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Message started by Pleonasm on Sep 17th, 2007 at 1:26pm

Title: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Sep 17th, 2007 at 1:26pm
I am writing to start a thread on the StorageCraft ShadowProtect Desktop Edition image backup tool, to collect perspectives from individuals who may have used it as well as Norton Ghost.  While the two products appear to be highly similar, what are the relative advantages/disadvantages of one versus the other?

A few things that I noticed in reading the ShadowProtect Desktop Edition 3.0 User’s Guide about this tool that were of interest include:
  • Creating image backups from within the recovery environment
  • Performing a hardware-independent restore
  • Writing to an existing image file and thereby updating it
  • Performing differential as well as incremental backups
All comments are welcome.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by huntnyc on Sep 17th, 2007 at 8:50pm
I have used both Ghost 10 in the past and now ShadowProtect 3 Descktop Edition.  What you have said regarding your observations are correct.  Also what I may add has to do with comparing to earlier version of Ghost, version 10.  But at present I am using this program compared to that version for the following reasons.

1.  Light footprint from an install file that is around 11-12 MBs.

2.  Speed of imaging in Windows is very good.

3.  Reliability of restoring images is excellent.

4.  Booting of Recovery CD about 2:30 on my laptop.

5.  As you mentioned, you can image from recovery CD.

On the other hand, it lacks some of the interface automations that I liked in Ghost 10 and other programs such as

1.  Verify automatically after creating image.

2.  Easily configure email notification.

there may be others but cannot think of them now.  Anyway, maybe this will get the thread going.  I am glad you started it and look forward to others input.

Gary

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Brian on Sep 18th, 2007 at 2:36am
Same comments as Gary. I lost interest when I found it can't automatically verify an image. That's no good if you want everything to run on a schedule.

It has much the same extra features as Backup Exec System Recovery.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Sep 18th, 2007 at 10:04am
Based upon conversations posted on the StorageCraft Support Forums (which are moderated by company personnel in an excellent manner), ShadowProtect is expected to have the following features added:
  • Ability to verify an image as part of the backup job process, rather than as a separate step by the user following the image creation (due in the “next release”, which I interpret to mean “3.1”).
  • Support for a VBScript interface, so that the functions of ShadowProtect may be invoked through a script.  This capability currently exists, but the documentation has not yet been released.  Note that with this capability, a user could write a script to backup a partition and then verify it.
  • Support for Windows Vista 64-bit editions (in addition to existing support for Vista 32-bit).

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Sep 18th, 2007 at 12:18pm
See this thread on the StorageCraft Support Forums for a set of sample VBScripts - including one to verify an image.  Additionally, this thread illustrates a command-line approach to verifying an image.

In either case, one ought to be able to schedule the verify operation using the Windows “Scheduled Tasks” facility.  Of course, this isn’t quite the same as integrating the verify into the backup job, but for practical purposes, it would allow both the backup and the verify to be fully automated (requiring no user interaction).  Perhaps an existing ShadowProtect user can test these two approaches and post the results?

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Brian on Sep 19th, 2007 at 2:17am
Pleonasm,

See http://forums.storagecraft.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1593 for scripts related to image verifying. Interesting, but I'd still like to see it in the program as well.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Sep 19th, 2007 at 7:03am
Brian, on a side note, isn't it amazing that you posted a question on the StorageCraft Support Forum and — not only was the question answered by a technical support representative — but that person actually authored and shared code to help with the problem?  Personally, this level of support (in a pre-sales mode, no less) is above and beyond my experience with many other companies.

Huntnyc, have you tested the use of any of these approaches to automate the execution of the verify image operation with ShadowProtect?

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by NightOwl on Sep 19th, 2007 at 8:58am
huntnyc and Brian


Quote:
Same comments as Gary. I lost interest when I found it can't automatically verify an image.

Oh, you *automation* people  ;) !

