A
Anna
oldgit929 said:
oldgit...
Let me make it clear at the outset that if you believe this Xpress Recovery2
program fulfills your needs in terms of a establishing & maintaining a
comprehensive backup & recovery program...so be it. Each user must determine
for himself/herself which type of backup/recovery program best meets their
particular needs.
My comments that follow are based on my recent (limited) experience with
that XR2 program when I had occasion to build a system with a Gigabyte
motherboard. I've built or worked on a considerable number of Gigabyte-based
systems over the years but except for a brief acquaintance with the XR
program some years ago (I think it might have been the original XR program)
I've really never worked with it until now. The only reason I now did so was
because of the comments of "Mickey Mouse" who also touted the program during
some posts we exchanged concerning comprehensive backup/recovery programs. I
believe you also had an exchange of posts with "Mickey". You've probably
come across my posts in which I'm particularly partial to the Casper 5
disk-cloning program for the great majority of users who are looking for a
comprehensive backup type of program.
I'm not commenting on the initial difficulty you apparently had in setting
up the XR2 program. I really can't understand how the Master/Slave settings
or the installation of secondary HDDs and/or other storage devices impacted
on the installation problem you encountered. Obviously the program is
designed to be installed on the boot volume and I'm assuming your SATA HDD
containing the OS was (is) connected to the motherboard's first SATA
connector.
1. First of all potential users should understand that this is a program
designed (integrated) for Gigabyte motherboards. The program is installed
through the Gigabyte motherboard's installation CD. I doubt that the program
is available as a standalone program that can be used in non-Gigabyte based
systems but I don't know that for sure.
2. The user must set up "unallocated" disk space in order for the program to
function. This can be accomplished when the XP OS is fresh-installed during
the setup process or later through a disk management type of program, e.g.,
Partition Magic, EASEUS Partition Manager, etc. Upon the user invoking the
backup process the program will backup the contents of the boot volume to
this unallocated space creating a non-standard "EISA Configuration"
partition in the process.
3. While the program recommends that (initially) 10 GB of unallocated disk
space be available for the program, it's actually necessary for the user to
take account of the programs/data he or she has installed on the program
following the installation of the XP OS. And even possibly project what
future needs will be in terms of disk space necessary to store future
backups.
4. So, as an example, let's say that following the installation of the OS,
the user had installed various programs, data, etc. so that the volume
contains 20 GB of total data. The user would might then set up say, 25 GB of
unallocated disk space.
5. The XR2 program would be installed via the Gigabyte installation CD.
Backing up those 20 GB of data (using a fairly high-end system) would take
about 1 hour 25 minutes based upon my experience. (Backing up a number of
systems we averaged about 170 MB/minute data transfer speed). It's an
extremely slow backup process compared with other disk-cloning/disk-imaging
programs.
6. The program utilizes whatever disk space is needed to contain the
backed-up contents within the unallocated disk space. So in this example
since the data contents of the initial backup total 20 GB a partition of
that size would be created and the remaining 5 GB would still be unallocated
disk space.
7. So let's say that by & by the OS becomes corrupted for one reason or
another and the system is unbootable. The user would then boot to the system
and at the Gigabyte splash screen presses the F9 key which triggers the XR2
program and the recovery process. The program would utilize the stored
backup data to restore the system as of the time of that backup data.
In my view there are some serious drawbacks in using this XR2 program as
one's routine backup program.
1. Probably the most serious is that the program is installed on the same
drive that will need to be restored. So the obvious question is "What if the
HDD fails. How can the data be restored?" Obviously it can't since the
backup program & its data is incorporated on the same drive.
2. The backup process is slow - excruciatingly slow. It's hard to imagine a
user would be encouraged to back up his/her system on a routine frequent
basis knowing that the process will take an inordinately long time to do so.
3. During the backup process the program creates a (non-standard) partition
that is sufficient in size *only* to hold the actual contents of the backup
data. So, for example, if the user originally set up 25 GB of unallocated
disk space and the backup data totals 18 GB of data, then the backup
partition will be created as an 18 GB partition. The remaining portion of
the original unallocated disk space would be 7 GB.
4. Thus it would be necessary that assuming the user desires a backup system
that's reasonably up-to-date in terms of his/her existing system, every time
program/data modifications are made to the system, e.g., installation of new
programs, manipulation of personal data, modification of system data,
additions, deletions of data, etc., etc., to back up the system at that
particular point-in-time. And given the time it takes for the XR2 program to
complete this process it's not something the average user would look forward
to undertaking in my view.
5. There would also be the probable future need for the user to change the
amount of unallocated disk space that the program requires to house the
backup data. If, for example, 25 GB of unallocated disk space was originally
established and now, because of program/data additions, the system contains
28 GB of total data, then the user would not be able to backup the existing
28 GB contents of the system. The user would need to set aside (at least) 28
GB of unallocated disk space to store the new amount of backup contents.
Thus the existing partition originally created by the XR2 program would need
to be deleted (along with its backup contents); the unallocated disk space
increased to at least 28 GB, and of course, a new backup would have to be
created . Making matters more complicated, the "EISA Configuration"
partition set up by the program to store the backup contents cannot be
deleted via the usual XP Disk Management snap-in utility. It would be
necessary to invoke the Diskpart (DOS) command accessed via the Command
window in order to do so and then establish the (new) necessary unallocated
disk space to hold the contents of the new backup (and project what disk
space will be needed to store future backups).
Anyway, if a user could live with the above limitations (at least
limitations as I view them), then he or she might want to install & use the
XR2 program in a Gigabyte-based system. Frankly I find the program wanting
in so many respects that I would be loathe to recommend it to the average
user. Especially since other comprehensive backup/restore/recovery programs
are available to users which I believe are substantially superior to the XR2
program.
On the other hand I suppose (as "Mickey Mouse" has pointed out) that there
are PC users who simply will not use a backup/recovery-type program of
virtually any type on any routine basis no matter how relatively simple that
program might be to use. Perhaps that type of user (assuming he or she has a
Gigabyte-based system) might be enticed to use the XR2 program after some
friend or acquaintance first installs the program and instructs the user
about pressing the F9 key to access the program for backup/recovery
purposes.
Anna