Backup/Imaging Software w/ support for USB drives?

[Guest]

I am looking for a reliable and affordable backup/imaging software that
will allow me to backup a partition from an internal harddrive (with
optional compression) to an external USB harddisk and restore the image
later with minimum fuss. The machines in question have no floppy
drives, so I probably need a software that can boot the PC from
CD-ROM/DVD and then find and restore the image from the external USB HD
(I assume that booting from a USB stick will not work with most PCs
....).

I have Drive Image 2002, but as it seems it will not let me restore
data from USB drives (or is there a way)?

What do you guys suggest?

Ghost? I heard quite some bitching about it.
TrueImage?
Something else?

I need no fancy extras, just a reliable and easy-to-use imaging/restore
solution ...

TIA.

 

[Peter]

I am looking for a reliable and affordable backup/imaging software that

will allow me to backup a partition from an internal harddrive (with
optional compression) to an external USB harddisk and restore the image
later with minimum fuss. The machines in question have no floppy
drives, so I probably need a software that can boot the PC from
CD-ROM/DVD and then find and restore the image from the external USB HD
(I assume that booting from a USB stick will not work with most PCs
...).

I have Drive Image 2002, but as it seems it will not let me restore
data from USB drives (or is there a way)?

What do you guys suggest?

Ghost? I heard quite some bitching about it.
TrueImage?
Something else?

I need no fancy extras, just a reliable and easy-to-use imaging/restore
solution ...

Lets take a defferent approach.
So you want to use external USB HD for storing images? OK.
Which operating system you use most often when you want to
read or write to the external USB HD? Stick to it.
Create a bootable CD for your selected OS.
Now look for imaging applications which can work with that CD.
For Linux that would probably be Acronis TI.
For Win2k3/XP I would choose ghost32.exe.

 

[Eric Gisin]

Lets take a defferent approach.
So you want to use external USB HD for storing images? OK.
Which operating system you use most often when you want to
read or write to the external USB HD? Stick to it.
Create a bootable CD for your selected OS.
Now look for imaging applications which can work with that CD.
For Linux that would probably be Acronis TI.
For Win2k3/XP I would choose ghost32.exe.

I take it you mean create Bart's WinPE CD. In that case you can use ntbackup.

Another option is Win32 UnxUtils: http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/

cipher /w:X: # zero free space
dd if=//./X: | gzip >driveX.imz # backup
gzip -d <driveX.imz | dd of=//./X: # restore

 

[Rod Speed]

I am looking for a reliable and affordable backup/imaging software that
will allow me to backup a partition from an internal harddrive (with
optional compression) to an external USB harddisk and restore the image
later with minimum fuss. The machines in question have no floppy
drives, so I probably need a software that can boot the PC from
CD-ROM/DVD and then find and restore the image from the external USB HD

(I assume that booting from a USB stick will not work with most PCs ...).
Correct.

I have Drive Image 2002, but as it seems it will not let
me restore data from USB drives (or is there a way)?

DI 2002 does the restores at the DOS level, that is the problem.

There is atleast one USB DOS driver around, but it makes more
sense to use an imaging app that supports USB natively now.

What do you guys suggest?

True Image in your situation.

Ghost? I heard quite some bitching about it.

Yeah, the latest Ghost 9 is a rather flawed product. It will do that
restore from USB after booting its CD but it wont do some other
stuff like creating the image after booting its CD, you have to install
it first and it only works with the NT/2K/XP family, not with Win9x or ME.

And has got some real design flaws if you ever want to clone
the boot drive when replacing it with something larger too.

TrueImage?

That's currently the imager of choice in my opinion.

Not perfect, and it might not like you particular USB drive
or something, but you can get a refund if it doesnt.

Something else?

Not that I'm game to trust for imaging.

TI has only recently become trustable in my opinion.

I used DI 2002 mostly until just recently.

I need no fancy extras, just a reliable and
easy-to-use imaging/restore solution ...

TI is certainly that and will do incremental images now
if you are using XP. I dont really trust incremental images
except for safety incase an install goes pear shaped tho.

 

[Peter]

Lets take a defferent approach.

I take it you mean create Bart's WinPE CD. In that case you can use ntbackup.