Quoting from ShadowProtect Desktop Edition:


Quote:
StorageCraft ShadowProtect Desktop Edition 3.0 provides quick and reliable disaster recovery, system migration and data protection for Windows desktops and laptops. ShadowProtect Desktop Edition 3.0 provides hardware independent restore for physical to physical system (P2P) recovery. ShadowProtect Desktop 3.0 also supports conversion from physical systems to virtual environments (P2V), virtual environments to physical systems (V2P) and virtual environments to virtual environments (V2V).

Isn't that the *holy grail* of restores!!!  You can have your system get fried (it just happened to a friend's computer--motherboard *died*--no known reason--and the system was 4 years old and no source of replacement--Asus no longer was making or marketing that model--or anything close to it!), go out and buy a replacement box--presumably with newer updated components, and restore your image on that new equipment--and you're up and running!!!

That alone might be *worth the price of admission*!

I'm going to look more closely at this software--Ghost is great if all I have to do is pop a new HDD in and restore it to that new HDD--but if my motherboard goes down--well, yes I can copy files over to a new OS install--but that's not the same as being able to protect against motherboard failure--and restore my current OS to new hardware!

Very interesting software--I wonder how well it will keep up with new hardware developments over time!?

It would be really nice if there's someone out there that is just building a new system, and has not already begun to use it, and test if they can take their image of a system that is several years old, and restore it to a new system with current hardware technology on board!

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Ghost4me on Sep 19th, 2007 at 12:05pm
There are several ShadowProtect threads in the Wilder's Security Forum:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Sep 19th, 2007 at 12:25pm
NightOwl, one of the features of ShadowProtect that might be of most interest to you is the ability to create a “cold image” through the Recovery Environment, if doing so is desirable.

FYI:  Backup Exec System Recovery 7 (i.e., the ‘corporate version’ of Norton Ghost 12) also has the hardware independent restore feature, too.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Brian on Sep 19th, 2007 at 9:14pm

NightOwl wrote on Sep 19th, 2007 at 8:58am:
Oh, you *automation* people  ;) !

NightOwl,

I'm spoilt and lazy.

I'm using Backup Exec System Recovery on my main computer and you would think that BESR and ShadowProtect were written by the same company. They are very similar. In looks and function.

The main difference between Ghost 12 and BESR is Restore AnyWare, which I haven't tried. Yet.


Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by NightOwl on Sep 20th, 2007 at 8:55am
Pleonasm


Quote:
one of the features of ShadowProtect that might be of most interest to you is the ability to create a “cold image” through the Recovery Environment,

I saw that!  Their Recovery Environment must be a WinPE like Ghost 9, 10, Save & Restore, and 12--so their Windows based hot imaging program can run.  Wonder how/why they are not concerned about use of their program on multiple systems--which, I presume, is why Symantec doesn't enable such a feature!

Brian


Quote:
I'm spoilt and lazy.

Well, my comment was *tongue in cheek*--I've been working on a project that *automates* Ghost 2003 so that all one has to do is click one shortcut link, and the system shuts down, boots to a hidden partition, deletes the oldest backup, increments all the other backups by one, and then creates a new backup of the primary HDD, does an image Integrity check, and then boots back to Windows--and Ghost 2003 Windows interface need not be installed at all on the system--just using the DOS based program!

The biggest problem I have run into is the variability of how the BIOS supports and handles booting to DOS!  Each system I have tried it on has required customization because there is a *hidden recovery/utility* partition like on Dell systems, or the BIOS reports inconsistent HDD data compared to the DOS master boot record program for controlling which partition is active and/or hidden.

Most recently, I've been attempting to add USB External HDD support--primarily for those who have a laptop and no secondary internal HDD to use--I've found the BIOS and *legacy USB support* to be another variable issue!

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Sep 20th, 2007 at 10:56am
Brian,
RE:  “...would think that BESR and ShadowProtect were written by the same company”
Well, yes, in a sense they were written by the same company!  In both cases, the core, underlying snapshot technology comes from StorageCraft.  Your point, though, is well taken:  the similarities between Norton Ghost and ShadowProtect far exceed the differences.

