ShadowProtect IT Edition 4 General Information ReadMe

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StorageCraft ShadowProtect IT Edition
Copyright 2010 StorageCraft Technology Corporation
All rights reserved.
ITREADME.RTF October 2010
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GENERAL INFORMATION
This file contains additional information to supplement the manual. Please read all the sections before you proceed with the product.


TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. System Requirements
2. Installing ShadowProtect IT Edition
3. Activating ShadowProtect IT Edition
4. Features/Enhancements/Fixes
5. General Usage Notes
1. System Requirements
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1. Minimum System Requirements

  • Must meet the minimum operating system requirements
  • Memory: At least 256 MB of RAM (512MB of RAM is required for the Vista recovery environment).
  • Available USB slot. If USB slot is not available a CD/DVD drive is required (or access to a CD .ISO file from within a VM). Supported Operating Systems ShadowProtect supports Windows 32-or 64-bit operating systems
  • Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows Small Business Server 2008
  • Windows EBS Server 2008
  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows Small Business Server 2003
  • Windows 2000 Server/Advanced Server (SP4 or above)
  • Windows Small Business Server 2000
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Vista Home Basic
  • Windows Vista Home Premium
  • Windows Vista Ultimate
  • Windows Vista Enterprise
  • Windows Vista Business
  • Windows XP Media Center
  • Windows XP Professional (SP2 or above)
  • Windows XP Home (SP2 or above)

Supported File Systems/Disk types
ShadowProtect Editions support the following File Systems: FAT16, FAT16X, FAT32, FAT32X, NTFS, GPT Disks, and Dynamic Disks.

Supported Storage Media
ShadowProtect supports the following storage media: disk drives including network drives, SAN, NAS, iSCSI, SCSI, USB or Firewire and optical media such as CD/DVD/Blu-Ray.


2. Installing ShadowProtect IT Edition
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IT Edition is run from the USB key or a CD/DVD. There is no install for ShadowProtect IT Edition. A mount driver might temporarily be installed if you are mounting image files while in the running operating system.


3. ACTIVATING ShadowProtect IT Edition
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You will need to activate ShadowProtect before the trial period ends or the quarter has expired. You will need to activate the product each quarter. If the autorun does not automatically start IT Edition, browse to the IT Edition USB key and click on Programs →SHADOWPROTECTPE →SHADOWPROTECTPE.EXE. You will be prompted to enter the product key you received when you purchased your ShadowProtect IT Edition subscription. Once you have entered the product key correctly, click the Activate button. If your subscription has expired, you will be notified and will no longer be able to use ShadowProtect IT Edition until you renew your license.

ShadowProtect IT Edition Licensing
ShadowProtect IT Edition is licensed per technician. You can use the software on as many servers, desktops and laptops as you wish for the period of your subscription.


4. Features/Enhancements
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Version 4.0.2 (October 12, 2010)

  • The Recommended Recovery Environment is now based on a clean baseline WinPE build of Windows Server 2008R2, which has excellent default device support. No additional 3rd party drivers are auto-installed. Instead, all additional 3rd party storage/network/misc drivers (including drivers for various VMs) are found in the Additional_Drivers directory, and should be loaded manually, as needed, using the TOOLS -> LOAD DRIVERS menu item. In future builds, any changes to the contents of this Additional_Drivers directory will be noted in a ChangeLog.txt file contained within the Additional_Drivers directory. The purpose for using the clean baseline WinPE was to eliminate some driver conflicts which were occurring (where an injected 3rd party driver would incorrectly claim ownership of hardware it didn't actually support).
  • The USB Update Wizard now updates all critical USB IT Edition files. However, it no longer updates the .ISO file found on the target USB drive. The .ISO file on the USB drive is not actually used by the USB drive when it is booted. The .ISO file is placed on the USB drive for convenience, to be used as the source for bootable CD-Rs, or directly for VM CD boot sessions. If you wish to update the .ISO file on the USB drive, you can copy the updated .ISO file from the Update package to your USB drive (overwriting the older .ISO file).
  • When IT Edition is booted, the LOAD DRIVERS menu option is now enabled even if IT Edition is not yet licensed (in cases where it has not yet found the USB drive, or has not yet connected to a license server). This will enable users to load the necessary network drivers in order to connect to a license server, in cases where the drivers for their NIC aren't automatically loaded.
  • Fixed an issue which caused IT Edition to fail to retrieve its license, which resulted in the error "license content does not match digital signature.

