OS in place, at least it implies that a full restore may be available from within windows without recovery disc, but no fast rollback option in this release, but the system would still need to reboot to complete. it should be really nice when they begin implementing AX style fast restores :)

    Hope this helps in some way Pete. I also hope Waj comes by and clarifies what I am still not sure of until I install and test myself.

    Have good day! :)

    Jim
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2013
  3. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Thanks Jim

    Think my first play will be in vm

    Pete
     
  4. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Well I gave it a spin, and candidly, I am disappointed.

    First the good.

    Installation: A

    Building the Recovery CD: B Went fine until it asked for drivers. having worked with the old Nvidia Raid drivers and then need to load them unto recovery environment, I knew what it was asking and just continued on. But without that experience, I would have been clueless.

    Imaging: A It worked fine.

    Restore: A Worked fine Showed correct source and destination

    The bad

    The GUI: D- Who ever designed it must have had a hinged neck. I don't. That vertical text was just a bad idea.

    Incremental image: F Never got it to work. Only took full images. This is a deal killer

    Recovery CD Restore: F It used the GUI from the program. I imaged my c: drive to d:\my backups. When I did the recovery CD restore, it showed the source C: and the destination d:\my backups. I was really curious how the restore would turn out. It turned out okay, but this has to be fixed before this product can be sold.

    Fast Restore: F Key feature needed to make this product stand out is missing. Without this the advantage over other solutions is minimal.

    I was really excited about the possiblities of Realcopy. Unfortunately this beta falls short.

    Pete
     
  5. wajamus

    wajamus Registered Member

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    Hi Peter,

    Thanks for your candid feedback. I received your PM and I have responded. Sorry for the delay, I've been out of action these past few days. I think I am on the same page as you regarding your criticisms of Realcopy. Thankfully all of them are already being addressed and should be resolved.

    Let's go through them

    UI by Hinged Neck Designer

    I laughed out loud regarding your hinged neck comment! To resolve this issue, the designer's neck was in fact broken and we've moved on.

    The accordion tabs with vertical text is something I have always despised. They were implemented before the merger which is when I came on - they will be gone with the integrated product.


    Perform incrementals

    Another user reported a similar issue. We found that the user simply was doing the wrong thing to perform an incremental.

    To perform an incremental 'right click' on one of your existing backups (or click on the cog), then select the item 'backup now'. Your backup will perform an incremental in much the same was as AX64.

    As a guy that likes to perform manual backups, I think this item is unnecessarily hidden. This will also see a revamp.

    If the problem isn't solved by the above, then ensure your backup scheme is set to 'incremental' from within the backup wizard. Click here to see how to set this up.


    Fast Restore

    Again, apologies for removing this feature. In actual fact, AX64's fast restore was inspired by Realcopy's fast rollback. We will be implementing this feature in the integrated product (we really need name). It is a key feature without a doubt!

    Recovery environment
    UI wise, this will be revamped, and noted your other concerns.


    Restore can be initiated from within Windows
    Realcopy can also restore from within Windows like AX64 (Just no fast restore). Simply click on the cog, then click on 'recover data' then follow the recovery wizard prompts. Once complete, you'll be prompted to reboot. The restore takes place in native app before Windows starts. MBR remains unchanged.

    Closing Comments


    Although your comments were largely negative, I feel we're on the same page. It is a good thing that many of your concerns are already being addressed, and your comments gives us confidence that the team is on the right track.

    Also thanks for your PM, I enjoyed responding to it.

    Sincerely,

    Waj

    Our user guide can be found here

     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2013
  6. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Waj

    On the incrementals I did setup the incrementals that way, but I then just took another snapshot, didn't click on the cog. I will go back and test that. But at best it needs to be more intuitive.

    On the recovery CD, I forgot to mention, I didn't see anything like AXTM's advanced option. For a bare metal restore, that is essential.

    Anyway will report back on incrementals.

    Pete
     
  7. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Yep, the incrementals work. Just not obvious how to use them.

    Pete
     
  8. wajamus

    wajamus Registered Member

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    Hi guys,

    It seems the majority of complaints about Realcopy are UI related. To address them, we have another release ready on Sunday. The UI has some significant revamping, and should address many of the UI complaints you guys had. We're are here to serve ;)

    More great news is that it should also include a fix of the build rescue media in Win 8.1 (this fix will also go into AX64 very soon too).

