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Last post Author Topic: advice needed.....FirstDefense-ISR, ShadowProtect, ShadowUser, Rollback Rx???  (Read 30513 times)

codemeister

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Greetings all,

I'm hoping to get a little advice here.  :)

From doing a little research, it looks like the "now discontinued" FirstDefense-ISR is the best of breed.
Is this still available for purchase at any distributors?

If not, what are the "2nd best" alternatives?


I have been using Acronis TrueImage, but would prefer something better/more flexible.

I've read that ShadowProtect is much better when it comes to differential backups,
and that Acronis is unstable for differentials.  Is this true?

Rollback Rx looks awesome, but stability?  and can you push all of that data off somewhere
on a server or DVD, or is it all locked in a hidden partition on your drive?
(I have a NAS device that I would like to push images/backups onto).

ShadowUser looks interesting, but you only get one "snapshot", and again, can you
push that data off to another location in case the whole system goes down.

Maybe there are even better alternatives???

Cheers!


scancode

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I used Faronics DeepFreeze, ShadowUser, and BackOnTrack...
For personal use, I swear by BOT... that single-key restore is awesome.
For the cafe computers, I think DeepFreeze pwns...

cranioscopical

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Leapfrog developed FirstDefense-ISR, I believe.
They also took it back from Raxco.

Try,
Todd Lear
Leapfrog Software, Inc.
[email protected]

J-Mac

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First Defense-Rescue is the "Lite" version that replaced FD-ISR when Horizon Data Systems took it over. I purchased it earlier this year, but I do not recommend it at all. It must be installed on the same HDD as your OS, and it can get quite large - overbearingly large.

There are supposedly a couple of features that let you reduce the size, but they are not very helpful. They do not let you exclude in any way data that is in the Application Data folders, even though some applications load those folders up with user data that you may have backed up otherwise.

Finally, HorizonData Systems does not support this product at all.  The first time I sent a support request - an official support ticket on their website - they responded almost a month later with a reference to the Help file. The Help file contains all of about 10 pages of sales brochure material - no help there at all. Since then they simply do not reply to support tickets other than an initial auto-responder message saying that a person will contact you in 24 or 48 hours. All of my requests since the first one (two of them) have been completely ignored. And to think, I purchased a support package in addition to the application!

I wouldn’t purchase anything at all from this outfit again.

Jim

Edit:  I just checked my invoice: the added support package I purchased is as follows:

"Gold Support - 24hour response, email of updates, patches and new builds"


Ha! Some fools' "gold" I paid for, eh?
« Last Edit: November 17, 2008, 09:37 PM by J-Mac »

J-Mac

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Greetings all,

I'm hoping to get a little advice here.  :)

From doing a little research, it looks like the "now discontinued" FirstDefense-ISR is the best of breed.
Is this still available for purchase at any distributors?

If not, what are the "2nd best" alternatives?


I have been using Acronis TrueImage, but would prefer something better/more flexible.

I've read that ShadowProtect is much better when it comes to differential backups,
and that Acronis is unstable for differentials.  Is this true?

Rollback Rx looks awesome, but stability?  and can you push all of that data off somewhere
on a server or DVD, or is it all locked in a hidden partition on your drive?
(I have a NAS device that I would like to push images/backups onto).

ShadowUser looks interesting, but you only get one "snapshot", and again, can you
push that data off to another location in case the whole system goes down.

Maybe there are even better alternatives???

Cheers!



I completely agree with the comments on Acronis, if you are referring to the True Image Home version, either 10 or the newer 2009. Others here have said that the enterprise version is working fine, but the Home version is pretty bad! Acronis True Image Home 9 was great; 10 added a few nice features but it lost the ability to burn images to DVD for most users. (Hint: Save the image to an external drive and then burn it to DVD from there with your own burning software - that works).

Version 11 was pretty much broke from the time of its release, and Acronis never did fix it. Then they released the 2009 version and I didn't even try it. Look at the comments from long-time users at Wilders Security, where Acronis has their forum. After three years and purchasing three successive versions, I won't touch this one.

Haven't tried ShadowProtect but I have heard good things about it.

