topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Friday December 13, 2024, 4:22 pm
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Last post Author Topic: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR UPDATED as of 4/10/09  (Read 57693 times)

cthorpe

  • Discount Coordinator
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 738
  • c++thorpe
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR UPDATED as of 4/10/09
« on: January 25, 2007, 11:45 PM »
UPDATE - 4/10/09

Horizon DataSys Inc. has licensed the ISR technology from the original developer and is now selling the program.  The review below refers only to the version I purchased from Raxco quite some time ago.  A couple of well respected DonationCoder.com members have expressed disappointment over the current Horizon Data version and the lack of support they have received (see here: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=17848.0).  I have no experience dealing with support at Horizon Data, but please keep this in mind before purchasing this software.



FirstDefense-ISR, Raxco Software

Basic Info

App NameFirstDefense-ISR, Raxco version
TechnologyISR designed by Leapfrog Software http://www.leapfrogs...re.com/product_info/ and licensed by multiple vendors for commercial offerings
App URLhttp://raxco.com/products/fdisr/ - Now available from the new vendor at http://www.horizonda...sys.com/253715.ihtml See UPDATE section at top of post before purchasing.
App Version Reviewed1.10 Build 173
Test System SpecsPentium III 866mhz, 512mb Ram, Windows XPSP2
Supported OSesWindows 2000, 2003, XP.  64-bit is not supported.  Windows must be English language version.
Support MethodsExcellent phone and email support from vendor.  Official forum for the ISR technology is on Wilderssecurity.com at http://wilderssecuri...orumdisplay.php?f=84
Upgrade Policy"Upgrade protection" is an additional cost and provides a year of major version upgrades at 50% off.  Without "protection" there is a charge for major version upgrades after 60 days from purchase.  Minor updates (point releases) are free for all.
Trial Version Available?Trial version is available.  It is fully functional for 30 days.
Pricing SchemeDownloadable version is $69.95(USA) for "Workstation," and $475for "Server" version.  CD version can be purchased from authorized resellers for a substantial discount.  Resellers are listed on Raxco's website here: http://www.raxco.com...ners/us_com_list.cfm.  Raxco provided me with a discount code when I purchased that made their price far better than resellers.  Package deals with Raxco's Perfect Disk are also available There are substantial discounts for multiple licenses.
Screencast Video URLVideo demo provided by developer at http://www.digitalth...veryDemostration.wmv (13.42mb)
DisclaimerI am NOT affiliated with Horizon DataSys, Raxco, Leapfrog Software, or any of their parent companies or subsidiaries.  I am a Raxco customer and have received no benefits, monetary or otherwise, for this review.


Screenshot of main interface:
interface.pngMini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR UPDATED as of 4/10/09

Intro:
See UPDATE section at top of post before purchasing.
The ISR in FirstDefense-ISR stands for Instant System Recovery, and that is what this program promises.  Let me tell you, it delivers in an astounding way.  While at first glance, it may appear that this program is little more than a disk imaging program a la Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost, it is a completely different concept.  While the program does provide peace of mind that you can recover from an application gone bad, virus infection, or just plain user error, it does it so quickly that you may find yourself inviting disaster just for the chance to fix it as fast as it takes to punch the reset button on your PC (I am not, of course, suggesting that you infect yourself with a virus or abandon safe hex, but if that kind of thing is your idea of a good time, ISR can and will protect you from most mishaps.  Please see my "Needs Improvement" section below).

ISR works on the concept of Snapshots.  When you install the program, your current windows environment becomes your primary snapshot.  You use the program to create alternate snapshots, the first of which will be an exact copy of your primary snapshot.  You can have up to 10 different snapshots available in the program at any time.  In addition to the snapshots, you can make archived copies of the snapshots for safe keeping as they can be stored on other partitions or external media.  That screenshot above is my current set of snapshots and archives.

