Author Topic: Recommend disk imaging software? (Read 49,626 times)

NigelH · « **Reply #25 on:** June 25, 2010, 01:06 AM »

Interesting that there are few recommendations for O&O DiskImage
I've had great success with it.
O&O DiskImage 5 Pro

Quote

For $29-95, you can cross-upgrade to O&O DiskImage 5 Professional Edition from the following products: Acronis True Image Home or Workstation, Norton Ghost, PowerQuest, DriveImage or DeployCenter, Paragon Drive Backup Professional Edition or Drive Copy Professional Edition, Avanquest Perfect Image (Workstation)

The free version may even serve someone's requirements
O&O DiskImage Express

brahman · « **Reply #26 on:** June 27, 2010, 05:35 PM »

For me the K.O. criteria of O&O DiskImage 4 and 5 was that it cannot restore the system partition without a separate boot CD.

ShadowProtect I heard good things about and for $90.- you should get a great product.

Innuendo · « **Reply #27 on:** June 27, 2010, 09:21 PM »

Quote from: brahman on June 27, 2010, 05:35 PM

ShadowProtect I heard good things about and for $90.- you should get a great product.

There's a discount code here on DC somewhere for ShadowProtect. No clue, though, if it is still valid.

Curt · « **Reply #28 on:** June 27, 2010, 10:36 PM »

Quote from: ha14 on June 24, 2010, 08:28 PM

Well there is also ShadowProtect Desktop Edition, there is also a video tutorial to have an insigt, it looks promising
http://www.storagecraft.com/shadow_protect_desktop.php

didnt tried it myself since I use Acronis True Image

Quote from: StorageCraft Support FAQ

Q: Why does my system crash with a blue-screen when I run a backup?

A: The most common reason for blue screens during ShadowProtect backups is the presence of Acronis TrueImage. Certain versions of their snapshot driver cause the crashes when our backups are run. The only work-around is to uninstall TrueImage.

If, after uninstalling TrueImage, the blue screens still occur, the snapshot driver may have been left behind and will need to be removed manually. Instructions for doing this may be found >here<.

I purchased & installed Acronis TrueImage Home, so I tried to uninstall the Acronis Disk Director DEMO that I had been trialling. To my sad surprise it wouldn't uninstall properly but gave me a infinite series of blue screens, until I clicked 'restore'. Now I am stucked with a demo version! However, the above answer from StorageCraft Support makes me wonder if I should first remove Acronis TrueImage? It seems to be known for somehow causing troubles in certain situations!

Another 'item' is the StorageCraft license. It is per machine. One license, one machine. Meaning that if my (Vista) computer breaks down for good (which really is bad, so why do you call it for good?) I will not be able to move the backup to a new machine because the procedure is that the user first must click "deactivate" inside the program on the machine he is leaving, before he is allowed to activate it on another machine. I don't like such procedures for license activation; they risk activating Murphy's Law and leave the licensed unlicensed!

4wd · « **Reply #29 on:** June 28, 2010, 06:38 AM »

If you're thinking of using ShadowProtect then maybe it's time to take a look at Comodo Time Machine, which is in a similar vein, and see if it's progressed to the point where it's a contender.

Bear in mind that while it's at v2.6 it is still undergoing a fair amount of development but at least the price is right

CleverCat · « **Reply #30 on:** June 28, 2010, 07:45 AM »

That looks good 4wd - better than built in System Restore on XP I presume?

4wd · « **Reply #31 on:** June 28, 2010, 12:02 PM »

Quote from: CleverCat on June 28, 2010, 07:45 AM

That looks good 4wd - better than built in System Restore on XP I presume?

Well, considering XP's System Restore never worked reliably any time I used it, (so much so that I removed it from all subsequent XP nlite installs), then I'd have to say yes.

I only tried CTM once months ago when it was still v1, (not long after it was unveiled), it worked the one time then I uninstalled it because it wasn't really suited to my methods - I prefer doing offline disc/partition imaging.

Which reminds me I should do a backup

brahman · « **Reply #32 on:** June 28, 2010, 05:26 PM »

Comodo TM became infamous because of innumerous bugs. Don't know if this changed with the new version. Any reports from you guys?

All disk imaging programs do some kind of tricky things to keep the disk & file system in a consistent state while backing up - so you can imagine that there is some contention among them.

