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advice needed.....FirstDefense-ISR, ShadowProtect, ShadowUser, Rollback Rx???

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codemeister:
Greetings all,

I'm hoping to get a little advice here.  :)

From doing a little research, it looks like the "now discontinued" FirstDefense-ISR is the best of breed.
Is this still available for purchase at any distributors?

If not, what are the "2nd best" alternatives?


I have been using Acronis TrueImage, but would prefer something better/more flexible.

I've read that ShadowProtect is much better when it comes to differential backups,
and that Acronis is unstable for differentials.  Is this true?

Rollback Rx looks awesome, but stability?  and can you push all of that data off somewhere
on a server or DVD, or is it all locked in a hidden partition on your drive?
(I have a NAS device that I would like to push images/backups onto).

ShadowUser looks interesting, but you only get one "snapshot", and again, can you
push that data off to another location in case the whole system goes down.

Maybe there are even better alternatives???

Cheers!

scancode:
I used Faronics DeepFreeze, ShadowUser, and BackOnTrack...
For personal use, I swear by BOT... that single-key restore is awesome.
For the cafe computers, I think DeepFreeze pwns...

cranioscopical:

Leapfrog developed FirstDefense-ISR, I believe.
They also took it back from Raxco.

Try,
Todd Lear
Leapfrog Software, Inc.
[email protected]

J-Mac:
First Defense-Rescue is the "Lite" version that replaced FD-ISR when Horizon Data Systems took it over. I purchased it earlier this year, but I do not recommend it at all. It must be installed on the same HDD as your OS, and it can get quite large - overbearingly large.

There are supposedly a couple of features that let you reduce the size, but they are not very helpful. They do not let you exclude in any way data that is in the Application Data folders, even though some applications load those folders up with user data that you may have backed up otherwise.

Finally, HorizonData Systems does not support this product at all.  The first time I sent a support request - an official support ticket on their website - they responded almost a month later with a reference to the Help file. The Help file contains all of about 10 pages of sales brochure material - no help there at all. Since then they simply do not reply to support tickets other than an initial auto-responder message saying that a person will contact you in 24 or 48 hours. All of my requests since the first one (two of them) have been completely ignored. And to think, I purchased a support package in addition to the application!

I wouldn’t purchase anything at all from this outfit again.

Jim

Edit:  I just checked my invoice: the added support package I purchased is as follows:

"Gold Support - 24hour response, email of updates, patches and new builds"

Ha! Some fools' "gold" I paid for, eh?

J-Mac:
Greetings all,

I'm hoping to get a little advice here.  :)

From doing a little research, it looks like the "now discontinued" FirstDefense-ISR is the best of breed.
Is this still available for purchase at any distributors?

If not, what are the "2nd best" alternatives?


I have been using Acronis TrueImage, but would prefer something better/more flexible.

I've read that ShadowProtect is much better when it comes to differential backups,
and that Acronis is unstable for differentials.  Is this true?

Rollback Rx looks awesome, but stability?  and can you push all of that data off somewhere
on a server or DVD, or is it all locked in a hidden partition on your drive?
(I have a NAS device that I would like to push images/backups onto).

ShadowUser looks interesting, but you only get one "snapshot", and again, can you
push that data off to another location in case the whole system goes down.

Maybe there are even better alternatives???

Cheers!


-codemeister (November 17, 2008, 05:44 PM)
--- End quote ---

I completely agree with the comments on Acronis, if you are referring to the True Image Home version, either 10 or the newer 2009. Others here have said that the enterprise version is working fine, but the Home version is pretty bad! Acronis True Image Home 9 was great; 10 added a few nice features but it lost the ability to burn images to DVD for most users. (Hint: Save the image to an external drive and then burn it to DVD from there with your own burning software - that works).

Version 11 was pretty much broke from the time of its release, and Acronis never did fix it. Then they released the 2009 version and I didn't even try it. Look at the comments from long-time users at Wilders Security, where Acronis has their forum. After three years and purchasing three successive versions, I won't touch this one.

Haven't tried ShadowProtect but I have heard good things about it.

Jim

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