Casper 7.0 reviews?

[robertpri]

If "clone" means "copy", then yes, Casper clones C to E. The clone can be viewed and opened with Explorer. Every file can be opened directly.

In my interpretation, you need software to both create an backup image and later to retrieve it.
In that regard, Casper does not create an image.

I have used Acronis true image and removed it for that reason. To me, an image is not a good backup. IMHO, of course.
I also have tried Partition Magic backup, Windows 7 backup, and Nortons Security Suite backup, and deleted them for the same reason.
They create images that cannot be used until you run some kind of recovery program.
To me, having to run another program to utilize your backup or even test your backup deteriorates the value of your backup method.

[Just Plain Fred]

If "clone" means "copy", then yes, Casper clones C to E. The clone can be viewed and opened with Explorer. Every file can be opened directly.

In my interpretation, you need software to both create an backup image and later to retrieve it.
In that regard, Casper does not create an image.

To me, having to run another program to utilize your backup or even test your backup deteriorates the value of your backup method.

robertpri,
Hello... Ok ! we are on the same page ....now i understand.. I checked out "Casper" website.. here are my findings

1.Casper makes a "Clone" of your OS to another HD... The only difference between Acronis ,Macrium , etc is that "Casper" is able to make an "incremental clone" Neat feature...

2. If you use either Macrium or Acronis to Clone.. you do not need any software to run the clone either... you just "swap out the Bad HD for the good ( Clone)and your all set.

3. The down side of "Cloning" is as follows ...You can create Images (Incremental or Full ) using Macrium , Acronis , etc. that can be stored in several places ...DVD's, Flash Drives, External \ Internal HD's, etc. They are compressed to about some 40 to 60 % of the original ...So you can keep many. In my case i have them going back years for XP , Vista and "7" Here is why this is important... Say you pick up some kind of "Nasty" on your OS and you now Clone it .... The "Nasty will be Cloned right along with you "Copy" ..With Imaging this is not a problem ...You just go back in time (old Image) before you picked up the "problem" and using the Recovery disk ..or if you have a Multi Boot OS you can do the recovery from within Windows on another of your OS's . You simply run the program and restore your PC to the older Image ...problem solved ...I use both schemes (Clone and Image) each has it's own advantages.Thanks for your input... Regards Fred

[fosss]

There is one other Program called XXClone that I have used before for interests sake and it appears to be a Knock off of Casper...It was quite good but unless they have improved the finishing off of the clone..I seem to remember a boot section had to be written separately...bearing in mind this was several years ago...one would think that its had plenty of time to resolve that...

When it comes to the job in hand, I have only 3 requirements...and that is to clone my C: drive and have the clone instantly bootable and also fully searchable as you would expect...The other critical point as far as I am concerned is that I must be able to schedule it to incrementally back up my c: drive as often as I stipulate...and those afore mention points are exactly what Casper (Casper 7 now) does for me...

I am not interested in multi booting or booting a partition...drives are so cheap these days there is no need to skimp...

I have a 250gb SSD as my C: drive and just the other day I emailed support to ask about cloning a compressed drive if ever I need to...I dont envisage wanting to hold more than 238GB of programs and data that I might need fast access to...and my asking was just a matter of interest to me...The reply came 4 hours later...and I am in Oz...

After reading the posts here I have decided to do a daily backup as well, (all designated on the same schedule )as I had another 2.5" drive here doing nothing...It was a Seagate 2.5" Hybrid...The hybrid has 8BG of flash and a spindrive to make up 750GB...its fast...but not at all as fast as the SSD...its lightening quick, and such a pleasure to use...and comes with a 5 year guarantee...and no doubt would last longer..very quick boot times measured at 22 seconds with Bootracer...and thats with booting 3 external 2.5's and a 3.5....The laptop is an Asus I7 with 16 gb Ram it did not cost much to upgrade the Ram so I did it...probably much more than I need at the busiest re processing video etc...It is never stressed, and very quiet

All 3 drives are hooked up to the Laptops USB 3 port via a USB3 hub and its all quite fast and seamless...

