First Defense Question

Discussion in 'FirstDefense-ISR Forum' started by WilliamP, Nov 13, 2004.

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  1. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Dave

    I use PerfectDisk 7 along with FirstDefense. As far as speed of defrag, I defrag last thing before shutdown at night. Do it every night, and when I do I just leave the system alone. Defrag usually takes between 1 and 3 minutes. I only do a reboot defrag when I see something needs it.

    Pete
     
  2. worldcitizen

    worldcitizen Registered Member

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    Thanks again Acadia for your help. Does FD verify the snapshot, in other words could the snapshot be corrupt?

    Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks heaps.

    Dave
     
  3. worldcitizen

    worldcitizen Registered Member

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    It was real weird. I was just about to buy the program in about 2 minutes when I checked my email and was offered the 50% discount. Saved $15 just by researching a bit longer!!

    Dave
     
  4. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    Yes, if you want it to. I'm doing this from memory, I believe it is under Options > Schedules > Preferences or something like that.

    Acadia
     
  5. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Dave

    Yes you can verify, it is under Tools>options>Task>activity. I talked with Greg Hayes, Raxco Techsupport about this and he comment it is just as quick to boot to the snapshot and work in it a bit. As a routine I don't bother with the verify, and I have never once had an issue. So far the biggest danger I've found is forgetting where I am working. About the only way you can really tell at times you are in an alternate snapshot is to run the mouse of the systray icon.

    Pete
     
  6. Stro

    Stro Registered Member

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    Here is the contents of an email Greg Hayes from Raxco sent me today. I wasn't clear on some of this, perhaps other weren't either. He place quotation marks around my initial questions to him. He refers to SpeedDisk which is the Symantec defrag program as some of you know.


    Strother,

    Good Afternoon and thanks for contacting Raxco Software Support!

    "wilderssecurity.com forum"

    I am not familiar with that forum. When I get a chance, I'll check it out.

    "I understand that FD-ISR snapshots can be moved by a defragging program, but the $ISR.BIN file should not (please correct me if this is not right)."

    This was the case at one time. Earlier builds of FirstDefense (prior to Build 119) could possibly have an issue if a BOOT TIME defrag was performed on the computer and $ISR.BIN was "moved". If you are running current FirstDefense code (Build 122), then there is no longer an issue. I believe that the FD FAQ mentions this.

    This was previously ONLY an issue if a boot time defrag was performed. SpeedDisk under Windows XP has no ability to perform a boot time defrag - hence it was never an issue with SpeedDisk prior to FD being updated to handle the case where the file was "moved".


    "FD-ISR make a snapshot of the entire hard drive (all partitions) or only the C: partition?"

    FD only snapshots the C: partition - it is designed to get the Windows operating system back up and running quickly.


    Regards,

    Greg Hayes
    Systems Engineer
    Microsoft MVP - Windows Server/File Systems
    Raxco Software, Inc.
    ghayes@raxco.com
    Support on the Web: http://www.raxco.com/support/windows
     
  7. no13

    no13 Retired Major Resident Nutcase

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    Wouldn't YOU like to know?
    critically important, no?
     
  8. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I take that beyond what Greg said in that response which is why I have everything in one C:\ partition. First Defense can get me back up quickly no matter what gets screwed up. It is a beta testers dream.
     
  9. worldcitizen

    worldcitizen Registered Member

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    It's really terrific! I booted into my back-up in the same time I would normally boot. There is no build time like when restoring an image which makes life so much easier. Basically it works the same as multi-boot but is a duplicate of your primary drive and should anything go wrong you just boot up from the back-up. There you can copy the undamaged backup over the demaged OS and then you have 2 OS to boot from again.

    Dave
     
  10. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    YEP!!! :D Wait til it saves your bacon, or you want to test something new, and it proves to be a real flake.

    Pete
     
  11. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    Worldcitizen, glad to see that you like it. It did indeed save me from an unbootable situation when I downloaded a MS Critical Update in July; could not boot, simply went into a backup and repaired my Primary. :cool: Good luck.

    Acadia
     
  12. worldcitizen

    worldcitizen Registered Member

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    Acadia thanks for all your insights!

    Today I updated my backup because I had many programs that had errors and needed updates to fix them. I fixed all the programs in my Primary, did an AV scan and an AS scan, turned off all my security software and updated my back-up.

    Here are the results after I updated and booted into the back-up:

    My AV had a bug and a fix I applied was also fixed in the update.

    The latest level I had played in Far Cry was also there!

    I had updated my ATI graphics drivers and the update was in the back-up.

    I had to re-install PG and even allowances I gave were all in the back-up!!

    A bug fix I applied to my email client was there too.

    Installed programs were there and uninstalled programs were gone!!

    It took a whopping 3 minutes and 50 seconds to do the update!!


    How's that!!

    Dave
     
  13. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    Yes, like I have said before, whenever you use ANY Snapshot to update another Snapshot, those two Snapshots will then be identical, minus the paging file, hibernate file and tmp files. Actually, if I remember correctly, I believe I remember Greg Hayes from Raxco tech support telling me that the Recycle bin is also NOT copied. But other then those 3 or 4 things, those two Snapshots should be identical in every way. See ya.

    Acadia

    EDIT: And you can use ANY snapshot to update ANY other, just be careful because once you've updated a Snapshot using another, then it's too late to goback if you've accidently deleted something during that update! ;)
     
  14. Stro

    Stro Registered Member

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    Where is the users manual for First Defense? Is it a pdf file in the software download or on the CD? Are there any advantages to purchasing FD via download from Raxco vs purchasing the CD from a third party vendor?

    By the way, I was curious about how you download FD a second time if you need to (for example, due to a hard drive failure you have to reload all software onto a new hard drive). A Raxco customer service rep told me you would need to call them to arrange for a second download. They would probably send you a link in an email.

    Regards,
    Stro
     
  15. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    There is a Help Manual with the program located in the menu. There are some, or at least there were, some PDF files to download for studying but they were not the actual Help Manual that comes with the software. I also learned a lot about FD before I purchased it by studying the FAQ and Knowledgebase on the Raxco website.

    I personally would purchase the program online because you are then assured of getting the latest build. Good luck.

    Acadia

    EDIT: www.raxco.com/support/windows/kb_index.cfm#FDISR
    www.raxco.com/support/windows/fdisr/fdisr_faqs.cfm
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2004
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