Jim

city_zen

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Edward Mendelson from AppScout wrote a good article a while back praising ShadowProtect Desktop and (heavily) criticizing Roxio's BackOnTrack:


ShadowProtect Desktop and Roxio BackOnTrack: One's Killer, One's Deadly

I'll have what she's having

hwtan

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From my understanding, Rollback Rx stores only the incremental changes, and it stores these changes into "unused"/free space of the drive (not a locked partition). Rollback RX overrides the allocation system and maintain a second hidden allocation table for these changes. This means that other software (e.g. disk defrag, disk imagining) only see the latest OS allocation table and are not safe for use with Rollback RX.

Perhaps due to improper shutdown, etc. I have encountered file system corruption while using Rollback RX. I have since switched to FD-ISR.
 


Babis

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First-Defense ISR is THE ultimate program for me, it saved me from many windows formats and gives me the opportunity to endlessly test programs without care if the registry gets bloated or if the one program screws with the other. I have bought it about 2 years ago and it is one of my top 5 software of all time, as it saves time for me and helps me recover in case needed.

Now I know it is not for sale but it is a pity that such a program has been abandoned.

The only "disadvantage" is the space occupied by the snapshots.

codemeister

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Thanks for all the feedback guys!

I'm going to email Todd at Leapfrog and see if there is any possible way to still get a copy.
(I'm sure plenty of people have driven him nuts asking before)

If that falls through, it looks like a good alternative may be ShadowProtect + Returnil.
That way I can keep my C: drive backup states on the NAS drive in case the C: drive goes bad,
and it will still protect from viruses and the like on a daily basis.
I already try to keep most of my data on D:.

I downloaded both of those last night (ShadowProtect & Returnil)
and they seemed to work well.  I also tried "ShadowSurfer" but it didn't
seem as nice as the free Returnil.  I'm going to try a demo of DeepFreeze
today for the heck of it too.

The one bummer I see in these is installing windows updates.  That's where
something like Rollback Rx looks good.  I have to admit, that comment about
HorizonData's support really makes me want to steer clear of their products!
I did manage to search around and found "Eaz-Fix" which looks like the
identical product..  I can't tell who's licensing it from who though.
Is something like ShadowProtect comatible with Eaz-Fix/Rollback Rx?
And if so, would ShadowProtect also be saving off all of the hidden undo data,
or just the current "snapshot"?

Oh, I downloaded microsoft SteadyState, but it somehow feels less steady than Returnil.
I also didn't like how hidden it was...I would prefer a bright icon letting me know
what mode I'm in.

Back to more testing    ;D 


Carol Haynes

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Edit:[/b]  I just checked my invoice: the added support package I purchased is as follows:

"Gold Support - 24hour response, email of updates, patches and new builds"


Ha! Some fools' "gold" I paid for, eh?

If you paid by credit card trying getting a refund because they are not providing the service and if that fails go to the credit card company for a refund.

I don't know where you are based but in the UK the Consumer Credit Act means that the credit card company is jointly responsible with the seller for sales and services bought on credit.

icekin

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I've used Rollback Rx and while it was a good backup tool but had 2 serious limitations:

1. Unable to defragment with any other defragmenter besides Rollback's own defragmenter.

2. Eats Disk Space! Once I installed Rollback, I started to notice that my C drive starting to shrink. No, I don't mean more used space, I mean the whole drive shrank. I was supposed to have a 60 GB HDD, yet Explorer and even Space Monger only showed it as 34GB. I then learnt that Rollback backs up differentially meaning it allows every change and file you have deleted to be restored if necessary. Thus, if you downloaded a 10GB file and deleted it, it would be deleted from your working system, but Rollback would still have it in its backup partition. I found that characteristic of Rollback to be undesirable.

I now use Acronis 8 (still works great) to snapshot every week and Karen's Replicator to regularly backup folders to an external drive.

Paul Keith

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I haven't use these kinds of programs before. Any guide on how to use ShadowProtect and Returnil together?

J-Mac

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Edit:[/b]  I just checked my invoice: the added support package I purchased is as follows:

"Gold Support - 24hour response, email of updates, patches and new builds"


Ha! Some fools' "gold" I paid for, eh?

If you paid by credit card trying getting a refund because they are not providing the service and if that fails go to the credit card company for a refund.

I don't know where you are based but in the UK the Consumer Credit Act means that the credit card company is jointly responsible with the seller for sales and services bought on credit.

Nice thought, Carol, but I purchased FD-Rescue back in July. It appears to work as designed, but the fact that it must be installed on the system drive coupled with the fact that it will not allow you to exclude a lot of user data makes it get too large for my comfort.

The support issue is a disgrace but it is probably too late to get the money back from the credit card company.

