ShadowProtect Continuous Incrementals:

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by apathy, May 18, 2009.

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  1. apathy

    apathy Registered Member

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    The ShadowProtect manual is most confusing and I got a lot of info from this thread but I want to be
    sure that if I only do daily backups on Sunday and incrementals all through the week will be my backups be complete? I'm using the continuous incrementals so I guess it will backup the changes where necessary. Anyone used this feature before?
     
    apathy, May 18, 2009
    #1
  2. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I am running it and it works great. You don't get a daily on Sunday, but it doesn't matter. I've test restored from weekly,daily and the intra day incrementals and it works fine.

    Generally about once a month, maybe every 6 weeks, I'll shut down the job, defrag the disk, and take a full image, I keep separately. Then after that I'll clean out the area with the Continuous Incrementals, and start the job a new.

    I love it because it just runs unnattended but it there if you ever need it.

    Pete

    PS See this post on setting it up.

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1203715&postcount=2
     
    Peter2150, May 18, 2009
    #2
  3. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    Peter, that's a great guide - just wondering, could you give me an idea on how much space would be taken up by the whole set?
    I know from some other threads that you original drive is not that big but assuming the first full image is 10GB, how much space is required for the initial full backup plus all incrementals, daily & weekly. I am not after an exact figure but just an idea on the space I need on my second drive to initiate this set-up?
     
    beethoven, May 22, 2009
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  4. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Sure. On the machine it's running. I last started it 4/18 with a base image(full system image) of 17.2 GB. I have it set so it doesn't save the intra day incrementals(the every 30minute ones). The folder is currently as of today at 28.3Gb. The average size of the 30 minute increments runs 10-30mb.

    Hope this helps.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, May 23, 2009
    #4
  5. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    Great - that's giving me a rough idea. I did not want to trial it and then find out my HD is too small at the end of the week :D
     
    beethoven, May 23, 2009
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  6. Aaron Here

    Aaron Here Registered Member

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    Pete, running continuous incrementals, what will SP do when the target (backup) drive no longer has sufficient free-space?
     
    Aaron Here, May 25, 2009
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  7. apathy

    apathy Registered Member

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    I wonder if Peter could show us a screenshot of his setup to make things easier. I am also curious about restoring and how easy/hard it is.

    Thanks much
     
    apathy, Jun 24, 2009
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  8. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Apathy.

    Sure I can do a few screenies. Just give a day or two. I'll add them to that guide I posted.

    Restoring is easy. I have it particularily easy as I don't partition my disks. If you do you just have to be a bit more careful.

    Also one tip. Go into disk managment and name your disks. I have c: named Primary, and d: set as secondary. That way, if in the recovery environment, the drive letters change(and they do, as a function of the machine and windows), the name clearly identifies the drives.

    Unfortunately I won't be able to do screenies of a restore, but I can write a guide, it would help.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jun 24, 2009
    #8
  9. twl845

    twl845 Registered Member

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    If I may could I ask a few questions about SP? Is it similar to Acronis Ti in the way it works? Would it be a good partner to FD-ISR (original)? I would only need a full backup every week or so, as I don't have work stuff on my computer. Thanks :)
     
    twl845, Jun 24, 2009
    #9
  10. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Yes it is similiar to Acronis, it just doesn't have some of the bells and whistles, like file and folder backup, or email backup, but it is essentially doing that anyway.

    Is it a good partner to FD-ISR original. You bet. I would say it's the perfect partner, and I wouldn't be without either.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jun 24, 2009
    #10
  11. LenC

    LenC Registered Member

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    Pete -

    What additional security does FD-ISR give you that you don't have with Shadow Protect? They seem redundant, with SP also protecting against hadware (HD) failure. What am I missing here?

    Thanks,
    Len
     
    LenC, Jun 24, 2009
    #11
  12. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Simple. As fast as Shadowprotect is updating an FDISR archive is even faster. So I image less frequently(on the machine not running the continuous incrementals) and keep FDISR very current. That way I can always restore almost any image, and then get current with FDISR. Actually you can even do a clean windows install, and get current with FDISR.

    So they do complement each other nicely.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jun 24, 2009
    #12
  13. LenC

    LenC Registered Member

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    All a little beyond me (my fault not yours) - but thank you.
     
