Imaging/Backup software

[Gene E. Bloch]

Since I only do images (either full or incremental), I don't need to do

[]
When you say image, I take it you mean a file-by-file image, not a
sector-by-sector one: I can't imagine what an incremental
sector-by-sector image would mean.[/QUOTE]

Haven't we been here before?

An image starts out as a single file containing the entire contents of a
partition or disk (at the use's choice), in a format proprietary to the
program that made it. It might also be compressed, so that it is smaller
than the source drive. It is a *representation* of the complete
drive/partition, including system files and the file system structure,
even the boot information. The program can restore this to a drive,
resulting in an exact copy of the original system.

An incremental image backup is an *additional* file containing all the
changes made since the last previous image.

Besides the copies of the new or changed files from the source disk,
each of these image files contains enough additional information so that
the set of image files from the first image up to & including a given
image file constitutes an exact representation of the contents of the
partition or drive at the time of the backup corresponding to that given
image file. The program can restore this to a drive, resulting in an
exact copy of the original system at the time of that backup.

A differential backup is similar except that only the first and one
given differential image file are need to create a reconstruction of the
disk at the time of the backup corresponding to that given image file.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

And I was hoping you'd find a way to do that, so my
"solution" wouldn't look quite so pitiful

Paul

Well, I often use copy(cut), navigate, paste to copy(move) files, so I
don't see it as pitiful, just a bit less classy

BTW, I actually never move files from disk to disk, for reasons others
have often cited here.

Anyway, I think your method and what I posted are the same, but I had
trouble being sure what you meant, as nil seems to have too, so I posted
an attempt at clarification.

Since I know that I can confuse people, I don't guarantee that my
attempt was successful

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Well, I often use copy(cut), navigate, paste to copy(move) files, so I
don't see it as pitiful, just a bit less classy

BTW, I actually never move files from disk to disk, for reasons others
have often cited here.

Anyway, I think your method and what I posted are the same, but I had
trouble being sure what you meant, as nil seems to have too, so I posted
an attempt at clarification.

Since I know that I can confuse people, I don't guarantee that my
attempt was successful

I forgot to respond to this:

"And I was hoping you'd find a way to do that".

You are a slave driver

I was reluctant to go back there, because it's a slow process and it
does require rebooting to that CD, so I can't do the experiment and type
here in separate windows

But this is maybe a good time, so I will in a few minutes. Tada!

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I forgot to respond to this:

"And I was hoping you'd find a way to do that".

You are a slave driver

I was reluctant to go back there, because it's a slow process and it
does require rebooting to that CD, so I can't do the experiment and type
here in separate windows

But this is maybe a good time, so I will in a few minutes. Tada!

I told you it would take a while!

Actually, since I was there I did a couple of experiments besides the
above. Mea culpa ;-)

I couldn't find a way to have two SE Explorers open (Oh jeez - I though
of another way I didn't try!).

I also couldn't access a shared folder through the tool that they
provide.

And I verified (because I forgot that I had already done so) that USB 3
doesn't work in my two-year old boot disk.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I couldn't find a way to have two SE Explorers open (Oh jeez - I though
of another way I didn't try!).

I had tried Right-click - Context menu; Double-Click; Control-Click; and
the menus on the menu bar. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Nil (sorry, nil).

As you might guess, I got a new idea as I was typing the above. I
rebooted to the CD and tried clicking on the program's toolbar (a column
of buttons on the left side of the pane).

Voilà! That worked.

BUT - click and drag didn't work. It was necessary to open the
right-click context menu on the file of interest and select copy or cut,
followed by pasting in the destination folder.

I didn't try multiple selections (I'm getting bored with this!), but I
have faith

Anyway, being able to open multiple instances of the explorer does make
the process easier. Much easier, IMO.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I didn't try multiple selections (I'm getting bored with this!), but I
have faith

OK, dinner isn't ready yet, so I yielded to my (figurative) OCD and
tested multiple selections. Only someone who is paranoid would believe
that it would not work, but I qualify

It works fine - and the files I copied are still here in my regular
Windows.

So the Windows PE recovery disk for Macrium from 2011 - for the paid
version - is a functional tool with some limitations, bit that's still
better than being unable to recover.

I still haven't looked for my 2013 CD.

 

[Char Jackson]

I'm not sure what the value of a newsgroup would be if Dave had his way.
Maybe it would devolve into several choirs preaching to each other...

I've heard of "preaching to the choir", but now we've got such a thing as
choirs preaching to each other? What's the world coming to?

 

[Paul]

OK, dinner isn't ready yet, so I yielded to my (figurative) OCD and
tested multiple selections. Only someone who is paranoid would believe
that it would not work, but I qualify

It works fine - and the files I copied are still here in my regular
Windows.

So the Windows PE recovery disk for Macrium from 2011 - for the paid
version - is a functional tool with some limitations, bit that's still
better than being unable to recover.

I still haven't looked for my 2013 CD.