Jim

Carol Haynes

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If they aren't providing the service (ie. priority support) you purchased they are in breach of contract. Worth trying to get that charge back.

Paul Keith

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Anyone? Ok, to be more specific, what I don't get is doesn't either Returnil or ShadowProtect already back up your files on their own?

So how does having two backups secure the pc more than either program alone?

mwang

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Rollback Rx looks awesome, but stability?  and can you push all of that data off somewhere
on a server or DVD, or is it all locked in a hidden partition on your drive?

I've used Rollback Rx on 6 machines (not all mine) for more than a year. It works by locking down files (sectors actually) when taking a snapshot, that's why it's so quick. When the system/applications want to write to a locked-down sector, RR deflects it to another free sector instead. I had doubt about its stability at first, but so far it's been very stable for me. Other people on the support forum (very inactive) have different experiences, though.

RR does allow backing up to external drives or removable media, but I haven't tried it and couldn't comment on that.

I've used Rollback Rx and while it was a good backup tool but had 2 serious limitations:

1. Unable to defragment with any other defragmenter besides Rollback's own defragmenter.

This is true, though I haven't noticed any performance/stability issues without defragging my system drive. (I do have some special arrangements for my system drive, though.)

2. Eats Disk Space! Once I installed Rollback, I started to notice that my C drive starting to shrink. No, I don't mean more used space, I mean the whole drive shrank. I was supposed to have a 60 GB HDD, yet Explorer and even Space Monger only showed it as 34GB.

This is indeed odd. It's never happened to me. Have you talked to them about it?

I then learnt that Rollback backs up differentially meaning it allows every change and file you have deleted to be restored if necessary. Thus, if you downloaded a 10GB file and deleted it, it would be deleted from your working system, but Rollback would still have it in its backup partition. I found that characteristic of Rollback to be undesirable.

This is true, and it's exactly what I desire. RR's ability to return my system back to (almost*) the same state as I took the snapshot has saved me several times, and given me great piece of mind when trying out new software or tinkering with my system.

(* The "almost" part has something to do with my specific arrangement for my system partition.)

Given the way RR works, and from user experiences (including mine), however, I guess it's best to keep the number of snapshots low (never over a dozen here). And it should be noted that the product hasn't been updated for some time.

icekin

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2. Eats Disk Space! Once I installed Rollback, I started to notice that my C drive starting to shrink. No, I don't mean more used space, I mean the whole drive shrank. I was supposed to have a 60 GB HDD, yet Explorer and even Space Monger only showed it as 34GB.

This is indeed odd. It's never happened to me. Have you talked to them about it?

Its a known issue and has been talked about on their own forums. The problem is actually related to point no. 3 I mentioned above, so in their opinion, its a feature, not a problem. And clearly, for some users, like yourself; this is what you require. I just think that they should explain it clearly so that people are aware before wondering what's eating up their hard drive space. In my case, I move large files, in excess of several gigabytes daily on and off my hard disk, so its undesirable for me and I couldn't find a way to turn it off.

mikiem

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FWIW I've had excellent service with Paragon software - IMHO heads & shoulders above Acronis.

Programs like Rollback are perhaps a more complicated solution than disc mirroring when you need that level of redundancy (IMHO you usually don't). You have system and program software that doesn't change that often -- a few times a month depending on updates -- so it's inefficient to expend resources on archiving (or even monitoring) them more often.

I think it pays to use a bit of common sense... When you install random small apps, the cost in resources to archive them is often more than just re-installing if something happens before the next disc image. Some minor updates to Windows (&/or other software) fall into the same category.

I take the opposite approach to software like Rollback: I was taught to design for the usual -- that's where you want your greatest efficiency -- then have procedures in place to treat the exception... I have ample backups if needed, but I don’t force my systems, or myself to constantly work around creating backups. That’s NOT the primary purpose of either.

Data of course changes - some critical, some not. For the critical stuff there are all sorts of programs that maintain sync (of folders you select) with another storage device/location, and back things up manually, on a timer, or by watching for changes. This puts the focus where you need it.

If you want/need access to replace just damaged or missing files, like ShadowProtect advertises, & assuming you know just what's damaged or missing, a good image backup program will let you restore at the individual file level. Of course it’s still smart to ask: “Is it worth it”? If you can restore an image faster than you can determine what’s wrong, by restoring individual files you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I've also found nothing beats a simple zip archive for quick & easy access of individual files. However I’ve found backup programs storing compressed versions of your files much less efficient overall than the image type... they take much longer to compress &/or restore, & they usually don't perform as well with *hot* files (those in use). Boot restore discs are also more common with image backup programs.

