Hi,

Currently I'm running both Drive Image 7.03 as well as BackupMyPC.  Does
anyone have an opinion whether backuping up my system with Drive Image every
day to another partition will be adequate backup?  Unfortunately, I have no
experiencing in actually restoring my system from Drive Image - the backups
look good and the files I expect to be backed up are there.  But I'm not
sure if what it saves will work properly when restored.  I'm more confident
with BackupMyPC since I have restored it in the past sucessfully (although
it wasn't a perfect restore - had some issues as I recall which is why I
started using Drive Image).  Any comments would be appreciated.

--John

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

As I understand it, you're backing up to another partition on the same
hard drive? This would seem to defeat the major purpose of any back
up, protection against hard drive failure. If the backup resides on
the drive you are backing up ... what happens if the drive goes down?

I must misunderstand you. I use DI7.03, backing up weekly to my slave
hard disk D: in DVD-sized chunks. Every few months, I write the chunks
to five DVDs and put them off site. If my C: goes down, I have D: If
the whole house goes down, I have the off-site image, a few months out
of date. Some strategy like this would serve you better, if I really
understand what you are doing at present.

BTW Drive Image has successfully restored test files from its Browser
from the image on the slave hard disk, and also from the DVDs, even
though they are not written directly by DI7. (DI7 takes forever going
direct to DVD.) I write the DVD chunks with Nero or Sonic, and DI sees
them just fine.

Travis



"JohnA" <John@discardstring-TheAtas.org> wrote in message
news:Dhq%c.15781$aW5.2307@fed1read07...
> Hi,
>
> Currently I'm running both Drive Image 7.03 as well as BackupMyPC.
> Does anyone have an opinion whether backuping up my system with
> Drive Image every day to another partition will be adequate backup?
> Unfortunately, I have no experiencing in actually restoring my
> system from Drive Image - the backups look good and the files I
> expect to be backed up are there.  But I'm not sure if what it saves
> will work properly when restored.  I'm more confident with
> BackupMyPC since I have restored it in the past sucessfully
> (although it wasn't a perfect restore - had some issues as I recall
> which is why I started using Drive Image).  Any comments would be
> appreciated.
>
> --John
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Hi Travis,

You write:

>As I understand it, you're backing up to another partition on the same hard
>drive?

No, I would backup up to an IoMega Rev drive (USB, 35GB) with removable
cartridges.
If I ever needed to recover from a disaster, I suspect I would need to
reinstall Windows first along with the USB drivers and DI 7.03 before
recovering.  But maybe I will be pleasantly surprised and it will work
booting from the CD.

When using DI 7.03, I always backup using a maximum file size that fits on a
DVD.  That way, I have the option of transferring it to a DVD quickly by
just copying the individual chunks.

> BTW Drive Image has successfully restored test files from its Browser from
> the image on the slave hard disk, and also from the DVDs, even though they
> are not written directly by DI7. (DI7 takes forever going direct to DVD.)
> I write the DVD chunks with Nero or Sonic, and DI sees them just fine.

Thanks... I did the same thing for individual files so I know that part
works.  I'm more worried about restoring an entire drive and not having any
bad side effects.  I'd really be interested if anyone has done that and
could report the success of the operation.

Also, has anyone had success slipstreaming DI 7.x to DI 7.03?  If so, I
would appreciate any pointers... Unfortunately, no CD was provided with the
latest update.

-- John


"Travis" <travis_at_charbeneau_dot_net> wrote in message
news:c-ednc5DZaHE4N3cRVn-iA@comcast.com...
> As I understand it, you're backing up to another partition on the same
> hard drive? This would seem to defeat the major purpose of any back up,
> protection against hard drive failure. If the backup resides on the drive
> you are backing up ... what happens if the drive goes down?
>
> I must misunderstand you. I use DI7.03, backing up weekly to my slave hard
> disk D: in DVD-sized chunks. Every few months, I write the chunks to five
> DVDs and put them off site. If my C: goes down, I have D: If the whole
> house goes down, I have the off-site image, a few months out of date. Some
> strategy like this would serve you better, if I really understand what you
> are doing at present.
>
> BTW Drive Image has successfully restored test files from its Browser from
> the image on the slave hard disk, and also from the DVDs, even though they
> are not written directly by DI7. (DI7 takes forever going direct to DVD.)
> I write the DVD chunks with Nero or Sonic, and DI sees them just fine.
>
> Travis
>
>
>
> "JohnA" <John@discardstring-TheAtas.org> wrote in message
> news:Dhq%c.15781$aW5.2307@fed1read07... 
>
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