So yes...lol...all in all you could say I am happy with my setup...touch wood!!!...

fosss

[RetiredAtLast]

Hello all,
I have used Casper 7 since it came out last year. Before that I used Casper 6 to clone my hard drives to insure a solid backup in case anything went wrong with my hard drive and I wanted to save myself the trouble of a total rebuild of my Operating System. I have enjoyed the use of Casper 7 and their tech support is fantastic, but here comes the downside. If your OS is Windows 7, and mine is Windows 7 Ultimate, the cloned hard drive will clone the Windows Updates, but it will not copy the Update history to the cloned hard drive. Windows will advise you that Windows Update has never been run. Small thing to deal with since the updates are on the cloned hard drive. I am currently communicating with Future Systems Solutions - Online Support concerning a problem with Casper 7. Casper 7 was started laster winter to clone my "C" drive to another internal hard drive within my PC. I currently have three internal hard drives. I had to cancel the clone opporation mid-way through the process and here in lies the problem. My "C" drive is 1.5TB, my "D" drive is 1.0TB and my "E" drive is 1.5TB, all being Western Digital HDs. Casper 7 will no longer clone the "C" drive to the "D" without encountering a problem with the clone process. FSS Tech Support advises to shut down my computer utilities programs so they do not run in the back ground. The main program is Iolo System Mechanic v10.8. After the clone of "C" to "D" Windows check disk ( CHKDSK ) will find problems on the cloned "D" drive, and check disk will create six orphaned files. The clone process of "C" to "E" continues to work flawlessly. I went on the internet and downloaded EaseUS ToDo Backup 4.5 freeware and can clone "C" to "D" with no errors found on the cloned "D" drive, but so far Casper 7 Tech Support is researching this problem.

[robertpri]

Fascinating, RetiredAtLast.
Since the clone works C to E, but not C to D, is this related to the fact that most computers use D as a CD\DVD drive? Does not sound reasonable, but just asking. I did not know the download history does not appear on the cloned drive. Do you know where it's kept on the drive? I am curious.

System Mechanic has caused me problems in the past, so I no longer use it, but not for your reason.

FSS Tech Support is great, like you said, so they will hopefully resolve your issues. Since you used another program to clone C to D, is D still bootable?

I also have three hard drives, and one backup Ext kept off site.

For a clean copy, I reboot and run nothing except Disk Cleanup. Then copy C to E. Then while copy E to F is running, I open my files for daily use. Then copy F to G and G to EXT USB. I use this domino copy method because if there is a bad file on any drive, Casper will not allow the copy to the next drive. That's my way to ensure the copies are working.

[ILowe]

Loss of update history on clone. Try running Belarc Advisor and see if this gives the information. If not, run it on the original drive and save the results before cloning.

Let us know about solving the problem of cloning. Usually cloning to a smaller drive is no problem -- see the user guide page 11. Sounds like the problem is System mechanic 10.8, which is giving compatibility problems.

As a general rule when imaging, I unload programs that might give problems ie I disconnect from the internet, do a clean boot, unload firewall, antivirus etc.


ILowe

[RetiredAtLast]

Hello Robertpri,

To discuss the issue further, Casper 7 has a clone aspect called AccuClone. When you first clone a hard drive (I believe I am correct) Casper 7 uses Smart clone technology. Once the clone has completed, Casper remembers the process, and let's say a week later you want to update the cloned hard drive, Casper 7 uses AccuClone technology to update the cloned drive "D". If you stop the clone process by clicking the cancel button, Casper 7 will not use AccuClone the next time you wish to clone. It will advise you that it is using Standard Clone. Standard Clone is described as, "Smart Clone may be disabled temporarily if a prior attempt to clone the drive was unsuccessful or interrupted." The clone operation takes a little longer and I have found two options. If I try the clone of my hard drive "C" 1.5tb to "D" 1.0tb and leave System Mechanic running, the clone report advises me that the clone could not complete successfully. It advises that the NTUser files did not copy to the "D" drive. If I chose to disable System Mechanic by means of msconfig.exe then the clone will complete and the report will advise that the clone completed successfully. The rub is though that in both cases when I run chkdsk.exe on the "D" drive windows will find errors and create six orphaned files. In both cases the clone of "C" to "D", the "D" drive will boot up and run, but Windows 7 will start to run chkdsk.exe at every boot and advise me of errors and six orphaned files created.

