Recovery using a snapshot from an external drive???

My C (system) drive is only 40GB. I keep all my data files on a second internal hard drive D. For back-ups I have an external drive G with 250GB.

My goal in using FDISR is to be able to recover by using snapshots stored on my external drive G. Specifically...

***The following summarizes what I THINK I understand about how to archive snapshots on external drive G, & use them to recover from a disaster NOT involving hard drive failure of C drive.

***I intend to use FDISR in "Alternating Daily Backups" (only 3 or 4 snapshots), as described in FDISR's Help file. NO data anchoring. (PS- All my drives are NTFS)

PROCEDURE...
1- Make first snapshot. Call it Alpha. I presume FDISR will put this snapshot on Drive C and that it will be the *Active* one. Correct?
2- Make a second snapshot. Call it Omega. It is my plan to put Omega on drive G, NOT on drive C.

RESULT: Alpha snapshot active on drive C. Omega snapshot archived on external drive G.

QUESTION: Will FDISR put Omega snapshot directly onto external drive G, if I ask it to do so? IF NOT, then I will manually copy snapshot Omega from C to external drive G, & then delete snapshot Omega from Drive C. (Is doing this okay? I want to keep C as unfilled as possible.)

RECOVERY (by using Omega snapshot residing on drive G)
1- Boot
2- Hit F1 to activate FDISR
3- Tell FDISR to copy Omega from external drive G to drive C (Will FDISR do that for me?)
4- Tell FDISR to boot Omega (make Omega the Active snapshot.)

POOF! I'm back in busness, with Omega rolling merrily along. I hope!

In words understandable by a computer-doofus (namely me), PLEASE tell me my mistakes, & offer feasible options for me to be able to restore from snapshots on an external drive.

 

Bellgamin,
Some of your thoughts are good, others are wrong. It goes like this.

1. After installing FDISR you have already a Primary Snapshot, based on your actual system partition [C:]. This is your Alpha Snapshot and that is supposed to be your healthy snapshot.

2. Then you copy/update the Primary Snapshot to a new snapshot, called Secondary Snapshot, that is your working snapshot.

3. Then you copy/update the Primary Snapshot to a new archive, called Omega Archived Snapshot on your external harddisk [G:]

The F1-key allows you to boot from the Primary Snapshot OR Secondary Snapshot, because they are on your system partition [C:], but you can NOT boot from an Archived Snapshot on partition [G:].

Why do you need at least two snapshots on partition [C:] ?
Your Secondary Snapshot is normally your working snapshot.
When something serious goes wrong in your Secondary Snapshot, you still can boot in your Primary Snapshot, using the F1-key in the Pre-boot Screen, to get back in business.

As long nothing goes wrong in your Secondary Snapshot, you DAILY have to :
1. copy/update your Secondary Snapshot to your Primary Snapshot, to keep your Primary Snapshot up-to-date
2. copy/update your Secondary Snapshot to your Archived Snapshot, to keep your Archived Snapshot up-to-date
This is called "refreshing" by most FDISR-users and refreshing is usually a very fast operation.

If something serious goes wrong you can "remove" your corrupted Secondary Snapshot and re-create your Secondary Snapshot in two different ways.
1. copy/update your Primary Snapshot to a new Secondary Snapshot.
2. copy/update your Archived Snapshot on [G:] to a new Secondary Snapshot.
Experienced FD-ISR-users will usually copy/update the Primary Snapshot to the corrupted Secondary Snapshot, without removing the corrupted Secondary Snapshot.
So your Archived Snapshot on [G:] isn't really necessary, it's a kind of backup.
If you don't do a DAILY image backup, your daily refreshed archived snapshot on [G:] will be necessary, because all your snapshots in your IMAGE BACKUP FILE will be out-of-date.
When you restore from an IMAGE BACKUP FILE, you will be able to refresh your out-of-date snapshots via the archived snapshots.