Now, the magic happens when you want to switch from one snapshot to another.  When you reboot your PC, you will see the ISR logo on the screen after the CMOS screen and before Windows starts loading:

fdisrpreboot.pngMini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR UPDATED as of 4/10/09

By pressing the hotkey (which is customizable) during the time that the logo is displayed (also customizable), you get a menu of your snapshots:

fdisrselection.pngMini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR UPDATED as of 4/10/09
Note that this menu does not reflect my real setup as I installed ISR in a virtual machine so I could take snapshots outside of Windows.  Rest assured that the actual menu has all my snapshots.  Also, you won't have anything marked as "Partial."  That is showing because I cancelled the creation of the snapshot in my VM.

Once at the menu, you select a snapshot with your arrow keys, and hit ENTER.  Windows then boots as normal, just as fast as it would without ISR, and you are in the selected snapshot.  Each snapshot can have completely different software, different service packs, even different versions of windows as long as they are one of the supported versions listed above.  You can think of your computer essentially being dual, triple, quadruple, quintuple, etc boot among your snapshotted versions of Windows.

Once you are booted into a snapshot, you can use the program interface to copy snapshots back and forth to each other, updating them with the data from other snapshots.  Creating a new snapshot takes a little while, but once a snapshot exists, updating from other is pretty quick as it only adds, deletes, and modifies the files that are different between the source and target.  What this means, if you keep your snapshots updated (the program offers quite a few scheduling options to assist you here), is that if your working snapshot gets trashed you can boot into an alternate, and copy it over the trashed one to fix it.  You can only boot to "snapshots," not to archives.  Archives can be copied, however, over snapshots.  You can password protect snapshots if you desire, and you can disable the preboot menu so a user cannot access the snapshot menu while booting.

The program allows you to anchor data, so that it persists between snapshots.  You could anchor your "My Documents" folder, for example, so you can access your files from all of your snapshots.  It also offers a "Freeze" function.  This allows you to set up a snapshot that will revert to a certain state whenever it is rebooted.  This means that it will wipe out all installed programs, changed settings, etc.

See UPDATE section at top of post before purchasing.

Another cool feature is that you can create an empty snapshot and install Windows into that snapshot so you have a clean installation while still being able to boot into another snapshot when needed.  I use that to do a reinstall of Windows while still having a working installation to do other tasks for work, etc.  It allows me to take my time rebuilding the clean installation without the problem of being without a computer.  I don't know about you, but the downtime caused by a reinstall of Windows used to prevent me from undertaking it unless it was absolutely necessary.  With ISR, I essentially have zero downtime, as I only have to boot into the new installation snapshot when I have some time to install updates, configure programs, etc.  Then I can boot right back to a working snapshot to prepare presenations and documents for work.

There are some weaknesses to the program.  It can only protect your primary partition.  While this is great for most users, if you have a lot of programs stored on other partitions, it won't protect them.  Also, it doesn't provide protection for data files on other partitions or data that you have "anchored."  Furthermore, the snapshots are very large.  Until this current version when you created a snapshot it was the same size as the currently running snapshot minus any anchored data.  Meaning that if you had 3 gigs used on your primary partition when you installed ISR and made a secondary snapshot, the secondary snapshot would take up 3gigs on your disk.  The current version allows NTFS compression to be applied to the snapshots.  Also, since the snapshots are also stored on the primary partition, a hardware failure or malware that wipes out the disk will defeat it.  With archives, however, you could still get up and running quickly as you could install a base system, install ISR, and then copy archives on the system as snapshots, giving you the ability to boot back into a "current" system.

In addition to the outstanding performance of the software, Raxco has been a pleasure to do business with.  From presales calls to inquire about the software to support calls after, everything was handled in a professional and polite manner.  I never waited on hold longer than 5 minutes, and I could tell that the representative was interested in helping me.  Also, when I had decided to make a purchase, I called to inquire about buying it directly from Raxco or buying from a distributer.  The distributor price was about 35% lower than the direct price.  When I asked why I should buy direct rather than from a distributor, the representative provided me with a 40% off coupon code that was good for all Raxco products.  I was able to purchase two ISR/Perfect Disk packages for not much more than one ISR license would have been without the coupon.

