first defense- usuage recommendations for new user?

i am evaluating first defense, and wondered if there are some people good with this application, who may be able to suggest the most effective ways to use it.

so far, this is what i have done: i did a fresh install of xp, configured basic settings and installed my drivers- the drivers are tried and true, so this i will call my base setup- i want to leave this snapshot untouched, in case i need it later, and to use it as a basepoint for other snapshots.

from it, i made a snapshot called "operable base"- this will be the snapshot i can build to in whatever way i want.

i made a snapshot called "operable base buffer"- this is what i will use to make various changes, and as i set it securely and properly, i will copy this to the operable base.

i made a snapshot called "net"- this is the snapshot i will use regularly for internet activity, and into this one i will install all my spyware and related system maintenance applications. i know i'll need to connect from other snapshots to at least download windows updates, but this one i will use for regular surfing.

lastly, i made a snapshot called "expendable"- i dont know what i'll do with this one, i guess i could use it to experiment with applications-deep freeze for instance, which destroyed my system a couple weeks back when i had everything setup perfectly.

i was thinking about making a snapshot just for watching dvds and playing games. i thought about including this in the "net" snapshot, but then i'll have that one loaded with antispyware real time monitoring apps and scheduled tasks- it would be nice to boot into a quiet system with little services running, so i could watch my dvds, play games or whatever in peace.

regarding data anchoring, so far i have winamp anchored, as i like to have music generally available, and if i made a playlist change in one snapshot, i'd want that change to exist across all of them.


any thoughts or recommendations? maybe im not approaching the setup properly in some respect? thanks in advance

happy all hallow's ;-)

 

Looks like you have a decent concept and only your experience with this setup will tell you in time if you need any adjustments.
I suggest that you create an archive of the base setup and store it on an external medium, second hard disk or something.

 

chrome sturmen,
You only have to keep FOUR things in mind :

1. Always have a snapshot you can depend on when something goes wrong with your other snapshots. That snapshot represents your immediate system recovery (ISR).

2. Always have an image backup file ready to restore your system partition in case FirstDefense-ISR is damaged itself.
The absolute minimum is an image backup file that contains your Windows + FirstDefense-ISR.

3. Always archive the snapshots, you want to keep.
An image backup file = Windows + FirstDefense-ISR and your archived snapshots get you back in business.

4. Always have your personal data in mind, you can't afford lose those.

You can add more extras of course to make it better, faster and convenient. That depends on your personal imagination.

Once you have all that, you are in theory "invincible", no matter what happens and that feeling is very reassuring.

 

heh:
@chrome_sturmen
Sounds like you already really got it.
Keep as many archives/snapshots as you like on external drive: I do just in case.
Trash one, update one, dosy-do, and round we go.
As E-A says: FDISR and good image = indestructible (well pretty much anyway).
Very simple really.

Nudge nudge use Terabyte for imaging.

yes wrecked one of my snapshots too: out it went.

 

thanks for the advice and tips guys- i've been using acronis a few years for imaging, and its always worked well. you know, i had to make major changes to my partition structure, just to use first defense- when i installed it, it read "first defense requires that the windows volume be the boot volume" -and mine wasnt, i had a 500mb partition just for boot files, d: drive for xp, and e: drive for server 2003. so i actually had to copy the boot files from c: and set the xp parition to active, then first defense installed fine.

now heres the part you'll all get a kick out of: once i saw how much more space i needed for snapshots, i decided to delete my other paritions and allocate the space to xp- and by the way, xp was setup PERFECTLY. so i ran acronis disk director to resize my partition, it finished, and then did its second reboot to synchronize with the operating system, and boom- first defense hung on the boot screen- even a repair install of windows xp, wouldnt help- i had to start entirely from scratch. maybe this was because i didnt disable the preboot before running acronis.

maybe in one way its better i had a fresh install to start my snapshots with, but i sure dont like the idea of reinstalling all my software etc, but oh well, live and learn

 

I don't use Acronis.
There is a couple of threads and many posts related to ATI and FDISR.
Never paid much attention to them (Terabyte Rules for me)

There is one poster here, meek, mild, Erik_Albert who has exhaustively tested ATI with FDISR and could probably give some clues as to how they fit together.

You are obviously expert user and install and use of FDISR might take some rejigging of your set-up. Your ? multiboot construct may not work with FDISR because of MBR issues.

Data can still be put onto extra discs or partitions but FDISR will only work with "C" partition. Any snapshot you are in on the C drive will have access to any other drive as usual.

Check the forum here for ATI/FDISR threads
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=144328
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=119792
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=142633

These might help for info on multiboot:

I have tested "Direct Boot" with BING from Terabyte from floppy and this worked on very simple set-up.
No reason why it should not work with your more complex set-up.
Does not install any boot manager to MBR, therefore, in my brief experience: no problem. The terabyte imaging utilities are so far for me flawless with my simple set-up.

On the RAXCO website there is an FAQ about installing an OS into a 'blank' snapshot and hence using FDISR as defacto boot loader.
http://www.raxco.com/support/windows/fdisr/fdisr_faqs.cfm
..scroll down a bit on the list; topic 12.

Here is Leapfrog on same topic
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=132271


For some multiboot info: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=142855
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=132271

This was a great thread where silver0066 installed 2 OS: XP and Vista and created snapshots and back-ups with ATI see post #24
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=147160

HTH

 

Yes ATI is the one that meets my wishes completely.
I recently tested the file-by-file restoration of ATI and also that worked flawless.

I'm the opposite of posters at Acronis Forum, these users have problems going from creating a simple Rescue CD up to a simple restoration of an image file on an external harddisk. These users succeed to bungle EVERY function ôf ATI. I never had any of these problems.

ATI bored me, so I started a war with the Terabyte fans, telling them that BING/IFW/IFD was not userfriendly, didn't restore the MBR, ... but that war was hopeless and only increased my post counter.
The war is over now : Acronis fans recommend ATI and Terabyte fans recommend IFW/IFD without blaming eachother anymore.