TrueImage 8 vs. Ghost 9?

You can go back as far as you want IF you allocated sufficient hard drive space for the program. It costs hard drive space with each restore point. If you have a stable PC platform and you are an experienced computer user, then a daily backup is more than adequate.

GoBack does not backup everything in the hard drive. Therefore, GoBack does not provide your system with 100% restoration capability. Plus it runs in the background, which reduces the performance of your PC. You need an imaging program to protect the operating system and all the data in your hard drive.

 

You can believe whatever you want, but if the backup data resides in the same partition as the OS, then you DO NOT have a FULL backup of the OS! There will be a time when you cannot fix the problem, and you will seek out an imaging software.

 

The revert data that Goback uses resides in a secret partition on the hard drive and cannot be accessed by anything but Goback as far as I know.

Goback can defeat almost any virus, trojan, spyware, keyloggers or any malware that is otherwise impossible to remove by reverting the hard drive back to the exact state it was in previous to the infection.

It is somewhat like Windows system restore but it reverts the entire hard drive right back to where it once was, really it is like a time machine for your computer removing nearly all problems you may encounter by restoring your computer back to its previous state before the problem. Of course if you didn't notice the malware in time and you run out of Goback revert times your up the creek, as they say.

 

http://pages.prodigy.net/jdjd/backup/software.htm

"I wouldn't rely solely on a system restore program to bring back your computer to perfect condition. These programs are not a substitute for thorough and reliable backups; rather, they are supplements to them".

 

Nod32_9

I agree Goback is not the best possible solution for backing up your data/hard drive, but it is about the easiest way I have ever found to fix nearly any problems outside of complete hard drive failure.

You should probably back up to dvd or some other external device for the best protection possible. Even another internal hard drive would not be the best way to store your back ups.

Programs like Goback are just so easy to use even a complete novice should be able to handle them without any problems. In just a couple minutes, much faster than any Image programs like Ghost, True Image, ect..., all problems will be gone just like that.

 

I can't say about DVD ripping (wouldn't dream of it ) but I can say that I am able to watch a DVD without problems while Snapshot is imaging the drive.

I've never used DI5 or Bootit but I presume if your drive becomes unbootable then you must have to use a boot disk of some sort? It is quite easy with Snapshot to create a CD or DVD boot disk which can automatically restore the system from a previous image.

Most of these applications have strengths and weaknesses and everyone has different requirements. One of the features of Snapshot that I really like is that it doesn't have to be installed and it is only 131KB (sorry, that's 2 features ) which means that I can just keep it on my pen drive for when it is needed.

 

The inability to boot into windows represents a bigger problem for windows-based software. Bootit CAN reside in a separate partition (no data written to the OS). It is 100% independent from windows so it doesn't care if you cannot boot into windows! No need for pen drive. The program is only 450K but it can also act as a boot manager and partitioning software.

My test setup is a 600MHz with Snapshot and Power DVD running at the same time.

 

If a drive is unbootable due to a disk failure then BootIt being in a separate partition makes no difference - a boot disk or a partition on another hard drive is needed to do a restore. BootIt and Snapshot are in exactly the same boat in such a situation.

 

That is a valid point. However, almost all boot issues are related to the MBR and/or the boot partition. Today's HDs use the SMART monitoring system, designed to warn the user of impending HD failure.

If the HD is 100% dead, then no boot disc from any drive imaging vendor is going to save your butt. It's time to call the HD recovery specialist if you want to retrieve critical data from the HD.

 

Hmm...I've never encountered an MBR/boot partition issue but have had 3 hard drive failures over the last 3 years (2 IBM TravelStars which seem to parallel the fabled DeathStar in reliability and one Toshiba). MBR/Boot partition issues seem more likely to be due to software (inadvertant use of Windows FIXMBR or FDISK), but shoudn't a messed up MBR prevent access to all partitions also?

As for SMART, it is only of use with a SMART-enabled BIOS or SMART-monitoring software - and even then it seems to only cover gradual disk degradation, not catastrophic (and sudden) failures.

 

I think my post referred to the drive being unbootable rather than Windows. I had a miserable experience recently when my carefully thought out disaster recovery strategy took me from smug mode to pathetic wailing fool mode within a 5 minute period.

GoBack 4 somehow managed to overwrite my two backup partitions on a separate hard disk (which it wasn't even monitoring) with its own single partition called "Roxio Goback". It also refused to boot the system disk which it was set up to "Autoback" on reset. The only way out was to do a fixmbr on the system disk which then wouldn't boot into XP. The TrueImage backups on the second drive were gone for good but I still had the copies I had made to external USB drive.

I was still in smug mode at this point.

When I tried to restore the images, TI8 reported them as corrupt. I can only be 95% certain that I verified the images after copying them to the external disk.

I had now entered pathetic wailing fool mode.

So, I ended up rebuilding the system from scratch. I did speak with Symantec UK's support but one of the error reports I was encountering they had never come across.

I have had just a few too many corrupt images with TI8, which is why I am giving Drive Snapshot a go now and I like it enough to have bought it.

