Disk Image and emergency startup

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hfoner
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 4:04 pm
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Disk Image and emergency startup

Post by hfoner »

I have been using aisbackup for many years and now want to use it to make a Disk Image on an external disk drive in case my hard disk crashes. I have Win XP +SP3 and version 3.0.0.410 of AISB. My hard disk is divided into C and D drives.

1. Is the "Backup PC" the procedure I need to use? Will it also do incremental backups to the whole PC? Reading the instructions it seems to do most or all that Norton Ghost, Macrium Reflect and Acronis do.

2. Can I make an emergency startup disk? The FAQ says I cannot for XP.
And if I can, I don't understand the bit about loading extra drivers and also if there are 2 alternatives to making the disk - one from AISB and one from Microsoft.

Sorry if I am being dense Barry, but AISB has developed so much that my poor brain can't see the wood for the trees sometimes.

Henry
nikkil
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:08 pm

Post by nikkil »

And if I can, I don't understand the bit about loading extra drivers and also if there are 2 alternatives to making the disk - one from AISB and one from Microsoft.
Not sure but I think that's the design. Redundancy equals to being safe.
You're never a loser until you quit trying. Image
Barry
Site Admin
Posts: 1529
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:16 pm

Backup and restore options

Post by Barry »

The Backup PC option is what you should select to make a backup that is suitable for disaster recovery, the backup is also suitable for any type of restore, for example if you accidentally delete or overwrite a file you may restore the previous version from the backup.

Some AISBackup users think that the copy option is suitable for disaster recovery as this gives a file for file snapshot of your PC, however a copy of your drive it is not really suitable for disaster recovery as it would be quite easy to copy a damaged version of your disk (e.g. after a virus infection but before you notice).

A regular backup keeps different versions of your disk drives so that even if a scheduled backup does backup a virus infection then you would still be able to restore a previous version of your PC.

Regular AISBackup backups use compressed files to save space but can only be restored using AISBackup - the backup files use zip file compression but also contain important security information that must also be restored. If you were to use a regular zip program instead of AISBackup the file will appear corrupted whereas the file is actually perfect for AISBackup.

I think the FAQ is misleading as it is perfectly possible to make a bootable CD for disaster recovery. The procedure is to make a backup and keep it up to date by running regular backups to the same drive. This backup would then be opened after booting from the restore CD. What Windows XP cannot do is make a bootable USB Flash drive from Windows XP - but I have been experimenting and it is possible if the USB flash drive is formatted as NTFS (and that isn't straightforward) - this option may be added in the next version of AISBackup. A CD in most cases if perfectly suitable except perhaps if you are restoring a netbook - but most netbook's would be running Windows 7. You may make the restore CD or USB flash drive on another PC, it does not have to be the one you want to restore.

There are movies and PDF help files to assist with the backup and restore procedure and I admit that they should probably be updated. AISBackup has changed since the XP video was made and the old 'Quick Job' option has been changed to 'New Job' :

Video: http://aiscl.co.uk/showvideo.php?v=1
PDF: http://aiscl.co.uk/dl.php?p=1


Here is the disaster recovery restore procedure:

Video: http://aiscl.co.uk/showvideo.php?v=9
PDF: http://aiscl.co.uk/dl.php?p=6

Sorry for the delay replying.

Barry
hfoner
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 4:04 pm
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Disk Image and Emergency startup disk

Post by hfoner »

Thank's Barry. Just want to clear up a few things and am doing it on the forum so that others may benefit:

1. The fact that AISB can do a full disk recovery from an external hard-disk seems to be a big advantage. But why would anybody want to do any other sort of backup? I think you should emphasize in the Instructions that this is what most people should use .

2. What is the difference between the 2 types of Emergency CD (AISB and MS)?

3. What are the extra drivers that may be required?

4. And when should the Emergency disk be refreshed?

Thanks again,
Henry[/i]
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