NightOwl,
RE:  “...Recovery Environment must be a WinPE”
Yes, I tested the ShadowProtect Recovery Environment today (without having installed the application), and it worked well.  The ShadowProtect Recovery Environment is similar in spirit to that of Norton Ghost, with the primary exception that you can create backup images.  Additionally, the ShadowProtect Recovery Environment contains a basic file manager (“Windows Explorer” lite), which is quite handy for copying/deleting files.

Ghost4me,
RE:  “There are several ShadowProtect threads in the Wilder's Security Forum”
I wonder why users are posting questions on the Wilder site, when StorageCraft provides it own forums?  By the way, I know that you especially appreciate quality technical support—and, for this reason, I believe that you’ll be pleased to see the interactions occurring on the StorageCraft forums, which include prompt and excellent commentary directly from company personnel.

P.S.:  For those who are interested, please see ShadowProtect 3.0 Demo for a 15-minute movie that illustrates ShadowProtect in operation.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Sep 23rd, 2007 at 6:27pm
NightOwl, don't know if it will help with your project (Reply #11), but see Read machine name and bios version for an example of how to retrieve the characteristics of the PC BIOS from the Win32_BIOS Class.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by huntnyc on Sep 27th, 2007 at 9:25am

Pleonasm wrote on Sep 19th, 2007 at 7:03am:
Brian, on a side note, isn't it amazing that you posted a question on the StorageCraft Support Forum and — not only was the question answered by a technical support representative — but that person actually authored and shared code to help with the problem?  Personally, this level of support (in a pre-sales mode, no less) is above and beyond my experience with many other companies.

Huntnyc, have you tested the use of any of these approaches to automate the execution of the verify image operation with ShadowProtect?


Their support has been excellent.  No, I have not tried any methods regarding automating verify.  i guess I will just wait until it is in the UI.  Sorry I did not respond to this but for some reason did not receive email notification on the thread.  Hopefully, I will in future.

Gary

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Nov 23rd, 2007 at 4:16pm
ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1 has been released by StorageCraft.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Brian on Dec 26th, 2007 at 10:31pm
Pleonasm,

You should be well on top of ShadowProtect by now. Any chance of an overview? Its strengths and weaknesses?

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Dec 27th, 2007 at 4:53pm
Yes, Brian, I would be most happy to pen a few thoughts comparing the strengths/weaknesses of ShadowProtect to Norton Ghost — but, it may about two weeks before I have completed some of my own ‘experiments’.  Please remind me again, if you don’t see a post materialize on this thread.

Best wishes to all for a joyous 2008!   :)

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Larrycleve on Dec 29th, 2007 at 11:38pm
Just my 2 cents. I've been using shadowprotect on 2 computers and it's excellent. I backed up 96 gigs in about 40 minutes with high compression. It compressed a 3.4 gig partition to 880 mb. I restored a 15 gig partition in 2 minutes. I would never go back to ghost. If you read previous posts I made I had many problems with ghost especially getting the recovery environment to see my external hard drive. Shadowprotect worked perfectly the first time. I tried true image and paragon and they were non functional for me. I would absolutely recommend shadowprotect.  :)

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by huntnyc on Jan 2nd, 2008 at 8:06pm
Pleonasm,

Like Brian and I am sure others, I will look forward to reading your ShadowProtect overview whenever you get around to it.  I am using Sp for a while now and enjoy it a lot but like many I also have licenses for other imaging programs.  I continue to monitor several of them because imaging is an important function for me.  But right now, SP has very good speed and reliability.  Anyway, will await your overview.

Gary

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Jan 7th, 2008 at 11:46am
I am writing to offer a set of observations on the differences between StorageCraft ShadowProtect Desktop Edition 3.1 (SPD) and Symantec Norton Ghost 12 (NG).  While both products have a substantial amount of functionality in common, each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Image Creation
  • Recovery Environment.  SPD images can be created not only from within Windows (i.e., a “hot image”), but also from within the Recovery Environment (i.e., a “cold image”).

  • DVD.  SPD images can be written directly to DVD discs at about same speed as burning a file of equivalent size using any optical media burning utility.  Although this function exists in NG, many users report that it is so slow as to be unusable from a practical perspective.  With SPD, writing an image to DVD discs is highly realistic.