Do you see the thing you clicked here ? I'm using
the free version, and the boot disc was the WinPE
based one. I already had WAIK on the VM I used
for testing, but it still needed a download to
make the WinPE disc. Maybe the thing you were
using for your second explorer is here ?

http://imageshack.us/a/img593/1927/dyu.gif

Paul

 

[Juan Wei]

Gene E. Bloch has written on 11/9/2013 8:17 PM:

I couldn't find a way to have two SE Explorers open (Oh jeez - I though
of another way I didn't try!).

How about installing Total Commander? It's a two-pane file manager. I
use it folder to folder, often with one folder on my computer and the
other, on a different one on my network.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I've heard of "preaching to the choir", but now we've got such a thing as
choirs preaching to each other? What's the world coming to?

These are indeed parlous times

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Do you see the thing you clicked here ? I'm using
the free version, and the boot disc was the WinPE
based one. I already had WAIK on the VM I used
for testing, but it still needed a download to
make the WinPE disc. Maybe the thing you were
using for your second explorer is here ?

http://imageshack.us/a/img593/1927/dyu.gif

Paul

No.

When I boot to the CD, I get a panel down the left side consisting of
half a dozen rectangles, each of which is a button to initiate a task.
These include Backup (IIRC), Restore, Browse an Image, and their
Explorer. It looks quite unlike what you have shown.

However, what you show for the navigation in the Explorer is like what I
do, except now I have learned that you can have two windows open, which
make the job a little more pleasant.

How did you get screen shots, and how did you get them displayed inside
IE7?

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Gene E. Bloch has written on 11/9/2013 8:17 PM:

How about installing Total Commander? It's a two-pane file manager. I
use it folder to folder, often with one folder on my computer and the
other, on a different one on my network.

OK, tell me how to install Total Commander in the Windows PE boot disk
that we are talking about. You'd also have to make sure that the CD as
set up by Macrium will let you run that.

 

[Paul]

No.

When I boot to the CD, I get a panel down the left side consisting of
half a dozen rectangles, each of which is a button to initiate a task.
These include Backup (IIRC), Restore, Browse an Image, and their
Explorer. It looks quite unlike what you have shown.

However, what you show for the navigation in the Explorer is like what I
do, except now I have learned that you can have two windows open, which
make the job a little more pleasant.

How did you get screen shots, and how did you get them displayed inside
IE7?

That's a virtual machine. If I press the "Alt" key, my mouse leaves
the VM and the state of the VM is relatively frozen. So I can
take a screenshot, with the VM cursor staying where I left it.

Sometimes I have to use a timed screen capture, to catch
the details in a VM. I have a few options I can use for
the more pesky menu types.

For screen captures, I use GIMP image editor. In fact, I use
the screen capture options more than any other feature in there.
Once I have a series of screenshots, I dump them all into a
larger blank image, to make my final "filmstrip".

Now that Imageshack only allows posting with an account,
you may have seen the last of my filmstrips. Until I can
find another host that doesn't require signup.

Paul

 

[Char Jackson]

These are indeed parlous times

I had to look up parlous.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I had to look up parlous.

Talking to me is dangerous

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

That's a virtual machine. If I press the "Alt" key, my mouse leaves
the VM and the state of the VM is relatively frozen. So I can
take a screenshot, with the VM cursor staying where I left it.

Sometimes I have to use a timed screen capture, to catch
the details in a VM. I have a few options I can use for
the more pesky menu types.

For screen captures, I use GIMP image editor. In fact, I use
the screen capture options more than any other feature in there.
Once I have a series of screenshots, I dump them all into a
larger blank image, to make my final "filmstrip".

Now that Imageshack only allows posting with an account,
you may have seen the last of my filmstrips. Until I can
find another host that doesn't require signup.

Paul

Thanks! I never thought of booting the CD to a VM.

That would make the process much less painful - not to mention avoiding
the pain of many reboots back & forth from the recovery disk to Windows

 

[Paul]

Thanks! I never thought of booting the CD to a VM.

That would make the process much less painful - not to mention avoiding
the pain of many reboots back & forth from the recovery disk to Windows

I do all sorts of experiments in VMs

One of my favorites, was simulating a DLNA server
computer with one VM, and playing movies from it
in another VM, all on the same computer. It's
great, not having to reboot over and over again,
lift PCs onto tables, set up monitors and all
that sort of thing.

Paul

 

[BillW50]

I do all sorts of experiments in VMs

One of my favorites, was simulating a DLNA server
computer with one VM, and playing movies from it
in another VM, all on the same computer. It's
great, not having to reboot over and over again,
lift PCs onto tables, set up monitors and all
that sort of thing.

Paul

Not me! I am not happy with performance from multitasking, VMs, etc.
Many computers does a far better job for me. Plus people hear all of the
time how important it is to make software backups. But nobody talks
about hardware backups. And if you have hardware backups, software
backups become far less important. As those hardware backups already has
an OS, apps, data, etc. too.

