OK - please give me the straight goods

[athanasian_creed]

Greetings all, Merry Christmas & thank you for any responses to my query!

I have read EVERY post in the Rollback Rx forum as well as FAQ's - my question is on restoring an image made, in my case, by Norton Ghost 15 whilst having Rollback 9.1 installed. I have read conflicting reports on what works/doesn't work (or am misunderstanding).

My understanding is that in order to have the image created recognize the created snapshots AND, more importantly, not to have MBR corruption upon restoring an image, one must do a sector-by-sector image??? Is this correct OR can one just create an image within Windows, and, if needs be, reimage with no problems booting into Windows (no MBR corruption) If so, i would assume one should uninstall Rollback before attempting a reimaging.

As it stands now, because sector-by-sector imaging is a PITA, i have uninstalled Rollback on both my laptop and desktop - created a Ghost 15 image, all the while relying on System Restore/system image should anything go belly up.

So...can I safely reinstall Rollback, create weekly images using Ghost and, should the need arise, restore last image created with the assurance that the MBR will not be corrupted - that Windows will boot?? As you can appreciate, I need answers from people who know for sure - who have restored an image with no MBR corruption.

If sector-by-sector imaging is necessary, i will forgo reinstalling Rollback and rely on my Ghost images and wait the 6+ months till version 10 comes out with total integration using Horizon's disk imaging program that will both prevent loss of snapshots and MBR corruption.

TIA,


Ray

[pvsurfer]

Originally Posted by athanasian_creed

...My understanding is that in order to have the image created recognize the created snapshots AND, more importantly, not to have MBR corruption upon restoring an image, one must do a sector-by-sector image??? Is this correct OR can one just create an image within Windows, and, if needs be, reimage with no problems booting into Windows (no MBR corruption) If so, i would assume one should uninstall Rollback before attempting a reimaging.

As it stands now, because sector-by-sector imaging is a PITA, i have uninstalled Rollback on both my laptop and desktop - created a Ghost 15 image, all the while relying on System Restore/system image should anything go belly up.

So...can I safely reinstall Rollback, create weekly images using Ghost and, should the need arise, restore last image created with the assurance that the MBR will not be corrupted - that Windows will boot?? As you can appreciate, I need answers from people who know for sure - who have restored an image with no MBR corruption.

If sector-by-sector imaging is necessary, i will forgo reinstalling Rollback and rely on my Ghost images and wait the 6+ months till version 10 comes out with total integration using Horizon's disk imaging program that will both prevent loss of snapshots and MBR corruption.

Hi Ray,

First of all, unless v15 has changed the ways of Ghost, it's far from the best disk-imaging program to use with RBRx because (as of v14) its recovery (boot) disk was just that, limited to restoring an image - ie., it didn't offer the ability to create one, and that's a necessary part of capturing your entire RBRx environment - together with running an a!l-sectors (sector-by-sector) backup!

Also, please understand that if you think making an all-sectors image is a PITA, that's nothing compared to uninstalling RBRx every time you want to create a disk-image and then having to reinstall RBRx (yuck)! Although that works, imho it just doesn't make any sense, because...

a) The effort in doing that is far greater than that of making an all-sectors image.
b) Once you uninstall RBRx, you lose all of your other snapshots!
c) For reasons I'll never understand, HDS limits the number of times you can activate RBRx.

It is a fact that in order to completely capture an RBRx environment with all of its snapshots you must first boot into another OS (DOS/BartPE/WinPE/Linux) and then run an all-sectors backup of your C-partition from that other OS (be aware that if you boot into another OS and just make a standard-image you will wind-up capturing your baseline snapshot and no others)!

If you do the more typical (easier) disk-image backup from within Windows (with RBRx installed), you will successfully capture your current snapshot (ie., your current operating state) but you will probably find you will need to repair your MBR (or recover a standard Windows MBR) in order to restore that image. Once restored, you should wind-up with the state of your system as it was in your most current snapshot, but all of your other snapshots will be gone forever (and you will have to reinstall RBRx). So in my book, this method leaves a lot to be desired!

Of course it's up to you to decide if RBRx is for you - especially since, in my mind, the use of a disk-image backup program is far more important than using RBRx (if I had to choose between the two)! However, one can have 'the best of both worlds' by partitioning a large C-drive in order to minimize the size of the C-partition - then performing an all-sectors disk-image as described isn't much of a chore at all. In this regard, I made my C-partition just large enough to 'comfortably' store my system, applications and RBRx snapshots. I keep my data, docs, music, photos, etc. on my D-partition. Having a minimized C-partition minimizes the time (and space) it takes for an all-sectors image backup!

Fwiw, the disk-imaging program I use is Drive Snapshot because it is the only portable disk-imaging program that I'm aware of. Since it's portable, it can be placed just about anywhere. I keep this very small program on the same external drive that I use to store my images. Then to create an all-sectors image I boot my system using a WinPE boot disk, navigate to my external drive, and run Drive Snapshot in its maintenance mode (DS terminology for all-sectors). Since my C-partition is relatively small an all-sectors backup takes about 20 minutes on average, so doing this on a weekly basis (for my desktop and laptop) is truly not a big deal.

Merry Christmas,
pv

[Owl]

Thanks for drawing my attention to Drive Snapshot, very useful.

[pvsurfer]

Originally Posted by Owl

Thanks for drawing my attention to Drive Snapshot, very useful.

Hi Owl,

When it comes to image-backup programs, Drive Snapshot is an 'unknown' treasure. As mentioned above, it's not only truly portable (no installation required), it's a tiny program that does its job faster than other image-backup programs I've used and most importantly, over the three years I've been using it, it's been 100% reliable! Btw, if I'm not mistaken, Graham (nexstar) also uses Drive Snapshot.

Merry Christmas,
pv

[athanasian_creed]

Thank you 'pvsurfer' for that very thorough and informative post - much appreciated.

FYI, Ghost 15 now has the option of creating an image using the recovery disk.

Are you saying if i did my imaging this way, it would be a better alternative than to do it in Windows with Rollback installed??

I too believe having a backup that you don't have to jump through hoops to restore and not have MBR corruption (w/Rollback installed) is more important, at least at this time, then having Rollback installed - hopefully that will change once version 10 is out and working in conjunction with 'Drive Cloner Rx'!


Merry Christmas,


Ray

[pvsurfer]

Originally Posted by athanasian_creed

Thank you 'pvsurfer' for that very thorough and informative post - much appreciated.

You're welcome - hope it helps to clear-up any confusion.

FYI, Ghost 15 now has the option of creating an image using the recovery disk.

That's good, but does the Ghost 15 boot disk provide an 'all-sectors' backup option? - if so, it would seem that you are good to go; if not, then best to look elsewhere.

Are you saying if i did my imaging this way, it would be a better alternative than to do it in Windows with Rollback installed??

Most certainly (as long as your C-partition isn't too large)!

....hopefully that will change once version 10 is out and working in conjunction with 'Drive Cloner Rx'!

That capability has been too long coming. For a while it seemed as if it was going to be accomplished during v8 development (with their integrated disk-imaging program), but alas not.


Cheers,
pv