Drive Image 7 questions

[BeStiff]

I have some questions about PowerQuest's Drive Image 7 program. I am
currently using Drive Image 2002 on my Windows XP Dell 2.4 ghz.
machine, and a Maxtor external USB drive using a 1.1 usb port. The
problem is, it takes forever to back up my hard drive, and I have to
sit there and put in one cdr after another until the job is done. DI
7 will let me use an external USB drive, which is the only reason I
was planning on upgrading. I used Google to check out any posts about
DI 7, but didn't find many posts, and none of them recent. The few
that I found raised more questions than they answered.

First, some of the posts mentioned that in order to use DI 7, I would
have to install Microsoft's Net Framework. What is this program, and
Why would I want it on my computer, or why wouldn't I want it on my
computer.

There was also one post that said that DI 7 caused problems with some
external USB hardware, in particular, on Iomega Zip drive. Now, I
just picked up an external zip drive, since my old computer had an
internal zip, and wanted to transfer some of my old files still on
disk to the new computer. Has anyone else had problems like this?

Another post said that after installing DI 7, their computer took 10
times longer to shut down than before. Now I don't understand this,
since one of the main reasons I want to go with a drive image program
instead of something like GoBack or Second Chance, is I don't want the
program running in the background at all times using up system
resources and possible interfering with other programs. DI should not
be doing anything until I activate it, so I don't understand why it
would make the computer take longer to shut down. It is not as if it
is keeping track of files on the hard drive and saving changes when
you power down, it should just wait until such time as you tell it to
make a complete copy of the hard drive, nothing else.

Finally, I will probably replace my computer with a new one in about 3
months and sell my current system to my cousin. Will I be able to
install this program on the new computer in a couple of months. I am
perfectly willing to uninstall the program on my old machine when I
do, but if I will not be able to use this program on a new computer in
a few months, I am not going to bother with it now.

So, I just want a program that will let me easily back up my entire C:
drive, and then, if I have a problem with a virus, or program install
messes up my computer I can just select an earlier back up from my
external hard drive, and put everything back the way it was. No fuss,
no bother, and reliable!

By the way, how does DI 7 compare to Ghost and TrueImage?

thanks in advance for any info.

 

[Rod Speed]

I have some questions about PowerQuest's Drive Image 7 program.
I am currently using Drive Image 2002 on my Windows XP Dell 2.4
ghz. machine, and a Maxtor external USB drive using a 1.1 usb port.
The problem is, it takes forever to back up my hard drive,

Thats because its only usb 1.1

and I have to sit there and put in one
cdr after another until the job is done.

What ? Is it an external hard drive or an cdr burner ?

DI 7 will let me use an external USB drive, which
is the only reason I was planning on upgrading.

You just said you are already using a usb external drive.

I used Google to check out any posts about DI 7,
but didn't find many posts, and none of them recent.

Not a lot has changed recently with DI 7 except
that powerquest has been bought by symantec.

The few that I found raised more questions than they answered.

First, some of the posts mentioned that in order to use
DI 7, I would have to install Microsoft's Net Framework.

Correct, and the DI web site says that too.

What is this program,

Its basically a way of preventing the use of pirate copys of DI 7.

and Why would I want it on my computer,

So you can use programs like DI 7 that require its use.

or why wouldn't I want it on my computer.

It prevents you from using pirate copys of DI 7. In theory, anyway.

There was also one post that said that DI 7 caused problems with
some external USB hardware, in particular, on Iomega Zip drive.
Now, I just picked up an external zip drive, since my old computer
had an internal zip, and wanted to transfer some of my old files still
on disk to the new computer. Has anyone else had problems like this?

DI 7 wont prevent you from doing that.

Another post said that after installing DI 7, their computer took
10 times longer to shut down than before. Now I don't understand
this, since one of the main reasons I want to go with a drive image
program instead of something like GoBack or Second Chance, is I
don't want the program running in the background at all times using
up system resources and possible interfering with other programs.