While I got rid of my desktop computers about 10 years back, I now have
30+ machines which consists of laptops, tablets, and netbooks. And they
are easy to store, much like books on a shelf. And my laptops and
tablets also works in a dock. So switching computers from external
monitor, mouse, and keyboard; is very easy. Pop one out and pop another
one in. Much like taking a thumb drive from one computer to another.
Plus they can work independently without a dock as well.

And I am not a big fan of multiple OS on one machine either. Although
what I don't mind is swapping hard drives. Most of my machines I can
swap out the hard drive in 5 seconds. One machine for example, I run
either Windows 7 or 8. Neither OS sees the other one as they are on
different drives. And only one of them is in the machine at a time. And
it only takes 5 seconds to switch it over.

I also have the best service that money can buy. It doesn't matter if
the software or hardware ever fails, I'm back in business in 5 seconds.
It seems to me that many others rather deal with problems the hard way.
Why? Computers are suppose to make life easier, not harder.

 

[Ed Cryer]

Not me! I am not happy with performance from multitasking, VMs, etc.
Many computers does a far better job for me. Plus people hear all of the
time how important it is to make software backups. But nobody talks
about hardware backups. And if you have hardware backups, software
backups become far less important. As those hardware backups already has
an OS, apps, data, etc. too.

While I got rid of my desktop computers about 10 years back, I now have
30+ machines which consists of laptops, tablets, and netbooks. And they
are easy to store, much like books on a shelf. And my laptops and
tablets also works in a dock. So switching computers from external
monitor, mouse, and keyboard; is very easy. Pop one out and pop another
one in. Much like taking a thumb drive from one computer to another.
Plus they can work independently without a dock as well.

And I am not a big fan of multiple OS on one machine either. Although
what I don't mind is swapping hard drives. Most of my machines I can
swap out the hard drive in 5 seconds. One machine for example, I run
either Windows 7 or 8. Neither OS sees the other one as they are on
different drives. And only one of them is in the machine at a time. And
it only takes 5 seconds to switch it over.

I also have the best service that money can buy. It doesn't matter if
the software or hardware ever fails, I'm back in business in 5 seconds.
It seems to me that many others rather deal with problems the hard way.
Why? Computers are suppose to make life easier, not harder.

I'm sure I don't need to labour at pointing out to you the utter
absurdity of this. It's so blatant, patent and obvious that I can hardly
believe that you do it.

I won't call you a troll; no, but I will call you someone who's
luxuriating in a degree of excessive wealth that is ... Well, what is
it? Decadent, silly, obsessive ......

You're the male version of Imelda Marcos and her shoes! Or maybe Silas
Marner and his cash.
You'll never get any empathy with all this; and you'll constantly bang
your head against other PC-users who ain't so bloody daft.

Ed

 

[BillW50]

I'm sure I don't need to labour at pointing out to you the utter
absurdity of this. It's so blatant, patent and obvious that I can hardly
believe that you do it.

I won't call you a troll; no, but I will call you someone who's
luxuriating in a degree of excessive wealth that is ... Well, what is
it? Decadent, silly, obsessive ......

You're the male version of Imelda Marcos and her shoes! Or maybe Silas
Marner and his cash.
You'll never get any empathy with all this; and you'll constantly bang
your head against other PC-users who ain't so bloody daft.

Ed

Wealth? You got to be kidding? I was never one of those who went after
the latest and greatest! Where you could drop $4000 on one machine to
have it outdated just in a year.

Naw... I'll wait a year for them to be labelled as outdated and then
warehouses are trying to get them cleared out to make room for new
stock. Plus as time passes, you can read from those who bought them
first and what problems they may have had. So you don't have to waste
any time and money on a piece of crap.

Just having two of the same machines helps tremendously. It helps
because one of the first things you need to find out about a problem is
whether it is a software or hardware problem. This is a piece of cake
with two identical machines. And if it is a hardware problem, you don't
have to guess what part has gone bad. As you have spare good parts in
the other machine.

People will drop hundreds of dollars on one machine. And they may spend
a hundred or so on a backup drive. Pay hundreds of dollars on software,
etc. If you are well informed, this isn't necessary at all.

For example, my first Gateway M465 laptop I purchased off of eBay I got
for less then 50 bucks. I knew the DC jack didn't work (that's why it
was inexpensive), but it didn't matter to me because jacks and solder
are cheap. But I never needed to repair it. Since I learned that docks
were going for 5 to 10 bucks. I bought one and it gets power just fine
through the dock. So I didn't care about about the non-working DC jack.
Total cost $55!

Heck just last year, while running the beta of Windows 8, I got
interested in Windows tablets. I didn't have any. Any Windows 8 (non-RT)
tablet costs $1000 and up. That is way too much money for something I
didn't even know if I would like. So what should I do?

Well Dell was unloading their older Windows 7 tablets to make room for
Windows 8 ones. They used to sell them for $1000, but I got one for $350
with a 128GB SSD (the SSD alone was almost worth that). And last year
you could upgrade it to Windows 8 for 15 bucks. So I saved $635 right
there. As you can see, this has nothing to do with wealth. But it has a
lot to do with saving money and making everything much easier on yourself.