  • Verification.  SPD cannot automatically verify an image after its creation.  This operation must be started manually as a separate operation.

  • Compression.  SPD compression at the “high” level appears to be equivalent to the “medium” level of NG in terms of compression effectiveness.

  • Differential backup.  SPD supports the creation of differential backup images.
Image Restoration
  • Hardware Independence.  SPD supports the restoration of images to different hardware or to virtual environments (P2P, P2V, V2P).  I have restored images to a virtual machine (VMware Workstation 6.0) having different hardware with SPD, and this function works well.

  • Resizing.  A SPD image cannot be restored to a partition smaller than the one upon which it is based.

  • MBR/Hidden Track.  SPD allows the user to individually specify whether to “Restore MBR” and/or to “Restore Disk Hidden Track”.

  • CD/DVD sequence.  When restoring from an image on multiple optical discs, it is only necessary to insert each one in sequence.  With NG, the user is “prompted to insert the first CD, followed by the last CD, the first CD, the last CD, then the first CD again. Then, the restore process begins and prompts you for the media in sequence. After you restore a recovery point, you are prompted again to insert the first CD again. For example, if you have a recovery point that spans across five CDs, you would insert the CDs in the following order: 1-5-1-5-1-2-3-4-5-1.”
Recovery Environment
  • Load drivers.   SPD can dynamically load storage and NIC drivers without rebooting while the Recovery Environment is already running.

  • USB Hard Disks.  SPD will dynamically recognize USB hard disk drives when “hot plugged” into the PC.

  • Vista BCD.  SPD contains a “Vista BCD” tool, allowing the user to edit the BCD.

  • DiskPart.  SPD contains the Microsoft DiskPart utility.

  • File Browser.  SPD contains its own “lite” version of  Windows Explorer, allowing the user to easily create folders and copy files.
Other
  • Mounted images.  An SPD image can be mounted as “writeable,” allowing the user to make changes to the image (e.g., add/delete files), which are saved as an incremental backup image file.

  • Snapshot driver.  SPD uses the latest “snapshot driver,” while NG employs an earlier version of the driver (both of which are produced by StorageCraft).  This driver is the “heart” of the “hot image” backup functionality.

  • Custom Recovery Environment disc.  SPD does not allow the user to produce a custom Recovery Environment disc, containing added device drivers.

  • File systems.  SPD  supports only FAT and NTFS file systems.

  • Updates.  SPD allows the user to “Check for Latest Version”, but will not automatically download and install updates.

  • Technical support.  SPD technical support is outstanding.  Emails are typically answered within one day,  and the user may also call StorageCraft and speak to a knowledgeable individual.  Additionally, the user forum is moderated by StorageCraft personnel, who quickly respond to inquiries.

  • File/folder backup.  SPD does not contain a “file/folder” backup capability, but supports only image backups.

  • Copy drive.  SPD does not have a “Copy Drive” capability.

  • Search.  SPD is not integrated with Google Desktop for search.

  • Maxtor OneTouch.  SPD is not integrated with the Maxtor OneTouch.

  • Convert to virtual disk.  SPD does not have a "Convert to Virtual Disk” capability.  To restore an image to a virtual machine (VM), it is necessary to boot the VM into the Recovery Environment and restore the image manually.  VMware Workstation 6.0 does offer a capability to directly import a SPD image; however, this capability is not supported for images of Windows Vista systems.

  • Maintenance.  SPD updates are free (e.g., version 3.0 to 3.1).  If software maintenance is purchased, it also allows the user to obtain upgrades (e.g., version 3.1 to version 4.0) for free.
I encourage other members of this forum community to add their own perspectives concerning a comparison of SPD versus NG.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Rama on Jan 8th, 2008 at 9:36pm
Here is a quote from the Shadowprotect support forum, regarding backup and restore:

"The only issues I have found with it so far are 1. You can't restore to a smaller partition than the original source partition, regardless of actual used space, 2. You can't restore a FAT32 partition to a larger one (only the exact same size as the original source partition) and 3. It doesn't have a disk-to-disk clone ability."