Ghost 2003 runs in the background, for no really good reason.

And you can make a case that a fully automatic incremental
image backup system like the other powerquest product,
V2i Protector, leaves a crude image program like DI and
ghost for dead because its always much more likely to
have backup up what matters when a drive dies etc.

DI should not be doing anything until I activate it,

Thats just one rather oldfashioned approach
and doesnt give the best protection.

so I don't understand why it would make the computer
take longer to shut down. It is not as if it is keeping track
of files on the hard drive and saving changes when you
power down, it should just wait until such time as you tell
it to make a complete copy of the hard drive, nothing else.

See above.

Finally, I will probably replace my computer with a new one in about
3 months and sell my current system to my cousin. Will I be able to
install this program on the new computer in a couple of months.
Yes.

I am perfectly willing to uninstall the program on my old machine
when I do, but if I will not be able to use this program on a new
computer in a few months, I am not going to bother with it now.

So, I just want a program that will let me easily back up my
entire C: drive, and then, if I have a problem with a virus, or
program install messes up my computer I can just select an
earlier back up from my external hard drive, and put everything
back the way it was. No fuss, no bother, and reliable!

Its only half the story with full backup of modern systems.

By the way, how does DI 7 compare to Ghost and TrueImage?

I prefer the user interface with DI. Ghost is a lot better than
it once was but still leaves something to be desired in that
area. It isnt hard to bugger up your hard drive by not correctly
specifying a restore for example. Harder to do that with DI.

Ghost 2004 uses the same Net passport approach as DI 7.
Ghost 2003 is very cheap as part of SystemWorks Pro 2003,
but it does have its frontend running all the time and still does
everything at the DOS level, and uses Iomega's usb drivers,
which are less than perfect. DI 7 and TI do things at the Win
level so if the device works at the Win level, it will be fine for imaging.

TI is a less mature product and the web site and email support
is pretty slow and not very satisfactory. That turn a damned
nuisance of a hard drive failure into a real set of bad hair days
if you cant get the restore to work properly to the new drive.

DI 7 has a time limited full capability trial version available,
so you can try it and see what you think of it for no charge.
Pretty big tho, so you need broadband access or be able
to get someone to download it for you etc.

 

[CWatters]

Ok here is what I am did. I was in a similar situation to you.

I fitted a USB 2.0 PCI card and hooked up my drive to that. I had to install
WinXP SP1 to get USB 2.0 support but that was no big deal.

Then I installed Drive Image 7 and configured it to backup C: to the USB
drive nightly and weekly. I told DI to keep two or three copies of each so
that my drive wouldn't fill up. Old copies are deleted after the new one is
made and verified automatically. (I don't think Ghost has this capability?)

I also told DI to split the backup into files of 600MBytes. That way if I
have a problem restoring from the USB drive I can transfer it one file at a
time on CDR or 7 files at a time on a 4.7G DVD.

A 13GByte backup takes about 45 mins to backup to the USB drive including
verify.

Sisoft Sandra estimates that the USB 2.0 drive is about half as fast as my
internal IDE drive.

I already had .Net framework installed (free from MS) but have no idea if
it's needed by DI.

I can't comment on the Zip drive issue as I don't have one.

My PC shuts down as fast as it ever did HOWEVER immediatly after doing a
full DI backup it does seem slow for a few mins. It's hard to explain but it
feels like DI holds onto a lots of memory until something else uses it.
After just a few mins use (or a reboot) all is back to normal.

I prefer DI to Ghost (I have and use both) mainly because DI feels easier to
use. However I have only ever done a restore (for real) from a Ghost backup.

If you plan on sharing your USB 2.0 drive over a network let me know. I had
two major problems getting this to work (Norton changed ipstacksize causing
"access denied" and "no room on server" errors and then the share itself
caused "Delayed write failures" by creating excess network traffic... but
that's another story)

Colin

 

[Rod Speed]

Ok here is what I am did. I was in a similar situation to you.