Another option is Win32 UnxUtils: http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/

cipher /w:X: # zero free space
dd if=//./X: | gzip >driveX.imz # backup
gzip -d <driveX.imz | dd of=//./X: # restore

I don't think that ntbackup is really an imaging tool because you have to
reinstall Windows to use it.

dd technique is not flexible enough and lacks most of the sophistication
found in ghost and similar programs. Like browsing image to restore
selected files, restore to different disk geometires, resizing partitions,
skipping swap files, etc.

 

[Eric Gisin]

ntbackup.

I don't think that ntbackup is really an imaging tool because you have to
reinstall Windows to use it.

Nope, just run ntbackup from WinPE.

 

[Peter]

I don't think that ntbackup is really an imaging tool because you have
to

Nope, just run ntbackup from WinPE.

I thought that you have to run ntbackup from Windows XP Setup
to be able to recover system. And that you have to have ASR floppy too.
That looks a bit complicated when there is no floppy drive and backup
data is on USB HD.

So how do you do that while running WinPE?

 

[Kevin Buffardi]

Yeah, the latest Ghost 9 is a rather flawed product. It will do that
restore from USB after booting its CD but it wont do some other
stuff like creating the image after booting its CD, you have to install
it first and it only works with the NT/2K/XP family, not with Win9x or ME.

I concur, Ghost 9 is not the best choice. From what I hear, Ghost 9 is
actually just Drive Image that's been rebranded (Symantec purchased
PowerQuest). However, previous versions of Ghost are excellent. I have
an old version (7?) and it's a great, life-saving program. I boot off a
floppy, but I suspect you could probably make a bootable CD of Ghost. I
believe Ghost 2003 can also create/restore images from Windows.

//Kevin

 

[Peter]

I believe Ghost 2003 can also create/restore images from Windows.

I'm afraid that you cannot. You have to boot DOS to create/restore images
with Ghost 2003.

 

[Al Dykes]

I don't think that ntbackup is really an imaging tool because you have to
reinstall Windows to use it.

I haven't played with BartPE yet but I expect you boot a BartPE CD and
run ntbackup off it. You shou be able to reimage your C drive from any
saveste, boot and go. You might have to do something to recreate the
MBR.

 

[David Winter]

All right, I will purchase TI. The WinPE road looks like, err, an
interesting challenge , and I just want a simple, out-of-the-box
solution. Also, the Acronis support rep just confirmed that I can get a
refund in case it doesnt work.

Thank you, guys.

 

[Al Dykes]

All right, I will purchase TI. The WinPE road looks like, err, an
interesting challenge , and I just want a simple, out-of-the-box
solution. Also, the Acronis support rep just confirmed that I can get a
refund in case it doesnt work.

Thank you, guys.

I use land like TI but IMO your USB experience depends on what brand
of USB controller and external device you have. Test your backups. At
a minimum read back your data every time until you are comfortable and
after then do it again once in a while.

Best case. Do a backup, pop a blank disk in your machine, boot the CD
and try to do restore, for real.

 

[J. Clarke]

I don't think you can boot a BartPE CD and run ntbackup off it.

Why not? You can also run Ghost 8 or Ghost 9 off of it. Or Acronis. Or
several other backup programs. Just google bartpe nt5backup plugin

 

[Peter]

I haven't played with BartPE yet but I expect you boot a BartPE CD and

run ntbackup off it. You shou be able to reimage your C drive from any
saveste, boot and go. You might have to do something to recreate the
MBR.

I don't think you can boot a BartPE CD and run ntbackup off it.

 

[U. Cortez]

http://ghost.radified.com/

Has a good overview of Ghost, including:

"New version: 02.august.2004 - Symantec announces the release of Ghost
v9.0. Ghost 9 is controversial, because it's not really Ghost. It's
actually Drive Image, a similar imaging/cloning product developed by
PowerQuest, a company Symantec purchased on 05.dec.2003."

"New version: 26.august.2002 - Symantec releases Ghost 2003. This
version offers a Windows-based interface. Prior to v2003, you needed to
boot to DOS in order to create or restore an image. Being able to
configure Ghost from Windows makes the program more user-friendly."