Restoring files is a matter of copying them from one place to another, unless you’re using something like MS Shadow Copy in Vista, where theoretically you may just have to rename. Copying files isn’t necessarily going to be faster with one product versus another, so I take ShadowProtect’s ad copy with a large grain of salt.

According to the mini-review on DonationCoder, FirstDefense-ISR is very roughly the same thing as having several Windows installs - you choose your system via the boot loader when your PC (re) starts. The main cost is disc space [I don’t know if there are any performance hits], with a secondary loss in defrag times I’m imagine - the savings is however long it takes to restore a disc image (less than 20 minutes for a compressed 18 GB image using Paragon software on this PC - the only restore I’ve done in memory). I’ve restored a disc image once this year, & that because I intentionally butchered my Windows install trying to get an Adobe product installed & working. IMHO it’s a better choice to store a backup image on another drive (& remotely), use profiles in Windows as necessary, & if needed have a multi-boot PC. If your environment can’t wait 20 minutes or so to restore an image, have a copy of the system drive on the shelf... plan for the everyday, be prepared for the exception.

Putting backup archives on DVD is great for cheap, off-site storage, but you'll take a performance hit restoring, have to worry about poor quality media, & if there's a writing problem, often have to restart the entire backup -- I normally split my image archive files into chunks that can be burned to DVD for remote storage (I actually only burn maybe every 5th or 6th image), but leave the originals on the back-up drive. If I have to restore a drive & need to use the DVD copies I take a hit, but the odds of that happening are much less, & the backups I don't burn go much faster. Using a single drive for everything -- windows, software, & backups -- is risky, since hard drive failure is more likely to bite you than most anything else.

IMHO... & in a nutshell... while we all need to realize that problems happen, & plan accordingly, you can focus too strongly on what *might* go wrong, to the point that you’re robbing resources that should/could be spent on getting things right, improving on success.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2008, 02:44 PM by mikiem »

40hz

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Anyone? Ok, to be more specific, what I don't get is doesn't either Returnil or ShadowProtect already back up your files on their own?

So how does having two backups secure the pc more than either program alone?

Returnil isn't so much a backup as it is a prophylactic snapshot.

It creates a bootable virtual system partition that is used for as long as you are in the Returnil protected session. Once you reboot, you go back and boot off the real system partition that existed at the time you invoked Returnil's protection mode.

It's great for testing software. The only potential problem is that everything is running in virtual while Returnil is active. I once forgot to turn it off when I was finished with it. By the time I needed to reboot several hours later, I had forgotten Returnil was on. In the meantime, I had composed a draft report, received and answered several e-mails, downloaded a 600Mb ISO to my desktop, and did some software updates.

When I rebooted my machine, all of that vanished into thin air.

From the Returnil website:

Returnil virtualization technology clones a computer's System Partition and boots the PC into this system rather than native Windows, allowing you run your applications in a completely isolated environment. Hence the session and all activity, malicious or otherwise, will happen in the virtual environment, not in the real PC environment. If the PC is attacked or gets infected, all you need to do is to simply reboot the PC to erase all changes. After reboot, the system will be restored to its original state, as if nothing ever happened. All of this without sacrificing computer performance or usability while helping to reduce technical support intervention and the need for routine maintenance.

EDIT: I've just found out that the new Pro version of Returnil now supports disk caching as well as RAM caching, so stupid people like me won't have the problem I spoke about above:

http://www.returnilv...m.com/comparison.htm

From website FAQ:

Will I always have to reboot my system to change my System Protection mode?
No, but you will require a reboot to turn protection OFF. To turn ON protection without a reboot, simply use the Session Lock feature available from the Main Interface, the Tray Icon menu, or the Toolbar. The second issue here, "Turn off System Protection without reboot", is not a trivial thing to solve due to the design of Windows itself. We are exploring several ideas to address this, but remember there is a reason why even Microsoft itself must require a system reboot when installing some critical updates and patches.

> What is the difference between the System Protection and the Virtual Partition features?
The System Protection feature will clone a copy of your computer's System Partition in memory. The Virtual Partition is a feature that employs a file to simulate an actual partition on your hard disk drive so you can save data while the Protection is ON.

