Looking for a better backup solution, any suggestions?

[drnick5]

Hey Folks,

Years ago we came up with the idea of asking customers if they'd like to do a backup when they check in a computer. (we don't charge for a diagnostic when a computer comes in, but we do charge for the backup if they want it)

Currently, we either remove the drive, or put the computer near out bench computer, and hook it up to the bench computer using a USB to SATA adapter. We then use Macrium reflect to create the image, which gets stored on a mapped drive on our SAN.

The issue I'm having lately is the time it takes to do a backup, with larger and larger hard drives, these backups take a lot longer then they used to when we started. I'm looking for a possible solution that would allow me to boot off the network from the computer (or alternatively, boot of a boot CD or bootable flash drive) and have it image the drive onto the SAN.

I've found clonezilla can do this, but the problem I see is with the restore. Most of these backups never get used, (more of a break glass incase of emergency) but when they are needed, we'll mount the image to our bench computer, and grab the files we need from the image and copy them back to the drive hooked up through the USB to SATA adapter. (say after a system wipe)

It doesn't seem like clonezilla will allow you to mount the image file it creates. All you can do is a full restore of the drive from the image.

Does anyone know of a software product that will allow me to image to a network drive but allow me to mount the image on my windows 7 bench computer?

 

[CLC]

http://www.todo-backup.com/business/workstation-backup.htm

 

[Markverhyden]

According to this thread it can be done. Basically converting the compressed file to an .img.

Also discussed here.

 

[16k_zx81]

I like miray softwares cloning app because it will allow mounting of the Image as a virtual hdd, including write access. It can do this In Its native format and as .vhd

 

[bertie40]

Storagecraft shadowprotect.
(who I'm sure, nobody has heard of)

 

[JustInspired]

Also, Acronis will do what you need. Booting from the CD will allow you to send the image to an external drive, network share, ftp etc.
On an unbootable system, we can mount the image and use FABS to pull the user profiles.

I do like Macrium Reflect and we are resellers of their products but the Acronis CD is more flexible if you want to leave the drive in the customer's computer while you take an image. Nice and quick to our OpenMediaVault storage over a gigabit connection.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Disk2VHD....free Microsoft tool
StorageCraft

 

[coffee]

Alot of times what I will do is use DD (available on alot of linux live cds) to image partitions. I dont know if this is what will fit the bill for you but this is what I do.

I will not image a full drive. I prefer to image just the root partition where all the users data is stored. This is saved to my backup server. Then its just a matter of mounting the image and pulling what you want out of it or actually reinstalling the partition image back to the drive (or new replacement drive). The server is accessed via NFS where the images are stored. Should I want to mount the image I can RDP into the server box and do whatever I need to do.

Its true that clonezilla images are not mountable. But if you use the dd command you can mount the image and do whatever you want with it as long as its made with DD.

The other replies here are all great replies and possibilities. Mine is just one of them that works for me.

coffee

 

[citizensmith]

Also, Acronis will do what you need. Booting from the CD will allow you to send the image to an external drive, network share, ftp etc. On an unbootable system, we can mount the image and use FABS to pull the user profiles..

Did'nt know about FABSing a mountd image. Which version off Acronis are you using ?

 

[JustInspired]

I've got TrueImage 2011, 2013 and just bought the 2014 upgrade but haven't used it yet.
Yes FABS works fine, just point it at the drive letter that's the mounted image.
It must be mounted in read/write mode though. Not sure why FABS needs that but hey.
We also use osfmount for mounting images created with DDRescue so we can pull profiles with FABS too.

 

[citizensmith]

Yeah Iv'e used osfmount too. It was mentioned here way back. Never ocurred to use FABS though. Doh

 

[PBComputer]

+1 for shadow protect

 

[JustInspired]

Yeah Iv'e used osfmount too. It was mentioned here way back. Never ocurred to use FABS though. Doh

Yep, most of our competition round here will copy data from a non-booting drive and dump it in a folder on the desktop for the customer.
With FABS we can look like frickin' wizards. The customers appreciate having their profiles (mostly) intact with a minimum of fuss.

 

[dzemboc77]

I've always used Acronis. Its simple & fast. Can do full disk or partitions. The company I work for Full time uses shadow protect for MSP customers but personally I think its crap. For 1 time back ups it might be better but for daily/incremental it will lock up machines, peg cpu 100%, configurations get corrupted and stop working. Also had machines that the license expired randomly and had to call to have it reset.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

... The company I work for Full time uses shadow protect for MSP customers but personally I think its crap. For 1 time back ups it might be better but for daily/incremental it will lock up machines, peg cpu 100%, configurations get corrupted and stop working. Also had machines that the license expired randomly and had to call to have it reset.

How the heck are they botching up those installs? It's been the most reliable backup product by far we've used...and that list of backup products we've used over the nearly 20 years of doing this is huge list.

 

[CyberJourn]

Miray Softwares HDClone 4.3 looks very nice. You can install it to your workbench machine or it will create a bootable CD/DVD. Allows you to create VHD files which is great, so you can copy the clients entire hard drive as a VHD and then mount it if you need to get the data off of it. This coupled with FABS is ideal and the solution I've been looking for. Thanks 16k_zx81. How long have you been using HDClone and which version? I've been messing with the free version for a few hours, but I could definitely see purchasing this in the near future.

 

[CyberJourn]

One other question regarding HDClone...does it allow you to RESTORE VHD files? What I would like to do is backup a clients computer into VHD format and save it elsewhere and then restore that image to a new drive. Is that possible?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

One other question regarding HDClone...does it allow you to RESTORE VHD files? What I would like to do is backup a clients computer into VHD format and save it elsewhere and then restore that image to a new drive. Is that possible?

We use Microsofts native Disk2VHD tool to create VHD backups.
Plenty of different methods that allow you to restore VHD image back to disk. VHD is a Microsoft standardized format, so lots of 3rd party tools support it...as well as native Microsoft methods of course.