I fitted a USB 2.0 PCI card and hooked up my drive to that. I had to install
WinXP SP1 to get USB 2.0 support but that was no big deal.

Then I installed Drive Image 7 and configured it to backup C: to the USB
drive nightly and weekly. I told DI to keep two or three copies of each so
that my drive wouldn't fill up. Old copies are deleted after the new one is
made and verified automatically. (I don't think Ghost has this capability?)

I also told DI to split the backup into files of 600MBytes. That way if I
have a problem restoring from the USB drive I can transfer it one file at a
time on CDR or 7 files at a time on a 4.7G DVD.

A 13GByte backup takes about 45 mins to backup to the USB drive including
verify.

Sisoft Sandra estimates that the USB 2.0 drive is about half as fast as my
internal IDE drive.

I already had .Net framework installed (free from MS) but have no idea if
it's needed by DI.

I can't comment on the Zip drive issue as I don't have one.

My PC shuts down as fast as it ever did HOWEVER immediatly after doing a
full DI backup it does seem slow for a few mins. It's hard to explain but it
feels like DI holds onto a lots of memory until something else uses it.
After just a few mins use (or a reboot) all is back to normal.

Likely DI has used quite a bit of your physical ram in the process
of creating the image and that has moved quite a bit of what else
was running into the page file. When you use the system after DI,
it has to get that stuff back out of the page file, and that takes time.

You should be able to confirm that thats whats happening by watching
the hard drive led when you first start using the system after DI has
used it. The led should be on quite a bit of the time as the other stuff
is loaded back into physical ram from the page file on disk.

The reboot basically just reloads stuff from the disk again too.

You may benefit from more physical ram if you care about that
initial sluggish performance after DI, but it wouldnt be a bad idea
to test that before buying it because DI may choose to use all
most of the physical ram available, no matter how much there is.
Basically because that helps minimise the image creation time.

 

[BeStiff]

Thats because its only usb 1.1


What ? Is it an external hard drive or an cdr burner ?


You just said you are already using a usb external drive.

I am using a usb external drive for storage of files and downloads,
but I can't use it for my drive backups because I only have DI 2002
right now, and it does not support usb external drives. That is the
only reason I was going to upgrade to DI 7, to get this feature. I am
not really concerned about the time involved with the backup, since I
can just do it at night when I am not an the computer, but with DI
2002, I have been saving my backups to a cd burner, and I have to feed
in the cds and lable each one as the backup is in progress. This is
what I want to eliminate with DI 7.

Ghost 2003 runs in the background, for no really good reason.

And you can make a case that a fully automatic incremental
image backup system like the other powerquest product,
V2i Protector, leaves a crude image program like DI and
ghost for dead because its always much more likely to
have backup up what matters when a drive dies etc.


Thats just one rather oldfashioned approach
and doesnt give the best protection.

I had read so many posts about programs like Norton's Systemworks and
things like CleanSweep that messed up other programs, that I was going
to try to avoid anything that was running in the background. However,
if both DI 7 and Ghost do this anyway, what would you recommend as the
best back up solution, V2i portector or some other program like that?

TI is a less mature product and the web site and email support
is pretty slow and not very satisfactory. That turn a damned
nuisance of a hard drive failure into a real set of bad hair days
if you cant get the restore to work properly to the new drive.

DI 7 has a time limited full capability trial version available,
so you can try it and see what you think of it for no charge.
Pretty big tho, so you need broadband access or be able
to get someone to download it for you etc.

The one thing I have seen a lot of agreement on in posts about any
PowerQuest product, is most of the posters seem to say that the
customer support for their products is pretty bad. Very slow to
respond to e-mails, and when responses do come, they are not much
help. I am a little more worried that the customer service will get
worse now that they have been bought up by Symantec. By the way, does
anyone know if this buyout will affect the $30 rebate offers that come
with DI 7?