It is very important that you keep at least ONE healthy snapshot on your system and to keep it healthy you need a secondary snapshot for your daily work and experiments, like trying a new software.
This is also the reason why FDISR, right after the installation, will ask you to create the secondary snapshot
So your system partition [C:] needs at least TWO snapshots. That is the minimum and you can go upto maximum 10 snapshots, but 40 GB isn't much of course.
However the number of archived snapshots on [G:] is unlimited until your external harddisk is full LOL.

There is also your IMAGE BACKUP, that restores all your snapshots.
It depends on what you need. Restoring an IMAGE BACKUP takes much more time of course (in my case 40-50
minutes). Restoring from archived snapshots is alot faster.

 

ErikAlbert, I don't agree with how you switched terminology here, it can be confusing. The terminology, to avoid confusing newbies, should remain consistent with the terminology of FD-ISR itself upon install.

The default install arrangement is that your PRIMARY Snapshot is your "working" snapshot, i.e., the snapshot you operate in. The Secondary Snapshot would be your "main recovery" snapshot, i.e., the one most likely to exist on your system partition alongside the Primary Snapshot.

It may simply be a matter of language or semantics but by "working" snapshot, I think most English as a first language speakers would take that to mean the snapshot that you normally boot into and work within.

As FD-ISR says in the description box of your Primary Snapshot as installed, the Primary Snapshot is "The primary system image created by the Installer". This is all you have and what you are operating in when you first install FD-ISR. You can find this information and more on the "Getting Started" page of the FD-ISR user manual.

You can choose to spend the bulk of your time operating within any system drive snapshot you want and call it whatever you want or even rename what FD-ISR initially calls the Primary Snapshot, but I think it's best if we stick with Raxco (Leapfrog) default terminology to avoid confusing one another.

Otherwise, the rest of what ErikAlbert posted is golden.

 

I find it more logical that the Primary Snapshot is your healthy snapshot and that you create a secondary snapshot to work with. My last created snapshots are usually for experiments.
I admit that for experienced FD-ISR-users each snapshot can be used as a healthy snapshot, because all snapshots are independent.

 

I've got no issue with that thinking and enough experience with FD-ISR to be flexible in my thinking to accommodate your choice of terminology but I think making sure we don't confuse each other, especially the novices, takes precedence even over logic. Leapfrog/Raxco's terminology is the most logical terminology to use as a common ground, IMO.

In other words, I think it's better for us to stick with Leapfro/Raxco standard terminology with novices and reserve the use of ErikAlbert dialect for advanced users. I think my point is made (hopefully, to bellgamin, if no one else) and don't intend to debate it further.

 

You are almost correct, Bellgamin.

What is called a snapshot is your actual working installation of Windows, you can create and boot from up to 10 snapshots.
But there is a caveat: they can only reside on your C: partition and each snapshot can take as much space as your regular Windows installation.
I get the feeling that disk space on your primary hard disk could be an issue.

Archives of snapshots can reside anywhere else, and take less space, the amount of archives is not limited.

In case of recovery from disaster, you would boot into a different snapshot and repair from their, or repair from an archive.
In any case of disaster recovery by FD-ISR, you need to be able to boot into Windows first! Unlike regular imaging solutions that boot from floppy/CD.
Your disaster plan depends on your disk space.

 

In the very beginning, I've tested how much space I needed on my system partition [C:]. In that period my system partition was 50 gb.
I copied one snapshot after another until I had 10 snapshots and my system partition was FULL. Even when I could, I couldn't create an 11th snapshot.
So 40 gb will certainly be a problem, when Bellgamin has 10 snapshots in mind, like Acadia LOL.

 

But he doesn't, according to his post, he has only 3 or 4 in mind. I must be thick, I don't get the significance or humor either one.

 

Doesn't it make you wonder what's wrong with math?
'used diskspace' x 'number of snapshots' <=> disk capacity

 

Thanks to everyone for the EXTREMELY helpful comments you have offered. I hope that the Leapfrog folks recognize that this strong community of FDISR users is a major MAJOR reason for people to buy their product.

