Prevx

I was thinking, interesting program, let's try it.
Doesn't seem to cause any problems, but I did notice that my system was less responsive. I thought it was just imagination, until I started Photoshop, which I probably start a few times every day and I was amazed when I noticed how long it took.

So I did a test. I started Photoshop with PrevX on and closed Photoshop.

Then I started my stopwatch, started Photoshop and it opened after 47 sec.
I closed Photoshop, I stopped PrevX, started the stopwatch again, started Photoshop and I clocked 20 sec. I mean, that's not a little difference, it's a HUGE difference!

Needless to say that I got rid of PrevX right away, especially after I noticed slowdowns with lots of other programs. A pitty, because it looked so promising.

 

You can turn off the buffer overflow protection to improve performance. I had brought this up and they said that they are working on a new method of buffer overflow protection that will be faster. If you have Pro, turning off PAWS will also help a little, although not as dramatically.

 

Thanks.

I did contact their support about this problem and I'll post their answer on this board once I receive one

 

Are you sure you can do this in the PrevX Home version? I see all kind of security settings, but nothing that reads "buffer overflow", or they must have given it a different name. I checked the help, but it didn't mention any setting related to this. It only mentions that the system is protected against buffer overflows. I turned off "Physical Memory Overwrite", but that didn't change anything; still takes Photoshop 47 sec to load. I enabled it again and then disable Microsoft services heap and stack and other services (stack) and I went from 47 to 40 sec. Still double the time (20 sec) what it normally takes for Photoshop to load and let's be honest, that's really bad.

 

Yeah, should be a total of 3 or 4 options that cover buffer overflows (with the exception of the settings to protect Prevx itself, it's the options that go all the way to the left.) Since I'm at work at the moment, I can't look at them, but it sounds like you've got it. I will concede that if it's still slowing your system down after that (to an unbearable degree), you might think about either trialing the Pro version so you can turn off PAWS, or wait until the next version. With those things off, I notice no noticible performance impact, but that doesn't mean it won't be different on your system. There was some performance issues in beta, but it didn't take them long to get it resolved then, it's some of the newer options that they're working on now.

From all I've experienced with them, Prevx is all about user feedback, so letting them know is defintely the right thing to do.. they aren't like some other companies that will just blow you off.

 

Thanks for your help Notok, but I think I'll give it another in a few months.

I did try the Pro version and I went down from 47 to 37 sec with 4 settings (buffer overrun) + PAWS turned off. Still far away from that 20 sec.
I can be reasonable and can accept some delay with a program like this, but making everything almost 2 times slower is just way too much, I find that unacceptable. And that's even with 5 settings turned off, otherwise things would be even worse.

I like the whole idea of the program, it has about everything I want it to be (no program is perfect), but I can't live with this speed issue.

It could be a local problem, but I'm not the first one who complained about speed, not to mention that I have zero issues with other programs that I have in use, it's actually a very reliable system that I have, but then again, I've always been picky about the software I install and always do extensive testing before a program ends up in one of my Ghost images.

Thanks for your help.

 

That's too bad. If you still happen to have it on your machine you can try suspending protection while starting up PS, if not I can understand. Feel free to ask me about it on future updates, whether by PM, in this thread, or a new thread, if you're interested. I've noticed performance improvments with every update they've made, Pro pretty much did it for me with the previously mentioned components turned off, but they're still working on it. (obviously they don't want to discourage people from using PAWS)

BTW, I'm not affiliated, just an avid user since beta with a somewhat established rapport

 

One thing to consider when you think that something is or may be unstable is to disable the write-through disk caching on your primary hard drive

I'm sure it has saved my computer more times than I'd care to mention... but even with write through caching disabled I still boot into recovery mode every so often and do a full chkdsk and it (nearly) *always* finds and fixes a problem

Also something along the same lines, the taskinfo program has an option called "Flush File Cache" which flushes the registry (somehow) and then also flushes the disk cache, that works quite nicely for removable disks when you leave the disk cache enabled "for performance"

 

Hello guys!

i dont have PS on my system but i do have Gimp 2 which is a similar program. I notice only a very slight difference between having Prevx on or not. It takes 8 seconds to run without it and 9 seconds whith prevx on.

This program is running very smooth in my system despite the fact i have also process guard...no conflicts yet.

 

Thanks Notok.

Btw, in the meantime I got a reply:

Hi,

Thanks for your detailed feedback.

