Rescue and Recovery vs Vista Backup Utility

[WangWang]

Thank you VoicesInMyHead for that input. Too bad you had to learn the hard way.

I am due for a backup as I am having the same problem as usual, where my diskspace is disappearing exponentially (right now I have 8 gb of 140gb). With that said I am going to do the Windows backup and hope it saves me in case of the next crash.

[jtimouri]

I just used Rescue and Recovery to "backup to my hard disk". It obviously worked since lots of drive space disappeared. It was listed as a backup when I viewed "view all backups".  But I could not find the backup file. Where is it? What name does it go under?

[LinYu]

Kudos for VoicesInMyHead's care and extremely clear explanations on the issues related to Vistas Backup vs. Lenovo's Rescue and Recovery features. I was particularly shocked from learning about what he describes as "restoring the disk using RnR is breaking the shadow copy feature of Vista" and that only "restoring the backup created with Vista's resolved the problem".

I have Vista Home Premium installed on my system and I understand this version of Vista does not have the same comprehensive backup features as like other versions do. And this was one of the reasons why I have been doing all my backups to an external drive, using Acronis 11. So far (knock on wood...) I never was faced with the need to restore my system and, with Acronis, I have been convinced all along that I was well protected and covered. However, after knowing about his experiences with RnR, I wonder whether Acronis might deliver the same or similar Vista shadow copy problems as RnR.

I also recently found out that my computer is NOT creating any restore points automatically. I can only create them manually. On the other hand, I have my Automatic Updates feature turned ON. I just checked my Windows Update installation history and noticed that there have been a number of automatically installed updates on January 15, 2009, including 1 "recommended" update.  

Does anyone use Acronis Backup and Restore or know anything about whether Acronis brings about the same issues as RnR?

Many thanks in advance for any feedback anyone could provide.

[Raijin]

I've been having the same problems as WangWang not only does my diskspace disappear exponentially, but my computer becomes extremely fragmented when Rescue and Recovery is doing its thing, so my question is how do I uninstall Rescue and Recovery without uninstalling the rest of the Thinkvantage Suite(I can't find the Rescue and Recovery program in the uninstall programs control panel)?

[slimak]

I have SL500 which comes with Vista Business but he OS is on the hard drive I don't get the installation cd/dvd. Now I create backup using Complete PC Recovery to USB drive and I'm missing a thing which will be able to boot the computer - how to do it?

[elvair]

I second that post in a sense that RnR is total trash imho. I havent tested the feature properly yet, however the first thing I've done with it corrupted the system and didn't work the way I expected it at all. Here is what I've done :

I restored PC to the original factory condition and created a back up using Lenovo RnR, the system told me that the file is approximatelly 8,5 GB. Then I applied every single possible update to Windows and crdeated another back up, the system told me that second back up point was approximatelly 1,5 GB.

Then I reverted to previous point and here are the results:

1) The system told that a number of applications cannot be reverted to and shoud be installed manually. When I looked at the list it turned out that those applications were in fact updates which I applied to Vista. This is nonsense because, since I'm reverting to previous point by definition I do not want any of new stuff which came into the system, i.e. what if one of updates was corrupt and I want to get rid of it. The list which system gave me was very short, so I presume that it kept other updates intact or "restored" them.

2) Internet explorer stoped working all together. To the point that it gives some error and simply shuts down the programm. Hence there is no way how I can get into internet to install a different browser or look for solution. So not only RnR reverted to previous state in some buggy fashion it also killed one of the vital programms on my hard drive.

What am I doing wrong here if anything ? And can anyone enlighten me - what is the exact mechanics of Lenovo RnR ?

This kind of stuff, doesnt feel like the vision of Thinkpads, rather like cheap chineese crap, im dissapointed.

Thank you in davance for your replies. I just want to emphasize that I'm not trolling here, I'm genuinly not impressed at all with these kind of technologies.

Thanks,

Message Edited by elvair on 05-11-2009 06:51 PM

Message Edited by elvair on 05-11-2009 06:51 PM

[benreaves]

Lenovo's authorized repair center near me - where we go when we can't fix a system problem on our own - requires a recent Rescue-and-Restore. Unofficially they sometimes can use Acronis but in general they don't accept a Windows backup. So if you request warranty repair, and you don't want to spend your own time handholding the restore, you'll need an RnR backup.

But the best restore strategy is, of course, a spare clone disk..