Companies can buy advertisements but this kind of unpaid help from volunteers is (in the words of Mastercard) PRICELESS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Background
*My drive C has only ONE partition & I plan to keep it that way.
**My *Working System* on drive C is only ~4Gb in size. I mostly use my computer to maintain websites, counsel folks via email, & visit security forums. Based on 8+ years of such usage, plus the fact that all data files are on drive D, my *Working System* won't ever get bigger than ~7 or 8 Gb.
***I understand that I can have 10 FDISR snapshots, but my plan is to only have Primary & Secondary snapshots (drive C) & Omega snapshot (drive G).
****Since I will be using ATI or BING or IFW, I will also have one or more images of drive C residing on drive G.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Based on all your comments & guidance, here is what I THINK is the case. Please correct me if I am wrong.

#1- My *Working System* and the Primary Snapshot are basically 2 names for the same thing. That is, the Primary Snapshot is ~4Gb & is Active.

#2- Secondary snapshot MUST be located on drive C. Thus, if I have ONLY a Primary snapshot & a Secondary snapshot residing on drive C (& keep one snapshot Omega on external drive G) then I will be using ~8Gb on drive C & ~4Gb on G.

#3- IF disaster strikes the Primary Snapshot...
> I reboot & press F1.
> I tell FDISR to boot to the Secondary snapshot. (Once it is booted the Secondary snapshot REPLACES/BECOMES the *Working System*/Primary Snapshot. The old Primary snapshot no longer exists).
> I load snapshot Omega from G onto C. Omega now BECOMES Secondary snapshot.
> In due time, I create a new Omega snapshot on drive G -- & the beat goes on.

#4- ASSUMPTION- When restarting after a disaster, there is no way that I can get FDISR to directly boot into Omega on drive G. That is --- FDISR will only boot into a snapshot on C. True?

#5- ASSUMPTION- If I have (on drive g) a *good drive C Image* made by ATI &/or BING, then FDISR is more of a convenience rather than being an absolute necessity for recovering from disaster. Agree or disagree?

 

After rebooting and pressing F1, you have to boot in the healthy secondary snapshot, but the corrupted primary snapshot
is still there.
You can correct the primary snapshot is several ways :
1. Method 1
Copy/Update the healthy secondary snapshot to the corrupted primary snapshot and both snapshot will be identical
and healthy again.
2. Method 2
copy/Update the healthy Archived Snapshot (Omega on [G:]) to the corrupted primary snapshot and it will be healthy again.
3. Method 3
Remove the corrupted primary snapshot.
Copy/Update the healthy secondary snapshot to a new snapshot called Primary Snapshot.

That is true.

That depends. When are you going to do your IMAGE BACKUP with BING ?
Daily, weekly, monthly, ,,, ?

 

Nope. The last time I got a peek at bellgamin's system partition he had between 3 and 4 GB used and it was a total size of something like 30ish GB (sorry, I'm too lazy to look it up right now, just quoting from possibly faulty memory), so 3 or 4 snapshots is not unreasonable. Sorry, I'm still not gettin' it.

Off to run memtest86 or whatever the heck it's called on myself.

P.S. Ooooh, I think I just got it. If I'm right, mum's the word.

 

Hooooo, hold the presses ! Peter2150, that is uncharacteristically picky behavior for you !

I'm afraid you've been hanging around ErikAlbert long !


P.S. Yes, it's me being silly again, don't take it personally ErikAlbert. I respect all of you guys.

 

Bellgamin,
Since space is an issue for you, you may want to reduce the size of your System Restore Folder from 12% to 6 or 3%. You won't need as many (if any) restore points since you now have FD-ISR.
I keep it at 3% as a "just in case" kinda thing

hth,

...screamer

 

Besides that, the next version of FDISR will most probably allow you to compress snapshots, which will reduce the required space significantly.