Rollback RX and Search&Rescue 3 (Iolo)

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by MerleOne, Mar 28, 2006.

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  1. pvsurfer

    pvsurfer Registered Member

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    Thanks Chris... The main thing I want to ascertain is... if I create an image (using TI) of my entire C-drive (with RBRx installed), that I will be able to restore it to a new drive if and when my current C-drive goes 'belly-up'.

    The RollBack Rx FAQ on this issue (as quoted in my post above) seems to indicate that doing that would be problematic. But the only problem I can forsee is that the created image (with RBRx installed) would have an RBRx-modified MBR, and therefore, restoring that image to a new C-drive could 'confuse' Windows!

    ~pv
     
  2. Chris12923

    Chris12923 Registered Member

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    OK heres what I will do. I have a spare drive laying around. I will try to image my current setup (which might not work because I have a SATA RAID 0 currently) and restore it to that drive. I will make sure Rollback Rx is installed at the time I create the image. Sound good? This will be an experiment for me too cuz like I said I'm not sure if I can image the RAID to a single drive. It will probably be done late tonight. Maybe 3 hours or so.

    Thanks,

    Chris
     
  3. Chris12923

    Chris12923 Registered Member

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    OK I have good news and bad news.

    First the good news:

    I cloned my complete SATA RAID 0 drive to a ATA 133 drive while Rollback Rx was installed and it worked.

    Now the bad news:

    Upon first boot it ran super slow and finally I had to restart manually.
    Second boot same thing
    Third boot same
    Fourth BSOD Unmountable Boot Disk
    Fifth same BSOD
    I then tried the Windows recovery console fixmbr
    rebooted with same effect everytime from then on.

    So this is the results. What can I say? Did it work? Yes and no (not really).
    Was it a result of Rollback Rx or ATI or both? I can try again if anyone thinks it might help. Any opinions?

    Thanks,

    Chris
     
  4. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Chris

    Interesting test, but I don't think it answered my question. I would just want to know can I image my current disk (non raid) with an imaging program, and rollback installed, replace the disk with a new disk of the same type, and successfully restore the image.

    When I first started with Rollback, I asked about Raid and was told it was okay. But when I inquired officially I was told, that although some people were using it, it had been thoroughly tested, and therefore wasn't officially supported.

    Pete
     
  5. Longboard

    Longboard Registered Member

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    The quest goes on!

    The Rollback thread that will not die.
    Looks like we all want it: Speed, disc space...

    @huntnyc;

    this is good; IFW/BootIt is remarkable (does the no more than 4 partitions apply per disc or over all discs?) but I have had e-mail from IFW noting that BootItNG also writes to MBR and this could be a problem with RBack. So your methodology here was probably spoton. Just a bit unavoidably ungainly combining the two.


    @Chris: yyeess
    @Pete
    That would be good, but except for Chris, evrybody seems to be having concerns with The MBR issue.

    As Chris points out whatever works.
    (me master of stating obvious)

    Just how safe are the Partition managers?
    Even IFW/BootIt suggest backing up all data prior to doing anything.

    New System: COPY keep elswhere>
    INstall and use RBack (+/- ATI, Ghost Paragon, FDISR, IFW on Disc>
    Unistall R'Back>
    Use backup imaging /clone/repartition Save on Outside disc in approved config.
    >Reinstall rollback.
    > till next image.

    This getting worse than debates about layers of Security apps and yet just as important and probably more serious.

    Is it worth getting ATI, Acronis Partition software and Cloner/Migrate (Get a bit lost in the product names) Is there a "bundle"

    LBD
     
  6. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi LBD

    It does get confusing. I use ATI, but I've not bothered with Partitioning my c drive, and don't feel I am missing anything. I have two external drive, one I partitioned, one I didn't. I can't see either any advantage or disadvantage to the partitioned disk. Maybe I just can't see.

    I have another idea on the whole backup issue, but have a little issue to resolve, before deciding. But I am not ready to confuse all this by posting.
     