To follow up on your questions / comments, I labeled my three internal hard drives "C", "D", and "E". I have a small external hard drive in a docking station that I labeled "F". My DVD/CD ROM is Labeled "G". Haven't had any problems with this setup to date. The questions that I forward to Future Systems Solutions tech support was (1) did my Cancel of the clone operation trigger this problem? (2) How can I get AccuClone to work again with the "C" to "D" clone process? (3) What is triggering the orphaned file creation for the "C" to "D" clone?
I tried the process that you speak of, I have tried to copy "C" to "E" (with no errors, chkdsk creates no orphaned files). Then I copy "E" to "D"(chkdsk will find errors and create orphaned files. I use my external "F" for file backups using Norton Security Suite. If EaseUS ToDo Backup 4.5 had problems cloning "C" to "D" or "E" to "D" then I would suspect a disk problem with "D". Since no problems are found using EaseUS ToDo Backup, I have to question Casper 7.

[robertpri]

RetiredAtLast,
I hope the Casper folks resolve this, and based on my years of using them, I suspect they will.

I was once asked by FSS for suggestions on the next version.

That was easy for me. If Casper is making a copy and runs into a problem, I want it to display the details of the problem, and then let me decide what to do.

I want to either:

continue with the copy and produce a text msg at the end explaining the problem and any files that might have been skipped.

or

Cancel

Let me decide. I am very annoyed at the clickable help msg that is really useless.

[RetiredAtLast]

Dear Robertpri,

Continuing the discussion, I am not sure where Windows stores the data for the update history. If you click on the START button, on the right side of the panel click on CONTROL PANEL. Under Control Panel click on WINDOWS UPDATE. Windows will now give you the information if any new updates are available. On the left side you will see the listing for UPDATE HISTORY. Click this and all the updates Windows has installed will be listed. With Casper 7, this dats is not cloned to the copied hard drive. The Windows Update page will be in RED and advise you that Windows has never been updated. When you click to check for updates, Windows will advise that no new updates are available if your PC is up to date on updates. Sorry for not replying on this the first time.

[robertpri]

Interesting, RetiredAtLast,

I found the update strings in the Registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Component Based Servicing\ApplicabilityEvaluationCache

and that amazes me that the history is not included on a clone because the entire Registry is part of the copy. [I think]

I have too many business things going now and cannot reboot, but will later to one of my clones. Then I will check update history and the Reg.

[RetiredAtLast]

Hey ILowe,

Thanks for the info on Belark Advisor. I went to their site and downloaded the software and installed it. That sure does get into the far corners of the computer and gives you all the scoop. Even though Casper 7 does not copy the history to the update page in control panel, the data is still there to review.
Thanks.

The issue of the clone from "C" to "D" works great with EaseUS ToDo Backup 4.5 with no errors, but Casper 7 loves to create orphaned files.

[RetiredAtLast]

Hey Robertpri,

Thanks for the info on where the strings are kept in the Registry. ILowe gave me the tip on Belark Advisor and it uncovers the info and a whole lot more. Let me know when you check out the Update history with the cloned hard drives. Don't work too hard, got to save something for retirement !

[RetiredAtLast]

I received a reply from FSS_Online Support concerning Casper 7. I have copied the email below and then my reply.

Hi Paul,

I am sorry for not getting back to you sooner with an update. We have not been able to reproduce the problem here.

