New To Retrospect ExHD 2.0 - ?'s

[pedinsky]

I have just downloaded the trial version of Express HD 2.0. I was using another backup program (Genie-Soft Backup) but it was giving too many problems on scheduled backup that the mfr'r seemed only to want to solve by suggesting I upgrade, at a price. I now have a Western Digital 250GB external drive(G). I was unfamiliar with how ExHD 2.0 was going to look and operate and did not understand the function of the "restore point" disk backup, EMC should improve the product info, but that's the price of techi's doing product documentation and demonstration. Anyway I think I have figured it out but would like a conformation from other users.

 

At first after doing a complete disk backup I clicked on my external HD to view the files there as ExHD does not say anything about, "successful backup" after its done, it only shows the "Welcome to Retroscept HD Express" popup with the number of restore points, 4. I did not understand why I could not see my files on my external drive, only the files AA000000.rdb, AA000001.rdb, AA000002.rdb, all the way down to AA000024.rdb and a last file execinfo.dat were on the G drive. I did not understand if my backup was successful. I finally found out the 4 restore points were 2 files on my G drive and 2 on my C drive. When I clicked on the C drive restore point I could view all my files on my computer. I then did a test to delete a file from my system C drive and find it in ExHD's restore point on C drive then click restore and put it back on my system's C drive. It works OK. If this is all there is to it then I'm happy as it is simple and easy. Now let's see if its reliable as well.

 

A couple of ?'s

 

1. I put my computer into sleep mode at night and have my scheduled back to run at 7AM. Will ExHD 2.0 wake my computer to do an auto backup?

 

2. Why after initial disk backup were there 4 restore points. 2 for my external G drive and 2 for my system C drive, I only backed up once (initial)?

 

3. I guess that on each following backup ExHD just amends changed files? If a file is no longer on my C drive (deleted) will it delete it from the backup file? If it has changed it will update it to the new file but not keep the old file? I assume this is "incremental"

 

That's it for now, any feedback would be appreciated.

[Mayoff]

1) Express HD can not wake up the sleeping computer

 

2) What were the dates and times of each restore point?

 

3) Yes, it just adds changed files. The deleted and old changed files will not be deleted from the backup until additional disk space is required. The latest restore point will not contain info about the "deleted" file.

 

Old restore points will have access to the old files.

 

The new restore points will not have access to old file versions.

[pedinsky]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Here are the dates and times of restore points(initial Backup);

11/7/06 7:33AM Drive G

11/7/06 7:29AM Drive C

11/7/06 7:29AM Drive G

11/7/06 6:25Am Drive C

 

"The deleted and old changed files will not be deleted from the backup until additional disk space is required."

 

I have a 250GB backup drive with about 10GB of used space (backup). Does that mean that ExHD2.0 will just keep filling up the drive with deleted and old files until it uses all the 250GB?

[Mayoff]

Yes it will keep filling up the drive, but it will delete data once you no longer have free space.

 

The Help File and User's guide (PDF) give more details.

[pedinsky]

Well that seems pretty dumb without knowing the reason why?? But it sure would be good to choose how long to keep old and deleted files. Why would I want 250GB of old and deleted files? I think that is a "con" for now. I am trying a work-a-round for doing a backup from sleep mode. I have added Retrospect Express to my scheduled tasks to see if that will work.

 

The help files states under Disaster Recovery;

"Before you can restore your entire computer, you must reinstall the same version of the operating system (including Service Packs) that you were using when the computer was backed up. You must also create the same number of partitions on your internal disk drive and those partitions must be of equal or greater size to the originals (so that there is enough room to restore all the backed up files)."

 

If I had my entire C disk on my G backup disk (+OP system), could I not just copy files (restore point) from the G disk to the C disk and go from there? I guess I'd still need a separate boot disk and OP system disk?