For many of us, who deal with situations where it is necessary to move images between hard drives, need to be aware of the above limitation, even though by using a third party sofware, one can change size of the partition before imaging, if necessary.

One nice thing about Ghost SS, is we need to concern only the exact space used in the partition during moving an image. Hopefully, the above limitation may be fixed in upcoming release.

For imaging and restoring, Shadowprotect looks to be an attractive alternative. In addition, a full funtional program can be downloaded for evaluation (unlike the trunkated version that Symantec normally has).

*

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Jan 9th, 2008 at 5:23pm
While it is a minor point, I would add that StorageCraft does document and provide a change log when it releases updates to ShadowProtect.  I know that some users are disappointed that Symantec doesn’t do likewise for Norton Ghost.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by RAD_2 on Jan 12th, 2008 at 10:47am
No VISTA Supprt ?

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Jan 12th, 2008 at 3:17pm
After feature of ShadowProtect Desktop that may be of interest to some is its ability for “Continuous Incrementals”:  a full base image is produced only once (and never again), so that every subsequent backup is an incremental.

* * * * * * * * * *

RAD_2, yes – ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1 is compatible with Windows Vista (32-bit).

ShadowProtect Desktop isn’t compatible with Vista 64-bit.  According to some posts I have read on the StorageCraft forum, however, my understanding is that the limitation will probably disappear in the very near future.  You can still, nonetheless, boot into the Recovery Environment with the existing 3.1 version and image or restore a Vista 64-bit system.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Jan 21st, 2008 at 12:38pm
This is an interesting post . . .


Quote:
I'm one of the engineers who developed ShadowProtect. I was also one of the primary engineers on Ghost/LiveState from Symantec.

Of course you'll have to take this with a grain of salt, as it's impossible for me to give an unbiased opinion, but having a detailed understanding of the strengths/weaknesses/architectures of these products I can say, without any reservation at all, that ShadowProtect is far superior. There are a few features that LiveState has that haven't yet been release in ShadowProtect (restore-to-different-machines, for instance, which we have fully implemented but not yet released {edit--this feature exists now in version 3.1}). However, we'll soon exceed their entire set of functionality, and I think that most users will find that ShadowProtect's implementation is generally faster, more resource efficient, and more robust. For instance, Symantec doesn't broadcast this fact (although you can find it if you dig around in their knowledge base) but they are simply unable to backup Exchange without stopping Exchange alltogether. ShadowProtect is easily able to successfully backup Exchange every fifteen minutes without stopping Exchange (make sure you turn on the Exchange VSS writer if you're using SBS). No product is perfect, and all products have bugs, but you'll also find that StorageCraft is very responsive to any issues that you report. There's no bubble-up process when you report problems - they go directly to the responsible engineer(s). Symantec has a major disconnect between support personnel and the engineers, and you will usually have to wait a very long time, if not indefinitely, to receive resolutions to your issues.
Source:  What is the best total restore, bare server backup product

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by nbree on Jan 21st, 2008 at 3:28pm

Pleonasm wrote on Jan 21st, 2008 at 12:38pm:
I'm one of the engineers who developed ShadowProtect. I was also one of the primary engineers on Ghost/LiveState from Symantec.

Just to put this into context, he means V2i, not genuine Ghost - the corporate version of the old PowerQuest V2i product now sold as BESR was previously called LiveState Recovery Manager.

As such, I can't speak to any of his other comments; Symantec isn't a homogeneous place, we aren't all telepathically connected into a hive mind, and our processes, culture, product and attitude to customers here at Ghost HQ in New Zealand are and remain our own.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Rama on Jan 21st, 2008 at 3:59pm

Pleonasm wrote on Jan 21st, 2008 at 12:38pm:
This is an interesting post . . .

[quote]I'm one of the engineers who developed ShadowProtect. I was also one of the primary engineers on Ghost/LiveState from Symantec.