I cannot personally comment on customer service with the new vendor, Horizon DataSys.  I can say that the individual who I worked with in getting the July discount was quick to respond to all emails I sent his way

Who is this app designed for:

See UPDATE section at top of post before purchasing.

This program is designed for anyone who uses the supported operating systems.  It is particularly suited for users who try out a lot of software, like to use alpha and beta software, and generally push their computer to the breaking point.


The Good

It just works, and works very well
Immediate recovery from mishaps
Allows testing of software without bogging your system down or encountering conflicts between versions, etc

The needs improvement section

See UPDATE section at top of post before purchasing.
The software only works with Windows 2000, 2003, and XP and only if you are using NTFS
The software only works with English language versions of Windows
The software only protects your primary partition
Snapshots are very large and must be stored on primary partition
Malware could theoretically breech the snapshots, as they are only protected by standard NTFS read-only, system, and hidden attributes.  It would seem that the malware would have to directly target ISR, however, and the low number of installs makes it unlikely that malware authors would go to the trouble to do that.  There are some filemanagers (notable XYplorer) that can browse into inactive snapshots, illustrating that a breech is possible.  I have not encountered any breeches, even with some malware infections.  This is why I still use AV, firewall, etc.
A system reformat will still wipe out your system, as the snapshots are stored on the computer.
ISR requires access to the MBR, meaning that dual boot into an unsupported OS such as Linux or old windows versions is not possible
Vista doesn't seem to be supported

How does it compare to similar apps

Before purchasing the program in July of 2006, I looked at its main competitor, Rollback RX.  Rollback RX had the advantage of unlimited snapshots and the snapshots taking very little space since they were only differential snaphosts.  The negatives of Rollback, however, were that it embedded itself so deeply that uninstallation of the program, for example, reportedly took hours.  Also, the company that sells Rollback was offering substantial discounts for reviews of the software on the web at the time.  That was an immediate red flagI have retracted this statement because I have recently learned that the developers of RollbackRX did not make any stipulations as to the content or scores of the reviews. They are a highly regarded company on sites such as http://www.wilderssecurity.com

ISR does not completely replace imaging programs, as it cannot recover from a hardware failure or a severe malware problem that destroys all data on primary partition.  It can be complemented very well by making an image of a basic Windows install with ISR installed and archives on a separate drive or external media.


Conclusions

This is truly a killer app in my mind.  I feel safe and secure knowing that recovery from a failure is less than 2 minutes away for software failure or at absolute most 15 minutes for a bare metal restore from an Acronis True Image image on DVD and copy over from an archive on the same DVD in the event of hardware failure.  Also, any application that has this much power that has no noticeable impact on performance on my "old" computer is great.  I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

See the comments at the top of the review.  While FDISR is a great program, the recent decision by Raxco to stop selling it is troubling.  At this point, I can't recommend purchasing the program even if you find it at a reseller. - See the update at the top of the review

Other Reviews
http://rcpmag.com/re...spx?editorialsid=502
http://www.computerp...40c05b.asp&guid=

More screenshots

interfaceschedule.pngMini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR UPDATED as of 4/10/09 interfacealpha.pngMini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR UPDATED as of 4/10/09 interfacebeta.pngMini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR UPDATED as of 4/10/09

See UPDATE section at top of post before purchasing.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2009, 11:12 AM by cthorpe »

AdIyhc

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 97
  • aka KikiBibi
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2007, 01:48 AM »
This is a great software. Using it since last year. Very stable unlike Rollback Rx.
Support with Raxco is also excellent for me.

