Backups

[Tax Bird]

I just had a hard drive failure. I was using Iomega's REV drive for backup. Seems the crooks rigged the software so that if you use compression in your backups (default setting, by the way) you cannot restore your data to a new hard drive. Nowhere in their documentation do they mention this as an issue or warn of it in any way. The only way to get your data back is to submit to their data recovery service for $2,000 per cartridge. I have two cartridges.

Needless to say, I'll not be taking those crooks up on their offer to rob me.

Thankfully I'm a paranoid so-in-so and I have two other sources of backup from which I was able to restore.

As for my in house backup solution, I have switched to Western Digital's "My Book" and like it just fine - even got .5T for less than I paid for my Iomega thing.

[JohnH]

That's very helpful information.

Sorry you had to learn the hard way, but maybe a word to the wise for the rest of us.

I have a Rev drive that I was going to install, but now I believe I'll rethink that whole concept.

Seems as though a removable hard drive is much more practical for critical data anyhow, plus regular interim backups on flash drives for day-to-day stuff.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

Being the type that has to know, I found the following discussion:

Iomega User Community

There is a poster that has come up with a way to restore without the configuration file. (added: of compression was in default, which is on, but ratio set to none)

===

"Hi guys, I had a similar problem. I backed up all my files using the data backup mode in iomega automatic backup pro. It was on default settings which is compression on but compression ratio set to none. Went I went to restore the files the iomega program couldn't find the configuration files. I have a written a program which is still a bit rough but will basically copy all your backed up files to a new location strip off the "0." off the start and the ".IAB" off the end. It also strip the first 17 bytes off the start which seems to have done the trick and restored all my files. If any of you guys have the same problem drop me an email at my username at hotmail.com with Iomega in the subject line and I'll send you a copy or the source code if you want. I haven't written any error handling or stuff yet but if your desperate I'll send you the work in progress."

===

There may be other solutions available if you search longer.

[MJG CPA]

I just had a hard drive failure. I was using Iomega's REV drive for backup. Seems the crooks rigged the software so that if you use compression in your backups (default setting, by the way) you cannot restore your data to a new hard drive. Nowhere in their documentation do they mention this as an issue or warn of it in any way. The only way to get your data back is to submit to their data recovery service for $2,000 per cartridge. I have two cartridges.

Needless to say, I'll not be taking those crooks up on their offer to rob me.

Thankfully I'm a paranoid so-in-so and I have two other sources of backup from which I was able to restore.

As for my in house backup solution, I have switched to Western Digital's "My Book" and like it just fine - even got .5T for less than I paid for my Iomega thing.

That is horrible! I also use Iomega REV drive for my backup's, but I don't use compression. You can actually browse to any file on the backup tape from Windows Explorer and double-click to open it without going through a restore process, so I hope I'm shielded from the situation you describe.

What I don't like is that I am always getting "fatal system errors" and other assorted errors that I am sure are tied to the REV drive. We have tried updating drivers from Iomega website, but can't seem to get the kinks worked out. With an investment of over $700 between a full set of backup tapes and the drive itself, I can't afford to just take it out of service, so I continue to put up with it. But, boy if I had known this before buying the system, I would looked for an alternative. Buyers beware!

[Tax Bird]

Being the type that has to know, I found the following discussion:

Iomega User Community

There is a poster that has come up with a way to restore without the configuration file. (added: of compression was in default, which is on, but ratio set to none)

===

"Hi guys, I had a similar problem. I backed up all my files using the data backup mode in iomega automatic backup pro. It was on default settings which is compression on but compression ratio set to none. Went I went to restore the files the iomega program couldn't find the configuration files. I have a written a program which is still a bit rough but will basically copy all your backed up files to a new location strip off the "0." off the start and the ".IAB" off the end. It also strip the first 17 bytes off the start which seems to have done the trick and restored all my files. If any of you guys have the same problem drop me an email at my username at hotmail.com with Iomega in the subject line and I'll send you a copy or the source code if you want. I haven't written any error handling or stuff yet but if your desperate I'll send you the work in progress."

===

There may be other solutions available if you search longer.

This was actually one the first solutions I tried (that poster is cowboy somebody, right?)

This 'solution' only works if compression is set to zero.