Version 3.5

  • The Boot Configuration tool in the bootable-CD ShadowProtect Recovery Environment has been extended. This is an advanced tool and generally is only necessary for very complex multi-boot systems.
  • The Hardware Independent Restore (HIR) functionality in the bootable-CD ShadowProtect Recovery Environment now has an additional Advanced Option which enables users to add specific .INF files to the list of additional directories and files to be considered by HIR when it attempts to find the best drivers for the hardware. The old option, to add directories, still exists. When a directory is added to the HIR Advanced Options list, drivers in that directory will be considered by HIR. However, if HIR finds another driver (on the target volume itself, for instance) which is a better match for the hardware, then HIR will install the best matching driver. However, when a specific file is added to the list, it will be given precedence over all other matching drivers found by HIR. This will make it easier for users, who are certain they have the correct storage miniport driver, to force HIR to install their specific storage driver. Just point to its specific INF file.
  • The Hardware Independent Restore (HIR) functionality in the bootable-CD ShadowProtect Recovery Environment now has an additional Advanced Option which enables users to specify if they want the target volume's Windows Activation to be Deactivated. It has been found that occasionally after an HIR restore, the user will boot and login and immediately be logged back out, without any prompt or opportunity to reactivate their Windows installation. By checking this Deactivate box, users in such a situation will be prompted to re-activate their Windows installation.

Version 3.4

  • ShadowProtect IT Edition is now run via a USB key
  • Booting the recovery environment, and then your normal OS, will no longer interrupt fast incremental tracking
  • Improved backup speed to Iomega REV drives
  • Fixed FAT16/FAT32 mounting issue (error on dismount)
  • Added a Drive/Volume copy feature (EXPERIMENTAL)
  • Added a Multi-volume restore feature (EXPERIMENTAL)


5. GENERAL USAGE NOTES
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- Testing the StorageCraft Recovery Environment CD
You should test the StorageCraft Recovery Environment to ensure that it runs properly on your computer. To do this, boot the StorageCraft Recovery Environment from the ShadowProtect IT Edition USB key or CD/DVD. If the StorageCraft Recovery Environment boots and runs as expected, then you will be prepared to perform ShadowProtect operations from the Recovery Environment in the event the system does not boot or you need to restore a system volume from a backup image file or you wish to create cold state backup images using the Recovery Environment.

If the StorageCraft Recovery Environment does not boot or run as expected, you should investigate the following issues:

  • The system you are booting the recovery environment from must be configured to boot from the USB or CD/DVD device.
  • Try both the Recommended and Legacy boot options. There are additional drivers in the Legacy boot mode.
  • You do not have the necessary network interface card (NIC) drivers to access the network. Contact StorageCraft Technical Support by sending an email to support@storagecraft.com so that the necessary NIC drivers can be included in subsequent builds of ShadowProtect IT Edition.
  • You do not have the necessary storage drivers to access a storage device on the computer. You may need to load storage drivers during boot time. During the initial boot phase of the Legacy XP/2003 StorageCraft Recovery Environment, you will be prompted to hit F6 to add storage drivers. You will then be prompted to load the storage driver from diskette. It is a good idea to keep necessary storage drivers on a diskette that is available in the event you need to boot the ShadowProtect USB or CD/DVD to run from the Recovery Environment. The storage drives must be in the textsetup.oem format for loading into the Legacy Recovery Environment. If you have booted the Recommended boot option(Vista Recovery Environment), you can dynamically load the required storage drivers by providing the directory where the drivers are located. The driver files for the Recommended Recovery Environment must be Vista drivers in the .inf and .sys format. Contact StorageCraft Technical Support by sending an email to support(at)storageCraft.com so that the necessary storage drivers can be included in subsequent builds of ShadowProtect IT Edition.


The ShadowProtect USB or CD/DVD, contain the StorageCraft Recovery Environment which is used as a boot disk for restoring a backup image to the system volume. Be sure to store the USB key or CD/DVD in a safe place for use in the event that a bare metal recovery of your computer is required.
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Copyright 2010 StorageCraft Technology Corporation. All rights reserved. This Software and Documentation are copyrighted. Ownership of the ShadowProtect IT Edition Software is reserved to StorageCraft Technology Corporation. StorageCraft, the StorageCraft logo and the ShadowProtect IT Edition logos are trademarks of StorageCraft Technology Corporation. ShadowProtect IT Edition is a trademark of StorageCraft Technology Corporation in the United States and elsewhere. All other brands and product names are or may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.