The Drive Image "PQRE" or "PowerQuest Restore ("Recovery"?)
Environment" (soon to be renamed with "Symantec" in place of PQ?) has
so far passed the "boot from CD" test on my Dell 4600, 2.8GHz, XP Home
system, and read the image, but going so far in testing as to actually
wipe my drive and see if PQRE would do the restore on its own, such
adventures I leave to the ... um, more adventurous. If not, and as you
suggest, a re-install of Windows and DI7 would then be in order. BTW:
I made a copy of that install/PQRE DI7.01 disk and it also booted.

As for "slipstreaming DI 7.x to DI 7.03" I take it your concern is
whether that 7.01 install/PQRE disk you may have purchased will do the
restore of 7.03-written images. One can only hope that Symantec's
non-offer of any "PQRE 7.03" is signal that it will work OK. 7.04 is
already available in Europe, and here if you dig at tech support. I'm
thinking these are mainly upgrades to support new DVD writers, etc.

My main DI gripe is the lack of any "Differential" capability. For
that you must apparently tangle with the oft-reviled "V2i
Somethingorother." For my purposes, I make my DI image in 3.8GB
chunks, their DVD counterparts, and a full backup from the XP Veritas
backup utility on the same day. Then I delete the Veritas stuff and
run it as Differential from there. Since DI runs weekly, this is
mainly for the offsite DVDs. A new CD can be written regularly and
added to the offsite DI image on DVDs to keep it more up to date. The
last one I did generated @30MB of "Diff" just doing a single reboot.
Amazing.

Interestingly, the range of "chunks" DI7 gives you breaks at 3.8GB and
4.3GB(?). For the Memorex DVD+RWs I'm using with "4.7GB" displayed so
prominently on their covers, that 4.3 or whatever won't fit. Perhaps
the DVD capacity is off due to their "RW" status? In any case,
selecting the next step up was overfill according to Nero6.3 and the
limited but more-reliable (at least when it comes to doing a good
erase on DVD+RWs) Sonic "Record Now" that came bundled on the new Dell
I got in April.

It's remarkable how difficult it seems to be to find a single backup
program that will do it all. My favorite as just a home user with a
single networked machine was the Seagate utility from Win98. On XP
Home, you have to dig for the Veritas utility. With backup so
important, it should be required reading at every Windows install.
Maybe when MS gets around to SP3?

Good luck,

Travis


"JohnA" <John@discardstring-TheAtas.org> wrote in message
news:8J40d.10846$OZ6.10600@okepread06...
> Hi Travis,
>
> You write:
> 
>
> No, I would backup up to an IoMega Rev drive (USB, 35GB) with
> removable cartridges.
> If I ever needed to recover from a disaster, I suspect I would need
> to reinstall Windows first along with the USB drivers and DI 7.03
> before recovering.  But maybe I will be pleasantly surprised and it
> will work booting from the CD.
>
> When using DI 7.03, I always backup using a maximum file size that
> fits on a DVD.  That way, I have the option of transferring it to a
> DVD quickly by just copying the individual chunks.
> 
>
> Thanks... I did the same thing for individual files so I know that
> part works.  I'm more worried about restoring an entire drive and
> not having any bad side effects.  I'd really be interested if anyone
> has done that and could report the success of the operation.
>
> Also, has anyone had success slipstreaming DI 7.x to DI 7.03?  If
> so, I would appreciate any pointers... Unfortunately, no CD was
> provided with the latest update.
>
> -- John
>
>
> "Travis" <travis_at_charbeneau_dot_net> wrote in message
> news:c-ednc5DZaHE4N3cRVn-iA@comcast.com... 
>
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

JohnA wrote:
> Hi Travis,
>
> You write:
> 
>
> No, I would backup up to an IoMega Rev drive (USB, 35GB) with
> removable cartridges.
> If I ever needed to recover from a disaster, I suspect I would need to
> reinstall Windows first along with the USB drivers and DI 7.03 before
> recovering.  But maybe I will be pleasantly surprised and it will work
> booting from the CD.
>
> When using DI 7.03, I always backup using a maximum file size that
> fits on a DVD.  That way, I have the option of transferring it to a
> DVD quickly by just copying the individual chunks.
> 
>
> Thanks... I did the same thing for individual files so I know that
> part works.  I'm more worried about restoring an entire drive and not
> having any bad side effects.  I'd really be interested if anyone has
> done that and could report the success of the operation.
>
> Also, has anyone had success slipstreaming DI 7.x to DI 7.03?  If so,
> I would appreciate any pointers... Unfortunately, no CD was provided
> with the latest update.
>
> -- John
>
Hi John,