> Can the user choose to exclude files & folders when using System Protection or Session Lock?
No, when protection is ON, all changes made to the System Partition will be lost with a reboot. If you save the content within the Virtual Partition or on an alternate drive, then the data saved in the VIRTUAL PARTITION remains following a reboot.

> Why haven't you included a feature to allow exclusion in Returnil?
Either you save data within your Virtual Partition or you do not (no exclusion or inclusion list required). Unless you are an UBER system tweaker, developer, program tester, or researcher there is no overriding need to exclude anything from protection on the System Partition; break your default Windows save directory addiction!



« Last Edit: December 11, 2008, 08:24 PM by 40hz »

edbro

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That is why it is a good idea to have your data files on a drive other than the system partition.

I now have Returnil on all 3 of my machines. With the registered version you can choose on the fly to save data at shutdown or not. With the free version you have to turn protection off, reboot, install your program or changes, turn protection back on and reboot.

This is a real life saver to have on my wife's computer. She is not real computer smart and my 6 year old also uses that machine. I was always having to fix it after they messed something up. Now, I have it all set up in a good state and no matter what they do to it all I have to do is reboot and I'm back to a pristine state.

40hz

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With the registered version you can choose on the fly to save data at shutdown or not. With the free version you have to turn protection off, reboot, install your program or changes, turn protection back on and reboot.

Thanks edbro! Found that out 10 minutes after I shot my mouth off. :-[

The really sad part about this is that I have the registered version. I just haven't installed it yet. I forgot I bought it. Talk about "dumb and dumber."

That is why it is a good idea to have your data files on a drive other than the system partition.

Excellent point. In my case, they usually are. I had moved some of them back to C because my secondary drive was failing and I hadn't gotten around to installing the new one by the time I decided to get stupid. :up:
« Last Edit: December 11, 2008, 08:33 PM by 40hz »

mwang

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This is a real life saver to have on my wife's computer. She is not real computer smart and my 6 year old also uses that machine. I was always having to fix it after they messed something up. Now, I have it all set up in a good state and no matter what they do to it all I have to do is reboot and I'm back to a pristine state.

Exactly how I'm using Rollback Rx, except RR provides a series of states to go back to rather than just one, in case, e.g., when the latest one turns out to be less than pristine than I originally thought.

The real problem with Rollback Rx, other than not being able to degrag the protected partition (which isn't critical to me as I said), is their lousy support as J-Mac pointed out. Not really a company I want to do business again with.

Are there any similar product can also do multi-snapshots? I know FD-ISR can, but it's no longer being developed, and it takes huge space since each snapshot is a full snapshot. Various disk imaging programs can, too, as long as they do incremental/differential imaging, but the process takes longer and is more cumbersome. Rollback Rx does it smarter in this regard.

J-Mac

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That is why it is a good idea to have your data files on a drive other than the system partition.

I do have all the data files that I can keep elsewhere on D: drive. But then there are the applications that insist on saving all data generated by their program in the Program Files directory, not to mention the ones that keep user data files in what MS calls the user directory: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data.

I try to locate all those and sync a copy of them to another drive with SFFS.

Thanks!

Jim

mwang

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But then there are the applications that insist on saving all data generated by their program in the Program Files directory, not to mention the ones that keep user data files in what MS calls the user directory: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data.

I try to locate all those and sync a copy of them to another drive with SFFS.
I use a slightly different strategy. I move those files/folders to my data drive, and then put symlinks (or before Vista, NTFS junctions) in their original location. I do this only for applications whose data/configurations/etc. on C: that I intend to keep after I roll my system back to an earlier stage. I also keep these relocation tasks in batch files, so I can easily reapply the tricks whenever I set up a new system, and modify for new applications.

For well-behaving applications, by which I mean those that have all its binaries under its own folder, easy to reinstall, and easy to downgrade to an older version if a new beta fouls up (just by installing the old version over it), I install them away from the system partition too. It helps to keep the Rollback Rx overhead small, efficient, and I don't have to reinstall them when I does roll the system back.

urlwolf

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I just found out that windows server 2008 has some built-in backup.
http://technet.micro...ibrary/cc770266.aspx

I wonder how good that is. For incremental data backups, I was using SFFS. For system backup, I was using FD. Now that FD left me hanging (no update path, no answer to emails!), I wonder whether I can do system backups with the built-in tool.

Anyone knows how good this built-in tool is?