Since chkdsk seems to be reporting the problem with new files created on the destination disk (i.e., not with files copied from the source disk) and only after the system is restarted (i.e., not immediately after the copy), there is probably not much Casper can do to alleviate the problem -- i.e., the problem is probably the result of another driver doing something it shouldn't in reaction to the updated copy created by Casper via its Standard imaging engine.

That said, it may be worth trying to get Casper to use its AccuClone engine. As I mentioned in our telephone conversation, using a larger disk for the backup (e.g., one equal to or larger than the source disk, which is 1.5TB), would permit Casper to use its AccuClone engine. Unlike the Standard imaging engine, Casper's AccuClone engine will maintain an exclusive access lock on the destination throughout the entire imaging process. While this should not result in a much of a difference with respect to the copy itself, it may inhibit whatever is actually responsible for the problem.

At this point, I am not certain what else to advise.


Regards,

Jim
Technical Support
Future Systems Solutions

www.fssdev.com
==============================================

Dear Jim,

I believe that you have misunderstood the problem. You state, "Since chkdsk seems to be reporting the problem with new files created on the destination disk (i.e., not with files copied from the source disk) and only after the system is restarted (i.e., not immediately after the copy), there is probably not much Casper can do to alleviate the problem -- i.e., the problem is probably the result of another driver doing something it shouldn't in reaction to the updated copy created by Casper via its Standard imaging engine."

Casper 7 will not use the AccuClone method to clone the larger disk to the smaller disk. It use too, but after the cancellation of the clone operation, it now creates the orphaned files that I can find using chkdsk immediately after a clone operation, before rebooting the system to see if the clone will boot up. I am not aware that I have the option of using the AccuClone engine. Casper 7 tells me that the AccuClone engine is "Smart Clone may be disabled temporarily if a prior attempt to clone the drive was unsuccessful or interrupted", and I see that it is using the StandardClone. How do I turn AccuClone back on? I am assuming that I will never be able to have a successful clone using Casper 7 to re enable the AccuClone engine with the orphaned files. As mentioned, Casper 7 creates the orphaned files. Why I do not know. These files are identified right after the cloning of the larger disk (1.5TB) to the smaller disk (1.0TB) only. You are saying that you can start and have tried a clone of a larger to smaller disk, stopped/cancelled this operation after a few minutes, and then restarted the clone operation and still use AccuClone along with not creating orphaned files? As I have stated, I am not able to do this. Casper 7 will only allow me to use StandardClone, and here in lies the problem. Your statement speaks of the same to same size disk clone, but I can not just discard the 1 TB drive since Casper 7 is unable to clone to it from either of the two 1.5TB disks without creating orphaned files, and always 6 of them.

I have noticed every time that I do a clone operation, the source disk has Windows 7 updates, and they are listed in the Windows Update History in the Control Panel. Casper 7 will clone the updates to the clone disk, but does not clone the history. When I go to the clone drive and under Control Panel, Windows Update, I receive the message that Windows Update has never been run. Furthermore the View Update History shows no updates, even though they are present on the source disk. I found that I needed to download Belarc Advisor to view the updates. They are still in the registry but Casper 7 fails to show this information in the clone.

Sincerely,
Paul

[RetiredAtLast]

I have not heard back from Casper 7 Tech Support, so I am assuming that they are now hiding their heads in the sand hoping my revelations will disappear. That is what I have done to the paid software I have on my computer, uninstalled it. I recommend EaseUS ToDo Backup 4.5 freeware. The cost is free, and it does what Casper 7 is unable to do. It clones the source disk to the destination disk in less time, does not create the orphaned files and will display the Windows 7 Update history when you want to view this information. Lessons learned in life make for an interesting journey, but as long as the job gets done, that is the goal.

Sincerely,
Paul

As stated: Don't waste your time or money on FSS Casper 7..........

[Skysurfer86]

Found this thread while researching the simplest, fastest reliable way to do a 'clone' style backup.

Casper looked the goods, up until the very last post... although I am unsure the problem is a deal breaker for me, but it obviously is for that poster.

Anybody got an update since July? Anything to add?