Regarding RollBack Rx

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

I will keep my fingers crossed for you, best of luck wishes for sure.

Dear Barry,

Thank you but still no joy. It is very easy to repair Windows XP by reinstalling over it. With Windows 7, it is almost impossible. I have tried it before without any luck. And, have been trying again for the last two days with the links posted by Panagiotis.

However, Panagiotis has given another solution, which is to install FirstDefence-ISR and then install a new Windows in another snapshot and slowly, slowly install software in it at the same time do the customization and settings. With three computers it will take some time, but I will retain the current Windows in a snapshot and boot into it anytime I want to surf and/or work.

Best regards,

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by pandlouk

Around 52gb each.
But there is another option (What I would do):
you can use a striped down snapshot (only the OS with the drivers and FD-ISR= 16-18gb) used to update from and to your main snapshot (52gb) and the archive/s (with export and import options).
So in total you won't exceed the 80gb on your ssd.

It can be achieved with two methods:

1. Install FD-ISR and then install windows 7 to an empty snapshot
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showp...85&postcount=4

2. Install FD-ISR select export snapshot and export your OS snapshot to an archive.
then either restore a striped/basic image of your OS if you have one, install FD-ISR and select import snapshot so that you can import your current full OS+programs to an empty snapshot.

Panagiotis

Dear Panagiotis,

Thank you for the kind suggestion. I have been working with it all day today on one of my laptops. I have used FirstDefence-ISR in the past, but didn't understand it fully. I have used your method 1 above and see how excellent and powerful this software is. I created an empty snapshot and installed Windows 7 in it. And it worked flawlessly.

Best regards,

[pandlouk]

Glad I could help, by the way does it work with ssds?

Panagiotis

[bgoodman4]

Originally Posted by aladdin

Dear Barry,

Thank you but still no joy. It is very easy to repair Windows XP by reinstalling over it. With Windows 7, it is almost impossible. I have tried it before without any luck. And, have been trying again for the last two days with the links posted by Panagiotis.

However, Panagiotis has given another solution, which is to install FirstDefence-ISR and then install a new Windows in another snapshot and slowly, slowly install software in it at the same time do the customization and settings. With three computers it will take some time, but I will retain the current Windows in a snapshot and boot into it anytime I want to surf and/or work.

Best regards,

I am sorry to hear this but its good to know you have a workable, if slow, solution. I have heard of FirstDefence-ISR but have no knowledge of the program other than that there are similarities to Rx. I will have to take a look at it.

Have a good one,

[The Shadow]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

...I have heard of FirstDefence-ISR but have no knowledge of the program other than that there are similarities to Rx. I will have to take a look at it.

FD-ISR was discontinued and abandoned by Raxco (Leapfrog) a few years ago. It is no longer being developed or sold.

TS

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

I am sorry to hear this but its good to know you have a workable, if slow, solution. I have heard of FirstDefence-ISR but have no knowledge of the program other than that there are similarities to Rx. I will have to take a look at it.

Have a good one,

Thank you Barry,

If you need any help on FirstDefence-ISR, please let me know. I am learning a lot about it. Panagiotis is an expert on it, and this forum contains a dedicated sub-forum on FirstDefence-ISR, and Panagiotis is managing this sub-forum. He is a good teacher, and I am sure that I might have to ask more help from him.

There is no similarities between FirstDefence-ISR and Rollback Rx. You can think of FirstDefence-ISR as an imaging program, which allows you to keep 10 images at a time. You can have two of them on the operating system and boot between them in no time. For example one image for Windows 7 and another for Windows 8.

The good news is, I did manage to repair of the three computers by reinstalling Windows 7 again on it. Almost spent about 18 hours on it. I was using all flavor Windows 7 USB, and I had to download for it the Home Premium with SP1.

Best regards,

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by pandlouk

You can try the upgrade install.
It will leave most of your files, settings and products intact but is a bit different than the repair install of xp.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...r-install.html
http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/...ive-reinstall/

Panagiotis

Dear Panagiotis,

Good new and thanks a lot. From the link you provided above, I was able to download a dedicated Windows 7 x64 Home Premium SP1 a 3.2GB download, from which I was able to reinstall Windows on one of the three computers.

