NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, August 2003
PowerQuest Announces Drive Image v7 and
V2i Protector Desktop Edition

From: Gene Barlow
User Group Relations
barlow@ugr.com


User Group Friend,

This past month, PowerQuest announced two almost identical products. Their Drive Image v7 product ($69.95 list) is intended for end-users and can be found in most retail stores that sell utility software. Their V2i Protector Desktop Edition v2 product ($79.95 list) is intended for enterprise customers and can be ordered directly from PowerQuest. Normally, PowerQuest sells their enterprise products in multiple licenses that would only appeal to the enterprise customer. However, to accommodate those end-users that are interested in the additional features of V2i Protector, they are letting end-users purchase this new product in single quantities.

We have obtained copies of both products to offer to user group members at our great user group discount prices. You can purchase Drive Image v7 from us for just $35 or you can get the new V2i Protector Desktop Edition v2 from us for just $40. To get your copy of either of these two excellent backup utilities, you can use our secure web order form at www.ugr.com/order. Complete the form including the special order code of UGANNVP2 and submit the form. We normally ship all orders we receive the following morning via the US Postal Service. They should arrive in 2-3 days after they are shipped.

How are these two products similar? As I said earlier, Drive Image v7 and V2i Protector Desktop Edition v2 are almost the same product. I will explain their differences shortly, but first let's consider the many new functions these products have in common over earlier versions of Drive Image. First, these two products only run on Win2000 and WinXP operating systems. They do not run on older Win95/98/Me/NT4 operating systems, but can easily backup these older systems if you run multiple operating systems on your computer and have Win2000 or WinXP installed. As I have said in my presentations for the past couple of years, time is running out on these older operating systems and everyone should be considering a move to Win2000 or WinXP.

Second, both of these products run 100% of the time using a Windows operating system. They never boot to DOS like older versions of Drive Image or competitive products do. This is a significant step forward for backup utility software. DOS is a very limited operating system and does not support the new external USB or Firewire hard drives that are fully supported under Windows. The DOS device drivers for CD or DVD burners are not as powerful or complete as the Windows device drivers for these burners. Hence, creating backups to CDs or DVDs under Windows is much more likely to succeed than under DOS. Also, gaining access to a networked hard drive across a LAN is much more difficult under DOS than under Windows.

Besides the much larger range of good Windows device support, having to shut down all of your applications and boot into DOS to do your backups is slow and disruptive for the end user. From an ease of use standpoint, using a well-designed Windows interface is much easier to do that having to work with an old DOS interface. Let's face it; DOS is a 20-year-old solution whose days are numbered. These are just a few of the many new features in these outstanding new products. They are the best backup utilities on the market today and one of them should be on your Win2000 or WinXP system.

How are these two products different? As I said earlier, these two products are almost identical. They share 95% of the same code if not more. There are only a couple of differences between the two products. Let's first consider how the Drive Image v7 product is different from the V2i Protector Desktop Edition v2 product. All of the function contained in the Drive Image product is included in the V2i Protector product. The only difference is the packaging of Drive Image v7. Included with Drive Image v7 is another CD containing the earlier Drive Image 2002 product that was introduced last year. This earlier product will run on Win95/98/Me/NT4 operating systems, so if you are currently using one of these older operating systems with a plan to move to Win2000 or WinXP in the future, then you can start to backup your system using Drive Image 2002 until you make the change in operating systems. Just be aware that the older Drive Image 2002 does not contain the new functions found in Drive Image v7 and that the Drive Image 2002 CD is not included with the V2i Protector Desktop Edition v2 product.

What does V2i Protector Desktop Edition v2 have that is not included in Drive Image v7? V2i Protector has the ability to do incremental image backups that Drive Image cannot do. This feature alone is so exciting that it is a must have function in my backup plans. Here's how this feature works. On a monthly basis, I do a complete image backup of my entire system using V2i Protector. I store these large image files on a backup partition on one of my hard drives or my external hard drive or a network drive. Since these image files contain everything on my computer systems, they are quite large and do take a few minutes to create. Then, a week after taking this image backup of my entire system, I run V2i Protector and make an incremental backup image of my system. This time, instead of backing up all of my hard drive, I only back up those sectors on my hard drives that have changed since the last backup. Because it is only creating an image of the changed sectors, these image fil es are relatively small and are completed very quickly. Then at the end of each week in the month, I again make an incremental backup image of my system. If anything goes wrong with my system, I can restore it to the last incremental backup point, which may be just a couple of days ago. I could also restore my system to any backup point before that if I needed to. V2i Protector does this smoothly and efficiently. This is a powerful new feature in backup utilities that you will certainly want.

So, which software product should you choose for your computer? If you currently use a Win95/98/Me/NT4 operating system and already have Drive Image 2002, then you can use that excellent backup utility until you move to Win2000 or WinXP. If you currently use a Win95/98/Me/NT4 operating system and are using an older version of Drive Image or a competitive backup utility, then you can order Drive Image v7 from us at the user group discount price and use the Drive Image 2002 product until you move to Win2000/XP and then you can use Drive Image v7 on your new system. Finally, if you currently use a Win2000/XP operating system then you should order V2i Protector Desktop Edition v2 from us at the user group discount price and take advantage of the exciting new incremental image backup feature. One of these three options should fit you perfectly.

What else can you do to better understand your backup options? There are many backup options available to you today to backup your computer system. What are the differences between these options and which one is best for you? To help you decide, we have put together a set of training CDs that will give you all of the practical information about backing up your system as well as detailed instructions on how to do these backup steps. This training package includes our own "Backing Up your Hard Drive" educational CD that should be your starting point. It covers the various options available to you and gives you practical advice as to which one you should pick. We also provide a copy of the Drive Image v7 Training CD, produced by PowerQuest. We point you to the sections in that CD that will guide you through the detailed functions in Drive Image v7. Since V2i Protector Desktop Edition v2 and Drive Image v7 are almost identical, this training CD will also help you with the V2i Pro tector product. This two CD training set is available to you for just $15 at the user group discount and is the best way to get a good backup plan implemented on your computer.

I hope this note helps you to better understand the differences between these two excellent backup utilities. Order your copy today at our great user group discount prices. ============================================
Gene Barlow
User Group Relations Voice: 801-796-7370
PO Box 275 Email: barlow@ugr.com
Orem, UT 84059-0275 Web: http://www.ugr.com
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