ShadowProtect 3.1

Yes, if you boot the ShadowProtect Desktop/Server Edition Recovery Environment CD you can both backup and restore within the booted recovery environment.

There is another flavor of ShadowProtect called IT Edition which is a non-installed product (runs purely off of a CD and installs nothing) which can actually backup your live running system (you don't even have to boot into the recovery environment, or install anything). Of course, if you boot the IT Edition CD you can also backup and restore withing the booted CD environment. IT Edition isn't really for the home/end user crowd. It's licensed on a "per technician" basis and is intended for enterprise IT administrators - the technician can use their IT Edition license on as many machines as they like as long as they're the only tech that uses their copy.

 

That's the only way I use SP. I don't want additional software installed on my PC when all I'm after are images...

 

thanks i download the link
but for how many days does it work?
is not free!

 

yes me too

 

Han,

I understand your approach. I just feel you are missing out on 95% of the advantages of SP. What's so bad about a 12.8 MB installation?

 

95% is quite a lot !! If you image with the Rec. CD on a regular basis,say 2 times a week then the disadvantage of this approach is minimal.

Afterall in both cases for restoring your system it can only be done with the recovery CD. Lucky me i have FDISR on all my machines so restoring to current is in the blink of an eye.

 

It turns out that you are quite correct-there is no way to carry out direct disk-to-disk and volume-to-volume cloning at the moment in version 3.1.

It will also not be possible in the next version 3.2,which will be released shortly,as its still being tested.

All you can try at the moment is a normal restore,partition by partition to the new disk,which will need NTFS formatting if its larger.

Courtesy SP.

If you are still thinking of buying SP,it would be a good idea as new versions are coming out, to take out the maintenance program also,which entitles you to 12 months updates.

 

I have bought SP a couple of days ago. Also bought the maintenance program (I had a bright moment).

Thanks for the advice

 

Exellent choice,Imaging is formost in security,you can complement it with Rollback or EAZ-Fix and your very good to go.

 

see my signature.

If malware succeeds in bypassing my security apps and enter my rig then it deserves to be there.

 

Anyone thinking about using SP with RBx/EF,should have a look at the thread;

"What keeps users from using rollback/eazfix?'.
.

 

The size of the installation is not my driving motivation to not install. I just don't need incremental or scheduled images. That being the case, I can't justify the added overhead of an installation.

I originally started my imaging "journey" with Ghost 2003 but became disillusioned with it because it ran all the time. Since I image only 2 to 4 times a month (on average), I started looking for a simpler approach and found SP and IFD...

 

We're on the same page now.

 

IFD ??

 

Image for DOS. It runs only from a bootable disk.

 

I liked the idea ( this is the way I run Acronis) but $3,500 is a little steep. Can the desktop version be used as CD only ?

 

Absolutely! The Desktop version does not have all the same features as the IT version (such as no live Windows imaging) but it will run from the CD only. As I noted above, I run it only as a standalone program. I do not have SP Desktop installed at all...

 

too me is too much expensive
i'm a poor guy , i will stick witi true image 9

 

When using ShadowProtect, you never need to format the partition to which you're restoring a backup image. The backup image itself contains the entire file system (all metadata). A raw (unformatted) partition is sufficient as the target of a restore. Formatting a partition prior to a restore is a complete waste of time. I thought I'd clarify that. I think, though, that you're referring to the fact that FAT32 volumes don't grow, so if you're restoring an image to a larger partition it'll need to be an image of an NTFS file system.

 

Thanks for the info-very informative.

Could you please confirm;

To copy/clone a partition from an existing HDD to a new HDD in the current computer-use the normal restore function without any prior work on the new HDD necessary,except if the new partition is larger,then format using NTFS

To copy an existing HDD to a new HDD on a new computer use HIR,same proviso re new disk-but can HIR backup and restore more than 1 partition in one go?

Thanks

edit; please note that FAT32 is not involved at all.

 

@Harry Coo

My limited experience with SPD 3.0 and 3.1 is that a FAT32 partition image can ONLY be restored to a partition that is exactly the same size as the source partition. An image of a FAT32 partition cannot be shrunk OR enlarged on-the-fly during a restore. Partitioning software would be needed to either shrink or enlarge the restored partition after the fact, assuming the necessary free or unallocated space permits. Restoring an entire FAT32 disk image to a smaller disk then becomes a problem unless the partition(s) are shrunk with partitioning software BEFORE the image(s) are made. If you want to restore a FAT32 image to a larger partition than the source, I don't think that pre-formatting as NTFS prior to the restore would work - if that is what you are suggesting. The source partition for the image would have to be NTFS in order to enlarge on-the-fly. At least that's my understanding of it.

 

rodnh,
Thanks for your reply-actually all the partitions all use NTFS,but your info is good to know.
Ive edited the previous post to avoid confusion.

 

Same here. Have enough already. And since IT version has much more features and flexibility, that about does it for my interest in it at all.

Maybe someday they'll share the joy, but for now, home/Users are confined to lower end and features of SP.

No Thanks, especially at the price.