I put all Acronis services on manual and use the following batch file to start Acronis (I do not use the scheduler ever) - the processes get killed automatically when I close Acronis using this process killer utility:

Code

::Batch file to start Acronis while services set to manual are not run at startup to save RAM
start "schedhelp.exe" "%CommonProgramFiles%\Acronis\Schedule2\schedhlp.exe"
start "TimounterMonitor" "%ProgramFiles%\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TimounterMonitor.exe"
"%ProgramFiles%\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImage.exe"
process -k schedhlp.exe
process -k schedul2.exe
process -k TimounterMonitor.exe
process -k TrueImageTryStartService.exe
exit

NigelH · « **Reply #33 on:** June 28, 2010, 11:34 PM »

Which is why I will always prefer a boot CD as opposed to other backup/restoration mechanisms

Quote from: brahman

All disk imaging programs do some kind of tricky things to keep the disk & file system in a consistent state while backing up - so you can imagine that there is some contention among them.

Quote from: brahman

For me the K.O. criteria of O&O DiskImage 4 and 5 was that it cannot restore the system partition without a separate boot CD.

CleverCat · « **Reply #34 on:** June 29, 2010, 06:44 AM »

Quote from 4wd

Quote

I prefer doing offline disc/partition imaging.

What does that mean 'offline'?

4wd · « **Reply #35 on:** June 29, 2010, 09:54 AM »

Quote from: CleverCat on June 29, 2010, 06:44 AM

Quote from 4wd
Quote
I prefer doing offline disc/partition imaging.

What does that mean 'offline'?

The image software either sets itself to do the backup when the primary OS isn't running, (after the next restart), or you physically boot into another OS to do it yourself.
A boot CD/Flash drive, (eg. Paragon's Restoration CD - which will also do backups and a few other things), a separate OS on another drive/partition, etc from where you can run your backup software.

Anything that minimises the chance of the primary OS SNAFU'ing the backup, (maybe because of any programs doing other things at the time).

Why do I prefer it? While it's my primary machine, it's no real hardship for me if the OS bites the dust - I don't use it for anything work related, (because I don't work), it's just a perpetual hobby albeit a pricey one sometimes. A backup image makes it quick/easy but not having one will only slow me down about 3-4 hours - just gives me something to do during the day

mrainey · « **Reply #36 on:** June 29, 2010, 01:16 PM »

BootIt NG can be installed into its own 8MB partition, which you can choose to boot from by holding a key down after you turn on the computer. Windows never runs, no problems. This is nice for my netbook.

You can also boot from a CD (again, no Windows), or make an image while Windows is running (never tried it).

brahman · « **Reply #37 on:** June 30, 2010, 08:27 AM »

Quote from: NigelH on June 28, 2010, 11:34 PM

Which is why I will always prefer a boot CD as opposed to other backup/restoration mechanisms

There are times when this is not practical. My Toshiba tablet computer cannot boot from CD. Also there are certain special cases if one uses encrypted partitions. That is why everyone needs to make a profile what are necessary requirements and then select the appropriate software.

Acronis, Shadow Protect, Drive Snapshot, Terabyte (just looked at v2, speed/size seem better, but folders/files cannot be excluded), O&O ... are all solid choice IMHO. It is just a matter of what is my killer feature.

cmpm · « **Reply #38 on:** June 30, 2010, 10:02 PM »

I just tested Macrium's free version and it worked to restore the backup.

The boot cd didn't work for some reason.
But I have a dual boot system with XP and 7.
Installed the free version on both systems.

I couldn't restore the W7 backup from within W7,
without the cd that did not work,
but I could from within XP.

So booting into XP I was able to Restore my W7 system fully.
To be sure I got the full restore and that it worked,
I formatted (erased all data) in the W7 partition first from within XP,
then restored the image using XP,
from my usb drive to that original partition for W7.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #39 on:** July 04, 2010, 12:05 AM »

Quote from: cmpm on June 30, 2010, 10:02 PM

The boot cd didn't work for some reason.

I'm just curious what type of disk controller you have. Anything unusual? The reason I went from Paragon to Macrium is Paragon didn't handle my Raid controller. One of the advantages of the paid version is you get a licensed copy of WinPE. If you need to use the Windows driver to see the HD controller because the other boot CDs don't have the right driver, you can embed it in the boot image of the CD. When the CD boots it autoloads the driver and you can see your Windows HD.

cmpm · « **Reply #40 on:** July 04, 2010, 12:30 AM »

I don't think I burned it correctly, MilesAhead.
I did the Linux cd and not the PE files.

