HI,

A few days ago I downloaded and installed the Trial ShadowProtect Desktop software on my Fujitsu Notebook FMV Bilblo MG50R (80Gb HD 2 Gb Ram, I.6 Ghz Intel Celeron M).

All seemed fine and I immediately made an image on my external HDD.

I was OK for a couple of days but then yesterday, in the middle of work the laptop  suddenly crashed and wouldn't reboot. The BSOD (I presume it was) appeared followed by a black screen telling me that for safety reasons the machine wouldn't reboot either due to a hardware or software problems.

I was given 4 choices of different Safe modes to reboot in - none of which worked.  

I contacted Fujitusu -they took me through the Fujitsu supplied HD test disk (which I still had :-)!! and the disk appeared to have no errors.

But I still can't reboot.

It seems I have two choices.

Use their Restore and Recover CD from Fujitsu which will erase everything from my HD and take me back to virtually the state the computer was in when I bought it

OR access the image on my external HDD that I made with ShadowProtect a few days ago.

I have a couple of questions

1. Can I access/read any of my data, (particularly individual files (MS documents) in the backup images I made with SP from another computer?
(If Yes, please point me in the direction of how to do so.)

2. How do I restore my computer with the SP image(s) in the shortest time?
And to do this, do I need the (restore?) SP CD I  seem to be reading about in other posts?

I was wondering if there is a quicker way than waiting for it to arrive because I need my computer asap (who doesn't?  ;-) and

on the page where I requested the CD the automatically generated message said SP would review my request and get back to me ;-(

So, I may not get the CD? (plus it said (at this page http://www.storagecraft.com/products/ShadowProtectDesktop/Desktopedevalrequest.asp)

IMPORTANT: Please note, this is an Enterprise product. This product is not intended for home computing. This evaluation
of ShadowProtect Desktop Edition 3.1 includes all functionality of the full product .

Or was that the wrong place to request the CD? And even if I get it it seems to be saying it's not for me (a home / SOHO computer user) anyway. I'm a lttle confused. (Not the first time though)

If anyone has any other suggestions about how I get my computer (and data) back  or if I have missed

some elementary step, then please let me know.

Thanks for your time.

OK - to answer your questions:

1) Yes, you can access your data from another computer. Obviously your external HDD must be plugged into the other computer - BUT - you need the ISO file to create a recovery CD in order to do this (you must boot from the recovery CD)
2) You can restore your computer with the SP image, but again you require the SP recovery CD.

Don't worry about the "Enterprise product" warning. This was the proper place to request the evaluation version.

John,

Thanks so much for the quick reply.

Silly question probably but anyway....

This ISO file you speak of...

Now that my original computer is but a smoldering piece of wreckage until I get it restored what is the preferred route to get this ISO file?

Or do I wait until the CD arrives from StorageCraft? Or do I install SP in my other computer to make an ISO file which I then use to access the data on my external HDD?

And, sorry to be obtuse, but just to confirm, Are you saying  I need to boot from the recovery CD even from my alternative computer to access the data on my backup HDD?

 Many Thanks
 

If you can access your email from the other computer, you may already have a message there with a link to download the ISO file (you won't be receiving a CD). You will then have to make a bootable CD from this file. Most CD burning packages (Roxio, Nero, etc.) can do this quite easily.

As for the other computer, if ShadowProtect is NOT installed, then yes - you will have to boot from the CD to access the image file on the backup HDD. If I'm not mistaken, a Trial version of SP will not allow you to restore the System Volume, but you can do this via the Recovery CD.

 John, many thanks for the folow up, and apologies for the slow response: getting the 'new' computer to take over some of the functions of the old machine has not been a quick job - nor is it finished yet.

I have indeed now received the link (very shortly after your previous post, in fact) and I see now that I have to burn the CD myself.

Another elementary question about something I'm not quite certain about:

If I just install SP on my new computer, will I then be able to read all the files from my former computer backed up by SP on the external HDD? Or must I still make the recovery CD to read the files even from my new machine?

Also, what do you think the chances are that it was SP itself that caused the initial meltdown? My BSOD moment happened about 3 days after I had downloaded SP and backed all my files? Highly unlikely?

Hi Magical,

Once you install SP on the new computer (and of course once you attach the external HDD to that computer), you will indeed be able to find all of the files which are on the backup. You simply "mount" the image (just read the user manual or look at the help screens) and then you'll be able to browse the external drive just as you would any drive. While you can certainly use the Recovery CD to perform any of the tasks which you can within Windows itself, the Recovery CD is meant to be used primarily in an "emergency" situation when you can't boot into the operating system of your computer. In such a situation, you can simply boot the computer with the Recovery CD. It's also a good idea however, when you are initially experimenting with ShadowProtect, to create the Recovery CD, boot from the Recovery CD, perform a backup (to your external drive) and then verify the image - all from the Recovery CD. If you can do this successfully, then you can be assured that these same procedures performed from within Windows (creating an image, verifying an image, restoring an image or selected files) will work properly as well.

As for SP causing the initial problems, it is as you suspect, highly unlikely. I assume that you did not have any Acronis products (Acronis True Image, Acronis Disk Director) on your machine when you installed SP? As of right now, Acronis and SP can not co-exist peacefully on the same machine. Even if this were the case, you would most likely receive a BSOD, but you would be able to reboot your machine.