Of course you'll have to take this with a grain of salt, as it's impossible for me to give an unbiased opinion, but having a detailed understanding of the strengths/weaknesses/architectures of these products I can say, without any reservation at all, that ShadowProtect is far superior. quote]Source:  What is the best total restore, bare server backup product


From a practical standpoint, when one has to put in place a program which will ensure reliable bullet-proof backup and restore and other functions, one is going to stick with a product which has proved its reliability based on personal experience. When your job or livelyhood is on-line, you do not want to take chances no matter what someone else says -- whoever it may be; finally the buck stops with you. Personally, I am more of a follower than a leader in using software in business production environment, since taking unncessary risks are fraught with serious consequences for me and those depend on the systems I support.  My 0.02.

*

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Feb 7th, 2008 at 8:28am
Readers of this forum may be interested in the following recently published review of ShadowProtect Desktop from PC Magazine.


Quote:
ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1
REVIEW DATE:  01.30.08

BOTTOM LINE:
This software provides the fastest and smoothest backups and restores of any drive-image utility on the market, and a Vista-based emergency disk guarantees compatibility with the widest range of backup hardware. ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1 is the best such product and worth ten times its price in terms of peace of mind and flexibility.

PROS:
Fast, reliable image backups to local and network drives. Easy restores, even to different hardware. Plentiful scheduling and security options. Can mount images in VMware Workstation or Microsoft Virtual PC.

CONS:
Can't back up specific groups of files.

COMPANY:
StorageCraft Technology Corporation

SPEC DATA:
Price: $79.00 Direct
Type: Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility: Windows Vista, Windows XP
Tech Support: email and public forum

EDITOR RATING:  4.5 out of 5.0

By  Edward Mendelson

What I want from backup software is simple: It should work perfectly and fast—and that's exactly what ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1 did on my tests. Maybe the reason this utility is so good at backing up hard drives and restoring whole systems, individual drives, and individual files is that it doesn't try to do anything else. The utility lacks some of the fancy features trumpeted by its commercial competitors, like Acronis True Image 11 Home and Paragon Drive Backup 8.5 Personal Edition, but I prefer it over all the alternatives, because it does what it's designed to do with unparalleled speed and reliability. And its interface, while not as spectacular as its performance, is clear enough to get the job done.

ShadowProtect Desktop creates full and incremental backup images, either on schedule or on demand, and can save them to internal and external hard disks, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray media, network drives, and Network Attached Storage (NAS) units. It restores images to your hard drive—or to a different machine—when you need to revive a nonworking system or simply want to go back to an earlier version of a mildly messed-up one.

ShadowProtect Desktop performs the same basic functions as True Image Home and Paragon Drive Backup, but it's breathtakingly fast compared with its rivals. It's also the only program of its kind that creates writable backup images. In Windows Explorer I was able to open a backed-up drive image, modify files, run a virus remover on them, or use any other software to manipulate them—and then save the image in its modified form. Rival products, by contrast, can open backed-up images strictly as read-only drives, so you can copy files out but can't change anything inside. Best of all, ShadowProtect Desktop simply works without surprises no matter what hardware I use.

Interfacing with ShadowProtect

The interface is standard for this software category—a sidebar on the left for choosing basic tasks and a large panel on the right for viewing backup operations in progress, studying a map of your drives, and giving access to other features. This product isn't for complete beginners, but you don't need to be an expert, either. Setting up a scheduled automated backup routine takes only a few seconds. For my hard drive, I used the wizard interface to schedule monthly image backups and daily incremental backups that saved to a D-Link DNS-323 NAS unit. Every few weeks I also make full backups to a small stack of writable DVDs and a USB-attached external drive.

ShadowProtect Desktop ships on a CD that can install the utility in Windows. The same disc can also work as a bootable emergency CD when I need to restore a drive from a backed-up image, retrieve files from a stored image, or simply retrieve files from a machine that won't boot from Windows. The software uses a reduced version of Vista (the Vista Pre-boot Environment, or Vista PE) for its bootable disc, which means that the emergency CD can access every kind drive Vista can. This makes for much smoother operations than the Linux-based emergency CD used by True Image Home, which was confused by my complex system. Also, when backing up and restoring a Windows-based system, I'm simply more comfortable with an emergency CD based on Vista rather than Linux—even Paragon Drive Backup's excellent Linux-based emergency disc.

