Harddrive Image Software 1

[Ovatvvon]

I have used Symantec Ghost to perform backup images of hard drives before, but it does not appear to work with Windows Server (at least not the 2003 64bit version). I looked at 10.0 on their website, but it is not supported on any windows server platform.

Does anyone know of good backup image software similar to Ghost that works well with Windows Server 2003 64-bit?


-Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[Ovatvvon]

Anyone?

-Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[ShackDaddy]

Acronis' product supports both 32 and 64-bit Windows OS's.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[ShackDaddy]

Sorry, forgot the link:

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATISWin/

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[biglebowski]

http://www.symantec.com/smb/products/overview.jsp?pcid=bu_rec&pvid=bewin_svr

When I was born I was so suprised I didn't talk for 18 months

 

[Ovatvvon]

ShackDaddy,

That looks like it might be good software, however, a bit expensive: nearly $700 per item. Are you aware of anything cheaper? I know the Norton Ghost image software for PC's is around $70 (but of course, as mentioned, it is only for client workstations such as Windows 2000 pro, or WinXP).


Biglebowski,

Is that image software, or just backup software? I was hoping for image software to just slap a disk image back on it an event of Disaster Recovery. (Much faster)


-Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[ShackDaddy]

Ovatvvon, I have, while doing pro-bono work for a non-profit, installed a separate client OS on a separate partition and used the Acronis True Image workstation client to backup the server. But you'd have to take the server offline every time you want to create an image...

As far as I know, the price of the Acronis server product is very competitive with other server imaging products. These technologies just aren't cheap, but they do wonders. I love the server product and have been very pleased with the way it performs.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[Ovatvvon]

Yeah, I'm sure it is competitive, both in performance and in price. Limited budget on this end, however. But, I'll put it on a list for future items to keep in prospect. Thank you for the advice!


-Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[richgill]

Have you tried DriveSnapshot?

http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/news.htm

Should do what you want and is cheap too. They have a free download to test it out.

 

[strella]

Ovatvvon,

There is a new os/fs backup originally aimed at XP end users,

http://cdriveback.sourceforge.net,

it is over engineered and does full or incremental backups for FATxx and NTFS as well as Linux drives.

Disk to disk. USB drive works fine.

A bootable CD uses a Linux and DAR (Disk Archiver) to take drive copies. Since Windows is not running a lot of backup problems disappear.

Not so hot for 24x7 servers as they have to be taken down.

As for Win 2k3/ 64, not tested yet, but runs standard 386 (I586 actually) code which was created on an AMD 64 with no probs.

Price fits your requirements, though.

- J

 

[NickFerrar]

We use Paragon Partition Manager:

http://www.partition-manager.com/comparison.htm

it's worked great for us so far although it's not cheap if you want the backup functionality (Enterprise server edition).

 

[pagy]

richgill,

nice call on drive snapshot. I've just used that to clone my 2003 web server and it worked perfectly. Price is good too.


Paul

MCSE 2003

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
Albert Einstein

 

[Ovatvvon]

I'll give the drive snapshot a try tonight.

-Ovatvvon :-Q

 

[dparrott]

An option I have done at home to backup my 2003 server is to install XP on a separate partition, just like ShackDaddy. I used Ghost 9.0 to take the image, and later restored it fine. Like he says, you have to take the server down to do it, but you wouldn't have to buy a new program.

You can also pull the hard drive out and put in a different computer for imaging. Not a great solution, but works fine, and you don't have to have an extra partition on the server for the client os. I am pretty sure this will work with Acronis also.