    Thanks,

    Waj
     
  9. djg05

    djg05 Registered Member

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    I read somewhere that this isn't compatible with SSD's yet. Could you confirm this please.
     
  10. Iurie Caraion

    Iurie Caraion Registered Member

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    Hi David,

    SSD is supported. You can use Realcopy to backup it.
    "Fast Rollback" feature was removed. See:
    http://realcopy.com/2013/11/beta-announcement/

    "Sadly, we have removed the ‘Fast Rollback’ feature due to restore issues it causes with SSDs. This was the ability to quickly jump backwards to a previous snapshot. This feature won’t be missed for long as we will be replacing it with the same one featured in AX64 Timemachine - the ability to jump forwards and backwards between snapshots."

    Hope this helps.

    Best Regards,
    Iurie
     
  11. djg05

    djg05 Registered Member

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    Thanks for the quick reply - will wait till Sunday to d/l it
     
  12. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I don't think Sunday's version fixes this. I think it is about the GUI issues.

    Pete
     
  13. silver0066

    silver0066 Registered Member

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    The rescue media does not work. I created a flash boot drive from both Win 8.1 64 bit and a VmWare clean Win 7 64 bit installation.

    Neither one of them would boot. The Win 8.1 boot started, showed the logo, then blackscreened and kept rebooting.

    The Win 7 did the same, but just blackscreened after showing the Win logo.

    Looking forward to a fix. Is there a problem having Realcopy and AXTM on the same machine? I have no problem booting AXTM from flash drive.
     
  14. Iurie Caraion

    Iurie Caraion Registered Member

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    Hi,

    Win 8.1 doesn't work at the moment.

    Could you please provide rc.log from C:\ProgramData\Realcopy from Win 7 x64.

    EDIT: Also could you please confirm that AXTM creates rescue media correctly on the same Win 7 x64 and it boots OK.
    The reason why I ask is because we use the same Rescue PE engine for both projects but call api little differently.

    Thank you,
    Iurie
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2013
  15. djg05

    djg05 Registered Member

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    Ok Pete - thanks
     
  16. silver0066

    silver0066 Registered Member

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    My Win 7 system is on a Vmware virtual disk. There is no rc.log in C:\ProgramData\Realcopy.

    No way to confirm if rescue media works as I can't boot from flash drive on Win 7 in VmWare Workstation.
     
  17. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I have a Win 7 x64 VMware Workstation machine, and it boots from the Recovery CD just fine.

    Pete
     
  18. Iurie Caraion

    Iurie Caraion Registered Member

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    Thanks.
     
  19. silver0066

    silver0066 Registered Member

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    Hi Pete,

    Yes, I know. Unfortunately I don't have a CD drive on my machine.

    Silver
     
  20. djg05

    djg05 Registered Member

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    Did this update happen. The site still refers back to the previous beta
     
  21. wajamus

    wajamus Registered Member

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    Hi djg05,

    The update is delayed, it'll be coming though.

    Thanks!
     
  22. djg05

    djg05 Registered Member

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    Thanks Waj
     
  23. wajamus

    wajamus Registered Member

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    Hi all,

    I'm glad that users are trying out Realcopy. User feedback will help make a better 'integrated' (AX64+Realcopy) product, so I really encourage people to share their thoughts here (or e-mail if you don't want to be public with your oppinion). You can mail info@ax64.com.

    So far on Wilders the the main issues seem to be UI related with the consensus that it is simple, but not intuitive (eg. user's not knowing how to do an incremental). The good is that the main features seem to be quite stable. Other issues are that fast restore is disabled, but this will be included when we release the integrated product.

    We appreciate any feedback, the good and the bad. :)

    Waj


     
  24. taleblou

    taleblou Registered Member

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    I think the latest realcopy has a bug in it. I tried to make a rescue disk in win 8.1 and in the middle of creating rescue disk it gives error:"An error occurred while creating rescue environment on" and no matter if you choose and iso, dvd it gives the same error. Only the USB rescue disk works.

    So this should be addressed.
     
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2013
  25. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Taleblou, this is a W8.1 problem that is being worked on currently. W8.1 has at least (2) missing files that the RECOVERY MEDIA creator needs.
     
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