    LenC, Jun 24, 2009
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  14. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Do you have the original FDISR Lenc?
     
    Peter2150, Jun 24, 2009
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  15. LenC

    LenC Registered Member

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    Peter -

    No I don't. I don't own the program and I've never evaluated it. I was just curious to hear how you use it in conjunction with Shadow Protect, which I use. I was a little confused by your discussion (#12) because you seem to be talking about deploying SP and FDISR accross multiple computers. I was wondering if they can or should be used on the same computer.

    I need to think about all this.

    Thanks,
    Len
     
    LenC, Jun 26, 2009
    #15
  16. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I have FDISR on every computer I own. SP is on 3 of them.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jun 26, 2009
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  17. LenC

    LenC Registered Member

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    Peter -

    In another thread, I inquired about using Shadow Protect and Rollback RX on the same computer. I was advised not to try that - in fact, you might have been one of the advisors.

    If I am reading this correctly, it would seem that SP and FDISR can be used together on the same machine. Is that correct?
     
    LenC, Jun 26, 2009
    #17
  18. Jo Ann

    Jo Ann Registered Member

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    I've been following this thread because I am quite interested in some of the unique continuous-incremental backup features of SP (which Peter has 'brought to light'). That said, I don't see any reason why one should not install and use RB/FDISR with SP on the same computer. If anyone does know of any such reason, I would also like to learn why. o_O
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2009
    Jo Ann, Jun 26, 2009
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  19. LenC

    LenC Registered Member

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    Take a look at this thread:
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=244379

    General feeling is that SP an Rollback RX don't work well together. I'm not sure (yet) if SP and FDISR can coexist.
     
    LenC, Jun 26, 2009
    #19
  20. Jo Ann

    Jo Ann Registered Member

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    I just read the thread and other than some there suggesting it wasn't a good idea to put RB and SP on the same PC, no reason was given other then Pete suggesting that doing so 'might cause problems' o_O ....btw, in the same thread pandlouk indicated that FD-ISR and SP was a 'fantastic combo'!
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2009
    Jo Ann, Jun 26, 2009
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  21. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    SP and FDISR work fine together. If you have several FDISR snapshot, they are just another collection of windows files and can be seen by the OS. Therefore Shadowprotect will image them fine, even with the continous incrementals.

    Rollback is a bit different. Windows only see the active baseline, and doesn't see the other snapshots, so Shadowprotect working from windows will only see the active snapshot.

    Then on the recovery environment: FDISR again presents no problems. More snapshots, more files, bigger image. With Rollback I believe it only see's the baseline snapshot(not positive of this) unless you select image all sectors. And then the image can be huge.

    In playing with both Rollback and FDISR, with FDISR you can image and restore without worrying a bit about FDISR. With Rollback you do have to be careful about what you do. I didn't like it, but that was me.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jun 26, 2009
    #21
  22. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Ah, one of my more detailed technical explanations, eh.:D
     
    Peter2150, Jun 26, 2009
    #22
  23. twl845

    twl845 Registered Member

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    I checked out the SP web site and I can't find where it says how much disk space and how much RAM SP uses. It may be there but these old eyes can't find it. Does anyone have that info? Thanks! :)
     
    twl845, Jun 26, 2009
    #23
  24. Jo Ann

    Jo Ann Registered Member

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    I agree, but I don't see that as a problem as long as one understands the kind of backup that will result.

    I really don't see why you suggest that an All Sectors image of RB snapshots would be 'huge' (as compared to imaging FDISR snapshots) - after all, aren't FDISR snapshots always much larger than RB snapshots (of the same contents)?

    But getting back to Len's question, I still don't see any reason why RB and SP shouldn't co-exist quite well on the same PC (so long as one understands how to use each for the desired outcome)! ;)

    JA
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2009
    Jo Ann, Jun 26, 2009
    #24
  25. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    You are absolutely correct, with a big big but. On my big machine, my drive currently has about 35gb on it, which is two FDISR snapshot. Would be significantly less with Rollback with 2 snapshot. But with FDISR the image is about 24gb, as it just includes sectors with data. But since the drive is 640gb, a full sector by sector image would probably be at last 500gb if not larger. Sector by sector image is all the sectors on the drive.

    Pete
     
    Peter2150, Jun 26, 2009
    #25
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