Upgrade is free for minor versions only. With "Protection" policy, major upgrades are free.

nudone

  • Cody's Creator
  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,119
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2007, 02:50 AM »
it sounds like a nice bit of software but i'm curious as to how it works underneath, i.e. can it work with a single partition drive - creating the backup(s) onto the partition the operating system is on.

i like the idea of being able to boot into different operating system environments with different programs installed in each environment. if it really works perfectly then i'd be temped to use it rather than installing another version of xp and then dual booting between the operating systems.

hmmm.

cthorpe

  • Discount Coordinator
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 738
  • c++thorpe
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2007, 08:25 AM »
It only works on your primary partition, and stores on that partition.  That means that it will work perfectly on a machine with only one drive or only one partition.  The only time it is even aware of other drives or partitions is if you store an archive of a snapshot on another partition or drive.

It really does make your system appear to be multi-boot among different versions of your operating system.  Another cool feature is that you can create an empty snapshot and install Windows into that snapshot so you have a clean installation while still being able to boot into another snapshot when needed.  I use that to do a reinstall of Windows while still having a working installation to do other tasks for work, etc.  It allows me to take my time rebuilding the clean installation without the problem of being without a computer.  (I'm going to add this into the review)
« Last Edit: January 26, 2007, 08:57 AM by cthorpe »

mouser

  • First Author
  • Administrator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,914
    • View Profile
    • Mouser's Software Zone on DonationCoder.com
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2007, 09:42 AM »
Thank you so much for this mini-review - perfect job, with pics, links to other reviews, pros and cons, and final rating - who could ask for more!

[ps. folks remember to send a credit or two to the mini-review writers if you want to say thanks!, just click on the gold coin next to their name]

nudone

  • Cody's Creator
  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,119
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2007, 12:05 PM »
does the swapping between snap shots take only the same length of time it would to boot (reboot) the machine as normal? i'm assuming the it wouldn't take any longer but i'm interested to know for sure. thanks.

cthorpe

  • Discount Coordinator
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 738
  • c++thorpe
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2007, 12:26 PM »
does the swapping between snap shots take only the same length of time it would to boot (reboot) the machine as normal? i'm assuming the it wouldn't take any longer but i'm interested to know for sure. thanks.

If there is any slowdown, it isn't noticable.  There is a delay if you are using the Freeze feature as it reverts the snapshot back to the frozen state.  But for normal swapping, it's just a normal reboot.

nudone

  • Cody's Creator
  • Columnist
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 4,119
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #7 on: January 26, 2007, 12:30 PM »
i think i might give it a try then in a day or two.

cthorpe

  • Discount Coordinator
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 738
  • c++thorpe
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #8 on: January 26, 2007, 12:35 PM »
Let me know if you run into any problems or have any questions.

patteo

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 437
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2007, 09:56 AM »
Personally, I prefer to use Norton Goback

http://www.symantec....id=sp&pvid=ngb40

It overcomes the problems that you refer to such as not protecting other partitions, data etc.

I have used it for years and it has saved my bacon countless times.

urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #10 on: February 08, 2007, 04:36 PM »
cthorpe, patteo,
I really want to invest in one of these two tools. Having spent 1-2 days reinstalling everything makes me very conservative now :)

One downside of goBack is that it seems to be doing constant HD reading/writing in the background, which I hate (that's why I don't want to install any desktop search!). If I understand this review right, then firstDefense doesn't have that problem.

Are there any reviews that compare them head to head?
UPDATE: I found a very comprehensive doc (beware: written by raxco!) that corroborates what I thought of goBack as a resource hog:
www.raxco.com/products/fdisr/FD_vs_GoBack.pdf

Being impossible to disable (unless uninstalling!) kills the deal for me (and the battery issue!).

Any public discounts/ways to get any of these cheaper would be appreciated. cthorpe, what did you say exactly to get the discount? Any change you could get a DC discount (have you tried?)

I'm curious about why you say that a regular backup of the entire primary partition is still needed.