Unlike True Image Home, ShadowProtect Desktop doesn't come with software that creates a bootable emergency CD for you if you don't have the original, but registered users can download a burnable ISO image from StorageCraft's Web site and create a bootable CD at any time. Nor will you find a feature like "Secure Zone" or "Backup Capsule," offered by True Image Home and Paragon Drive Backup, that will store a backup to the drive being backed up. But such zones won't protect your data if your drive suffers a physical failure. ShadowProtect Desktop will let you save the images from one partition to another partition on the same physical drive, which is handy. But the app is really designed for storing backup images on separate media that you can safely store. After all, if your machine gets nuked, you'll probably lose both partitions. Still, if you merely overwrite a key file by accident, having a local backup is useful, too.

Continued on next post...

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Feb 7th, 2008 at 8:32am

Quote:
Hardware Independent Restoration: Very Cool

The software's most impressive unique feature is its Hardware Independent Restore (HIR), which runs only from the emergency CD. With HIR, you can take an image made on one computer, restore it to another that has entirely different hardware, and be confident that the restored image will boot. You'll probably need to install sound and network drivers for the new system, but you'll be able to boot—a feat you'll rarely manage when you transfer an existing system to a very different machine. Also, you'll be able to use all your existing software and settings without going to the trouble of installing all your programs again.

This feature takes most of the headaches out of upgrading to a new computer. I tested the capability by restoring my normal system to a VMware Workstation virtual machine, and the process was amazingly smooth. It took only 20 minutes to restore a copy of my system and probably would have taken even less time to perform the same trick with real hardware.

I was pleased and surprised to find out that with the two most widely used virtual-computer programs, VMware Workstation and Microsoft's freely downloadable Virtual PC 2007, I didn't even need a copy of ShadowProtect to boot a drive image—provided, of course, that the image was an image of a bootable drive. I could simply select the drive image as a new machine in VMware Workstation or Virtual PC, wait a few moments, and the image would boot up as a virtual machine. It sounds complicated, but it required only a few mouse clicks.

To try out this feature, I opened VMware Workstation, clicked on "Open an Existing VM," and selected a ShadowProtect image of a bootable drive from the backups stored on my network-attached storage device. VMware took less than a minute to create all the additional files needed to launch the image as a virtual machine, displayed a few unimportant warning messages, and booted the image file.

Other features I like in ShadowProtect Desktop include an Image Management tool that lets me split a large image into smaller files to simplify file transfer and that lets me combine a full backup and a sequence of incremental backups into a single file that reflects the state of my system on the date of the last incremental backup. This kind of fine-tuning isn't available on rival products.

The product isn't absolutely perfect—for example, you can't carry out every task from the keyboard: I had to use the mouse to click on the filename the software suggested for a backup image before the program would let me rename it. Also, the utility tends to be conservative in estimating the time needed to complete a backup: It told me that a backup to DVD would take 2 hours and then completed the task in 15 minutes. But those were the worst faults I could find.

What matters to me most is that the software is fast, reliable, and—for even moderately experienced users—almost effortless. The support forum at StorageCraft's Web site reports impressively few problems, and a StorageCraft engineer always responds within a few hours with either a way to fix a problem or with a promise to get it fixed in the next update. ShadowProtect makes me feel more secure about my system than I ever did before. I wouldn't run my computers without it, and I think you shouldn't either.
Source:  ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by huntnyc on Feb 8th, 2008 at 7:19pm
Thanks for posting the review.  I read it in PCMag and thought it was an excellent job by the author.  The only feature really that I would like and am waiting for now is to be able to restore an image to smaller partition than the original.  But, the program is fast, reliable and simple to use.  It continues to be my program of choice for imaging.

Gary

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Pleonasm on Feb 9th, 2008 at 2:05pm
One clarification to the review that is worth noting concerns the author's comments:


Quote:
I opened VMware Workstation, clicked on "Open an Existing VM," and selected a ShadowProtect image of a bootable drive from the backups stored on my network-attached storage device. VMware took less than a minute to create all the additional files needed to launch the image as a virtual machine, displayed a few unimportant warning messages, and booted the image file.