I wouldn't suggest restoring images while in Windows, though. I'd
suggest that you stick with DOS based Imaging tools.

 

[Peter]

http://ghost.radified.com/

Has a good overview of Ghost, including:

"New version: 02.august.2004 - Symantec announces the release of Ghost
v9.0. Ghost 9 is controversial, because it's not really Ghost. It's
actually Drive Image, a similar imaging/cloning product developed by
PowerQuest, a company Symantec purchased on 05.dec.2003."

"New version: 26.august.2002 - Symantec releases Ghost 2003. This
version offers a Windows-based interface. Prior to v2003, you needed to
boot to DOS in order to create or restore an image. Being able to
configure Ghost from Windows makes the program more user-friendly."

I wouldn't suggest restoring images while in Windows, though. I'd
suggest that you stick with DOS based Imaging tools.

From the same link:
"I'm sure Symantec has their reasons, but many (including myself) feel that
imaging a live operating system introduces risks that are better avoided by

using the original Ghost product (v2003), which works from DOS, when Windows
is shut down, when it's unable to modify files (such as the registry).

Admittedly, the risk is small. But if you have a problem with the restore,
the results can be tragic. Personally, I prefer to avoid *any* unnecessary
risk,

which is why I still use Ghost v2003: the latest version of "true" Ghost
(originally developed by Binary Research), which operates from DOS."

Yes, you can CONFIGURE Ghost 2003 from Windows, but then it runs booting
from DOS.

 

[Peter]

I haven't played with BartPE yet but I expect you boot a BartPE CD and

Why not?

Because nt5backup plugin fails with BartPE CD.

You can also run Ghost 8 or Ghost 9 off of it. Or Acronis. Or
several other backup programs. Just google bartpe nt5backup plugin

I know that Ghost 8 runs with BartPE. I have recommended to use
Ghost32.exe which is part of Ghost enterprise versions (7.5, 8.0, 8.2).

I don't know much about BartPE and Ghost 9 or BartPE and Acronis.
I doubt they work reliably (if at all) from BartPE.

 

[David Winter]

One more question regarding True Image.

It seems that the license agreement requires one license per machine.
This means that I would have to purchase 2 licenses for my desktop PC
and my notebook - which would cost me as much as a Windows license.

So ... Does TI include a hardware-related activation mechanism or
"phone home" in one way or another?

I do not want to imply that I plan on doing something illegal here, but
purchasing this software twice just to back up a plain home system
seems a bit much. So I might do a "perfect" default configuration on my
Desktop PC, make an image, uninstall True Image and install it on the
notebook to do the same there. I wonder if Acronis could live with this
....

 

[Peter]

One more question regarding True Image.

It seems that the license agreement requires one license per machine.
This means that I would have to purchase 2 licenses for my desktop PC
and my notebook - which would cost me as much as a Windows license.

So ... Does TI include a hardware-related activation mechanism or
"phone home" in one way or another?

I do not want to imply that I plan on doing something illegal here, but
purchasing this software twice just to back up a plain home system
seems a bit much. So I might do a "perfect" default configuration on my
Desktop PC, make an image, uninstall True Image and install it on the
notebook to do the same there. I wonder if Acronis could live with this

Acronis license agreement says:
"2. The Original Purchaser may use the Software on a single computer owned
or leased by the
Original Purchaser. You may not use the Software on more than a single
machine even if you
own or lease all of them without the written consent of Acronis."

I suggest to give them a call to clarify your intended use of TI, before you
make a purchase.

 

[J. Clarke]

Because nt5backup plugin fails with BartPE CD.

The plugin for BartPE fails on BartPE? Have you asked the developer about
this?

I know that Ghost 8 runs with BartPE. I have recommended to use
Ghost32.exe which is part of Ghost enterprise versions (7.5, 8.0, 8.2).

I don't know much about BartPE and Ghost 9 or BartPE and Acronis.
I doubt they work reliably (if at all) from BartPE.

In point of fact Acronis provides the BartPE plugin directly. Right now
they only provide it as a fix for folks who can't access their external
drive from the Acronis CD but that might change. And the Ghost 9 plugin
has been in test since October and from what I can tell seems to be pretty
well debugged.