The other two have Windows 7 x64 Professional SP1 on them. So another 3.2GB download and then hopefully repairing these two.

Best regards,

[bgoodman4]

Originally Posted by aladdin

Thank you Barry,

If you need any help on FirstDefence-ISR, please let me know. I am learning a lot about it. Panagiotis is an expert on it, and this forum contains a dedicated sub-forum on FirstDefence-ISR, and Panagiotis is managing this sub-forum. He is a good teacher, and I am sure that I might have to ask more help from him.

There is no similarities between FirstDefence-ISR and Rollback Rx. You can think of FirstDefence-ISR as an imaging program, which allows you to keep 10 images at a time. You can have two of them on the operating system and boot between them in no time. For example one image for Windows 7 and another for Windows 8.

The good news is, I did manage to repair of the three computers by reinstalling Windows 7 again on it. Almost spent about 18 hours on it. I was using all flavor Windows 7 USB, and I had to download for it the Home Premium with SP1.

Best regards,

Thats great news Mohamed, congrads.

Also thanks you for the offer to help with FirstDefence-ISR,,,,,,if its not being supported or sold any longer it probably does not make any sense for me to begin using it rather than going straight to a program like VBox or one of the flavours of VMware. I have been wanting to get into full virtualiztion for quite some time but have not gotten around to it.

Any thoughts on this?

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by pandlouk

Glad I could help, by the way does it work with ssds?

Panagiotis

Dear Panagiotis,

It seems to work fine with SSDs, but I am a bit worried about it. I don't know very much how FirstDefence-ISR works?

It seem to be an imaging software, but I am not sure if it virtualizes the hard disk or not?

If it does then it might interfere with TRIM and might render the operating system un-bootable and may mess up the system too, like what Rollback Rx did?

Best regards,

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

Thats great news Mohamed, congrads.

Also thanks you for the offer to help with FirstDefence-ISR,,,,,,if its not being supported or sold any longer it probably does not make any sense for me to begin using it rather than going straight to a program like VBox or one of the flavours of VMware. I have been wanting to get into full virtualiztion for quite some time but have not gotten around to it.

Any thoughts on this?

I am not sure, doesn't VBox or VMware work inside the Windows?

Best regards,

[pandlouk]

Originally Posted by aladdin

Dear Panagiotis,

It seems to work fine with SSDs, but I am a bit worried about it. I don't know very much how FirstDefence-ISR works?

It seem to be an imaging software, but I am not sure if it virtualizes the hard disk or not?

If it does then it might interfere with TRIM and might render the operating system un-bootable and may mess up the system too, like what Rollback Rx did?

Best regards,

Hi Mohamed,

good to know that the upgrade install works.

Nice! Don't worry, if FD-ISR did not work with ssds it would give you an error during boot time when it would try to boot in the other snapshot.
FD-ISR does not virtualize anything. Only hides/unhides the root directory in subfolders inside the $ISR directory.

The only way that FD-ISR can destroy your partition, is if you install 2000 or XP on one snapshot(s) with Vista or 7 on another snapshot(s) and then you eliminate the vista or 7, leaving only 2000 or xp snapshots behind. (because it removes the NTFS symbolic links and the partiton remains with a crippled ntfs system).
In all other cases (rarely happens) you will not be able to boot in another snapshot; but is easily fixed by uninstalling FD-ISR (without removing the snapshots) and reinstalling it again.

Panagiotis

[bgoodman4]

Originally Posted by aladdin

I am not sure, doesn't VBox or VMware work inside the Windows?

Best regards,

I have no idea, I lack all knowledge about these programs other than they allow for multiple OSs or instances of an OS on one machine. FS sounds like it offers similar capabilities.

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

I have no idea, I lack all knowledge about these programs other than they allow for multiple OSs or instances of an OS on one machine.

Basically, VBox or VMware installs inside the OS, such as Window 7. Thus, you have to maintain this Windows 7 as you regularly do.

