?s from potential user

[edor]

I am considering purchase of Retrospect 7.0 and thought I'd ask the expert users for answers before investing time and money, especially after reading some of the joys and horror stories that others have posted on this and other software. Thanks for your input.

 

Will be using on a Dell laptop Windows XP Pro ver 5.1 sp2 and backing up to external HD.

 

Questions:

1) If I get Retrospect Express can I then simply purchase the upgrade to 7.0? Any disadvantage to doing this?

 

2) I currently use Backup Exec and would migrate to Retrospect primarily because I need to take disaster recovery more seriously. In 12 years of computing I have never needed to do a major restore. I have my laptop HD partitioned with operating system and programs in one partition and all Data on a separate partition - seems to make choosing what to back-up alot easier since I have 40 gigs dedicated to Data. If I had a major crach, what if any challenges would I have in restoring my two partitions and getting back to where I was before the crash? I know this is a simple question but other software seems to have troubles if you have a partitioned HD.

 

3) I tried to figure out from the website knowledgebase whether I could use the following external HD for my backup but could not determine the answer. I have a recently purchased Seagate 300GB Ultra ATA/100 7200 RPM 3.5" drive that will be accessed via USB 2.0 Is this likely to be compatible/reliable with Retrospect? The Seagate is a pretty standard and popular HD in their Barracuda line.

 

Thanks for the assistance in cutting my learning curve - the user manual seems thorough but quite lengthy and I know from the past that a user forum is often one of the best places to get accurate answers.

[jelenko]

Edward

 

For question 1: My understanding is you can upgrade from Express to Professional.

See the upgrade matrix at http://www.emcinsignia.com/upgrade/matrix/

 

For question 2: Assuming your two partitions are one system and one data - Retro makes it very easy to restore both.

for the system partition, you create a Disaster Recovery CD after you've created a complete backup of your system partition. To restore, you boot from the Disaster Recovery CD. It will install a shell os and a shell of Retrospect. After the first reboot, you will be able to restore your system from the backup set - provided the backup set is on a CD/DVD or other internal drive. If your backup set is on a USB drive, you will have to let the system boot a second time, which installs a fuller version of windows and Retro. Then, you will be able to restore from a USB drive.

 

For question 3: Any/all USB hard drives are/should be compatible.

 

HTH

[edor]

Quote:

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Edward

 

 

For question 2: Assuming your two partitions are one system and one data - Retro makes it very easy to restore both.

for the system partition, you create a Disaster Recovery CD after you've created a complete backup of your system partition. To restore, you boot from the Disaster Recovery CD. It will install a shell os and a shell of Retrospect. After the first reboot, you will be able to restore your system from the backup set - provided the backup set is on a CD/DVD or other internal drive. If your backup set is on a USB drive, you will have to let the system boot a second time, which installs a fuller version of windows and Retro. Then, you will be able to restore from a USB drive.

 

HTH

 

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HTH ... thanks for the information. The laptop C drive has Windows and all other program software on one partition; and all data on a second partition. Hopefully your answer above to my question 2 would be about as easy as you describe, however you seemingly assumed incorrectly that one of my partitions only has the operating system it has OS and all other software.

 

It is too bad that Dantz buries the link to this forum on their website - I thinkit is an invaluable feature and Dantz should make it easier to find.

[jelenko]

[quote

The laptop C drive has Windows and all other program software on one partition; and all data on a second partition.

 

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This is generally what's meant by 'system' on one partition and data on another. Ie., 'system' generally means system + applications if there is just one other partition and is has the data.

 

Also, as always, test your disaster recovery. As someone else pointed out, you'll want to test the disaster recovery on a separate hard drive.

 

PS. HTH = Hope this helps.