Thanks, great review!
« Last Edit: February 08, 2007, 04:47 PM by urlwolf »

tsaint

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 497
  • Hi from the a*** end of the earth
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #11 on: February 08, 2007, 07:08 PM »
Does anyone have any knowledge of, or experience with, one of the hyperos variants (see https://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/)
I'm asking not to hijack this thread but to get an idea of how first defence and hyperos compare, as they seem quite similar, at least superficially,  in many ways

iphigenie

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,170
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #12 on: February 09, 2007, 06:26 AM »
That looks very interesting.

I have been using acronis' True Image to get some of the protection and the ability to roll back to a clean install. And have several registry snapshot type tools.

But this looks orders of magnitude more convenient, although it seems I will have to greatly increase the size of my main partition.

Looks like it's worth it though

urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #13 on: February 12, 2007, 12:14 PM »
Quick update:
I have found an app that might be similar to firstDefense and rollback RX:
it's called EAZ FIX:
http://www.eazfix.com/stdvspro.html

Has anyone tried this one?
It seems to have all the advantages of rollback (smaller snapshots, own filesystem, etc).

It's a bit expensive at $69.95, no discounts to be found. No idea if it's as difficult to unisntall as Rx.

I have found a log thread on the wilder security forums:
http://www.wildersse...ex.php/t-147953.html
Also, how far away are we from a new version of Raxco's first defense?

Thanks

urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #14 on: February 12, 2007, 12:21 PM »
NOTE: EAZ FIX seems to be affected by the same uninstall problem:
http://www.download....2094_4-10432839.html

urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #15 on: February 12, 2007, 01:16 PM »
Looks like EAZ FIX and rollback RX are the same thing:
http://forums.techgu...ix-pro-rollback.html

Hmm... confusing.

And here is a long forum discussion about rollback:
http://www.wildersse...wthread.php?t=119215

There seems to be yet another contender, restoreit:
http://www.farstone....ftware/restoreit.htm

It seems that restoreit gets good reviews; does an independent partition. However, it doesn't like hard reboots, i.e., holding down the power button to shut down a system that is frozen.

All these apps look a bit risky to me...

You can get 50% off with rollback right now... codes everywhere since the people reviewing it at download.com get that as a reward.

people seems to be liking rollback:
http://www.wildersse...053&postcount=72

However, its installation depends on your hardware so license issues (what if you change your HD?) arise.

They have an active forum and a liveChat that seems to work well.

I highly recommend reading the wilder forums thread to anyone interested in buying one of these two programs.

I'm currently undecided. Please post your experiences here...

AdIyhc

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 97
  • aka KikiBibi
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #16 on: February 12, 2007, 08:17 PM »
Urlwolf,

Uninstall works perfectly for FD-ISR. You can keep the snapshots after you uninstall.
Usually, Raxco's version will be a few weeks later after Leapfrog release.

This is how I use FD-ISR:

- Gaming Snapshot
I keep everything to a minimal. Since I play games offline, no AV, no real time monitor, etc. My snapshot size is only 1.5 gb after compression.

- Backup Snapshot
If the main snapshot gets screwed, I use this backup to recover.

- Main Snapshot
This is the snapshot I use for everything else. Surfing, BetaTesting, Work, etc.
I always backup before installing new software/updates. Backup takes about 1 min for me.

- Guest Snapshot
Everything locked down. :D

I don't think RestoreIT can let you have many different scenarios to work with.
Rollback Rx made me format my harddisk with their early version. After that, no more Rollback for me.

I recommend FD-ISR. :D You can trial it first since install/uninstall works.

cthorpe

  • Discount Coordinator
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 738
  • c++thorpe
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #17 on: February 12, 2007, 08:24 PM »
You can get 50% off with rollback right now... codes everywhere since the people reviewing it at download.com get that as a reward.

people seems to be liking rollback:
http://www.wildersse...053&postcount=72

I mentioned the discount for reviews of rollback in my original mini-review.  It really makes me question all the good comments I have read about the program since I know that the company was essentially paying for press.

cranioscopical

  • Friend of the Site
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 4,776
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #18 on: February 12, 2007, 09:03 PM »
Two things about FD-ISR, which I intend to purchase.

