Disk Imaging?

[jimrx4]

I thought I read somewhere that there woiuld be some sort of disk imaging
feature built into Vista. Anyone know what version of Vista will have this
capability?

 

[Troy McClure]

imagex... its a commandline tool. you have to download it from ms

 

[Tom Porterfield]

I thought I read somewhere that there woiuld be some sort of disk imaging
feature built into Vista. Anyone know what version of Vista will have this
capability?

Business, Enterprise and Ultimate.

 

[Daze N. Knights]

And it works very well, in my experience thus far. I've used it to
restore three times now, with flawless results. And the imaging and
burning to DVD process is, IMO, surprisingly fast.

 

[Troy McClure]

are you talking about the full system backup? or the imagex command line
tool?
needs to be clarified

 

[JP]

There are 2 things here being confused.

1. Complete PC Backup is a new feature in Vista. You can create an image of you HDD
that can be used to restore the HDD. There is no compression with this, so you will need
space on your backup media equal to the used space on your HDD. Only the higher end versions
of Vista have Complete PC Backup.

2. ImageX is a program in BDD 2007 and WAIK. It is a command line utility that is used to
create a compressed image of a HDD that is used when deploying computers. BDD 2007 and
WAIK can be downloaded from MS.

 

[Guest]

Just use Acronis True Image – all the latest versions are fully Vista
compatible and far superior to what Vista has inbuilt.

Get a fully functional trial here:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Superior in speed (5-6minutes OMM), security (Acronis uses its own encrypted
partition) and accessibility (you can mount an image in read-only or
read&write modes). Besides, even if your whole drive is down, or you need to
swap drives, Acronis has you back up and running in 10-15 minutes flat!
Leaves Vista for dead!

Vista’s backup utilities are little more than a makeover of what XP has to
offer already – bit of a joke really and hardly worth talking about.

And yes, I rather happily pay for something that works reliably and has been
proven for years, then something that is a half-hearted attempt and possibly
open to vulnerabilities!

Meanwhile: Life without Vista is oh so swell ;-)) ;-)) ;-))

 

[Rock]

Just use Acronis True Image – all the latest versions are fully Vista
compatible and far superior to what Vista has inbuilt.

Get a fully functional trial here:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Superior in speed (5-6minutes OMM), security (Acronis uses its own
encrypted
partition) and accessibility (you can mount an image in read-only or
read&write modes). Besides, even if your whole drive is down, or you need
to
swap drives, Acronis has you back up and running in 10-15 minutes flat!
Leaves Vista for dead!

Vista’s backup utilities are little more than a makeover of what XP has to
offer already .

The backup program in XP is ntbackup. This is a legacy app ported from
Windows NT. The backup in Vista is totally different. Ntbackup is a file
backup where for Vista in some of the versions there is Complete PC backup
which is an imaging process. You really don't know what your talking about,
do you?

 

[Guest]

The backup program in XP is ntbackup. This is a legacy app ported from
Windows NT. The backup in Vista is totally different. Ntbackup is a file
backup where for Vista in some of the versions there is Complete PC backup
which is an imaging process. You really don't know what your talking about,
do you?

In fact I do. But yeah, sure, mate. You know all about it best, and then
some! After all, you are the bigwig, all-knowing MVP and I’m just a lowly
MCSE, right? Wrong!

No matter how hard you try and sell the Vista backup software, it’s nowhere
near as good as it could have been! And yes, I did try it but found it far
inferior to Acronis True Image – inferior as far as speed, security and
options are concerned.

Wake up, mate, Vista is OK, to be sure; but some parts of it still have a
hell of a long way to go in order to catch up with what’s available NOW – all
ready to go NOW and tested and proven over time!

FYI, the Acronis image of my Vista partition was 41% SMALLER than the Vista
created image, and took HALF the time to create. And restoring the Vista
created partition image took three and half times longer than the Acronis
created partition image. Can I make changes to the Vista created partition
image? Can I mount it and copy parts of it? Is the Vista created backup image
stored in its own locked partition with a proprietary file system? Can I
manage, backup and restore Vista created images across a network?

As much as I applaud the various security (and otherwise) related steps
taken in Vista, it’s far too early to implement it – let alone to rely on it.
It’ll take a lot of time, and even more convincing for the market to trust
it, and even more time and convincing for the market to implement Vista -
like years!

Meanwhile: Life without Vista is just swell ;-)) ;-)) ;-))

 

[Alexander Suhovey]

Can I make changes to the Vista created partition image?
Can I mount it and copy parts of it? Is the Vista created backup image
stored in its own locked partition with a proprietary file system?

CompletePC backup uses VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) for backup image, same
virtual disk format being used by VPC and Virtual Server, with freely
available specification.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/techinfo/vhdspec.mspx#EBC

 

[MICHAEL]

CompletePC backup uses VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) for backup image, same virtual disk format
being used by VPC and Virtual Server, with freely available specification.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/techinfo/vhdspec.mspx#EBC

Well, that's just great. But, in Microsoft's infinite wisdom, they made CompletePC
backup available only in the Business and Ultimate versions.

I think CompletePC Backup is good, I've tested it and it works.
However, Acronis True Image 10 is the superior product- by far.
Not just for imaging, but for regular file backups, too.


-Michael

 

[Alexander Suhovey]

I think CompletePC Backup is good, I've tested it and it works.
However, Acronis True Image 10 is the superior product- by far.
Not just for imaging, but for regular file backups, too.

Just for the record, I'm not saying it's not - I never used this product.

 

[Rock]

In fact I do. But yeah, sure, mate. You know all about it best, and then
some! After all, you are the bigwig, all-knowing MVP and I’m just a lowly
MCSE, right? Wrong!

No matter how hard you try and sell the Vista backup software, it’s
nowhere
near as good as it could have been! And yes, I did try it but found it far
inferior to Acronis True Image – inferior as far as speed, security and
options are concerned.

Do you even read what is written or if you do read it, do you make any
attempt at comprehension? I said nothing about the quality of Vista's
backup compared to Acronis True Image. What I challenged in your post is
this statement:

"Vista’s backup utilities are little more than a makeover of what XP has to
offer already"

Ntbackup is a legacy app from NT based on a file by file copy. Vista's
Complete PC Backup available in Business, Enterprise and Ultimate, is an
imaging backup. That is in no way "a makeover of what XP has to offer."

Hopefully you will read and comprehend this post. You are so focused on
wanting to bash Vista you say things that make no sense.