Then in VMware you can install as many OSs you want. Each OS you install and use has to be maintained too. For each OS you install in VMware, you can take as many snapshots you want and roll back and forth, just like Rollback Rx. The taking of snapshots are quick within seconds and roll back and for forth are quick within seconds, like Rollback Rx. Only difference is that you cannot take snapshots inside the OS which is under VMware. Snapshots can only be taken in VMware outside the OS which is under VMware. This all has nothing to do with the OS (Windows 7) in which VMware is installed.

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

FS sounds like it offers similar capabilities.

I don't know what you mean by FS?

Best regards,

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by pandlouk

Hi Mohamed,

good to know that the upgrade install works.

Nice! Don't worry, if FD-ISR did not work with ssds it would give you an error during boot time when it would try to boot in the other snapshot.
FD-ISR does not virtualize anything. Only hides/unhides the root directory in subfolders inside the $ISR directory.

The only way that FD-ISR can destroy your partition, is if you install 2000 or XP on one snapshot(s) with Vista or 7 on another snapshot(s) and then you eliminate the vista or 7, leaving only 2000 or xp snapshots behind. (because it removes the NTFS symbolic links and the partiton remains with a crippled ntfs system).
In all other cases (rarely happens) you will not be able to boot in another snapshot; but is easily fixed by uninstalling FD-ISR (without removing the snapshots) and reinstalling it again.

Panagiotis

Thank you dear Panagiotis, for the above information. Since I reinstalled the Windows 7, I have had about 4 BSODs. I contribute this to the Windows updates were installed after the re-installation of Windows 7.

I am in the process of installing these updates and will report back.

Best regards,

[aladdin]

For those who are still interested in Rollback Rx. Both Rollback Rx and Comodo Time Machine (CTM) are based on the same technologies. You might have heard a lot of nightmares of CTM on their forum. The reason for this CTM is free and no support is offered, so the users of CTM post in the CTM forum for help from other members, who are past and present users of CTM.

On the other hand Rollback Rx is a very expensive product, so few people buy it. Those who buy Rollback Rx, they purchase the Gold Support (yearly maintenance) with it too. If they have nightmares with Rollback Rx, they write to the Gold Support for answers, rather than posting in their forum for help from other members. These people might post in others forums where they are member.

In the past 7 days or so, two members on this forum have posted their nightmare with Rollback Rx. Here are the links:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showt...65#post2083065

and

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showt...ighlight=kudos

Best regards,

[bgoodman4]

Originally Posted by aladdin

Basically, VBox or VMware installs inside the OS, such as Window 7. Thus, you have to maintain this Windows 7 as you regularly do.

Then in VMware you can install as many OSs you want. Each OS you install and use has to be maintained too. For each OS you install in VMware, you can take as many snapshots you want and roll back and forth, just like Rollback Rx. The taking of snapshots are quick within seconds and roll back and for forth are quick within seconds, like Rollback Rx. Only difference is that you cannot take snapshots inside the OS which is under VMware. Snapshots can only be taken in VMware outside the OS which is under VMware. This all has nothing to do with the OS (Windows 7) in which VMware is installed.


I don't know what you mean by FS?

Best regards,

Thanks for your reply and explanation, and sorry, I meant to write FD not FS.

Apart from the added security that working in a virtual machine would provide (say a VM just for surfing for example), I have a rather complicated spreadsheet that I created years ago in Lotus 123. Its still running on my PC as I am using XP but when I upgrade I believe I will need to create a virtual XP machine in order to continue to be able to use it. From what I have read running in MS legacy mode is not a great option (I cannot recall why though).

[bgoodman4]

Originally Posted by aladdin

If they have nightmares with Rollback Rx, they write to the Gold Support for answers, rather than posting in their forum for help from other members.

You know this for a fact or is this your assumption?

If you are correct and folks with what you call RX nightmares are able to get them resolved by using Horizon support then the gold support fee is well worth paying and Horizon support staff provides excellent support. I would suggest that if this is the case and you are looking for a simple to use roll-back option (or regime) then this would make RX a good buy,,,especially at the regularly discounted prices offered such as the recent July 4th sale.

If all these folks with supposed Rx nightmares did not get their issues with Rx resolved they would very likely be broadcasting that news every chance they had.

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

You know this for a fact or is this your assumption?