1) I had no luck persuading those I contacted at Raxco that I might merit a discount. (c'est la vie).  They were very pleasant but not willing to bend.

2) Acording to Raxco, one can't upgrade to VISTA with the current version installed.  No big deal since it uninstalls readily.  A VISTA version is expected soon, and I was trying to hold out for that, so that my premium for "Upgrade protection" wouldn't be 'used up' immediately.  I think I'll probably just buy a copy and install it now, anyway, since I don't plan on putting VISTA on my current machine.  Anyone buying FD-ISR right now, and also planning to move to VISTA, would be well advised to take the "Upgrade protection" option.

cthorpe

  • Discount Coordinator
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 738
  • c++thorpe
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #19 on: February 12, 2007, 09:30 PM »
It's too bad that you can't get a discount from them.  Don't know how I managed it when I did.  Must have gotten the right rep on the phone.  I wish I could remember who it was who gave me the discount, but I can't.

Btw, for ISR fun, here's a little something I cooked up:

Put your ISR snapshot name on your desktop

What you need:
BGInfo: http://www.microsoft...llaneous/BgInfo.mspx

Optional goodness:
Hidden Start: http://www.ntwind.co...tilities/hstart.html

Put hstart somewhere in your path, and BGInfo somewhere convienient.  Run BGInfo and set it up to your liking, but before you exit it, add a custom field called FDISR like this:
SNAG-0086.pngMini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR UPDATED as of 4/10/09
Then save your config to a file called snap.bgi in the same folder as BGInfo

write this batch file:

c:\$ISR\$APP\isrcontrol list | find "*" > snapshot.txt
if ERRORLEVEL==1 c:\$ISR\$APP\isrcontrol list | find "#" > snapshot.txt
Bginfo.exe snap.bgi /TIMER:0

The if section deals with Frozen snapshots.  Frozen snaps are indicated with a # when listing, and non-frozen snaps are indicated with an *

Put a shortcut to the batch file in your startup folder or put it in your registry.  If you really want it to rock, use Hidden Start to avoid having the console window popup (I have the following in my registry)
hstart /NOWINDOW /D="C:\$ISR\$APP\Batch" "C:\$ISR\$APP\Batch\snapshot.bat"

The /D part tells it the working directory for the batch file.
I just happen to have a couple of ISR batch files in a directory under \$ISR\$APP\Batch for safe keeping since the $ISR folder persists across snapshots.

Reboot your computer

Behold, the snapshot name goodness:
snag-0085.pngMini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR UPDATED as of 4/10/09


Other cool batch file tricks:

Hands Free duplication of a snapshot:
set times=%time%
set dates=%date%
C:\$ISR\$APP\isrcmd COPY "Alpha" "Beta"
set timec=%time%
set datec=%date%
C:\$ISR\$APP\isrcmd DESC "Beta" "Copy of Alpha.  Started at %times% on %dates%; Completed at %timec% on %datec%."
set times=%time%
set dates=%date%
C:\$ISR\$APP\isrcmd COPY "Beta" "Delta"
set timec=%time%
set datec=%date%
C:\$ISR\$APP\isrcmd DESC "Delta" "Copy of Alpha.  Started at %times% on %dates%; Completed at %timec% on %datec%."
set times=%time%
set dates=%date%
C:\$ISR\$APP\isrcmd COPY "Beta" "Gamma"
set timec=%time%
set datec=%date%
C:\$ISR\$APP\isrcmd DESC "Gamma" "Copy of Alpha.  Started at %times% on %dates%; Completed at %timec% on %datec%."
set times=%time%
set dates=%date%
C:\$ISR\$APP\isrcmd COPY "Beta" "Iota"
set timec=%time%
set datec=%date%
C:\$ISR\$APP\isrcmd DESC "Iota" "Copy of Alpha.  Started at %times% on %dates%; Completed at %timec% on %datec%."
set times=%time%
set dates=%date%
C:\$ISR\$APP\isrcmd COPY "Beta" "Kappa"
set timec=%time%
set datec=%date%
C:\$ISR\$APP\isrcmd DESC "Kappa" "Copy of Alpha.  Started at %times% on %dates%; Completed at %timec% on %datec%."
« Last Edit: February 12, 2007, 09:40 PM by cthorpe »

