FAQs - General
This page answers the following frequently asked questions. See also the complete list of FAQs.
What is your upgrade policy?
A purchased Firestreamer-RM license covers all current and future versions of Firestreamer-RM. You can reuse a previously purchased Firestreamer-DVD license with Firestreamer-RM, as long as the total number of computers with the Firestreamer-RM software installed does not exceed the number shown in the license key.
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Do I need a license key to restore my data?
You only need a license key to perform backups beyond the 30 day trial period. You can restore your data without any limitation, even with no license key installed.
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Is my media drive compatible with Firestreamer-RM?
Firestreamer-RM supports all media drives with the "Designed for Windows XP" logo, as well as most of the others. Should you have any problems or questions, do not hesitate to request help. If Firestreamer-RM does not work with your particular media drive, we may be able to update the software so that it will work for you.
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What media does Firestreamer-RM support?
Why don't you support DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW?
The CD-R/RW and DVD-R/RW media formats are inferior to DVD+R/RW due to certain intrinsic limitations. These formats do not allow appending to the previously recorded data without producing unusable gaps, also known as linking loss areas. Apart from wasting the disk space, these gaps require special complicated processing in software, unless the amount of data to be written is known beforehand, which is not the case with the Backup Utility. While DVD-RW can be formatted to allow lossless recording, the formatting process takes approximately 30 minutes for the 2x media, thus doubling the time required for the backup.
On the other hand, DVD+R/RW and DVD-RAM are free of the above drawbacks. DVD+R and DVD+RW are the newer standards developed by DVD+RW Alliance (Sony, HP, Philips, Yamaha, Dell, Ricoh and others).
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Do I need Firestreamer-RM and the Backup Utility to restore my files?
Normally, you need to run the Backup Utility with Firestreamer-RM installed to restore your data from backup media. However, in the event of a catastrophic system or hardware failure, you can perform a bare metal restore with Automated System Recovery.
Stay clear of the backup software that allows you to restore files by copying them directly with Windows Explorer from the backup media to your hard drive, as this does not preserve the alternative data streams, security, disk quotas and other information that was associated with the original files on an NTFS volume.
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Will Firestreamer-RM be available for other operating systems?
We have no plans to support older Windows operating systems, such as Windows 98 or NT, for both technical and marketing reasons.
Firestreamer-RM is not compatible with Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 because the backup utilities supplied with these operating systems do not support tape drives. If you use Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, then please check our other product - Firestreamer for Microsoft DPM.
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Does Firestreamer-RM support VMWare or Microsoft Virtual PC?
Firestreamer-RM works fine with VMWare. However, VMWare supports DVD writing only if the guest OS is Windows XP or later.
Microsoft Virtual PC does not support writing to emulated DVD drives.
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Does Firestreamer-RM support Symantec Backup Exec or other tape software?
Firestreamer-RM should work with any software that supports the standard Windows minitape driver interface. See also the Legacy software support option.
We have successfully tested Firestreamer-RM with Symantec Backup Exec 10d. If you plan to use Firestreamer-RM with Backup Exec, consider the following.
- Select the Legacy software support and Enable on system startup options via the Firestreamer-RM Control Panel and restart your computer.
- To configure the Firestreamer-RM virtual tape drive, click Tools on Backup Exec's top menu bar, click Wizards, and then click Device Configuration Wizard. You can assign any media type for the drive, such as OPT or 8MM, as long as it differs from the media type of your real tape drive.
- To ensure the best performance, configure Backup Exec to use the following settings for the Firestreamer-RM virtual tape drive: Block Size - 64K; Buffer Size - not less than 128K. These settings are accessible via the Configuration page of the Drive Properties dialog.
- Backup Exec 9.1 and earlier versions are not supported.
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What is the difference between Firestreamer-RM and Firestreamer?
Firestreamer-RM (versions 2.x) is intended for use with the Microsoft Backup Utility (NTBackup). Firestreamer (versions 3.x or newer) is for Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager.
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