We are aware of certain performance impacts with our software and we are
constantly actively searching for ways to reduce the overhead. Every
new release has some further progress however we know that we have some
more work to do.

Our next release in the new year will contain some performance
improvements including the new Buffer Overflow protection you mentioned.

Unfortunately we can't resolve this issue you are experiencing right
now, however hopefully you will keep an eye on our site and try the
latest versions as they are released. We'd be very grateful to receive
any feedback from you regarding improvements, our customers' feedback is
vital to the ongoing successful development of our product.

Thanks for contacting Prevx Home Support.

Eugene M

I guess I have to wait and see what the future brings and I will keep an eye on this product, that's for sure!

 

Good deal

 

richrf........
I hope you'll read this post. It's a little off-topic, but the thread seemed to stop on Dec 24, so I'll take a chance at getting yelled at!

In your Dec 31 post, you wrote:
"It is definitely a good idea to maintain an iage backup. My choice was Image For DOS ($19) from TerabyteUnlimited. I use an external Maxtor USB drive. For some reason, I couldn't get any of the image copy programs to work with the WD external drive."

I'm planning on downloading BootIt (also from TeraByte as I'm sure you know) and imaging my C: partition to a newly purchased Western Digital external hard drive. Did you try & fail to image with this combination?

And how the heck do you insert those blue boxes containing other people's quotes into your posts on this forum. It's not at all obvious.

Thanks & regards,
Stro

 

Hi Stro see the following screen shot.

Hope this helps...

Cheers

 

Hi Stro,

I was using Image For DOS and Bootit imaging to an 80GB WD USB 2.0. The first IFD was sucessful. After that, things started to go wrong. I am not sure what happened. I returned the WD and purchased a similar Maxtor which has been working fine. I really can't say what went wrong. The drive? The drivers? Who knows. I would recommend you do a few images just to confirm it is working O.K.

Hope this helps.

Rich

 

Hello Rich -
Thanks for the reply. Can you advise me on how I can verify that the BootIt created image I make on my Western Digital external hard drive (assuming I'm successful) can actually restore my PC's primary C: drive in case everything goes totally wrong? I'm planning on downloading/installing BootIt, then imaging C: (where everything currently resides) to the WD external HD, then reducing the size of C: partition using BootIt, and creating some additional partitions with the resulting free space. But before I start messing around with resizing partitions, I want to make sure I can restore the original C: partition if everything turns to skata (the Greek word for you know what). The WD external HD has plenty of room, so there is no contraint on using it to restore the image if that's an alternative.

Blackspear -
Thanks for your help. I wonder why the Quote button disappears when you press the Reply button and enter the area in which I'm typing this reply? It's in this area they need the darn Quote button! I've seen replies that incorporate quotes from several prior posts from different members. You know how that trick is done? BTW, although this is the first time we've corresponded, I've enjoyed reading - and learning from - your past posts on many different threads. You impress me as someone who knows his stuff. In fact, I printed and filed one post in which you listed your security software several months back.

Thanks guys,
Stro

 

Hi Stro,

I was able to determine that I had problems by going through IFD's "validation" process. It failed so I knew it was bad. If you need verification beyond this, the only thing I can think of is to create two partitions and restore to the second partition and read it. Or you might just want to do a chkdsk or something like that. You also should be able to read the backup image by using the utility that TerabyeUnlimited provides. These are some of the ways I can think of. Hope it helps.

Rich

 

My pleasure

The “Post Reply” button is for a straight reply, whereas the “Quote” button grabs what was written above and places [ Quote ] at the beginning and [/ Quote ] at the end (without the spaces).

I use MS Word and copy and paste each “Quote” into it…

Welllll, I know some stuff, and learning other stuff still

It’s a fairly constant list, though it does change. This is what I’m currently using, very simple to use and maintain.

Hope this helps…

Cheers

 

Rich & Blackspear,
Thank you very much, gentlemen.

Blackspear, click on your Prevx link. It may need updating.

Regards,
Stro

 

Thanks Stro.

Cheers

 

Your welcome Stro.

Rich

 

Hey Rich,
Wanted to let you know that last night I successfully used BootIt NG (TeraByteUnlimited.com) to image my C: drive to a Western Digital external hard drive.
Regards,
Stro

 

Glad to hear it's working out for you. Keep in touch.

Rich