Raxco Instant Recovery - Comparisons

Yup. When I first started using the original FirstDefense about 12 years ago, I had to send tech support questions to Raxco to help me wrap my mind around this incredibly flexible program. Quite frankly, I did not believe that it was capable of doing so much. But RAXCO tech support back then was as excellent as it is now and Greg answered all of my questions immediately. Knowing Raxco's reputation, I took a "leap of faith" and have never looked back.

Believe it or not, once you truly figure this program out, it is rather easy to use.

I believe Peter is correct, IR stopped compressing Archives one or two versions back.

Acadia

 

Pete, I think you misunderstood my question. I'm saying what if I just leave the AXTM installed and don't perform any functions with it. Just leave it sitting there doing nothing while I have IR trial and later registered doing its thing, rather than uninstall AXTM. If for some reason I don't keep IR, I wouldn't have to re-install it.

 

Thanks Pete

 

And @ Acadia ..

Thanks for the update on the compression ... hadn't noticed that, but, makes it even better.
Agree with the label "database type file"
I'd still be slightly leery of multiple updates over a long period for any archive getting a bit messed up.

The only other point I'd highlight is as per Raxco support: exported snapshots cannot be updated on an external drive, as opposed to archives; which when you drill down becomes the obvious rationale for the external archives.

regards

 

I very much appreciate your offer to talk/walk me through this program. However, I only have about 50 GB free out of a 300 GB hard drive. It's really time to upgrade or replace this computer. So I've been looking at Black Friday deals. So, I'm going to hold off a little until I decide what to do. (What I really ought to do is clean out a bunch of unused programs and games off this computer....)

 

Alex, I ran the original FDISR with a computer with a 17GB HD with 2 snapshots. Not a lot of used space though if I remember right. However this looks like a good opportunity for an excuse to buy yourself a new PC for Christmas with maybe a terabyte on the HD.

 

I just installed IR. The installation was smooth as silk, I anchored My Documents and My Pictures, and created a second snapshot. That took just under 2 hours. 67GB. The only disappointment was no frog.

 

Acadia

 

Pete, I was kidding. I don't really want the frog, I was just bringing back memories of FDISR.

 

Frog me ...

 

Thanks for the offer to send it.

 

Just in case anyone is concerned, this does NOT require a hack of IR. Just to play it safe I even asked Raxco's permission to do this; they gave their blessing since the program itself is never touched in any way.
Acadia

 

Hi all, I attempted to create a schedule with my new copy of IR. It says that you must provide a password as administrator while you're creating the schedule. If you can't provide a password you can't create the schedule. I assume the password they want is your computer account password. I have never created a password on any computer I've owned because no one else accesses my computer. I'm not going to create a password to sign into every time I boot up, just so I can create a schedule on my IR. Does anyone know a way around this? Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah, I don't actually need a schedule either, but it might be nice to have the option without a roadblock. I did my first update from the primary to the secondary and it was only 12 minutes, so I can do one any time. AXTM usually takes about the same when you figure in set up and making a snapshot.
Tom

 

You do not need to enter the password every time you log in; just use "Control Userpasswords2"
http://cksolutions.ie/auto-login-xp-windows-7-control-userpasswords2/
http://mictorino.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/windows-8-automatically-log-on/

Panagiotis

 

Just to clarify things a bit more, I have a 256 GB SSD where Windows7 is installed and my data files have been moved to another drive... so my C:\ partition contains only ~ 60 GB even though the volume size is 210 GB.

If I install IR, where will the primary and secondary snapshots be stored? As a distinct file within my C:\ partition?

If so, then my C:\ partition would then contain ~ 180 GB (at least until I get a stripped down secondary snapshot). Is that right? Thanks.

 

Just a couple of points to wrap your mind around, although you already may have.

Whatever Snapshot you are in at the time is quite literally your C drive. Each Snapshot is just a real as the others. A Snapshot cannot see the other Snapshots. If you have 10 Snapshots on your C drive, it is like have 10 different computers. You can have completely different configurations, different anti-Virus, different firewalls, everything. I'VE DONE IT and so have many others. If you were in any particular Snapshot, and deleted the others, then that is now your C drive and computer, period. All Snapshots have equal strength, power, and reality, the Secondary Snapshot becomes your real computer when you are in it, the Primary Snapshot is now "not there" until you boot back into it. If you were to delete your Primary Snapshot while you were in your Secondary, you now have the Secondary as your computer, period (unless you have even more Snapshots ).

Acadia