If you are correct and folks with what you call RX nightmares are able to get them resolved by using Horizon support then the gold support fee is well worth paying and Horizon support staff provides excellent support. I would suggest that if this is the case and you are looking for a simple to use roll-back option (or regime) then this would make RX a good buy,,,especially at the regularly discounted prices offered such as the recent July 4th sale.

If all these folks with supposed Rx nightmares did not get their issues with Rx resolved they would very likely be broadcasting that news every chance they had.

Those people who have nightmares, once they money is refunded their consider good riddance. They don't go around posting on Rollback Rx, which the membership is tightly controlled.

I had the Gold Support. And, I am one of those with Rollback Rx nightmares!

They were not even able to resolve my problems, one of the forum member did.

People are advertising their nightmares, on all forums throughout the world!

The links I posted, two people with nightmares in one week advertising on this forum.

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

Thanks for your reply and explanation, and sorry, I meant to write FD not FS.

FD-ISR is more like an imaging system, and not virtual system.

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

Apart from the added security that working in a virtual machine would provide (say a VM just for surfing for example), I have a rather complicated spreadsheet that I created years ago in Lotus 123. Its still running on my PC as I am using XP but when I upgrade I believe I will need to create a virtual XP machine in order to continue to be able to use it. From what I have read running in MS legacy mode is not a great option (I cannot recall why though).

If you don't have an SSD, then create a partition just for surfing, like I have. And, then have it under SD all the times. On each computer of mine, the OS is on SSD, and then I have another large regular hard disk. This disk has four primary partition and nothing more. One of the 10GB partition is for surfing, on which I have.

1. Firefox
2. iexplorer
3. .tmp and .temp files
4. Sandboxie contatiner

Since only four primary partitions, therefore the hard disk MBR is completely protected by SD too!

One of the four primary partition is Data Disk.

Best regards,

[bgoodman4]

Originally Posted by aladdin

Those people who have nightmares, once they money is refunded their consider good riddance. They don't go around posting on Rollback Rx, which the membership is tightly controlled.

I had the Gold Support. And, I am one of those with Rollback Rx nightmares!

They were not even able to resolve my problems, one of the forum member did.

People are advertising their nightmares, on all forums throughout the world!

The links I posted, two people with nightmares in one week advertising on this forum.

I just had a live chat with Horizon support and what follows is a copy of that chat.

Barry:
I am a happy Rx user and I am having a debate on a forum with an unhappy former user. He has made a statement that after purchase of Rx, if a user is unhappy, he can get a full refund. Is this the case?

Welcome Barry! Your request has been directed to the Customer Service support staff. Please wait for our Horizon DataSys representative to answer your call.

Call accepted by representative Gonzalo. Currently in meeting: Gonzalo, Barry.

Barry:
HI, good day

Gonzalo:
Hi Barry.

Barry:
So am I correct or is the other person

Gonzalo:
It depends on the situation really but we have given out refunds. We do believe that you should try the software before purchasing but you do get a refund

Gonzalo:
if it's less than a day old I believe or less.

Gonzalo:
Like I mentioned, we strongly suggest you try the software yet so there isn't any issues.

Barry:
Could you confirm this last please. I know the person in question got a refund after an extended time because he was given a link to download the program that turned out to be for an older version of the program. Since he has SSDs this messed his system up badly. He was then give a refund. I understood that no refund was given after purchase so the time frame is important here.

Gonzalo:
However, if there is annual maintenance purchased, that is not refundable in any case because it's a service that has already been used throughout the whole process.

Barry:
He is saying its a common practise and that lots of people who buy Rx become unhappy with it and then get their money back. I do not believe this to be the case.

Gonzalo:
I couldn't say it always happens that we give a refund, because like I mentioned we do maintain a try before you buy policy. However, in cases like that, when there is a problem that was out of the customer's hand and we can't solve it, yes, in those cases we do give a refund.

Barry:
Thank you, do you mind if I post a copy of this discussion on a public forum?

Gonzalo:
Like I mentioned, I couldn't say that a lot of customers get their money back just because after a while they are unhappy with Rollback Rx, so I wouldn't;t say its a common practice at all.

Gonzalo:
Sure Barry, not a problem. Please contact me at any time if you have any questions at all. And If I may, Do you have any suggestions for us?