Here is what i haven't burned to a cd.
Is this what I'm supposed to burn to a cd?
All of it or just the Files folder?
The files folder is the one in the Macrium Screenshot.

ha14 · « **Reply #41 on:** July 04, 2010, 08:06 PM »

Hi
Redo Backup and Recovery is so simple that anyone can use it. Boot up with a Live CD or Live USB copy of Redo Backup and you can start backing up your system or restoring it.

Redo Backup also includes a web browser so you can access the web to download drivers and troubleshoot your computer problems

http://redobackup.org/

MilesAhead · « **Reply #42 on:** July 04, 2010, 10:40 PM »

@cmpm the Linux CD should work is most cases. Here's a few links that may be helpful. btw the macrium forum seems to have changed registration to pain users only. I don't know why unless maybe they thought they were getting trolls spamming for competing products or something.

http://www.macrium.com/support.asp

Some WinPE stuff

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766093(WS.10).aspx

edit:

I would say also look at:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/
which is a great site for everything PC bootable, but in the last few days the server doesn't seem to respond. When I google it seems to have a history of just going away. I don't know what's going on with it.

Armando · « **Reply #43 on:** August 22, 2010, 05:15 PM »

Quote from: brahman on June 28, 2010, 05:26 PM

I put all Acronis services on manual and use the following batch file to start Acronis (I do not use the scheduler ever) - the processes get killed automatically when I close Acronis using this process killer utility:

Code
::Batch file to start Acronis while services set to manual are not run at startup to save RAM
start "schedhelp.exe" "%CommonProgramFiles%\Acronis\Schedule2\schedhlp.exe"
start "TimounterMonitor" "%ProgramFiles%\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TimounterMonitor.exe"
"%ProgramFiles%\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImage.exe"
process -k schedhlp.exe
process -k schedul2.exe
process -k TimounterMonitor.exe
process -k TrueImageTryStartService.exe
exit

Hey, thanks for the tip. I just downloaded this Process Viewer/Killer/Suspender and changed the path in your batch file and it works a treat ! Cool. No more useless processes running in the background. (I'm using an loder version of Acrtonis)

(Nod32 for which I won't renew the subscription, but just switch to MS Essential Security, gave me a false positive for Process.exe)

brahman · « **Reply #44 on:** August 22, 2010, 09:38 PM »

Your welcome - I am very careful to keep my system very clean and efficient. That's why I can still work on my laptops with 512MB of RAM and my PC runs very smoothly with 2GB.

Armando · « **Reply #45 on:** August 23, 2010, 12:23 AM »

Quote from: brahman on June 12, 2010, 06:29 PM

I have found Drive Snapshot to be one of the secret software gems on the web. It has a GUI as well as command line - DOS and Windows use - and the entire program is under 300k! Just have a look at this page (begin reading at section "Mount a disk Image as virtual drive") to find out some of its more hidden capabilities.

Second thing I learn from you today ! Thanks for that one -- definitely looks nice. Will check it out.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #46 on:** August 14, 2011, 02:22 AM »

I just downloaded Macrium Reflect 5.0 Trial. They claim both the Linux Boot CD and the WinPE boot disc have USB 3.0 support. That's what I've been waiting for. Unfortunately it's not a free upgrade. To v. 5 standard from 4.2 standard is about 1/2 price.

The free version 5 when it finally comes out should have the Linux boot CD with USB 3.0 support. I guess it's a feature of the new Linux 3.x kernels.

I did a backup with the new 5. Some changes to the v 4.2 Gui but nothing that forces you to read the help. I'm not going to test the boot CD yet. Maybe sometime this week. Restores should be a lot faster if I can read from my USB 3.0 docks at full speed. Plus that avoids the headache of copying image files to USB 2.0 drives or sticking the drive in a USB 2.0 dock.

http://www.macrium.com/pages/downloads.aspx

edit: still no joy. The Linux boot CD does not recognize SIIG USB 3.0 card. I already have version 4.2 with WinPE where I can manually load the SIIG Windows driver. No reason to upgrade that I can see.