That procedure only works if the ShadowProtect image is an image of a Windows XP system.  For an image of a Windows Vista PC, the VMware Workstation import procedure is not supported—i.e., this is a limitation of VMware Workstation 6 and not of ShadowProtect that hopefully will be addressed in the next release of VMware Workstation.  The workaround solution, however, is easy:  boot the virtual machine with the ShadowProtect CD, and restore the Windows Vista image just as if you were doing it on physical hardware.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect v4 vs Norton Ghost v15
Post by Spritel on May 22nd, 2011 at 6:38pm
I am running Windows 7.
I am a long time user of previous versions of Norton Ghost going way back into the DOS days.
I have read many posts on the net comparing image backups and have not gotten a good comparison of Norton Ghost v15 to ShadowProtect Desktop v4.

I am seeking to do specifically one thing for overall comparison.  I simply want to back up an image of the 'C' drive partition to another partition, just as I have done for years with previous versions of Norton Ghost.  I do not see a need to install the software on the PC, so I am fine with running the software in the boot 'Recovery Environment' (Windows PE) for both backup and restore as a cold image backup. 

Simply said, I just want to make an image copy of the 'C' drive to another partition and then be able to put it back later if necessary.

I already know that Norton Ghost v15 does not support previous versions of Ghost images. 

Can anyone give me some input on this or direct me to a resource that will give me a better apples-to-apples comparison of the two.  Maybe if we just compare their functionalities while in the 'Recovery Environment'.

Thanks for the help.

Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by NightOwl on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:17am
@ Spritel

Usually it's not the best practice to tack new questions onto someone else's thread--unless you are specifically responding and adding to their topic.  Starting a new thread is recommended--and possibly referring to another thread (such as this one) as being pertinent to your quesiton(s).  And, this is a three year old thread--doubtful that the posters to this thread are likely to be still interested/following this topic.

But, to comment on your questions:


Quote:
I simply want to back up an image of the 'C' drive partition to another partition, just as I have done for years with previous versions of Norton Ghost.

Why change versions?  I'm still using DOS Ghost 2003--if you are going to boot to Ghost 15's Recovery Environment (specialized WinPE specific to Ghost 15) anyway--might as well boot to DOS.  The only reason to use the more recent versions of Ghost or other imaging software is usually because it can create backup images while Windows is running.  But....


Quote:
I do not see a need to install the software on the PC, so I am fine with running the software in the boot 'Recovery Environment' (Windows PE) for both backup and restore as a cold image backup.

You say you're not interested in having a Windows based imaging program.


Quote:
I am running Windows 7.

I think Win7 has a *built-in* imaging capability--for what you want, it may be all you need--I think it depends on which flavor of Win7 you have whether the backup software is available. 


Quote:
I already know that Norton Ghost v15 does not support previous versions of Ghost images.

Why would you care if you are moving onto a new imaging program?


Quote:
I am fine with running the software in the boot 'Recovery Environment' (Windows PE) for both backup and restore as a [highlight]cold image backup[/highlight.]

I don't personally use Ghost 15, but I've heard that it does allow for making *cold image backups* from the Recovery Environment--something you could not do in previous versions--i.e. Ghost 9, 10, 12, and 14.  So, at least it is an option with Ghost 15.  I have no personal experience with *ShadowProtect Desktop v4*--so I don't know if it has *cold imaging* options available.  Hopefully someone else can comment on that.



Title: Re: ShadowProtect
Post by Spritel on May 23rd, 2011 at 8:09pm
NiightOwl,



NightOwl wrote on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:17am:
Usually it's not the best practice to tack new questions onto someone else's thread--unless you are specifically responding and adding to their topic.


Sorry about that.  I saw the title of the discussion and thought this was the place to go:  'Norton Ghost 15, 14, 12, 10, 9, + Norton Save + Restore (NS+R) › ShadowProtect'.

I will take your suggestion and start a new thread.

Thank you for all of your input.



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