cranioscopical

  • Friend of the Site
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 4,776
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #20 on: February 13, 2007, 11:00 AM »
cthorpe:  It's too bad that you can't get a discount from them.  Don't know how I managed it when I did.  Must have gotten the right rep on the phone.
Persistence counts.  I tried again -- different person -- and they were generous enough to provide a 25%-off code.
I'll probably take advantage of your batch material once I see how FD-ISR behaves.
Thanks again for the recommendation, review, and batch tricks.

AdIyhc

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 97
  • aka KikiBibi
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #21 on: February 15, 2007, 08:29 PM »
Hi Guys,

Received a newsletter from Raxco. There's a 20% discount code for PerfectDisk But it works for FD-ISR too.
Here it is:
Q1ENL2007

Expiry Date:
16 March '07

Hope this can help. Enjoy :D

urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #22 on: February 19, 2007, 09:35 PM »
Update: in June 2006, Rollback Rx was buggy as hell:
http://www.wildersse...ollback+firstdefense

Those problems seems to be gone.

And it seems that version 8, to be released march 2007, will be really nice.

The only reason I wanted to avoid FDISR is that it takes forever to create a new image, and I want to recover fast from a bad install. For that, RB rx seemed better suited.

However, I found this method to use FDISR as an 'bombproof uninstaller' (from http://www.wildersse...5235&postcount=4):
I have pared down to a simple setup. I do a lot of imaging in conjunction with FDISR. Also I am a single partition person. My objective was first ability to recover or undo an install. Speed of both FDISR and imaging is very important. Speed for imaging, implies keeping the drive space minimized.
Also I don't care about going back to yesterday, the day before, etc. So....

On my c: drive I have my Primary which of course has everything I run. Then I have a secondary which is a stripped All it contains is Windows, and enough to feel safe online. It's only purpose is to provide a bootable snapshot.

I also keep an Archive on my primary, both on my second internal drive, and one on my external drive. These are update frequently. Update time is around a minute. I also keep an archive of the secondary snapshot

So if I want to test a program, I first update my archive, and then install in the Primary. If I don't like it I boot to my secondary and update my primary from the archive. I

This setup also means that even if I have to restore from the image I took when I bought the system(which has FDISR), I can load the secondary from the archive, boot to it, and the bring the primary update from the archive.

I have thoroughly tested this approach and it works beautifully. Also if i want I can keep several different configurations in archives and switch back and forth easily.

Pete

So I'm going to go with FD I think.

urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #23 on: February 20, 2007, 06:36 PM »
I tried to buy FD from Spain.
When the form came up, the price $69 had magically increased to euro 69. Plus 16% VAT, of course.

This is insulting. Do they think that people will miss the small detail that a dolar is .75 euro?
http://www.x-rates.c...UR/USD/graph120.html

do the magically increase the price for European customers 25%?
I think they won't get my business. I wrote to their support, and they didn't answer. I find this pricing policy morally repugnant. We are talking about software, not a physical good that has to be shipped.

If you find any other company doing this, please report it. Thanks.

cthorpe

  • Discount Coordinator
  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 738
  • c++thorpe
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)
« Reply #24 on: February 20, 2007, 07:21 PM »
That's odd... I'm seeing €51.03

Carl