GoBack has been re-installed again as I do still like the ability to turn back the clock on my PC. Even a few hours can be a life-saver. However, it is being treated with a certain amount of wariness after this incident!

I'm now also 100% certain that all of my backups are verified!

I am using a Athlon 3200+ so our experiences in this will no doubt differ as a result.

 

Bootit ng generates a modified version of the MBR (EMBR). That's why it can manage more than 4 primary partitions. The user needs to enter the Bootit ng screen to modify this file. Most boot problems occur because the user accidentally changed something in windows.

Failure to boot is a very common problem with W9.x, and is usually related to data corruption in the boot partition. W2K and WXP are prone to corruption of the ntldr boot file.

I used to work in a company with over 200K employees. Most HDs last longer than the average useful life of a PC (4 years). Sudden HD failure is very rare in a desktop environment. HD mfrs used to provide a 3 yrs warranty on their products because most HDs don't fail within this period of time.

I doubt that go back can modify a good image file. You've probably imaged a bad partition containing go back. Garbage in, garbage out. If you had a good image file of a primary boot partition, then all you have to do is to completely wipe the data in the bad HD and restore the good image file from another HD. Why reload Go Back when you know that it may cause the same problem again?

I've encounted similar image corruption issue with TI 7 server. That's why I don't use TI.

 

Ghost 9 Quirks

 

Hi Luv' Hope you're doing fine...

Just purchased a new pc coming with WXP as default system. I used to use DriveImage 2002 on W98SE, booting from floppy disks to create or restore saved partitions.

Never could get my new pc to boot from these floppies (despite tweaking the computer bios to do so)...

I can boot from the DriveImage 2002 cdrom, but just can't go any step further once it is launched.

So if my active system is still good enough to perform, I just launch DI from the active XP session, which then goes into dos mode to perform the restore ops. But if my system is flawed, I simply cannot use floppies or bootable cds to get the job done.

Should I buy another version of this product so I could easily use a rescue DI cd? Don't know what to do...

Thanks for counsel if you have any...

Rgds, Crockett

 

I don't blame GoBack for the corrupt image file. That was on an external drive and may have been corrupted when it was copied to the drive.

I did have a good (verified) image of the primary partition which was on a second drive. Unfortunately, it was that drive that was trashed by GoBack.

Why give GoBack another chance? Yes, I asked myself that one as well! I suppose it's because I'm hoping that this was a complete fluke as I've not found anyone reporting a similar problem. That, and the fact that I've only recently paid for it and I'm too mean to give up on it just yet! Having said that, I do seem to have accumulated a stock of paid-for-but-redundant software.

 

Re: Ghost 9 Quirks

Yes, their "solutions" are less than helpful -- such as the one to "swap out your system RAM" (as reported above). *Detecting* error can indeed be avoided by not verifying the image, but that just means that the image is corrupt and you don't know it!

Please let us know how you get on. But beware the 'Ghost viewer' - it lets you browse and extract files from even 'pqi corrupt' image files. This is, of course, fine if you are in Windows, but that same corrupt file won't (I think) be restorable from the Ghost boot disk in the event of a system failure.

I'm still no closer to fixing the strange inconsistencies of my Ghost setup - since my last post I have tried 'disabling smart sector copying' and 'copying bad blocks' as well as trying a couple of different settings in the BIOS, but in each case, it remains maddeningly unpredictable: it will make a perfect image one minute, then make a corrupt image the next. And I'm not even trying to image from or to the system partition!

Any further ideas would be appreciated...

 

I use GoBack... Anyone know of a similar replacement?

 

If Ghost 9 supports imaging from outside of windows, then you can use the Ghost boot disc to create the image file. Also use the Ghost boot disc to restore the image file. If your problem goes away, then there may be a problem with Ghost running in windows. I believe the inconsistency issue may be related to the inability of Ghost to achieve a good lock on some files under certain conditions.

The path of least resistance is to try another imaging software. There are no perfect software. That's why you need to find a program that will run well on YOUR SYSTEM. I avoid all SYMANTEC products due to the crappy customer support. This is an acquisition company. They acquire a product, repackage it, and sell it back under the SYMANTEC name. Always test out the software on your system before you open up your wallet.

There aren't many "flukes" in the PC business. Software run on codes. If the appropriate pre-conditions are met, then the problem will resurface. I don't do 1/2-ass job. That's the main reason why I don't use Go Back or equivalent to backup my data.

 

Raxco First Defense ISR would make a good replacement for Goback.

 

I just have three more questions if anyone can answer them.


1. Has anyone who uses Drive Snapshot (and has GoBack installed) ever made a successful image of your hard drive without disabling Goback?

2. Did you successfully restore the Drive Snapshot image without disabling GoBack?

3. Is it possible to run GoBack and First Defense together on a single hard drive?


Thanks.

 

Thanks for the help Pete. Sounds like First Defense is a more useful program than GoBack. I may just switch from Goback to First Defense myself.