Rescue & Recovery and Imaging Software Questions...

[mjs]

I recently had my machine (T-60 D6U 2623 running XP Pro now with SP 3) crash. With out getting into all the ugliness of that event I have a couple of questions.

I have reloaded the system from Lenovo provided disks and successfully loaded a CD / DVD back up I had made with Rescue & Recovery Program. the back up was old but better than starting from scratch. I was wondering about the following:

• Should I update Rescue & Recovery Software before making new backups I now have Ver. 3.01.0037.00?
• Is there any particular version I should look for?
• Additionally I would appreciate any feedback regarding ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1 vs. Acronis True Image 11 Home software.

Thanks in Advance,

Mark
Parkesburg, PA USA

[sarbin]

welcome to the forum!

re: r&r versions...
the only advice i can offer is to look through the update readme files and see if there is some feature/bugfix you must have or that is required by other components on your system. css, comes to mind, as having minimum r&r version levels. otherwise, i'd say "if it ain't broke..." all that notwithstanding, when i recover my t43, r&r v2x is installed. one of the first things i do is uninstall it. i don't like the hidden/normally inaccessible area that r&r keeps in the main partition or the extra services it uses.

cheers!

[mjs]

[quote="sarbin"]
<snip>all that notwithstanding, when i recover my t43, r&r v2x is installed. one of the first things i do is uninstall it. i don't like the hidden/normally inaccessible area that r&r keeps in the main partition or the extra services it uses.

Sarbin, thanks for your thoughts... not knowing a ton about this kind of stuff (back ups) I have wonder about dumping the hidden patition but I wasn't sure about doing that... How are you backing up your machine now? It seems to me if I could back up to another drive and burn a set of recovery / back up disk, that would be about all I would need.

Computer crashing sucks!

[sarbin]

uninstalling r&r from windows does not remove the hpa or the ability to recover/restore back to factory state. tap the access ibm/thinkvantage button during boot and the preboot r&r environment loads... at least it does on my t43 with the windows components uninstalled via add/remove.

[mjs]

Sarbin, What is "hpa" I'm not sure what that means? I understand what you are saying... Backing up to the C drive makes no sence at all.... Are you backing up your system, if so how? mjs

[ashleys]

HPA is the so called hidden partition which RnR can use to restore your system to its factory default, ie as initially shipped.

To me this is pointless, as if I wish to restore my system I need the latest copy of it, not, as in my case, a 5 year old version of it
One of the first things I did with my T30 was remove the HPA.

If you plan to use RnR, you should install the latest version, 4.2.
There is also a fix available for it which should also be applied.

Most users on this forum prefer Acronis True Image over RnR and I can see why. I've been using Acronis True Image Home Version 10 for some time without any problems. The main benefit for me is that its backup time is MUCH quicker than RnR. However, restores are slower. I still use RnR for occasional (perhaps once a month) full system backups.

Regarding backups in general, I like many others, make regular backups to an external disk. This would typically be in a USB enclosure. These can be bought quite cheaply and easily, either as a complete unit, or if you have a spare drive, just buy the enclosure and install the drive yourself.

With the easy availability of USB accessible disk drives there is NO excuse not to be making regular backups.

[mjs]

ashleys, Thanks for the clarification on HPA and thoughts on backing up. I been thinking as you said it would be good to use R&R to make a back up to DVD’s and also back up to an external drive with imaging software.

That being said I’m having trouble uninstalling R&R 3.01. I get a message from windows I don’t understand… “The installation product does not match the installation source blah, blah, blah…

I’ll keep plugging away and see if I can get this worked out. Meanwhile, I’m going to try and ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1 up and running.

Thanks again,

Mark