Gonzalo:
You should add to that statement what is on our website as well: "Refunds will not be issued based on lack of buyer research prior to purchase."

Barry:
My main suggestion would be greater clarity regarding Rx capabilities on your website and in the user manuals. There are a number of circumstances under which Rx will not function. The most obvious is if there is a hardware failure (the drive). On the website it says in effect that Rx can recover a PC from any issue. This is a best misleading. In addition there are a number of RootKits that can get by Rx since they affect the MBR this is not noted on the website or users guides. Last I would like to see a clear statement that Rx does not replace imaging and that regular imaging is recommended. These statements regarding Rx would eliminate most of the complaints I see on forums.

Gonzalo:
I see. Thank you very much Barry, I will let our staff and director know about this suggestions. We take suggestions from our customers very seriously. Regarding the refund policy, Would you say it's clear stated on our website?

Barry:
Honestly I did not check the site and it has been a number of years since I bought the program but I did believe I had seen it on the site but wanted to confirm with you folks. Thank you very much for you time today.

Gonzalo:
Thank you Barry and we really appreciate your time on chats with us, forums, and with the software. Always contact us if you have any questions at all or more suggestions.

Barry:
You are very welcome and I will do that. Have a good day. I am logging off now.

Gonzalo:
Thank you. Have a good day Barry.

With all due respect Mohamed (and I do mean that in all sincerity), you did trial the program and you liked it enough to purchase 3 licences of what is, as you correctly state, an expensive program. I am pretty sure that you tested the program out quite thoroughly as you are a very knowledgeable PC user. Also, I suspect you are active on a number of forums so if there were many statements about RollBack Rx horrors you would have been aware of them. Because of this I have to conclude that you were quite happy with Rx and only became unhappy after your PCs were messed up because you were told to download and install what turned out not to be the most recent version of the program which was not SSD compliant.

I used to be a Roxio GoBack user and after Symantec got through ruining this program which they had purchased from Roxio I went looking for a replacement. I am a bit paranoid regarding my PC so I searched for reviews and comments on various forums. I asked a lot of questions on this forum which are still available to those who wish to search for them and I finally bought the program because of the very positive feed back I received and the very few complaints I was able to find.

I have upgraded each time an upgrade was made available (I began with Rx eight) after a bit of a waiting period and I have had no issues. I use Rx quite heavily and am very happy with it. However I am not married to it and if something better, and as easy to use, comes along I will switch. I expect that that will happen some day but for now I will stick with Rx.

[bgoodman4]

Originally Posted by aladdin

FD-ISR is more like an imaging system, and not virtual system.



If you don't have an SSD, then create a partition just for surfing, like I have. And, then have it under SD all the times. On each computer of mine, the OS is on SSD, and then I have another large regular hard disk. This disk has four primary partition and nothing more. One of the 10GB partition is for surfing, on which I have.

1. Firefox
2. iexplorer
3. .tmp and .temp files
4. Sandboxie contatiner

Since only four primary partitions, therefore the hard disk MBR is completely protected by SD too!

One of the four primary partition is Data Disk.

Best regards,

As noted previously I am using a Tablet PC (Fujitsu Lifebook) which has a smallish drive (120 gig) so a lot of partitions are not sounding like a good idea for me. Also, given my level of comfort with messing with the inards of a PC I do not think I would undertake a number of the various alternate strategies that have been put forth. I can understand that they are good strategies but I do not feel confident enough to undertake implementing them.

Here is my regime, I am very comfortable with this and am extremely confident that I can survive anything the net cares to throw at me with it.

I have Rx set to image and lock this image at each boot. In addition I have Rx set to create a snap hourly. At the end of the day, before shutting the PC down, if all has gone smoothly during the day, I delete all hourly snaps as well as the oldest non-baseline (of course) snap.

I keep 6 snaps on my PC one of which is the baseline. This keeps snap defragging at boot to a manageable time and gives me the ability to rollback at least 5 recent days if the need should arise.

Onece a week I image my drive using Drive Cloner.

Every 4 weeks or so (sometimes 5 weeks go by) I image the drive as usual and then I uninstall Rx. I do my PC housecleaning (defrag etc) and create a 2nd image using Paragon. I then reinstall Rx.