 

[Timothy Daniels]

The one thing I have seen a lot of agreement on in posts about any
PowerQuest product, is most of the posters seem to say that the
customer support for their products is pretty bad. Very slow to
respond to e-mails, and when responses do come, they are not much
help.

Forget emails. Call PowerQuest directly in Utah. Their telephone
nos. are buried on their website. For Drive Image 2002, their 800 no.
(800) 757-5049. Their Tech named "Linda" is patient and knowledgeable.

I am a little more worried that the customer service will get
worse now that they have been bought up by Symantec.

At least for the time being, Tech Support is still the old PowerQuest
team.


*TimDaniels*

 

[CWatters]

Likely DI has used quite a bit of your physical ram in the process
of creating the image and that has moved quite a bit of what else
was running into the page file. When you use the system after DI,
it has to get that stuff back out of the page file, and that takes time.

Yeah I thought it might be something like that. It's no big deal though as
it get's back up to normal speed faster than I could reboot so usually I
don't bother.

I've just posted this as another thread but perhaps you know?.... Aparently
the manual for DI tells you to turn off Boot virus detection in the Bios.
I've never bothered to do this and it seems to work OK - I say it seems to
work because I haven't done a restore for real yet. Are there any known
consequences of not turning this off?

 

[CWatters]

I had read so many posts about programs like Norton's Systemworks and
things like CleanSweep that messed up other programs, that I was going
to try to avoid anything that was running in the background. However,
if both DI 7 and Ghost do this anyway,

I don't think Ghost has a mode that allows you to continue working while you
backup. I guess you could while running DI but it's probably best to set it
up to run overnight.

V2I is quite expensive.

 

[Rod Speed]

I am using a usb external drive for storage of files and downloads,
but I can't use it for my drive backups because I only have DI 2002
right now, and it does not support usb external drives. That is the
only reason I was going to upgrade to DI 7, to get this feature.
Fine.

I am not really concerned about the time involved with the backup,
since I can just do it at night when I am not an the computer,
True.

but with DI 2002, I have been saving my backups to a cd burner,
and I have to feed in the cds and lable each one as the backup
is in progress. This is what I want to eliminate with DI 7.

Fine. It would certainly be much faster writing to the external usb drive
and like you say, time while you dont need to be there isnt relevant.

I had read so many posts about programs like Norton's
Systemworks and things like CleanSweep that messed
up other programs, that I was going to try to avoid
anything that was running in the background.

Sure, but those are just dud implementations. It can be done properly.

However, if both DI 7 and Ghost do this anyway,

I didnt say that very clearly. Ghost 2003 and 2004 basically
just have the frontend running all the time, so it can be easily
accessed from the taskbar, where the clock is. It doesnt
actually do any continuous backups using that.

what would you recommend as the best back up solution,
V2i portector or some other program like that?

Yes, that does give much better protection, basically because
the backup is continuous rather than just every night, but its not
that cheap, particularly compared with Ghost 2003 as part of
SystemWorks Pro 2003 which costs peanuts for less capability. It
has to be SystemWorks Pro, Ghost isnt included with SystemWorks.

The one thing I have seen a lot of agreement on in posts about
any PowerQuest product, is most of the posters seem to say
that the customer support for their products is pretty bad.

Not really, that was just the sleepless one doing a dummy spit.

Very slow to respond to e-mails, and when
responses do come, they are not much help.

They're pretty decent if you ring them up.

Its harder to say how that will change over
time now that symantec owns them tho.

I am a little more worried that the customer service will get
worse now that they have been bought up by Symantec.

Yes, its unlikely that symantec will continue to
fully support both DI and ghost now. Its probably
more likely that DI will be killed off than ghost.

By the way, does anyone know if this buyout will
affect the $30 rebate offers that come with DI 7?

It cant, they're legally obliged to pay that.