By Randall Deetz, on Jan 12, 2021
Rescue Drive is unique as the only backup solution that allows you to verify that your full-system backup was created correctly, and that you can do so immediately after the backup process completes. After rebooting your system, you’ll notice that a new menu is displayed during the startup process. From this menu you can select to start from your Rescue Drive.
The default is to start normally from your system drive after a 10 second delay. If you don’t want to see this each time you start your system, you can turn the menu on or off in your Rescue Drive software. If the internal drive crashes, the system will start automatically from your Rescue Drive. Once you’re up and running, a popup displays so you always know you’re running from your Rescue Drive.
Every backup solution in the known universe displays statistics and performance info when a backup completes. What is unique here is that Rescue Drive displays performance information pertaining to the time required to boot from your external drive. In the example above, it took 1 minute and 35 seconds to get up and running, and to be ready to start working in the Rescue Drive environment. This measures the time from BIOS initialization to when Windows has all the apps populated in the system tray. Each section of the happiness gauge is separated by 2 minutes.
The backup drive used for this example is a Maxone external (rotating) hard drive. Most newer external SSDs will have even better performance. The backup drive you choose will have a big impact on the performance of your booted Rescue Drive. Running from slower flash drives will feel more like you’re running in a recovery environment… only good for recovering a failing system. Running from an external SSD can actually provide an alternate operating environment to your system drive, and run with performance to match.
Click here for a list of the latest external storage drives ready for transformation to a Rescue Drive.
Once your system is up and running from your Rescue Drive, you have access to all your applications, internet connectivity, and system settings.
I can verify that everything Randy states above is correct. I have been using Rescue Drive for several months and although there were a few initial hiccups, Randy was able to diagnose them remotely and the result was an improved product. The hiccups were related to my having set up Controlled Folder Access in Win 10 on my machine, which Rescue Drive initially had not provided for but now does transparently.
Personally, the way I use Rescue Drive is to do a Full System Backup of my SSD C: drive, which only contains Win10 and Applications. For this I use a fast USB 3.2 Flash Drive, which I then disconnect and store remotely. Since this drive only contains Win 10 and software, I only run the Full System Backup periodically after Win 10 updates or new software installs.
For data I use a separate internal hard drive (D:) and schedule Rescue Drive to an Incremental Data Backup MTWR and a Full Data Backup on Friday to a permanently connected external hard drive.
For a more typical user, who has Windows, Applications and Data all on a single C: drive, I understand Rescue Drive can now or will shortly provide the capability to use a single external drive (preferably SSD or fast Flash Drive) for BOTH a Full System AND Full Data backups to the same backup drive by appropriately partitioning the external drive.
I have been very pleased with Rescue Drive and the unbelievable personal support Randy has provided for the product and the fact that he is constantly improving it.
I have known Randy for a number of years and understand his passion for protecting peoples digital lives. He has seen first-hand the confusion and frustration caused when we find that our system drive is non-functional, or worse yet, has been compromised by bad actors trying to extort ransom money.
In todays world we often to depend on the Cloud to protect our data. And while it is true that data in the cloud is available, one must still address the problem of a non-functional system drive – no boot/no access to that data! And consider this: In the past Windows computers were supplied with a CD incorporating the version of Windows supplied with that computer. Well, that is now a thing of the past. Computers today do not come with this Windows copy. Try figuring out how to get a replacement copy from Mother Microsoft! This will really make you wish you had used Rescue Drive to protect everything on your system, including the operating system.
With Rescue Drive, I set it up and forget about it – UNTIL I NEED IT….