Unfortunately, this Iomega Rev drive is a drive that is actually seen as a
CD/DVD writer by the Gear engine that actually yhas hard drive capabilities
(very nice if you cannot benefit from them when using Drive Image 7.0/Norton
Ghost 9.0)...a weird drive that is seen and used by Drive Image as a DVD
writer...This drive is NOT supported, that is, creating images on it will
definitely fail :-(

The solution for this behavior needs to come from Iomega itself since this
company has the honour of manufacturing drives that behave 'a bit different'
than the current standard (think of the ZIP drives, the JAZ ones and
nowadays the Rev device...).

--
M.f.G.
Michael Kimmer

"Ein Tag an dem Du nicht lächelst ist ein verlorener Tag"
"Eine Nacht in der Du nicht schläfst ist eine verschlafene Nacht"

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Hi Michael,

You write:

>Unfortunately, this Iomega Rev drive is a drive that is actually seen as a
> CD/DVD writer by the Gear engine that actually yhas hard drive
> capabilities

Yes, my understanding is that with standard Windows drivers, it would be a
read-only DVD drive.  Unfortunately, the PQRE cannot read it at all.  I
wonder if Norton Ghost 9.0 would be any better at it...  The PQRE has a
provision for loading additional drivers when it is booting (hit F6)...  I
assume they have to be realmode drivers and odds are that IoMega Rev doesn't
have any...
 
Perhaps... Powerquest did provide support for Jaz and Zip drives so I'm
hoping a later revision would support IoMega Rev drives.  Now IoMega gives
you a version of Ghost (Ghost Rev) that does work on the Rev drive.
Unfortunately, it's DOS based which means I have to shutdown my machine to
make a backup...

--John

"Michael Kimmer" <michaelkimmer@NOSPAM.xs4all.nl> wrote in message
news:414226db$0$78279$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl...[vbcol=seagreen]
> JohnA wrote: 
> Hi John,
>
> Unfortunately, this Iomega Rev drive is a drive that is actually seen as a
> CD/DVD writer by the Gear engine that actually yhas hard drive
> capabilities
> (very nice if you cannot benefit from them when using Drive Image
> 7.0/Norton
> Ghost 9.0)...a weird drive that is seen and used by Drive Image as a DVD
> writer...This drive is NOT supported, that is, creating images on it will
> definitely fail :-(
>
> The solution for this behavior needs to come from Iomega itself since this
> company has the honour of manufacturing drives that behave 'a bit
> different'
> than the current standard (think of the ZIP drives, the JAZ ones and
> nowadays the Rev device...).
>
> --
> M.f.G.
> Michael Kimmer
>
> "Ein Tag an dem Du nicht lächelst ist ein verlorener Tag"
> "Eine Nacht in der Du nicht schläfst ist eine verschlafene Nacht"
>
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

"Michael Kimmer" <michaelkimmer@NOSPAM.xs4all.nl> wrote in message
news:414226db$0$78279$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl...
> Unfortunately, this Iomega Rev drive is a drive that is actually seen as a
> CD/DVD writer by the Gear engine that actually yhas hard drive
> capabilities
> (very nice if you cannot benefit from them when using Drive Image
> 7.0/Norton
> Ghost 9.0)...a weird drive that is seen and used by Drive Image as a DVD
> writer...This drive is NOT supported, that is, creating images on it will
> definitely fail :-(
>
> The solution for this behavior needs to come from Iomega itself since this
> company has the honour of manufacturing drives that behave 'a bit
> different'
> than the current standard (think of the ZIP drives, the JAZ ones and
> nowadays the Rev device...).

I ordered Norton Ghost 9 and installed it replacing Drive Image 7. While
very similar to the latter, it had no problem reading my Iomega Rev drive
when booted from either the CD or from within Windows.  Clearly, the Rev
drivers were included on the NG9 CD and it works!  That together with the
ability to perform incrementals makes other backups such as Backup MyPC
somewhat obsolete I think.  IMHO, it should be bundled with every Rev drive
sold...

-- John

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]