  7. pvsurfer

    pvsurfer Registered Member

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    I felt bad about hijacking this thread, so rather than perpetuate the hijacking I pm'd Chris with some additional questions... However, I believe my comments to Chris (esp the one in red) are very relevant to the issue of testing TI's integrity when working with RBRx, so here are those pm's:

     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2006
  8. Chris12923

    Chris12923 Registered Member

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    This recent test that I did was my whole drive. I cloned one drive to another. All partitions and MBR. Sorry it was so late I forgot about your pm. Also I was perplexed as to why it didn't work right after 3 boots and the first 3 were soooo sllloooowwww. But as I said this was my whole drive a clone. Also at this time I would suggest unless someone can try ATI cloning with Rollback Rx installed and has a successful clone that another imaging option should probably be consided. Or at least uninstall Rollback Rx, reboot, clone drive and then reinstall Rollback Rx.

    EDITSorry Peter I forgot about this

    Unfortunatley I don't have a seconday RAID to backup to :( sorry wish I could have helped more.

    Although they may not actually support it (it's rare to find vendors that do) on my system besides the imaging issue with ATI and possibly others it functions great!

    Thanks,

    Chris
     
  9. pvsurfer

    pvsurfer Registered Member

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    Chris:

    My comments have been directed to creating a TI image of my entire drive. not a clone. My methodology would be to store TI images on my external backup drive. If and when I experience a drive failure, I would (at that time) buy a replacement drive and restore the image to it. Using TI's cloning process, I would need to have my replacement drive available to me now!

    Regards, pv
     
  10. Chris12923

    Chris12923 Registered Member

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    Isn't the same information copied either by cloning or an image of the whole drive? I thought this was Acronis said before but I could be wrong. I understand now you want an actual image file but the same info is copied so I would think it would be the same. Of course thinking could lead to trouble in the event it was wrong :)

    OK so you're talking ATI
    backup
    All partitions?

    If this is the case I will try it and see what happens. Won't be till later tonight though. Please let me know if this is correct.

    Thanks,

    Chris
     
  11. huntnyc

    huntnyc Registered Member

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    Just for confirmation, I believe he means to create an image by checking the checkmark next to Disk 1 or whatever the number is and that will automatically check all partitions as well as the MBR. So, it is a little different than just placing check beside each partition while leaving the check next to disk # above unchecked. Hope this is what is meant.

    Gary
     
  12. Chris12923

    Chris12923 Registered Member

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    This is about the only thing I haven't tried so that's what I will do tonight :) I will check here before I do it in case he was talking about something different but I'm pretty sure that you hit it..

    Thanks,

    Chris
     
  13. huntnyc

    huntnyc Registered Member

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    Yes, if you do a search for MBR in the TrueImage forum, I am sure you will see posts that confirm this. Thanks for your testing again Chris. If I reinstall TrueImage again, I may give it a shot sometime but we will await your results.

    Gary
     
  14. Chris12923

    Chris12923 Registered Member

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    I will start backup now and when I come home I will restore. Hope this helps guys.

    Thanks,

    Chris
     
  15. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

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    Hi all,

    Time to get back to S&R3 and RBRX ;).

    I finally did what I avoided to do before : uninstall Rollback RX and try again S&R3. Guess what : it started right away. So, on my system, for a strange reason, while RBRX is installed, S&R3 won't work.

    Too bad !
     
  16. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

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    Actually I have switched to Drive Snapshot that works well with RBRx. One can also uninstall RBRx from time to time just to perform an ATI backup. Last option : it seems ATI9 is working fine with RBRx installed, even on protected partition (I have not checked it myself, just read it in this forum).

     
  17. pvsurfer

    pvsurfer Registered Member

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    Exactly... :thumb:
     
  18. pvsurfer

    pvsurfer Registered Member

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    Merle~ Just want to get this caveat across... So far there is no valid evidence to believe that ATI or DS will perform a 'disaster-recovery' (using an image created while RBRx was installed) until someone actually attempts such a restore to a 'virgin' drive! :doubt:

    If RBRx were to be uninstalled before creating a backup image and the image was verified, then it should definitely restore a replacement C-drive in the same PC*

    * Of course, it should not be expected that you could restore an image from one PC to another PC.

    ~pv
     
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