I have 2 portable drives that I do my imaging to. These drives are rotated so that one drive is always off-site. In addition, I daily upload critical files to an off-site storage location. This way, under the worst case scenario (say a fire that destroyed my on-site PC etc), I will be able to recover most of my setup (OS, programs, data, etc) by using one of the off-site images, and I will be able to recover my critical files from my remote storage.

This may seem like a lot of work but its not. Once a month I spend a few hours and then I am good to go again. Its a simple, and in my opinion effect backup and protection strategy.

Oh,,,, of course I keep my Anti Virus and Anti Malware programs up to date and if I am opening a suspicious e-mail, or visiting a questionable site, I take a manual snap and then open Shadow Defender. After doing whatever made me a bit nervous I roll back to the manual snap. This of course shuts SD down since I am rebooting which has the effect of cleaning anything SD may have contained as well as reverting the PC to a known state.

No doubt not for everyone but it works for me and I sleep well at night. What more could one ask for than a good night sleep (well a lot actually but its a good start )

[aladdin]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

I just had a live chat with Horizon support and what follows is a copy of that chat.



With all due respect Mohamed (and I do mean that in all sincerity), you did trial the program and you liked it enough to purchase 3 licences of what is, as you correctly state, an expensive program. I am pretty sure that you tested the program out quite thoroughly as you are a very knowledgeable PC user. Also, I suspect you are active on a number of forums so if there were many statements about RollBack Rx horrors you would have been aware of them. Because of this I have to conclude that you were quite happy with Rx and only became unhappy after your PCs were messed up because you were told to download and install what turned out not to be the most recent version of the program which was not SSD compliant.

I used to be a Roxio GoBack user and after Symantec got through ruining this program which they had purchased from Roxio I went looking for a replacement. I am a bit paranoid regarding my PC so I searched for reviews and comments on various forums. I asked a lot of questions on this forum which are still available to those who wish to search for them and I finally bought the program because of the very positive feed back I received and the very few complaints I was able to find.

I have upgraded each time an upgrade was made available (I began with Rx eight) after a bit of a waiting period and I have had no issues. I use Rx quite heavily and am very happy with it. However I am not married to it and if something better, and as easy to use, comes along I will switch. I expect that that will happen some day but for now I will stick with Rx.

I have purchased about nine imaging programs in the last 18 months. One of them was EaseUS ToDo Workstation. I tried in the trial period and I liked it. After purchase the snapshot technology gave me nightmares.

Do I use it now? No.

Do I have money to buy these software? Yes.

So what is your point? Has your fever revisited you again and clouding your judgement once more? It seems so.

[aladdin]

You think Rollback Rx is the best software!

And, I think it is the worst!

So, where is the problem?

[The Shadow]

Just to add that HDS refused to refund my month-old Rx purchase based on their explanation "I had trialled the software for a month beforehand so I knew what I was buying". And, fwiw, their tech-support staff had no answer for my Rx nightmare.

Re FD-ISR, if it's essentially an imaging program why use it in addition to IFW (especially since it is no longer in development or supported)?

TS

[aladdin]

Recently about a week ago, dear Panagiotis brought to my attention that Rollback Rx puts a rootkit in your computer for activation purposes. Till then, I wasn't aware of this rootkit.

Questions:

1. Does HDS the maker of Rollback Rx publicize this information?

2. Is Mr. Barry Goodman an avid, very experienced and a very loyal user of Rollback aware of this?

3. When did he become aware of this?

4. It appears if one uses a good AV/Rootkit program, one can delete this rootkit on recomendation of the AV/Rootkit, thus rendering the system useless, unbootable, destroying everything in the process, from which Rollback Rx is supposed to protect. Does HDS warn it user about this dangerous situation?

Here is a recent July 7, 2012 thread about this: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showt...65#post2083065

5. Does HDS gives instructions to its users how to avoid this situation?

It appears not, the avid, very experienced and a very loyal Mr. Barry Goodman has to say about it.

Originally Posted by aladdin

I am surprised that you don't know, being an avid, a very experienced and a loyal user of Rollback Rx?

Didn't HDS tell you about it?

Best regards,