ShadowProtect (Trial/Evaluation) what's the difference?

11.2 GB down to 7.88 GB. The USB HD is an 80GB Western Digital model. I plan to keep only around 3 to 4 images per PC, plus one set of IFD DVD's. (Of course, you could burn the SP images to DVD too, but they wouldn't be bootable.)

 

So u can,t make a bootable recovery DVD by SP? That,s not good to hear?

 

Can you explain the recovery process? 10 mibutes sounds pretty impressive. What is involved?

 

it should be sticking in the recovery cd based on WinPE click on restore browse to image tell it which partistion to restore to let it do its job it will then reboot and load windows
lodore

 

So where do you get the recovery CD? Does SP walk you through making one?

 

When you purchase SP, you get 2 download links. One for the desktop app and one for the Recovery CD. The Recovery CD file is an .iso file that is ready to be burned to a CD (by any CD burner that can burn .iso's. Like Nero, A-Shampoo, etc.)

 

So if you don't actually install the desktop application, you can somehow still update the recovery .iso disk? Or, is it a one-time deal and it's basically a recovery disk like what you get from Dell, HP, etc. ? I don't know why I am so confused with this compared to my PQ Drive Image 2002 and IFW.

 

The only reason I can see that you would need to update the recovery environment would be to add network drivers. The recovery environment already has extensive support for storage and network devices, and you can dynamically load (using the F6 option at the start of the recovery environment boot) specified storage drivers for raid/scsi if they're not automatically supported (most are).

In mid April (at least I believe it will correspond to the next IT Edition refresh) we're going to issue an update on the recovery environment that will enable you to dynamically load storage and network drivers after the environment has booted. This makes it even easier for users to extend the environment's device support.

 

If you don't update the recovery disk, how/where are the images? I thought I understood this, but I'm lost. Are the images not a part of the recovery application? If the images are on another drive or whatever, how do you make them in the first place if you don't install the desktop application? How could you have images that the recovery application can find? Am I losing it? Do I need Prozac?

 

Your image will be on another HD or partition, yes. The recovery environment is in a CD, and it's really the program, just like the one you run inside Windows. But on a CD.
An image that fits in a CD probably isn't worth the attention.

 

Bingo. That's where I am confused. You can't put an image on a CD. The recovery environment (the actual program) is on the CD and the images are on an external drive or whatever. But several people have talked about using this without installing the desktop application at all. My question: How do you create the images in the first place (to place on the external drive and recover) if you don't install the desktop application? I'm probably making this more confusing than it is. Like something for something when it's right in front of your eyes the entire time.

On edit: Can you actually make the images from the CD disk? That would explain it.

 

yes you can make images from the cd
lodore

 

Yes, you can choose to install it in Windows, and make the image backup there, with Windows running, or you burn the iso of the recovery CD to a CD, and boot from the CD.
The CD now has a Windows like environment with the program, and you image the disk, and save it on an external HD (to me it only makes sense imaging to external).
It's called recovery because you can recover from desaster with it- internal HD fails for instance, and you get another just like it. Now you plug the external, enter the CD, and load an image that you have. Presto, everything is as you left it.

 

Whew. I don't know why I didn't understand that earlier. Sorry, guys. That sounds like a great setup indeed. I just want to make sure about this since you can't image and restore - with the trial - without that long application form (which, under the licensing issues with Microsoft, I understand). But now that I'm clear on that - I'm going to buy. Too many good reviews.

edit: Thanks to you, too, Someone.

 

Yes, there's no "it failed on me". I haven't seen yet. Any links?
But, of course, one should try it before buying. See it to believe, etc.

 

But their is no way to trial the WinPE Recovery Environment, right? Also, I think StorageCraft should offer just the WinPE Recovery Environment CD, seperately from the Desktop program, for a lower price.

 

Hmm, that's a really interesting idea. I think initially we [StorageCraft] didn't realize that so many people would be interested in actually making their backup images from within the cd-boot recovery environment.

I'll bring up your suggestion. One interesting thing to note is that the last time I checked you weren't able to take backups from within the Symantec Ghost recovery environment. I don't know about True Image though. Does anyone know if True Image allows you to create backups while you are within their booted Linux-based recovery environment?

I also agree with previous posts, in that you should be sure to fully test these types of products on your own equipment before purchasing. Test both backup and restore.

We do offer a flavor of ShadowProtect that is just the CD (no install). It's called ShadowProtect IT Edition. It's similar to the recovery environment for ShadowProtect Desktop/Server Editions, but IT Edition is a bit more powerful. It allows you to take hot backup of your live/hot/active windows system with zero install. Just pop in the CD, run the program right off the CD, and it will do hot imaging (you don't need to stop any of your apps). Of course it is also capable of backup/restore if you boot the CD itself, just as is the recovery environment for the Desktop and Server editions of the product. IT Edition is intended for IT professionals who work with many machines, typically servers, and so its license is a per-technician license, rather than a per-machine license. This way a tech with a license to IT Edition can use it on any number of machines. Techs love it because there is zero install so they don't have to go through any certification process to use the product. Unfortunately, it's not really priced for home/end users, so won't be what you're likely looking for.

 

A note on performance. If you are backing up terabyte-sized volumes to CIFS/SMB network shares, you will experience a slow degredation in performance after 200GB or so of the image data has been written to the share. This is verifiably caused (using a simple data-stream writer app - let me know if you want a copy) by a performance problem that has been part of the Windows CIFS share code for a long time. It is unlikely that Microsoft will resolve this issue in the near future. In the mean time, for those of you with truly massive volumes, the solution is fortunately very simple and easy. When you are in the ShadowProtect wizard to create a backup, specify that you wish the backup image to be split into 100GB pieces. The act of closing each split resets something in Microsoft's network code and restores normal network I/O performance levels.

 

Please Do. As soon as you make this available, I and many others will buy it.

This sounds awesome, but as you mentioned it is cost-prohibitive. Take a couple 0's off the end of the price tag and I'd be drooling

 

Yeah, ShadowProtect IT Edition is pretty sweet. I use it personally all the time when I want to work on friends/relatives machines but don't want to install anything. The ability to image their active system just makes it that much more convenient. No need to even boot the recovery environment. No install. It's instant gratification.