Re: [OT] Cloning To Server

[Ian Oliver <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In article <AEEFKMFFLBPADMLLNDJJIECBEDAA.malcolm@xxxxxxx>, Malcolm
Surgenor wrote:
> Drivesnapshot looks
> interesting but from the web site looks geared to creating an image
across
> split files to store on CD or DVD. Can you create just one image file
on
> another hard drive with it??

You can specify the maximum size of each backup file. This is to allow you
to copy them to CD or to avoid various 4GB limitations in some filing
systems. We backup onto network servers (or external HDs) that use NTFS so
can use any size file - as it happens I find 2GB a usable size. Each backup
can be in a subdir so it doesn't really matter anyway.

Good things about drivesnapshot -
Very, very fast. Typically 600MB per minute over a decent network. Even
faster to a local HD.
You can use your machine in windows as it backs up.
Only backs up used HD space.
Compresses and encrypts backup.
Backups can be mounted as a dummy drive at any time and from any machine.
Very nice if you want to grab a file or dir off an old backup.
Cheap.
Very good support.
Will restore from DOS and can recover disk MBRs and partition data.
The supplied restore floppy is great for getting your machine booted and
onto the network so you can do a restore.

Bad things -
No choice about what gets backed up - it does full snapshots of whole
partitions.
Only works under Win2K and XP. No Win98 or Linux.
It sometimes sulks on some systems. No real pattern but there are reports
of
blue screens during and after backups. No data loss but annoying
nevertheless. We have rolled out drivesnapshot across our company (25 user
licence) and it's only given us this trouble once. Author says he's working
on a fix.
The auther is a little sloppy regards release notes.

Overall it's a great tool an well worth the money. It's already saved us a
couple of times when HDs have died and all of our restores (both during
testing and in the two "combat" cases) have worked flawlessly.

Ian Oliver
Sunny Leeds, UK
Using Java on Tini for control via Dallas 1-wire






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