Didn't work for me.

[Tax Bird]

That is horrible! I also use Iomega REV drive for my backup's, but I don't use compression. You can actually browse to any file on the backup tape from Windows Explorer and double-click to open it without going through a restore process, so I hope I'm shielded from the situation you describe.

What I don't like is that I am always getting "fatal system errors" and other assorted errors that I am sure are tied to the REV drive. We have tried updating drivers from Iomega website, but can't seem to get the kinks worked out. With an investment of over $700 between a full set of backup tapes and the drive itself, I can't afford to just take it out of service, so I continue to put up with it. But, boy if I had known this before buying the system, I would looked for an alternative. Buyers beware!

The problem will come if you have to compress and then restore to a *new* hard drive. Like you, I could easliy access my files when my old hard drive worked. I thought that was the extent of the restore test. It isn't. The real test is seeing how it behaves on a *new* hard drive.

In any case, you should be fine as long as you don't use compression. I would recommend that you check your settings just in case; compression is the default (and compression set to zero does not mean no compression, by the way).

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

I don't use that software...

What about using the software on another drive so you can peek at what is contained in the "missing" configuration? (Make a small backup using the same settings you had on the old computer.) It may be there is information saved for every file and/or folder, but maybe you get lucky and only some generic stuff is saved like whether or not the compression is on or not.

What I am getting at is maybe you can recreate the missing file close enough to get it to work with your existing data - and that if your lost data is important enough, it may be worth it to try.

[Terry O]

What are the best ways to back up client files each year without additional hard drives?

I only have a few clients, and would like to back them up for future use on another computer if necessary and would use either CD's or USB's.

Thank you

[mcb39]

I export mine to zip drives, which are also Iomega. I have had good success with importing them to another computer as long as the ATX program is installed and current. Incidentally, I also use the Iomega Rev drive and have one of the first ones. That one came with Nortons Ghost, which I use to copy the entire hard drive once a month. I do incremental backups with Automatic backup pro daily or more often during tax season. I won't rely on one backup system so certain files are backed up to certain media such as zip disks, floppy disks (all my print shop labels, Medlin accounts, etc.) For whatever reason, I don't trust CD backups; and that is probably an unreasonable bias, but strictly my own.

When I use Backup Pro, I have everything set to "do not compress". This is the same situation when I do the Ghost backup once a month (which I did last night). It asks if I want to compress files and I have always said, "No!" I have had ultimate faith in my ability to "recover" until I started to read this thread; which made me extremely nervous. I have a call in to my fix it friend who, I know, uses Rev on other clients that he has and he learned about it from me. Am hoping he is going to tell me that he has been successful in restoring the data to a new hard drive. He always says that I am the most backed up person that he knows; but he has always considered this to be a good thing.

I know that Iomega changed their backup software along the way and was always glad that I had the Ghost version. I thought I had the perfect system at last. Will keep you posted and I am sure this thread has not ended. I know that I have been able to restore programs that had corrupted files to this hard drive from the backup Pro disk.; and was very happy about that. I also agree that it is even possible to open programs and files from that disk. I am also starting to use USB jump drives more often, but have never felt safe with depending on just one backup system. :mellow:

[joanmcq]

What I don't like is that I am always getting "fatal system errors" and other assorted errors that I am sure are tied to the REV drive. We have tried updating drivers from Iomega website, but can't seem to get the kinks worked out. With an investment of over $700 between a full set of backup tapes and the drive itself, I can't afford to just take it out of service, so I continue to put up with it. But, boy if I had known this before buying the system, I would looked for an alternative. Buyers beware!

I don't use Iomega (I have a Maxtor external backup drive) and am getting the 'fatal system errors' also. My workaround is to only turn on the Maxtor software when I want to do a backup and then immediately restart the computer and not turn the software back on which completely negates the reason I bought the thing to begin with: automatic backups every night.

[Julie]

Thanks....I've been shopping for a backup drive for a little while now....I'd been looking at an Iomega drive, but now I'm reconsidering....Just spent some time looking at the MyBook World Edition and it looks pretty good, for the same price I was considering for the Iomega.

As for my in house backup solution, I have switched to Western Digital's "My Book" and like it just fine - even got .5T for less than I paid for my Iomega thing.